Interview With the Mockingjay -- Chapter 27B
In which our heroine is hammered and dishonored by General Cassius Gray
In the previous chapter, Meredith made the great escape from Cassius Gray, to become a war hero and meet her beloved. Now she faces the consequences of doing so.
“I had massive burns,” Meredith says. “But the surgery and treatment were about as simple as how they took care of Peeta after the 74th Hunger Games.” She looks at Peeta and Katniss. “I’m sorry,” Meredith says.
“That’s all right,” Katniss says. There is a heaviness in the room. Outside, the rain is dying down.
“Did the surgery leave scars,” Katniss asks. “Nerve damage?”
“No. They had some really up-to-date treatments there in the Nut. Stuff they used for wounded and injured Peacekeepers and government officials before the war. And you know what happened after the treatment.”
“You said two officers came up and tossed you out of the Army,” Archer says. “Just like that.” He snaps his fingers.
“Just like that,” Meredith says.
“What the hell for?” I ask Meredith.
***
“And why exactly am I being discharged from the Army?” Meredith yells from her bed, at the two male officers hovering over it. Meredith lies there, weary and weak from her ordeal, in a white gown.
“You’re insubordinate, incompetent, and cowardly,” one of the officers growls. He tosses a file folder on top of Meredith with contempt. “You argued with General Gray in front of his staff and other soldiers, and when you led your troops into battle, you let them get slaughtered in an ambush, and left them behind to die. That cannot be tolerated.”
“I was hurled from my vehicle and knocked unconscious!” Meredith yells, rising up. “And when your General Gray was still Head Peacekeeper in District 11, he tried to make me his whore! And I led the drive to that damned bridge! So, you can stick those accusations where the sun doesn’t shine!”
“Oh, no, Jackson, you’re not insubordinate,” the other officer hisses in a reedy voice. “You’re full of shit.” He yells down the hall. “Orderly! Get down here and pack this bitch’s gear! She’s discharged! Now!”
“You can’t do this to me,” Meredith yells. “I’m a wounded officer…”
“Get three fucking orderlies!” the officer yells. “And if she opens her mouth one more time, restrain her!”
***
“I was on the next train to District 11,” Meredith says. “They couldn’t pack my gear fast enough. They bundled me down, into a car, and threw me on the train. I couldn’t even call anybody. But I thought of at least one thing.”
“What was that?” I ask.
“That at least with General Gray gone, I would go back to my home district and my family, and I’d be welcome.” She shrugs. “I was wrong.”
***
When the train pulls in to the bomb-battered station at District 11, Meredith is leaning out a window, hoping to see her family. The entrance to the district hasn’t changed – it’s still a tunnel, and the district is surrounded by barbed wire, but it’s hung with Mockingjay banners, and the watchtowers are manned by rebel troops in brown jackets instead of Peacekeepers in white armored uniforms.
There are more changes as the train rolls in. Fewer people are working in the fields and orchards, and those that are seem to be children. Men and women of military age are fighting in the rebellion, Meredith thinks. Or dead. But there are no armed Peacekeepers standing over them, brandishing whips or rifles.
As the train reaches the station, Meredith’s battered spirits begin to lift. My war is over, and General Gray may have ended it, but I’m back home in my District, with my family again, and I can start over. And now that we’re on the offensive, the Capitol will fall soon. When it does, Charlie will be free again, and we can find each other. I’ll wait for him. He’ll wait for me. My fair man. He may not enjoy being grilled by my father at first, but he’ll learn the toughness is an act.
Of course, we won’t be able to get it on right away, Meredith thinks, suppressing a smile. I can’t imagine my father letting my boyfriend sleep in in my bedroom. But that’s too far ahead.
The train rolls into the station. Meredith peers out, looking for her family.
No sign of them.
But Mayor Raintree stands on the platform, joined by a tough-looking black woman, who Meredith recognizes – Mary Ann Carroll, one of the less ferocious Peacekeepers in the old days.
He waves at Meredith, and she waves back, casually.
