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What grows inside me isn’t something that can simply be said and even said there is no one who would listen. It’s just, being empty. I get excited about something and then that goes wrong and the emptiness is even more stifling.

If it weren’t so mind numbingly depressing it might be funny but the fact is I find much more creativity in my emptiness, as if I create something better to buoy my well-being.

And I cling to those things which make life understandable: my job, my daughter, my writing.

Yet even in those things: my job is merely a catalyst, my daughter I share and in her absence my heart bleeds, and my writing, well, my writing has a sharp edge.

Who is to say? And who is there to talk to? Maybe a life alone is my fate, if that exists. If there is a God, perhaps it is my salvation to be alone and empty? Or maybe I think too much.

2.24p.m.

Lister arrives swiftly in a billow of dust and Relter looks up from his card game with the twins and pays for it as I see Harry palm a card. I look up at Lister from the throne and watch him expectantly.

Scuffling on the ladder is indication enough that Draven and Gabby come to hear what Lister’s news is as well.

Sneering, Lister eyes the two on the ladder and looks back to me, “We got a rat, and you won’t believe your ears, Boss.”

“Try me.”

“Flanders rolled on Simms today, straight up. Heard it from Twitch not two hours ago who got it from Vern who was escorting a well-to-do in the Judge’s Quarter. Flanders is leaking like a stuck pig but not nearly as much as he’s going to when I get close enough to him.”

“You are not to move against Flanders,” I say evenly. “What about Simms, how is he?”

“Johnston heard from the innkeeper who knew the, ah, previous owner of the store he’s running, that Simms killed two of the fat fuckers Ferns usually wallows with and nearly got away. He lives I think but things are getting weird in the city, Boss, my guess is that they’ll torture him. Word is, Flanders took a lick too even after he gave them the low down on Simms. That fucking bastard.”

I purse my lips, torture is the reason I figured on Simms being the man for the job. If there was anyone with something to prove it was Simms and he wouldn’t bend for anyone.

“I repeat, Lister, you are not to move against Flanders.”

“Boss, that rat bastard rolled on one of us! He knows where almost everyone is, who knows who will be next, he’s mine!”

“Do I have to detain you here, Lister? I said no. We needed someone on the inside, I sent Flanders to get it done.”

Lister’s jaw drops a mile and Relter grins from ear to ear.

Slowly, Lister put words to his unusual silence, “You sold us?”

Draven sidles to the doorway and loosens his short sword and I shake my head quickly, Gabby wide eyed and worried.

“Lister, you’ll hear fairly soon that Flanders rolled on our location but you are absolutely forbidden to return here until given word. We’ve got a false location being set up by Beebee and Alton north of the city. Under no circumstance do I plan on giving up any more of the 20, but Flanders and Simms walked into the city knowing their job.”

Shaking his head with a wide grimace of dislike Lister shifts his weight. I carefully keep my eyes on his face but notice the quick dance his fingers do near the hilts of his weapons.

“Fuck it!” Lister snarls and turns, just now noticing Draven and pushes him out of the way and nearly walks into Amm, standing like a barrier in the doorway.

Unconsciously Lister takes a few steps back as does Draven who is the next closest.

Amm is dripping blood into the dirt from a wound in her arm and a bolt appears to be sticking through a thin piece of skin in her left arm but it is hardly her wounds that make her presence outstanding.

Her hair is jet black and what I had taken for black tears before is still laced down her cheeks. I can’t meet her eyes; they are so bright and searing that I hurt when looking straight on.

The card game is now completely paused and Gabby has her back to a stall, fingering her long dagger.

When Amm sways I am the first to her, off my throne to catch her before she hits the ground. “There are things in the woods…” she murmurs and then appears to drift off into sleep.

“Lister, you wait until night to leave. Draven, to the roof with the crossbow and Relter, get the doors closed and barricaded. Gabby, help the twins ready anything they’ve got and stand by.”

4.55p.m.

