Chapter 75.
The Host sits in front of a monitor, first watching scenes from the war the street cameras are providing him. Then secret videos taken inside the public hospital. Faces he recognizes now—because he’s made it his job to recognize them.
He’s seen Hannah Wagner turning panic into a plan. Wyatt Jordan hand the girl they’ve just saved over to the doctors. Jack McHenry saluting two dead soldiers like it’s the only language he trusts. He’s seen the anguish when they realized one of the fallen was their own.
The Host has felt some of that anguish himself.
He doesn’t smile. He doesn’t celebrate. He sits very still. Because this is the point.
Not the stunts. Not the spectacle.
The consequence.
He takes no joy in this, nor any relief that so many of them have made it to the hospital alive.
They came here believing they could change the world.
Now they’ve seen what the world actually looks like when it breaks. Leadership isn’t speeches, The Host thinks. It’s what you do when it’s burning.
It has to be this way.
He has told them, will keep telling them, that one of the reasons they were brought here was to experience pain like this—and loss like this—firsthand.
He watches Jack walk out. Watches Hannah cry.
Good, he thinks. Not because he enjoys the pain. Because pain is the only teacher none of them can ignore.
As challenging as honesty is for him, he has at least been honest about that.
He knows there is more suffering to come, sooner rather than later, when they realize things are about to get worse.
None of them might want to hear this, but the fact is that there is no other way to complete the mission.
It is for their own good, whether they want to hear that or not.
They need to fear for their lives and somehow overcome that fear.
Find a way, if they can, to rise above horrors like they’ve witnessed today. And will continue to witness.
It is why he has actually been pleased today to witness the leadership and the teamwork exhibited in saving a little girl whose name they still might not know.
It had been a complete—and inspiring—collaboration.
That happens to be a quality that will be essential in leading people out of the darkness—with his able assistance, of course—no matter who ends up being The One.
Something else they might not want to hear?
That person will also need to be as ruthless. With true greatness always comes that sort of ruthlessness. It’s part of why he was drawn to Jimmy Donaldson in the first place. He thought Jimmy understood what it takes for a person to succeed. He was wrong.
He shifts his attention back to the screen showing the chaos and movement and even panic in the lobby of the hospital.
He leans closer to the monitor, listening to the chaos in the lobby. And he knows what comes next. Not a bigger explosion. Not a louder bomb.
A choice.
A choice that will split them.
And for the first time since this day began, The Host feels something that surprises even him. Not pity. Not guilt. Fear.
Because he can see it now, clear as a target in a scope:
One of them is starting to become The One.