“Come here,” Raintree says. “We need to talk.”
Meredith grabs her bags from under her seat and joins the small crowd of people getting off. In the areas that have been liberated, the rebels, joined by District 13 engineers, have restored some rudimentary rail service, hooking passenger cars to the back of freight trains carrying military supplies. But not many people are traveling, except on official business. The few people debarking off are District 11 residents who have been freed from one of the Capitol’s outlying prisons, or wounded veterans being sent home.
Meredith emerges from the train. “Mayor Raintree,” she says in greeting, puzzled.
“I think you know Mary Ann Carroll,” Raintree says. “She is now our Chief of Police.”
“Yes, I do…but where is my family? Why aren’t they here?”
Mary Ann touches Meredith’s left wrist. “Please don’t make this worse for me, honey,” she says, in a quavering voice. “I have to place you under arrest. I don’t want to embarrass you or make a scene here on the platform.”
“What?” Meredith gasps.
“Just get in the car,” Raintree says coolly. “We’ll explain this at the Hall of Justice.”
Meredith climbs into the car’s back seat, next to Mary Ann, and it speeds off through the streets to the Hall of Justice, the Mayor in the front seat, next to his driver.
“Can I call my family?” Meredith asks.
“I’m afraid not, honey,” Mary Ann says. She pauses. “They don’t want to talk to you.”
Meredith begins to feel her guts twisting, and fights an urge to vomit. “What’s going on?” she gasps. “What is this about?”
“I think you know what this is about,” Raintree says, turning in his seat.
“Mayor, why don’t we take this up at the Hall?” Mary Ann says.
“Fine with me,” Raintree says, his voice squeaking and nervous.
At the Hall of Justice, the car parks in the back, and Mary Ann and Raintree escort Meredith through the rear entrance. That’s to keep anyone from seeing me, she thinks.
They walk through the familiar halls to her old office. It appears unchanged from when she left – as it if was preserved as an exhibit. The three of them stand in the office.
“Now, Meredith, there are some things we have to discuss…”
Raintree cuts her off. “Chief, I’m going to deal with this.”
Mary Ann stops. “By all means, Mr. Mayor,” she says.
“The last time you were in this office was the night you fled the District, right?” Raintree says. “The night before the Quarter Quell Hunger Games started and the revolution started breaking out.”
“That’s right,” Meredith says. Then it hits her. The money. “Is this about the money I took from the petty cash fund?”
“You admit to taking that?” Raintree snaps.
“Well, yes, but…”
Raintree cuts her off with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Fine. You admit it. Out of here. My office.”
They all tramp down the hall back to Raintree’s office. It hasn’t changed much, either – except there are more working lights in it now. Absently, Meredith stares up at the additional bulbs.
“From General Gray’s office,” Raintree says. “He let me have them when he went to war.”
“Very nice of him,” Meredith says, her voice cold.
Raintree sits at his desk, Mary Ann opposite him. Meredith moves to a seat, but Raintree waves her away. “You can stand,” he says. His voice is cold, too.
“Look, I did take a small amount of money from the petty cash fund,” Meredith says. “But I can pay it back – and explain. General Gray said…”
“I know what he said,” Raintree says. “And what our investigation revealed. You didn’t just take money from the petty cash fund. You rifled the safe. You also illegally withdrew money from most of the Post Office savings accounts of District residents, using your authority, which left many of our citizens bankrupt.” He pauses. “Including me.”
Meredith is stunned. Her eyes bulge. “That’s a fucking lie,” she shouts.
“I have the records right here,” Raintree yells, leaping up from his desk. “And that night, you took your money, fled the District, killed a Peacekeeper to cover your tracks, and disappeared. If you hadn’t turned up in the rebel army, we would never have found you again!”
“This is a load of crap! Who dreamed this up?” Meredith yells, facing Raintree across the desk.
“General Gray personally investigated this the next morning. He and his men found our safe and petty cash fund emptied! Then they checked the Post Office bank! That was ransacked, too! All the accounts!”
