Ashes (25 page)

The village hall's main corridor was lined with offices, some open, others shut tight. Fear curdled the air. A clog of guards and more dogs kept watch over a long line of bedraggled, elderly refugees. Alex fixed her eyes on Kincaid's back, but she heard the resentful whispers as they passed. Then one man said, quite distinctly, “Leave me alone with her, I'll show you how it's done.”

A burst of mean, raucous laughter. The dogs whined anxiously. Alex half-expected Kincaid to say something, but he kept walking.

Behind came the clatter of dishes, and Alex turned to see two women pushing a metal food cart, like the kind they used in hospitals to bring patients their meals. No need for spidey-sense either: bacon was bacon.

Someone in line groaned at the aroma. All the refugees watched, hollow-eyed, as the women trundled up to a thick wooden door with a push bar and reinforced glass. One woman knocked, and a few seconds later, the door was pushed open from the inside. Alex saw the back of yet another guard, and as the women disappeared, she caught the thinnest finger of a scent coming from beyond the door. Not the dead-meat stink. She thought she would've caught that as soon as she entered, anyway. This was different. It was familiar, a scent she'd picked up before: tobacco and rotted teeth and old whiskey.

I know this. Who—

A loud, piercing scream came from the end of the corridor, and Alex gasped, her thoughts instantly derailed. The refugees fell silent, but the dogs in the hall began to whimper, and a few barked. The scream came again, and then two guards rounded the corner, dragging a sobbing, struggling old man between them.

“No, no, you can't!” the man wailed. He was very old, almost withered, with arms like twigs and a knot of twine around his waist to keep his pants from falling down. With a sudden burst of strength, the old man spurted free of the guards and scurried for an office door. At that, the dogs strained at their leashes, yapping and pawing at the air. The old man grabbed the knob and yanked, but the door was locked. A look of utter despair broke over his weathered face, and as the two guards approached, the old man began to weep. He crumpled to his knees, his gnarled fingers still wrapped around unyielding metal.

“You can't send me back out there! I got no one; I got nowhere to go!” he pleaded as the guards tried to pull him free. The old man hung on with the grim tenacity of a leech; terror had lent him a furious strength, and the wasted muscles of his arms went as taut as rubber bands. “I can still work; I'm still good for something—please,
don't
!”

Amid a chorus of excited barks from the dogs, another guard hurried to help. Between the three, they pried the old man's hands free and then carried him, still thrashing and screaming, down that long corridor and finally, mercifully, out of sight.

“Jesus,” said the man who wouldn't have minded showing the others how things were done with her. He flashed Alex a hostile glare. To Kincaid, he snarled, “You ought to be ashamed. He's one of us, and you're saving
them
. What the hell makes her so special?”

“Well, for one,” Kincaid said mildly, “she knows how to keep her mouth shut.”

At the end of the T corridor, they hung a right. The windows here faced south, and the hall was much brighter. There were more guards—she was starting to get used to seeing old men in camouflage with rifles—and then Kincaid led her to a set of closed double doors on the right. A plaque to the left of the doors said courtroom.

“We'll wait out here a few minutes,” said Kincaid. He dropped into a straight-back chair with a little sigh.

She remained standing. Her mouth was dry, but her palms were wet. “Why is it so important that I see this Council and the Reverend? I mean, they can't decide where
everyone
goes. There are too many people.”

“Five hundred, give or take, yeah. And no, they don't eyeball everyone. Wardens—men who've been given the keys—do that.”

“Keys? You mean, like, to unlock doors?”

“Not physical ones, no. It's, ah, a biblical reference. Matthew:
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Same concept as the Mormon priesthood, although we're not Mormons. What it boils down to is that the Council awards certain men the authority to make decisions in certain areas: the farms, the armory, supplies, sanitation, for example. Peter, he's an Ernst, and they're one of the Five Families, so he's warden of the militia. He decides which missions get carried out, how many men'll be needed, things like that. He'll see newcomers, too; decide if they're suitable for guard duty or good in a fight.”

“So the people in the hall are waiting to see the wardens?”

“Or their representatives and lieutenants—people like Chris—yeah.”

Her eyebrows drew together in a frown. “But Chris is the Reverend's grandson, right? So why doesn't he have a key? How come he's not a warden?”

Kincaid's lips screwed to a rosebud. “Well,” he said carefully, “there's the fact that Chris isn't pure Rule, born and bred. He's got some of the bloodline, but his parents weren't, uh,
of
the village. They left, and their history is a little … murky. Peter is Rule-bred, older, has more experience with these matters. There are other reasons, but those are good as any.”

Rule-bred? Bloodlines? Rule sounded a lot more closed and regimented than she'd originally thought. “So who does the Council see?”

“The Spared—kids like you—and the borderline cases: people who might do well here, but the wardens aren't quite sure. So they send them on to the Council for final judgment. The Council also sees people who might not be, well,
adjusting
very well.”

