Contain (15 page)

“
He could've killed you,
Dad!”

“
But he didn't,” he says.
The effort makes him wince, which he tries to mask by getting to
his feet. I give him my hand, but he refuses my assistance and
comes dangerously close to toppling over again.

“
You need to sit down,
Dad.”

“
It's alright. Just a cut
is all. Nothing permanent.”

“
It's
not
alright,” Seth Abramson says,
appearing out of nowhere and slipping to my father's other side. I
notice Dad accepts his help without hesitation. “Everyone needs to
be held accountable for their actions. No one has a right to
assault anyone else.” He glares over at my father's attacker. “You
need to leave, Jack. Go get control of yourself before you come
back.”

Jack backs away, mumbling a weak
apology, even as he continues to assert that my father’s
fine.

“
Hold still,” Mister
Abramson tells Dad. “Let me check you out.”

Bren has told me a few times that he
was once a medic in the army, long ago before he got married and
had children and started doing computer work. He's helped Doc train
us how to triage and treat minor injuries, not that there has been
much need for those skills here, not until recently
anyway.

He carefully inspects my father's
eyes, asking him questions to assess his memory and level of
awareness. The answers seem to satisfy him enough that he nods and
says, “I don't think we have to worry about a concussion, but we
should keep an eye on you for a while, just to be safe. I think you
should go to your quarters for some peace and quiet. Finn can keep
an eye on you.”

Dad nods.

“
In the mean time, we still
need to address the situation outside.”

“
Just open the door,” Jonah
mumbles.

But Dad shakes his head. “I'm not
opening—”

“
Then give my dad the code
and I will!”

“
I won't transfer those
codes until and unless we have unanimous agreement from everyone in
the compound.”

“
Like that'll ever happen
now,” Jonah mutters from his perch against the wall. It's loud
enough that everyone can hear, which I think is the point. He
shoots daggers at me with his eyes, because he knows I'll never
agree to force my father to do something he things is wrong,
especially giving the codes to a madman, which Mister Resnick has
apparently turned into.

“
I'm in total agreement
with you, Abe,” Mister Abramson says. “Opening the door without
first knowing who that man out there is, or what he wants, would be
irresponsible. It could compromise the entire bunker.”

“
Thanks, Seth.”

“
On the other hand, we have
to consider that he might have some valuable information. He's been
out in the world. He'll be able to tell us what he's seen. We can't
let an opportunity to learn from him slip through our fingers.
Especially if . . . .”

Especially if there are
still Wraiths out there.

He doesn't have to say it, but now
everyone's thinking it. Well, almost everyone.

Dad sighs. He looks like
he's struggling to think.
Don't,
Dad!
I want to say. But I can't deny that
what Mister Abramson says makes sense. Even if the stranger knows
very little about the Flense, any little bit would only add to our
own meager knowledge base.

“
If you can think of an
alternative,” Dad says.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I
look up and see Bren. There's worry in her eyes. “I just got here,”
she apologizes. “Heard about your father. How is he?”

“
Fine,” I growl, shaking
her off of me and stepping off to the side. Like her dad, her
timing is impeccable, showing up after the danger has already
passed and the damage done. And I'm still pissed at her for bailing
on me up in the watch room.

Stop it!
I order myself.
Stop
being so petty.

But that other voice inside me won't
go away. It wants to know where she went. Why wasn't she here when
Jonah was having fun at my expense, mocking my insecurities? I
could've used someone — anyone— to back me up, because it sure
as hell wasn't going to be Dad.

Damn it, Finn. Grow a
pair. You're an adult now.

I watch Dad make his way back over to
the intercom. He's still a little shaky on his feet and has to lean
up against the wall. He lifts a hand to his head and presses, and
his breath is a sharp whistle. But when he pulls away to check his
fingers, there's very little new blood to be seen, just the pale
glistening wetness of lymph. The bleeding has stopped. And
quickly.

“
Hello?” he says into the
intercom. “Williams? Can you hear me?”

The man in the monitor spins around.
His face is twisted with emotion. “What the hell's going on in
there? Why won't you open the door and come out? I'm not
infected!”

“
Sorry. Listen, we have
some concerns. You understand that, don't you? We're going to need
some more information before we feel comfortable enough to open
this door.”

Bren pulls at me, but I ignore her.
I'm trying to see the image on the monitor. I need to see what's
happening out there. I'm still deeply suspicious of the stranger.
But everyone else is jostling forward again, blocking my
view.

I catch a glimpse of Dad resting his
head on his elbow against the wall beside the screen. Even from my
vantage point, he looks a little green around the gills, and for a
moment I think he's going to be sick.

“
Finn,” Bren whispers, “I
need to talk to you—”

“
Not now,” I
whisper.

“
Please
, Finn.”

There's an urgency in her voice that
makes me look at her, and in her eyes I can see that she's
genuinely upset.

“
What?” I snap, a bit
sharper than I intend. I'm torn between being worried about my
father and being angry with her. The stress of the situation is
making it hard for me to control my emotions, much less my
actions.

“
It's about
Hannah.”

But before she can explain, there's
another commotion over by the intercom. “Open it up, Abraham!”
someone shouts. It's Rory Newsom. “Christ have mercy, just let the
man in!”

Is it a Wraith?

I push past Bren and force my way
along the opposite wall toward the front door, hoping for a better
view. In the past, I would have found it hard to deal with all
these bodies so close to me, but right now I barely even notice
them. “What's happening?” I ask.

