Our anger is great.
The meaning of Nathan’s words only slowly sank in. So, there was a whole village in Canada, roughly a hundred and fifty people who had sacrificed their last possessions for this plan.They were waiting for results. They cared for their terminally ill relatives and hoped every day for the redeeming news that they would be helped. With the truth and with honest money. However, weren’t the men overlooking something crucial?
“Nathan,” I whispered.
He looked at me.
“The demands—my father knows who you are, right? The truth about the Hampton Oil Company is only of interest to the people of your village.”
“Or environmentalists or competitors.”
“You said yourself that my father was an intelligent man, didn’t you? He’ll know.”
“But that knowledge won’t do him any good. He can’t cross-examine anyone up there while we have you with us.” Now he was smiling. “No police.”
“And if he goes up there himself?”
“I don’t think he would dare. The people there would stone him and he knows it. And even if he sends others, henchmen…no one will betray us. Officially, we’re all dead and buried there. A white cross for each of us. Everyone dug their own grave and the tiny authority in the village will play along. Everyone is playing along.”
“But this isn’t a game.” I glanced briefly at Troy, whose eyes were still closed but who fortunately was no longer drumming his fingers on the floor. “Nathan…I can ask my dad for money for the people of Coldville. For first-class medical care. The best you can imagine.”
Nathan narrowed his eyes and the line between them dug deep into his skin. It was a measure of his anger, I knew that much. “I told you before: We won’t accept charity, we want justice. Your father must be punished. His freedom for the lives of those who have already been buried. Even his money can’t help the sick.” For a moment, he glanced at Sparta, whowas sitting motionless as if he didn’t hear what we had said. Then he leaned forward and whispered, “They die. The immune deficiency cannot be stopped once it has started. It starts in the bone marrow, but it is not leukemia. Flu-like symptoms, Kaposi’s disease, diarrhea, fungal infections, tuberculosis, and pneumonia. Like HIV but unlike HIV. There are no drugs to slow or even stop the disease. The doctors don’t even have a name for it.”
“So, it’s about revenge after all,” I said with a hint of bitterness in my voice.
Nathan leaned back again and shook his head. “What is justice in this case and what is revenge, Will? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, like Isaac and a few others are demanding? They would like to take away from your father the thing he loves most. You. And they want to make you suffer so that he suffers.”
“That’s revenge. And it has nothing to do with justice.”
“That’s right. I was always against it and I thought I had convinced the others of it too, but I was obviously mistaken.” He looked at Sparta and back again. “What is justice supposed to do in this case? Bring the dead back to life? Make the sick healthy?”
“Well, revenge doesn’t bring the dead back to life. Nor does it heal the sick.”
“What is fair and what isn’t is in the eye of those affected. And we want to see Hampton bleed but in a different way than Isaac.”
“That’s my dad you’re talking about. And your plan has failed,” I replied fiercely. “Dad will search for and find someone to blame. And Isaac never ever believed that my father would turn himself in, guilty or not. He said as much. He also said that it wouldn’t matter what he did to me.”
Nathan stared at me in disbelief. “When did he say that?”
“On the Agamemnon.” I waited a while for Nathan to realize what that meant. My jaw was throbbing and there was a spotin my mouth that kept dripping blood onto my tongue. When I raised my hands to brush my hair from my face, they trembled like leaves. “Nathan?”
“Yes?” His gaze was gentle now, so gentle it hurt.
“What’s going to happen to me now?”
Nathan studied me for a long time as the light and shadow patterns of the billboards flew across his black-and-blue face. “Tell me,” he demanded, not taking his eyes off me, “do you doubt your father’s guilt?”
I tugged at my wet pants, which I didn’t want to take off because of all the men around me, nor my sweater. “No,” I stated after a while.
Nathan’s eyes widened. “You’re lying! Don’t do that.”
I remained silent.
He sat up straight. “Tell me the truth!”
“I don’t know, okay!”
“You don’t know.” He exhaled in frustration. “You know our faces and our names. You know our village. The truth about everything.” He slammed his fist on the floor. “Isaac was right. If we let you go now, your father would convince you of his innocence. And at some point, you would definitely be ready to betray us. Maybe not immediately, but after a few weeks or months.”
