Author's Note: As a special New Year's Eve gift, Suzy called me up and said that I could publish Gregor and the Untitled Adventure and get 100% of the profits! Whoo! But then I realized that I had never given Suzanne Collins my phone number. . . I asked how she got it, but she got offended and revoked her offer and asked me to remind you that rights to Gregor the Overlander and its sequels belong solely to her. Curses. Oh well. Have a great new year!

VII

Gregor drew in a sharp breath. The rat twitched its nose, then dropped onto all fours and turned around.

"I go to all the trouble to tell you to keep your head down, and the first thing you do is run off to find the only Underland creature aboveground."

Gregor shook his head, but couldn't help but smile. "Your threat was so vague I thought I should hunt you down personally to find out what it means."

Ripred snorted, and reared back onto his hind legs. "Oh? So I'm to understand that your appearance here is totally planned. Uh-huh." Ripred looked pretty much the same as the last time Gregor had seen him. There were fewer holes in his ear due to parasitic mites (presumably the others had healed), and the second diagonal scar that made an 'X' on his face had faded somewhat, but otherwise the enormous rat seemed similar.

"Good to see you too, Ripred." Gregor moved into the room and sat on the table.

"Hmph. Good you say? How do you come to that conclusion, rager-boy? For all you know, the gnawers and humans at each other's throats, and I came to kidnap and kill you."

"I know there's no war." Gregor said, feeling smug. "You can't fool me."

Ripred narrowed his eyes, and took in a deep sniff. "You. . . Who did you visit?" The rat paused and scratched at his ear. "That dreamer girl. Nerissa."

Gregor scowled slightly. "Yes," he said grudgingly. "I went and talked to her."

Ripred cocked his head to one side, and absentmindedly waved his tail, knocking another book off onto the carpet with a muffled thud. "Damn. Why does that always happen?"

Gregor seized the opportunity to change the subject. "For once, I have a legitimate reason to be where I am. Why are you up here?"

With difficulty, Ripred maneuvered a stack of books back to the table. "I told you a while ago I do occasionally go topside. To read, in fact. Or did you forget?"

Gregor said nothing; he had forgotten.

Slumping against a wall, Ripred licked his fangs. "Furthermore, I had to make sure you had gotten your letter."

"How did you manage to write that? You said yourself you can't write without opposable thumbs." Gregor said, interested despite his current annoyance with the rat.

It was Ripred's turn to look smug. "It doesn't take a genius, boy." He held out one claw. "Just dip in this ink and you've got yourself quite a useful pen."

"Too bad your penmanship isn't as good as your innovation." Gregor said, feeling very annoyed. Ripred just laughed.

"What a sharp wit you have. You could end up a professional sarcastic cynic, like me."

"Oh, whatever Ripred. Seriously, what are you doing? Looking for recipes?"

"Just keeping up on current events. If you're allowed go downstairs to fraternize with dear old Nerissa for news, I can certainly wander upstairs for an update or two."

"Uh-huh. Current events, I'll buy that. But," Gregor picked up the top book on the pile Ripred had returned to the table. "I'm pretty sure The Prince was written several centuries ago. Not that current. What are you trying to do? Study up on how to be a good dictator?"

Ripred shrugged and slid further down the wall. "Just curious on how your history unfolded. How your old leaders compared and contrasted to ours. Learn from history, you know."

Gregor wasn't entirely convinced. "Okay, sure. Tell me something else though. How strong is this peace you guys have down there? I want your opinion."

"My, aren't we worried." Ripred yawned, the fluorescent light flashing off his teeth. Gregor started to protest, but the rat cut him off. "Hold it! Metaphorically speaking, our peace is about as strong as, say, a marshmallow bridge. A marshmallow bridge trying to support several tons of ravenous rats."

"What is with your metaphor? Rhetoric question. Don't answer." Gregor ran a hand through his hair. "So you're saying the Underland could descend into war at any given moment."

"Not any given moment. Everything's fine on the surface. The gnawer leader gets along quite well with the human leader, and all the other species have no quibbles. . . No, the problem is an underlying hate amongst the, ah, average citizen."

Gregor bit his lip. He had been afraid of that.

