Page 63 of Casualties of War
“That’s what he wants,” Garrett said.
Daniel stepped back down the sloping roof with care. “These people have been living under Insurrecto rule since the war began. All that concentratedgossip. Just think of what we will learn.” He jumped the last foot and shoved the phone in his pocket and nodded at them. “Sorry to interrupt.” He pushed the door open and stepped inside. As the door swung shut on its ancient timbers, Carmen could hear Daniel rattling down the rickety wooden stairs.
Garrett got to his feet and held out his hand toward her. “Back to work,” he said, with a sigh.
* * * * *
Téra hurried into the cramped office where Minnie and Rubén and Chloe had all worked until this afternoon. She headed for the chair in the corner where she had left the current book. She would need it when she went to bed tonight. Rubén wouldn’t be there to read to her or to just sit in silence the way he often did.
She stopped short, as Chloe spun in her office chair, putting herback to the door and to Téra.
Chloe wiped at her face.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” Téra said. “I didn’t know you were here. I thought…well, Minnie’s in Calli’s office and Rubén is…isn’t working right now.”
“Gives me the whole office to myself. That’s bliss, after the last ten days,” Chloe said. Téra could hear the strain in her cheery tone.
Téra moved over to the desk. “You okay? I know no one’s ahundred percent these days, but are you dealing?”
Chloe turned to face her and gave her a brilliant smile. Her cheeks were damp. “I’m fine,”
Téra bent and picked up the book from beneath the hard chair she used while Minnie and Rubén worked. She lifted it to show Chloe. “We all deal differently, I guess. I read. You…well.” She grimaced, glancing at her shiny cheeks once more. “I’m sure he’sokay.”
Chloe cleared her throat. “I’m just waiting for the next satellite to come over the horizon.”
“When we find out what happened, it’ll end up being he got goosed by a false alarm and bugged out,” Téra said.
Chloe looked up from the big laptop, her eyes narrowing. “That’s what you think Cristián would do? Panic?”
Téra rubbed at the chipped desktop with her thumb. “Cristián is my geekybrother. Believe me, he sees threats in every shadow. I think he used a nightlight until he was eight or something.” Téra smiled. “I love him but because he’s my brother, I know him too well.”
Chloe sat back, her hands falling away from the keyboard. “You don’t know him at all.”
Téra’s eyes widened. “I don’t?”
Chloe didn’t flinch or move. Her gaze was steady. “The man I know is quiet, yes.That’s because in your house, everyone else is an extrovert. Especially Duardo, the golden boy of the family. Cristián isn’t an extrovert. He knows that about himself. He doesn’t let it limit him the way the rest of the world thinks it should. And he is smart. I don’t mean he’s well read, although he is. I mean he’s goddam quantum supercomputer smart. Genius level.”
Téra swallowed. “He just gotA’s in school,” she said awkwardly.
“True geniuses don’t show off. They don’t need to. The trick for people like Cristián isn’t to ace the exams. It’s to write them so he lands on exactly the score he wanted. A point or two below perfect, so no one notices him and he gets dragged off to an institution with high walls and cameras.” She grimaced.
“Is that what happened to you?” Téra breathed.
Chloe lifted her arm and pointed toward the window beside her. She was pointing west, toward Vistaria. “Cristián is passionate, and he’s ambitious and sometimes he’s completely driven by his fury with the limitations of the world. One day he will be a leader and find out he’s good at it and people will love him for his wisdom.” She dropped her arm and looked at Téra, her eyes shining.
Téra swallowed.“I didn’t know about any of that,” she said apologetically.
“Of course you didn’t. You’ve spent your life competing with Duardo. Why would you notice?”
Téra flinched. “I think we’re all learning more about ourselves and each other because of this war than any of us might have in a whole lifetime of peace.”
“You’ve got that right,” Chloe said and prodded at the keyboard with one stiff finger.
As Téra eased back out the door and closed it again, she saw Chloe wipe at her cheeks with the sleeve of her shirt, her gaze on the code on her screen.
Later that night, as Téra eased her tired body onto the thin mattress, Minnie climbed the stairs to the attic and paused at the top, her breath blowing hard, her hand on her belly.
The women fussed and murmured and she waved them off. “I’m justpregnant,” she told them, then stepped down the length of the attic and turned to ease along the wall to Téra’s corner.
