Hot Zone (27 page)

“I guess I could accompany you,” I said doubtfully.

“No argument? And here I thought that just because I suggested it you would be dead set against it,” he said dryly.

“I’m not that difficult,” I protested.

“Sure you are,” he disagreed. Then he grinned. “But worth it.”

“Thanks. I think,” I said, giving a grudging smile of my own.

Gabriel seemed relaxed tonight. “Then I suppose I can leave you to get some sleep.”

I sat up, immediately disappointed that he was leaving. What had I expected? That he would spend every minute with me? That he even wanted to do that? I tried to keep my voice light. “Okay. See you tomorrow. What time are we leaving?” I thought my voice sounded pretty good, not revealing much. Of course, now that I was feeling a little insecure I wondered if he even really wanted me to accompany him tomorrow or if he had just said it to be nice, thinking I’d refuse. Had he hoped I’d refuse?

He hadn’t moved off the bed. Apparently I had overestimated my acting abilities, because he said, “What is wrong now?”

“Nothing,” I said automatically. “I was thinking of something else, actually.”

“Something that bothers you. What was it?” he asked, watching me with his disturbing dark eyes.

I stared at him. I honestly couldn’t think of anything. My mind raced frantically, looking for something I could have thought of that might have bothered me. “The men who came to my house? What will happen with them?” I blurted out, hoping my long hesitation hadn’t given me away.

He considered me. “They have ceased to be a problem. Carl and some of the other men have taken care of it with your friend Tucker’s help.”

“How? What did they do?” Now I was interested.

“They found them—they came back just a few hours ago. Everyone was safely gone from the house at the meeting, and Carl and his men questioned them.”

“Oh. Had they done this before?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “A couple of other towns, more outlying than Catfish. They had also had a good time stealing away the occasional female to play with.” His tone was hard. “They had one at their pathetic camp when Carl found it.”

“Ugh. Was she okay?” I asked tentatively, not sure I wanted to know details.

“Physically, she’ll recover,” he said.

I thought about this. I knew I should thank him. How many did I owe him now? And yet he hadn’t pulled the ‘favor’ card when he wanted me to work with him. I wondered why not. I looked at him—he still seemed to be brooding about the raiders. “Thanks for doing that.”

He looked back at me, surprised. “Don’t thank me. That’s part of what your town gets when they hooked up with me.”

“Then I’m glad we did.” I swung my head so a few wet strands of hair were moved out of my face. “So what happens to the men? Do you have a jail or something?”

He said without emotion, “No, it’s not feasible right now to have a prison and trials. We just don’t have the time or resources to be nice to criminals.”

“What happens to them, then?” I demanded.

“I told you. They’re gone. Carl took care of it.”

My eyes widened. “You had them killed?”

“Yes,” he said firmly, his eyes watching for my reaction.

“That’s … it’s …” I didn’t have words.

“That is where we are right now.”

My voice was sharper than I’d meant it to be as I said, “I forget sometimes that you are a dictator.”

“And what would you have done?” he asked solicitously.

“I’d …” I thought about that. What could I do? Send them off to be someone else’s problem? Have a trial when we had much more important things to do? Make a prison? Finally I shrugged. “I couldn’t have just killed them.”

“That is where we differ,” he said.

“So what exactly will my responsibilities be?” My voice was still stiff.

He sighed. “I figured we’d discuss that tomorrow.”

“As you wish,” I said.

“Your friend Tucker didn’t have a problem with our solution. Seems he would have done the same thing.”

I frowned. “No way.” I couldn’t imagine Tucker killing anyone.

“And why do you think most of the people in Catfish carry guns? To just look dangerous?” he persisted.

I put up my hands. “Okay! I don’t have to like it, though.” I said rather hotly.

“No,” he said, his voice softer, working on me as if his hands were touching me. I swallowed. “As a matter of fact, I’m glad you don’t like it.”

“Uh, why is that?” I was now having trouble thinking. My eyes sought his, and unconsciously I leaned towards him.

He didn’t answer for a minute. “Stop it,” he finally said a little breathlessly. “If you topple me completely one day, you’ll be making all the decisions. Even the ugly ones.”

“Oh, I didn’t—um. Sorry,” I finished lamely.

He smiled a little, diligently looking elsewhere. “I suppose you can’t help it. I wonder, though, how you handle this at home. Do you leave a string of panting men behind you?”

I laughed out loud at the image. He looked at me, surprised. “Gabriel,” I said, amazed that he didn’t know this. “I apparently only do this to you.”

“What?” he looked shocked.

“I only affect you this way. No one else seems to see me like that at all.”

He thought about this. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

He cleared his throat. “Hmm. In that case, come here and sit near me.”

“Why?” I said suspiciously.

“I think it might help me if I got more used to you. Then maybe you wouldn’t affect me so.”

“I kind of like how I affect you.” I said in a teasing voice, but still moved closer to him.

“You like it?” he asked, his voice husky.

“Yes. It makes me feel powerful.” I was still using the light, teasing voice. “And it makes me feel, well, sexy.”

He closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the headboard with a solid thump. “Dear God,” he said softly.

“Too much? Sorry.” I didn’t sound sorry, though.

“You like it,” he repeated. “I’m a dead man. Can we talk about something else please?”

I smiled but decided to let him off the hook. “Okay. Have you thought about money? What are you going to do once people get tired of working for nothing?”

