terrorism that targeted the very life of the planet left Forensia stunned. In the seconds that followed, she found herself imagining the blazing sky darkening, and an unkind chill sweeping over the land, frosting the brittle trees and barren stream beds.
She entered the barn and opened stalls, still numbed by the news. The cows often wouldn’t budge without Bayou to nip at their heels.
“Go on, move.” She had no patience for them this morning. She turned to Sang-mi, who’d followed her inside. “Would the Koreans in charge of the rockets really do that?”
“The president is crazy, and he makes the people crazy. Crazy people do crazy things.” Sang-mi’s voice was choked. Looking at her, Forensia saw tears pouring from her friend’s eyes. Forensia held her close, felt Sang-mi’s round belly pressed against her own. The baby kicked. The women stepped apart.
“I felt that,” Forensia exclaimed.
“Me, too.”
The barn door creaked, and they both spun around. It was a cow, finally leading the herd to pasture.
Forensia nudged the last of the cows out of the barn. Once they were in the parched pasture, she rested the rifle against the fence and closed the gate.
Again, she looked all around them. She was glad to help Dafoe, but she looked forward to having him back later that day. Over the last week, everything had begun to feel unsettled. Anxious. She was sure that her fear had spiked because of what Sang-mi had told her, but she also had the uncanny feeling that invisible eyes were boring holes in her back.
* * *
I see them. They’re looking all around but they don’t see me. I won’t let them. Not till it’s time. And then all they’ll see is me.
He’s out in the brush, a good hundred and fifty yards away. The talk in town says this is right where the tall one beat a coyote to death and then shot it. Killed three of them. He wouldn’t have figured her for that kind of action. Maybe she’s up to all kinds of fun, especially private stuff with her pregnant friend there. Must get kind of messy in bed when they get going.
He’s kept an eye on her place in town, which is getting downright crowded. First, the Korean moved in, and now a bunch of other Pagans. Supposed to be a tiny two-bedroom. She must like her fun.
When the two of them took off early this morning, he figured the Korean was going to help with the farm chores. And if she was going to do that, even being pregnant and all, he figured that the guy who owned this place needed a lot of help. Turned out he wasn’t even around. That big-name girlfriend down in the city must be keeping him busy.
He looks through the brush and knows he’s got to be careful. Tall one’s got a rifle, and everyone knows now that she’s handy with a gun. You can tell just looking at her. She’s holding that rifle so easy it might as well be a … broomstick.
He laughs quietly, but tells himself to get serious because there’s just no way to get a jump on the two of them out here. You got to be patient, capital “P.” Don’t want to be doing anything rash till it rains.
But he’s glad to see they’re worried. You bet they are. Looking all around, heads twisting this way and that, like they’re possessed.
He backs away. Just to be sure. Can’t let himself be seen. Then he’d have to take corrective action on the spur of the moment, and that’s just not a smart thing to do. You got to get the jump on them, like you got the jump on the old witch. And you’re going to want rain to help you. If it’ll come. He shades his eyes and looks up. Sky looks bleached.
But man, you got to get her, he warns himself. You can’t wait forever because the minute she starts putting two and two together, two and two is going to add up to you.
* * *
Nighttime in North Korea. Satellites from the United States spy on 23 million people, but they capture only darkness blacker than the deepest well. All around the Supreme Leader’s nation, lights burn: in China, Japan, and South Korea. They are visible. They are vulnerable. Their lights burn like stars too weak to stay up in the sky.
But we are blackness. We are invisible. Our enemies shudder, thinks Jae-hwa as he enters the Supreme Leader’s compound.