To Be A Rebel

Chapter 56: Nothing But Love

"I would not have come to you if I had any other choice," Kefilwe says.

"We understand, Dr. Lobatse," Peter replies with a nod. "We're all having to make hard choices now. I, for example, am apparently now the guardian of Runner Seven's dog, Bonnie. She's a good dog, apart from the constant mournful howling for her departed master, which I could do without. I thought Evan asked Five and Sam to take care of her, but-"

"Sam and I both have kids, Peter," I reply, snapping my teeth. He raises his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry! I was just saying."

"Yeah, well, how about you don't just say anything right now?" I reach up and click on my headset, leaning against the wall of the hallway. "Nicole, I haven't seen my three. Please tell me that means your group has left the base."

"Well, most of them have, except-"

"Except me," Milo interrupts, and I grit my teeth.

"What the-Milo!" I stomp down the hallway when I hear him through my headset. The others follow. I swing the coms door open, and he looks up at me from his place on the floor. "Why are you still in the base?"

"Babies need sunlight, my arse," He deadpans, standing. "You just wanted to get the younger ones and me out so we wouldn't have to see what's happened to Steve."

I grit my teeth, but don't say anything, mostly because he's right. I asked Maxine to convince Paula to go out on such a run on the plane ride home because I knew that whatever was going to happen to Steve was going to be very horrifying, and I didn't want to risk Phineas or Milo coming into the coms room and seeing anything. Looks like my fifteen-year-old saw through my plan.

"I used the smuggler's chute to come here, there's no way back into Abel for me now," Kefilwe continues. She wrings her hands nervously. "Sigrid let me treat people again. I've left my patients. I've left my friends. It is so stupid!"

"It's not stupid, Doctor," Janine says, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We all risk a lot for those we care for."

"He's just a friend," She replies a bit too quickly.

"It's not a coincidence, is it?" Sam asks, frowning. "That Sigrid's done this now?"

Janine shakes her head. "She knows I'm alive. We ditched the plane at sea. She won't have been able to track us, but she wants me. Even if she doesn't know that we found the chalice and those ancient books in the cave, she wants to find us."

"Yeah. I could hear it in her voice. She's one of those people who goes stone cold when she's angry. I had a teacher like that at school. The nicest he ever was was just before he was going to explode. Bloody terrifying."

"This gambit is an attempt to draw me out."

"Also, can I just say, Ian's gone full-on Roman emperor now," Peter says. "He should be wearing a toga and having meaningful chats with a young Tony Curtis in a bathhouse."

"I think that dragging a man behind your chariot is Greek," Kefilwe corrects. "The Iliad, not the Aeneid."

"So that's really what he's doing?" Milo asks, and I cringe at just how small his voice sounds, at how big his eyes are. He tries to act strong, like he can handle seeing this kind of stuff, but just because he's seen horrible things before doesn't mean he's prepared to see it again. I learned that from experience.

"Oh, yes. The Minister has finished with Steven now. She threw him to Ian and said he could do what he liked with him."

Peter crosses his arms. "And what he likes is announcing to Abel that he's going to drag Steve around a ruined city off the back of a motorized chariot until he dies of bleeding and wounds, yes?"