The Deepest of Secrets: a Rockton novel by Kelley Armstrong

Author:Kelley Armstrong [Armstrong, Kelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: K.L.A. Fricke Inc

22

Build a new ark. A new Rockton. Is it even possible? I don’t know. Right now, we must focus on dismantling this one.

Having made our decision, we move quickly. We need to, if the first flight out is in two days. Also, moving quickly will keep us busy. There will be time later to plan “New Rockton.” We still have a town to shut down, and we need to make that as painless as possible for the residents.

That isn’t easy. I keep thinking about the new town. Who will join us? Isabel, Mathias, Petra, Kenny, Anders, and April have committed to giving it a shot. Who else? Maryanne? Sebastian? Would Nicole and Jacob at least want to live there part-time? And what do we do with someone like Jen? Even if we dared offer her a spot, would we trust her with the secret? Yet if we didn’t, and she found out, it would be worse. Would we want to start a new Rockton already admitting residents we don’t trust? Isn’t that the first step down a slippery slope? And then there’s Diana. I don’t even want to think about Diana.

What will we need to run it? Émilie has promised to back us financially. Part of me wants to refuse and do it myself—I inherited over a million from my parents. But we trust Émilie, and I’m not sure that having me finance the town will be any more comfortable. How would I expect people to treat me if I own the town?

Stop.

Just stop.

I can’t, though. My galloping mind will not be reined in. So after some of the others leave and it’s just me, Dalton, Phil, and Isabel, I make notes to get them out of my head while the others plan the exodus schedule.

Brandon and Conrad are on the first plane out. That goes without saying. Is it wrong that I want to add Marissa? I’m still angry at her defection. She hurt Anders, and I want her gone.

They do add Jolene to the list. That reminds me of what we heard this morning, but like Dalton said, she’s probably holed up somewhere, sleeping off a rough night. She is trouble, though, so she goes on the first plane. Ted, too. And possibly Gloria. Get help for her alcoholism, in recognition that Rockton—by way of Conrad—set her back.

A few other troublemakers are added to the first two planes. Then Phil and Dalton divide the town into essential and nonessential workers. We won’t use those terms, because they’re the ones we’ve used to assess privileges and this is a different thing. Bakers, like Devon and Brian, aren’t considered essential, because they can be easily replaced. Oh, I’d argue that no one can truly replace Brian, but the point is that baking is a teachable skill in a way that medicine is not.

We are at the point, however, where we cannot train a baker. Or even a new shop clerk. We must look at what we’ll need to keep running, and in that context everything changes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.