Joan Undone

Chapter 42

Several hours later, what's left of my team is gathered in the Bunker. Dennis and Marie monitor the surveillance cameras and prepare our limited weapons stash for the big fight. Sun, Kat, and Professor Wilde debate and tweak the plan for our big day. Alison and Tupac are alone in the bunk room, presumably having end-of-the-world sex.

Harriet and I share cold slices of pizza, trying to think of every conceivable loose end that might need to be tied up.

"Do we send the kids in the Lab to safety with E's contacts in the foster system again?" I ask.

"Mav will kill us," Harriet says. "But yes. That is the right call. Mason says Benen is blossoming in his new family. When this is over, I'm going to accept E's offer to rebuild the Seattle foster system. I want to place kids in need with parents they can trust. Scrounging for scraps down here is not what is best for them. I never imagined there could be another way."

"As if we're going to survive this mess," Nic says. He's never far from my side, like a satellite in my orbit that can't break away.

"Perhaps you're right. We may all die. But if we do so unmaking a rebellion that we helped birth, it will be worth it," Harriet says.

"Nic, you can stay underground in the Bunker with Marie," I say.

"You think I'm afraid for myself?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."

"It's okay. Sometimes, I forget that you don't really know me," he says.

Before I can reply to his cryptic remark, Mav enters the Bunker. He throws his arms around Harriet, but I only merit a critical glare.

"Does your mom know you're here?" Harriet asks.

Mav juts out his chin. "I'm my own boss."

"There's something you should know," Harriet says, while I quickly send a message to Mav's mom from my phone. "We're sending the kids back into foster care. It isn't safe down here yet."

Mav flushes, and he turns to face me. "This is your idea! You think you know everything, but you're wrong!"

"They're going to be okay," I plead.

"I agree with her, Mav," Harriet adds.

But Mav's rage doesn't waver. "What if someone puts them in a house with a mean dad who hits them, like mine did? You're supposed to save us!"

"That's what we're trying to do."

"I'll never forgive you for this, Joan! I hate you!"

His words are flung at me with all the passion of youth and certainty. It hurts my heart to think how he'll regret those words when—if—I'm killed fighting Crew's rebellion.

"No matter what, I'll always love you. And I know you love me, too," I say.

"I'm going to go warn my friends in case they want to come to my house instead!" Mav says.

More than anything, I want to hug him one last time. But he'll only beat himself up later for pushing me away. I'll have to hope that he remembers my last words to him, and understands that I know that beneath his anger is love. He leaves the Bunker to search the Lab for his friends, and I watch him till he's gone.

Alison and Tupac come into the main room, looking rumpled and relaxed. Yuck.

"What'd we miss?" Alison asks.

Professor Wilde rises, stretching. "You missed yet another riveting display of temper, this time by the youngest member of our little team. I understand now why you all stay down here in this dank little hole. The drama of this whole venture is positively intoxicating."