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He couldn’t blurt it right out. Maybe inching his way up to the problem would be best. “How’s it going?”
“Well, a lot to get through.” Roni lifted a hand in an unconscious gesture to brush away hair that wasn’t there. An old habit, which John had noticed whenever they had been on-call together, and a surefire indicator that Roni was harried, overworked, in need of a break. Paperwork, of course, and then addressing each of the kid’s problems. “Like that boy with the asthma. I don’t have many inhalers on me, but…” She stopped herself. “This isn’t what you want to talk about.”
She knew him well. “You do a head count?” he asked.
“Do a…” She shook her head. “No, I just got down to work. Why? John, what’s the matter?”
“The numbers. They don’t add up. There are too many kids, Roni.”
“Too many…?” Her voice trailed off as her eyes widened. Her mouth formed a small, astonishedo.“You’re sure?”
Would we be having this conversation if I wasn’t?“Twenty-seven kids. That’s what Shahida said. Tell me I didn’t hallucinate that.”
“You didn’t hallucinate that,” she said, her voice faint. “But…?”
“But that’s not how many I counted.”
“How many? I’m assuming you counted the boys in my group, too.”
“Yeah.” He pulled in a long breath. “Thirty-two.”
“What?” The word dropped from her mouth. “You’re sure? Shahida said?—”
He interrupted. “Roni, we’re not talking relativistic equations. I got eighteen boys. Counted them twice. You’ve got fourteen. In my land, that adds up to?—”
“Oh, my God.” Turning, Roni slumped back against stone, closed her eyes, and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Oh, my God.”
“I don’t think a deity’s gonna swoop down to save us here.”
“Don’t joke.”
“I’m not. Roni, we’re in some deep doo-doo here.”
“What are we going to do?” She gave him a stricken look. “John, we don’t have enough room. With only four vehicles, we barely have room as it is. What are we going to do?”
He hooked a thumb over a shoulder. “Let’s go talk to Driver and Mac. Then we all four go find Shahida. She’s got some ‘splaining to do.”
3
“What do you mean,she’s not here?” John asked.
“Exactly what I said.” Mac sounded like an aggrieved restaurant patron who’d just found a hair in his vichyssoise. “Driver and I went looking for her an hour ago.”
“Not that there are many places she might have gone,” Driver rapped. The glare bouncing off the desert beyond the main cavern’s entrance washed the color from Driver’s face, turning him as pallid as new bone. The skin under his bloodshot eyes looked bruised, yet unlike Meeks and Flowers, who’d been catching a few winks, John and Roni had found him pacing. “All we know is Musa’s jeep is gone, and she didn’t say a word to anyone. They must’ve left when we were getting you guys set up.” To Mac: “I told you, we needed to watch her. She’s been angry ever since we said there was a limit to what we could do. You know she blames you for this. That you guys didn’t move faster.”
“The thought,” Mac said, dryly, “had crossed my mind.”
Blames him for what?“You haven’t called her?” John asked.
“No comms, man. Remember?” Flowers stifled a yawn. “Except in emergencies.”
“This doesn’t qualify?”
“We don’tneedcomms.” Driver’s tone held an almost manic intensity. “Weknowwhat she’s doing, if not exactlywhere.”
“Uh-huh.” Driver was, John thought, pretty wired. How many uppers had he tossed back? “And what is that?”
“Iknow,” Roni said, her voice faint. “She’s gathering more boys, isn’t she?”