Chapter Thirty-Two The Last Toll
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The Last Toll
Freewater's transport arrived with six guards and a clerk who carried more paper than ammunition.
Sabra hated him immediately.
Rhett liked him for that alone.
The clerk read charges aloud.
Water sabotage.
Attempted coercion.
Unlawful detention.
Armed assault.
Deliberate route falsification causing death.
Sabra listened without expression.
When asked whether she understood, she said, "Better than you."
The clerk marked a box.
Rhett almost admired him.
Tollhouse riders had been offered a choice: surrender weapons and depart, or face Freewater charges with Sabra.
Most departed.
Three stayed.
Not from loyalty.
Because they wanted wages owed.
Sabra looked offended.
The wasteland remained practical.
Before the transport left, she asked to speak with Eden.
Rhett stood twenty feet away.
Close enough to intervene.
Far enough not to pretend the conversation belonged to him.
Sabra noticed.
"He's trained."
Eden's expression cooled.
"Don't."
"Fine."
Sabra looked toward Reservoir Three.
"When I met you, you were twenty-four and furious at everyone who needed your work."
"I was furious at you."
"You were furious at dependence."
Eden did not answer.
Sabra continued.
"I offered certainty."
"You offered employment."
"Same thing then."
"No."
"To you, perhaps."
For one moment, Sabra sounded less like a villain and more like a woman who had built one answer too large.
She looked at the Freewater truck.
"If I had found Reservoir Three first, I would have kept it alive."
"Yes."
"And charged for it."
"Yes."
"People pay for maintenance."
"They do."
Sabra smiled faintly.
"So we disagree about price."
"No."
Eden stepped closer.
"We disagree about whether creating the emergency counts as providing the solution."
Sabra's smile vanished.
Salt Narrows.
Poisoned tank.
False well notices.
Everything.
"Fair," Sabra said.
The word surprised Eden.
Sabra climbed into the transport.
The truck drove east.
No dramatic final threat.
No promise to return.
Just dust.
Rhett came over.
"How do you feel?"
"Like I need sleep."
"Unpoetic."
"Accurate."
He handed her something.
Caro's drafting film.
Eden stared.
"Where?"
"Sabra's effects inventory."
"You stole evidence?"
"Borrowed before the clerk sealed the box."
"Rhett."
"I asked."
She looked at him.
"Really?"
"The clerk said the film was identifiable property not required once copied."
Eden took it.
Orange pencil marks.
Blue lines.
Caro's hand.
Her eyes burned.
Rhett put both hands in his pockets.
He did not make the moment about him.
That mattered.
Eden folded the film carefully.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Behind them, engines started.
Dustline had voted.
Half wanted to remain near Reservoir Three through the dry season.
Half wanted west.
So they split.
Not from attack.
Not from scarcity.
By choice.
Mina stayed with the settlement group.
Pax went west because no fixed workshop could compete with curiosity.
Esme's Glass Road survivors chose to stay at Saint Mercy and maintain the central bypass.
No one called it an alliance.
They called it schedules.
Rhett stepped down as Dustline's sole lead.
A three-person road crew would coordinate the western caravan.
One seat remained empty.
Eden looked at it.
"You planned this."
"No."
"Rhett."
"I suggested a route position."
"With my name?"
"Without a name."
She narrowed her eyes.
He smiled.
"Honest."
She believed him.
Annoying.
The western caravan would leave in two days.
Seven vehicles.
Twenty-three people.
Rhett among them.
Eden could take her own bike from Glass Road stores and leave alone whenever she wanted.
That freedom did not feel as clean as it used to.
At sunset, she walked to the ridge above the reservoir.
Rhett found her there.
Of course.
He sat.
No need to ask what she was looking at.
The road west.
"Two days," he said.
"Yes."
"You coming?"
Eden looked at him.
He was trying to sound casual and failing beautifully.
"Maybe."
He groaned.
She smiled.
Then took his hand.
"Yes."
The word settled.
No crisis.
No gunfire.
No one forcing the answer.
Just a road.
Rhett squeezed her fingers.
"Good."
Eden leaned her head against his shoulder.
"Don't ruin it."
He laughed.
Below them, water moved through stone toward three different horizons.