“Don’t you worry. I ain’t gonna let him hurt you.”

“People said it was GenTech,” she said, and she almost looked disappointed.

“Could be they’re the same thing.”

I peered into the tank. There was a little space above the liquid, an air pocket nearly a foot high, and I watched one of the saplings reaching for it, as if trying to break free. Then I glanced down at the bottom, where the remains of my father were all freaky and faded, and all of me ached for my old man to still be alive and be stood there beside me. He was the one who’d come north to try to put things right. All I’d come for was him, and the promise of someplace that was different.

“Either way,” Zee said, leaning against the tank. “I suppose Harvest could know.”

“Know what?”

Her eyes were gray and shiny, like bits of scuffed chrome. “How to keep this tank working.”

My heart sank down to my toes when she said it.

“We can’t fight him, Banyan.”

“We fought him before, and we won. What? You don’t remember what it looked like in the pit of his slave ship?”

“I remember,” she said, her voice turning sharp as her face turned away from me. “It was the last time I saw my mother alive.”

“That’s why we have to keep fighting.”

“No.” The red lights from the tank played on her brown skin. “We have to keep these things safe.”

“You just want to surrender?” I stared past her at all the people singing and praying. “After everything we’ve done?”

“If that’s what it takes. Give him the trees, and the trees get to carry on. It’s the best hope we have.”

I turned back to the tank, watched that tallest sapling trying to float its tip into the air at the top. “You want to just give these away? To that slaving son of a bitch?”

“They’re all that’s left, Banyan.”

“You mean, because I fired up and burned down the rest of them? And you don’t think that keeps me up at night?” I remembered the shells of those white trees burning on that island, creating a distraction so we could get the people free and steal ourselves a future from GenTech. I could still smell the smoke from the fire, and still feel the weight of my mother, dying in my arms.

“We sacrificed too much to give up now,” I said.

“But the trees are more important than who gets to control them.”

“I don’t want to control them. I just don’t want GenTech to hoard them away.”

“You don’t know he’s with GenTech.”

“Might be he’s even worse. Who knows how many people he sent off to that island? And what about the ones who didn’t make it that far? The ones who burned in Vega. Like Sal.”

“Don’t.”

“They threw him in a pit full of flames, and I watched them do it. And how many others died just like him because of men like Harvest and GenTech’s greed?”

“So we stop fighting—then no one has to die.”

“I thought you changed your mind when we busted off of that island. After all we did, and now you just want to quit.”

“I want to live,” Zee said. “And I want you to live, too. And Crow and Alpha and everyone on this boat. And the trees, Banyan. You said you’d keep them safe.” She pointed at the saplings through the open panel. “You told your mother you would. I was there when you promised.”

“Giving them to that bastard ain’t keeping them safe.”

“Nor is letting them sink. The world needs them, Banyan. Not just you.”

“He was my father,” I said.

“And what? He was just some man that left me?”

The singing had stopped and the drumming broke down, and I could feel everyone’s eyes upon us.

“He didn’t know about you,” I said, trying to lower my voice. “Or he would have come found you.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does. And I would have come for you, too.”

“You did.” She smiled at me, but then she quickly looked away, and I was losing her all over again. “All these people around us, they’re pieces, like the scraps you built trees out of. It’s when you put them together that they become something special. That’s what a family is, Banyan. Not some man who ran away.”

“He ran away so he could fix things.”

“And you’re still running after him.” Zee put her hand out. I thought she was reaching for me, but instead she touched the black steel that cloaked the tank. “But he’s gone. And we can’t afford to lose what he left us.”

I started to back away from her.

“Please,” she said, her pretty face made ugly by the things she was saying. “He’ll destroy us. It’ll be even worse than before.”

“Not if I can help it.”

I stumbled through the crowd, heading for the ramp, and I knew Zee wouldn’t follow. I could sense it, I guess. That lass was the last bit of blood that I had.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The big moon was blocked by clouds and drizzle, but despite the darkness, I spotted Alpha at the bow right away. She was leaning against the railing and peering into the night, and as I stood back, watching her stretch her shoulders and flex her legs, I wondered if there’d come a time when there was no battle to limber up for. A time I could hold onto that girl and never let go.

“What is it, bud?” she said.

“How come you know it’s me?” I stepped up to the railing to join her.

“Maybe I just hoped it was.”

“You see the boats yet?”

“You’ll be the first to know.”

I put my hand on her back, trying to make like it felt natural, but there was something awkward in the gesture. Maybe because of the way Alpha just stood there, like she was frozen solid beneath her damp rags. Or maybe because what I really wanted was to feel her whole body against me and seize some last sweetness.

“There’s a girl inside,” she said. “In the hold. And she’s too young to have a gun in her hand.”

“We’ll get her down in the hull.” I figured the girl had to be tiny, seeing as how small some of Alpha’s own clan had been. “There’s a bunch of them down there who ain’t planning on fighting. And guess who’s heading them up?”

“I know this kid,” said Alpha, clearly not in the guessing mood. “I mean, I seen her before. We traded her down in Old Orleans. Year before you came.”

I figured there weren’t no wonder the little lass had a gun in her hand then. Snatched up by pirates, traded to Harvest, then hauled north by GenTech. And now here she was, about to face Harvest again.

“Ain’t your fault she’s out here,” I said.

“I don’t know. I’ll take my fair share of the blame.” Alpha’s voice was barely louder than the wind. “Where’s Red at, anyway?”

“Overseeing work on the boat, trying to free up the steering.”

She glanced about, making sure it was just us out there.

“I’m worried about Crow,” she said. “It’s like he’s given up or something.”

“We get him back to Niagara, he’ll be all right.”

“That’s a long ways from here, bud. And I don’t get how he wants to head back there, anyway. Didn’t he say he got banished?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Thrown out.”

“So that makes sense to you?”

“What you trying to say?”

“I’m saying Crow ain’t what he was. And he might not hold much sway with the Soljahs.”

My hand was still on her back, and my arm was shaking, and her back was trembling, and everything was shivered to the bone. I leaned into her, put my arms around her.

“You’re with me, though,” she said. “All the way, right?”

“All the way.”

“And if something happened to me, you know I’d want you to head back there. To my people. To Old Orleans. You and the trees would have the protection of all the pirates on the plains.”