Page 146 of Dustwalker

“Warlord hasn’t killed any of our neigh?—”

Lara yanked her hand from Ronin’s and slammed it on the table, pushing herself up. “We’reyour fucking neighbors!”

Ronin scanned the others with his optics; their faces bore signs of shock and shame.

“We’ve been your neighbors a long fucking time, and humans and bots are both suffering because of that bastard.” Despite her obvious anger and the pain straining her features, Lara kept her voice steady and her eyes unwavering.

Witnessing such strength in utter defiance of the odds was inspiring, and it made pride flicker across Ronin’s processors.

“Sit down,” Rodriguez said through his teeth.

“Fu—”

“We should hear her out,” William interjected.

Seconds felt like years as Rodriguez and Lara glared at one another across the table. Ronin’s fingers twitched. The tension in the air was nearly thick enough for his dermal sensors to detect.

If it came down to it, he’d fight for her without hesitation, no matter how many soldiers were in this facility.

Rodriguez glanced at the scientist. “I told you, Anderson, you’re here as a formality.”

“We’ve heard stories from our scouts over the years, but they’ve always been just that.” William held out a hand toward Lara, palm-up. “This young lady has experienced it firsthand. She’s suffered because of whatourancestors did.”

“Everyone up there has suffered because of it,” Nancy added.

“I’ve seen with my own optics what he is capable of.” Newton leaned forward, frowning as he looked at Lara. “I was sent out there, into that Wasteland, by your forbears to reactivate more of my kind. The goal was to work toward repairing the world, toward rebuilding civilization. You’ve all lost that vision as much as I had. This woman, who is braver than anyone in this room, has brought us an opportunity to begin what we were always meant to do.”

Ronin looked at Lara. Her cheeks reddened, and she dropped her gaze as she settled back into her seat. When she took his hand again, her grip was clammy and tight. The outburst had cost her.

“The situation has changed,” said Dave Elliot. He was the quartermaster, in charge of the provisions within the base. The man who’d argued Lara was consuming too many resources. “Maybe a hundred years ago, we could’ve gone out and done something, but we have too many problems of our own now. We have to worry about our own people before we risk everything for strangers.”

“Every time I send people out, there’s a strong chance they won’t all come back, and that’s just running for scrap and supplies,” the Colonel said.

Lara stared at him. “So instead, you live in hiding. You cower down here, away from the world, because you’re too afraid to face Warlord.”

Rodriguez surged to his feet and slammed his fists down on the table, making the whole thing rattle. “Every person we lose under my watch is another weight I have to carry with me forever! It’s already too much to ask them to risk their lives for our own, for our survival, to keep their friends and family safe. But you expect me to put everyone here at risk to go to war on behalf of strangers?”

Only the long table separating Lara and the colonel kept Ronin seated in the face of such aggression, though his fingers twitched with the instinct to reach for a firearm he was no longer carrying.

“What will you do when there are too many of you to fit in this place?” Lara asked, surprisingly calm. “When you’re so packed in that you can’t keep up with supplies and food? You’re trapped down here, and he’s as much your ruler as he is Cheyenne’s if you won’t go out and face this.”

Bracing her right hand on the tabletop for support, Lara rose once more, eyes steady on Rodriguez. “Will you deny couples the right to have children and murder their babies? Will you kill anyone who breaks the rules, or refuse to feed people who don’t contribute enough to your cause?”

Nancy turned her head toward Rodriguez. “Our crops are struggling more and more. It’s a miracle they’ve lasted this long. A few more generations, and they won’t be viable.”

“We have other plans in place to—” Dave began.

“It may be decades before we have the breakthroughs to even begin that kind of genetic modification. Our children and grandchildren may not have that much time,” Will said.

“There are resources in Cheyenne,” Ronin offered, not looking away from Rodriguez, who stared down at the table. “Warlord has kept a number of fields producing crops, in addition to cattle and goats. Plus, there are production facilities on the south side of town that are still in limited operation.”

“With those, we can?—”

“Enough,” Rodriguez commanded. The room fell silent again as he lowered himself onto his seat, nostrils flared.

After several moments, Lara sat down with a defeated look on her face.

Seconds ticked away on Ronin’s internal clock, stretching over a minute.