Keo heard the sentries moving around on the rooftop above and behind him and wondered if they were paying attention to what was about to happen down here.
“Ron shot at Keo first,” Jordan said. “Then he called the others in to finish the job. Ron did what you put him up there to do, Tobias.”
“I didn’t know anything about an ambush,” Keo said.
“But you came from T18,” Tobias said. His voice was calm and measured. Compared to Reese, who had a tendency to raise his voice, Tobias could have passed for the Dalai Lama…with an assault rifle.
“Yes, I did.”
“What were you doing there?”
“The same reason everyone else ended up at T18. I was captured at Santa Marie Island.”
Tobias’s eyes moved to Jordan.
“Like I already told you, we know each other from Louisiana,” Jordan said. “My friends and I came to Santa Marie first, and Keo was supposed to follow. It just took him longer than expected.”
“Got held up,” Keo said. “Better late than never, right?”
“But you left T18 with your weapons,” Tobias said. “That’s not possible unless you’ve also put on a black uniform.”
“You see a uniform on me?”
“You don’t need to wear one to be one.”
“Like a spy,” Reese said.
“I’m not a spy,” Keo said. “I’m not very good at sneaking around. I prefer the frontal approach.”
“The fact remains,” Tobias said, “you left T18 with your weapons. That says everything.”
“That’s because Miller gave me a job.”
“Steve?”
“Yeah. Steve Miller.”
Tobias narrowed his eyes. “What kind of job?”
“Find you, and kill you.”
Reese reflexively gripped his weapon but stopped short of pulling it out.
Jordan, meanwhile, had tensed up beside Keo; apparently she hadn’t expected him to use this tack.
For his part, Tobias hadn’t reacted. Either the man had ice water in his veins, or he wasn’t surprised by Keo’s admission.
Cool as a cucumber, this guy.
“Steve sent you here to kill me,” Tobias finally said.
“I had to find you first,” Keo said. “That’s what I was doing when your sniper took a shot at me. What happened after that was out of my hands. I didn’t know Miller was planning an ambush using me as bait. It’s not my fault you converged on one lone target so close to T18. That’s a leadership problem.”
Tobias grunted. There was a heaviness in his face that Keo recognized. He had seen that look in the eyes of commanders who actually cared if he survived a job or not. Those types of men were far and few, but he could always tell them apart from the ones who didn’t give a damn if they lived or died.
“And what do you get in return?” Tobias asked.
“I get to live happily ever after.”
Tobias looked to Jordan, who nodded. “My friend Gillian,” she said. “The one that came with me to the camp. She and Keo are involved.”
“A woman,” Tobias said. Then he chuckled. “It’s always a woman, isn’t it?”
“It’s the truth,” Keo said.
“I believe you. The question is, what do I do with you?”
“That’s the easy part.”
“How so?”
Christ, I hope this works, Keo thought, and said, “Miller expects me to kill you and return to T18. But he didn’t say anything about bringing back your head on a pike. You understand what I’m saying?”
“Steve never asked you to bring back proof.”
“Right. It didn’t occur to me until now why that was. It’s because he didn’t think I was going to survive yesterday’s action. They pointed me up the road and waited for your guys to swoop in and try to kill me. It was win-win for him. I either kill some of your men, or your men get me, then his men get yours. I’m guessing he had people in the woods nearby, waiting for me to walk past like a sucker. I doubt he expected you to send that many to finish me off. That was stupid, by the way. Why the hell did you send so many to kill one man?”
Tobias shook his head, looking very frustrated. “There were only five men backing up Ron, and they weren’t supposed to engage you. I had to send reinforcements when Steve attacked.”
“What did they use, technicals?”
Tobias nodded solemnly. “And ground forces. It looked like he threw everything he had at us. It was overwhelming. We’re lucky we only lost seven men. It could have been much worse. All-of-us-dead-level worst.”
“The point is, Miller doesn’t expect me to come back. So when I do, and with proof that I killed you, he’ll want to see it.”
“Proof?”
“I need to convince him I got the job done.”
“What kind of proof?”
“You tell me. You’ve been fighting him for how long now? What would it take for Miller to believe I killed you?”
Tobias seemed to think about it before he said, “And then what?”
“Then I kill the fucker,” Keo said. “That sound good to you?”
*
“That’s your big plan?” Jordan said. “Convince him to let you double cross Miller?”
“He’s thinking about it,” Keo said.
“Yeah, but…”
“Jordan, it’s not like I had a lot of options. It’s either this or let them execute me. I really don’t want to be executed. I kinda like living.”
They were back in the classroom, except this time they were alone, with a guard outside the door. Everyone was gathering their things into the vehicles parked up front, leaving Keo and Jordan to wait for Tobias’s decision. He would know in a few minutes if he was going to live or die.
If he were a betting man, Keo would guess fifty-fifty.
Jordan leaned her head back against the wall next to him and threw her arms around her bent knees.
“Relax,” Keo said. “Whatever happens, you’ll be fine.”
“Is that what you think this is? That I’m just worried about my own hide?”
“Aren’t you?”
She sighed. “You’re clueless.”
“I don’t understand…”
“Never mind, Keo.”
He looked at her for a moment, not sure where any of this was going. He had never been particularly good at reading women, but-
“They were friends, you know,” she said.
“Who?”
“Miller and Tobias.”
“I figured that one out myself.”
“How?”
“He kept referring to Miller as ‘Steve.’”
“Yeah. They were friends for a long time after everything happened. They were in the camp together. Then one day, they were running things.”
“How did that happen?”
“I don’t know for sure. Tobias never told me, but I’ve heard rumors that they-the creatures-choose leaders. I don’t know how, and frankly it gives me goose bumps to think about communicating with those things.”
“The blue-eyed ones.”
“You’ve heard of them?” she asked, looking over.
He nodded. “The people I knew at Song Island have experience with them. A lot of experience. The ones with blue eyes are like the overseers-the commanders. They can talk, too.”
She stared disbelievingly at him.
Keo shrugged. “That’s what I heard.”
She shivered. “Great, now I’m going to have nightmares. As if the black-eyed ones weren’t bad enough.”
“About Tobias and Miller…”
“They were in charge of T18 back when it was still just Wilmont. Ran the whole place for a while. It was just after the transition to a full-fledged town that they had a falling out and Tobias left, taking some of the men with him.”
“Reese?”
“Uh huh. He was one of them.”
“Why did Tobias leave?”
“It was that whole agreement with the ghouls. Tobias was always uneasy about the daily bloodletting, but I think it was the pregnancies that did it. I know that’s what happened to me. ‘Donating’ wasn’t so bad, but seeing those pregnant girls and knowing what would happen to their babies, to the human race in a year or a decade from now…” She shivered again. “I couldn’t take it. Tobias couldn’t, either. Since then, he’s been trying to help as many people escape from T18 as possible.”
“How’s that working out?”