Joan Undone

Chapter 24

Kat sees me first, and my world narrows to two choices. I can scream at Justus for bringing another girl to our place, or I can gather up my heart from the floor, shove it back in my chest, and use every lesson I've learned at Seattle Secondary to act like I'm more than a sniveling little teenager with a broken heart.

"Hey, party people!" I say.

Too loud, too merry.

Justus sees me now, too, and he takes a step toward me, like he wants to explain. But instead, he lets his hands drop to his sides and takes a step back, closer to Kat.

"What do you need?" he asks.

"Sorry to drag you back to business, but we need your people skills on a new problem."

"Of course," Kat says. "We shouldn't have been gone for so long."

"You both deserved a break," I say, turning away to hide my face.

"Joan, we're not—" Kat begins, but she abruptly stops.

I turn and see that Justus is giving her a stern look. She bows her head, chastised, though I'm not sure why. They have their own unspoken language now.

"Let's go," Justus says, brushing past me into the tunnels.

Justus is ready for us to be friends, and I accepted a date with Nic. This is how things should be. But none of those words fill up the hollow space in my chest.

~ ~ ~

The surprises of the day keep coming when I discover a holo message from Governor Woods on my school tablet, inviting me to meet with her the following week.

Elizabeth peers over my shoulder. "You should go see her as soon as possible."

I shake my head as I watch a growing crowd gathering in the Bunker for dinner. "I'm going to decline. We need to get Marie fully prepped to deal with Al."

"Leave Marie to Justus," Elizabeth says. "We need to make political inroads, and Governor Woods could be a powerful ally or a formidable enemy. You have to focus on the overall war Throwbacks are fighting for equal rights, not get engulfed in the current battles with Lexi and Crew."

"But these battles are important. And dangerous," I argue. "It feels wrong to ask others to bear risks that I'm not taking myself."

"That's not your choice to make. Even I cannot deny that everyone here looks to you for vision. Give it to them," Elizabeth says.

Her words remind me of what Justus told me about not getting mired in the daily fire drills that are a part of life in Seattle. How irritating that she's right, yet again.

"Fine, I'll meet Governor Woods," I say, and Elizabeth gives me a superior nod of approval.

"Take Sun with you. He's better with people than you are and will make sure that you don't make an enemy instead of an ally."

The rest of the week unfolds more quietly than usual. Crew's mobs are scattered, unorganized, and the National Guard has no trouble stomping them out before lives are lost. But the lack of action makes me uneasy. It feels like we're in the eye of a hurricane, and soon, the winds are going to hit us harder than ever before. We have to be ready.

The morning of my brunch with the governor, Sun and I get ready in the Bunker.

"Do you think she'll try anything underhanded?" I ask him, pacing the room as he finishes his breakfast.

"You saved her life. She's not going to throw us in jail or have us lashed for insubordination. Still..."

"She must want something from me," I finish for him.