[TODD]

“It’s obvious,” the Mayor says. “I will be the one who goes.”

“Over my dead body,” Mistress Coyle snaps.

The Mayor smirks. “I can accept that as a condition.”

We’ve all crammed into a little room on the scout ship. Me, the Mayor, Mistress Coyle, Simone and Bradley, with Lee, his face covered in scary-looking bandages, on one bed and Viola, looking awful, on another. This is where we’re having the most important talk in the human history of New World. In a little room that smells like sickness and sweat.

Peace, the Spackle said to us, Peace coming thru loud and clear, like a beacon, like a demand, like an answer to what we’ve been asking.

Peace.

But there was something else there, too, something digging round in my head for a minute, like when the Mayor does it but faster, sleeker, and it weren’t like it was coming from the Spackle in front of us neither, it was like there was some kinda mind behind his, reaching thru him and reading me, reading my truth, no matter if I was quiet–

Like there was just one voice in the whole world and it was talking only to me–

And it heard that I meant it.

And then the Spackle said, Tomorrow morning. On the hilltop. Send two. He looked round to all of us in turn, stopping on the Mayor for a second, who stared back at him hard, and then he turned and left without even seeing if we agreed.

That’s when the arguing started.

“You know full well, David,” Mistress Coyle says, “that one of the scout ship people has to go. Which means there’s only room for one of us–”

“And it won’t be you,” says the Mayor.

“Maybe it’s a trap,” Lee says, his Noise rumbling. “In which case, I vote for the President.”

“Maybe Todd should go,” Bradley says. “He’s the one they spoke to.”

“No,” the Mayor says. “Todd stays.”

I spin round. “You don’t get a say in what I do.”

“If you’re not here, Todd,” the Mayor says, “what’s to stop our good mistresses from planting a bomb in my tent?”

“What a splendid idea,” Mistress Coyle smiles.

“Enough bickering,” Simone says. “Mistress Coyle and I would make a perfectly good–”

“I’ll go,” Viola says, in a quiet voice that stops all of us.

We all look at her. “No way,” I start to say, but she’s already shaking her head.

“They only want two of us,” she says from the bed, coughing heavy. “And we all know that can’t be the Mayor or Mistress Coyle.”

The Mayor sighs. “Why do you two still insist on calling me–?”

“And it can’t be you either, Todd,” she says. “Someone has to keep him and her from killing us all.”

“But yer sick–” I say.

“I’m the one who fired the missile into the hillside,” she says, quiet. “I’ve got to fix it.”

I swallow. But I can see on her face how much she means it.

“I can actually agree with that,” Mistress Coyle says. “Viola will be a good symbol of the future we’re fighting for. And Simone can go with her to lead the talks.”

Simone stands up a little straighter but Viola says, “No,” coughing some more. “Bradley.”

Bradley’s Noise sparks with surprise. Simone’s would, too, if she had any. “The choice isn’t yours, Viola,” she says. “I’m Mission Commander here and I’m the one–”

“They’ll read him,” Viola says.

“Exactly.”

“If we send two people without Noise,” she says, “how’s that going to look? They’ll read Bradley and they’ll see peace, for real. Todd can stay here with the Mayor. Simone and Mistress Coyle can keep the scout ship in the air above the talks at all times to keep us safe, and me and Bradley will go up that hill.”

She coughs again. “And now you all need to leave so I can rest up for tomorrow morning.”

There’s a silence as we all think about this idea.

I hate it.

But even I can see the sense of it.

“Well,” Bradley says. “I suppose that settles that.”

“All right then,” the Mayor says. “Let’s find a place to have a few words about terms, shall we?”

“Yes,” Mistress Coyle says, “let’s do that.”

They all start filing out, the Mayor taking one last look round before he leaves. “A mighty fine ship,” he says as he disappears out the door. Lee goes, too, using Bradley’s Noise. Viola starts to say he can stay but I think he’s leaving us alone on purpose.

“You sure about this?” I ask her, when they’re all gone. “You don’t know what could be up there.”

“I don’t like it much either,” she says, “but it’s how it has to be.”

And she says it a bit hard and she’s looking at me and not saying nothing.

“What?” I say. “What’s wrong?”

She starts shaking her head.

“What?” I say.

“Your Noise, Todd,” she says. “I hate it. I’m sorry. I hate it.”

{VIOLA}

He looks back at me, puzzled.

But he doesn’t sound puzzled. He doesn’t sound like anything.

“It’s a good thing that I’m quiet, Viola,” he says. “It’s gonna help us, help me, cuz if I can . . .”

He trails off because he’s still seeing the look on my face.

I have to turn away from him.

“I’m still me,” he says quietly. “I’m still Todd.”

But he isn’t. He isn’t the same Todd whose thoughts spilled out all over the place in a big, colourful mess, the one who couldn’t tell a lie if his life depended on it, who didn’t tell a lie when his life did depend on it, the Todd that saved my life more than once, in more than one way, that Todd who I could hear every uncomfortable thought of, who I could count on, who I knew–

Who I–

“I ain’t changed,” he says. “I’m just more like you, more like all the men you grew up knowing, more like Bradley used to be.”

I keep looking away from him, hoping he can’t see how weary I feel, how my arm throbs with every breath, how bad the fever is gouging me out. “I’m really tired, Todd,” I say. “It’s only tomorrow morning. I have to rest.”

“Viola–”

“You need to be out there with them anyway,” I say. “Make sure the Mayor and Mistress Coyle don’t set themselves up as interim leaders.”

He stares at me. “I don’t know what interim means.”

And that’s close enough to the Todd I know that I smile, a little. “I’ll be fine. I just need some sleep.”

He still stares. “Are you dying, Viola?”

“What?” I say. “No. No, I’m not–”

“Are you dying and yer just not telling me?” His eyes are boring into me now, filled with concern.

But I still can’t hear him.

“I’m not getting better,” I say, “but that doesn’t mean I’m going to die any time soon. Mistress Coyle’s bound to find something, and if she can’t, the convoy has all kinds more advanced medical stuff than the scout ship has. I can hang on ’til then.”

He’s still staring. “Cuz I couldn’t stand it if–” His voice is thick. “I just couldn’t take that, Viola. I just couldn’t.”

And then there it is–

His Noise, still way too quiet, but there, burning away underneath him, burning away with how he’s feeling and how true it is and how worried he is for me and I can hear it, just faintly but I can hear it–

And then I hear, I am the Circle–

And he goes quiet again, quiet as a stone.

“I’m not dying,” I say, looking away from him.

Todd just stands there for a second. “I’ll be right outside,” he finally says. “You call if you need anything. You call me and I’ll get it for you.”

“I will,” I say.

He nods, his lips held tight. He nods again.

Then he goes.

I sit there quietly for a while, listening to the ROAR of the army in the square outside and the raised voices of the Mayor and Mistress Coyle and Simone and Bradley and Lee still arguing.