of it he can’t build again; it was all destroyed. The relics he’s tracked down are incomplete. He used to talk a lot about fuel, and other materials he couldn’t get hold of. But he knows such difficulties aren’t the only obstacle. It’s the taboo. If he came out of Wyndham tomorrow riding on some kind of electrical carriage, he’d be lynched. People wouldn’t stand for it—the fear of the machines is too strong.” I remembered how Piper had paled when he stood in the shadow of the tanks; how even Zoe had moved warily around the hanging wires and the pipes. “Knowing about the tanks is what’s driven half the army over to me,” the Ringmaster said. “People won’t stand for the machines, not yet—and harnessing that fear is the only thing that gives us a chance to stand against your twin and the General.”
“You’re right that the machines are dangerous,” I said. “But it’s more dangerous to ignore this. The Council wouldn’t have cracked down so hard on Joe if they didn’t have some idea of the significance of the papers. Xander said that there are people in the Ark again, wherever it is. I’d bet my life that Zach and the General have found the Ark, probably long ago. The papers in the trunk would be only a fraction of what the Ark must’ve held, and they’re important enough to keep the Council searching.” I waved at the trunk that sat open before me. “There could be maps of Elsewhere, in here, or of the Ark itself. Designs for weapons, maybe, or machines and medicines that could help Omegas. Who knows what else.”
“Exactly.” The Ringmaster spoke over me. “You’re messing with things that you can’t understand.”
“She understands more than you know,” growled Sally. “And you’d understand more if you let her speak.”
I tried to give my words the same certainty that I’d always envied in Piper and Zoe. “We can’t stop Zach and the General unless we know what they’re doing,” I said.
“I’m the one whose troops are standing between this town and certain defeat,” he said. My voice had been rising as we argued; his remained low and steady. It was more menacing than if he’d shouted. “Without my soldiers, you’d be overrun in no time. Tanked, by the same machines that you want to seek out. The soldiers have followed me because they know I’m making a stand to protect them against the machines. If I betray that trust, we lose their loyalty, and New Hobart will fall.”
“There could be knowledge in this trunk that could change everything,” I said. “Not just the kind of change you’re used to thinking of, like a different ruler for the Council, or even a more merciful system of refuges and tithes. I mean real change. A chance to find out what the Before really was, and what they could do. Whether Elsewhere exists, and whether they do things differently there. The kind of thing that could change everything, forever. The kind of change that might have saved your wife and your children.”
He stepped forward, and grabbed my wrist. “Nothing’s going to save them. How dare you even bring them into it?”
Piper and Zoe had both sprung forward, and I heard knives drawn, a sound like flints being struck. I kept my eyes fixed on the Ringmaster’s. I was thinking of Elsa’s words, in the holding house kitchen: there will always be more children.
“You’re right,” I said. “Nothing can save them. But there are other wives, other husbands. Other children not born yet. The question is whether you’re too afraid of knowledge to give them a chance of a different world.”
For a long time he kept holding my wrist. Then, with a shove, he pushed me away.
“Take the papers. Search them. But I expect a full report of everything that you find.”
Ω
. . . Now we have reached Yr. 20, there can be no more deluding ourselves. The Ark’s stated aim, prior to the detonations, of gathering the most distinguished in their respective fields, has inevitably resulted in a population of advanced age. There are now 1,280 people inside the Ark of whom fewer than 20% are of breeding age. Since the detonation, there have been only 348 births, more than 70% of which occurred in the first decade. It is self-evident that there is no viable breeding population within the Ark. While our supplies will last for many further decades, and the nuclear power cells will outlast us