“And how do you know that General Gray and his Peacekeepers didn’t just pocket all the money?” Meredith yells.
“Because the only money left in the safe was the Jackson family account!” Raintree shouts back.
Mary Ann pushes them apart. “It’s true, honey. I was there for the whole thing. All the money’s gone. Half the people in District 11 were left bankrupt.”
“That bastard Gray did it,” Meredith yells, pointing at his old office. “The night I left, when I went to his office with financial books, he told me I had to be his whore or he would turn me into an Avox, and…” Her voice trails off.
“This is how he got me,” she says, dawning in realization.
Meredith slumps down in a chair, and feels tears building up. “He got me. That son of a bitch got me in the end. He stole the money and pinned it on me.”
“No, you stole the money,” Raintree says. “But then the revolution and war broke out in the next couple of days, so finances weren’t that big an issue. Since then, we’ve issued a new currency, based on the stolen assets. But that doesn’t change what you did.”
“All I did was keep myself from being raped or having my tongue ripped out,” Meredith snarls, staring Raintree in the face. “And that’s what I’m going to say if you…put me on trial or something. I can defend myself. I fought in the war. I faced Peacekeeper bullets and missiles. I can stand up to – you two idiots!”
“Honey, there won’t be any trial,” Mary Ann says.
“What do you mean?” Meredith asks.
“A trial is only going to embarrass your family,” Raintree says. “And us, for hiring you as Assistant Business Administrator. So, we’ve come up with a solution, working with District 13 President Coin, which will solve all the problems.”
“What are you saying,” Meredith says, rising from her chair. “What do you mean, ‘solve the problems?’”
“President Coin is going to provide aid from District 13’s funds to keep our District afloat. We’re not going to put you on trial.” He pauses for impact, then smiles. “But we are going to teach you a lesson. You’re being exiled from District 11, never to return. Starting immediately.”
“And where am I supposed to go?” Meredith retorts.
“We’ve taken care of that,” Raintree says. “While I was in District 13, I met the new Commissioner of District 12, Ron Davis. He needs a Business Administrator to rebuild the district. He wanted me to give him three recommendations. I gave him three: Meredith Jackson, Meredith Jackson, and Meredith Jackson.”
“You’re accusing me of stealing money, but you’re sending me out to run another District?” Meredith says. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Well, first off, there’s no District 12 to run at the moment. The whole place is a ruin. Second, I told him to keep you on a very tight leash.”
“Why? Because I’m a crook?” Meredith yells.
“No, because you’re a slut, a whore, and a madam,” Raintree says, displaying a leer. “I didn’t tell him he was getting you because you’re a thief. He wouldn’t have touched you. Neither would any other District. I told him you were District 11’s leading doorknob, and you’d broken up several marriages.”
Meredith’s face goes red…then pale. “You…bastard!” She shouts. “You know damn well that I’m neither a thief nor a whore!”
“I already know you’re a thief! That you’re a tramp is easy to infer because when your boyfriend Dwayne died, you didn’t agree to a new marriage! In fact, you’ve never married anybody, but you’ve had two boyfriends since then! And those are the ones I know of! What do you think happened to those potential marriages?”
“My boyfriends were men who’d lost their arranged wives as well! And even if I had 100 lovers, what business is it of yours, or anyone else’s! Having lovers doesn’t make you a whore!”
“In this District, that’s called ‘being a whore!’ And likely a damn good one!”
“You should know, Mayor Raintree,” Meredith snarls back. “Who have you sold this district out to over the years?”
“I have fought for this District at every turn, including joining General Gray in the revolution,” Raintree squeaks.
“Does that include becoming his whore?” Meredith retorts.
Raintree’s face turns purple. “I’ve had all I’m going to take from you! You’re going to District 12! And there you’ll stay! Consider yourself exiled to District 12!”
Meredith straightens up. “And what if I just do not choose to leave? What are you going to do about it?”
