Odile came through the earpiece ten seconds after the corridor went quiet.
"Everyone . Listen to me. There has been a change of plans."
Kin was standing in the yard with the lead guard beside him. Nia was still on the third floor with the general's face on and the .50 in her hand. Selah was on a rooftop four blocks away with a rifle. The grey man was at the gate with his twelve. The veterans were on the eastern road with their trucks under tarps.
"Say it," Kin said.
"The two rogue guards have been taken to the guardhouse. The men who took them are loyal to the general and are already questioning them. They will not get anything. They think they are protecting a cause."
"Good for us," Kin said.
"Good for us," Odile said. "Because the men who are questioning them now believe there is a rebel cell inside the compound. Which means they will believe there is a rebel cell outside it too."
Kin looked at the lead guard, who was still standing beside him waiting to be told what to do.
"What do I tell them."
"You tell them the truth as you know it. You tell them there are more rebels in the woods. Not twelve. Not forty. An army. You tell them you saw the army when you were in the trees looking for the goat, and you tell them you counted more than you could count on your fingers and toes, and you tell them they were moving toward the compound, and you tell them the general should send men to deal with them before they reach the wall."
"That is a large lie."
"It is a useful lie. The general will have to reduce the soldiers traveling with the warlord so that he can send men into the woods. The warlord is going to the stadium today, and the general is supposed to send an escort with him. If the general tells him there is an army in the woods and he needs half the escort to clear it, the warlord will not argue. He will be glad to be rid of the general's men. He will take a smaller convoy. And a smaller convoy is the one we can manage."
Kin was quiet for a moment.
"The woods are rigged."
"The woods are rigged. The men who go in will not come out. Not the ones the general sends, and not the ones the warlord sends after them. The rebels know those trees better than anyone alive. The veterans were soldiers on that ground twenty years ago. Between the two of them, and the charges, the escort will be cut down to nothing. That is the first half of the plan. The second half is the warlord."
"What about the warlord," Kin said.
"That is what I am about to tell you." Odile paused. "This death does not necessarily need the decapitator. The System says it does, and the System is right, but only in the final inch. The death itself can be delivered by anyone. It can be delivered by a rifle from four hundred meters. It can be delivered by a knife in a corridor. It can be delivered by a man who walks up to him in a crowd and puts a round through his skull before anyone knows what has happened. The covenant does not care who opens the throat. It only cares that the head comes off."
Kin looked at the building.
"Selah."
"Selah is on the rooftop four blocks east. She has been there for two hours. If the plan goes to the point where the warlord is in her line and everything else has failed, she will take the shot. She is not to fire unless she is told. She is the last door."
"And the rest of us."
"The counter force splits in two. Half goes to the stadium and holds the approaches. They will not attack the stadium. They will attack the road leading to it. They will slow the general's team down, they will make them take the long way, they will make them stop and radio in and wait for orders. They only need to buy time."
"And the other half."
"The other half stays with the woods. They are already there. The grey man's people are in the trees. The charges are set. When the escort goes in, the trees come down."
"And me."
"You and Nia and a handful of soldiers will be allowed to go to the warlord. Not as attackers. As a warning party. The general will tell the warlord that the man who took him is still out there, that the attack this morning was a second attempt, and that he needs to send a small number of men he trusts to ride with him to the stadium and keep him safe. The warlord will accept because he is vain and because he believes he is in danger and because the general has never steered him wrong. That small party will include you. It will include Nia in the general's face. It will include three or four men from the general's own guard who have been with him for twenty years and who will not question him."
"And then."
"And then, when the army is being mangled in the woods and the escort is gone and there is no one left between you and him, you will catch up with the warlord. You will be beside him. He will look at you and see a man he has been told to trust. And then you will take his head."
Kin was quiet for a long moment.
"Just like that."
"Just like that."
"And what if something goes wrong before then? Maybe he sees through Nia? What if convoy turns back?If the men in the escort figure out what is happening before they are inside the trees, what then?"
"Then the second half of the counter force hits the motorcade on the road. Then Selah takes her shot. Then you do what you do. There are three ways this ends, Kin. All three of them end with the warlord dead. The difference is how many of us die getting there."
Kin looked up at the building. On the third floor, in the corridor, Nia was standing with the general's face on and Kin's gun in her hand. She was still alive but still in the plan, and she was still going to walk out of this building later , get into a car with the warlord and drive toward the stadium with a knife hidden under the general's jacket.
"Nia," Kin said.
"I heard," she said.
"Are you still in."
"I am still in."
Kin turned to the lead guard.
"I need to speak to the general," he said. "I have more to tell him. About the army in the woods."
The lead guard looked at him.
"Come with me," he said.