I noticed there was one person missing. “Reyes didn’t come.” I knew why.
“I’d stay out of his way if I were you,” Mica said.
“No offence or anything, but what was that this morning? You were all over him. It ripped the heart out of Reyes,” Raine said.
The weight of my guilt suddenly seemed heavier than the bulletproof vest I was wearing. How could I have done that to Reyes? He deserved so much better.
“It wasn’t her fault,” Jack said. “One of Leisel’s guards followed Summer into the room, and we did it to hide our faces.”
“Oh,” Mica said in mock understanding. “Maybe next time you can just pull your hats down lower or something. It would be kinder.”
Mica had always been Reyes’s most loyal friend. I knew it must be difficult for him to watch Reyes in pain because of me. He probably hated me, too.
Jack was studying the people in the room. There was no more line-up for food and the servers behind the counter were packing up to leave. Many people who had finished eating, particularly those with a small child in tow, were leaving as well. The room was no longer as crowded as it had been at dinner. I could tell by the expression on Jack’s face that he wasn’t pleased.
Bron walked in. I didn’t expect to see her here tonight. She was always on the sixth floor.
“I guess it’s now or never,” Jack said.
He nodded to Bron, and she sent two of the guards to close the door. Jack got up and went to the front of the room. This was the time of the evening in the common room where people had a chance to sing or tell stories, so Jack’s presence at the front of the room wasn’t unusual. Everyone stopped talking and looked at him expectantly.
“I’ve never been up here before so I guess I’ll start by introducing myself. I’m Ben Jones,” he said.
A murmur went through the room acknowledging him. Some said welcome.
“Some of you may know me, but for those of you who don’t, I’m the guy who had a bit of scuffle with the guards in the mines yesterday.”
Someone called out, “You kicked their butts, brother!”
Jack laughed. “Yeah, I kicked a few butts. Some of you asked me how I was able to do that, so here I am. Anyone wanting to ask me questions or learn to throw a punch, now’s the time.”
I felt so nervous for Jack; he wasn’t just risking exposure, he was risking rejection. I held my breath waiting for someone to volunteer to go up and be the first to learn from him. No one seemed to be coming forward, though. I shot Raine and Mica a pleading look, but they didn’t want to be the first to go up either. So I stood up and walked to the front of the room to stand beside him. He looked at me with relief in his eyes.
“I see my wife is volunteering to be my first victim tonight!”
A laugh rippled through the crowd.
Just then the door burst open, and Reyes walked into the room. He regarded Jack and me with disgust and then looked around at the expectant crowd of people sitting in their seats watching us. “Don’t listen to anything this filthy bourge has to say,” he said loudly. “He’s Jack Kenner!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Reyes, what the hell are you doing?” I yelled.
Anxious chatter filled the room and all eyes were on us.
“What I should’ve done a long time ago. Bourge don’t belong in the Pit!”
I could almost feel his rage. “Do you know what you’ve just done?”
“Sunny, your face. Where did you get those bruises? Did he give them to you?” Reyes balled his hands into fists and set out after Jack.
“Stop!” I screamed.
Behind Reyes I saw two guards step forward, but Jack must have motioned them off because they stepped back.
“Go,” Jack told me.
I stayed rooted to the spot. I couldn’t just let this happen. I had to stop it. But Jack stepped in front of me, cutting me off from Reyes. He raised his arm and blocked the punch Reyes threw at him. Jack waited for his next move and blocked that too. Reyes came at him harder, and Jack had to back up a few steps. I finally moved out of the way. This was out of my control.
Reyes kept coming at Jack, and Jack kept blocking his punches. At one point they ended up in the crowd, and people scattered to get out of their way. I noticed that Jack never once threw a punch at Reyes, only defended himself against the rage Reyes inflicted on him. Reyes was getting frustrated that his strikes were having no effect. I could tell he was tiring too. I felt so horrible, so guilty. What had I done to him? The fight came to an end when an exhausted Reyes desperately dove toward Jack to take him down, but Jack easily stepped out of his way and Reyes crashed into an empty chair, breaking it.
“Got it out of your system yet?” Jack asked.
“You’re an idiot, Kenner!” Reyes said, picking himself up from the floor. He stared at the guards. “Maybe you didn’t hear me when I said this is Jack Kenner!” He pointed to Jack. The guards looked blankly at Reyes.
“Sorry, Reyes, they’re on my side,” Jack said.
The crowd became very nervous when they heard that. Everyone started talking at once. Jack was still wearing his hat, and he took it off then. While the coal still darkened his light hair, there was no mistaking his blue eyes.
“That’s right. I am Jack Kenner. And for the record, I didn’t give Sunny those bruises, although I’d like to have words with the person who did.” He gave me a fond look.
I smiled back at him. My respect for him was growing. He could have really hurt Reyes if he had wanted to, but he hadn’t.
“Is that bourge down here with you, O’Donnell?” someone from the crowd asked.
I stepped out from the corner and walked over to Jack. “He is.”
“How come the guards are on his side?” someone else asked.
Strong agreement rose up among the room. They eyed the guards suspiciously.
“You may find this hard to believe, but there are people in the Dome who are on your side. People who want to see things change down here,” Jack said.
“On our side?” someone shouted out at him in disgust. “I’m thirty-two years old, and not once in my life have I ever seen anyone from the Dome down here fighting for us!”
People started agreeing, their voices growing louder.
“And since when are guards here to help us?” someone else shouted out. “More likely they’re here to shoot us in case we do something they don’t like!”
I could feel the crowd starting to turn on us. The more questions they asked, the more nervous they became. They were talking themselves right into a riot. Everyone had been through too many years of abuse from the bourge to suddenly start trusting one that had almost been president himself.
“If you don’t trust him, trust me,” I said loudly. Not many people looked in my direction because they were too caught up in their own fears. Jack gave me a defeated look, but if we gave up now I knew the only thing we would have achieved tonight was exposing our identities. In a desperate attempt to get their attention, I stood up on a chair and whistled as loud as I could. Most people stopped talking and looked at me. “Trust me!” I shouted as loud as I could. The room finally became quiet. I stood on the chair looking at their expectant faces, knowing that whatever I said could change the course of life in the Pit forever.
“The bruises on my face came from my supervisor.” I pulled back my hair to show everyone. “And last month a different supervisor ordered a guard to beat me when I was too slow at my job. I got a few cracked ribs from that one. You might wonder why I was slow at my job, knowing that I would probably be beaten for it. The answer is that I was sad. Sad because my mother had to join the Cull last spring.” Even now my tears were quick to spring up when I talked of her. “How many people here have lost someone to the Cull?” Everyone in the room raised their hand. “How many people here have been beaten?” Every hand remained in the air. “And how many of you are fed up?” At this, even the people sitting down stood up to raise their hands higher.