But the rest of the day is quiet and we spent the hours of tense waiting caring for Amm and her many wounds, the least of which is not the long claw mark on her back. She woke twice and mercilessly apologized to me before falling asleep again.

Now I give Lister a nod in answer to his constant barrage of “Can I go now?”

The bolt removed and her injuries taken care of, Amm sleeps soundly in a nest of hay in the stall farthest from the door. I check her twice before I leave her to walk out close to the door where the others are gathered quietly.

“Gabby, go through the city and find Beebee and Alton and get them out of there. I’ll expect you back tomorrow night at latest. Here is some money, split it three ways and each of you pick up rations in different places on the way back so it doesn’t look like we’re buying in bulk.” Accepting the money, Gabby sidles to the door, glancing at Draven who nods reassuringly.

“Also,” I say loudly and Gabby turns back, “come back through the south gate and stop at the stables to look at some livestock, see what Nod has to say.”

“Sure, Boss,” Gabby replies meekly and she’s gone.

‘Boss, are you sure she should be out on her own? I mean, what Amm said…” he trails off.

“It’s bad enough we’ll have three traveling with goods back to the barn, we don’t need any more to gather attention.”

Draven nods but I know he’s unsure and worried. He should join the club. I don’t speak these words, I just go back to sit with Amm who slumbers restfully, her wounds closing quickly.

10.04p.m.

“I calmed down almost as soon as I left, I knew you didn’t mean anything by it, we’re all tense.” Amm is lying with her head on my leg, her hair almost bled of the black and the stains on her cheeks have faded. “I stayed out so I could think; I spent a lot of time around you when you were at the east point and the rest near the river.”

I don’t respond; I feel as if I owe her my silence, my ability to listen, not to comment.

“I came up on a camping group of police near the Little Hand docks while they were packing away their tents and getting ready to move. I kept at the edge of their camp watching for some indication of which way they were headed or if they had information we could use.”

She pauses, her breathing even, and after several minutes I look down to see if she isn’t sleeping. My movement may have interrupted her reverie as she begins again soon after, “Whatever was shadowing them came up on me fast and I was fighting hard just to stay alive. We fell into the camp and startled the police and a few died when they didn’t move fast enough to escape the wild actions of the creature.”

“It was obvious to me pretty quick that it wasn’t with them when it caught the first volley of bolts and turned on them. I caught it as it killed another man but they were firing on me now also and after one caught me in the arm I threw the creature into them and got out of there.”
“Now I just wonder if they got out of there.”

Combing my fingers through her hair I nod and she looks up at me. “Do you think they did, Hank?”
“I think you gave them a fighting chance and I would like to think those men were grateful and quick witted enough to get while the getting was good.” Her eyes are brown and warm and reflect the smile that is on her lips now.

All is quiet. Draven is sleeping in the loft, Relter is on the roof Harry is at the northern watch, Larry at the eastern; the southern point is abandoned for the night.

I do not know how long I’ve watched her breathing but the black has drained from her hair completely and the crickets outside the dark doorway of the barn have started their song.

Her features are the soft beauty of her daytime persona and I run my finger along her jaw line and smile when she shivers as if cold.

“Amm, so much has happened and I get more and more worried about everyone, especially you.” I pause and she sighs, squeezing my leg. “I just… I love you, Amm.” My eyes burn and I blink away the tears rapidly.

Almost inaudibly, I hear her soft snoring and almost laugh out loud. Talking to myself I smile and lay my head against the wall to sleep, “So much for intimacy.”

12.21p.m.

She isn’t back yet and worry, not to mention guilt, is eating at my stomach. I had hoped she would appear on my watch but last night passed fruitlessly and the day is hot and boring. Draven is finished spreading bolt holes through the barn and Gabby, after following Draven for most of yesterday, is twisting several thin twine lines into thick stretches of rope.

Relter returned last night with a very impressive crossbow with a black stock and smoked metal fittings to hide well in the darkness and word that Johnston was set up very well with only a bit of grumbling from the storekeeper who was less than happy to be confined to his supply room.