“Aside from officially charging you with theft and embezzlement, we’ll plaster your face across the country as the lying, cowardly, thieving prostitute you are!” Raintree squeaks. “So, it’ll be live quietly and permanently in District 12 and keep your mouth – and legs – shut, or go to prison! Or worse!”
He whirls on his Police Chief. “Mary Ann, get this piece of shit out of my sight!”
“Yes, sir,” Mary Ann says, unhappily. She puts an arm around Meredith and takes her out of the room. Meredith shakes, in shock and disbelief.
“I want to talk to my family,” Meredith yells.
Raintree laughs. “They don’t want to see you. They signed off on this,” he says. “Get rid of her, Mary Ann!”
“I have to put you on the next train out of here, honey,” Mary Ann says, taking her out the back exit.
In tears now, Meredith burbles, “I can’t believe this. This is General Gray’s work. He’s destroyed my life, because I wouldn’t be his mistress.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Mary Ann says.
“But you know me,” Meredith says. “You’ve been a Peacekeeper here for eight years. You weren’t like the rest of these bastards. You know these charges are bogus.”
“Honey, I know you, I worked with you, and I like you. But I have a job to do, and I can only go where the evidence takes me. And the evidence says all that money was gone the night you left the District, and you had access to it. If I could see any other way, you know I wouldn’t do this. It’s not personal.”
They emerge from the building’s back, and Mary Ann places Meredith in the back seat of the car. “If you ever find something that exonerates me…” Meredith says, her voice trailing off.
“You know I’ll do something about it,” Mary Ann says. “I’m sorry, honey.”
Meredith lies back in the car. “Can we at least stop at my home?”
“I have orders to get you on that train,” Mary Ann says. “I’m sorry.”
“Okay,” Meredith says, utterly defeated. She closes her eyes in exhaustion.
***
“So, they put me on the train, with all my kit, a security guy to make sure I didn’t jump off the train, or worse, and I collapsed in the chair from exhaustion. When I got to District 12, they had to slap me awake,” Meredith says.
“I just can’t believe all this,” Katniss says. “General Gray and President Coin. The same names. Over and over again.”
“I don’t believe any of this stuff your buddies are spouting,” I say. “Unfortunately, General Gray is unlikely to tell us what really happened, and President Coin isn’t alive to discuss it.”
Katniss gives me a hard look.
“Sorry,” I say. “I’m just – shocked, and trying to absorb it all.”
“So am I,” Peeta says.
“I don’t get it,” Archer pipes up. “Why the fuck was Gray so obsessed with you? From his point of view, you beat him at his own game, but the next day, he’s leading the rebellion. Months later, he’s a national hero and conquering general. Now he’s running the country. No disrespect to you, but the Capitol’s full of hot women, and if he walked into a club, he’d come out with five girls hanging on his arms. I don’t get it.”
I stare down at Meredith. “That’s the point. He can have everything he wants. But when he doesn’t get something he wants, he gets mad as hell. You were the one thing he couldn’t have, or own, or dominate. And he wasn’t going to let that happen to him. He was either going to have you or break you.”
“So why didn’t he just pop her?” Archer says, imitating a gun with his hand. “Shoot her on the battlefield. Tough shit, you know? Caught in the crossfire. She died in the combat zone. Pack her body and send her home.”
I can feel my face getting red with anger. “He tried that. When he sent Meredith forward into that ambush and she didn’t get killed,” I say. “Remember?”
“Okay, but if at first you don’t succeed, you know,” Archer responds. “He could have just sent her back to the front. With an armed escort.”
“First off, there’s no guarantee she’d actually get killed in battle,” I say, rubbing my jaw. I slump down in one of the chairs. “Second, if he sent her back to the front, she might become a hero again, like before. Third…he wants you alive.” My eyes bore in on Meredith’s tearful face.
“He wants to hurt, humiliate, and defame you. He wants you living in pain for the rest of your life, so you can remember every single day that you tried to play him…and lost.”
Meredith nods, slowly.
“So, what happened when you got to District 12?”
