The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones

Author:Holly Goddard Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Published: 2017-09-05T04:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Within three hours of Tia’s escape, the hostages, once again with wrists zip-tied, were moved roughly at gunpoint, through a driving rain, from Town Hall to a grim corrugated storage building with narrow horizontal windows positioned near the ceiling, so that only the tops of trees and a wedge of night sky were visible. A single doorway separated inside from out, and it would be guarded at all times, June promised, by an armed villager. A curtain strung up in a corner hid a waste bucket. “The facilities,” June said, loading those two words with more malice than Edie would have imagined possible. The floor was oiled dirt.

The group clumped together, cold and soaked, in the middle of the room, trembling as June directed Joe and Randall to pat them each down. Their backpacks had already been confiscated. Into a satchel the shoes went. “What’s going on?” Lee kept saying. “What are you doing?”

“Where’s Tia?” Edie dared to ask. Afraid of the answer.

“Gone,” June said. She gave Edie a shrewd look. “She killed two of our villagers and took off. A nineteen-year-old girl and a seventeen-year-old boy. Good kids. Really good kids. They were found in the woods with their heads bashed in.”

Edie looked at Wes before she could stop herself. His eyes widened, and he shook his head, an anguished expression flickering across his face. I didn’t know she was going to do that, the headshake said. It wasn’t part of the plan.

“Those so-called good kids had guns,” Berto said.

“They weren’t loaded. But that’s not a mistake we’ll make again.”

“What are you going to do to us?” Wes asked.

“I haven’t decided,” June said. “I’d hoped to work this out peacefully. I had thought I could have you back on your way home in a few weeks’ time. But that required some trust and goodwill.”

Marta snorted. “Trust and goodwill.”

“That’s funny to you?” June asked.

“It’s absurd to me,” said Marta tiredly. “And not funny at all.”

June’s lip curled. “I was talking to Wes when this news came in.” She was addressing the larger group now. “We seemed to be close to an understanding. A mutually beneficial arrangement. Maybe Wes will tell you about it. Maybe that understanding isn’t out of reach. But I can’t look at any of you right now.” With that, she walked out. Randall followed her, eyeing each of them with cold amusement, and pulled the door closed behind him. A deadbolt turned.

The rain roared against the metal roof. It was a sound Edie normally loved, but tonight it felt like an assault. Like the sky was falling in.

“What’s this arrangement she mentioned?” Ken Tanaka asked. All eyes shifted to Wes.

He squirmed under the scrutiny. There were red streaks marking the chest of his microsuit, and angry red blotches on both of his cheeks. June had left them with a single lantern, and it flickered wanly across his face. “It’s a long story. Marta, you’ll have to help me tell it.”

—

“I don’t believe it,” Lee said. “I don’t believe a word of it.

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.