Torch Song: A Kickass Heroine, A Post-Apocalyptic World: Book One Of The Blackjack Trilogy (35 page)

“You’re doing great, Amelia,” I told her. “Just keep doing what you’re doing.” After Waldo finished seating a party of three, I went to him with the same news.

“Of course she’s doing fine,” he barked at me. “And no pesky split shifts to deal with, either. I don’t need you any more, Rica. ”

Waldo was telling me to get lost. His face blurred as my mind focused on this perfect reality. They really were cutting me loose from the restaurant. I never had to work for Waldo again. A rush of warm pleasure, almost sexual, swept over me. I moved in close, nose to nose. He blanched and backed away, his ugly butt bumping into the host station. I stepped forward, following him, only inches away again. “Then everybody’s happy, aren’t we, Waldo?”

* * *

Drew didn’t get it. He’d been told to keep an eye on Rica and he had. Then he’d seen Jo keeping more than an eye on her. Then he’d noticed that Jo was acting cold to her, even more suspicious, it looked like to him. And now, just as suddenly, his mother and his aunt were talking about her like she was their pal again.

He decided to find Jo and make her tell him what was going on.

She wasn’t in her office, and Mother’s office was empty. He went back down the stairs again, heading for the cashier’s cage. She might be there.

On the way, he was surprised to see that Emmy was setting up her Blackjack table. She flashed him a smile.

“Didn’t think you’d be working today, Emmy. How’s your side?” He knew she’d been grazed, at least, and that Rica had probably saved her from something much worse.

“Hardly hurts. I’m just filling in for a couple of hours.” She laughed. “Then I think I’ll go to bed.” What a pretty laugh she had. He’d never noticed that before. He smiled back at her. Nice. Really nice.

“Well, guess I’ll see you around.” That was just stupid, but she smiled and nodded. “Oh, you haven’t seen Jo, have you?” She shook her head. A couple of players drifted up to the table. “Okay, well—” He started to turn away.

“See you around, Drew.” Was she making fun of him? No. She wasn’t. Her look was friendly and… warm, even.

Quinn was working the cashier’s cage. He told Drew that Jo had cut him loose from Samm’s hallway post for a couple hours; she was sitting at his bedside last time he’d seen her.

He heard them laughing from outside the door.

Samm was pale. A full plate of food sat untouched on his nightstand.

“Hey, Drew! Did you come to wipe the sick guy’s brow?”

Drew ignored the snappish sound of Samm’s words. “How you doing, Samm?”

“I’ll do better when I can get out of this bed.”

Jo sighed. “You did. You hopped across the room an hour ago, you damned fool.”

Samm glared at her.

“He’s a rotten patient,” Jo said. Samm shrugged.

Drew turned to her. “Can I talk to you?”

“Sure.”

“You don’t have to get up and leave, Samm,” he said with a grin. “You can hear it.”

“Thanks. Friend.” A grudging half smile.

He jumped right in. No sense hesitating. “You’re keeping something from me. About Rica. I want to know what it is.”

Her eyes dropped to her lap. She fiddled with her thumbs.

“Jo—”

“Okay. We’re trying to keep this as small as possible, cut the leak factor. But you’re right. You should know. You can’t say anything to anyone, not even Lizzie.”

He nodded, impatient. Not even to Lizzie. That was hard, but she was still a kid, after all. And a hothead. She might lose her temper, open her mouth.

Drew listened to Jo, shocked but not speaking, not interrupting even for a question. For two days, Jo and his mother had known Rica was probably a merc and possibly a Scorsi spy, and had never told him. He had to bite back the anger, listening, wanting to hear it all.

They didn’t completely trust Rica, couldn’t now, not for a long time, but they wanted her to work for them and they were going to try it.

“She’s a good fighter— that skirmish this morning proves it— and we can use smart, strong, charismatic people,” Jo finished.

Yeah, Rica was all of those things. And more. To him, to Jo, to Samm.

He turned back to Samm. “You knew this?” Samm nodded. “And you took a chance on letting her into the army?”

“A calculated chance, Drew. Worth the gamble.” Samm looked embarrassed, though. Jo had convinced him. Jo had forced him to keep the secret.

He stayed silent, letting the first angry words slide back down his throat, thinking, weighing. He let his eyes rest first on Samm’s face, then on Jo’s. Jo seemed embarrassed, too. Good. She should be. Treating him like a child.

