Chapter Text
The Caller-ID on Cray’s pocket-picturephone said that Cray’s caller was Domiducus Jones, the Capitol Liaison. “Yeah, whaddaya want, Jones?” Cray said into the telephone.
Jones’s voice said, “Here with me is Miss Antonia Wilson, a Capitol citizen. She wishes to report a crime.”
“Fine, I’ll send my Second, Senior-Lieutenant Grieg, to take her statement. He’ll be there in half an hour.”
“Miss Wilson doesn’t want to talk to a flunky, she wants to talk to you.”
“Well, I’m busy right now. Very busy. I’m in the middle of something important.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Jones said sarcastically. “You’re ‘busy’ watching Panem News Network on holo, with your feet on your desk. Come here and take Miss Wilson’s statement.”
“Eat me, Jones. You are not my boss, and what part of ‘I’m busy’ do you not understand?”
“Cray. You’re right, I’m not your boss. But I have a telephone book in my desk, and the telephone book has the number for Leonardus Chadwick, the Minister of Peace,” who was Cray’s boss. “And I remind you that important people in the Capitol have their eye on Twelve these days. How long do you think a goof-off Head Peacekeeper can keep his post when President Snow is watching Twelve nonstop? I told my crime victim that you will talk to her, and if you embarrass me, I shall more than embarrass you. So when shall I expect you?”
When Cray looked back toward the woods, he saw that Asher had disappeared into the woods.
Shit. What else can go wrong this morning?
“Fine,” Cray growled, “I’ll be in your office as soon as possible.”
****
Just inside the woods west of District Twelve
Asher was grinning.
Snow had fallen last night, partially filling in Katniss’s footprints in the snow from yesterday and before. The only footprints not filled in were the girl’s footprints from today.
Tracking down Katniss Mellark was going to be so easy!
****
Elsewhere in those woods
Katniss had been in the woods only five minutes when she heard the snow-crunching noise made by another human walking around.
Gale Hawthorne was working in the mines. Rory Hawthorne was in school, as was Prim. Aloe Everdeen seldom came out to the woods, and never came to the woods when snow was on the ground. Haymitch never set foot in the woods without loudly calling for Katniss—this scared off game animals, which made Katniss scowl, but Haymitch was more concerned about not getting himself arrow-shot.
Peeta in the woods walked around like a Townie with a prosthetic leg. The only way Peeta could be more noticeable in the woods would be to beat a drum.
So the other person in the woods was not Gale, Rory, Prim, Katniss’s mother, Haymitch, or Peeta. Who then was he (or she), this other person in the woods, and why was he (or she) in the woods with Katniss?
****
Meanwhile, at a little after 7 a.m., Capitol time
Didymus’s All-Districts Grocery, the Capitol
Breakerina Finch stood at her cash register and could not stop yawning. Part of the explanation for her yawns was that she had been up late last night, working her other job. The other reason she was yawning was that in January, the sun would not rise for another hour; her body was saying, “It’s still night, and night is when you sleep.”
“Please stop yawning,” a jaunty male voice said. “Now you’ve got me doing it.”
Breakerina looked up into the eyes of her check-out customer—and almost fainted. “You’re Finnick Odair!”
“I am,” he said, with a smile that made Breakerina weak in the knees. “And you are Breakerina—or else you stole Breakerina’s nametag, because your name is actually Bertha.”
Breakerina laughed, then activated the conveyor belt. As she scanned the first item, she said, “Horsemeat jerky—I’ve never tried this. Is it good?”
Finnick said, “Yes, Hennie—she’s the younger female Victor from District Ten—turned me on to horsemeat jerky.” Finnick laughed. “I tried to sell her on the tastiness of kelp chewies, but I don’t think I made headway. Anyway, your store is the only place in the entire Capitol that sells horsemeat jerky, so here I am!” Finnick’s smile was foreplay.
