Thanks for the feedback on the last chapter. Don't worry, this story will be finished, and loose ends will be tied.
Date: Year 9, September. Twelve days after Mags' victory.
Standing once more in front of the crowd assembled in the town square, the green-eyed victor swallowed back her nervousness. Cameras pointed straight at her face and peacekeepers kept the crowd away from the stage. As August died, the President had made her refusal to give water-filtering technology and Doppler radars official, and today all of District Four would hear Mags give them the reason why.
A mouthpiece for the Capitol. This was the role Evadne Achlys wanted her to fill.
Mags let the tangy sea air fill her lungs, hoping her people would see beyond the image and hear her words. She paid only token attention to the mayor's introductory speech. Anger shone on many a tanned face. Anger at having to give up half their morning to come and listen to a teenager who in their eyes would forever be a tool. A now familiar weariness seeped into Mags' bones, and she wondered how long it would take to earn their respect.
Except for a few muttering children, the crowd was deathly silent. It always was when the cameras were there. No one wanted the Capitol's attention on their family. Mags let the sight give her strength. If a whole town could muster the discipline to remain silent under Capitol scrutiny, surely they would pay heed.
"You all know someone who died from a storm we couldn't predict," Mags began. "We had functional, efficient meteorology stations ten years ago. Those represented two hundred jobs and countless lives and ships saved. Today, the President refuses to waste money on advanced equipment which will be destroyed in acts of vandalism hidden under the pretense of rebellion." Mags paused, letting her words sink in. Fury, resignation and bitterness rippled over the crowd like waves crashing on a reef. Those battered people didn't need to talk, Mags realized, their story was etched on their faces and their plight obvious in their tired eyes.
"The mirrors for the lighthouse in this town were broken twice, and not by peacekeepers, before we finally got the new ones installed." Mags didn't have to say how long they'd gone without a lighthouse and how everyone had almost given up until Caspian Medes had changed things through sheer toil and force of personality. "All over District Four, every month, cargoes of fish sent over to the Capitol are fouled, train windows shattered by thrown stones. Does ruined fish make the Capitol starve? If someone pays, it's the fishermen, and the workers at the processing industries. It's not the Capitol," Mags said, anger entering her voice. She struggled not to sound too accusing or aggressive. She knew how helpless people felt when the reapings approached. She'd seen the haggard looks of the sailors in the winter, giving away the fish their families so desperately needed to survive to keep to the quotas. But desperate gestures of violence only cause Four to sink deeper in misery.
"When you or someone you know attacks a peacekeeper or damages a building, ask yourself, is it worth it? Is it worth the ships that never sailed home? Will ripping a pipe or breaking a window make your life easier? I, like everyone, have protected vandals. I know what they felt, because I am the daughter of a single woman who despite her intelligence and qualifications struggled to earn money, because I lacked the extraordinary skills those with no parents in a trade need to get a solid job. I never starved, because I fought every day of my life. And many of those who fight still go hungry and cold," Mags swallowed, remembering the message she had to give. Her voice couldn't break.
"They call themselves rebels, they say it's to give the Capitol a lesson, to show we're not beaten, but what do they achieve beyond instant fleeting gratification and an illusion of power they do not have? If they do not help someone live better, then they have decided feeling good is worth the death of dozens of sailors each year. It's murder," Mags pitilessly ground out, seeing a group of teenagers shuffle uneasily in a corner. "The rules are clear," she said, "we'll get meteorology and water sanitation if the number of vandalism and violence against peacekeeper incidents for every 1000 people doesn't go above twice what it is in District One. That's low," Mags admitted, looking down, "not impossibly low, so a handful of selfish idiots won't ruin our chances, but low. Achievable low," she added, her eyes finding Marlin in the third row and taking comfort in his encouraging smile.
"It's about building a future where infants and children don't die from filthy water and all our ships return," she said, her voice rising as she willed people to see. "Some of you may worry that the Capitol may come back on its word, trick the numbers and never give us what they promised, but we're not fools! Every act of vandalism is obvious, peacekeepers don't get black eyes and shredded clothes on their own. We can keep our own tally too, compare the numbers. We're not fools," Mags repeated, "but we should be responsible. We do have the power to make things better. By blaming everything on the Capitol, we strip ourselves of the power we do have. Would you give away your chance to change the district to be allowed to claim nothing is your fault when things go bad? Then you choose to be helpless. If you let people get away with destroying our chance at a future, you are responsible. It's not easy, nothing is ever," she said bitterly, memories of Constantine and Fife resurfacing in her mind.