"At first, everyone was happy-go-lucky because playing as a team was the most beneficial thing to do. Now, it's not quite as rewarding. Some even have suggested that if everyone went their separate ways, it would be much more productive."

"So there's nothing holding the peace together?" Gregor asked, his hopes plummeting.

"Well. . . There's the threat of the cutters and their western friends launching an assault. That's about it. Bleak, don't you think?"

Gregor groaned. "Ripred, how can you let this happen? I thought you were all for peace."

"I am," replied the rat, "but others are not. Despite my convenient label as 'Peacemaker' and my lofty position in the eyes of many, I am still only one."

There was a long silence, then;

"If the gnawers and humans stayed aligned, the other creatures that are our allies now would stay that way?"

"If you mean that they will stay loyal, then your answer is yes." Ripred replied.

There was another long pause.

"If there was a way to make sure the humans and rats stayed on good terms. . . Would you do it?"

". . . What do you have in mind, Overlander?"

Gregor couldn't reply. In the darkest deepest depths of his mind, the idea had been growing ever since he had talked to Nerissa. Now with Ripred's prediction that if the current path was not strayed from war would break out, Gregor had acknowledged his own idea. It was wrong, he argued to himself. It was evil, cruel, and blatantly a lie. It would probably cost hundreds of lives. . . But it would perhaps save thousands.

"If the cutters were to attack. . ." Gregor said at last.

"Then the gnawer-human peace would be set in stone, stronger than it would have ever been previously." Ripred stood and focused his gaze on Gregor. "I see we have arrived at similar conclusions."

"Maybe." Gregor said cautiously. "Let's hear your idea."

"You just don't want to be the one who says it." Ripred scoffed. "So here's the idea; The cutters really don't like us, but there's no real reason to remove us. We don't mess with them, they don't mess with us. So the threat of an attack is pretty much idle. Once that fact filters out to everyone, the whispers of separation grow stronger until everyone goes their own ways. Once that happens, it's only a matter of time until fighting breaks out again."

Gregor nodded, and his foot gave a nervous twitch. Ripred seemed to be avoiding the main point too.

"If we continue war at that rate, we will eventually kill each other off. No one wins. However. . ." Ripred paused again. "If for some reason the cutters were to attack. . ."

"Ripred, you don't want to be the one to say it either!" Gregor sighed. "If we were to somehow provoke the cutters into attacking us, then we get our unity."

Silence reined a third time.

"Overlander, you realize that this game would be very risky. Not only do we have to provoke the cutters, but we cannot let the gnawers or human or any other of our allies realize we made the initial aggression. If we succeed at that, the war against the cutters would be long. It would be hard. We have no way to guarantee our victory."

"How else, Ripred? How else will peace be ensured? Unless we engage an outside force on the alliance, their cooperation will surely disintegrate into war. As you said, we would end up annihilating ourselves."

"Is it worth it? Boy, you must understand this. I am willing to bet this is a fairly new notion to you. I have had it as an emergency plan for longer than I care to remember. We need to get in depth. You need to know exactly-"

What exactly Gregor needed to know was cut off by a buzz from Gregor's pocket. "Shhh!" he hissed at Ripred. He pulled the phone out and flipped it open. "Hello? Yes. Okay. Yes. I will. Mhm. Yessssss. Bye." He slid the cell phone back in his pocket. "Look, Ripred, I gotta go. Like, now. I gotta find Lizzie and head home." He added the last part because he felt Ripred would be more agreeable to letting Gregor go if he knew Lizzie was involved. The girl and rat had developed quite a bond.

Ripred growled in frustration. His tail whipped a stack off books off the table. "You would be wise to meet me tomorrow so we can continue our discussion."

"Where? Here?"

"No, in a safer place. The entrance to the Underland in your recreation park. The cavern underneath there. Say. . . Noon. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal."

"Okay, rager-boy. It's a date. Just don't stand me up." Ripred laid down and opened a book.

Gregor had already gone. He quietly closed the door, and then walked as quickly as possible out of the winding maze of bookshelves. As he looked for Lizzie, his was mind reeling and his heart racing. What was the right thing to do? Was there even a right thing to do? Were hundreds of deaths now worth saving thousands of lives in the future? Gregor bit his lip. He couldn't shake the feeling he was way over his head.