The Ask and the Answer (47 page)

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The roar starts to get louder, filling the darkening sky.

"That don't sound like no bomb," Davy says.

The Mayor looks at me. "Viola, is there-"

He stops and then turns his head.

And we all realize-

It's not coming from the east.

"Over there," Davy points, raising his hand toward the falls, toward where the sky is bright pink with sunset.

The Mayor looks at me again. "That's too loud for a simple tracer." His face tightens. "Have they got missiles?" He takes a step so big he's almost on top of me.
"Have they built missiles?"

"You
back off!"
Todd yells, trying to get between us again.

"I will
know what
this is, Viola!" the Mayor says. "You will tell me!"

"I don't
know
what it is!" I say.

Todd's shouting and threatening, "You lay a
finger
on her-"

"It's getting louder!" Davy shouts, putting his hands to his ears. We all turn and watch the western horizon, watch as a dot rises, getting lost in the last of the sun before reappearing, growing larger as it comes.

As it comes straight for the city.

"Viola!"
the Mayor shouts, through clenched teeth, sending some Noise at me but I don't feel whatever it is that men feel.

"I DON'T KNOW!" I yell.

And then Davy, who hasn't stopped watching it, says, "It's a ship."

476

41 THE MOMENT OF DAVY PRENTISS

***

[TODD]

It's a ship.

It's a ruddy
ship.

"Yer people," i say to Viola.

But she's shaking her head, tho not to say no, just staring at it as it rises over the falls.

"Too small for a settler ship," Davy says.

"And too early," the Mayor says, aiming his rifle at it as if he could shoot it from this distance. "They're not due for another two months at least."

But Viola still ain't looking like she can hear any of this, hope rising on her face so painful it hurts my heart just to see it. "A scout," she whispers, so quiet I'm the only one who hears it. "Another scout. Sent to look for me."

I turn back to the ship.

It clears the crest of the falls, soaring out over the river.

A scout ship, just like the one she crashed in back in the

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swamp, killing her parents and stranding her here all those months and lifetimes ago. It still looks as big as a house, stubby wings looking too short to keep it in the air, flames coming outta the tail end as it flies flies flies down the river, using it as a road hundreds of feet below. We watch it come.

"David," the Mayor says, his eyes still on it. "Get my horse."

But Davy's got his face up to the sky, his Noise opening up in wonder and amazement.

And I know exactly how he feels.

Nothing flies on New World except the birds. We got machines that go down the roads, fissionbikes, a few fissioncars, but mainly we just got horses and oxes and carts and our feet.

We don't got
wings.

The ship comes down the river, nearing the cathedral and flying almost right over us, not stopping, so close you can see lights on the underside and the sky above the exhaust shimmering with the heat. It flies right on past, down the river.

Down east toward the Answer.

"David!"
the Mayor says sharply.

"Help me up," Viola whispers. "I have to get to them. I have to
go."

And her eyes are wild and her breath is heavy and she's staring at me so hard it's like a solid thing I can feel.

"Oh, he'll help you up," the Mayor says, pointing the gun. "Because you're coming with me."

"What?"
Viola says.

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"They're
your
people, Viola," the Mayor says. "They're going to be wondering where you are. I can either bring you to them right away..." He looks at me. "Or I can sadly inform them that you died in the crash. Which would you prefer?"

"I'm not going with
you,"
she says. "You're a liar and a murderer-"

He cuts her off. "David, you'll remain guard over Todd while I take Viola to her ship." He looks back at her. "I think you know firsthand my son's eagerness with a gun if you don't cooperate."

Viola looks furiously at Davy. I look at Davy, too, standing there, rifle in hand, looking back and forth twixt me and his pa.

His Noise roiling.

His Noise saying clearly there ain't no way he's
ever
gonna shoot me. "Pa?" he says.

"Enough of this, David," the Mayor frowns, trying to catch Davy's eye-And catching it.

"You will do what I say," he says to his son. "You will tie Todd up with the rope he so helpfully brought and you will stand guard over him and when I return with our newly arrived guests, everything will be peaceful and happy. The new world will begin."

"New world," Davy mumbles, his eyes glazing over, just like the ginger-haired soldier, askings and doubt being pushed outta his Noise.

As he bends to the will of another.

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I get an idea. Forgive me, Davy.

"You gonna let him talk to you like that, Davy?"

He blinks. "What?"

He looks away from his pa.

"You gonna let him point a gun at me and Viola?"

"Todd," the Mayor warns.

"All that Noise you say you hear," I say to the Mayor but I still look at Davy, still hold his eye. "All the way you say you know
everything,
but you don't know yer own son very well, now, do ya?"

"David," the Mayor says.

But I got Davy's eye now.

"You gonna let him get his way again?" I say to him. "You gonna let him boss you round with no reward?"

Davy watches me nervously, trying to blink away the mess his pa's put in his head.

"That ship changes everything, Davy," I say. "A whole new batch of people. A whole city's worth to try and make this place something better than the stinking toilet it is."

"David,"
the Mayor says. There's a flash of Noise and Davy flinches.

"Stop it, Pa," he says.

"Who do you want to get to that ship first, Davy?" I say. "Me and Viola to get some help? Or yer pa so he can rule them, too?"

"Be
quiet?"
says the Mayor. "Are you forgetting who has the gun?"

"Davy has one, too," I say.

480

***

There's a bit of a pause as we all see Davy remember he's holding a rifle.

There's another flash of Noise from the Mayor and another flinch from Davy. "Jesus,
Pa,
effing quit it already!"