***
Meredith feels a gentle slapping on her face as the train pulls in. One of the trainmen is trying to wake her up.
“Excuse me, ma’am, we’re entering District 12. It’s the last stop,” he says.
Meredith rises from her seat, bleary-eyed, and grabs her bag. She follows a small collection of large men and women who mutter, push, and shove as they debark from the train.
When she emerges, she sees the district is still ruined from the war, with only a few narrow roadways cut through the wreckage for vehicles. The workers all walk over to a large pick-up truck, driven by a man with a large beard. She joins them and goes up to the bearded man.
“Sir, can you help me?” Meredith asks in a weary voice. “I’m looking for Mayor Ron Davis.”
Before the man can answer, a rough male voice from behind her says, “Right here, lady. Are you Meredith Jackson?”
Meredith turns around and sees a bulky, muscled man, wearing a coal miner’s outfit, arms folded, expression grim. “I’m Ron Davis,” he says. “You must be my new Business Administrator.”
“Mr. Davis, I’m glad to meet you, but we need to talk…”
Davis cuts her off. “I know all about it and all about you. As far as I’m concerned, anybody who can run a bordello and make a profit can run this District and keep it financially stable. Politics and prostitution are the same thing, unfortunately,” he says.
“Mayor Davis, I’m no prostitute…”
“And I’m not Mayor yet. At least not until we have an election, and that’s not until we actually have some other District 12 residents living here to actually vote. So until then, I’m a commissioner appointed by President Snow. You follow?”
“Well, Commissioner Davis,” Meredith begins. “I want you to know why I’m here.”
“I know why you’re here. It’s a deal between me and Mayor Raintree. I need a competent Business Administrator to put this District back together, and he needs to get rid of an embarrassment to his District. The problem is, I’m not too thrilled with having somebody else’s problem child as my problem child. It’s not like the old days, when problem children could be dumped on the District Home. Now we have to suck it up. But I’m not going to suck it up for long. You follow?”
Meredith nods.
Davis continues. “When this war is over, President Coin is creating a Senate as an upper legislative body, with one member from every district. I intend to be this District’s Senator and Mayor, and Raintree and I are going to form a political bloc. They used to call them ‘political parties.’ You follow?”
Meredith nods again.
“We’re going to fight for the rights of small districts that have been hard-hit by the war. When we get organized, we’re going to need good people in the party and government. People who are loyal, who will follow party discipline, and serve the public. You follow?”
Finally, Meredith speaks. “So, you want me in this organization?”
“No, I want you to get this District’s operations on a firm footing. Then after I’m elected Mayor and Senator, you’re going to resign as Business Administrator, so that I don’t have to explain your presence in government or politics as anything but a temporary measure to rebuild this mess,” he says, waving at the ruins. “You follow?”
“So, I have to put this District back together, extremely efficiently and legally, and then you toss me aside. Is that it?”
Davis looks at Meredith with a judicious expression for a long moment. “Yeah, that’s about it. You have a perfect grasp of the situation.”
“And if I choose to simply walk away from this District?” Meredith asks.
“Well, there are two ways out,” Davis says. “You can sneak onto a train, like they say you did back in District 11. Only my guards are a lot sharper than those old guards, so that’s not going to happen. The other way is to try walking out of here. You will face one of two fates: dying out in the woods, or getting caught. Your choice.” He pauses. “But if you get caught trying to flee, my deal with Mayor Raintree is off, and you get shipped back to District 11 for public trial. So, you have three choices: work here, die out in the mountains, or go to prison.” Davis pauses. “Work well, and you’ll get treated fairly, decently, and properly. Don’t work, and you’re history. You follow?”
“I don’t think your position is fair, or decent, or proper. I need to tell you about…”
Davis cuts Meredith off again. “And I don’t care about your personal problems. I need you to put this District back together, keep your mouth shut when I tell you to keep it shut, and when I say you’re done, I want that resignation on my desk.”
“And what do I do after that?” Meredith asks, hot.