It was up to the parents to educate their children, to the teenagers to open their eyes, to the neighbors to intervene when they saw people heading out with staves and stones. Everyone had to work for a better District Four. Mags could try and lead the people, but she couldn't force them to follow her. She couldn't change the District alone.
Mags clutched the pictures to her heart. Never had she been in such a hurry to be home.
A crew of journalists, probably including the one she'd given exclusivity to after the Games, but she really couldn't place any of the faces, had ambushed her after her speech. They'd asked about her illness and her return to Four, about her plans and her money. Mags had answered their questions as she would have answered Achlys', being nevertheless careful not to reveal anything the President may have considered confidential. It had taken an whole hour to convince those eager painted faces that she wasn't at the heart of any hidden juicy scandal and that she was wholly uninteresting. They never mentioned Constantine or Fife, or any of the rebels she had met by name, so Mags let herself relax slightly, glad for the small mercy of considerate guidelines. She had been soon after led to the train where her stylist, August Temple, was waiting with a literal wagon full of dresses. Apparently they were making a victor calendar, a 'before and after' perspective with the best eye-camera shots of her Games and pictures of her in fancy shimmering dresses near the sea.
Mags protests at having to pose for hours overdressed in the heat had died in her throat when she saw the pictures from the Games.
The nine best eye-camera shots included one from Lila's camera. One with her, Fife and Constantine. Mags didn't know how long she had stared, her fingers a hair's breadth from her allies' faces, as if she could be sucked back in the moment. Fife eyeing the taller handsome boy, fond exasperation sparkling in her black eyes while Constantine remained intent in ignoring Lila. They'd caught the moment where he'd turned to a resigned looking Mags and flashed her a dashing unabashed smile. The future victor, armed-crossed in her form-fitting uniform didn't hide her disapproval, but her lips twitched, making it impossible for the aristocratic boy to feel threatened.
Mags had never owned a camera. Portraits had always been done by people with a gift at drawing in exchange for a couple of meals. It took her another hour and a half of throwing a diva-worthy fit to obtain decent-sized copies of the picture, but Mags had refused to leave without.
Her eyes shone with wistful tears as she hurried across the town.
A gray envelope with Mags Abalone written in capital letters rested against the sign at the bottom of the private path leading to victor's village. Mags frowned and picked it up without slowing.
Her mother's welcoming smile died as Mags closed the door behind her. "Esperanza isn't with you? I thought she'd come to get you at the mayor's house. She's late."
"No, I haven't seen her," Mags said, mirroring the woman's frown. Esperanza had finished school hours ago. She carefully put the pictures of Fife and Constantine on the table before tearing the envelope she'd found open. "There was this letter on the path," she said.
We have Esperanza. She'll be safe for the next twelve hours, as long as we get the sum encased below. Don't think to track us, the money is to go to Riviero Gibbs by nightfall. He's not part of this, neither is the person he'll give the money to, so don't look suspicious when you do. You don't want to disappoint us.
Naive dependable people abound, don't they? We're not going to let you turn us into Capitol lapdogs with your promises of security and health. You've messed with enough heads already.
The world around her vanished, replaced by a red fog. All her perception focused in a single clear tipped point. Find Esperanza.
"Mags, adonde vaz? Espera!"
'Where are you going? Wait!' Her mother's urgent call had the effect of a gust of wind. There was something about Spanish that made Mags feel like a tiny child again, that gave her an urge to hide her eyes and clutch her mother's skirts.
She realized then that she had already thrown the front door open. She froze, eliciting screams of protest from her body. Everything was begging at her to run, to hunt. But where to go, who to look for? She only knew the why, and the raging anguish made her stumble and lean on the wall for balance.
