A knock woke him. Louis opened his eyes to a darker room. He pushed himself up and saw Angelique sitting in the armchair. Gladice stood beside her, speaking to her in a low voice.
“Your supper,” a flat voice called from outside.
Louis looked at Angelique and nodded. She met his eyes, then turned to the door.
“You may enter.”
Three soldiers brought in trays of roast beef, potatoes, and peas and set them on the table. The officer stayed by the door.
“Not bad for Southern hospitality.” Gladice grabbed a tray and sat on the edge of the bed. “You outdid yourselves, Dixies.”
“Watch your tongue, woman.” One soldier glared at her as he set a water pitcher on the table. “If you want to keep it.”
“Don’t talk to the hostages,” The officer said.
“Yes, sir.”
The soldiers set down the last tray and left. The door closed. Angelique brought Louis his supper, and he ate on the bed with his bad leg stretched out.
“Thanks, Angi.” He speared a piece of potato and took a bite. It was bland but still warm.
“You’re welcome.” Angelique returned to the armchair and ate at the small table. “How’s your knee?”
“Better, I suppose.” Louis swallowed before answering. “But it still hurts.”
“You’ll recover. I’ve seen worse.” Gladice cut off a piece of beef and chewed it. “Beef this bland should be illegal.”
“You can hardly blame the food when most of the world sanctions them.” Angelique took a sip of water. “Still, I miss the food back in the Dominion.”
“Yeah. You’ve got plenty of good Japanese restaurants.” Gladice took another bite. “We don’t have nearly as many options back in New Orleans.”
“I didn’t take you for a fan of Japanese food.” Louis scooped up a spoonful of peas.
“Why not? Didn’t I tell you my grandmother was Japanese?” Gladice glanced at him.
Louis paused with the spoon halfway to his mouth. “No. You didn’t.”
“Your mother’s side?” Angelique looked at her.
Gladice nodded. “Yeah. Nagisa Hebert. She married my grandfather Joseph. He was from New Orleans, but he was stationed in Yokosuka with the U.S. Navy back in the eighties. When he left the service, they came back to Louisiana.” She cut another piece of beef. “Poor woman.”
Angelique looked back at her tray. “That explains your standards.”
“We’re quite international, aren’t we?” Louis glanced at Angelique. “You grew up in Oregon.” Then he looked at Gladice. “Your grandmother was Japanese, and I spent half my childhood in Hamburg.”
Angelique rolled her eyes. “Your mother is a von Ehlert. That part was not exactly secret.”
Gladice looked between them. “Right. Bourbon, von Ehlert, Collins.” She cut into the beef again. “And here I thought my Japanese grandmother made me fancy.”
When they had almost finished, the bolts drew back. Another officer stood in the doorway with two soldiers behind him.
“Mr. Collins. Miss Bourbon. Miss Simington,” he said. “General Vance will see you now.”
Gladice set down her fork. “How delightful. I was just beginning to miss him.”
The officer did not react. “At once.”
Louis rose and reached for the cane. The officer led them downstairs, along the west corridor, and stopped at the library. Louis knew the room before the door had fully opened. Only it was no longer Theodore Hargrove’s room. The desk had been cleared. Vance stood behind it.
“Sit,” he said.
Three chairs had been placed in front of the desk. Louis chose the center. Angelique sat on his left, Gladice on his right. Gladice crossed her legs and looked straight at Vance, who remained standing. He opened the folder in front of him.
“I will be direct,” Vance said. “The Council has reached its decision. A preliminary exchange framework has been established through the appropriate channels. Transport will proceed tomorrow morning.”
Louis shifted in his seat and tightened his hand around the cane.
Vance continued. “Mr. Collins and Miss Bourbon will be transferred by military aircraft to Ardmore, Oklahoma under Army of the Covenant custody. From there you will proceed by secured ground transport to the Red River Bridge for exchange under controlled conditions.”
“What about Miss Simington?” Louis looked at the general.
Vance turned a page without looking up.
“Miss Simington is not included in the present arrangement. Her status remains under separate review pending synchronization of discussions with the Free State Collective.”
“There we go.” Gladice kicked the desk. The general ignored it.
Louis stared at Vance. “Then where does she go?”
“Miss Simington remains here under military supervision until further disposition is reached.”
