[TODD]

The ship pitches this way and that and I can hardly stand up straight in front of the comm panel.

And on the screens, there’s fire everywhere–

“What’re you DOING?” I shout, trying not to panic as I sweat thru the words on the panel–

“Old pilot’s trick that Bradley forgot his grandfather taught him,” the Mayor says. “You change the mixture of the fuel, oxygenate it, and it just burns and burns and burns.”

I look up and see us higher in the sky, swooping across the rim of the upper valley, circling round and pouring the rain of fire down onto the trees below, and the fire is sticky and super-hot, kinda like the Spackle firebolts, and even tho there’s snow coming down, the trees are just exploding in the heat, catching other trees, the fire just zooming thru ’em, faster than the Spackle can run, and the screens show a massively expanding band of flames following us as we fly, circling the valley, trapping ’em inside–

He’s setting the whole world on fire.

I look back at the comm screen. There’s a bunch of boxes I could press but I’m still trying to read the top one. Rekent, I think it says. Rekent Comms. I breathe in, close my eyes, try to lighten my Noise, try to feel it like when the Mayor was in there–

“Watch as the world burns, Todd,” the Mayor says. “Watch as the last war begins.”

Recent Comms. That’s what it says, Recent.

I press it.

“Todd?” the Mayor says. “Are you watching?”

I look up at his face on the screen. I realize he can’t see me. I look back to the comm box. There’s a red circle on the bottom right saying Visuals Off.

Which I read first time thru.

“You don’t care who wins, do you?” I say. He’s flying a wide circle round New Prentisstown now, soaking the forests to the south and the north in a fire that can’t help but eventually reach the city. I can already see an arm of it shooting thru a row of outlying houses.

“You know, Todd?” he says. “I find that I really don’t care, no. Isn’t that something? Just so it’s over. Just so that it’s all finally over.”

“It coulda been over,” I say. “It coulda been peace.’

The comm screen is now a list of the Recent Comms I guess and I’m working my way down it–

“We could have made peace together, Todd,” the Mayor says. “But you decided that wasn’t for you.”

Comm, I read, comm, commoony, communicay–

“For which I must thank you,” he says. “For returning me to my true purpose.”

Communicaytor 1. Communicator 1. That’s what it says, Communicator 1. The whole thing’s a list of communicators. Going down from 1 to 6, tho not in order. 1’s at the top, then 3 (I think it’s 3), then 2 maybe, then whatever the others are–

“You said you were transformed,” I say, sweating as I look at the panel. “You said you were a different man.”

“I was wrong. Men can’t be transformed. I will always be who I am. And you’ll always be Todd Hewitt, the boy who can’t kill.”

“Yeah, well,” I say, with feeling. “People change.”

The Mayor laughs. “Have you not been listening? They don’t change, Todd. They do not change.”

The ship lurches again as he makes another pass, torching the world below us. I’m still sweating over the comm panel. I don’t know which number is Viola’s but if these are recent and in order then she must be 1 or 3 cuz–

“What are you up to in there, Todd?” the Mayor says.

And the comm panel goes blank.

{VIOLA}

The scout ship’s hardly visible now through the smoke that’s rising everywhere. We’re safe so far in the middle of the rocky riverbed, but there’s no way to get out with fires all around. The Mayor’s flown around the whole valley, which is burning so bright it’s difficult to look at directly–

How can there be so much of it? Ben asks as we watch the fire rage through the forests, spreading almost impossibly fast.

“A few drops of it was enough to blow up a bridge,” I say. “Imagine what a whole shipful can do.”

Can you not contact the vessel? the Sky asks me.

I hold up my comm. “No answer,” I say. “I keep trying.’

Then as the vessel is out of reach of our weapons, the Sky says, his Noise resolving into a decision, there is only one course of action.

We all stare at him for a moment as we realize what he means.

“The river,” I say.

And there’s a roar in the air that makes us turn–

“He’s coming back round!” Bradley yells–

And we see, in a parting of the smoke, the scout ship flying up over the lip of the hill, screaming out of the sky like judgement–

Coming straight for us–

[TODD]

The screens are nothing but fire now, fire everywhere, ringing the valley, ringing New Prentisstown, blazing on the hilltop where Viola still is, somewhere in all that burning–

“I’ll kill you!” I shout. “You hear me? I’ll KILL YOU!”

“I should finally hope so, Todd,” the Mayor says, a weird smile on his face in the screen he’s left up of himself. “You’ve waited long enough.”

But I’m already looking round for some other way to contact Viola (please please please). The comm panel won’t come back on but I swear I saw Mistress Lawson doing something on one of the screens by the healing beds. I go over and press one.

It lights up at my touch with a whirl of words.

And one of ’em begins with Comm.

“I should probably tell you what’ll happen next, Todd,” the Mayor says. “It’s important that you know.”

“Shut up!” I say, pressing the Comm box on the screen. Up pops another set of boxes and a whole lot of ’em begin with comm this time. I take a deep breath and try to make my Noise into its reading shape. If the Mayor can steal learning, then so bloody well can I.

“I’ve ordered Captain O’Hare to lead a small force into battle with the Spackle that will inevitably attack the city,” the Mayor continues. “A suicide mission obviously, but then Captain O’Hare always was expendable.”

Communicayteeons Hoob, I read. I squint and breathe again. Please please please. Communicayteeons Hoob. I ain’t got no idea what it means so I breathe deep a third time and close my eyes (I am the Circle and the Circle is me). I open ’em again. Communications Hub. There it is, that’s what it says. I press it.

“Captain Tate will already be leading the rest of the army to the Answer on the hilltop,” the Mayor rattles on, “to dispose of the remnants of the rebellion–”

I look up. “What?”

“Well, we can’t go around risking me being blown up by terrorists, can we?” he says.

“You effing monster!”

“And then Captain Tate will be leading the army to the ocean.”

I really look up at this. “The ocean?”

“Where we will make our last stand, Todd,” the Mayor says and I can see him grinning. “The ocean at our backs, the enemy at our fronts. What better war could you ask for? Nothing to do but fight and die.”

I look back at the comm screen.

And there it is. Recent Comms. I press it. More boxes pop up.

“But it has to start with the death of the leader of the Spackle,” the Mayor’s saying. “And I’m sorry to say that means all who are near him.”

I look up again. We’re right near the lip of the hill, flying up over it and down the dry riverbed towards the fleeing Spackle–

Towards Viola–

Who I can see on the screens now–

See that she’s still riding Acorn, Bradley and Ben next to her, the Spackle leader behind ’em, urging ’em all to run–

“NO!” I scream. “NO!”

“I’ll be sorry to lose her,” the Mayor says, as we bear down on ’em, fire trailing out behind us. “Less sorry to lose Ben, if I’m honest.”

I press the top button on the comm screen, the one that says Communicator 1, and I scream “VIOLA!” into it, my voice breaking with the volume, “VIOLA!”