Finally he spoke, softly. “I wish you’d seen fit to trust me with this information. Both of you. All three of you.”

“Drew—” Jo began.

“I know your reasons. I’ve heard them. I know Scorsi can’t find out she’s turned. If she really has. But you’re the one who’s always saying I’m a born leader. That I’ll have a big responsibility in the future of this family. I can fight for Blackjack and for the Colemans and take a seat on the Tahoe cabinet and contribute ideas in meetings and get involved in planning and actions and help you run candidates for office. I can do all those things.”

“Yes, you—” Jo began.

He held up his hand. He’d never before in his life stopped Jo from speaking. It felt good. “But the truth is I can’t. Not if I can’t trust you. Not if I’m getting some of the information some of the time.”

* * *

Jo felt sick. The boy— no, he wasn’t a boy anymore. Drew was right. His eyes, locked on hers again, were bright with stifled tears. But she let hers come. They ran down her cheeks, dripped off her chin. She heard Samm groan. She didn’t turn away from Drew, but held the look between them.

They had been wrong, she and Judith. So caught up in how smart they were they’d hurt and insulted one of the strongest members of their clan. Stupid. But they were all new to this, weren’t they? Juggling so much… Excuses. Stupid. Useless. He should have been one of the first to know.

It hadn’t even occurred to her— or to Judith, apparently— that this could hurt Drew, damage his trust so badly. Why hadn’t they thought of that? She was so busy worrying about everything else.

“We made a mistake, Drew. We were trying to be careful, make sure everything worked out. It was hard to figure out how to deal with it.” She knew what had to be done now. “You’ll be all right for a while, Samm, won’t you? I’ll send Quinn or Andy back up in case you need anything.” Samm shrugged. He knew perfectly well that Jo had scheduled what he called “twenty-four-hour nursemaid service.” At least he wasn’t objecting to it.

“Sure. I’ll be fine.”

She touched Drew’s shoulder, gingerly. “Come on, Drew. Let’s go see your mother and set this right. I can promise you right now I will trust you and confide in you completely, from this point on. Please forgive me.”

Her tears had stopped, but they nearly started again when he said softly, “Okay. Let’s go see her.”

* * *

I asked Amelia to get me a sandwich and carried it to the elevator, knowing I’d better lie down for a while again until my show. On impulse, though, I stopped at Samm’s room. I wanted to see how he was doing.

Andy, my accompanist, was sitting in the chair outside the door, reading the Sierra Star.

“Guard duty?” I said. What for? Was Samm that hard to keep in his room?

Andy laughed. “Nurse duty. Jo wants to be sure that Samm has no excuse to get up. And don’t worry, Quinn’ll take over for me later. I hear we’re doing a show.” He glanced at my sling.

“Show must go on.” I said.

I knocked, and Samm’s voice, strong enough, told me to come in. He looked surprised to see me— or was he afraid I’d come there to finish the job on him? I didn’t know how much or how little to expect from any of them.

“Rica! How’s your arm?”

“Okay. Your leg?”

“Better.” I sat on the bedside chair. “You fought well, Rica. Saved some lives. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” What else could I say? This felt awkward. “But that’s my job now.”

He laughed. “Just don’t quit your night job.”

I laughed with him. “I don’t know how to take that.”

“In all the best possible ways.” He reached toward his nightstand for a glass of water that was sitting there. I got to it first and handed it to him, then reached up and brushed a yellow lock of hair out of his eyes.

He gave me a pale version of the flirtatious Samm smile. “Thanks, gorgeous. That Hannah, she’s something to behold, isn’t she?”

“Gorgeous yourself. It looked like she was going right for you from the start. Even if Newt does think she hates me.”

“If that’s what Newt thinks, watch your back. She’s good at her work, too.”

“I will. Anything I can get you before I go? Want a bite of my sandwich?”

He laughed again. “Nothing, thanks. Be careful, Rica, and get some rest.” I stood, leaned over the bed, and kissed his damp forehead. Then I kissed his lips.

“You, too, Samm.”

“I should get wounded more often.” There was a hint of that old leer again. I was glad to see it.

As I made my way slowly back toward the elevator, I was thinking it would be nice to be able to believe in these people, nice to think that their cause was my cause. And I couldn’t.