She recalled Jess's threat. “Is that what Jess meant when she said she'd ask the Reverend to reconsider?”

Kincaid bobbed his head. “The Reverend always has the final say when it comes to the Ban.”

“Ban?” The fingers of a chill walked her spine. “Like, banishment?”

“Something like that.” Kincaid put a hand on her shoulder. “Look, that's not your worry right now, okay? Best thing you can do is concentrate on putting your best foot forward, and don't lie. The Rev will know if you do.”

Okay, that was interesting. “If you lie, do they, uh, ban you?”

“Not as a first choice, no. But some kids can't adapt. They don't settle down.”

“Like Lena?”

“She's a handful, that's for sure.”

“So why not let her leave?”

“We're, ah … we try to hang on to the Spared. Safer, all the way around.”

“But isn't that her choice?”
Isn't it
mine
?
“What about free will?”

“Free will's okay,” said Kincaid. “Only look where it got Adam.”

One of the courtroom doors opened, and a rickety old guy, who looked to be about a hundred and ninety, stuck his head out. “Rev'll see you now,” he said mushily.

“Just as I was getting comfortable,” Kincaid grumbled, then grimaced as he stood and his knees crackled. “I shoulda got these replaced when I had the chance.”

“Don't talk to me about your damn knees,” said the rickety guy. He worked his jaws, and Alex heard the clack of dentures. “What I want to know is who we gonna get to fix my damned teeth?”

The courtroom looked like something out of
Judge Judy
: wood-paneled and small, with a three-row gallery for spectators, a rail—the bar—with a swinging gate, and two rectangular tables, one to either side of the gate. A jury box was snugged along the right-hand wall. The judge's bench was front and center, and behind the bench sat five men, all in black robes, all with stolid faces seamed by wrinkles. Two, who bracketed the rest on either side like matching bookends, were ancient, so withered a strong breeze might knock them over. She couldn't guess the ages of the other three. Old was … old.

She knew which one was Yeager, though. Kincaid had said that the Reverend always sat dead center, and she studied him now. He was completely bald, with a nose like a squashed tomato and wattles hanging from his neck that wobbled when he moved, like those of a turkey vulture. His dark eyes were alive and bird-bright, and they fixed on her now with a coldly speculative look, the way a crow eyed roadkill to decide if it was worth the effort.

“So, you're Alexandra.” Yeager's voice was surprisingly even and deep, almost booming, perfect for belting out a sermon. “Come on in. Don't be shy. Just walk through the bar there.”

She threw a quick, furtive glance at the other four men, but they were silent and expressionless. What was their job? To observe? Ask questions? Their skin exhaled the mingled funk she'd come to associate with the old: peppermint and papery skin, dirty socks and old farts, and a general fusty decrepitude. Nothing menacing, at least.

Yeager was different. He smelled opaque and chilly, like cloudy glass or fog. A little like Jess, she decided: a blank. She couldn't sense his intent at all, or what he felt.

“Well.” Yeager peered down from the bench. From that angle, he looked more like a vulture than before. “Finally, we meet. My grandson's told me about you.”

What had Chris said? “Yes, sir.”

“I like to meet all the Spared. You are our future, and I want to feel that when the time comes, we've chosen well. Come here. I'd like to see you eye to eye.” Yeager beckoned her closer, and now Alex saw a small step stool set up before the bench. As she mounted the steps, her eyes brushed over narrow brass nameplates, one squared before each of the old men. The first two, starting from her left, read
BORN
and
ERNST
. Front and center was
YEAGER
, and then came
STIEMKE
and, finally, to her far right,
PRIGGE.
.

Now, she also saw something else she hadn't before: a sixth chair, set off by itself, beyond Prigge. There was no nameplate, nothing to indicate to whom the chair belonged. It might be simply a spare, but she didn't think so. She eyed the bench and, for the first time, noticed that the way the Council was arranged seemed … unbalanced. Like there was someone missing.

Six chairs, but only five men and it's the Council of Five … unless it hasn't always been that way.

Yeager extended his hands, palms up. “If I may.”

She hesitated, flustered, then remembered Kincaid's quip:
He's very hands-on.
She slid her palms onto his, her skin jumping at the contact. Yeager's hands were gnarled, the knuckles swollen, the skin dry as old parchment and spotted with age, but his grip was strong.

“Warm hands,” said Yeager.

“Yes, sir.” She expected him to let go then, but he didn't. She wanted to tear her hands from his grasp, but forced herself to remain still. She felt the eyes of the others, but didn't dare look away.

“One thing I would like to understand, Alex,” said Yeager. “I'm not clear how it is that you ended up in the Waucamaw. Tell me about that.”

“I … um … I cut school.” Really, she figured it didn't much matter now. But she decided to keep her answers short and to the point.

Now the man to her right rumbled, “Was that a habit of yours?”

Caught off guard, she cut a look his way: stiemke. “No,” she said.

