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change anything.” He paused for a moment. “Except maybe I’ll sleep in my mom’s room for a while.” He said it with a smile that undercut the seriousness of the moment. Rae chuckled.
    “I agree,” North said, “If we don’t respond to the attack, it becomes a non-event.”
    “Unless she really was sent by someone,” said Connor.
    “Then our inaction will speak more powerfully than anything we could do at this point. We will not be terrorized.”
    Aron shook his head. “No. We can’t pretend it was nothin’. It’d be pure foolishness.”
    “We need to help people adjust,” Wren said. “We need to help them get used to how things are now. It won’t help anybody if you just lock up the compound.”
    “It won’t help anybody if you’re dead either,” Hondo said.
    Wren’s gaze dropped to the table and he went quiet.
    “Whatever else we decide, we need to identify the girl,” Cass said. “Discreetly. What are our options?”
    The other Council members all exchanged looks, waiting for someone else to offer an idea or opinion. Finally Rae sat forward. “I’ve got a few connections by the West Wall. I’ll see what I can find.”
    “I doubt it’ll be any use, but I can handle the business district,” Hondo said.
    “And I’ll talk to the elders,” said Aron. “Most of us are only good for gossip these days anyway; someone’s bound to know somethin’.”
    “Secrecy is crucial,” North said. “We shouldn’t ask so many questions that others begin to wonder.”
    “Agreed,” Cass said. “Use your judgment, but err on the side of caution. Let’s see what we can find out, and reconvene in two days.”
    The Council members agreed and, after a round of formal goodbyes, began excusing themselves. Cass watched them intently as they departed, looking for any final hints or clues as to what any of them might be hiding. But nothing stood out, nothing out of the ordinary. Or rather, so much out of the ordinary that made it difficult to discern motives.
    “Mama,” Wren said. “Are you mad at me?”
    The question caught her completely off guard. “What? No, baby, why?”
    “Because I came to the meeting anyway.”
    “No, of course not. I just thought you didn’t want to come.”
    “I wish I hadn’t,” Wren replied.
    “You did fine, sweetheart. You made some very good points.”
    “Then why do I feel like they don’t want me around?”
    Cass’s heart sank to hear those words.
    “I don’t know, Wren. But we’ll figure it out, OK?” She said it with what she hoped sounded like certainty, knowing that if they didn’t figure it out soon, neither of them would be likely to survive whatever came next.
     

THREE
    F letcher had been the first one to spot the man with the blindfold. He was the smart one, always had been. The one who always noticed things, and thought of things, and made good plans; and that’s why he was in charge. And it was lucky for ol’ Blindfold down there that Fletcher was in charge, else the boys would’ve cut him up and fed most of him to Nice and Lady, and probably ate some of the leftovers themselves. Especially Cup. Cup was crazy.
    Nice and Lady was their dogs what they got off a crazy old woman who thought they’d be protection and was wrong, and Fletcher had named ’em because he said that they got ’em from a real nice lady, and the boys thought that was pretty funny, so that’s what they named ’em. Right now, Nice and Lady was somewhere with Sloan being real quiet like good dogs. And they was good dogs. Better than some of the boys, but that wa’n’t much of a compliment when you thought about it.
    But Fletcher was in charge, because he was the smart one, and so Blindfold was still warm and breathing for now. At least until Fletcher could figure what they was going to do with him. Killing him and letting the dogs eat good was the easy thing, they done that plenty of times, but Fletcher knew the easy thing usually wa’n’t the best thing. And there