Chapter 45: The Nut
President Coin storms into High Command like a whirlwind, a few weeks after Finnick and Annie's wedding and after my goddaughter and my son had wild sex in his holding room. Katniss hasn't been back to see Peeta since, on our orders and for her own safety – something she clearly doesn't approve of. But we have other pressing matters to deal with.
Starting with the burly man currently shackled to the head of the table.
I'll say this about President Coin: she shows no fear, as she marches right up into my old mentor's personal space. "All right, Mr. 'I-Use-Antlers-in-all-of-my-Decorating'! – cards on the table, right now!"
"Huh?" Brutus blinks at her stupidly.
"You've been playing prisoner long enough. I would have killed you a long time ago, but you can still prove useful to us. Now start flapping those jaws that I just want to punch!"
"Well, Madame President, if you really have that strong a desire to break your own hand, be my guest."
I do my best to hide a smile. Coin isn't so amused, but she doesn't take Brutus up on his cheeky offer to land a free punch. Instead, she dims the lights and pulls up a holographic schematic of a rather concave mountain. I've seen the image too many times in recent strategy meetings, and I am skeptical as to how it could be the key to turning the tide of this war. However, this is where Brutus comes in.
"Do you know what this is?" Coin asks deliberately.
"That is the mountain holding my native District 2's finest quarry. We call it The Nut," Brutus states with patriotic pride. "It used to be a volcano, and an eruption long ago caused the summit to mostly crater in."
Coin takes this all in. "My engineers and scientists tell me there is a way to make the rest of the mountain… cave in, as you so artfully put it."
A long silence hangs thick as smoke in the air. Brutus's cobalt eyes have gone huge, his bulging muscles shaking with a potent combination of horror and rage.
"No…. no, you can't! There'd be innocent people killed!" Even I am feeling a little queasy, as Brutus raises a fair point. Coin, however, seems absolutely unconcerned.
"Such is the nature of war, sometimes," she dismisses. "Your homeland is the last district still showing loyalty to the Capitol. We need to perform a big strike, something symbolic to obliterate morale and rally your people to our cause against Snow's regime."
"And you think this is gonna do it?" Brutus laughs bitterly. "Lady, you're just gonna make us cling to Snow all the more, especially if you're the one burying quarry miners alive."
Coin smirks deviously. "We shall see…" she purrs.
Brutus locks eyes on me for the first time. "Are you involved in this?" he demands, everything about his countenance hurt and dismayed.
I shrug, trying not to feel too much guilt. "I'm just an adviser."
"And you, Mr. Barsetti, will act as our guide into the mountain once our advance teams have breached it," Coin states. "In exchange for your help, should you survive, you will be granted full immunity and a free pardon from me. Able to return to whatever little life you should make for yourself at war's end." She bristles a little. "I am… in the business of granting immunity to Victors, it seems, even if you are a worthless Career." Brutus glares at her contemptuously.
"And what if I refuse?" he growls low.
"Then I can… make arrangements for your little harlot from Eight to get into…. shall we say, an accident?" Coin levels.
My jaw drops, and Brutus actually goes white. We (or at least I) have heard this song before. Coin is starting to talk like Snow. However underhanded it might be, however, it does the job. Brutus readily agrees to guide the rebels into taking the Nut, essentially betraying the home he holds so dear. As Boggs is signaled to take him back down to his cell, Brutus asks to speak with me alone. Stepping out into the hallway, he turns to face me.
"Maysie, you really think Panem's gonna be better off with Ice-Cold Bitch in charge?"
Though I have always been a little leery of Coin, if anyone had asked me this question several months ago, I wouldn't have hesitated to say Yes. We've all been under the thumb of the alternative – it's no fun. Now, when I can't answer emphatically either way, Brutus steps closer.
"Maysilee, I'm warning you – don't trust this cunt! There's a direct throughline from Snow to her. Nothing will change…. Nothing." Boggs tightens his hold under Brutus's arm, but my mentor digs his feet in.
"They're making me ship out tomorrow, right?"
I nod.
"Can you do me a favor and come down to the dungeons this evening? Bring that Dalton preacher man I've heard about with you."
That evening, as the only witness, I watch as Brutus and Cecelia Rheys exchange rings and vows. The number of Victors that have gotten married over the past several months has been encouraging to see, as we make new lives beyond the arena and the grip of the Capitol. And for Cecelia, marrying again allows her to begin to heal, from the loss of her first husband and three children.