Yeager said nothing, only rubbed his horny thumbs over her palms. Stiemke continued: “So why then?”

“I wanted to think some things through.” When Stiemke only stared, she added, “College, things like that.”

“Ah,” Yeager said. “The future, what you were going to do with your life?”

Close enough. “Yes.”

To the far left, one of the withered guys—Born—piped up in a reedy quaver, “What did you decide?”

“I didn't have a chance, sir,” she said. It helped that this was true—but then, feeling the Reverend's grip shift, she had a sudden flash of intuition. What had Kincaid said?

Don't lie. The Rev will know if you do.

And
hands-on …
My God, was Yeager like
her
? She'd never considered that other people might have changed as she had. Larry, who'd seen more survivors than she or Tom, hadn't said anything about it. Maybe because that kind of change wasn't common, or the people who
had
developed a super-sense kept it a secret. She had, even from Tom; then again, she had a lot of secrets. Given how paranoid everyone was now, not telling about a super-sense might be smart.

So, could Yeager sense whether she was telling the truth—not by smell but through touch? Like a human lie detector?

How would that work? She knew that people flushed when they were nervous, so there were temperature changes. A person's skin also carried an electrical charge; that was how a computer touch pad worked, by sensing the electrical gradient. That was why a fingertip worked but a pencil, which carried no charge, wouldn't.

Yeager might've had a natural-born knack to begin with. He was a pastor, after all. She remembered the sign for Harvest Church:
TRUST IN THE HEALING HAND OF GOD
. Maybe not far from the truth: Yeager might not heal, but perhaps he could
feel
—an innate ability augmented by the Zap. But why Yeager and not all the other people who'd survived, some of whom were very old indeed?

Why her?

“A penny for your thoughts,” Yeager said. He smiled his vulture's grin, but his grip did not change.

“My father always said they weren't worth that much.” It was all right to mention her father, she decided; all parents were dead, pretty much, so that made her no different from anyone else. And if she could steer the conversation …

To Yeager's immediate right, Ernst—Peter's grandfather? Great-grandfather?—said, “What did your father do?”

“He was a cop.”

“Ah.” This seemed to please Prigge, the other bookend. He actually rubbed the knobbed twigs of his hands together. “A man who knew good from evil.”

She had never heard her father refer to any of the drunks or wife-beaters or scammers as evil, but she said, “Yes, sir. I guess so.”

“Well, that is also what we do here. Tell me”—Yeager cocked his head—“why do the dogs favor you? Why do they …
recognize
you?”

“I don't know,” she said truthfully. “I'm not a dog.”

“But you must have an idea,” Ernst said.

She nodded. “Probably the same way I recognize them.”
But not Reverend Yeager or Jess—and why is that?

“And that is?” Yeager asked.

She decided to chance it. “I guess the same way you're able to tell things.”

She heard Ernst's sudden, involuntary inhale. Yeager's vulture-eyes slitted. “Meaning?” Yeager asked.

She'd guessed right; she had him, and there was just the smallest crack in his blankness, that cloudy glass: something very wet and a little metallic, an odor that reminded her of the day the dogs had nearly killed her and Ellie.

Water? A river? No, that's not quite it. More like … rain.

Rain? She remembered the day this had all begun, and those storm clouds to the southwest and the gray slashes that looked like rain.

Is that why he smells like wet glass? Because he was by a window, watching the rain when it happened?

“Meaning?” Yeager repeated.

She felt the intensity of the other men's gazes burning holes into her brain, but she did not allow her eyes to wander. “Meaning you can tell if what I'm saying is true because you feel it, literally, through your hands.”

A beat. No one spoke. Yeager's eyes raked her face and then he abruptly let go of her hands. His gaze clicked to a point over her shoulder. “Matt, wait outside a moment, will you?”

She'd completely forgotten Kincaid was there. “Uh,” Kincaid said, clearly surprised. “Okay.”

She felt a quick prick of fear. “Why can't he stay?” she asked Yeager.

He ignored her. “Matt?”

“Sure. I'll be right outside, Alex. It'll be okay.”

Yeager waited until Kincaid was gone, and then he turned his searchlight gaze onto Alex once more. “Yours isn't touch.”

“Why couldn't he stay?”

“Because there are some things better kept behind closed doors,” Ernst said. Of all the others, he seemed to be the one closest to Yeager in authority. On Yeager's right hand, she realized: pretty biblical. She wondered if Ernst's first name was Michael. “The fewer who know, the safer for everyone,” Ernst said.

“What is it that you sense?” Yeager asked. His eyes pinned her. “Is yours touch?”

“No. But I can tell things like you can.”

“Such as?”

“I know what people are feeling sometimes.” She paused. “I know when
they
—the Changed—are around.”

“What?” Ernst said, startled. “You can
do
that?”

“Yes,” she said, but she kept her gaze on Yeager.

“How?” Yeager asked.

“The same way I know there's a murderer in this building,” she said. “Because I smell him.”