I didn’t care about saving Newt Scorsi’s scrawny ass or doing a job for a traitorous chief, but there was no doubt that the Colemans were dangerous, and I suspected that the more I found out about them the more disturbing the knowledge would be.

No sense worrying about that yet. As Gran always said, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” I had no idea what or who she was quoting but I tried to keep that in mind as much as I could.

Right now, on this day, it was all I could do to pretend I had moved completely to the Colemans’ side of whatever war it was they were fighting. And sing in the lounge. And get healthy again.

* * *

Jo noticed that Judith handled it well. Of course. Once she got over looking startled that the problem had even arisen, staring surprised at her son, she was honestly contrite and completely open, even if she kept her words short and to the point as always.

“I don’t know how to explain it, Drew, other than to say we lost track of who was a grownup around here. We’ve gotten into certain habits— I talk to Jo and Samm about everything, we talk to each other. While you and Liz were kids, well, you were kids. But you’re not anymore and our habits need to change. Okay?”

He nodded. “Okay.” Jo felt like breathing a sigh of relief.

“So stick around for a minute, I’m going to lean on Jo. Maybe you can help me.”

Uh oh. What now? Jo didn’t feel like being leaned on. She had enough problems to solve.

Judith swung her chair around to face Jo directly. “We have to get this election campaign crap going.”

Well, that was irritating. “I haven’t been thinking about much of anything else, Judith.”

“But now we’ve lost Monte and I don’t think you’ve come up with the most obvious solution to that loss. If you had, I’d have heard about it.” Drew was watching his mother, alert, sitting forward in his chair. Jo knew, suddenly, what was coming.

“Me.”

Judith nodded. “You.”

“I thought we’d agreed that I could do more in other ways.”

“That’s changed. We need a candidate for council to replace Monte.” She looked down at her desk and sighed. When she looked up again her eyes were damp. She’d always liked Monte. They were old and good friends. “I need you to join me there.”

Jo felt as if they were constantly reinventing government. Judith was President, she was Secretary of State. Judith was the Queen, Jo the Prime Minister. How was she supposed to be secretary of state and senator too? Their models would have to be older, it seemed. This new world, with so few people, demanded something more primitive. Chieftain and village elders?

Get the right laws passed, as council members, and they could set it up any way they wanted to.

“Jo?” Judith broke her train of thought. She looked up. Judith and Drew were watching her, Drew with a little smile.

“Oh, all right. Maybe Drew can help me write my speeches.”

Judith laughed. “Zack’s already conscripted him. Drew needs to focus on Zack’s mayor’s race and his own cabinet spot. I thought you and I would work on our council race speeches together. How’s the plan for the rally going?” Judith was actually enjoying this, Jo realized. She liked the idea of running for office. Maybe her enthusiasm would be contagious.

The painful hug of a huge merc

“Newt— am I still working for you or not?”

He hesitated. “Yes.”

I’d started to drift off to sleep, but when Newt’s ugly face popped into my mind, it came with the thought that I needed to get some action going in his direction before I could rest. For a moment I wondered if I should use the room sys for everything now to keep the Colemans in the dark about the one I’d been hiding from them. I decided they’d probably guessed I had my own equipment and didn’t much care that Emmy’s search hadn’t turned it up.

I didn’t have to leave a message. Scorsi was right there. “Are you aware,” I snarled at him, “of what happened at the Coleman war games today?”

“Yes.”

“Are you aware that I was wounded?”

“No. How bad are your wounds?” I couldn’t hear anything in his voice, not worry, not concern, not even pleasure.

“I’ll be okay. I’m recuperating. Thanks for asking.”

“Don’t be snotty with me. It couldn’t be helped. I heard you got in the way.”

So he did know I was hurt. “Excuse me? I got in the way?” How much indignation could I pack into my voice? “I was doing what I was supposed to be doing, working for you, spying on the Coleman army. How can I do that and not get in the way? How about letting your people know they’re not supposed to kill me?”

“They don’t all know you’re a spy. Do you want everyone knowing you’re a spy?”

“Well, the thing is, I’m definitely operating at a disadvantage. You owe me more information. I want to know who else is working for you here so I can go to them for help if I need to. Or at least let them know we’re on the same side. Because it certainly looks like I need to defend myself against your people as well as the Colemans.”