Kepa sat in a dark room, huddled with several others who had made their way from the control room to this safe room. Olatz, or Marina – Kepa still wasn’t quite sure how he should think about her – was on the other side of the room, conferring with what Kepa assumed were her lieutenants; Argia was among them. He could hear them arguing and see them gesticulating, but he really didn’t care. All he could do was think about Maite, beating himself up for leaving her behind. He wondered where she was.
Olatz stood, turning to the crowd in front of her.
“The control room is gone,” she said. “We destroyed everything before we left, so they shouldn’t be able to trace us, but we’re going to have to rebuild before we can restart our operations. You should all disperse back home, according to our protocols, to ensure you aren’t conspicuous and traced back here. Those of us with no home to go to -” was she looking at Kepa? “- we’ll regroup at the baserri in twenty-four hours. It is imperative that you aren’t followed. Better to not show up than to let the enemy find us, again.”
A murmur rippled through the crowd as they began talking amongst one another. A few stood, embraced, and then disappeared through one of the doorways that exited the room. Over the course of the next few hours, people slowly trickled out until all that were left were Olatz, some of her lieutenants, and Kepa.
Argia sat down next to Kepa.
“Sentitzen dut,” she said.
Kepa looked up. “Huh?”
“I’m sorry, about Maite.”
Kepa just nodded absentmindedly.
“I’ve lost a number of friends during the course of this… revolution,” continued Argia. “It never gets easier, but eventually you sort of get numb.”
Kepa’s eyes flashed, a spark of anger coursing through him, but he let it pass before he said anything. “I never want to become numb to losing those important to me.”
Olatz – Marina – walked over to them and squatted down in front of Kepa. “We’ll find her, I promise.”
Looking up at her, Kepa asked “How do you even know she’s alive?”
“De Lancre – Zalazar – wouldn’t kill her, I can promise you that.”
“Your promises seem somewhat… hollow.”
Marina brushed aside the slight, instead opting to change the topic. “We need to get to the baserri.” She stood and offered a hand to Kepa. “Time to go.”
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