The Spyglass by Tyler Scott Hess

Author:Tyler Scott Hess [Hess, Tyler Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Steel Trap

“I DON’T LIKE this,” I say, watching the crowds through my spyglass.

“Do you have a better idea to get us all the way to the other side of Ariel so fast?” Rafe answers.

“Not any that I like better than yours,” I say, lowering my line of sight, putting away the spyglass, and leaning my back against the wall we’re hiding behind. “But that doesn’t make this one great.”

I look to Maia, but she’s been scowling at the crowd since we arrived.

“What’s the plan to get down there, Rafe?” Wiley asks his brother. “What’s our approach?”

“I’m more concerned with getting back out once we’re in,” Felicity says. “There must be thousands of people at this festival. You’d think it was Independence Day.”

“Oh, it’s much worse than that as far as crowd control is concerned,” Rafe tells us. “But it’s a better situation for us. See all those angry people holding signs and screaming unmentionable words? They’re protesters. They’re letting their voices be heard, which is great for us because we want to go unnoticed.”

“What’s their issue?” Wiley asks. “They’re far from any danger.”

“They were,” Rafe answers. “But remember Arrigo’s declaration of intent? He’s going to draft teenagers into the war against their will. These people had no problem with grunts being sent to the battle lines to fight for their wages, but the elites don’t want to send their own children into battle, and now they know that even they aren’t safe from his authority.”

“I think I liked your plan better than I did a minute ago,” I say as I begin to compute his rationale. Rafe wants to use the protest as a distraction. I don’t know if it’s worth the risk, but we have to get to Evansville, that cursed place. I wonder - have they really changed for the better? My father refused to take me in the years leading up to our incarceration. Too dangerous. I only have faint childhood memories, nothing more than playtime with other children. The last time I was there, when I fled from the Vespasian, the town was a drunken mess. “Are you certain the crowd will be able to distract them? I’m not sure if these people have it in them for a strong enough protest to meet our needs.”

“See those black armored trucks rolling into the square?” Rafe points to a long line of military vehicles swooping in to carry out President Arrigo’s orders. “They will be the ones causing the uproar. If Arrigo had sent in politicians, they would have given the people meaningless answers and the crowd would have died down with the sunset. But Arrigo doesn’t want peace, he wants unrest, and we’re going to use our insight into that information to our advantage.”

“I see a path to our destination,” Maia informs us. That’s why she was staring so intently. “It’s a good thing we haven’t been eating well or we might not squeeze through those rocks. But to go unnoticed…that still might be a tough ask.

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