I am sitting again in the middle of the floor on a bench Relter was crafty enough to build with snide remarks about the King needing a throne, sharpening long wooden shafts into decent spears. I keep an eye on the barn doors, expecting Amm to stroll in, her features soft and pretty in her daytime persona.

Harry and Larry are also back, their heads together in the corner, a malicious ‘har har’ drifting to my ears every few minutes. These are truly their shining moments, when they’re in the element of explosions and fire.

Thousands of possibilities with the plans I’ve lain keep pushing themselves into my head and I banish them once more and they’re replaced by worry about Amm. It’s only when I’m inactive that I have problems being the ‘Boss.’ I feel I should be protecting the 20, who have put their faith in me.

A loud crack and a flurry of motion and Larry his on his back and what looks like a small animal is whipping around the barn floor sprouting flames and breathing fire as it goes. It whips closer and I roll off my seat into the closest stall, waiting for it to burn itself out and hear Larry and Harry hooting with laughter, Larry still lying in the hay.

Sizzling, the flaming animal stops and trembles like the top of a boiling kettle then shrieks deafeningly and shoots out of the barn faster than the eye can follow and explodes.

“Yar, Boss, some quick feet you’n got thar!” Harry bellows between laughs and Larry hoots off again.

“What the devil was that?” Draven’s head appears over the loft ledge, his hair unusually disheveled and his face flushed and I only now notice Gabby is no longer twining rope.

“Skive off, purdy face!” Harry laughs and Larry answers, “It’s an Exploding Squirrel, obviously!”

My stomach sinks, “Tell me you two didn’t just blow up a…”

“Har har! No, Boss, would’ve lef’ quite a bit more mess, yar? No, just some leaves patched over a firework and a couple of jointed wheels. Spanked you, though, didn’ she? Har har har!”

Harry breaks down in laughter once more and falls on his back and I can’t help grinning.

After many loud minutes Harry finally controls his humor and sits up, wiping his eyes, “Thinkin’ it’ll give them that try an’ get at us a pause. Give us somethin’ to laugh at anywho!”

Then Relter’s shaggy head poked through the door timidly, as if expecting another screaming rodent to come his way and quietly said, “What in the hell was that?”

This time I join in the twins’ laughter.

6.15p.m.

Draven has taken the north watch point tonight, Gabby east and the twins are taking the south, leaving Rel and I sitting at the barn. I’ve assigned myself to the roof watch point and from the scratching I hear from the hole we made in the roof on the first day, Relter is continuing my spear making.

Everything in the last week is cramming itself into my head and tomorrow Flanders hands himself in to the Judges. My gut wrenches thinking about it and the danger I’ve sent twelve of the 20 into without explanation.

And Amm, hopefully still safe in the woods around the barn but as yet refusing to return to the barn. I’m certain she wouldn’t have turned herself in, almost as certain as I am that one of the 20 in the city would have returned to report it by this time.

Only the last hour has been quiet, the hours before that filled with the popping and crackling and shrill shrieking of the twins’ exploding squirrels. The last of which caught fire to some hay and finally lit Harry up like a candle. Though all was contained and Harry was still in quite good humor, I forced them to make that their last experiment and sent them on to their watch.

Not a minute passes that I find myself thinking of reasons to go into the city and check on the 20 that are secreted in various positions. Of all the people who cannot enter the city, Amm and I are the high list, we would be spotted long before we accomplished anything of value.

So I sit still, the sun still hot but fading toward the west steadily.

The heat of the roof makes me drowsy and the constant swish and flick of Relter whittling spear points serves as a soft, repetitive lullaby…

12.37p.m.

 

            I draw a very rough rectangle in the dirt floor of the barn, “We have a wide area to cover but I’ve kept each of you for several reasons. “Gabby, Relter, you two will help with the defense of the area but every third day one of you will enter the city to get me an update on the situation.”

            “Get a bit of the action on that budget o’ Nods, eh?” Relter laughs and nudges the short blond girl next to him. She looks less than amused at the joke and Relter’s smile fails and fades away, Gabby doesn’t take well to innuendo.

