“Miranda,” I whisper and point to the tree line beyond the south field. “I’ll count to five of them halfway up the trees.”

Miranda raises binoculars of the same type as Ogden’s and scans the trees that all boast new, fragile green leaves. There’s more daylight now and I glimpse figures among the foliage that cling to them branches with barrels and arrows directed at us.

“How good are you at shooting from this distance?” Mirand looks at me and I can tell it’s only the colonel present behind her eyes. It makes me feel safe enough to focus on my mission, rather than be confused by my feelings for Miranda.

“To be honest, I’m better at hand-to-hand combat.” I’m not apologizing, but I wish I were as good a sniper as Emma. I turn around and look at the main building where I know Emma is in her armored tower. “But I know someone. Zoya. Stay with Miranda. I’ll be right back.” 

Without waiting for Miranda to answer, I run toward the short end of the main building and throw myself in between three barrels where Emma stores manure, made from water and nettles. It stinks, but I don’t care. Instead, I call Emma’s name, trying to be discreet.

“God, you’re loud,” Emma says from above and I see the barrel of her gun in the small opening in the timber.

“Do you have both the shotgun and your sniper rifle up there?”

“Of course.” Emma sound affronted. When I think about it, she never sounds afraid when she goes into battle or scuffles. She’s always so calm and collected. Sometimes that scares me, and I would wish she weren’t as prosaic when it comes to the violence of our time.

“Aim for the trees to the right of the shower house. What do you see?” I hear something whistle above and splinters are torn from the log wall. None of them cause any damage.

“Wait a minute.” Emma is quiet for a while. “Six Zodiacs. Looks like young men all of them. Armed to the teeth. I think one of them just shot at us.”

“They did. Can you take some of them out? Enough of them to scare the others, preferably?” I hope she won’t have to take a life. Not even Emma has been spared that part of our lives entirely, but I don’t want her to have to live with the regret or the nightmares that come with having multiple lives on your conscience. Self-defense, protecting a family member, and so on, but a life is a life, even if it’s a crazy Zodiac member. Once they were someone’s baby, like Annemarie used to say. The fact that said baby grew up to be a murderous, scruple free member of a gang of thugs, is just the other side of the coin of tragedy.

“Sure, I can,” Emma says now, her voice steady.  It takes less than a second before I see one of the men in the trees fall to the ground.

I take the chance of returning to Miranda who is keeping her binoculars trained on the men. “Emma?” she asks quietly.

“Yup.” I press my back to the shower house.

“She’s taken two down and four of them are climbing down right now. But what the fuck..?” Miranda lowers the binoculars and swallows hard. “They knifed them. The climbing down pulled knives on their owns and…” She shakes her head.

I have already guessed that the Zodiacs would stay true to their routines. This gang is as terrible when it comes to their internal customs as they are toward us when we engage them in battle. “It’s crazy.” I agree with Miranda that not trying to save their own when they fall in battle is a despicable act that should demoralize them enough to fracture their group finally. But I also know how they recruit via threats of violence and terror. They promise to protect the smaller settlements that would otherwise be defenseless against them, or the Loxi gang in Remerton. 

I nod at Miranda. “I’ll take a few people and see if they left something useful behind—and make sure they’ve really left and not just regrouped. “I jump when Miranda grabs my shoulder firmly. “What is it?”

“You’re not going on such a mission. We need you too much, to risk your life when any of my soldiers can carry it out. I’ll give Dakota orders to make that happen.” She frowns and looks around. “It’s too quiet.

Miranda moves stealthily to the north side of the shower house and uses her binoculars again. “They want to make it look as if they’ve called off the entire attack. They’re shrewd, but no where near as seasoned as my unit. We’ve seen scenarios like this before—too many times. Bending over, Miranda runs to the front door of the main house and motions for me to follow as she covers me and Zoya. 

I bite down on my anger at being outmaneuvered and somehow, oddly enough, being placed on some freaking pedestal. 

We get through the door and close it behind us. I take a deep breath and get ready to speak my mind about being ordered around on my own turf. Miranda beats me to it by shoving her gun into her holster and then gripping my shoulders.

