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Chapter Twenty-one

Kirsty watched the activity in the streets with great interest. Rubble was being shifted and stacked. The barricades were being strengthened, and their numbers doubled. Kirsty wondered why.

So did Whitey.

He walked up behind RJ, who was supervising the building of yet another barricade. He put his hand on her shoulder, and for a minute he thought she was going to jump out of her skin. She calmed as soon as she saw it was him, and she even managed a smile, but it was obvious that she was troubled.

"What are you so worried about?" Whitey asked, rubbing her shoulders.

"I don't know, baby." She looked off into the distance at nothing. "I've got a bad feeling. Like someone twisting a knife in my gut. I've had this feeling a couple of times before, and I've been in this game too long not to trust my instincts." She looked at the newly constructed wall of rubble. "Of course, I have been wrong a couple of times, but, hey, you can never have too many barricades."

 

David walked into the room and threw his jacket down on the bed. "God damn RJ!" he yelled, throwing himself after the jacket.

"What's wrong?" Kirsty asked, turning away from the window.

"We've got a unit under fire, and RJ won't send in the necessary manpower to save them. She says it's too big a risk. So she's just going to keep moving rocks around the city, barricading us off from her paranoia, while hundreds of people die."

"It's a good thing that we have you." Kirsty moved to sit on the bed. "I don't trust RJ. I mean, she doesn't seem to give a damn about people in general, and everyone knows it. Do you know what the people call you?"

"No. What?" He smiled. Just being close to her made him feel better.

"They call you RJ's conscience. Face it. Without you, she doesn't have one." She lay down next to him, and started to rub his chest. "It doesn't seem fair. You give all the speeches and do all the work. You bring all the people together, and then RJ makes you pretend to be dead, and she gets all the glory."

For a second, David thought about that. It wasn't something he hadn't thought before. Then he shook his head. He laughed and moved to kiss her forehead. "It's all just part of the plan, Kirsty. Soon I'll be right back in front of the viewscreen. When the time is right. If you think about it, it's really just the opposite. RJ does all the real work, and I get all the credit."

 

The confrontation took place a week later. It had been building up for some time, but came about—as most confrontations do—because of an act of stupidity.

The Golden Arches was packed to capacity. The inner circle, including Topaz but minus David, sat at "their" table. They weren't discussing anything more important than who should buy the next round of drinks, but, when David walked up with Kirsty, all talk ceased. RJ didn't look up from her drink.

"What did I tell you about that girl, David?" RJ kept her voice calm only with great effort.

"Aw, come on, RJ. You aren't working on anything. What could it hurt . . ."

RJ didn't let David finish. "Do I have to spell it out for you, David?" RJ turned to face him. "I don't want her around us. She poses a threat . . ."

"What a bunch of shit! Any one of you . . ."

This time, it was Sandra who interrupted him. "You may choose to let love blind you, David. But don't expect the rest of us to." She gave Kirsty a look of hatred, although her motive for distrust was slightly different than RJ's.

"I'd rather be blinded by love than by jealousy," David spat back.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sandra demanded.

"You say you don't trust Kirsty. But we all know that the truth is that you just can't stand the fact that I love someone who isn't you," David accused.

"You bastard!" Levits shocked everyone by jumping to his feet, ready for a fight.

RJ put a hand on his chest and he stayed where he was.

"You're way out of line, David," RJ warned.

"I think you're the one who's out of line, RJ," David stated. "Where do you get off making all the rules? I'm supposed to be an equal partner in this thing. I say Kirsty stays."

RJ rose to her feet. She looked straight at David. "If I ordered her dead, how long do you think she would last?" RJ could no longer hide her anger. Not when she could feel the depth and extent of his.

David had never been so mad in his life. He didn't know what to say. So he did the first thing that jumped into his mind. He doubled up his fist, and he hit her.

She had expected anything but that. It actually knocked her off balance, and she had to catch herself. Physically, he hadn't hurt her at all. Emotionally, she was devastated by all the hate she felt coming from him. Hate that was all for her. She stared at David for a long, silent moment, wondering if he had really hit her. He was rubbing his fist, and there was a pained expression on his face, so it had to be true. She saw Whitey stand up.

"I can handle this," she whispered.

Whitey nodded and sat down.

RJ looked at David, and he cringed from her gaze in horror. Not because she looked like she wanted to kill him. That he expected. He watched as the hurt in her eyes changed to contempt, and knew that the bond that had tied them together and somehow made them different from everyone else had been utterly and completely severed. Before he had time to think any more about what he had done, RJ picked him up by the collar and threw him halfway across the bar. She covered the floor in a matter of moments. She stood at his feet and looked down at him.

"One of us has changed, David. One of us has forgotten the dream. I don't think it's me. You have made your choice." She started to walk away.

"What do you mean?" David asked struggling to his feet. Now his back hurt almost as much as his hand.

She didn't even turn around. "You are no longer part of the inner circle," she said it as easily as she breathed, and walked out of the bar before he could answer her.

David stood up. He looked at the remaining members, where they sat at their table. "She can't do that," he informed them, as if he had the power to make them believe just by his will.

"No. She can't," Levits said with a snarl.

"But we can," Topaz said, shaking his head in disbelief. "I taught you so much about power, but you didn't learn any of the important parts. Like when to stop. I vote to approve RJ's decision."

"I vote we kill the bastard!" Whitey got up and stomped out of the bar.

"I'm going to count that as a yes," Topaz said with a smile.

"I second Whitey's suggestion." Levits looked at Sandra, who seemed to be off in her own little world.

"You gave too many speeches, David. Now you think you're bigshot. But we all know you be dead without RJ," Mickey said. He looked down at his drink. "When you hit RJ you hit us all. You chose your whore over us."

David looked hopefully at Sandra. Surely Sandra would come to his defense.

Sandra hadn't dreamed it would ever get this far. She still loved David. She believed that he was an asset to their cause. But he had just embarrassed her in front of all her friends, and there was only one way to save face. She smiled broadly and lifted her chin proudly to face him.

"Now, you finally know how it feels, you bastard," she hissed. "I find your behavior to be disloyal in the extreme. My vote is to expel him."

"It doesn't mean anything!" David said hotly. "You can't get rid of me!"

"David," Topaz said, trying to be a calming influence. "Can't you see what has happened? This girl may pose no threat to us at all. Probably she doesn't. But she's not human. Surely, by now you know that. She's lying about what she is, and that puts her under suspicion. Ask yourself why she's lying when everyone knows that RJ herself is a hybrid."

David didn't believe for a minute that Kirsty was a hybrid. She was nothing at all like RJ. Besides, she had sworn to him that she wasn't. She wouldn't lie to him. She couldn't. If she was a hybrid, she didn't know it. They were just RJ's puppets, and whatever she said they believed.

"You're all crazy!" David screamed. "You've let RJ's paranoia get to you." He took Kirsty's hand and pulled her out of the bar.

 

Whitey had no trouble finding RJ. He made straight for the dock. He found her standing on the edge, looking out over the bay.

"You OK?" he asked, long before he reached her. He knew it wasn't a good idea to sneak up on RJ when she was mad.

"He can't hurt me," RJ said simply.

"You know what I mean." Whitey moved forward and took her hand. "Are you OK?"

"Not really . . ." She cleared her throat. "I guess I didn't want to see how bad it really was. Didn't want to admit that he had turned into such an asshole." She took a coin from her pocket, looked at it for a moment, and then tossed it as far as she could into the bay.

 

 

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