            Amm shakes her head, looking at the drawing on the floor.

            “In the meantime though, Draven,” and I look up into his dark, handsome face, the slight hint of a smile that never seems to leave and he meets my eyes, waiting, “take Gabby and the two of you pick out plots for watches to secure the area.” Draven winks at Gabby and she blushes and looks away.

            “Amm, Relter, and I will work on the inside of the barn. When you’ve finished finding our watch points, the two of you come back to indicate them on my horrible little drawing here.” I point at the rectangle on the floor.  I make some rough squiggly lines to the left of the barn figure and then a long curving figure down the middle of them.

            “That’s roughly where you’ll find the river, so make sure our watch points aren’t visible for passing boats and ferries.”

            “Surely, Boss,” Draven drawls and offers his arm to Gabby which she accepts and they stroll away.

            “Harry, Larry, you know the deal, anything that you can turn to our advantage in the worst case scenario, do it. If it can explode or catch fire, I want it ready to do so if we’re cornered.”

            “Ach, that’s a sure thing thar, Boss. We likes blowin’ things up.”

            “Har har, likes it a shade much, says them Judges.”

            Harry and Larry chuckle identically, their hair in ragged patches all over them, having burned or blown most of it off at some point.  The pair step away a few feet and start gesturing animatedly in what appears to be scenes of destructive explosions and I swallow my worry and move on.

            “And then there were three.  Relter, let’s get up to the loft and make us a nice fat hole.”

 

1.22p.m.

 

            “Not the work of a master architect, Boss, but I think it looks good on the hole,” Relter sniggers and winks at Amm who smiles with good grace.

            “It’ll do.” The hole in the roof is quite large enough to allow all but maybe Partum to pass through it and onto the roof.  Relter very deliberately dips one in of the tin we have removed into the high side of the hole and pushes the other end out onto the roof.

            Relter pushes it a bit, seeing if the tin is secure, “That should keep out most o’ the rain, I think.”

            “If it doesn’t, I vote you sleep up here, Rel.”

            Relter grins, “As long as I have something to keep me nice and warm, lass.”

            “I’m sure we’ll have to buy some livestock sooner or later, Rel.  You prefer sheep or pig?” Amm counters with a wicked grin in my direction.

            I’m chuckling and Relter sniggers, “Boss, you sure got a live one.”

            “Draven and Gabby back, Boss,” Draven’s smooth soprano drifts up from below.

            Amm leans over the edge of the loft while Relter starts down the ladder. She leans close to me, draping her arms around my neck and whispers with her lips touching my ear.  As her words tickle my neck I want to kiss her and find a dark corner, “Looks like they did more than find watch points, maybe we should go double check them?” A swift, teasing kiss and she flits away and down the stairs.

            Cold shivers run down my spine and I count to five before following.

            I see what Amm was talking about right away, Gabby is flushed and smiling, her hair healthily bushy and unkempt.  Draven shows no outward signs of the forest adventure he’s had and points at the square on the ground.

            “So, slightly north east we’ve found a perfect spot, armed with a crossbow the watch here could easily deplete the numbers of attackers after giving the barn a warning shot.” A little star symbol was in the area he indicated with a small arrow drawn above it. “There really isn’t any reason to watch the riverside of the barn as there is a twenty feet sheer drop onto rocks for at least a mile in either direction.” He drew a curving line that dropped southward according to the sketch.

            “The south side has a good view of the river but is well covered in foliage right here,” drawing another star to the south of the barn, close to the river, “and east a ways right here. That leaves us with a considerable gap north side, to the west of the first watch point. In a way, this is overcome as the first point has a very nice view of the flat farmland in that direction,” his eyes betrayed him, glancing at Gabby as he said this. In Gabby’s favor, her blush did not deepen.

            “Also a gap between the east and north point, which they could cover between themselves or to solve both of these problems, use the barn as the last point and watch the farmland gap and the eastern gap.”

