BREAKFAST?” JENNIE’S FATHER greeted her. “No thanks, Pa. I’m not hungry.” “Hurting?” he asked in sympathy. Jennie sighed. “You’ve been there.” Her pa tucked his dreadlocks behind his ears and handed her a warm corn muffin. “I have. Eat. We’ve got to deal with this pit mouth first, and you don’t want to pass out halfway through the debriefing.” She almost laughed. “I think I’d enjoy it more if I was unconscious.” He sat down at the table across from her. “It’s always hard after a major action. That time Voske’s gang tried to conquer the town, when you were a baby? The debriefing took days. The same when Gabrielle Bell lost the election, and families who’d been here for generations packed up and left. Everyone blamed everyone else. Remember, they’re all scared. Running into a pit mouth, especially one teamed up with snakes, would have shaken anyone.”