But he looks at his pa to say it.

And his pa catches his eyes again.

"Tie Todd up and get my horse, David," the Mayor says, holding his stare.

"Pa?" Davy says, his voice gone quiet.

"My horse," says the Mayor. "He's out back."

"Get between them." Viola hisses at me. "Break the eye contact!"

I move but the Mayor turns the gun on her without taking his eyes off Davy. "One move, Todd." I stop.

"Bring me my horse, son," says the Mayor, "and we'll greet the new settlers side by side." He smiles at his son. "You'll be my prince."

"He said that before," I say to Davy. "But not to you."

"He's controlling you," Viola shouts. "He's using his Noise to--"

"Please tell Viola to be quiet," the Mayor says. "Be quiet, Viola," Davy says, his voice soft, his eyes not blinking.

"Davy!"
I shout.

"He's just trying to control you, David," the Mayor says, his voice rising. "Like he's done from the start."

"What?"
I say.

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"From the start," Davy mumbles.

"Who do you think's held you back from promotion, son?" the Mayor's saying it and he's saying it right into the middle of Davy's brain. "Who do you think tells me all the things you do wrong?"

"Todd?" Davy says weakly.

"He's
lying,"
I say. "Look at me!"

But Davy's overloading. He's just staring frozen at his pa, not moving at all.

The Mayor gives a heavy sigh. "i see I have to do this myself."

He comes forward, gesturing us back with his rifle. He grabs Viola and lifts her to her feet. She cries out from the pain in her ankles. I move automatically to help but he pushes her forward so she's right in front of him, his rifle at her back.

i open my mouth to shout, to threaten, to damn him-But it's Davy who speaks first. "It's landing," he says quietly.

We all turn eastward. The ship is taking a slow circle, flying around a hilltop east of town--

Maybe even the one where the tower once stood-- It comes round again and hovers above the treetops-Before slowly starting to lower itself out of sight-I turn to Davy, too, see his eyes fogged and confused-But he ain't looking at his pa no more-He's looking at the ship-

And then he's turning his head and looking at me-

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"Todd?" he says, like he's just waking up-And his rifle is just there, just hanging from his hand-- And one more time-Forgive
me.

I lunge forward and snatch it from him. He don't even put up any resistance, just lets it go, lets it go right into my fingers and I'm already raising it and cocking it and pointing it at the Mayor.

Who's already smiling, his gun still in Viola's back. "So it's a standoff, is it?" he says, grinning from ear to ear. "Let her go," I say.

"Please take your gun back from Todd, David," the Mayor says, but he has to keep looking at me, watching me with the gun.

"Don't you do no such thing, Davy."

"Stop it!" Davy says, his voice thick, his Noise rising. I sense him putting his hands to the sides of his head. "Can't you both just effing
stop it?"

But the Mayor's still looking at me and I'm still looking at the Mayor.

The sound of the ship landing screams over the city, over the Noise of the army marching its way back down the hill, over the distant
booms
of the Answer making its way up the road, and over the terrified, hidden of New

Prentisstown all around us, not knowing that their whole future depends on this, right now, right this second, me and the Mayor with our rifles.

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"Let her go," I say.

"I don't think so, Todd." I hear a rumble of Noise coming from him.

"My finger's on this trigger," I say. "You try to hit me with yer Noise and yer a dead man."

The Mayor smiles. "Fair enough," he says. "But what you need to ask yourself, my dear friend Todd, is if, when you decide to finally pull that trigger, can you pull it fast enough so that I don't also pull my own? Will killing me kill your beloved Viola, too?" He lowers his chin. "Could you live with that?"

"You'd be dead," I say.

"So would she."

"Do it, Todd," Viola says. "Don't let him win."

"That ain't happening neither," I say. "Are you going to let him point a gun at your own father, David?" the Mayor asks.

But he's still looking at me.

"Times are changing, Davy," i say, eyes still on the Mayor. "This is where we all decide how it's gonna be. Including you."

"Why's it have to be like this?" Davy asks. "We could all go together. We could all ride up on horseback and-"

"No, David," says the Mayor. "No, that won't do at all."

"Put the gun down," i say. "Put it down and end this."

The Mayor's eyes flash and I know what's coming--

"You stop that," I say, blinking furiously and looking over his shoulder.

"You cannot win this," the Mayor says and I hear his voice twice over, three times, a legion of him inside my

484

head. "You cannot shoot me and guarantee her life, Todd. We all know you'd never risk that."

He takes a step forward, pushing Viola along. She calls out at the pain in her ankles.

But I find myself taking a step back.

"Don't look in his eyes," she says.

"I'm trying," I say, but even the
sound
of his voice is getting inside me.

"This isn't a loss, Todd," the Mayor is saying, so loud in my head it feels like my brain's vibrating. "I wish for your death no more than I wish for my own. Everything I said earlier was true. I want you by my side. I want you as part of the future we're going to create here with whoever steps out of that ship."

"Shut
up,"
I say.

But he's still stepping forward.

I'm still stepping back.

Till I'm behind even Davy.

"I want no harm to come to Viola, either," the Mayor says. "All along I promised both of you a future. That promise still stands."

Even without looking right at him, his voice is buzzing in my head, weighing it down, making it seem like it's easier just to--

"Don't listen to him!" Viola shouts. "He's a liar."

"Todd," says the Mayor. "I think of you as my son. I really do."

And Davy turns to me, his Noise rising all hopeful, and he says, "C'mon, Todd, you hear that?"