Breakerina said, “I can’t believe this; I am so lucky! A few days ago I met Katniss and Peeta, I actually talked with Katniss, and now I’m talking with Finnick Odair!”
“Katniss and Peeta came in this store to buy groceries?”
“No, Oak—he’s a stocker here—he got me a job at TempServant. Both of us got assigned to work the Presidential Ball at the end of the Mellarks’ Victory Tour. Both me and Oak wound up talking with Katniss—she’s really nice. Both Oak and I like her.”
Finnick said, “The Presidential Ball—wasn’t this when President Snow named Katniss as the next president of Panem?”
“It was, and I was in the ballroom when he said it! I will be telling my grandchildren about this.”
Then Breakerina gasped. She asked Finnick, “How well do you know Katniss? Can you get a message to her?”
Finnick shrugged. “I talked to Katniss for only a few minutes at her wedding, but I suppose I could pass on a message if it’s important. What’s the message?”
Breakerina leaned close to Finnick and lowered her voice. “I overheard something last night. Please tell Katniss she’s in danger.”
****
Meanwhile, in the District Twelve woods
Katniss realized that the other person in the woods was behind her, and was walking the same path that Katniss was walking.
He (or she) was following Katniss; Katniss was being stalked.
****
Meanwhile in District Twelve
In the office of Domiducus Jones, Capitol Liaison
When Cray rushed in, waiting for him were Domiducus Jones and a Capitol woman with blue-dyed skin, who was wearing dark-blue nursing scrubs.
Jones performed introductions: “Miss Wilson, this is the District Twelve Head Peacekeeper, Captain Paulus Cray. Captain Cray, this is Miss Antonia Wilson. She works as the nurse in the Capitol Coal Medical Clinic.”
Cray was only halfway listening as he looked the woman over. Cray saw no wounds, bandages, or bruises. He noticed that the woman did have the same stiff posture and frowning face as Medea Mellark, the baker’s wife.
When Cray was listening to voices again, Wilson was ranting about “miner-monkeys.” Cray did not have time for this shit. He interrupted Wilson, mid-rant, to ask, “What is the crime you’re reporting?”
She answered in an offended voice, “Four miner-monkeys whistled at me. And one of them called me ‘Nurse Bitch.’ I demand you arrest them!”
This was her story: After she got off work yesterday at the mine-company medical clinic, she felt like buying a half-liter of ice cream. Yes, she could have gone up one floor in the Capitol Liaison Building and bought chocolate ice cream at the Capitol Store—but instead, she felt like eating vanilla ice cream. To buy vanilla, Wilson needed to go to Berg’s Fruits, Vegetables, and Dairy. Anyway, as Wilson was walking from the Capitol Coal Medical Clinic to Berg’s, “the incident” with the four miners occurred.
“So what did the miners look like?” Cray asked impatiently.
Wilson answered, “Three of them were in their twenties, or maybe their thirties. One was in his forties. All of the men looked like miners—dark skin, black hair, gray eyes. They wore dusty miner clothes.”
Cray rolled his eyes. “Well, that narrows down the list to only about two thousand suspects. Did these four men grab you, or touch you without your permission?”
Wilson looked at Cray like he were an idiot: “I told you what they did. They whistled at me, and one of them called me a bitch.”
“And you can’t give me any more description than what you’ve told me already?”
“They were all skinny. They all needed haircuts. And the two men whose hands I could see, had coal dust under their fingernails.”
Cray turned and walked toward the door of Jones’s office. “I can’t find these men, based on her description,” Cray told Jones, “and what she described is not a crime according to the Peacekeeper Manual. You wasted my time for this?”
Jones said, “But you’re the Head Peacekeeper! You have discretion to define offenses that aren’t in your Manual, and to make arrests and to decree punishments for those offenses. So arrest four miners and flog them, and the entire Capitol community here in Twelve will feel better.”
Cray said, disgusted, “Wow, you two are the rainbow-est of rainbows, you know that?” With those words, Cray was out the door.