Dalton blesses them both and Cecelia floats into Brutus's arms and kisses him. I almost become teary for this is the… happiest I have ever seen my old mentor.
"I love you, baby," he murmurs.
Cecelia beams. "And I, you." Wrapping her new husband in a close embrace, she kisses him again fiercely, holding his gaze. "Be careful," she implores.
Beetee Latier and Gale Hawthorne are leading the advance team. The explosives they have engineered manage to cause The Nut to collapse in on itself.
With the Mockingjay and her team and media handlers, I enter the largest quarry in Two to find total chaos. Smoke and fire fills the air. Rebel soldiers are advancing deeper into the mountain, guns cocked and pointed, ready to shoot any survivors who might emerge from the depths and become hostile.
Hovering close to me, Brutus's eyes dart about nervously, but he points with confidence. "There! Did your little friends blow the train tracks?"
"I don't know. Why?"
"It will probably be the only way back to the surface and out now," he says, nodding to a line of tracks. As if on cue, light appears in the tunnel beyond, and a hydraulic locomotive comes screeching up into the station. At Paylor's signal, rebel fighters surround the doors and point their weapons.
For a moment, all is quiet, save for the crackle of fires burning beyond and around us. Then –
The doors HISS open and angry miners roar as they bravely charge out of the train and attempt to fight their way out of the mountain. I ignore Brutus's pleased smile at the bravery. One rabid miner actually manages to stab a rebel soldier in the neck with a sharpened piece of granite; there is a retort of gunfire and he cries out as he falls to his knees.
Grey eyes wide with concern, Katniss dashes forward. "Wait, stop!"
Pollux lifts his camera and begins rolling, even as I try to chase after my goddaughter, but Plutarch cuts me off. "Katniss!"
The wounded quarry miner, with nothing left to lose, actually manages to grab the Mockingjay herself and threaten her with the granite blade. From the sheer loathing in his eyes, he clearly recognizes her. "Why shouldn't I just cut you down now, you bitch?"
My fingers twitch towards the blowpipe at my right hip. If I can move and load a dart fast enough, I could bring the guy down from this far range.
To her credit, Katniss shows no fear. "You're right," we actually hear her say. "Why shouldn't you kill me? Like I killed Cato. And Cato killed Thresh. And Thresh killed Clove. It just goes around and around and who wins?" Her breath comes out in a heated, angry whisper. "I am done being a piece in Snow's Games. Don't you want to be too?" She glances around to the other miners, clearly ready to fight for a regime that never really cared whether they lived or died in the first place. "Don't any of you want to stop being used? Come on! Everyone who's sick of it, stand up here and join me!" Her arms are outstretched, pleading. "Please! Join us!"
There is a long silence. And then –
Gunfire explodes (I can't tell from where) and smoke rises around Katniss as she goes down. I scream and dash forward, Brutus hot on my heels. As I throw myself over my goddaughter, she is stirring, dazed, and I rip past her uniform. She has a bullet-proof vest underneath; the bullet never even came close, thank Panem!
Suddenly, the ground itself rumbles dangerously.
"Everybody OUT! It's going!" Brutus bellows. Hearing the words of their Victor, miners dash for the exits, casting down pickaxes and guns and other weapons and raising their hands up in surrender as they reach the sunlight and invading rebels come to greet them.
"They'll be others down there," Brutus is panting, as he helps me get Katniss to her feet. "The train has to go back…" and he dashes for the engine, now abandoned by its driver.
"Brutus!" I grab onto his arm and he snaps his gaze back to me.
"Someone has to help," he states solemnly.
My azure eyes sting with tears, and it isn't just from the smoke. "Brutus…."
But my mentor just smiles at me sadly. So fast that I almost miss it, he swoops in and brushes his lips against mine.
I break the innocent kiss in shock, gaping. Brutus just chuckles.
"Don't tell your hubby about that. Or Cecelia. Tell…. Tell her I love her." His smile broadens, now almost resigned. "You're gonna be all right, Maysilee Donner… You always were." And I watch helplessly as my…. my friend dives into the locomotive and reverses it back down into the collapsing mountain.
The train never resurfaces before the Nut collapses.
