“That took less time than I thought it would,” he said, glancing sidelong at me as I caught up with him. “You want to know why I said it.”
“You know me pretty damned well by now,” I said. “You knew I’d want to know. So tell me why you said it.”
“There’s something I’ve started to realize about our friend who’s about as old as the dirt we’re walking on,” Rory said, shoving his hands deep into his pockets and hunching slightly in his coat against the wind. “It’s that he’s stubborn to a fault until he’s convinced himself that something is stupid or wrong or an impossibility. There’s no way we can convince him shy of an object lesson. Letting him try to wander off and showing him that he can’t is the only way that he’s going to give up the idea of doing it.”
I frowned. “I don’t think I believe you, Rory.”
“I’m not sure you have to believe me if I’m right.” He glanced toward me, his cheeks ruddy in the cold. “Mar, he’ll try to run. He’ll do it when none of us are looking and you and I both know that things won’t go well for anyone involved if he manages to get very far from us.”
“Because we’re likely to never find him again,” I murmured.
“Oh, we’ll find him,” Rory said with no small measure of confidence. “It’s just a question of how many people we lose before that happens and what sort of state of affairs he’s in when we do. It doesn’t take a prophet or a visionary to see how it’s all going to play out. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re not.” I exhaled a sigh. “That’s why we’re all trying to keep him from going. I just can’t believe the solution would be to let him try.”
“The alternative would be to send some folks with him. He won’t like it and he’ll probably try to shake his escorts, but…”
My stomach twisted and I swallowed bile. I knew that was true, but for some reason, that felt like a smarter option than letting him wander away on his own.
“Who would we send?” I asked softly.
Rory looked at me sharply. “You’re not—”
“Who would we send, Rory?” I asked, the words tasting like ash on my tongue. “You’re right. We don’t have any options that are better. Someone has to make sure that he doesn’t abandon us or get himself killed. This is the only way.”
Isn’t it? He’s dead-set on going. If we can’t talk him out of it, this will have to be what we do. It’ll do for a plan B, anyway.
I just hope we won’t need it at all.
Good post. Thought provoking. Thank you.