‘Not if she starves to death,’ I say. ‘Make Doc fix her, and we’ll talk about what she can do for you.’
‘Fix her?’ asks Obi.
I glance at Doc.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ says Doc. ‘I need to make sure she’s all right first, which means I need to see her.’ He gives me a pointed look.
‘Can you bring her to us?’ asks Obi.
I shake my head. ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea.’ I glance again at Martin, who is watching us with intense eyes.
‘Fine,’ says Doc before Obi can object. ‘Take me to her.’
I turn, hoping for a quick escape, but Obi calls out my name.
‘There’s been a rumor about a teenage girl who killed an angel,’ says Obi. ‘They say she has a sword that might be disguised as a teddy bear.’ He looks at Pooky Bear dangling off my hip. ‘You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?’
I blink innocently at him, wondering if it’s better to own it or deny it.
‘I can see we need to rebuild some trust between us. Let me show you around so you can see what we’re about. We could use fighters like the two of you.’
‘I’ve seen the camp, Obi.’ I fidget near the doorway. ‘I know you rescued the people off Alcatraz. That was amazing. Really. You guys were fantastic. But I need to deal with my sister right now.’
Obi nods. ‘All right. I’ll go with you. We can talk while Doc looks over your sister.’
I try really hard not to exchange glances with Raffe. Unless we can get Doc alone, there’s no chance of talking to him about sewing on Raffe’s angel wings.
‘I’ll take you up on your offer for a tour,’ says Raffe. ‘It’d be interesting to see what you’re putting together here.’
I freeze my expression in place, trying not to betray my thoughts. This is just getting worse by the second.
Obi’s face breaks into a grin. ‘Excellent. I’ll introduce you to a few people. I think you’ll be proud to call them your brothers in arms if you join us.’
‘All right,’ says Raffe.
‘Great,’ says Obi. ‘I think you’ll like what you see. This is the council. They’re in charge of our strategic defense.’
I watch Obi and Raffe make their way around the table. Does Raffe think this is funny? Obi is about to give an angel a tour of the Resistance camp?
18
Doc slips his arm into mine and guides me out of the room. ‘Is she hurt? What has she been eating?’
I look at the door closing on Obi talking to Raffe as we head out into the hallway. ‘Um, my sister hasn’t been eating . . .’
The twins follow us down the hallway. They glance out the windows and watch everyone around us as we walk, always alert.
‘Hey, guys.’ We push out of the building doors and into the night. ‘What’s Obi showing Raffe?’
‘The usual stuff,’ says Dum.
‘Our refugees, our cutting-edge batteries, our amazing electric cars, and maybe some of our dried ramen noodle supply.’ Dee shrugs.
I walk numbly in the cold, my mind mulling over whether any of that would be harmful. No big deal, right?
Right?
I must be moving too slowly as we talk, because Doc turns around and asks, ‘Where are we going?’
‘The grove across the street,’ I say.
Doc takes off at a trot and disappears into the street. I’m about to chase after him when Dee puts his hand on my arm. ‘Let him go. He’ll wait for you at the grove anyway. He doesn’t know where he’s going.’
He’s right, and it is good to see the twins again. I let go of my worries about Raffe. There’s nothing I can do about it now anyway.
I turn to the twins. ‘You guys are awesome. No one else would have gone out to save those poor people on Alcatraz.’
‘Ain’t no big thing,’ says Dum, sauntering beside me.
‘Yeah, we save hundreds of people all the time,’ says Dee.
‘All the time,’ says Dum.
‘We were born for it.’
‘And sometimes we even turn down offers from women wanting to show us their gratitude.’ Dum struts beside me.
‘Once,’ says Dee, looking humble.
‘Yeah, okay, but if it happened once, that means it happened “sometimes,’’ says Dum.
‘Doesn’t matter that she was an eighty-year-old lady who looked like our granny,’ says Dee.
‘A chick’s a chick, man, regardless of her age. And an offer is an offer.’ Dum nods.
Dee leans over and whispers to me. ‘She offered to cook us Brussels sprouts, and we turned it down.’
‘She was heartbroken. Probably needed to find some lucky dude to pour her affections on the rebound.’
‘Rebound’s a bitch.’ Dee shakes his head.
‘Not that we’re ever going to know what that feels like.’
The twins bump fists like true champions.
‘And was Obi totally on board with the Alcatraz recue?’ I ask.
‘Yeah, okay, maybe Obi might have had a little something to do with it.’ Dee shrugs.
‘Not that we wouldn’t have gone ourselves to rescue those people barehanded, but you know, it was a teensy bit easier with Obi running the mission.’
‘Good to know he’s not a jerk to everyone.’
‘Actually, you’d be surprised at what a good guy he is,’ says Dee.