            I nod and I am very conscious of the hand Amm has put on my back to steady her as we lean over the drawing.

            “Sounds like the beginnings of a plan, Draven, thank you, you will please take first watch on the barn tonight to test your theory.  Relter, you will visit town tonight and acquire us a crossbow. If you can do this where Johnston has set up shop that would be nice but if he has not had time to do this yet, get the best you can, then you will take first watch at the north point.”

            “Yeah, Boss, maybe I’ll find the view as good as some.” The twinkle in his eyes was almost cruel.

            “Go ahead into town, here’s some money, no liquor. I think the twins are a bit north of here, send them back if you will.” Money exchanged, Relter headed out whistling a lilting tune.

            I sigh softly, dealing with murderers and thieves on a daily basis and controlling their base instincts is a wearing activity. “Gabby, you’ll take south side point tonight and I will take east side.  Draven, will you get us some functioning bolt holes from the loft, Gabby, could you help him please?”

            “Happily,” Gabby almost purred; her features pretty in the light of her soft sexual glow.

            The pair trundled up the ladder and was lost to soft murmuring. I was left with a few minutes to embrace Amm and she stroked the back of my neck. Wishing I could find time to be alone with her a hardy, “Har har har” preceded the return of the twins.

            “Yar, Boss. What gives? We gots some good jokes in the works for thems that want ter get at us,” Larry says, I know this because he has two fingers missing from his right hand, the identifying mark of an explosion gone badly in our first year.

            “Sounds great, guys: do either of you remember the hedge that is in a bend in the road coming out of the south gate?  You may have seen it on your way here.”

            Larry nods and Harry puts a finger in the air, “Southy hedges, yar, purdy deep if you follow ‘em in, them are. What gives?”

            “Make them deadly. That’s your job tonight. I want the ability to make that hedge sing in a pinch.”

            Both of their faces alight in imaginings and Harry nods vigorously as Larry dry washes his hands. “Harry an’ me will do it right up, we will, Boss.”

            “Off you go then,” and they disappear almost giddily.

            Amm watches them go and speaks aloud without looking at me, “That hedge…”

            “Will serve the purpose of saving us once again if things go bad, by and large,” I finish her thought with my own.

            “So I am stuck in the barn alone, being babied while the others take a watch and the danger of gathering information?”

            “No,” I say slowly, picking words out, “I thought you might like to be with me tonight at the east watch. The next two days will be our easiest, on the third Flanders will be on their side and we’ll begin the game in earnest.”

            Half expecting her to smile she disappoints me, turning to look me in the eye and I feel as if a Judge is staring into the depths of my soul.

            In a small voice, she speaks and I have to lean toward her to catch everything she says, “You can’t let them die for me, Hank.”

            “Amm, we’ve been through this…”

            “No, Hank, I’m a 20, fine. But there are 19 others and I can’t live being the reason they all die.”

            She was serious, as serious as I’ve ever seen her when she wasn’t killing or fucking.

            “They know what they got into… No, Amm, let me talk. We are the 20 and we’re all alike and need to rely on each other. Don’t think that if you gave yourself over any of us would be safe at this point, there are criminals and killers abroad like never before- No, don’t blame yourself, they put you in that situation.”

            Amm grits her teeth in an angry grin, her eyes flashing angrily, “It’s only because I’m a monster and a freak that I was put in that position!”

            “And you asked for it, did you?” my voice is raising and I can’t stop it. “You sat down one day and said, please, please make me turn into a killing machine every night so that my life is exciting?  That’s what happened, huh?” I’m virtually shouting now.

            Stricken and wordless Amm looks at me in horror and looks sickened, “I didn’t ask for it for that reason, no.”

            Now I stand dumbfounded, taken aback.  There are things she and I have never spoken of and we were close to treading those paths.

            Slowly words spill from me, “Amm, no…”

            “Yes, Hank, I asked.  I was scared, alone and lost and I asked for it. I asked to be scarier than the things I was scared of.  My mother had died and I didn’t know where my next meal was coming from and suddenly I could take care of myself and no one looked twice at me.  I couldn’t remember my nights a lot of the time but the days were a lot nicer to me.”