"They're rebels, they won't kill her." Mags said, breathless as her heart hammered painfully in her chest. Or would they? "It's not just the money, Mama, they want a statement, they want me to stop making speeches." She wrung her hands together, painfully clenching her jaw to curb the animal rage inside her and buy her brain time to think. "I could call Achlys, and then what? Peacekeepers would come and they'd find a body."
"If they touch her, I'll tear them apart," Angelites vowed, her face ablaze with a vengeance that cast a dark shadow over the setting sun. She slowly picked up the phone and grit her teeth in anger rather than in surprise when she saw the line was dead.
Mags was crushed by a wave of guilt so powerful she couldn't breathe. She stood still, waiting for her mother to say the words, to tell her it was her fault, that her speech had motivated the radicals to act against her family. To tell her that she had made everyone she loved a target and that even if Esperanza was released unhurt, every day would be a threat, and danger would shadow them forever, like a rabid dog waiting for the right moment to bite.
A cough burst from the seventeen-year-old's lungs, tearing at her. Her whole body hurt, as if sludge struggled to flow in her veins and, at that moment, Mags decided that maybe she deserved to die. Her little sister, so full of life and dreams. Paying for Mags' ambitions. "I'm sorry," she choked out, feeling her whole world crumble.
"Mags," a tear-stricken Angelites said, reaching out for her shaking daughter, "I know the price of fighting. I am the mother who let her child fight the rebellion with her father instead of keeping her safe at home and I love you every bit as much as I love Esperanza," she said with a soul-born ring to her voice that pervaded Mags like the heat of a bonfire after a winter storm. The dark-haired woman embraced her daughter, cradling her until her cough abated and her heart slowed.
"I do not blame you, child. You are doing what is right," she murmured in her daughter's ear, the tremble in her voice failing to tarnish the conviction in her words. "Take your medicine. We will find her, and we will make them pay."
Mags eyes fell on the town below. Such a beautiful view. Such a useless view that would not reveal where her sister had been taken. The sight of the shipwrights suddenly propelled her a few days back and gave her a desperate idea. "Let's put that sheet to hang out of the balcony. People will think Glynn had a meeting with me today if they're watching."
Mags knew Glynn had been joking, but as she put the sheet out to 'dry' she now clung onto the hope that the auburn-haired girl would see the signal and pay heed. Mags couldn't think, no plan formed in her mind, maybe an outsider would help her find a solution. Anything.
Angelites pulled her flowing raven hair into a tight bun. As the tanned woman straightened her long dress, Mags saw her mother donn battle armor. She looked like nothing could ever break her and Mags' fear was momentarily replaced by unrestrained admiration.
"Glynn could know people?" Angelites said softly. She was forcing herself to be calm, but it was only a mask, a thin door struggling to hold in an impeding storm.
"No, but, right now, if I don't do something I'm heading out and killing them. Whoever them is," Mags replied in choked tones, her hands shaking from stress and rage.
"And I'd help you," her mother darkly said, her hand tightly clasping Mags' arm. The woman straightened, slowly recovering her ability to articulate ideas. "What I wonder is what they would do if we gave them the money. Four is big enough to hide in, but not enough to spend in unchecked, not such a sum," she said, her breaths harsh and slipping around her words, molding them into feverish hisses. "Either they'll make it disappear, a hundred small sums –"
"But that would mean the'd planned the kidnapping," Mags exclaimed. "It's been less than two weeks! They can't get that kind of organization."
"Or there's a black market I'm not aware of."
Black markets. Some things slipped through, especially from Five and Eleven. Portable heaters, batteries, fruit, liquor, recreational drugs… but nothing that could start a rebellion. Peacekeepers could be bribed only as long as the risk remained worth it.
Mags' snapped her head to the side. Her mother's fury had flared so brightly that a surge of heat had disrupted her musings. "I think they're counting on the fact we won't sell them out," Angelites ground out.
Mags could see that right now, her mother had never wanted anything more than to turn the kidnappers in. Her child was in danger and rebel kinship, even had the rebels been worthy, did not extend so far.
Mags' heart almost stopped as the door bell rang. She started breathing again when she recognized the silhouette behind the translucent glass door.
Glynn expression grew grave as she saw their appearance. "Two people asked me why I was coming. Nosy questions. You have undercover nine-year old bodyguards?"
