Betrayed

Chapter Fifteen

"You do most of your trading with local settlements, right?" I ask, figuring that if Luuk thinks its the trading that's off about this place, then I might as well start there.

David sets his sandwich on his plate. "Yes, and we also have a few deals with select Camaraderie agents. Helps us get some of the non-regional ingredients and supplies. More expensive."

"Like the strawberries?" I guess.

"Well, there's a small settlement a few hours from here that's willing to trade strawberries for iron ore. They're expensive, though, so we only have them for the newcomers."

Nia pauses in mid-bite of a strawberry, as if feeling guilty for taking it. Erin, however, continues to nom primarily on the berries, unphased.

"A few hours?" Nia's gaze flicks to Florencia and then back to David. "We got here yesterday. You went all that way in such a short time? When it isn't safe? Florencia mentioned the raiders attack supply runs."

David shrugs. "Chieko was already out. I gave her a call and had her grab the berries while she was running her errands."

Florencia twists a strawberry between her fingertips, slowly, as if it might reveal some unknown secret. Red juice stains her fingertips. "I don't remember getting strawberries when I came in."

"Sorry." David smiles apologetically. "We started trading for them after you got here."

Erin looks up from where she's been nibbling at one of the fruits. "You have plant elementals, don't you?"

"Yes. Why?"

"If strawberries are so profitable, why don't you grow those here? Wouldn't it be more useful than the poppies? Then everybody could have strawberries." She returns to nibbling the same plump strawberry she's been holding, but her eyes don't leave David.

He starts to speak, and then shuts his mouth again, as if at a loss for how to respond. "We could probably look into that in the future. I'll have Chieko run the analysis. See how it affects our trade options."

Good. We've got him off guard. Now for the more important questions. "That reminds me," I add, "what does the Community need with a beast army if there's nothing for them to fight? They already have Special Forces, and we never saw beasts in the Community, so it's not like they're being put to use there. If the Camaraderie simply wanted people with powers out of the equation, they could have killed us. What do they really want with us? Surely they don't need beasts to fight raiders. Not when they could simply bomb the raider settlements and go back to life as usual."

David fixes me with a look I can't quite explain. It's not anger, per se. It's... something weird. As if he doesn't like me but is doing everything he can to mask that. I've definitely gotten that look from teachers before, though none felt quite so... dangerous.

"Honestly?" He sighs and leans back in his chair. "I don't know why they want beasts. I've asked the agents who take our bribes, but there are some things they won't tell us."

Florencia swirls her glass of water, thoughtful. "How come we never see anyone from the other settlements? I know Chieko handles all the deals and that she visits with them, but it might be nice if they could come visit us once in a while. Build a larger Community?"

David shoves a sliding piece of tomato back inside his sandwich. "I wouldn't say they're Community. They... didn't build the same sort of trust with each other the way we did."

"But we might be able to build a better system to fight raiders," Florencia points out. "Imagine an early alert system. We could help each other. And we could have group get-togethers... We could share stories once in a while." She grins.