            “It felt good, not being afraid.” Her words crack and though she has turned from me I see her shake with the sobs she withholds.

            “Amm…” I don’t know what to offer her.  I’m scared to touch her, worried that I should be touching her, and completely at a loss.

            “No! Don’t let them die for me!” As she whips around I feel the breeze rush past me and the sudden hush of the nature sounds and she is a different woman that turns to face me.

            Her chest heaves and the unnatural beauty is an irresistible aura, her scent clings to me and I can taste it on the tip of my tongue but my words are locked inside my mouth. The tears she could not blink away are black upon her pale face and still running down to her mouth.

            A purely guttural sound rumbles in her throat and she looks at me with wide eyes and I have no idea what my expression looks like, I am so torn between lust and revulsion.

            She is a blur as she runs out of the barn and disappears into the heavily shadowed forest.

Flanders is overseeing the last of the minute changes I’ve made to the defense system of the large barn we’ve made our head quarters. One of Lister’s better ideas, the 20 had pooled money somewhat grudgingly and purchased this land less than a year ago rather quietly from a widow who had been in her last years.

            It serves its purpose, we are definitely squared away.

            “Flanders, time!”

            “Four minutes shy of noon, Boss!” comes Flanders voice muffled by the stalls on the north side of the barn.

 

11.56a.m.

 

            I wink conspiratorially at Amm, “Keeps him on his toes.” She chuckles softly, her features back in alignment with her daytime persona.  I want to ask her what happened at 3a.m. last night but haven’t the heart to break our good mood.

            My shoulder is still tight when I move but I’m feeling better than I have in days, what with loss of blood and police shooting at me.

            Flanders strolls back into the main area in the barn, an open space of about fifteen hundred square feet.

            “You about ready, Boss?”

            He turns and whistles keenly in answer to my nod and tired people groan and roll over in whatever corner or stool or stall they’ve managed to fall asleep in.  Partum joins us almost immediately, sometimes I wonder if he actually sleeps.

            Partum is a tower that everyone is crouching or standing about, most bleary eyed and grumbling.

            “First things first,” I say and feeling idiotic.  I know I’m the Boss but I feel like I talk to my closest friends and so I rush on, “We need visibility all over the city.  Johnston, set up shop somewhere in the first quarter, near north gate.  Lister, you’ll watch his back.” Both nodded and waited for him to go on.  “I mean now.”

            Lister blinked rapidly and opened his mouth to spew a bile retort but Johnston caught his attention and nodded toward the large doors.  I watch them depart with their few belongings and turn my focus back to the gathered 20.

            “Partum and Shank, find some grunt work in the third quarter, west side.  Stay visible and ask few questions, chum up with anyone you can.  Anyone you can stomach, Shank.  We’ll be checking in.”  With a quick incline of his head, Partum turned and lumbered out the door and Shank followed not a minute later, secreting daggers and knives around her person.

            “Nod,” I begin.

            “The usual, rent a penthouse on in the second quarter, high side? Room service and a budget to make a Judge cry, am I right?” There was a sparkle in Nod’s eye; there always is when he is elbowing me. His weasel-like, pointed face is split in an easy smile.

            I smile back at him, “Stables, second quarter, south side, and try not to spend up that budget too fast.”

            He chuckles and heads out the doors.

            “Beebee, Alton,” I shift to my left to look at them both, scarred and constantly angry looking, whether they actually were or it was just the effect of broken noses and missing bits of ear, it was hard to tell.  “I need you two to get to north of the city and make an area look as if it was home to the 20.  Here’s some money, set up tents, watch stands, anything you can come up with to look as if we’re there.”

            “Reckon we can match that, Boss. This considerin mine an’ Alton’s R&R?” Beebee chuckles like a cheese grater and limps off toward the doors, her husband Alton tucking away the gold for their efforts.

