There were shouts outside. Nazeh leapt to his feet, racing around them to the door. He threw it open, and Bernardo stood to turn and look. Riff also bounced out of his chair.
"What's happening?" Riff asked, craning his neck to see.
Nazeh was shouting orders of some kind, something about getting buckets. He glanced at them over his shoulder for a minute. "There's a fire, out in the orchards."
"Fill up buckets, and put them on a cart," Bernardo suggested, walking up. Nazeh looked over and nodded.
"Good idea. Why don't you two organize it?"
They nodded, willing to put aside the interrogation for the moment. Nazeh stepped out onto the porch, and the two of them raced down the steps. They sprinted across the grounds to the barn, where people were rushing in and out.
Dana passed them by and caught Riff's arm. "Grab a tarp, we can beat out small embers in the grass before it spreads too far."
Riff looked at Bernardo, who nodded. "Go. I can handle the cart."
Riff nodded back. "Be careful." Then he hurried off with Dana.
Bernardo continued alone to the barn. Several people were there, grabbing buckets.
"Get a cart!" He shouted, striving to be heard over the hubbub.
"It's right there," the burly man said, pointing at a hand cart in the corner. He and Bernardo shared a wry glance, and Bernardo ran to grab it. He wheeled it outside as fast as he could without tipping it over. He headed straight for the well, where there was a line of people rushing to pump up water from a well. Others were at taps on the Cabin, and still more were going in and out of the dorms with water from the kitchen sinks.
He wheeled the cart up next to the stone well. "Load it up," he shouted, voice already growing hoarse.
Sammy the not-Bostonian was there at the front of the line. He looked over, eyes wide and panicked. Bernardo repeated himself, and Sammy nodded. He carefully set the bucket in the cart, and stared, looking lost.
In that moment, Bernardo didn't see Sammy. He saw a young Puerto Rican boy, new member of the Sharks, having just come safely back from his first fight but still seeing the violence in his mind. He saw Maria, having just been teased by the girls at school because her skin wasn't the right color. He saw all the people that he'd stepped up to protect, staring at him through the eyes of a teen who'd never been to Boston.
So, in the middle of a fire, he placed his hands on the kid's shoulders. He spoke slowly and clearly as other people filled up the cart with buckets of water. "Listen to me, Sammy. Do you hear me?"
The boy nodded mutely.
"Okay. I need you to take a deep breath."
The shoulders—painfully thin ones—rose up and down in an exaggerated movement.
"Good. Now, grab another bucket and fill it up. Follow the people running to the fire with it. Keep breathing."
Sammy nodded and ran off. Bernardo turned just as someone placed the final bucket in the cart.
"Get another cart!" he shouted, before grasping the hand rails and turning towards the orchards. He immediately saw where the fire was coming from; a thick gray column was rising into the air, a smudge against the brilliant late summer sky. He merged into the stream of people running through the rows of trees, idly thinking that it was a good thing that these paths were so well-trodden. A little bit of water splashed out, but he managed to keep the cart pretty steady.
When he arrived at the fringes of the fire, he saw that several maple trees had caught, as well as the fruit bushes used to supplement their food supply.
"That tree is up! Too far gone! Keep it from spreading any further west! Forget that one, and leave the bushes!" Rudiano stood, directing people's efforts.
As soon as Bernardo arrived on the scene, people who had already emptied their buckets rushed over and grabbed another, replacing it with their empty ones. Soon, there was only one bucket left. He grabbed it and emptied it on a low-hanging branch with several smoldering leaves.
By the time he turned around, his empty cart was gone. Someone else had run up with a new one, and he swapped his empty bucket for a full one.
That's one thing about living on a maple syrup farm. There's plenty of buckets.
Several times, Bernardo tried to catch sight of Riff, to make sure the idiot hadn't gotten himself killed. He did get one glimpse as was taking an empty cart back to be refilled, about halfway through. He was sprinting past with a tarp in one hand, and clutching his stitches with the other. He hoped they both survived long enough to make it home.
The sun had set by the time the fire was receding. They'd had to fall back several times, and a good quarter of the orchard had been damaged. They were mopping up the rest of the fire when Bernardo heard shouting. He turned to see Rudiano shaking a man by the shoulders. Everyone stopped to look as the overseer screamed in his face.