Fran Rollins turns and shakes her
head. She calls over to her sons, Jacob and Jareth.

Like typical teenagers, both of the
boys have pushed their way in front of everyone else. Jareth turns
and says, “He's threatening to leave.”

Fran turns back to me. I'm not sure,
but the look on her face seems to suggest that it's time I
intervened with my father.

“
Yup, definitely going to
leave,” Jacob relays over the crowd at us. “Your dad's telling him
to be patient, but he's not listening. He's saying that we
all
need to agree, that
it's not just his decision.”

“
He's walking away!” Jareth
shouts.

“
Will he come back?” Fran
asks me. “What if he does? What if he tries to break
in?”

I don't know why she asks me, but
since I'm sure nothing smaller than a bulldozer or an army tank is
going to get through, I shake my head and tell her not to worry.
Not even the Wraiths, at the peak of their rage, could manage to do
anything but shred their own flesh and bones on the rough cement,
leaving nothing but blood stains.

“
Enough of this!” a voice
booms from the other end of the hallway. Everyone turns to
look.

Jack Resnick is back. He strides
toward the front again, apparently emboldened by my father’s quick
recovery. Several people trail him, though they don’t look quite as
determined as he does. “Open the goddamn door and let him in now,
Abraham!”

Dad ignores him.

“
We took a vote! I'm in
charge now. You have to give me the codes. You hear me, Abraham
Bolles?”

Seth Abramson straightens up. Like
Jack, he stands several inches taller than most of the people here.
He asks Jack to be reasonable. “We need to do this in a controlled
fashion. For everyone's safety.”

“
Give me the goddamned
security codes, or I'll have you confined to quarters on restricted
rations! Both of you!”

“
You can't do that!” I
shout. I can feel the whole situation getting out of control
again.

He spins toward me. “Can't
I? We've had just about enough of your father dictating what he
thinks is best for this group, boy. He no longer speaks for
us.
I
do.”

Boy?
I feel my face getting hot. “You don't speak for
me.”

“
Oh, that's rich,” Jonah
says, stepping up beside his father. “For the past three years,
you've been telling everyone to step in line, be good little
soldiers. But when it's my fa—”

“
Shut it!” Jack snaps,
cutting his son off in mid-word. He turns to me and thrusts a
finger at my nose. He's a couple inches taller than me, though the
way he glares at me makes me feel much shorter. “I'll make this
real simple, young man, so you can understand. I am the new leader
of this bunker.
I
make the rules and the decisions. If you don't like it, you
can join your father in confinement.”

“
You wouldn't.”

“
Try me.”

I look over to where Bren is standing.
She's watching me, her mouth hung open in surprise. Her eyes flick
behind me and I turn. I catch her father staring at her, their
gazes locked. He's silently warning her not to get
involved.

It's just as I feared, the same
out-of-control situation that happened not a half hour ago. This
time, however, the outcome will be much worse. I just know
it.

“
Now, Abraham,” Jack says,
forcing his way to my father's side, “why don't you give me those
codes?”

“
Not until we've all
voted,” my father persists. “If everyone—”

“
I'm not asking
anymore!”

“
If everyone votes,
then—”

“
Enough of this
bullshit!”

The profanity doesn't seem to take Dad
by surprise, not like it does the rest of us. He shrugs and turns
back to the intercom and calmly says into it, “Mister Williams,
please, I beg you, don't leave.”

But Jack gestures at Dominic, who
looks like the last thing he wants to do right now is follow Jack's
order. Seth Abramson tries to intervene, and Jack pushes him away.
He stabs the intercom button and says, “Sit tight, Mister Williams.
We'll have this door open in a jiffy.”

Dad crosses his arms over his chest.
He tells Jack he's making a mistake. Seth Abramson begs for reason.
Jack raises his fists and demands the codes. He waits approximately
four milliseconds before grabbing my father again, this time by the
arm. He instructs Dominic to take him away.

Dad shakes the hands off of him and
follows Dom through the crowd.

“
You can cool your heels in
your quarters. In the meantime, I'll just have to figure out
another way to open this door.”

“
Are you going to force
it?” Fran asks.

I turn and notice Jonah over in a
corner, his face pale and alarmed. I know it wasn't him who asked
the question, but I can tell he's just as surprised and worried by
the thought. His father has always been a bit of a hothead, but
even this is a side of him we've never seen before.

“
Anyone got something to
say?” Jack challenges. His eyes skip over us all.

Jonah opens his mouth, but then he
changes his mind. If it weren't for the fact that I dislike him as
much as I do, I'd actually feel a little sorry for him that his
father's such a prick.

It makes me grateful for the one I
have. Well, for about a second, anyway.

“
Jack,” Seth quietly says.
“You know this isn't how we do things around here.”

“
Get with the program,
Abramson. This bunker is now under new management, so instead of
flapping your gums, why don't you figure out a way to open that
door. You were once a computer programmer, right? Or did you forget
how?”

“
I don't know the first
thing about security lockout devices. You need a specialist for
that sort of thing.”

“
Chip Darby, where are
you?” Jack looks around and locates the man standing to one side.
“You were once an engineer, right?”

“
Electrical.”

“
Perfect! I want this door
open before dinnertime. If it's not open by then, I'll take a
crowbar to it and force it myself.”

Everyone's stunned. Nobody
moves.

“
Everyone else,” he orders,
“back to your quarters before I lock you all up!”