Homecoming

Part of Wells thought he was just being paranoid, that he’d been rattled by the traumatic events. But there was also part of him that knew not to let Kendall out of his sight.

She stood alone, her back to him, leaning over one of the rain barrels. She was reaching down into it.

“Hey, Kendall,” Wells said, trying to keep his tone neutral.

Kendall jumped at the sound of his voice and faced him with a large smile plastered on her face.

“Oh, hi, Wells,” she said smoothly.

“What’s going on? What’s up with the rain barrel?”

“Nothing. Just checking to see how much was in there. Felix just rolled these over. I don’t know how he did it with so much water in them.”

“It’s not hard if you get it at the right angle,” Wells replied. “Why do you need to check the water level?”

Kendall looked up at the sky and held up her hands near her shoulders, palms up, as if checking the air for moisture. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to have any rain today, and I wanted to be sure we had enough.”

Wells studied her face. Something about her was out of synch—it was almost as if her semiclueless voice and her piercing stare belonged to two different people but had accidentally ended up together.

“Did you find something in there?”

Kendall tittered. “In the rain barrel? No. Why?”

“What were you doing with your hand in it, then?”

“Wells, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t have my hand in the barrel.”

“Kendall, I saw you standing there reaching into it.”

She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. For a moment so brief Wells thought he might be imagining it, her expression transformed from innocent and awkward to cool and calculating. Then she opened her eyes wide again, smiled shyly, and shrugged. “Wells, I don’t know what to tell you. I wasn’t reaching into the barrel. I have to get to my hunting shift.” Before Wells could say another word, she turned on her heel and scurried back to the center of camp.

Wells felt uneasy. Something wasn’t right. He looked down into the barrel, but all he saw was crystal clear water, about halfway up the side. With a frustrated slap of his palms against the side of the barrel, Wells decided he needed to tell Rhodes what he’d just seen. Making sure the water was safe to drink was more important than some stupid power struggle.

It wasn’t hard to track down the Vice Chancellor. He just had to spot the clump of guards gathered around, waiting for orders. With an excuse me or two, he made his way to the front of the group and stood behind Rhodes, who was talking to Officer Burnett, his second-in-command.

“Sir?” Wells said in his well-trained officer’s respectful tone.

Rhodes spun around and looked Wells over from head to toe. He seemed surprised to see Wells again. “Yes, Officer Jaha? How can I help you?”

Wells felt the eyes of the guards on him. “I witnessed something I think you should know about, sir.”

“Did you?”

“Yes. I saw a girl named Kendall dropping something into one of the rain barrels. I believe she was putting something into our water supply.”

“And what do you think this Kendall was putting into our water supply?” Rhodes asked coolly.

“I don’t know, sir. But there’s something about her that doesn’t feel quite right. She’s just a little… off.”

Rhodes let out a dry chuckle. “She’s ‘off’?”

Wells nodded.

Rhodes looked from Wells to Burnett, then back again. “Well, Jaha. Thank you for bringing this very critical piece of intelligence to my attention. I will be sure to have my men investigate anyone who may seem a little off. We can’t have that.”

The men gathered around snickered. Wells felt his cheeks burn.

“It’s not a joke,” Wells said firmly. “She was up to something. I just don’t think she’s as innocent as she seems.”

Rhodes pinned Wells with a cold stare. “I realize that your brief time as leader here on Earth was very satisfying for you. And one day, if you manage to keep your desperation in check, perhaps you’ll be in charge again. But right now I find it shameful that you would make up accusations against an innocent girl simply because you would like to feel important.”

Any sense of embarrassment Wells felt was gone in a flash, replaced by pure disgust. He wasn’t the one playing games here—and he wasn’t the one letting power go to his head. Rhodes was putting all their lives at risk because he was… what? Threatened by a teenager? He wasn’t going to give Rhodes the satisfaction of letting his frustration show. As hard as it was, he ignored Rhodes’s accusations and focused on giving him concrete evidence so he’d have to act, regardless of whatever personal beef he had with Wells.

“Sir. Before you arrived here, two members of our group were killed.”

“Yes, I heard about those unfortunate incidents.” Rhodes waved his hand dismissively at Wells. “But I understand that you were not properly protected. We’ve established a security perimeter that will prevent that from happening again.”