I picked Anka up and held her in my lap. “Well, we go either up or down the coast,” I said. “Find the real capital, the old one. I said we would help Ms. Strepp find some of the holdouts and Cell Deniers. She’s convinced there are some.”
“Okay, but I’m not up for a whole palace takeover,” Nate said. “With the pretend plague and the body bags and the sewers and the almost dying. Maybe just a few small gunfights, stuff like that.”
“Got it,” I said.
Nate held out his hand. I took it. Anka licked it sleepily.
“It’s been a long road,” Nate said solemnly, and I remembered how we’d found Provost Allen dead—a suicide. “I’m so glad we’re alive, and together.”
“Oh, me, too,” I said feelingly, and held Anka in place as I leaned over to kiss him.
126
BECCA
“I CAN’T EVEN SEE THEM!” I said, looking at the rearview screen.
“That would be because of the relative slowness of a stupid tank as opposed to a four-wheel Galaxy Max,” Tim said drily. He flipped the screen to be forward-facing with the map, then pulled over to one side of the road and stopped the car. “Might as well give them half an hour to catch up.”
“Which also gives us half an hour to catch up,” I said, and climbed across the center console to sit in Tim’s lap. “I missed you so much.” I loved being back with Tim—I’d gotten along okay with Nate, but Tim and I just fit each other so much better. Every once in a while I remembered making out with Nate, the night we got caught in the kitchen garden. I’d left that part out of all my stories. No need for Tim to know it—it hadn’t meant anything.
I did miss my team, though. Bunny, Jolie, and Mills all survived the attack on the palace. I thought about asking if they wanted to come with us, but they were all good soldiers, eager for their assignments in the new Resistance-led government.
“I’m just glad I’m back with the right twin,” Tim said, and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him back, wondering just how much time we had.
127
HELEN
“I COULD REALLY USE YOUR talents,” Helen said, looking up at the Loner. “We’ve won the capital—that’s certain. But there will be other battles.”
The Loner lounged against her desk, remembering fondly how he’d blown up the capital’s DMV. “Fam needs me, too,” he said. “I miss the kiddos, nieces, and nephews. But I’ll be back.” He gave Helen a brief smile and loped out of the room.
Helen wanted to look out her window to search the sky, but just then her assistant came in with that day’s reports.
“Things are looking good,” she said, placing a folder on Helen’s—once the President’s—desk. “Supply structures in place, rioting down.”
“Thank you, Mia,” Helen said, giving her a smile. “You’re a huge help.”
128
BECCA
“THIS… MAKES NO SENSE,” I said, not believing what I was seeing.
I heard the heavy clang of the tank lid opening.
“I don’t understand,” Cassie said, climbing out the top of the behemoth with the freaking puppy she picked up from somewhere.
“We’ve only gone about three hundred miles,” Tim said.
Nate spread a paper map on the hood of the tank. “We should need to go at least another four hundred miles,” he confirmed.
“Oh!” said Cassie, putting her finger on the map. “Is this a big river? Is it the… Miss-iss-ippi?”
“No,” Nate said. “This is much bigger.”
Anka squirmed out of Cassie’s arms and bounded to the unending expanse of water, where she yipped at the waves.