“I can’t tell you’re ready to explode. The reasons why you can’t put your life on the line for a routine assignment are many. Your unique knowledge about this area and the people living here are two. No one else who belongs to the Hudskills has your knowledge about Remerton and what’s due north of it.  You and Zoya have been everywhere through the years, and you’ve followed the development of the different areas, in person. Apart from Ogden and Emma, you’re not associated with any group, which makes your position rare.”

“I don’t want to be appointed as some fucking celebrity. Or a damn figure head.” Desperate no, I try to take a step back, so she’ll let me go. All I want is grab Zoya who stands next to me, looking confused between us, and take off to my hut. I need to sort things in my head, just for a moment—and yet know it’s impossible as long as Ogden’s collective is in danger.

“I promise you I would never do that to you. But you’re useful, important, and a true force to be reckoned with. It would be a terrible waste if we didn’t continue benefiting from your experience. Surely you want to be here for the reconstruction phase?” Miranda looks angry and disappointed. The latter is harder on me than anything else she’s said.

“I do help. I help all the time when I can.” I can tell how dark and trembling my voice is. “I’ve killed for others, just like you.” I raise my hands with my palms toward Miranda. “If you would need my help, if you were threatened…I would move heaven and earth to get to you, to keep you safe. If you were injured, I’d get you the care you needed and not leave your side until you were well again.”

The expression in Miranda’s eyes softens, and so does her face when she gives a faint smile. “Really?”

“Yes.” I get the feeling that she’s teasing me, and I pull back and feel foolish. “Really.”

“Then I’ll promise you the same here and now, Andrea. If you need me, whenever, and whatever it’s about.”

My breath catches and I can’t speak. Here she stands, the highest-ranking military officer, as far as I know, in what used to be the US, and promises to drop everything to come to my rescue if I’m in trouble. “Okay.”

Miranda chuckles. “That’s all you have to say. Okay?”

“Yeah. Kind of.”

“Good Lord, you two,” Emma says and with a huff and climbs down the steep staircase to the attic.  “I couldn’t keep twiddling my thumbs up there as I can’t see a single Zodiac idiot. I have no idea what this weird attack was about, but it’s only the beginning, I assume. We’ll see. Anyone want some more coffee?”

I can’t hold back my own chuckle. “Emma. You know what truly matters.”

“You taught me well.” She winks at me and then turns to Miranda. “I admit that I’ve been suspicious of you and your motives for approaching us. I couldn’t avoid overhearing what you talked about—ow!” Emma glares at my hand after I pinch her arm. “Okay, okay. I eavesdropped on you some. But it was a good thing I did, as I understand much better how Miranda reasons. The fact that Andy is already head over heels—ow! Can you stop inching me?” She stomps her foot.

“Stop talking. Make coffee.” I give her a stern look, but she knows I’m only half serious. “I’ll go and check on Ogden.”

“Louise is with him, I think. Tell him I’ll be right there.”

“Want to come with?” I know my cheeks are red when I turn to Miranda. To my surprise, she seems to have problems looking me in the eyes. “I think he wants to see both of us.”

Miranda nods and we walk to Ogden’s room in the middle of the long corridor.  The door is half closed, and I rap my fingers against the door frame. “Hey, old man. Are you decent? I have Miranda with me?”

“Decent and decent. If by that you mean, am I covered by clothes and blankets, then yes.” Ogden sounds out of breath but is clearly not dying. I step inside with Miranda right behind me. 

Ogden’s bed is from Ikea, and the mattress is one of those pricy ones that my Mom used to dream of. Ogden had scavenged it for Annemarie for her birthday once. Ogden was concerned about Annemarie’s health already then. She was ten years his junior but moved about as if the opposite. We didn’t know then that she was fading fast, as she was a pro at masking her symptoms. She grew weaker and eventually she couldn’t get up from her fancy mattress. Emma, Louise, and Ogden took turns sitting with her, and I came and went. I couldn’t handle the comparison to my own mother—seeing her deteriorate made me physically ill. Nobody judged me for that. I took on all the others’ chores, so they could sit with the woman who had been like a mother for all of us.

I go up to his bed now and sit down next to him. He is pale and his eyes are bloodshot. It’s obvious that he’s in pain. “How are you?” I take his weathered hand in mine.