Then Cray ran from the Capitol Liaison’s outer office to the Peacekeeper truck that was parked outside the building. He had Katniss Mellark’s murder to prevent—but he was probably too late. All because of two self-important Capitols.
****
Meanwhile, in the District Twelve woods
Katniss wondered how the other person knew exactly where Katniss was walking. Then she realized—and she almost gasped out loud in horror. The new-fallen snow gave Katniss’s tracker a clear trail!
Katniss turned in place, and looked back in the direction she had come. She was confused at first by what she was seeing—was the snow on the ground moving beyond distant tree branches? Then Katniss realized that she was not seeing white snow moving, she was seeing the white hat, white coat, and white armored boots of a far-away Peacekeeper.
Katniss thought about climbing a tree to hide from him—but realized that this would not work. With the forest’s leaves all dropped, Katniss could not hide if she were in tree branches; and her freedom of movement would be almost none.
Katniss believed that the Peacekeeper was too focused on Katniss’s footprints in front of him to see Katniss herself, now two hundred meters away. The odds were in her favor—for now. But as soon as he saw her, she would be in deep shit.
The Peacekeeper was too far away for Katniss’s arrows to hit him. What to do, what to do?
****
Meanwhile, in Didymus’s All-Districts Grocery
Finnick stood there, waiting patiently, as Breakerina checked-out two more customers. When she was idle, Finnick asked her in a low voice, “How is Katniss in danger?”
Breakerina murmured, “Do you know Septimus Kopf, the Minister of Security?”
“Actually, it’s ‘Septicus,’ and yes, I know who he is,” Finnick replied. Now his smile was gone. Shit yes, I definitely know Septicus Kopf, Finnick thought.
Breakerina said, “Last night I was working a party at his house, and rich citizens”—Capitols—“were whining how terrible life will be when Katniss Mellark becomes president. I overheard Mr. Kopf say, ‘Don’t you worry about that archer-monkey. She will be murdered very soon by District Twelve’s notoriously corrupt Head Peacekeeper. Or so everyone will believe.’ ”
Finnick thought, I need to stop Katniss’s murder! But how?
****
Meanwhile, in the District Twelve woods
Katniss had one big disadvantage over her Peacekeeper pursuer, and four advantages.
Her big disadvantage was that bullets moved faster and farther than arrows did.
On the other hand, Katniss knew how to move silently in the woods; she knew these woods; the sky was overcast today (meaning, no shadows cast); and so far, her Peacekeeper tracker had not spotted—
“You’re mine, bitch,” the Peacekeeper yelled. His voice was faint, because he was still many decameters behind Katniss.
Katniss ran.
****
An instant later
“You’re mine, bitch,” the Peacekeeper yelled. His voice sounded familiar to Katniss, but was not Cray’s.
Immediately, running Katniss shucked off her game bag. As soon as the game bag was lying in the snow, Katniss made a half-turn right, glancing back as she did so. Now many trees and tree branches blocked Katniss and the Peacekeeper from seeing each other. This was what Katniss wanted.
Katniss ran a little farther, till she saw an old (thus wide) tree with a bush growing at its base. Now she slowed down, going from running, to walking, to shuffling her feet. Her boots slid forward along the ground, shoving snow left and right.
The old snow and the new snow, together, came up almost to the tops of Katniss’s boots. So when Katniss shuffled her feet forward, this made twin furrows in the snow.
Oh please, please, she thought, don’t let him catch me out before I finish my trick!
Katniss shuffled forward five meters past the tree, stopped, then she shuffled backward, keeping her boots in the furrows she had made. When she was again beside the tree and bush, Katniss jumped sideways, over the bush. Her boots made footprints behind the bush when she came down to ground—but hopefully, the bush would block her pursuer’s view of those footprints.
With an arrow nocked, Katniss hid behind the tree. She was still panting from her running; she breathed in and out through her mouth, not through her nostrils, so that she would be quieter.
