Doomsday Rebirth novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Hearing

On Thursday at ten, the main hall was full to the walls.

Six hundred people sat on cots and crates and each other.

The Commissioner stood on the folding table in a fresh gray suit.

I stood below it with my arms folded, and Ezra stood beside me.

He had slept for two days, and he looked almost rested.

"Friends," the Commissioner said, "I will be brief."

"A man in this building has a rare gift. He is also in danger, from himself and from those who would use him."

"I move that Mr. Kovac be made a ward of the Terminal, under my protection, by acclamation."

A few guards along the wall began to clap.

Nobody else did.

"Is there any objection?" the Commissioner asked, pleasantly.

"Yes," I said.

I stepped up onto the table.

He didn't move aside, so I stood a foot from his shoulder, and took the microphone out of his hand.

He let me.

I think he believed that the hall would let him have it back.

"I have a page to read," I said. "I'm not the one reading it."

I turned and lifted a hand.

Lacey came out of the kitchen doorway with a folder.

She wore a cook's apron and no lanyard, and her curls were tied in a rag.

The hall rustled as she walked the length of it.

She climbed up onto the table beside me, and her knees were shaking.

She read the page.

She read it slowly, in the same small flat voice, with her eyes on the paper.

Sub-basement, staff and families, one hundred twenty.

Main hall, remaining population, six hundred, under tarps.

Seams unsound over sections C through F.

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