“So how long have you known, Helen?”
“We used to date in high school.”
“Helen, is your old high school sweetheart?”
I ask astonished. Doc just gives a noncommittal shrug. I take the opportunity to talk a little business while Helen and Edie are gone.
“How much time until they get back?”
“You got about twenty minutes, to say what you need to.”
I scoot my chair a little closer and lean in to talk as quietly as possible.
“Almost every mission that comes our way has something to do with Agrisin. As far as I can tell, the U.A. has helped them falsify their data. When a scientist tries to blow the whistle, they suddenly disappear. We steal any intelligence that runs counter to U.A. propaganda. Some of the other countries that were against the legislation to begin with are starting to convince our allies that they are on the wrong side. It’s only a matter of time before the whole thing blows up. There is no way those seeds can produce what the U.A. is claiming. They’ve got a couple of years, tops before the whole world calls bullshit.”
“So, what do you see is the worst-case scenario?”
We will lose our seat in the U.N., become sanctioned with trade embargos… probably war, it will definitely cause a U.A. bankruptcy. I just don’t understand what Lui is thinking.
“I don’t think she’s playing the long game. But I also don’t think that is the worst-case scenario.”
“What do you think is?”
“I am not sure…but you can only mess with Mother Nature for so long, before she becomes one mighty, pissed off bitch.”
“You’ve got to start preparing Doc. It’s only a matter of time before this goes sideways.”
He gives me a warm smile and chuckles.
“Why do you think I’m living in this crap palace, Malone, just between you and me, I’ll be ready. I will have supplies for seven people for two years. But with rationing we can house ten people if we have to. You know by now who you can trust in the unit. We are all brothers, but we are not all on the same side.”
“Ravani, Crowder, Abram and Weber for sure, I don’t know about the rest.”
“You can trust Garcia…Clayton, Kelsey, Young and Gonzales are loyalist. The Captain is a hard read, all by the book. You will have to wait and see where the chips fall.”
A couple minutes later we see Helen and Edie walking down the hill.
“I thought you said they would be twenty minutes?”
“They must have missed your pretty face, sugar”
I roll my eyes.
“Dumbass”
We are both laughing loudly by the time they make it to the steps. Helen takes in the picture.
“I can see we missed some juicy guy gossip.”
“Like a couple of clucking hens, babe.”
She laughs as she takes Edie inside to put the food on plates.
After dinner I leave, and six hours later I’m back at, Ft. Bragg.
Five weeks later I am back in Natchez, sitting on the porch with Doc and Helen. Not long after I get there, Edie makes her way over, this time she has a fading bruise across her jaw. I raise a finger from the glass of iced tea I’m holding and point towards it.
“What happened there?”
“I spilled a glass of soda on the carpet.”
“Ah…once my dad popped me in the mouth because he spilled his beer. He said I was distracting him. You know, I could make it, so he didn’t hurt you again.”
She looks at me doubtfully.
“I don’t think anyone could make that happen.”
“I could make him disappear, and no one would ever know what happened to him.”
Doc chokes on his beer, Helen just shrugs, as if to say, she’d be down with that. When, Edie realizes what I mean, a look of horror crosses her face, but she quickly recovers.
“No thanks, Mr. Fin. My dad is a jerk, but he is still my dad. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him.”
In that moment I realize how much better she is than me. If someone had offered to get rid of my dad, I would have said, yes please. I sit back in my chair and consider this and can come up with only one way to help Edie.
“I think we need to teach you to protect yourself, just in case things get out of hand.”
Edie is contemplative about my offer and for a minute I think she is going to say no. But then, she looks at me, in the calm and forthright manner, that I have come to see as her personal superpower.
“I think that is a good idea.”
We begin her training that day, with some basic hand to hand combat maneuvers. Over the next eighteen months, I visit Doc, Helen, and Edie every few weeks and teach Edie new skills to work on when I’m gone. She is a quick learner, and she is getting stronger. Edie is an excellent shot and a damn good fighter…but she is a prodigy with a knife. It’s a good thing because the world is becoming an even darker place. It’s strange to me that almost no one seems to notice that the world is falling apart around them.
It’s late September and things are finally starting to cool down in Natchez. Doc and I are sitting comfortably on his porch. I can tell his new prosthetic leg, is working out. He is getting around much easier. Helen took Edie to the store. Their mission was shrouded in secrecy, but judging by Edie’s embarrassed whispers, I assume they went to get her some feminine products. While, the girls are gone, I decide to take