Katniss listened for the sound of crunching snow and she waited.
She had to wait only ten or twenty seconds before the sound of running footsteps in snow came close. Just as Katniss had slowed to a walk as she had come near to the wide tree, now Katniss heard the Peacekeeper slow down.
When the panting man walked past the wide tree, Katniss silently moved around the tree so that he still could not see her. Alas, this also meant that Katniss could not see him.
When the sounds of crunching snow told Katniss that the Peacekeeper had gone five meters past the wide tree, Katniss dared to peek out from behind the tree.
The Peacekeeper was standing astride the end of the shuffle-furrows of snow, his pistol in his right hand. He was clearly confused—he looked to his right, to his left, and to the empty and bare tree branches above his head—but he saw neither Katniss nor her footprints. He looked down in front of him, where he expected more footprints to be, but none were.
He never turned to look back in the direction he had come from.
The first time that the Peacekeeper man’s face was almost in profile, it took all of Katniss’s hunting-discipline not to gasp aloud. The Peacekeeper who was hunting her was Asher, the shithead Peacekeeper officer in District Eight who had handcuffed Katniss during the Victory Tour and who had threatened to shoot Peeta and her.
Right now, Asher had not yet noticed Katniss behind the tree. She announced her presence by silently stepping sideways and arrowing Asher’s gun-hand.
As Asher screamed, his pistol went flying. The gun buried itself in snow.
By the time that Asher had yanked the arrow out of his hand and was alternately looking at Katniss and at the pistol-sized mound in the snow, Katniss had nocked another arrow. She pointed the arrow at Asher’s face.
Other than his swiveling head, Asher did not move. Katniss knew that a predator sometimes was motionless just before it attacked.
****
Meanwhile, in District Twelve
If the Capitol Liaison had not interrupted Cray, Cray would have dashed straight out the Eight Gate after Asher, trying to prevent Asher from killing Katniss. But by now, Cray figured, Asher had killed Katniss (or hopefully Katniss had arrowed Asher). All Cray could do now was to see a rogue Peacekeeper brought to justice—and oh yeah, to make sure that he, Cray, did not get framed for Katniss’s murder.
So Cray, instead of racing out Twelve’s District Eight gate like a hellion, raced toward the District Twelve Peacekeeper Barracks.
Once Cray was on the Officer floor of the barracks, he yelled, “Senior-Lieutenant Grieg! Junior-Lieutenant Barkley! Come here, please.”
The two officers were soon in Cray’s office, looking surprised that he had addressed them formally, instead of by their first names.
Cray looked at Grieg, his Second-In-Command, and asked, “Do we have anyone in the Eight Gate guardhouse now?”
Grieg said, “No, after that Eight assclown left, we went back to using a rover.”
Cray said, “That District Eight officer, Asher, did not leave. He’s in yonder woods, trying to kill Katniss.”
Cray paused while his officers stared at him. Then Cray began to act like a Head Peacekeeper for the first time in nine years. Grieg and Barkley looked at each other in shock.
****
Ten minutes later
The District Eight truck that Cray was still driving, and a regular District Twelve Peacekeeper truck from the motor pool, both drove to Coal Warehouse One by the District Twelve train station. Cray parked the Eight truck behind the warehouse.
Cray planned for Asher to not come back into Twelve except in handcuffs or in a body bag—but if Asher did slip into Twelve, he would need the Eight truck to establish his alibi. Too bad for Asher, Cray had just hidden the Eight truck.
With the Eight truck hidden, Cray took over the driving of the unstolen Twelve truck, which already had four people inside it: Senior-Lieutenant Grieg, Darius, Purnia, and a Peacekeeper named Albinus. Since everyone was each wearing Peacekeeper armor, a wool coat, a wool cap, and a shoulder-radio, and was holding a pistol, the truck was crowded.
