did you do it? Had you hidden weapons?”
“A few, but not enough,” she said. “They were thorough, in the weeks after they sealed the city. There were searches and raids, and rewards if people turned each other in for concealing contraband. They had us pretty well disarmed. Not to mention afraid.
“It was the pumpkins that gave us the idea,” she went on. “You’d already used the food against them once—we just did it again. They had us cooking for them, you see. They were stupid to trust us, especially after they’d taken the children. I even heard two of them talking, when the gate shifts changed over, the day after they’d taken the kids away. Expecting trouble tonight, after yesterday? one of them said to the soldier coming off shift. His friend just shrugged, said, Why? It’s not as if it’s even their kids.”
I was watching the Ringmaster. His face was expressionless.
“They took all the children under ten,” June went on. “They cleared out the holding houses, and I saw the soldiers dragging my neighbor’s adopted children away, kicking and screaming.” Her face hardened. “So when we got your message, we were ready to act. There’s belladonna, climbing up the embankment behind the market square. And hemlock, in the ditches by the wall. Four of us sneaked out after the curfew, to pick as much as we could. Even then, we couldn’t poison all the soldiers. The first shift was already getting sick not long after sunset, before the next shift came into the mess hall. Some of them died. A lot more were collapsing. They realized pretty quickly what we’d done. Had already whipped three of the cooks by the time the attack started. It would have gotten ugly, in here, if you hadn’t attacked when you said you would.”
It was already ugly, I thought, picturing the slow deaths of the poisoned soldiers. But I had no right to judge June for it. The people of New Hobart had done what we asked, more successfully than I could have imagined.
June turned to face the Ringmaster. “But we didn’t risk everything just to find ourselves under a new occupying force.”
The Ringmaster stood. “You’re not the only one who risked everything. I’ve given up my seat on the Council. My soldiers have risked their lives to defend you. Your ragtag army of Omegas was on the brink of being massacred when we arrived. If you think your forces are capable of withstanding a Council attack on New Hobart, I invite you to take over the defense of the town. Until then, be grateful.”
“Grateful?” spat Zoe.
“I don’t relish working with you any more than you do with me,” he said quietly. “We all want to stop the machines. I don’t wish harm on you people. Not like the Reformer or the General. I just want to manage the situation, to avoid another catastrophe like the blast.”
“Manage the situation,” I said. “All of us in refuges, eventually—that’s what you mean, isn’t it? Locked out of sight, in work camps, where we can’t be seen, let alone have lives of our own.”
At my raised voice, Xander began rocking backward and forward, hands pressed over his ears.
The Ringmaster ignored him. “It would mean security and stability, for Omegas as well as Alphas,” he said. “And it’s better than what your twin is proposing.”
“They’re not our choices,” shouted Piper. “We don’t have to choose between you and him, or the General—”
“We’re wasting time,” said Sally, interrupting. “This isn’t going to help us. We fought together, and we won. That’s more than we expected. We’ve kept this town from the tanks. But it’s only the beginning. If we bicker, we’ll just make it easier for the Council to fight back.” She turned to the Ringmaster. “How much of the army do you command, and will they stay loyal to you?”
If he was taken aback at having to answer to an old woman in a threadbare shawl, he didn’t show it.
“I’d say perhaps half the army will follow me, if it comes to that,” he said. “The Reformer and the General have been so seduced by the machines, they’ve underestimated what the taboo means to most people. I’ve had defectors coming to me, ever since the first rumors about the machines began to spread. Most of those who aren’t already here have left Wyndham, to muster to the west, inland of Sebald’s Bay.”
June stood. “My people aren’t happy that there are still soldiers manning the walls, whether they