"You started this? Look! We'll be cleaning up this mess for weeks! Our profits will take years to recover!" He slammed the heel of his hand into the man's nose, and everyone heard a crunching sound. "By the time I get through with you, you'll wish you hadn't been born!" He started hitting the man.
The man was incoherently sobbing. Bernardo heard "It was an accident-" before Rudiano kicked him in the knee. Hard.
Bernardo started to take a step forward, enraged, but then Riff was at his side. He had a firm grip on Bernardo's arm, and shook his head. Bernardo opened his mouth to argue, but was stopped by a sharp cracking sound. He whipped around to see Rudiano's body, backlit by the fire, collapse to the ground. The man he was beating slumped to the grass as well, cradling his ribs and struggling to breathe. Bernardo looked around to see Nazeh, arm outstretched, a pistol in his hand still smoking.
There was shocked silence, where all they could hear was the roar of the fire, before Nazeh holstered his gun and gestured at the fire. "Well? It's not over yet!"
Nazeh grabbed a bucket of his own and ran towards the flames, and everyone else jumped back into action. It took another forty-five minutes before everything was out.
"I want fifteen people roving the orchards at any time for the rest of the night with buckets and tarps, in case any embers were missed and start another fire."
While people began to sort things out, Nazeh indicated for Bernardo and Riff to follow him. The three of them walked back to the cabin. As soon as they entered, he headed for his desk and picked up an envelope. He turned back to them.
"I believe we were interrupted in the middle of discussing the conspiracy." He handed Bernardo the envelope. "I've been thinking about leaving for a while. They must have sensed my growing unease, because Rudiano was stationed here to keep an eye on the 'workers'. He also questioned me a lot, too. The man is… pardon me, was, a brute. What he did out there…" Nazeh removed the gun from its holster and dropped it onto the desk. "Was unacceptable."
"Apparently," Riff said, staring at the gun.
"So what is this?" Bernardo asked, waving the envelope.
"Orders for the stationmasters to let you through. We have a truck coming in early tomorrow for supplies. If you want a way out, to report to the FBI or whoever sent you to investigate, that's the soonest way to get there. It'll return to Emmers' Station, which runs supply trains as far south as Quebec. From there, you'll have to hop a train back to your base." He nodded at the envelope. "Give that to the man who signs off on the supplies the truck driver brings. He'll let you on."
Bernardo, although inclined to believe him, felt he should still ask it. "How can we trust you?"
Nazeh's face turned into a thoughtful frown. "I don't know." He paced around his desk to sit in his chair, and Bernardo noted how tired he looked. "Wait. How about this: I'll make a public announcement to the workers, saying they're free to go. I'll tell them how they were forced here, and offer transportation to the nearest settlement for anyone who wants to leave, as soon as I can arrange it. Everybody who chooses to stay will be offered salary." He stared at the map on the wall. "It's something I already intended on doing, but I suppose there's no reason to wait." He nodded decisively. "Alright. I'll do that." With that, he pulled out a notepad and began writing furiously. "I'll make the announcement in the morning, before you leave. After I finish speaking, head to the south road. A truck will be unloading supplies there."
The announcement went pretty much how Bernardo had guessed it would. Everyone was still tired from fighting the fire, and it took a while for the full impact to settle in. Even when it did, it only elicited slight reactions. Everyone already had guessed something of the sort to be going on, and many were a lot less eager than Bernardo would have thought to return home. A good half of the workers immediately took Nazeh up on his offer of remaining with salary, while many wanted to wait and think about it. Only a few immediately decided to leave, and most of those were newer arrivals. The sandy-haired man, Bernardo noted, was among them.
He didn't understand it. He was desperate to get back to New York, to Maria and the others. He wanted his life back. And, now that he and Riff had somehow settled their differences, he hoped that things would be even better than before. With that in mind, the two of them left for the south road.
Twenty minutes later, the two of them were sitting in the back of the now-empty supply truck, watching the archway to Old Borde's growing smaller and smaller in the background until they passed a bend in the road, and it was concealed behind trees.