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"There is, sir," Ivan says.
"And if I ordered you to take me to him, you'd do it?"
"You are my superior officer, Lieutenant." Ivan's looking harder at Todd now. "I'd have to follow any orders you gave me.
"Todd?" I say, but I'm begi
"I've been a - trying to tell you this for some time, Lieutenant," Ivan says, impatience in his voice.
"Are there any higher - ranking officers on the premises than me?" Todd asks.
"No, sir. Just myself and the guards. Everyone else has gone off to fight the war."
"How many guards?"
"Sixteen of us, sir."
Todd licks his lips, thinking. "Would they regard me as their superior officer, too, Private?"
Ivan looks away for the first time, glancing quickly behind him before saying again in a lower voice, "There is some concern with our current leadership, sir. They might be persuaded."
Todd stands up straighter, pulling at the hem of his uniform jacket. I notice again how tall he is, how much taller than the last time I saw him, how his face is lined in a way that's not at all boyish, how his voice is deeper and fuller.
I look at him, and I begin to see a man.
He clears his throat and stands at attention before Ivan. "Then I order you to take me to the prisoner called Lee, Private."
"Even though I have been instructed to take you straight to the President," Ivan says in an official voice," I feel I ca
He steps back out of the door to wait. Todd comes to my chair and kneels down in front of me.
"What are you pla
"You said it's us who has to stop him cuz no one else will," he says, the crooked smile inching higher. "Well, maybe there's a way we can."
37 THE LIEUTENANT
***
[TODD]
I FEEL VIOLA WATCHING ME as I leave and follow Ivan down the hallway. She's wondering whether we can trust him.
I wonder it, too.
Cuz the answer's no, ain't it? Ivan joined the army as a volunteer, saving his own skin in Farbranch, and I remember him slinking up to me all those months ago even before it happened and telling me he was on the side of Prentisstown. He probably couldn't wait to join the army when it marched into town and then he led troops here and was even a Corporal.
Till Mayor Prentiss shot him in the leg.
You go where the power is, he said to me once. That's how you stay alive.
So maybe he thinks he's found the new power.
"Exactly what I'm a - thinking, sir," Ivan says, stopping outside a door. "He's in here."
"Can he walk?" I say as Ivan unlocks the door--
But Lee's already jumping out with an AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHU! and knocking Ivan over and punching him again and again in the face and I have to grab his shoulders and pull him back and he turns to me, fists ready, till he sees who it is.
"Todd!" he says, surprised.
"We need--" I start.
"Where is she?" he shouts, already looking round, and I have to step forward to keep Ivan from smashing the back of his head with a rifle.
"She's hurt," I say. "She needs bandages and splints." I turn to Ivan. "You got those here?"
"We got a first aid kit," Ivan says.
"That'll do. Give it to Lee and he'll take care of Viola. Then tell the men I wa
"Yes, sir," Ivan says, all sour, before he disappears down the hallway.
Lee goggles at me. "Yes, sir?"
"Viola'll explain." I push him after Ivan. "You get those bandages on her! She's hurting!"
That gets him moving. I turn about - face and go toward the lobby. Two guards watch me walk past. "What's going on?" one of em asks.
"What's going on, sir," I snap without turning round. I walk out the front door of the Office of the Ask, down the little path and out the front gate.
Where it's almost peaceful. And there's Angharrad.
Davy musta brought her.
"Hey, girl," I say, coming up on her slow, rubbing her nose. Boy colt? says her Noise. Todd ?
"It's all right, girl," I whisper. "It's all right."
Hurt , she says, sniffing at the dried blood still on my face. She takes her big wet tongue and gives me the sloppiest lick right across my mouth and cheek.
I laugh a little and rub her nose again. "I'm okay, girl, I'm okay."
Her Noise keeps saying my name, Todd, Todd , as I move to where my bag is still tied to the saddle. My rifle's still there.
So's my ma's book.
I'll bet Davy brought that, too.
I untie Angharrad's reins from the post and lead her out onto the road a little bit till she's pointing right at the gate with the big silver a. "Gotta give a little speech," I say, tightening the saddle. "Better from up top of you."
Boy colt? she says. Todd ?
"Angharrad," I say.
I put my foot in a stirrup, hop up and swing my leg round till I'm sitting in the saddle, looking up at the sky. It's not darkening yet but the sun's getting down toward the falls. Afternoon is ticking away.
There ain't much time.
"Wish me luck," I say.
"Forward," Angharrad whi
***
The guards look up at me and back to Ivan who's trying to get 'em to stop talking, which would only help if they shut up the clatter of their Noise, too, cuz it's wailing like sheep on fire.
"He's a lieutenant," Ivan's saying to 'em.
"He's a boy," another guard says, one with ginger hair.
"He's the President's boy," Ivan responds.
"Yeah, and you were sposed to take him into town, Private," says another with a big pot belly and Corporal stripes on his sleeve. "Don't tell me yer disobeying a direct order."
"The Lieutenant gave me a different direct order," Ivan says.
"And he overrules the President, does he?" says Ginger Hair.
"Come on!" Ivan shouts. "How many of you got this assignment as punishment for something?" That quiets 'em.
"Yer an idiot if you think I'm following a boy to face the President," says Corporal Pot Belly.
"Prentiss knows stuff," says Ginger Hair. "Stuff he shouldn't."
"He'd have us shot," says another soldier, a tall one this time, with sallow skin.
"By who?" says Ivan. "The army's all off fighting the war while the President sits in his blown - up cathedral a - waiting for me to show up with Todd here."
"What's he doing there?" asks Ginger Hair. "Why ain't he with the army?"
"Ain't his style," I say. They all look up at me again. "The Mayor don't fight. He rules, he leads, but he don't pull no triggers and he don't get his hands dirty." Angharrad feels my nervousness and steps a little to one side. "He gets other people to do it for him."
Plus, I try to hide in my Noise, he wants to talk to me.
Which in a way feels worse than war.
"And yer go
"He's just a man," I say. "A man can be defeated."
"He's more'n a man," Ginger Hair says. "People say he uses his Noise as a weapon."
"And if you get too close to him, he can control your mind," says Sallow Skin.