Mags clenched her fist. Nine year olds as lookouts? How pathetic.
"What did you tell them?" Angelites snapped, looking ready to take the nearest chair and shatter the bay window.
"That it was about you buying a service from the Fox before she sailed, and that it'd take half an hour or so." Glynn replied quickly, a glimmer of fear entering her almond eyes at having such raw fury directed at her, even for a second. She spoke again after a tense pause, her voice a mere whisper. "You look like Four is about to lose some of its esteemed citizens."
Mags' smile was all but reassuring. "Read this," she said, handing the note over.
Glynn paled. She stared at the ransom demand, her jaw moving of its own accord until her face froze into a rigid mask and anger flared into her hazel eyes. Her emotions were so clear that Mags could almost read her thoughts.
How dare they! and idiots seemed prevalent. Glynn's contempt gave Mags sudden hope. If it was about the execution of the plan rather than the morals, they would get Esperanza back without bloodshed.
"You'd have to be paying cash right?" Glynn said, furrowing her brow. "How do you get the Capitol to give you so much cash without batting an eye? Getting electronic markers on your money? You sure only the brain in the operation will get hit rather than everyone loosely linked to them?"
The questions pierced through Mags' anger, slightly dousing the raging inferno threatening to consume her. Worried to death about Esperanza, she hadn't even thought of how to get the money. The town's single bank didn't have enough in stock to pay the ransom. Mags had an electronic card but even she could only get notes from the bank. Only a handful of shops could take electronic payment. Traceable money... There had been quite a lot in District One.
"Go to the bank," Glynn said. "I'll call the President on your behalf, tell her to give rigged notes and explain an immediate and public clean trial where the Capitol is irreproachable will turned Four away from rebellion."
"Tell her it doesn't matter if some petty rebels escape, because she'll get the whole of the district if the Capitol plays good guy well enough." Angelites said slowly, a dark light in her hooded eyes as she latched on to the plan like a drowning man to a safety raft.
"But… that's the truth," Mags said in a small voice. She hated those kidnappers like she had never thought herself capable of hating, but the idea of giving the Capitol good ideas to quell rebellious action made her pause.
"Only extremists. Every clear-headed rebel knows that even the Capitol is not all bad," her mother said, her voice thick with scorn. "It's made of people and no matter the system, people can be moral or unscrupulous in every setting. Only children should be shocked when meeting a decent peacekeeper or even a decent Capitolite. Throwing rocks and degrading buildings is not rebellious, it's immature at best and criminal at worst. Let's get my daughter back."
Mags smiled mirthlessly. Kidnapping Esperanza had effectively torpedoed any chance at understanding and mercy she may have had. There were ideals, and then there was protecting your baby sister. And unfortunately for those people, Esperanza coming to harm was not a necessary condition for the betterment of Panem. Mags would see them dead.
Mags then turned to Glynn. She realized she'd taken the girl's help for granted.
"You're okay with doing this for us?" she whispered, aware Glynn was too bright to be oblivious to the danger.
"You're not a madwoman on a witch hunt, you want things better and you have a brain, Mags. And anyway," she said, her expression tightening with anguish laced with incredulity, "we're talking about your sister being kidnapped, I won't stand by and just watch." Glynn looked down, a flush creeping up her cheeks "May I bribe the peacekeepers to let me make the call? One month pay to three people tops? I'm pretty sure I can bully my way in as soon as I have a Capitolite on the phone and get to President Achlys."
Mags had to smile a little at her practicality.
"Yes," Angelites said with no hesitation. "Let's go without looking suspicious straight to the bank ten minutes after Glynn has left and hope district Four matters to Achlys as much as she lead you to believe."
"What if it doesn't?" Mags said, her eyes widening in fear. Why were they relying on the President to save Esperanza? It was so wrong. Mags should not be helpless to save her sister, she should never have to rely on Achlys or anyone she couldn't trust.
"Then we spread the word on the marketplace," Glynn said, keeping her tone low and careful, as if any loud noise would cause pandemonium to erupt around her. "Their lives will be over if the mob finds out. Kidnapping a twelve year old doesn't go over well and after your speech -"
"They could kill her if we back them in a corner!" Mags exploded. "They could hurt her and throw her in a street for us to find!" She didn't care about the culprits if it meant Esperanza would be harmed.
