Monsters of Men

“I’m doing all this for you!” he finally shouts. “I’m trying to make this a safe world for you!”

“And I’ve done it for you, Todd!” I shout back. “Only to find out that maybe you’re not you any more!”

And his face is so angry but also so horrified, so shocked and hurt by what I’m saying I can almost–

For a second I can almost–

“IT’S HIM!”

A single voice, cutting thru the ROAR of the crowd gathered round the scout ship.

“IT’S THE PRESIDENT!”

Other voices follow, one, then a hundred, then a thousand, and the ROAR gets higher and louder, until it feels like we’re in an ocean of Noise, surging up the ramp and lifting the Mayor above it all. He starts walking slowly down, his head up, his face beaming, his hand reaching out to the crowd to show them that, yes, he’s all right, he’s survived, he’s still their leader.

Still in charge. Still the victor.

“Come, Todd, Viola,” he says. “The world awaits.”

[TODD]

“The world awaits,” the Mayor says, taking my arm, pulling me away from Viola, his eyes on the crowd cheering him, ROARing for him, and I see that the projeckshuns are still ru

“Listen to them, Todd,” the Mayor says to me and again I feel the hum–

The hum of joy–

I feel it even in the ROAR of the crowd–

“We can really do it,” he’s saying as the crowd parts before us, giving us room to walk to a new platform Mr Tate and Mr O’Hare musta cobbled together. “We can really rule this world,” the Mayor says. “We can really make it a better place.”

“Let me go,” I say.

But he don’t let go.

He don’t even look at me.

I turn back to find Viola. She ain’t moved from the ramp. Lee’s come thru the crowd to her and they’re all watching me let myself get dragged away by the Mayor, both of us wearing the same uniform–

“Let me go,” I say again, pulling away.

The Mayor turns round, grabbing me hard by the shoulders and the crowds are closing up the pathway twixt me and Viola–

“Todd,” the Mayor says, the hum of joy coming off him like sunshine. “Todd, don’t you see? You’ve done it. You’ve led me down the road to redemption and we’ve arrived.”

The crowd are still ROARing, loud as anything now that the Mayor’s among them. He stands up straighter, looks round at the soldiers and townsfolk and even women round us all cheering, and with a smile on his face, he says, “Quiet, please.”

{VIOLA}

“What the hell?” I say, as the ROAR of the crowd vanishes almost instantly, spreading out in circles till the cheering stops, in voice and in Noise, as near as this place ever comes to silence. Even the women as they see how quiet the men have gone.

“I heard it,” Bradley whispers.

And Wilf whispers, “Ah heard it, too.”

“Heard what?” I say, too loud in the new quiet, causing faces from the crowd to look back and shush me.

“Just the words Quiet, please,” Bradley whispers. “Right in the middle of my head. And I swear my Noise is quieter, too.”

“And mine,” Lee says. “It’s like I’ve gone blind all over again.”

“How?” I say. “How can he have that much power?”

“There’s something fu

“Viola,” Bradley says, putting his hand on my arm. “If he can do that to a thousand people at once–”

I look out and see the Mayor standing in front of Todd, looking right into his eyes.

I start forward towards the crowd.

[TODD]

“I’ve been waiting for this my entire life,” the Mayor’s saying to me and I’m finding I can’t look away.

I’m finding I don’t really want to.

“I didn’t even know it, Todd,” he’s saying. “All I wanted was to bring this planet under my thumb and, failing that, to destroy it completely. If I couldn’t have it, then no one else could either.”

The Noise around us is almost a complete hush. “How are you doing this?” I ask.

“But I was wrong, you see?” he says. “When I saw what was going to happen with Mistress Coyle, when I saw that I had failed to predict it but that you had, Todd, and you saved me–” He stops and I swear it’s cuz his voice is too filled with emoshun to go on. “When you saved me, Todd, that’s when everything changed. When everything fell into place.”

(and the hum, gleaming like a lighthouse in my head–)

(that joy–)

(it feels good–)

“We could make this world better,” he says. “You and I could make it better together. With your goodness, with everything about you that feels and hurts and regrets and refuses to fall no matter what you’ve done, Todd, if we combined that with how I can lead men, how I can control them–”

“They don’t wa

His eyes, I can’t look away from ’em–

“Not that kind of control, Todd,” he says. “Peaceful control, benevolent control–”

And the joy–

I feel it–

“Like the leader of the Spackle has over his own people,” the Mayor keeps saying. “That’s the voice I’ve been hearing. The one voice. They’re him and he’s them and that’s how they survive, that’s how they learn and grow and exist.” He’s breathing heavy now, the burn gel on his face making him look like he’s coming up from under water. “I can be that for the people here, Todd. I can be their voice. And you can help me. You can help me be better. You can help me be good.”

And I’m thinking–

I could help him–

I could–

(no–)

“Let me go,” I say–

“I’ve known you were special since Prentisstown,” he says, “but it’s only today, only when you saved me that I realized exactly why.”

He grips me harder.

“You’re my soul, Todd,” he says, the crowd around us swooning at how strong he says it and their Noise confirming it and answering it back. “You’re my soul and I’ve been looking for you without even knowing it.” He smiles at me wonderingly. “And I’ve found you, Todd. I’ve found you–”

And then there’s a sound, a different sound, coming from somewhere at the edges of the crowd, a murmuring in their Noise, rumbling its way from the far end of the square towards us.

“A Spackle,” the Mayor whispers, seconds before I see it, surprisingly clear in the Noise of the crowd.

There’s a Spackle coming up the road on a battlemore.

“And . . .” the Mayor says, frowning slightly and standing up to look.

“And what?” I say–

But then I see it in the crowd Noise, too–

The Spackle’s not alone–

There are two battlemores–

And then I hear it–

I hear the sound that turns the entire world upside down–

{VIOLA}

I press hard through the crowd, caring less and less if I’m stepping on people or shoving them out of the way, especially since most of them barely seem to notice. Even the women, who seem caught up in the moment, their faces filled with the same strange anticipation–

“Move,” I say, through gritted teeth.

Because I’m realizing it now, too late, too late, that of course the Mayor’s got inside Todd, of course he has, and maybe Todd has changed him, changed him for the better, no doubt, but the Mayor’s always been stronger, always been smarter, and changing for the better doesn’t mean that he’s ever going to reach good and of course he’s been changing Todd, too, of course he has, how could I be so stupid not to see it, not to talk to him–

Not to save him–

“Todd!” I call–

But it’s drowned out by a surge in the Noise of the crowd, images from the far side where something’s happening, something that’s being passed along through the Noise of the people seeing it, spreading through the crowd–