“Here?” Louis said. “For how long?”
“Until such time as the Council and the Free State Collective reach agreement,” Vance replied.
“And if they don’t?”
Vance closed the folder. “Then she remains a ward of the Holy States.”
Louis let out a breath. “Hostage.”
Vance inclined his head slightly. “If you prefer the wording.”
Gladice said, “Why am I not included?”
Vance looked at her. “The Collective has not yet agreed to the terms of your release.”
Gladice stared at him. “Oh, I see. My father is still trying to decide whether I’m worth more as a pawn than a daughter.”
Angelique said, “If you send us away and leave her here, you are separating us.”
Vance looked at her. “I am informing you of the terms presently available.”
“We don’t accept them,” Louis said.
Vance turned to him.
“Your acceptance is not required, Mr. Collins. The Council has made its decision and I intend to enforce it.”
Gladice let out one soft laugh. “Of course you do.”
Louis kept his eyes on Vance. “We are not going.”
“I have not asked you to volunteer. Your preferences are not the controlling variable.” Vance opened the folder again. “You will depart tomorrow at oh-eight-hundred hours. You may spend the night in your present quarters. Tomorrow you will be provided suitable clothing and will be escorted to the airfield.”
Angelique crossed her arms. “If Miss Simington is left behind, I will not go.”
Gladice turned toward her sharply. “Angel.”
Angelique did not look at her. Her eyes remained on Vance.
The general put his hands on the desk. “You are both under strain. I allow for that. But I do not alter state arrangements because fatigue makes young people dramatic.”
“Dramatic?” Gladice said. “Secretary Hargrove staged a forced wedding on his lawn and you are calling this dramatic?”
Vance shifted his attention to her. “That is why Secretary Hargrove is no longer in charge of this house, Miss Simington. He allowed private passion to interfere with orderly process. I will not make the same error.”
Louis said, “That is not private passion, general.”
“No?” Vance’s gaze returned to him. “Then what would you call it?”
“She is with us.”
“That is not a category recognized by any government at this table.”
“Then recognize it,” Louis said. “Because I will not leave her here.”
Vance said, “Mr. Collins, your father’s government has made clear what it values most urgently. You and Miss Bourbon are the priority. Miss Simington is not within the jurisdiction of the Dominion of the Pacific, and your emotional attachment to her does not change that.”
Angelique stared at him. “You are making a mistake.”
Vance let the sentence hang for a moment. Then he said, “Call it what you like. It remains the arrangement.”
Louis stood up and took one step forward with the cane.
“I told you this morning they are my people.”
“Yes,” Vance said. “You did.”
“I meant it.”
“I know.” Vance raised his voice. “And because I know, I will answer you plainly, Mr. Collins. Your claim does not alter my orders.”
Louis stood still, his weight on the cane. Vance’s eyes stayed on him.
Then Gladice spoke.
“Louis,” she said.
He turned his head. Her eyes were determined.
Angelique said, “Glads—”
“No.” Gladice folded her arms. “You don’t get to do that. Not now.” She looked at Angelique, then Louis. “You go. Both of you go. That is the entire point of this. You get away.”
Louis stared at her. “Not like this.”
Her face hardened. “Exactly like this.”
Angelique said, “If we leave you here, we are not going home. We are abandoning you.”
Gladice’s jaw tightened. “And if you stay, all three of us remain in enemy hands because you wanted to feel noble. I don’t accept that trade.”
Angelique opened her mouth to answer and then stopped. Her fingers tightened on the arm of the chair.
Louis said, “Gladie—”
“No,” she cut him off. Her voice shook once. “Don’t try to fix it. Don’t try to argue me into feeling better about being left behind. You get out. You make sure this does not happen to anyone else.”
“Listen to your friend,” Vance said, from the desk. “The decision has been made. Let us not waste more time on emotion.”
Louis turned toward him and dragged the cane once across the floor.
“No,” he said. “We are not finished.”
Vance looked at him. “You mistake yourself if you think repetition alters authority.”
“No,” Louis said. “I think it forces you to hear me.”
Vance placed one hand on the folder.
“Then hear me, Mr. Collins. The aircraft departs at oh-eight-hundred tomorrow. You and Miss Bourbon will be prepared for transfer before that. Miss Simington will remain under guard pending further negotiation. Your objections will be recorded and filed. They will not suspend execution.”
