But I’ve been thinking about this for the last four days as I waited for Lexy to decide she trusted me. I figured it out that they wanted Vin for his connection to The Hive and since they wanted their freedom, what else could they be planning but to ask The Hive to attack this small Pod and set them all free? And I knew it would never work. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that because I want to hope too, I want to believe that I’ll make it out of here someday even if it’s childish to dream of it. That’s when I started wondering if there was a way.
“What are you talking about?” Vin asks slowly, eyeing me.
“What could we give them?” Lexy asks warily.
“You’ll give them the one thing they’ll fight for.” I tell her. “You’ll give them this Pod. Intact. Undamaged. Taken down from the inside. That’s something they could never have, not without you.”
Vin sits back hard in his chair, watching me. I can see the wheels turning, the numbers crunching and the idea forming in his mind. But will it be enough?
I look at Lexy but I’m speaking to Vin. “There’s hardly any leadership here because they have you all over a barrel with your families. From what I understand, there’s enough unrest to overthrow this place from the inside. So do it. Take control and ask The Hive to help you take down the next Pod in exchange for ownership over this one. If they attacked it from the outside without your help, they’d damage the hell out of it. It’d be almost worthless to them later.”
“There are plans in place to destroy it and escape, leaving attackers nothing to show for their efforts.” Lexy confirms.
“Exactly. They’d gain nothing. But if you hand it to them they could actually use it. They wouldn’t just be a gang anymore, they’d be an outpost. It’s a whole different level of living than what they’ve got right now. With the resources you have, it would set them head and shoulders above the rest of the gangs out there. They’d be the Walmart of the wild. Once you take down the next Pod, you’ll have their numbers, your families, added to your ranks. You wouldn’t necessarily need The Hive anymore to take down the third one. But even if you did, you still have a bargaining chip.”
“The second Pod?” Lexy asks, looking very, very interested.
“No. Knowledge. They have no idea how to take care of this place. They don’t plant crops or tend fields, not on this level, and they don’t have livestock. They fish and go to market to trade for whatever else they need. Ask Vin if he can milk a cow. I promise you he can’t and I doubt any of his crew can either. But you can. You said it yourself, you didn’t need a lot of leadership cause you’re all veterans here. Use that to your advantage to leverage more help from The Hive.”
Lexy looks at me hopefully then turns to Vin. “Would they do it? Would they agree to help us if we gave up a Pod?”
“And promised an end to the roundups.” I supply, thinking that’s a practice I’d rather The Hive didn’t adopt once they gained this seat of power.
“Would that all be worth it to them?”
Vin clears his throat. I watch as he spins his ring on his finger, thinking.
“I don’t know for sure. But it would certainly be worth a shot.” he replies quietly.
Lexy’s brow falls. She looks unsure as she glances at me. “Is that good enough? Can I trust him?”
“Probably not.”
“Brutal, Kitten.” he mutters.
“But what choice do you have?” I ask Lexy, ignoring Vin and his feelings. “You can’t sit around waiting for more gang members to show up here and hope they’ll play ball.”
“More of them have shown up. Just last week. But they’re from smaller gangs and wouldn’t be any use.”
“Wait, there are more outsiders here? Since when?” I ask, sitting forward.
I can feel Vin watching me closely, thinking of other things now.
“Since last week.” Lexy replies. “They’re on the second schedule. It’s just two of them from some small gang.”
“What do they look like?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen them. I only heard about them.”
“Can you find out their names for me?”
“Sure.” Lexy nods. “I’ll see what I can do if you talk to him about doing this for us.”
Vin puts his hands up innocently. “I already said I’d plead your case to The Hive if you freed me.”
“Yeah, but it didn’t exactly sound like you were planning on selling it.” Nats says, glaring at him.
“Are you mad at me right now?” he asks incredulously.
“We all are. It’s a good deal and you know they’ll consider it. They would kill to get their hands on a piece of the Colonies. You’ll be Marlow’s Golden Boy if you bring this to him so stop playing coy and just agree to it.” Vin goes to open his mouth but before he can speak Nats points her finger at him, whispering fiercely, “And you better come back for me, you son of a bitch. You leave me here to rot in this cage and I’ll die of boredom and haunt you for the rest of your days.”
Vin grins affectionately at her hostility. He leans forward to kiss her cheek lightly. “Anything you say, Boss.”
“So you’ll do it?” Lexy asks eagerly. “You’ll go for help?”
He nods reluctantly at her. “Yeah, I’ll do it. Just tell me when and my bags will be packed.”
“Tomorrow night.” she says without hesitation.
“What?” I ask, shocked. “Seriously?”
“Yes, we’re ready. We’ve been ready. There’s no sense in waiting, right?”
“I guess not.” I mutter, still feeling surprised by the suddenness of it. How long have they had this planned just waiting for the right person to set free?
“You’ll go out on a boat. I can’t get you a jacket, they monitor those too closely and only hand them out to people working the fields. Then they take them back the second they come inside. But the women in the laundry have been pulling things aside in varying sizes so you can wear layers.”
“You’ve been prepping for this already?” Vin asks. “Even before asking me?”
Lexy shrugs with a smile. “Luck favors the prepared.”
The phrase immediately reminds me of Crazy Crenshaw and I realize I miss him and his madness. Among other things.
“How exactly am I getting out?”
“Tim will explain all that in the morning. He’s got an idea of how to slip you through the fences.”
“Tim from the field crew? He’s in on this?”
“We’re all in on this.” Lexy says seriously. “Every last one of us.”
As it turns out, that’s not strictly true. Aside from the meager leadership there are still a few people in this Pod that are too scared of the Colony’s rule to stand up against it. Hopefully when it all goes down they jump on board anyway. At that point, what have they got to lose? But until then some stealth is still required and even Lexy isn’t 100% sure who is a total ally and who isn’t. Aside from herself, Tim, a few of his friends in the fields, all of the women in the laundry, half the sewing room, all of the kitchen and the better part of the greenhouse and gardens crew, people’s alliances are unknown. That means every last guard is a question mark and most likely loyal to the Colony, albeit grudgingly.
Ask me how much I like those odds.
But the ball is rolling and after dinner Lexy took off to tell Tim and the others heading this things that Vin is on board. I wonder if she’s going to tell them how shady it all is, that we don’t know for sure if The Hive will bite. That we don’t know if Vin will ever come back.
“You look worried, Kitten.” Vin tells me from across the table.
Nats has gone to work while Vin and I are skipping out on after dinner family fun time in the common room. There are a few other people here in the cafeteria with us sitting around tables alone or in small groups, chatting quietly.