“I don’t care,” Davis says. “You can open a bordello if you want. Or maybe a casino. I don’t care, as long as you stay out of my way after that. You follow?”
Meredith’s jaw opens, but she decides not to say anything. Instead, she nods.
“Good,” Davis says. “District 13 sent over a couple of portable trailers for us to use as office and housing space for now. There’s a construction company that has the contract for the rebuilding. We have a lot of work to do before we can welcome District 12’s original residents back home.”
“Home? To this?” Meredith blurts out. “They can’t come back to these ruins.”
“That’s right. And the first thing we’re going to do is develop a plan to rebuild the infrastructure and set up a framework of laws to govern the place. Then we’ll implement the plan, so that we can return residents here as quickly as possible.”
Davis strides off down one of the narrow, rubble-strewn roads, still talking. He stops, and turns. “You better follow me, Ms. Jackson. You gotta keep up with me. Otherwise, you’ll feel my boot in your ass. That’s the way we had to do things in the mines. Let’s go. You follow?”
He opens a pocket, and hands her a notebook and a pen. “Sorry it’s not a Holo or something more high-tech, but the Army needs everything right now.” Then he pauses. “Hey. I wouldn’t have brought you here if we didn’t need you. Raintree says you’re damn good at what you do by day. I just don’t like what you do by night. If you do a good job here, I’ll treat you right. And I mean that in a legitimate sense. You follow?”
“I follow,” Meredith says. I have no choice, she thinks. This is it. Gray wins. At the last. He wins. Unbelievable. I have no choice.
Plow the furrow you have inherited, my great-grandfather once said, talking about how the family had to move to District 11 when Atlanta went up in flames and destruction. Plow the furrow.
She moves up next to Davis. “So, we need a complete set of District ordinances and an operational plan to first rebuild basic infrastructure, and then build housing connected to said infrastructure. Do I have a budget limit?” Meredith says.
“You can spend whatever you like. President Coin says District 12 is top priority. But I want full accounting on contracting procedures. I’m not going into the Senate to have some asshole accuse me in public of giving a bloated contract to my cousin. Low bidders. You follow?” Davis says.
“You seem to have studied this material,” Meredith says, impressed, despite her mental exhaustion.
“Down in the mines, I spent a lot of time on firewatch. I took books down with me on politics and government, and learned a few things. What about you?”
“We had them in our Hall of Justice,” Meredith says. She pauses. “Mr. Davis…I’ve had a really long and horrible few days. Can I please get some sleep? And send word to my family that I’m okay?”
Davis regards her for a moment. “Yeah…let’s get you some quarters. Then we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
He strides off, through the wreckage, debris, and past a cat, sniffing through the ruins. Davis points at the cat. “Probably looking for food. We also have a serious public health issue, too…”
***
“Did you ever get hold of your family?” I ask.
“Once we got the phone lines sorted out, I called home.” Meredith shakes her head. “They didn’t want to talk to me. Then or now.”
“Why?” Katniss asks.
“I don’t know for sure. My father wouldn’t talk to me. He has a big thing about personal and family honor,” Meredith says. “He wasn’t too happy when I rejected his proposed arranged marriages after Dwayne died. There’s been a lot of tension between us over that.”
“And this made it worse,” Katniss says. “I know about tension with a parent.”
“So do I,” I say. “You know how my father barely talks to me about his work as a Peacekeeper.”
“There are so many things that hurt…and not being able to see them again and reconcile is one of the biggest,” Meredith says. “At least you can see your father.”
But I can’t talk to him, I think. But this isn’t the time or place to change the subject.
“So, what will happen after the Mayoral election?” I ask.
“She loses her job,” Katniss says. “I already raised that with Davis. I couldn’t budge him. He wouldn’t tell me why. He just told me that he has a name in mind to replace her, and that was that.” She shakes her head. “I didn’t know any of this. Until now, that is.”
I rise from my chair and walk over to Meredith. I wrap her in my arms, and hold her tightly, listening to her sobs.