Cray drove the unstolen Twelve truck to the Eight Gate, and Purnia got out of the warm truck. Cray ordered Purnia, “You have guardhouse duty till Junior-Lieutenant Barkley tells you to stand down, or till you are properly relieved. If you have any questions, Junior-Lieutenant Barkley is in charge till we get back. Now open the Eight Gate.”
“On it, sir.” Purnia actually came to attention and saluted Cray, who had nearly forgotten how to return a salute. Then Purnia added in a low voice, “Get the fucker, sir. Avenge Katniss.”
Once the unstolen Twelve truck was on the Peacekeeper Road, the truck followed the tire tracks of the Twelve truck that Asher had stolen only a half-hour earlier. Soon Cray and his Peacekeepers came across the stolen truck, where Asher had parked it in the woods.
Cray said, “Albinus, Senior-Lieutenant Grieg, this is your stop. If Senior-Lieutenant Asher shows up wanting to drive that truck, then Grieg, arrest Asher on my authority if he’ll submit quietly. But if his gun comes up, I want him dead. This order goes for you too, Albinus” (since usually an enlisted Peacekeeper killing a Peacekeeper officer was a firing-squad offense).
After Grieg and Albinus got out of the unstolen Twelve truck with their pistols (and saluted Cray, whatthefuck?), only Cray and Peacekeeper Darius MacGregor were in the unstolen Twelve truck. Cray drove the truck so to follow Asher’s footprints, till the truck reached the place where both Katniss’s footprints and Asher’s footprints entered the woods.
Cray stopped the truck and pocketed the keys. As Cray was pulling on the thermal-imaging goggles, Darius asked quietly, “Sir, um, why am I here with you, instead of with Lt. Grieg or in the guardhouse? Lt. Asher is an officer—if you get killed, I can’t arrest him.”
Cray replied, “I’m not worried about Asher, I’m worried about Katniss. She trusts you, but she doesn’t trust me.”
Cray shrugged. “Can’t say I blame her,” he muttered.
Then Cray continued, “If Katniss is still alive, she’ll be royally pissed at all Peacekeepers, and she won’t believe a word I say—unless you’re standing right there. I don’t want to die today with an arrow in my eye.”
Then Cray shifted into his “officer voice”: “Weapon loaded?”
“Yes, sir,” Darius replied.
Cray gestured to where two sets of new footprints led into the woods. “Let’s find Katniss. Or her dead body. You lead till I take over.”
****
Soon afterward
Cray was already feeling winded, while Darius was barely breathing hard, when Darius mentioned passing Katniss’s game bag lying in the snow. Right after this, Cray’s thermal-imaging goggles finally showed something other than blackness and little red animals.
Cray said to Darius, “Two people are alive up ahead, but one of them is on the ground. C’mon!”
Cray yelled, “ASHER, STOP! YOU CAN’T ESCAPE! KATNISS, I HAVE DARIUS WITH ME.”
Cray ran faster—but not much faster. He was definitely out of shape for this.
Even so, what spurred Cray on was that if he could get to Katniss before she bled out, he would never discover what punishments a truly angry President Snow could think up.
Soon Cray shoved the thermal-imaging goggles up onto his white cap and panted to Darius, “They’re just ahead.” Cray brought his pistol up, ready to fire it.
Then Cray and Darius found Katniss and Asher. Cray discovered it was not Katniss on the ground, but Asher.
Darius yelled, “KATNISS, WE’RE NOT HERE TO SHOOT YOU.”
Cray had been staring down at Asher, who was lying in the snow on his stomach, with his hands handcuffed behind his back. But after Darius yelled, Cray looked up to see Katniss’s bow and arrow aimed at his own face.
Cray immediately lowered his pistol, and ordered Darius to lower his. After the longest two seconds of Cray’s life, Katniss lowered her bow.
Asher was glaring up at Cray. “Fuck, you stole the thermal-imaging goggles? I’m surprised you didn’t sell them in your black market.”
