The Kryskills had produced an honest to God cannon, killed the giant walking electric catfish terrorizing the city, and then vanished without fanfare. There were a handful of people who knew it was them — the cop that they rescued for example — but no one offered up the family’s name to the media. Not even the EIA named them in their press releases. It’d taken days for Law to connect the dots and figure it out who had saved the city.
“Duff is part of this Resistance?” Usagi asked.
Widget cringed. “You can’t tell anyone.”
“You know we won’t tell anyone.” Usagi glanced to Law.
“I swear on my honor, I’ll tell no one.” Law was fairly sure no one would ever think to ask her. People saw her as an antisocial backwoods man-hater. (She didn’t hate men. It was simply a case that few seemed worthwhile and many needed a firm beating — administered by her — immediately.)
Bare Snow rarely talked to anyone outside of the Bunnies, so it was easy for her to nod in agreement.
“He’s my cell leader,” Widget whispered. “It’s all been hush-hush from the very start. We don’t really know who-all is working for the oni. We don’t know what level of technology that they’re operating at. We have to assume that anything we say might be overheard. I told Duff about the French guy — Mr. Fancypants — Brous-whatever.”
“Andre Brousseau?” Law named the first person whose death she was responsible for, although technically he shot himself.
“Yeah, him. I told Duff how Andre looked human and worked for the EIA but was kidnapping girls like me off of Earth for the oni. I couldn’t tell Duff what Andre’s name was or I’d have to explain about everything that happened in June. It turns out that the tengu had told Duff that ‘the people that look human’ were oni greater bloods. When Tinker domi returned Jin Wong to the tengu, Jin ordered them to quietly wipe out the greater bloods. The problem is that ‘the oni’ never trusted the tengu completely. Jin’s people only knew a few greater bloods. The tengu knew that there were more. I’m not sure if anyone knows about the Skin Clan angle — but I couldn’t explain it without telling them about Bare Snow.”
Widget had been hopping around certain information landmines from the very beginning.
“You’ve kept the right hand from knowing what the left hand was doing?” Law said.
“If the tengu knew about Bare Snow, I think they would feel honor bound to tell Tinker domi,” Widget whispered. “I know that Bare Snow was set up to be a scapegoat for the attack on Windwolf. I don’t know if the sekasha would believe that she had nothing to do with it. I don’t think they would hurt her, but what do I know? I thought river sharks hibernated. I couldn’t risk it.”
Law hugged Widget. “Good girl.”
“I’m the only one without a baby,” Widget whispered. “I felt like I was the only one able to fight to make sure they all stay safe.”
“You could have told us,” Usagi said. “Quietly. When the kids were sleeping. We can keep secrets.”
Widget cringed. “I was afraid that if I started to talk I wouldn’t stop. I needed to keep it all compartmentalized or I was going to start babbling it all out to the wrong people. And it seemed unfair to put that kind of pressure on you. You literally can’t tell anyone about Duff and the Resistance. You wouldn’t believe how stupid some humans are! There are people that are saying we should just step back and let the elves lose! Pull the police and the EIA off the streets and let the oni take control of the city! These idiots would be perfectly okay if the oni killed every single elf in the city ‘because the humans would still be alive to make deals.’ They don’t realize that the greater bloods have always treated the true bloods and lesser bloods as disposable tools. It’s why even the half-oni have turned against them. Once the oni wipe out the elves, there’s no reason that they’ll leave the humans unharmed. Or at least, most Pittsburghers used to be stupid. Maybe after what happened at Oktoberfest, they’ll start to realize that the oni will kill everyone — empty the city — if that’s what it takes.”
That was a chilling bomb to drop but probably completely correct.
“I think Oktoberfest was a wake-up call,” Usagi said. “It was for me. We’ve been cautious but I think we haven’t been careful enough. A lot of people know that the Bunnies exist. That we have half-elf children. If the oni are bent on genocide, then we have to assume that they’ll come after our babies.”
“Yes, they will,” Bare Snow said. “They’ll see the children as dangerous mutts and will want to eliminate them before they can breed.”
“But they’re just little kids!” Widget shouted.
All the mothers hushed her. The meeting would have to end once the children woke up.
Widget whispered fiercely. “They’re not dangerous. They’re little and they’re going to stay little for years and years.”
Bare Snow leaned across the table to take Widget’s hands. “I know that a hundred years would seem forever for you. It is all of my life plus few more turns around the sun. To the Skin Clan, it would be a blink of an eye. They are an ancient evil, easily ten thousand years old. They might not come for the children this week or this month or even this year, but they will come. They will want to wipe clean anything that could be immortal and remember what they’ve done here.”
“What are we going to do?” Hazel whispered.
“Make sure they don’t win!” Widget said loudly.
“Those of us without babies should focus on that,” Law said, meaning her and Bare Snow.
Clover stirred for the first time. She opened her exhausted eyes and reached out to take Law’s hand. She proved that she hadn’t been asleep the whole time by saying, “Thank you, Law. Bare Snow. Widget.”
Clover had a toddler and a newborn who would be orphaned if she was killed fighting. Their fathers didn’t know that the children existed, if Clover even knew which male impregnated her. Clover lived up to the “sex drive of a rabbit” myth.
“We’ll do what we can without drawing the line of fire on everyone.” Babs most likely would be a backline medic once fighting broke out. Her son was only a few months younger than Moon Rabbit.
“We need to double-up on our hoarding.” Hazel started to shift her bread dough into the kitchen to rise. “What we got during the keva-bean handout won’t last long.”
“We can gather food for you!” Bare Snow turned hopeful eyes to Law. “We can, can’t we?”
“We’ll make sure you have fresh fish and such.” Law couldn’t promise more as it was already September. In the last two months, more and more people were out foraging the old abandoned fruit trees, and hunting small game like turkeys, squirrels, and rabbits. It was pushing the bigger game animals deeper into the forest, making them harder to find.
“I think we should move.” Usagi shifted into planning mode now that information gathering was over. “I only picked this restaurant so we had access to a kitchen that we could get FDA-approved. That’s useless until Tinker links Pittsburgh back to Earth — assuming she stops getting hurt.”
“She can do that?” Widget asked.
“She can only juggle so many grenades but yes, probably she can from what I’ve heard,” Usagi said, making Law wonder where Usagi was getting her information. Law had heard that Tinker domi had been out at Squirrel Hill tunnels, looking them over, but there had been no confirmation that Tinker could actually link them to Earth. “We should find someplace farther from the front line. Someplace smaller that’s easier to heat and easier to defend. We should get some weapons. We should learn how to use them.”