            Shaking my head with a smile, “Twitch, you…”

            “Shucks, Boss,” Twitch interrupts with a slur though I’m sure he’s sober, “just gimme some pocket moneys and I’ll have you right up informationed as you can get. I know my specialty and it’s at the bottom of a tankard.”

            Amm giggles softly; she has a soft spot for Twitch because he tells lewd and disgusting stories with less than moral endings.

            “Yes, Twitch, just keep switching bars and pubs. We’ll find you.  And watch out for the others as they may need to make contact with you if we move.”

            “Course,” he says and accepts the gold from my hand with no greed and lumbers off, looking four sheets to the wind already.

            “Vern, pick one of your associates in the fourth quarter, north gate and make it as obvious as you can that you aren’t with the 20.” The pretty girl stands up and smiles at me wickedly, her hand on her well shaped waist and I feel Amm tense. “And let’s remember what we’re out there for, Vern, keep in contact with Twitch.”

            Vern winks at me lazily and holds out her hand, “What, Hank, no money for me?”

            I put a reassuring hand on Amm’s knee and I can almost hear a growl in her throat, “We both know you’ll have more than enough money where ever you choose to go.”

            Laughing musically, Vern flutters her eyelashes and leaves the barn, swaying her hips.

            Amm trembles and puts her hand over mine where it rests on her knee, “That cheap little piece of…” and trails off.

            “Blitz. Blitz! BLITZ!” he turns, prying his eyes off the swaying form of Vern disappearing in the distance.

            “Yar, Boss.”

            “Second quarter, east gate, try to find something out of the way and contact Twitch as soon as possible. Keep your head down.”

            Blitz nods and huffs his way out the door and I have a feeling he’s well on his way to catching up to Vern. No matter how much I try to separate infatuations and the job, 20 people in close contact breed feelings.

            I look at Amm and she smiles sweetly. This is exactly what I mean.

            “And then there were 10.” I say thoughtfully, taking stock of those left in the huddle. “Just one more thing and we can get on with the defense plans of head quarters.”

            I look to my second in command.

            “Flanders.”

            “Sir.” He answers dutifully, the reason he is second in command. His death sentence had been questioned often by the 20 and yet no one, including myself, knows the truth about the crime he had purportedly committed.

            “You’re going to turn yourself in, Flanders.”

            Amm gasped and Flanders turned stiffly to look at me, his eyes wide in surprise. Flanders opened his mouth and shut it several times.

            Finally he reached his conclusion, “But Boss, the…”

            “You will enter through the North gate, lay low and take lodging at the sleaziest inn you can find, I suggest fourth quarter slum.  Wait-“

            “Boss, seriously, there are..” Flanders cuts in.

            I continue, “For three days! Then you will hand yourself in to the High Judge, he already knows you.  I believe you know him as well.”

            He is quiet now, his eyes narrowed at me.

            “Simms, you will join Flanders into the city and take a room at the same inn.  When Flanders turncoats, he is going to give up your location, please don’t go quietly but don’t get yourself killed.  That clear, Simms?”

            The short man, his face red and his shaggy yellow mane spiked in every direction huffs, “Sure, Boss. But why-“

            “Damn it.  I need information from everywhere and some of the best places are from criminals. The Sanctum is down, you won’t be put there but hopefully you can get inside and get some word of what’s happening in a holding cell and Flanders, being a turncoat and informer, can relay that information via Twitch.”

            Simms nods without further argument and gathers his vest from a stall in the corner and stands at the doors.  Flanders hasn’t moved and still looks at me through the slits that are his eyes.

            “No arguments, Flanders. If the time comes when you have to reveal a location of camp, confess the northern encampment that Beebee and Alton will be faking. I will get more word to you as soon as possible. Now go.” I keep my eyes fastened on his and for several minutes I hope he will suggest another tactic but in the end he averts his eyes and slouches out of the barn without a look back or to acknowledge Simms.

            A beckon to the remaining 20 and the ragged circle closes ranks around me and I begin, “Now…”