Cray shrugged. “Cray of yesterday would have thought about it. Today? Nope—it’s against the rules. Oh, by the way, Palinurus Asher, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Katniss Everdeen Mellark.”
Then Cray walked up to prone Asher, cleared his throat, and said—
“You have the right to remain silent. If you give up the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak with an attorney and to have the attorney present during questioning. If you so desire and cannot afford one, an attorney will be appointed for you without charge before the questioning begins. Do you understand your rights as I have read them to you? Do you waive and give up these rights?”
“What?” Asher said.
Cray ordered Darius, “Stand him up.”
As Darius pulled Asher up off the ground, Cray looked at Asher and laughed cruelly. “I was just messing with you, Senior-Lieutenant. I just quoted something I heard in a History holo and have always wanted to say. But here and now, we both know that you will answer all my questions—with enough persuasion.”
Katniss asked Asher, “Did Thread put you up to this?”
Asher snapped, “That’s Captain Thread to you, monkey!”
Cray said, “But until recently, he was Major Thread. Rommie has motive.” Cray grinned as Asher’s face fell.
****
Minutes later
Cray and Darius were walking Asher out of the woods and toward the unstolen truck. Katniss was walking beside them.
Katniss looked at Cray in puzzlement, because she saw a seriousness in how the man carried himself. She said, “You seem different. What’s different about you?”
Darius said, “He finally got with the program.”
Cray nodded. “I’ve cut corners for years. Peacekeeper life is unpleasant at times; this was my excuse. But today I realized that if you were alive when I found you, you would shoot me. And the Peacekeeper investigators would rule it to be a justified shooting. All because nobody would believe that ‘corrupt Cray’ came into these woods to arrest an assassin, not to aid and abet the assassin’s crime. This stopped me cold when I realized it, that whoring with district girls and doing other shit would get me killed today. So I gave up acting corrupt.”
****
Hours later
Peacekeeper Captain Romulus Thread arrived in District Twelve, via the Peacekeeper Road, to visit his Second-In-Command.
Asher was in jail. Cray had telephoned Thread and had informed him that Asher would face a firing squad at dawn (since Cray had never built a gallows in Twelve, and refused to build one now).
When Thread strode into Cray’s office, it was with an angry face and with a tirade on his lips. Undoubtedly Thread expected to catch Cray in a chair with his feet up on his desk. Instead, Thread discovered that unsmiling Cray and unsmiling Grieg were standing two meters from the door, each with a pistol aimed at Thread. As Cray arrested Thread, Junior-Lieutenant Barkley, who had been hiding behind the door, pulled a black hood over Thread’s head.
****
A little over twenty-four hours later
The ring-table meeting room, the Presidential Mansion
President Snow was hosting his ministers for dinner, to celebrate that the Rebels in all twelve districts had pledged “No riots and no rebellion, to honor President-to-be Katniss Mellark.”
Purple-wigged Septicus Kopf was enjoying his meal. The first meat course was a centimeter-thick, batter-fried steak that was covered with a delicious gravy made with ground-up jalapeño peppers.
President Snow stood up, raised a glass of wine, and told his ministers, “We gather to celebrate a glorious future for Panem, when Mrs. Mellark becomes president. We also celebrate that right now Mrs. Mellark has brought peace to all the districts, merely by breathing.”
President Snow glanced at Septicus Kopf.
Kopf, about the time his heartbeats became painful, figured out that the jalapeño gravy had more than hot peppers in it.
****
Meanwhile, in District Thirteen
Alma Coin had summoned Soldier Mitchell to her quarters. With the door shut, now she returned his salute.
“How is the sniper-rifle training going?” Coin asked. “Any problems?”
“No, ma’am,” Mitchell answered. “I’ve learned how to shoot accurately even when I’m shivering with cold.”
“Continue your sniper-rifle training,” Coin ordered.