Sam Sisavath - The Isles of Elysium

“I’m relying on human nature.”

“Whatever you want to call it, it’s not worth your life.”

She looked conflicted, as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t put it into words. Keo wished he were better at reading women, but he didn’t know what was going on behind those deep brown eyes of hers at the moment.

“If everything works out, can you find someplace to survive the night alone?” he asked.

“Big if…” But she nodded. “There are plenty of places around here to lay low. Don’t worry about me.”

“I can’t help it. It used to be I was just worried about me, but these days, I find myself worrying about other people, too. Frankly, it’s annoying.”

“Welcome to the human race.”

“Eh,” he shrugged.

She smiled, and he thought it was a very nice smile despite the dirt on her cheeks and flecks of something green and brown in her hair.

“If this blows up in your face, there’s another way out of town,” she said.

“Your inside guys?”

“One of them. His name’s Dave. I’ve never actually met him before, but Tobias seems to trust him.”

“How do I make contact?”

“He works in the main cafeteria. Most of them wear name tags when they’re working, so you won’t have any trouble finding him. Oh, and he’s a black guy.”

“Okay. A black guy named Dave who works in the cafeteria.”

“The main cafeteria.”

“There’s more than one?”

“Two. One for the soldiers and one for the general population. Big town, remember?”

“So what does Dave look like?”

“Didn’t I just say I’ve never met him?” She looked annoyed, which wasn’t anything new. He had that kind of effect on women lately.

“Right. So Dave the black guy who works in the cafeteria.”

Keo turned back to the bridge.

Miller had reached the middle and was looking around with his hands on his hips. Jack, on the horse next to him, was saying something.

He looked back at her. “You don’t have to do this. It’s not too late to catch up to Tobias.”

“Are you tired of me already?” she asked with a slight smile.

“It’s not that-”

“I’m just messing with you, Keo.”

“Ah.”

She stood up. “Good luck. I hope you’re right about Miller, because otherwise you’re a dead man.”

Tell me something I don’t already know.

He watched her jog off with her rifle. When he couldn’t see her anymore, he listened to the soft crunch-crunch of her boots against the ground. Eventually, even that faded, and he was left with just his slightly elevated breathing.

Why was he breathing so hard?

Right. Steve. The soldiers.

And that M60…

He slung the MP5SD just as Steve shouted, “Keo! You out there? You said you wanted to see me, so here I am!”

He paused for a moment at the sight of a squirrel perched on the biggest tree he’d ever seen in his life. The tree had been there before Wilmont was a glimmer in its founder’s eyes, and would likely be here long after he and Steve and everyone else in T18 were gone. The squirrel was staring blankly at him.

Keo grinned back at the animal.

“Keo!” Steve shouted. “Where are you?”

He could hear the growing agitation in Steve’s voice. Apparently everyone was getting annoyed with him today.

Keo decided to let the man keep waiting a little longer, just to give Jordan enough time to get to her spot.

“Keo! Get out here or I’m gone!” Steve looked down at his watch for dramatic effect. “You have one minute!”

Keo stood up.

This is such a bad idea. A really, really bad idea.

The squirrel must have agreed, because it seemed to shake its head at him before turning and trotting off along the massive branch of the tree.

“Keo!” Steve shouted. “You out there? I don’t have all day!”

He sighed and took a step outside the tree line and onto the road and waited for the M60 to cut him down like the idiot he clearly was.

Any minute now…

He reached the bridge, and he was still alive, so he kept walking.

Steve watched him coming, but Jack and the other soldiers were scanning the area with binoculars. Even the two perched on the water tower to his right were focused on the bridge. One or both probably had their rifles pointed at him at this very moment, though they were too far downriver for him to be sure. He’d rather not know anyway.

He hoped Jordan had found a decent spot to shoot from if this whole thing went sideways. What the hell was he thinking anyway, putting his life in the hands of a man like Steve? The guy had sent him out there to kill his best friend. Okay, former best friend.

Of course, that wasn’t entirely true. Steve had sent him out there more as bait to lure in Tobias’s fighters, who he knew were hiding in the area. That was clever, and exactly the kind of thinking Keo was relying on: a man who could make that kind of tactical decision would see the value of keeping someone like him alive and working for his cause. How different was Steve from all the men Keo had worked for in his ten-plus-year career with the organization?

If the answer was a lot, then this was going to be a very short walk.

But he had made it onto the bridge, and a full minute later, he was still alive.

Definitely a good sign.

If Steve was going to kill him, he would have done it by now. Probably. Instead, the man stood perfectly still, hands on his hips, and squinted across the steel structure at Keo as he walked toward him.

Keo looked from Steve to the two behind the M60. One of the soldiers was permanently fixed behind the machine gun while the other held the ammo belt, waiting to feed it into the black metal monster. The other four guards continued moving around, looking for danger around and under them.

He walked with his hands at his sides, the MP5SD behind him. There was a good chance he could draw the Glock in his hip holster if someone started shooting, but it was unlikely he was going to hit much of anything from this distance. Especially when those two behind the sandbags started unloading.

“You look good for a dead man!” Steve shouted. “A little worse for wear, but apparently still in one piece! What happened to your face?”

“A painful birth!” Keo shouted back.

Steve said something to Jack, and they both chuckled. Then, back at Keo, “I didn’t think you’d survive the ambush!”

“Yours or theirs?”

“Either/or!”

Keo was close enough to the middle of the bridge now that he didn’t have to shout when he said, “You couldn’t have given me a heads up about that?”

“I could have, but then you wouldn’t have walked so casually into their sniper fire.”

“You saw that.”

“Not me, but guys I snuck into the area before you even showed up.”

“You had it all planned out.”

“I’ve been fighting Tobias for a while now. You have to understand the enemy in order to defeat him.”

“Now where have I heard that before?”

Keo finally stopped a meter in front of Steve.

“Let’s see it,” Steve said.

Keo fished out the ring and tossed it over. Steve caught it and held the jewelry up to the light. The sun glinted off the diamonds and washed over the shape of the Lone Star State in the middle.

He took a moment to look up at the sky. Jordan was right; it did look like rain. Not quite here yet, but he guessed before the night was over T18 was going to get a lot of extra water. Maybe they could hang the clothes out and save themselves a day at the riverbanks tomorrow.

Steve had all but ignored him and seemed focused entirely on the ring. If Keo didn’t know better, the older Miller looked almost…sad?