The Cartographers(126)

“You and I may have found the town, but I never wanted it to be only ours,” Tamara said. “We never should have tried to keep it a secret. That was where we went wrong, all those years ago.”

“Where we went wrong was trusting the others,” Wally replied.

“Maps aren’t meant to be secrets, Wally. They’re meant to be shared,” she said.

“Not this one.” Slowly, his gaze slid over to Nell. “You understand what I mean.”

“No, I don’t,” Nell started, but he quelled her argument with a tired wave of his gun.

“Yes, you do. You had every opportunity from the start to turn the map over, and you didn’t. You didn’t tell the police, you didn’t tell Irene or the NYPL. You didn’t share it with anyone, didn’t let anyone help you. You didn’t even tell the Cartographers, when you found them. You wanted to keep the map all for yourself.”

“No,” Nell insisted again, but it came out weak, barely more than a whisper.

She knew he was right. She was no better than Wally was. At any moment, she could have told any of them—Irene, Lieutenant Cabe, Ramona, Francis, Eve, Humphrey—but she’d done the exact opposite. She had tried to keep it a secret, even to the point of wrecking her chance at a better life at the library, and her own personal safety. And even worse, she’d forced Swann and Felix to go along with it—and it had cost Swann his life and might be about to cost Felix his.

Felix was shaking his head at her now, begging her not to listen, but Nell couldn’t deny it. She could lie to herself that it was because she’d been trying to help the NYPL, or find justice for her father, but that would be all it was. A lie.

Wally’s eyes bore into her, knowing.

“You’ve been on your own for so long, Nell. Wouldn’t you like to belong somewhere?”

“I belong,” she said reflexively.

“Where? At the NYPL?” he asked. “They cast you out, and now your only friend left there has died. At Classic? You’ll stay there for ten more years because you don’t know what else to do, and then what?” He took a small step closer to her and her mother. “I spent a lifetime trying to finish this map alone. But here we all are, drawn together again. That’s worth something. Wouldn’t you like to be part of something bigger than you are again?”

“But this isn’t the way,” Felix said, but Wally took another step, forcing Nell to take a tiny one back.

“Put the map on the scanner,” he said to her.

“I won’t,” Nell argued.

She stared at her mother nervously. Wally had been her best friend for their whole young life. No one knew him better than she did—no one could stop him except her. Her mother had to know that. She had to do something.

“What’s the purpose of a map?” Tamara asked her.

But Wally spoke first.

“Let me show you,” he urged her, before Nell could answer. “The Haberson Map isn’t just any map, Nell. Combined with the one you’re holding, it could be even greater. Imagine a map that not only showed every corner of the world, down to the most minute detail, but would let you control it, as well. A map that would allow you to improve reality by changing its lines.” He looked at her. “A map that is perfect.”

Nell took another helpless step back.

What Wally had built wasn’t a map. Maps were love letters written to times and places their makers had explored. They did not control the territory—they told its stories. But there could be no stories in Wally’s Haberson Map. If he could hold this secret place captive on his server and use it to shuffle the rest of the world around on a whim, rearranging reality in whatever way he needed, that was not a story. That was not love.

Wally extended his hand, inviting.

“To bring people together,” Nell finally answered her mother’s question.

The hopeful excitement that had been flickering in his gaze died out at that.

Slowly, as Nell’s knees nearly buckled, the gun’s aim swung from Felix to Tamara.

“Wally,” her mother said softly.

“Put the map on the scanner, Nell,” he repeated.

“Tear it!” Felix begged her.

“She won’t,” Wally said. “It’s the last copy. What do you think happens to a town that ceases to exist while we’re in it?”

“Under the circumstances, it sounds like a bargain I might be willing to make,” Nell replied through gritted teeth, even though she knew she couldn’t really do it. Maybe if it was just her and Wally, and no one else, but Felix and her mother were there, too. She had already lost them both once—she was not going to let there be a second time.

Wally could see she wouldn’t do it either. He didn’t bother debating her. He took hold of her mother’s arm so she couldn’t run and pulled her closer to the gun.

“Easy,” Nell pleaded. “I’m going.”

She took a slow step toward the scanner on the printing press to placate him, frantically searching for a way to drag the moment out, to buy her time to think. Wally turned himself and Tamara slightly to keep her in his sights. His focus had narrowed to the map, and nothing else.

Nell risked a glance at Felix and stared for as long as she could before Wally would remember he was still there. His eyes were filled with terror, but finally, just before she had to look away, she saw a flicker of understanding pierce through his fear. Ever so slightly, he nodded to her.