Hunting by Stars

French spends the night wracked with guilt over trapping Sunny and the others. He decides that he will never carry out another such mission and will give up his own life instead. The only time he has ever felt this bad was when he shot and killed a man. When a converted Indigenous person tried to capture his family member, Riri, she ended up dying in the attack, and French killed the man, even though he came to regret this act intensely. Now, French gets a brief reprieve from his tormenting thoughts when Agent Mellin calls him for a briefing. Next to Mellin is a well-groomed JP in a suit. JP is an agent, which makes French believe that the situation yesterday was a simulation to test him. He is flooded with relief but soon realizes that JP was the only plant; Therese and Sunny were the real targets. French feels sick to his stomach.

Later, Agent Mellin tells French that his success means they will carry out the next mission immediately. Equipped with GPS trackers, they will return to French’s family, infiltrate the group, and extract them over time. If any of the agents go missing on the way, their target group will be killed. If one agent feels the other is not complying with the mission, he will inform the Recruiters, and the group will be killed. French and Mitch are left in the wild, close to where the family would be. Mitch has trouble coping with the outdoors, so French shows him how to make a clearing and set up camp. Mitch asks French if he has ever seen their mother or father. French replies that he has found their father and shows his brother the plastic army man figure, which he has kept all these years. French reminds Mitch of the treehouse and the day the Recruiters came for them, hoping to rekindle Mitch’s memories and snap him out of his brainwashed state. The next morning, when French wakes up, he sees that the army man has been melted by the fire.

French and Mitch walk in complete silence, knowing that French’s family group are nearby. French wants to run to his family members and hug them, but he has to maintain his cover. The plan is for the family to stumble upon French and Mitch. This soon happens, and Tree suddenly flings himself at French. Zheegwon joins in and French cries, hugging the twins. French introduces Mitch to the boys and is annoyed that Mitch seems distracted, looking for the other family members. The twins take French and Mitch to the family, and everyone expresses amazement and relief. When Miigwans embraces him, French feels like he has received a dose of oxygen, but his well-being evaporates when he can’t find Rose. Miig tells him that Rose has gone with Derrick to look for him. French immediately races out to search for Rose.

Mitch stops French and tells him that if French leaves the camp, their mission will be terminated. Mitch will lose the opportunity to prove himself, and he won’t let that happen, saying that French slowed him down once before, when they were on the run as children. Now, Mitch is determined not to repeat that mistake. Mitch’s words confirm French’s worst fears about their childhood. French begs for Mitch to help him find Rose, but Mitch does not relent.

Rose, Derrick, and Nam have been travelling for days. Nam has not yet told the others about killing the Chief. One day, as Rose scouts from a treetop, she spots a road and a brown building in the distance. The school is near. Rose plans to storm into the school, but Derrick objects. While they argue, Nam warns them that a couple of people in black uniforms are closing in on them. The masked officers turn out to be the nurses, Alice and May, who attended to French earlier. The nurses ask the group to head away from the school, as the facility is dangerous. Rose asks about Francis Dusome, and the nurses inform her that Francis has been converted to a government agent. Rose immediately realizes that French pretended to convert so that he could escape, but Alice and May tell him that French is responsible for capturing a woman and a child who have both been sent into processing. A crushed Rose weeps and runs off into the wild. Derrick and Nam follow, and the three begin their trek toward the Council camp. When Derrick finally reaches the camp, he sobs in relief.

After Mitch refuses to allow French to look for Rose, French grows despondent. He also learns that Mitch has a tracker on him; Mitch can turn it on the moment he grows suspicious of French or wants to reveal their exact location to the Recruiters. French worries that he has exposed the family to great danger. Spending time with Mitch is painful because Mitch mocks French’s ability to survive in the wild. Mitch calls him a “whole Indian” (279), which rankles French. He feels that Mitch calling him an “Indian” is not the same as the family members calling each other “Indian,” since it does not come from a place of affection or respect.

Meanwhile, Miig suspects that something is amiss with Mitch. One day, Mitch remarks that “we” (283) had no idea people could still have children naturally. Isaac wonders what Mitch means by “we,” and Mitch begins to fumble. French avoids the awkward situation by taking a turn as lookout in the forest. Mitch joins him in the pines and relates that he overheard Miig telling one of the nurses that the group will reach the rendezvous point tomorrow afternoon. An excited Mitch wants to alert the Recruiters immediately. He is sure that he and French will emerge as heroes after the mission, especially since they are bringing in Wab. Mitch reveals that the marrow harvesting program now wants to take advantage of the fact that Indigenous people are still fertile. The idea is to harvest the marrow from newborns, since at this stage, the marrow is the best quality and is very easy to extract. When French notices that Mitch has already turned on the tracker, he aims his arrow at Mitch and shoots him in the heart, killing his brother instantly. French crushes the tracker and runs to the camp, yelling for everyone to start moving because the Recruiters are coming.

Rose learns from Bullet and the other families of the Council that Miig and the others have moved Wab to safety. Rose feels broken, first by French’s conversion, and then by the idea that her family has abandoned her. Jean, an Elder, tells Rose that Miig never meant to leave Rose. He only agreed to move from the camp on the condition that the others would wait for her to return. Rose is invited to join Jean’s family as a daughter, and they can all build a new future together. Nam likes the people at the Council, but they tell Rose that Rose is their first family. Later, Derrick comforts Rose. He has decided to stay with Jean and the others and thinks that Rose should, too. He believes that French is lost forever, so there is no use chasing ghosts. Derrick tells Rose that he loves her and will always take care of her. Rose thinks of all the times she has felt safe with Derrick and prepares to answer his question.

The family members are on their way to the rendezvous point: a train station. From there, they will board a cargo train to the United States. Even though French killed Mitch, he still mourns his brother. Miig seems to sense what happened between French and Mitch, but he stays quiet. At the assigned time, the family members and Theo and Rania board the train, hiding in pine boxes meant for cargo. The boxes have little holes drilled in them so people can breathe. As the train picks up speed, French is filled with a sense of unease. He cannot let go of the thought of Rose. He also worries about the family’s prospects in the United States. Although the United States has a female president who has banned marrow harvesting, French fears that the law may not be followed by the general public. The country also has a history of treating Indigenous and other marginalized cultures fairly. French distracts himself by recalling the messages that the people at the school gave him. Just then, the train stops, and French can hear people entering the compartments. A woman’s voice orders someone to begin searching every box and corner in the compartment for “the hostile” (309).

Three days before French and the others are apprehended on the train, a vigilante group called the Mothers of Meaningful Slumber (MOMS) meets in Albany, New York. The leaders are Adelaide McKenna and Elizabeth Purdue. The mandate of the all-women’s group is to serve their children at any cost. The women oppose the US government’s decision to refrain from marrow harvesting, since it deprives their children of marrow. Adelaide’s plague-affected son is in a dreamless coma, and most of the mothers and their husbands cannot dream themselves; they can only consume synthetic pills to experience a few programmed dreams. Disgusted with the current state of affairs, they decide to take the law in their own hands. A woman named Miranda is their mole in the nurses’ network in Canada. Through Miranda, they have learned of a group of Indigenous people headed into the US. The MOMS plan to intercept the train, seize the Indigenous people, and harvest their marrow for their own children. However, Adelaide secretly has other plans. Once the group is captured, she plans to use them as a bargaining chip with the Canadian government. In return for revealing the family’s location, Adelaide wants Canada to relocate her and her son so they can get open access to Indigenous peoples’ marrow.