And now, Lev attempts to explain why he’s been standing around being boring instead of trying to get them caught.

Lev could have run the moment they broke out of the woods. He could have, but he didn’t. There’ll be a better time, he had thought. A perfect time would present itself if he had patience, and kept watchful.

Lev doesn’t make it clear what “perfect” means. Since he could have run even back in the woods, the “could have run” distinction there for out of the woods suggests that he’s not currently waiting for a time he’s certain of escape. So what else is he hanging around for, the perfect chance to make sure they’re caught and murdered? He goes on to explain that being around these little hellions is horrible, so you’d think he’d cut his revenge losses and just hoof it.

We do get an explanation for the police car, though – the newspaper made Lev hesitate. He wants them unwound, but getting them killed by bullets is terrifying, which is totally the sort of distinction someone like him should make! He’s only thirteen, condemning kids to unprettified murder is tough.

His family was influential. They were not to be trifled with.

From now on, I’m just going to assume they’re in the mob, from the splinter branch of the Catholic church that’s fine with the childmurdering. All mobsters joined up with it due to its understanding policies on murder in return for giving lots of dough to the priests, which is currently financing some very, very pretty buildings. Let’s all close our eyes and imagine the pretty buildings. And the mobsters. Doesn’t that all sound so cool?

In addition to explaining why Lev finds it so plausible that his family would put out a hit on his kidnappers, this also explains why he’s a pintsized vengeance machine himself. Religion often emphasizes kindness, but mobster-childmurder-Catholicism knows sometimes you’ve gotta shoot a guy and hide the body, and Jesus understands that (for a reasonable fee).

Now there’s this baby. Stealing a storked baby!

This would work so much better if Connor had just grabbed it. Not only would that fit better with him making poor decisions, but in that case, it wouldn’t have been obvious the woman didn’t want it. Lev’s family not only raised several storked kids but even adopted one, so it makes sense he’d assume a storked baby would be welcomed.

Instead, he saw them get yelled at by the woman and ordered to take the baby. They do have it under false premises, but it doesn’t make sense to blame them for it when the other person is the one who accused them and wouldn’t have listened to the truth, and it was really obvious they weren’t taking the baby from someone who wanted it.

And if Connor just grabbed it, Lev would have a real point there. Caring for babies is a pretty serious thing, they’re not things you should be grabbing when you’re on the run. Connor could still have done it because he was concerned for the baby while still allowing for other people to be right when they point out it was really fucking stupid to do and just endangers everyone, baby included.

They need to be protected from themselves. They need . . . they need . . . they need to be unwound. Yes. That’s the best solution for these two. They’re of no use to anyone in their current state, least of all themselves. It would probably be a relief for them, for now they’re all broken up on the inside. Better to be broken up on the outside instead. That way their divided spirits could rest, knowing that their living flesh was spread around the world, saving lives, making other people whole. Just as his own spirit would soon rest.

Okay, if your spirit is “at rest”, it’s dead. That’s how we use words. If you really believed they were still alive and just not able to cause harm, you’d say that, not that you’ve somehow pacified their ghosts doing this.

Furthermore! If they’re not dead and their parts are somehow still connected up in some way, then Lev being super great works, because he’ll be spreading that grace around to everyone who gets a chunk, but these two kids are obviously tainted goods. Giving someone Connor’s arm will make him grab random babies. Risa’s mouth will scam people. Their legs will make people run away from the police. If the kids live on somehow in people, you wouldn’t want shitty kids!

And that would actually be a really fun motivation for Lev – what if he’s realized these kids are so awful they don’t deserve to live on? They’ll just make everyone who gets a piece into a criminal. In that case, he’d want to find a way to escape without risking their capture, which is actually pretty difficult given that for some reason they (or at least, Connor) have shown they’re willing to go through a lot of effort to drag him along. Lev could easily believe that if he hopped in that police car, Connor would dive in afterward and try to take out another police officer. And if he won, he’d probably steal the car, so Lev would have been the cause of yet another crime.

But that’s too interesting.

Instead, Lev sidles up to another kid and pulls the kid’s notebook out of his bag.

HELP! I’M BEING HELD HOSTAGE
BY TWO AWOL UNWINDS.
NOD IF YOU UNDERSTAND . . .

And this is supposed to help…how, exactly?

For christ’s sake, the bus driver is right there. And what would he expect the kid to do but go to the guy himself?

Also what is with this book and the AWOL AWOL AWOL thing? It’s like the author just heard the term and thinks it’s the coolest thing ever.

When he tries to get the other kid’s attention, the kid sees Lev’s got his notebook and written in it but somehow manages not to read a word of it and just yells at Lev for using his notebook, refuses to read it when Lev prompts him, and tears the page out and throws it, because the plot says so so fuck it that’s what happens.

And then Lev gives up, even though the bus driver is still right there, and makes this entire bit pointless, he might as well have just sat there and stewed the whole time. Maybe he could’ve flashbacked a bit if the author needed to fill space – tell us about his storked siblings, perhaps?

Or maybe the fact they have a baby could’ve been an additional wrinkle in his motivation. The baby could easily be shot if the police are aiming at the other two, and it also means it’s even more important he succeeds in stopping them from escaping because if they just run off, they’ll be taking the baby too. He could’ve spent this chapter trying to figure out how he can get them captured again without risking harm to the baby, assuming anyone anywhere in this cares about babies as more than things to argue about.