“It hurts like the devil, but I’ll survive this too.” Ogden nods determinedly. “What kind of half-assed attack was that, Andy? They come here, full on, and then tuck their tail and run?”

“Perhaps because they saw you had military aid?” Miranda leans against the door frame, her arms folded, and one leg crossed over the other.  “Or it might have been some sort of recognizance mission. To make us show our hand—or our firepower.”

“You think?” Ogden pushes himself higher on the pillows, and grimaces at the pain. “The Zodiacs are mean bastards, but not that sophisticated. I’m not sure what makes them stark raving mad, but I’ve always suspected drugs to be part of it. Also, as a measure to keep the young people within the gang. That alone would make such an elaborate approach unlikely.”

“Not if they’ve come under someone else’s influence,” I say. “What if they’re simply foot soldiers, or what to call them, for someone else? Someone who provides even better drugs, food, what have you.”

“What makes you say that?” Miranda asks.

I shift so I can look at them both. “Just because they can’t think clearly enough to pull on a long-term thing. Yes, they’re shrewd and experts in short attacks, traps, abductions, extortion, and stuff like that. And this does make them dangerous. But to plan something for the long haul—they don’t have that in them. Creating diversions, sure, but to plan around it and calculate all the angles, you know, consequential thinking, is not their strong side.”

“You make a good point, Andy,” Ogden says.

“The ones who sent them probably hadn’t counted on them being as rough as they were. Or as obvious.” Emma steps into the room with a tray holding five mugs. “Please have a coffee, guys. It’s one of my better blends, if I may say so.”

“Can you elaborate, Emma?” Miranda asks and takes a mug. She hods it with both ands and I do the same to warm my hands. Perhaps they’ll stop trembling from all the adrenaline if I’m lucky.

“Well,” Emma says and sits down on the foot of Ogden’s bed. “The Zodiacs are usually unrestrained and doesn’t relent until they’ve either killed everyone in sight or captured them. Now, it was as if the y had been ordered to, and yes, I know it sounds crazy, but to tease us, kind of. And when we managed to take down a few, they left them behind while the rest left, not looking very affected by their losses. I know they usually leave their dead behind, but like this, without trying to take more of us out—or with them? It doesn’t add up.”

“Diversion?” Miranda paces back and forth between the door and the bed a few times, and I can tell she’s mulling things over at high speed. “What is going on, or will happen, that they don’t want us to know?”

“I have people scouting the area all the time. If they’ve seen movements that sticks out, they’ll send word.” Ogden’s eyes darken. “Unless they’re prevented from doing so.”

I get up immediately. “I can take a few of the guard with me—”

“No, Andy. Not you. But it’s a great idea.” Ogden’s eyes are hard as flint, and it becomes so obvious what the time after the birds have done to this man. He can be jovial enough toward the people he loves, but he’s ruthless and something threatens his collective. “Emma. Tell team four to get ready. They’re going to visit everyone within the inner border to begin with. If they’re not reporting anything of interest, they continue to the middle boarder, and so on.

“I’ll let them now.” Emma jumps up, bends over Ogden to kiss his cheek and then leaves the room.  I hear her quick footfalls disappear down the corridor. 

“So…it’s possible that someone with a certain agenda is using these bastards…” Miranda sits down on one of the benches by the wall and pulls her right foot on her left knee. She leans her elbow against the window frame and rests her chin in her hand. “This sounds too organized for me to ignore it from my end. When I get more of my people over here, and the other units that are on their way to Remerton arrive, we will definitely make sure to help you reinforce the outer perimeter—possibly expand it as well as we’re going to need the space. Our engineers will soon update me on when they can begin pulling wires from the wind farm, and that stretch will definitely need protection.”

“A lot of manpower,” Ogden ways and grimaces when he changes position. “Will you have enough people?”

