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laughed.
Almost
. Except it was too close to being an actual, possible truth that he didn’t think it quite prudent. But still, they saved him a few of the crackers and a sip of coffee.
    “Why are you here?” Rupert asked as they ate. “I mean — helping to get the Ekat back?”
    “Do you want to know why
I
am here, or why it is not some big and strong Janus man with the muscles and things?” said Marie.
    “Both,” said Rupert.
    Marie pursed her lips for a moment. “It is no good to have a war in your home. My brother fights; my
papa
has taken sick. It is not good here. France is ruined. And when I heard that they had taken this Dr. Woolsey, and that he was to make weapons for the Germans — I could not let that happen.”
    “But what can you do to stop it?” said Rupert. “I mean — you’re a Janus. What are you going to do?”
    Marie narrowed her eyes. “You are rude. And I will like to see you try to get across
la
Lys without my help. I will like to see you speak German and French and English, please.”
    “All right, fine,” said Rupert.
    “Do you know what it is like,” said Marie, “to see your family so broken? My brother is off at the war — I may never see him again. But I think he would be glad I do this. Even though he hates the Tomas and the Lucian. He thinks that you are what make war.”
    “I have a brother, too,” said Rupert, taking a sip of the coffee. “He’s off fighting, too. Like me, I guess.”
    “Do you worry for him?” she asked.
    “It’s complicated,” said Rupert. Before, he hadn’t, really. Everyone had made the war seem so innocuous — like no one would actually ever be hurt or die from it. Now, suddenly, he did find himself wondering where Albert was along the line. Was he cold and wet, too? Did he think of Rupert, and where he had gone? “I didn’t before. But I do now. I want him to make it home as much as I want me to make it home, I guess. He’s my brother.”
    After their rationed breakfast, Major Thompson gathered them all together for a strategy session.
    The Ekat scientist was being held just across the Lys River — which was also just on the other side of the German trenches — in a factory. Major Thompson’s sources told him that it was heavily guarded by soldiers.
    “Well, that much would be obvious,” said Marie. “Do you think that they would just leave him on a leash in the middle of a field?”
    Major Thompson scowled. “That’s enough out of you for now.”
    They would go to the river today, Major Thompson said, to survey the area. And then, that night, they would make their move.
    “If I may, Major,” said Rupert, “don’t you think we should wait for a break in the weather? It looks like snow, and the last thing we’d want to do is leave a trail to where we are camped.”
    Rupert certainly wasn’t scared — a Lucian would never back away from a challenge — and certainly not in front of a Janus or a Tomas. Something like that would equate to generations of shame upon the forefathers — or something else like out of a Greek tragedy. Rupert refused to be a part of that. Still, he would feel a little more at ease if he knew he weren’t going into enemy territory that very night.
    “I just don’t see who put you in charge of this operation,” Rupert continued. “This isn’t a military mission; your rank doesn’t mean anything here. As the future head of the Lucian branch, I strongly feel that I should be put into the leadership position.”
    “I object,” said Marie. “This is my land, and my country. I should say what we do.”
    “And I say out of the three of us, I’m the only one with any battlefield experience. So let’s have the two of you stop your whining and let’s get ready,” said the major.
    “I don’t like your tone, Major. I don’t like it at all,” said Marie.
    “I don’t care,” said the major. “Just do what I say.”
    The trio hid their few things in testy silence — the cold lantern, a