The Ask and the Answer Read Online Free PDF

instead of making them take it, you offer it willingly!"
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    He's still pacing, his voice still rising. "And so you know what I did. I took. I took you. I took your freedom. I took your town. I took your future." He laughs, like he can't believe his luck. "I expected a war," he says.
    Some of the crowd look at their feet, away from each other's eyes.
    I wonder if they're ashamed. I hope so.
    "But instead of a war," the Mayor says, "I got a conversation. A conversation that began, Please don't hurt us and ended with Please take anything you want."
    He stops in the middle of the platform.
    "I expected a WAR!" he shouts again, thrusting his fist at them.
    And they flinch.
    If a crowd can flinch, they flinch.
    More than a thousand men flinch under the fist of just one.
    I don't see what the women do.
    "And because you did not give me a war," the Mayor says, his voice light, "you will face the consequences.''
    I hear the doors to the cathedral open again and Mr. Collins comes out pushing Mayor Ledger forward thru the ranks of the army, hands tied behind his back.
    Mayor Prentiss watches him come, arms crossed. Murmurs finally start in the crowd of men, louder in the crowds of women, and the men on horseback do some
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    waving of their rifles to stop it. The Mayor don't even look back at the sound, like it's beneath his notice. He just watches Mr. Collins push Mayor Ledger up the stairs at the back of the platform.
    Mayor Ledger stops at the top of the steps, looking out over the crowd. They stare back at him, some of them squinting at the shrillness of his Noise buzz , a buzz I realize is now starting to shout some real words, words of fear, pictures of fear, pictures of Mr. Collins giving him the bruised eye and the split lip, pictures of him agreeing to surrender and being locked in the tower.
    "Kneel," Mayor Prentiss says and tho he says it quietly, tho he says it away from the microphone, somehow I hear it clear as a bell chime in the middle of my head, and from the intake of breath in the crowd, I wonder if that's how they heard it, too.
    And before it looks like he even knows what he's doing, Mayor Ledger is kneeling on the platform, looking surprised that he's down there.
    The whole town watches him do it.
    Mayor Prentiss waits a moment.
    And then he steps over to him.
    And takes out a knife.
    It's a big, no-kidding, death of a thing, shining in the sun.
    The Mayor holds it up high over his head.
    He turns slowly, so everyone can see what's about to happen.
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    So that everyone can see the knife. My gut falls and for a second I think-But it ain't mine-It ain't-
    And then someone calls, "Murderer!" from across the square.
    A single voice, carrying above the silence. It came from the women. My heart jumps for a second-But of course it can't be her-
    But at least there's someone. At least there's someone.
    Mayor Prentiss walks calmly to the microphone. "Your victorious enemy addresses you," he says, almost politely, as if the person who shouted was simply not understanding. "Your leaders are to be executed as the inevitable result of your defeat."
    He turns to look at Mayor Ledger, kneeling there on the platform. His face is trying to look calm but everyone can hear how badly he don't wanna die, how childlike his wishes are sounding, how loud his newly uncured Noise is spilling out all over the place.
    "And now you will learn," Mayor Prentiss says, turning back to the crowd, "what kind of man your new President is. And what he will demand from you."
    Silence, still silence, save for Mayor Ledger's mewling.
    Mayor Prentiss walks over to him, knife glinting. Another murmur starts spreading thru the crowd as they finally get what they're about to see. Mayor Prentiss steps behind Mayor Ledger and holds up the knife again. He stands there,
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    watching the crowd watch him, watching their faces as they look and listen to their former Mayor try and fail to contain his Noise.
    "BEHOLD!" Mayor Prentiss shouts. "YOUR FUTURE!" He