“I have six-hundred soldiers. Half of them are at the church along with the civilians. The others belong to other units, and they’re on their way to Remerton as we speak. I expect them to arrive within two weeks, at the most. My group of civilians are around two-hundred and fifty. The other military units bring about a hundred each. Considering how many we estimate live around here, not just counting your collective, I’ll estimate the regeneration of a functioning society will start with approximately 1,500 people.” Miranda shifts her gaze to me. “As Andrea knows, we have access to a physician. He’ll be in charge of training others to be able to do what he does. Then we have agriculturists, horticulturists, engineers, mechanics, chemists, physicists, and so on. We all function as teachers, and we are fierce about protecting the children. Any woman who is pregnant goes through the same ghastly fear—will her child be immune. Will her child survive? Will she? So, we give them the royal treatment as best as we can.” She covers her eyes for a moment, and I can see a faint tremor in her fingers. “There are so many angles. So many things to consider, and threads to pull, when you try to jump start a society in a world like the one we live in. 

“Don’t pull all of them at once, Colonel.” Ogden says seriously. “If you do, the fabric will grow tattered and weak, and everything will fall through. I admit that my first thought when Andy arrived with you in tow, was ‘why change anything’…’we’re okay.”

“But?” Miranda presses her lips into a fine line, as if she expects sudden opposition. 

“But with that thought, the next one was born. If you get complacent, and there is obviously more to be done, then you have stagnated. Become home blind to the possibilities you can’t see, because they pass you buy, physically, or mentally, every day. I understood that you can add enough for us to take a large leap forward. As for our position here, not far from the coast and close to the river for transports…and far enough from downtown Remerton to keep the gangs away, we can offer a lot. Clean water, access to nature, and fields where you can grow food and grains.  The terrain lends itself well to construction of different buildings. We can offer reinforcement where you lack people or knowledge. My suggestion is that those with minors in their care camp inside the inner border. Between us, we’ll have enough guards.”

Miranda nods slowly, but then turns to me. “Andrea? What do you think?”

I’m unprepared for her question, as I have been content to listen to her and Ogden so far. “It seems doable.” It also sounds like a project that will take everyone’s time for the near future. I feel selfish for thinking about Theo, but my promise to Mom is what’s kept me going since I was thirteen. Now it seems that Miranda will have so much to do, so many balls to juggle, that her promise to me will be postponed. Perhaps indefinitely. How can I even consider objecting when Miranda is the hub of everything going on right now? I swallow hard and want to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, to make her remember, and force her to keep her promise. But of course, I don’t.

“I would like to see you set aside time to train the young people between twelve and seventeen. They need to be battle ready at their respective levels, and I can see them absorbing it very well, when it comes from someone like you. Young, self-taught.

“I can do that,” I manage. “When I get back.” Tears burn behind my eyelids, and I try to force them back, because I truly don’t want anyone to see me cry. The disappointment is like fire under my breastbone, and my stomach is one big knot.

“When we get back, you mean? Miranda frowns and sits up straight. “Or?”

Now I’m completely lost. Is she coming with me after all? “I can’t wait until everything here is done, Miranda.” I study her and try to convey how serious I am a meet her steadfast glance. “It’s been so long already. If he’s there or has been there recently—or if someone there remembers him, I can’t risk missing them.” A small voice inside me suggests it might be too late anyway, if he ever was there in the first place. 

Miranda stands up and takes my hand. “Give me time to ferry the civilians over from the church. After that, I’ll leave Dakota and Ogden to run the camps until I get back. Dakota knows which ones among our unit he needs to make it work, as well as I do. Without overstepping, I would imagine Emma could be the perfect spokesperson for you, Ogden, if necessary. Together with Magnus, the two of them will do fine, yes?”

“And Azim,” I say. “He and Magnus girlfriend, Lou-Lou, have been with us forever.”

“You have it all planned.” Ogden winks at me, and I relax marginally. “I think I’ll just take a vacation and do some fishing, and just let the young folks run the show here. I mean, it’s clever on my part to make sure we wear out one generation at a time—starting with yours, Andy.”

I snort. “As if.” I squeeze Miranda’s hand. “Seems you two are in agreement then.”

“So are you and I.” Miranda puts her hands on my shoulders. “What do you say, Andrea? Can you wait approximately ten days, or so?”

Ten days. Ten days after missing and looking for Theo for fifteen years. 

I feel like I’m falling.

“Yes.” Not caring that Ogden is there to watch me crumble, I step into Miranda’s arms and bury my face against her neck. “Yes, I can.”