The Other Side by Joshua McCune Page B

dragons. At us for not rescuing you guys sooner. I’m sorry.”
    â€œHe never asked me where we were,” I mumble. In all our conversations about being fine, he never asked. “Wouldn’t he have asked? If he was after Allie, wouldn’t he have asked me where we were?”
    â€œHe knew you had strict orders to stay silent. Maybe he didn’t want to make you suspicious,” Colin says.
    I shake my head. “Why come after you? He knew you didn’t have Allie.”
    â€œWe’ve been running interference against them for the past several months,” Keith says.
    â€œThey came after all our groups,” Preston adds. “James probably didn’t even realize it was us.”
    â€œDragon exposure,” Colin says. “It screws your head up.”
    â€œThat’s government bullshit,” I say. Keith lays a hand on my arm, but I shake him off. “In Dillingham, Oren mentioned something to me about multichannel telepathy and Allie. Do you know what he’s up to?”
    â€œWe’ve been trying to figure that out,” Keith says. He nods at a screen tape labeled Drone Network . Little black dots crawl across a white map of North America, with the heaviest concentration in the pair of drone zones, fifty-mile-wide swaths of land that enclose the evacuated territories. He points out a green blip in the evacuated territories, about a hundred miles north of Denver. “This is the first positive signature we’ve seen in weeks.”
    Colin examines the screen. “That one’s us,” he says, then explains our ruse with the drone.
    â€œDidn’t make sense,” Preston says. “Not enough bang.”
    â€œBang?” I ask.
    â€œWe thought maybe Oren was setting a trap. He’s done it before,” Preston says. “But except for blitzing us, he’s been pretty quiet for the past month. A few of his standard propaganda vids threatening retribution and mayhem, but nothing major. There couldn’t be a better time, either. The military’s focused on Europe, and the new conscripts aren’t battle-tested. Only one reason he’s gone to ground. He must be constructing his death star.”
    I barely hear that last part. “They reinstituted the draft? What’s the entrance age?”
    Keith rises. “You guys need sleep.”
    Last time, the government lowered it to fifteen. Sam’s birthday was in November. He wouldn’t have waited for conscription notification, either. Could already be in boot camp. Could already be at war. “Where’s my brother, Keith?”
    â€œYou need sleep. We can discuss this later.”
    â€œI’ll sleep when you tell me where Sam is.”
    Colin nods to Preston. “Show her.”
    I gape at him. He gives me an apologetic smile, then drops his gaze.
    Preston pulls a computer tablet from a cabinet.
    â€œPut that away,” Keith says. “She doesn’t need to see this.”
    This? Show her? “I know you think you’re all protectingme.” I push myself out of the chair and set my mug on the table so I don’t hurl it at somebody. “I’ve seen the way you look at me. I get it, I really do, but I will not be a victim of your sympathy. And if you stand in the way of me and my family, I’m done with you.”
    Keith takes the tablet from Preston. “A couple of weeks ago, the government launched another Kissing Dragons spinoff called The Frontlines .” He angles the tablet so I can see the screen and taps the play button on a video titled “KDF—Welcome to the Suck.”
    The screen remains black as a dragon roars and the crackle of fire escalates from the tablet speakers. Transitory silence is followed by breathing—quiet, quick—and the nearby clamor of tumbling rocks. The camera cap is removed to reveal a town in ruins. The view zooms in on a Green as it paws its way through a heap of rubble. A dusted sign