“I can’t go back to District 11. I can’t leave this District. I can’t do anything. That fucking bastard Gray ruined everything. At the last, he wins,” Meredith warbles.
There is a long silence in the room, broken only by wind in the trees. The rain has stopped.
“I’m not going to let this bastard beat you,” I say to Meredith, kissing her gently on her cheeks, holding her tightly.
“Now you see why I was so upset when you asked me to marry you and come with you to the Capitol,” she burbles back, returning the kisses. “You know there’s nothing I’d rather do, but they’ll take me down, and you with me.”
“No, they won’t. You know that I’m a reporter with the nation’s most important newspaper…”
“Hey, our competition would disagree,” Archer pipes up.
I give him a steely glare.
“I’m trying to relieve the tension, dude,” he says. “But he’s right. We’re the best, Meredith.”
I turn back on Meredith, firm. “I don’t care what General Gray says or does, Meredith. Archer’s right. I have the resources of the best newspaper in the fucking country behind me. If he set this whole thing up, we can break him back down. If he’s hiding in some tower, we can drag him out of it. If he did anything to abuse his power, we’ll expose it. I’ll expose it. I’ll make it my mission in life,” I say, my anger at Gray and love for Meredith rising. “You’re not a fucking Tribute, this isn’t a fucking Arena, and he’s not a fucking Gamemaker! Those days are over!”
I grip her cheeks in my hands and point her face directly into mine. “I never stopped looking for you and never stopped hoping to find you and never stopped loving you. That bastard who left us out to die on Gus’s Bridge is not going to stop me from marrying you, and he is not going to wreck your life any further!” I pause. Then I say, “I’ll wait for you…”
“If I should fall behind…wait for me,” Meredith answers. And with that, she leaps up and wraps herself around me, flinging her lips into mine, mouths open, tongues swirling around each other, heedless of our audience.
“Either you guys get a room or I start videotaping this,” Archer says, after a few moments.
“Maybe we should go,” Peeta says, rising.
“There’s one thing,” Katniss says, coldly. “And I speak as an expert on being manipulated by powerful people. How are you going to bring General Gray down? It’s not going to be like putting an arrow into President Coin at the big ceremony. He’s smarter than Coin. He won’t just stand there and let you shoot him. And if you did, it wouldn’t expose him. He’s guarded and insulated and protected. You need to figure out how to get him, like I took care of Snow and Coin. And you don’t have anything to back Meredith up yet. You need proof.”
Katniss is a lot smarter than people give her credit for, I think. Age 19. But look what she’s been through. Besides, she knows how to hunt prey, and General Gray is just the latest animal for her to stalk.
“It’s 2 a.m.,” Peeta says, looking at a clock on Meredith’s mantel. “This isn’t a time to figure out those strategies. It’s time to sleep.” He takes Katniss’s arm. “Come on, honey,” he says.
She nods and joins him. “Let’s talk some more sometime tomorrow,” she says.
“I guess we’re heading out, too,” I say, nodding at Archer, as Meredith slides back onto her couch.
Meredith looks up at me, eyes pleading. She grabs my arm. “No…please…stay here,” she says. She strokes my face. “I need you now, fair man.”
I smile. “I’m staying, dark lady,” I say.
I join Archer as he heads to the door. “Tomorrow, we’ll take this up with the desk and see what we can do about this,” I say to him.
“We got guys who can start digging,” he says. “Meantime, I have something for you to help you for the next few hours.”
“What’s that,” I ask.
Archer reaches into a pocket and presents me with five condom packs. He smiles. “I think the odds are in your favor tonight, pal. You’re going to get lucky. Be prepared.”
I shake my head in amazement. “You’re crass and vulgar,” I say. But I take the prophylactics. “But thanks, anyway.”
“Can’t take any chances,” Archer says, with a leer. “Just let me know how it comes out.”
“A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell,” I say.
“I never met a guy who didn’t,” he says. “I’m out of here.” He follows Katniss and Peeta out into the night.