“Whatever you say.”

“Oh. Whatever I say? You want me to be da boss? Because dat’s not a problem at all. I like to be da boss of you.”

“No,” I said, putting on and zipping up my shorts, “you are not the boss of me. I’m the boss of me and you.”

He frowned. “Dat’s not fair. I want to be da boss of something.”

“You can be the boss of Buster.”

“No, not da dog. Dat’s not da boss of anything, really.”

“Fine. You can be the boss of … I don’t know. Kissing.”

Bodo stopped putting on his shirt, his eyes taking on a special gleam, making me almost regret I had said it. “Oh, dat’s good. I like dat a lot. I am da boss of da kissing. Dat means you haff to kiss me when I say do it.” He smiled, pulling his shirt over his head. “Okay, dat’s a goodt deal. You can be da boss of me, den. I agree to dis plan.”

I didn’t argue with his ridiculous deal. I was still too happily glowing to bother, and figured he couldn’t get me into too much trouble with a few kisses. Besides, kissing Bodo was no chore. He was so damn good at it, I was kind of hoping he’d demand one soon. I was too shy to ask for one, and I knew he didn’t mind being forward about what he wanted. This is totally going to work out to my advantage. Kissing Bodo and bossing him around. A perfect relationship.

Once we had our clothes on, we walked back to our hut. Halfway there he demanded his first kiss.

“Bryn, da boss of kissing says you have to do it now.”

I sighed, acting all put-out, but secretly happy. “Fine. Get it over with.”

“You are breaking my heart with dose mean wordts, but I don’t care. You have to kiss me anyway.” He grabbed me around the waist and planted a heavy lip lock on me, getting us both breathless all over again.

I pushed him from me before we could go too far. It was so easy to do with him, lose control like this. I was going to have to be very careful not to let him get under my skin too much or I’d be a useless heap of worried girl, always wondering what he was thinking and feeling. I hated that.

“Come on, loverboy. We need to get back. Peter’s probably wondering where we are.”

“He’s busy with da Creek. He doessn’t care what we are doing.”

“Yes, he does. And I have work to do tomorrow. I have to get ready for it.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m picking candidates for the scouting and rescue.”

“I want to be da boss of you so I can say no. I don’t like you to do dat dangerous stuff.”

“I know you don’t, Bodo, but I have to.” I laced my fingers in his as we walked, silently thrilled at how big his hand was compared to mine, enjoying the warmth it brought. “These people, those kids … they need me. What kind of person would I be if I just ignored that because I was worried about myself?”

“A livingk one.”

“I’ll be fine. I wouldn’t do it if I thought I could die.”

“Well, den you are being foolish. Becausse you can die. Dat’s a fact.”

I squeezed his hand. “Let’s not talk about this now. I don’t want to fight.”

“Me neither. I will make anudder deal with you and den no more fighting.”

“What’s that?”

“You promise dat I can go with you. Den I can make sure nothing happens to you. I can watching your back. No … I can watch your back.”

“I don’t know.” I knew it wasn’t fair, but I was thinking about how I didn’t want to have him there, out of a sense of needing to keep him safe - which is exactly what he was trying to do with me. It seemed kind of hypocritical for me to tell him he couldn’t go, so I stopped short of doing that.

“If you can pass the tests in the sessions tomorrow, then you can go.”

“What are da tests?”

“I don’t know yet. Strength, agility, reflexes. Basic fighting skills.”

“Oh, okay. Dat’s not a problem. I can do dat.”

I was sad, thinking to myself that he probably could do all the things I would use as tests to qualify guys and girls for our team. Now I was going to have to figure out how to keep both of us alive and unscathed as we entered enemy territory and rescued our prisoners of war.

I was going to be studying George’s journal tonight as long as the firelight would let me.

Chapter Three

I FELL ASLEEP IN BETWEEN Peter and Bodo as usual, but got a much better goodnight kiss from Bodo than I did the last time; and at some point during the night, Bodo came over and joined me on my mattress.

I woke up in his arms and laid there for a few minutes just enjoying the sensation of having someone hold me, making me feel safe and loved. I wondered if my dad were looking down on me and approving. I liked to think he was, and it made me smile.

Buster saw my eyes open and the happy look on my face, and wiggled over to lick my chin, taking advantage of the fact that my arms were pinned down by Mr. Bryn.

I pushed Bodo away and got up, wiping the dog drool off my face as I followed Buster out of the hut and headed over to the bathrooms.

I was glad for the few minutes alone before the day started so I could get my head on straight and figure out finally what I wanted to do. I tried to think of all the situations we’d be getting into and the skills we’d need to execute our plans, designing physical tests around them that would highlight the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses.

Peter was outside the outhouse door when I finished, yawning and looking still half asleep.

“What are you doing up so early?” I asked.

