versus the “do unto others” Golden Rule thread.”
“That can be said for people as well,” Qwendar said.
“Meaning what?”
“That it’s in the nature of all creatures to think that their particular kind is superior to all others.”
“And that’s part of why we have law—to try to counter those tribal instincts.”
“You place law above religion,” Qwendar said.
I considered that for a moment. “Yeah, I do.”
“Why?”
“Because law adjudicates outcomes based on facts, evidence. While faith is important, it shouldn’t have a place in law.”
“But sometimes your facts are flawed,” Qwendar argued.
“Yes, and we have in place a system to try and counter that. It’s not perfect and mistakes are made, but it’s there. There’s no recourse with faith.”
“So, you’re saying you cannot question faith?”
“Oh, you can question it. What you can’t do is examine it. It’s not subject to analysis or investigation.”
“But at the end of the day don’t you have … er … faith,” his lips quirked in that thin smile. “That justice will be done?”
I threw up a hand. “Okay, touche. Remind me never to debate you in public.”
He surprised me by taking my hand and brushing his lips across the back of it. “I think you would be a worthy opponent.”
15
Given Maslin’s less than diplomatic approach to interviews I thought it was better that I visited the Human First headquarters on my own. That afternoon when I presented my reasoning, he disputed my conclusion— vociferously.
“They will want to talk to me. I promise you. They will want ink … well, phosphers, since magazines are pretty much all online now, on this.”
We were having the dispute in the center of reception. Not my choice of venue. Interested faces were peeping over the office dividers.
I planted my hands on my hips. “A two-second Google search and they’re going to know you’re not going to be sympathetic.”
“And that’s fine. I’ll make it clear that I’m giving them the chance to present themselves rather than letting their opponents define them.” He flashed a grin at me. “That almost always works.”
“They can’t be that stupid. You’re going to do a hatchet job on them.”
“And Cartwright won’t care. She’s savvy about playing the political game. Having the lame-stream media”—he rolled his eyes—“take out after the group will put them in hog heaven. It’ll fire up their supporters. And she knows there is no such thing as bad press. Most people are too busy living their lives to pay attention to this kind of thing. The more press the more likely it is that people will look up and notice. She’ll want to talk to me,” he repeated.
I threw my hands up and surrendered. “I’ll drive,” I said over my shoulder. “I’m not dressed for the jeep today.”
Turned out that Human First didn’t have an actual headquarters. They shared space with Cartwright’s lobbying group, Liberty Front, and were located in a strip mall in Van Nuys. I could tell from the curl of Maslin’s lip that Van Nuys was not up to his standards. I asked him about his reaction, and he answered cryptically, “It’s the Valley.”
I figured I’d follow up on that later. Right now I wanted to stay focused. We got out of the car and I studied the storefront. There were a lot of American flags in evidence, both the real variety and on posters. The latter tended to be eagles superimposed over American flags depicted in way too saturated colors. Another poster divided into three sections showing the Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima, firefighters at Ground Zero raising a flag, and American astronauts on the moon with the flag. Then there were scary posters showing Alfar men lurking near angelic-looking human children and young, Madonna-like human women. Just inside the door there was another poster showing a demur young woman in a wedding gown standing at the altar with a giant lizard dressed in a tuxedo.
“Wow, that’s subtle,” Maslin said loudly.
The people seated behind desks and phone banks looked at us. They didn’t look friendly. I noticed they were all mostly white, mostly female, and mostly older. There were a few exceptions. There was a skinny old duffer whose bow tie just accentuated his neck’s resemblance to a turkey’s. There was a plump young woman with five little towheaded girls playing on the floor around her desk. Then I realized the plumpness was due to pregnancy. The room was filled with the sounds of ringing phones, hushed conversations, and the patter and click of keyboards. It had all the earmarks of a campaign headquarters.
I approached the desk that looked sort of receptiony. The woman eyed me. “I’d like to see Ms. Cartwright,” I said.
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No.”
“Who are you?”
“Linnet Ellery and Maslin Ambinder.”
There was a flicker deep in her eyes at my name. No reaction to Maslin’s. “I’ll see if she’s available.” She picked up the phone, then indicated with a jerk of her chin a leather sofa against the wall near the front door. “If you’ll wait over there.”
Maslin and I moved away. The receptionist kept a hand cupped over the mouthpiece on the phone and kept shooting glances at us as she whispered into the phone. She nodded, hung up, and came over to us. “Ms. Cartwright is finishing up a conference call. She can be with you in fifteen minutes if you want to wait.”
“We’ll wait,” Maslin said, and he leaned back, folded his arms across his chest and grinned up at her.
There were printed materials on a small table next to the sofa. The bold heading read “Voter Information Guide.” Beneath it were listed all the reasons why a person should support Proposition 9.
1. Contact between different species has always been banned by biblical law. Such prohibitions are even found in secular law.
“Yeah, you got to force those commie, pinko, socialist lawmakers to ban bestiality,” Maslin murmured as he read along with me.
The Alfar have been proved by modern science to be a different species from humans.
“Funny how science can’t be trusted when it’s talking about climate change or evolution, but it’s cool when it can be used to support bigotry,” Maslin added. Maslin’s constant kibitzing had me struggling not to giggle.
2. The rise of a relativistic attitude toward cultural and moral norms will lead to public schools teaching our children that a mixing of species is okay.
“Yeah, it’s up to parents to decide whether Johnny can diddle the Labrador.”
“Stop it!” I gasped nearly choking on a hastily swallowed laugh. We returned to reading.
3. The purpose of marriage is procreation and responsible child rearing. Unions between Alfar and humans are always sterile, thus undermining the purpose of marriage in a civil society.
“Wow, my grandfather, ninety-three, is romancing a woman, eighty-six, in his nursing home. Guess we better tell him to stop.
But I wasn’t laughing any longer. I hadn’t realized that Alfar and humans couldn’t reproduce. Now my father’s remark about how he wanted grandchildren came into focus. I wanted children. Or at least one. If John and I— I cut off the thought. We were hardly at that point. We might never reach that point. Especially since John was a prisoner in Fey.
4. All currently existing marriages between Alfar and humans must be annulled.
The receptionist called over that Mrs. Cartwright would see us now. Maslin plucked the page out of my hand