Angelique said, “Then you are asking for forced transport.”
“I am informing you that transport will proceed.”
Gladice laughed once. “There’s your answer.”
Vance closed the folder. “You will return to your room now. Make yourselves ready for the morning. The details will be delivered after first light.”
Louis said, “We are not done.”
Vance looked at him. “No,” he said. “You are not. I am.”
He nodded once to the officer by the door. They were escorted back upstairs. The bolts went back into place behind them. Gladice kicked the nearest chair. It skidded across the floor and struck the wall.
“Useful,” she said, and sat down on the bed with her hands clenched at her sides.
Louis set the cane against the mantel and crossed to her.
“We will not do this.”
She looked up at him. “Yes, you will.”
“Listen to me.” He sat beside her and put his arm around her shoulders. Her eyes were red at the corners. “We will find a way. All three of us. Together.”
She did not pull away. “What exactly do you think happens now? We all hold hands and the Air Force gives up?”
Angelique had gone to the window. She stood with her back to them, one hand on the curtain.
Louis said, “If they take us tomorrow and leave you here—”
“They take you home.”
“Without you.”
“I know.” Her shoulder pressed against his arm. “That is the price, Louis. Don’t pretend you don’t understand that.”
He leaned closer. She looked at him.
“I am not leaving you here.”
Her eyes were wet, fixed on him. “You can’t stop it. You know you can’t.”
“I can refuse to go.”
She stared at him. Then she shook her head. “That is the stupidest thing you have said all week, and I have heard a great deal of stupidity from you.”
He held her gaze. “I mean it.”
She tried to pull away. He held on.
“Let me go, Louis.”
“No.”
Angelique spoke from the window. “If you refuse, they will bind you. They will put you on that plane unconscious if they have to.”
He turned his head. She did not turn.
“That’s what I am saying,” Gladice snapped.
“I am not going home without both of you,” Louis said, looking back to Gladice. “Do you understand me?”
Gladice pulled one hand free and swiped at her eyes. “Yes, I understand you perfectly. You are willing to stay here and be their prisoner just to prove a point.”
“It is not a point.” His voice came out rough. “It is you.”
She stared at him. Then her voice shook once. “And what about everything you just heard? What about your father? What about your family? What about the people who want you home? You’re going to throw that away because of me?”
He did not look away. “If that is the choice, yes.”
She stared at him for a long second. Her mouth pulled to one side. “You’re an idiot.”
“I know,” he said.
She yanked her other hand free and stood. He let her go. She crossed the room to the window and stopped beside Angelique. Neither of them looked at him. Louis watched them in silence.
Then Angelique said, “They have to move us by morning. That means there are documents, routes, timings, authentication, communications. Things that must remain intact if the transfer is to proceed.” She turned and looked at Louis. “It does not have to stay intact.”
Gladice stared at Angelique.
“Oh no,” she said. “Absolutely not.”
Louis looked at Angelique. “You’re saying we sabotage it.”
“If necessary.”
Gladice shook her head. “No.”
“Yes,” said Louis.
She looked from Angelique to Louis and laughed once. “This is insane.”
“Is it?” Angelique said. She turned from the window. “We are not in a normal position. We cannot win with normal choices. We do not have the luxury of accepting the table that is set for us.”
Gladice turned to her. “And then what? We stop the transfer and Vance smiles and says how clever, how enterprising, please enjoy another week in the guest suite?”
“No,” Angelique said. “But it would buy us time.”
Louis looked toward the door. The route came back first: west corridor, stairs, the soldiers at each turn, the bolts, the officer with the keys.
He said, half to himself, “There are ways to disrupt the operation without being obvious.”
Gladice threw up her hands. “Oh, perfect. So you get caught and we all end up in the basement together.”
Louis looked at her. “I am not going to get caught.”
She stared at him. “Louis. You can barely walk. You do not know this house. You are not a soldier. You don’t know their procedures. You don’t know their signals.”
He met her eyes. “I will learn fast.”
She let out a short breath. “You are such a Collins.”
His mouth moved. “Yes.”
She looked at Angelique. “And you. You are encouraging this?”