“Gotta get you organized,” he said, stepping into the small room and leaving me alone outside.

I gave him some space and waited for him to come out. He joined me a couple minutes later and we walked back to the hut together.

“I worked it all out.” Peter paused to yawn again. “I have fifteen people per session. Sorry I couldn’t make them smaller. You only gave me a day and there are lots of people to see.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s fine. How many sessions?”

“You have one hundred and thirteen indians and Bodo. I assumed you wanted to include him.”

I didn’t argue, even though the truth was I wanted to keep him out of it.

“You said thirty minute sessions and all in one day, so that makes almost eight sessions. And you need breaks in between and meals, so that’s pretty much you working all day. I mixed guys and girls together, since I figured you’d want to test them to find the strongest ones, and it didn’t make sense to split the girls off by themselves. I hope that’s okay.”

“Yeah, it’s fine. And I can manage that schedule. I thought it was going to be worse, actually. Thanks, Peter.”

“You are very welcome.” He smiled, proud of himself, I could tell.

“Did you write it down for me somewhere?”

“No. It’s in my head, though.”

I looked at him askance. “You have all of them? In your head?”

“Yeah.”

“Names and everything.” I said. No way did I believe that.

“Yes. Do you doubt me?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know.”

He rattled off a list of people I was going to see at 11:30, and I put my hand up to stop him.

“Fine. I get it. You memorized the entire schedule. How did you do that?”

“Discipline. I’ve forced myself for years to remember all kinds of details. I can look at a scene and remember almost everything I saw, even months later.”

“Wow. That’s kinda freaky, actually.”

“It’s a skill, Bryn, not a handicap.”

I was thinking about how it was a skill we could probably really use in our recon mission. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share my thoughts out loud, though, because the idea of having little wimpy Peter out there anywhere near those canners made me feel sick to my stomach. I decided to wait and see what the day brought before I seriously considered it.

“So what happened with you and Bodo yesterday? I noticed him demanding kisses and you not arguing about it. Does that mean he’s Mr. Bryn now?”

“Shut up,” I said, shoving Peter gently. “Don’t call him that. If friggin Paci or any of them hear it, I’ll never live it down.” I sighed. “But yeah, he’s, like, my boyfriend I guess you could say.”

“That’s nice.” Peter was smiling, so I knew he wasn’t making fun of me.

“Yeah, it is. I think my dad would have liked him.”

“So his secrets don’t bother you anymore?”

“No.”

“Did you find out what they are?”

“Yep.”

“Well? Fess up! What’d he say?”

“I’ll have to let him tell you. Or show you. It’s not my secret to share.”

“Party pooper,” said Peter, pouting. “That is so not fair.”

“No, this one is not your regular secret kind of thing. It’s something more than that.”

“Oh,” said Peter, more subdued now. “Do you think he’ll tell me?”

“I know he will. Just give him some time.”

Peter sighed. “Okay. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

Not if I have anything to say about it.

***

I arrived at the session after everyone had already gathered in the clearing set up for our purposes.

Fifteen kids stood in front of me, more guys than girls, all of them wearing indian garb in one form or another. It made me think that when we did our recon, we’d want to be wearing regular street clothes and not something that identified us as coming from Kahayatle. We didn’t need to give the canners any more clues than necessary about our origins and home.

“Thanks for coming, everyone. Please form three horizontal lines in front of me. Spread out so you don’t hit each other your with kicks.” I waited for them to comply before continuing.

“The purpose of this exercise is to gauge whether you have the skills and strength to accompany me and the chiefs on a mission into a nearby town to rescue some kids who are being held like Celia was, by canners … cannibal kids. Obviously if you aren’t interested in going on this mission, you should just step to the side. We don’t need anyone with us who isn’t dedicated to the task.”

No one said anything or moved out of formation. They all just watched me, serious looks on their faces. Only the slight morning breeze caused any movement out in the group, lifting up some of their long dark hair and blowing strands across their faces.

“The eight who are chosen will go through some intense training over the next five days, so you can pretty much plan on not doing any of your regular chores during that time.”

Again, there was no reaction from anyone. I hoped this meant that the ones left behind wouldn’t mind picking up the slack, even though it really wasn’t my problem. A part of me didn’t want to be the one causing issues in this community, even if it were for a good cause.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this for any of you. We are going after people with weapons, who murder and eat kids. They are animals. We’d like to do this in a way that’s safe, but to tell you it’s going to be easy and that it’s a no-risk proposition would be a lie. Some of us could get hurt or killed.” I surveyed the faces looking at me. “So, last chance. If you are not interested - and no one is going to think anything bad of you if you’re not - please step out.”

Again, no one moved.

“Fine. Let’s get started then. Forward punches, begin!” I started doing my own, a combination of three, counting them out, watching as the kids all fell into the rhythm, some of them faster than others.