For the first time since they’d rescued her, Isa seemed to lose her cool.
“Didn’t you listen to a thing I just said? They’ll kill us. They’ll kill all of us.”
“Isa, calm down. They didn’t see us. Gertrude killed any of the ones that might have raised an alarm.”
“No. He didn’t kill them all. You said there were only twelve bodies.”
“So?”
“That was a scouting squad. She sends her best and strongest to find other groups, other people, to test the area, to decide whether or not to assimilate.”
“And Gertrude killed a dozen of them. A dozen of her ‘best and brightest’.”
“And there are always thirteen.”
“Oh.”
“She knows everything,” Isa said. “She knows exactly where you are. She knows exactly how many of you there are. She knows how much food you have, how many guns you have, how much a