Angelique looked back at her. “I am willing to do what is necessary. Are you?”
Gladice stared at her, her mouth slightly open.
Angelique continued. “If we make it impossible for Vance to move us out as planned, he will be forced to renegotiate or delay. Either gives us another chance. The alternative is letting them separate us.”
Gladice looked from Angelique to Louis and back again. “And if you fail?”
“Then they lock us up,” Louis said. “Which is where we are headed anyway.” He took a step toward her. “Gladie. Look at me.”
She looked at him.
“I am not leaving you behind,” he said.
She stared up at him for a long second. Then she closed her eyes.
“If we have to do it, let’s at least be smart about it.”
Angelique exhaled once. Louis leaned back. Outside, boots passed the door again. He looked toward the dark windows.
“I’ll do it,” Louis said. “I need you two to stay here. To keep watch. To cover for me.”
“No,” Gladice said. “Absolutely not.”
Louis looked at her. “You heard what I said.”
“Yes,” Gladice said. “I also heard the part where you think you are somehow the obvious person to go creeping around a military-occupied plantation house with a broken knee.”
“Someone has to.”
“Not you.” She folded her arms. “If this idiocy is actually going to happen, I will be the one doing it.”
“No,” Louis said again.
“And why not?”
He held her eyes. “Because if you get caught, we lose.”
She stared at him. “If any of us get caught, we lose.”
“No.” His voice stayed flat. “If I get caught, I become a problem. If you get caught, you become a liability. That is not the same thing.”
Gladice shook her head.
Angelique said quietly, “He’s right.”
Gladice swung toward her. “No, he isn’t.”
“Yes.” Angelique came away from the window. Her hands stayed at her sides. “If you are found outside your room after what Vance announced tonight, you will not simply be returned under guard. They will separate you at once. They will say the attempt itself proves you are the unstable element in the arrangement. And since you are the one not on the aircraft, they will lose nothing by hardening your confinement.”
Gladice’s jaw tightened. “And what exactly do you think they’ll do to Louis if he is caught wandering the halls with a cane?”
Louis answered before Angelique could. “The exchange is still planned for two of us. They need the transfer to proceed for political reasons. That makes me harder to punish. You are the one they can afford to lock away without consequence.”
Gladice stared at him. Her breath came hard. She opened her mouth, closed it again, and turned away.
Angelique said, “That leaves us.”
Louis looked at her. She was already watching him.
“You and I,” she said. “It has to be us.”
“No.” The word came out hard. “I will do that alone.”
Her face did not change. “You will not.”
“You know where we are, Angi,” he said. “You know the kind of men on the other side of those doors. In this manor, in this country, and to men like Vance, a young man out of place at night is reckless. A young woman out of place becomes a threat to order. They will be harder on you.”
“I am not the one limping.”
“This is not about the knee.”
Her chin lifted. “Then what is it about?”
He took a step toward her and lowered his voice. “It is about you not taking this risk. Not because you can’t. Because you shouldn’t.”
She did not move. “And why is that?”
He stopped in front of her.
“Because you are who you are,” he said. “And I am who I am. And I am not letting you be the one they catch.”
She looked at him without speaking. Then she looked down. “And if they catch you?”
“Then they do,” he said. “They will still have to send you and me to the plane together. They won’t harm me.”
“Not physically,” she said.
He nodded once. “I can live with that.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “You are a fool.”
His mouth moved. “I know.”
Gladice turned back from the window. “So this is your plan? You walk around the house alone, find some piece of important paper, and scribble on it like a child? How exactly do you expect to get past the guards?”
“I don’t need to go far,” Louis said. “Vance’s office, the library. They keep the documents there. If I can find the transfer orders—”
“The transfer orders will be locked,” Angelique said.
“Then I find the key. Or the codes.”
“Or the guards,” Gladice said. “They do still have those, in case you forgot.”
Louis looked between them. “We have tonight. We will figure it out.”
Gladice looked from him to Angelique and shook her head.
“This is insane.”
“Yes,” Angelique said quietly. “It is also the only thing we have.”
Gladice stared at her. Then she exhaled through her nose and said, “We are all going to die in this house.”
Louis said, “Not tonight.”
She looked at him. “You really are your father’s son.”
Louis did not answer. His hand tightened on the cane.
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