"Then if it fails," Glynn said, looking pensive, "you give them the money, we get her back, then we tell and people will pay for their stupidity when the peacekeepers make a descent if the town chooses to hide them."
Mags vehemently shook her head. A general interrogation... It would be a bloodbath and destroy any sympathy she may have garnered. There had to be a way to save Esperanza without sacrificing everything else.
"Maybe they want to be martyrs," Angelites said, distaste dripping from her words.
Glynn seemed to think a few seconds. "I can suggest to the President to declare that Caspian Medes and Maris Goby will be reaped if the culprits aren't turned in."
Mags and Angelites paled drastically. Those two teenagers were the soul of the town. Caspian had managed to get the abandoned lighthouse repaired the year before through sheer perseverance and force of will. The determined sixteen year old had coordinated everything, first alone, then with the adults who suddenly started believing his claims that it could be done without needing more money. The slightly older Maris, who was already married to a successful shop-owner, had turned her house into an orphanage when the first one had burned down and they somehow kept it going with minimal donations. They were exceptional, two children grown too quickly that had managed to rise above the self-centeredness born from misery and devote themselves to others. No other loss would hurt the town more.
"Don't take the risk," Mags snapped. It was wrong. Ruthless, maybe worth it, but wrong. Esperanza would never have wanted that. Better to have hotheads who called themselves rebels lashed unfairly than risk losing the few people who had vision in town. Maris and Caspian would not be murdered through any fault of hers.
"It's no risk," Glynn said confidently. "People will rat the kidnappers out as long as the Capitol only asks for the names of the leaders and promises not to investigate further. Maris and Caspian are loved and esteemed."
Mags nodded slowly, more to acknowledge the odds of it than to approve of Glynn's methods. The girl was surprisingly ruthless. If the Capitol let them do their justice… Mags pushed the darkly tempting thought out of her head. She would not drag Maris or Caspian into this nor would she reveal to Achlys how to hit her town the hardest. Her stomach rebelled at the mere thought.
"Let's stick with plan A then. I'll be going," Glynn said with a tight smile, squeezing Mags' hand briefly. "Be strong, I won't take any chances, I promise," she whispered, her eyes misting over as she gave the Abalone matriarch one last glance.
Angelites turned to her daughter as soon as Glynn was gone, hope had doused her anguish sufficiently to reveal how dangerous the dark-haired woman could be. Mags had been a war child, but until her pregnancy had entered its second trimester, her mother had fought side by side with her husband. She was no stranger to violence or distasteful decisions. Mags could not have asked for better protection.
"I believe it may work," Angelites said with a ghost of a smile as she hid twin knives inside the folds of her dress. Her expression darkened once more. "How did they know where to find Esperanza without alerting anyone? She's always accompanied, except when she cuts through the reefs, but no one knows she does, except her friends."
Mags face darkened. "And my friends." She breathed in, willing to still the homicidal rage threatening to rip apart years of closeness. "It's not a real secret, Marlin could have let it slip without thinking."
"Or Dylana could have been asked and told by someone they just wanted to have a word with Esperanza."
"She's not stupid," Mags said, refusing to let doubt creep in her anguished mind.
"What if the sibling of a good friend asked? Dee is probably as bothered by the two of you falling out than you are, and she not immune to manipulation," the woman grabbed Mags' arm. "We'll find out later, the guilty can wait. We need to get the money."
Mags nodded. She couldn't breathe. Could it be too late? Was her sister being hurt? The futility of those questions didn't loosen their choking hold. Slowly, her panic gave way to cold canalized rage.
The victor of the ninth Hunger Games straightened and gave her mother a tight intent smile.
The two women headed out under the setting sun, their blank faces impenetrable masks as their feet rhythmically struck the ground.
The white-haired Mr. Blackpool politely greeted them as they entered the quiet town. He could not have imagined the deadly storm waiting to be unleashed.
AN
Mags opened a can of worms. How much will she have to pay to change Panem? The Capitol isn't always the biggest threat and now Esperanza is in direct danger.
Please review, if only to introduce yourselves and say you've liked what you've read up to now.