My distraction worked. He sat up. “I don’t want to go back to using currency.”

“Then what?”

“I think that possibly levels will motivate people, and of course, it will make me happy.” He smiled innocently.

“Of course, everyone wants to do that. But me, I suppose. Maybe I should ask what my salary will be for working for you,” I said.

“The joy of being near me,” he said seriously.

“Oh please!” I countered. “That is your incentive.”

He laughed. “What do you want? Diamonds? I have all of them that could be found here in the cities. Cash? I am collecting all the cash my people can find as well. You don’t think we were in Catfish only to visit with you, do you?”

I gaped at him. “You robbed us?”

He laughed again. “Hardly. Was it your money? And besides, it isn’t any good here in the Hot Zone.”

“Then why do you want it?”

“It’s still of use to the world outside of the Zone. I am going to need to negotiate supplies—things we can’t make. I could just ask for it without charge, and maybe that would work, still, I don’t want international attention to come to me when there are truly dangerous people who control nukes. I can’t be everywhere and meet everyone.”

“I can see this is more complicated than I’d thought,” I said, thinking. “I guess I see what you’re doing.”

His eyes were bright now with intensity. “One of the things I want you to do is help some of the other towns do the same things as I’m doing here in the cities. On a smaller scale, of course. And I want you to be a buffer between many of the smaller communities and me. I get far too many calls about things that could be easily dealt with. It’s getting overwhelming. I can have Raine, one of my assistants, give you a list of things to start on, along with contacts in the communities.” He grinned and I swallowed. How did he make me want to jump him just by smiling at me? “That ought to keep you busy.”

“Huh?”

He looked at me to see why I sounded so distracted. He took a deep breath but didn’t turn away. I couldn’t help myself. I reached up and touched his mouth with my finger, running it along his lower lip. His eyes were losing some of their focus. I pulled my hand away and put my head in my hands. My voice came out somewhat muffled. “I think you’d better go.”

I didn’t uncover my face as I heard him move away from me. I didn’t want to see if he was doing it because I’d rolled him or because he knew I was right, and both of us were too close to the edge right now. I didn’t look up until I heard the door shut quietly. Then I looked up, longingly, at the closed door.

* * *

The drive down to Des Moines went really quickly. Gabriel and I talked more about what he wanted the smaller communities to accomplish, and in what order. He stressed again and again that I should use my best judgment since I was used to him being mad at me anyway. I wasn’t so sure about that. He also said I could call him at any time, and programmed his personal number into my cell. “I’d appreciate if you didn’t publish this number,” he said dryly. “I get too many ridiculous calls as it is.”

We also discussed having some of the more routine calls being screened by me, but I pleaded with him to let me have some time to figure out what I was doing before he dumped more on me.

The acting Governor of Iowa (no election, but no one was complaining) was a beautiful woman. She had a no nonsense way about her that I respected. Unfortunately for her, at least, she reacted to Gabriel as everyone but me seemed to. She started off the meeting suspicious and ended it commending Gabriel for everything he was doing and offering to have Iowa come under the same ideology as soon as she could arrange it.

I was quieter on the drive back, at least initially, as I realized the sheer power this ability gave Gabriel. “Do you ever wonder why you got this power?”

He was wrapped in his own thoughts, although the silence between us had been comfortable enough. He looked at me now. “Yes.”

“And?” I prompted.

“And nothing. I don’t know,” he said a little defensively.

“At least you’re trying to do something good with it even if I don’t always agree with your methods.”

“About that,” he said a little uncomfortably. I immediately tensed. “You can’t go on TV and disagree with me. You can’t air our disagreements in any way. I’ve put a lot of trust in you, but …” he hesitated. “I can’t let you destroy what I’ve done.”

“So I need to walk the line or you’ll roll me so thoroughly that I won’t recover?”

He nodded slowly. “You know I don’t want to do that.”

I shrugged. “I’ll keep that threat in mind.”

He looked like he wanted to say more, but didn’t. We were in the backseat of some kind of official car I’d never seen before. It seemed almost like a cross between a limo and a SUV. In any case, we were alone back here, with no one watching us. I decided to try the guard issue one more time. “You know, I hate to beat a dead horse, but I think that the no-touch rule has to go.”

He shook his head.

“Oh, come on. I told you that no one even finds me attractive, well, except maybe for you.” I felt myself blush and looked away.

He chuckled. “I truly doubt that.”

I said earnestly, “No, it’s true. I’m just not seen that way.”

“Should I ask Luis whether he thought of you that way? Tucker? Fred? It’s amazing how you’re surrounded by males.”

“Coincidental, and I doubt any of them saw me as anything.”

“Madde, power is seductive, and you exude power. People naturally turn to you for answers, right?”

“Maybe, but I think that’s just because Dad was really active in the town.”

“Yes,” Gabriel said meditatively. “Tim told me that your father went runner?”

“Uh, well, see, that’s not exactly public knowledge.”

“I’m not the public. Have you heard from your mother at all?”

I shook my head. This topic wasn’t conducive to my peace of mind. “I don’t know if Dad is a runner. I don’t know what happened to them.” I looked out the window at the countryside. It was beginning to green.

“When is the last time they were seen?” he asked.

“They were going to my aunt’s cabin up north. Then poof—they were gone. Tucker thinks there was evidence that Dad or Mom or both may have gone runner, but I don’t know anything.”

He thought for a minute. I wanted to change the subject, so I pointed at the fields. “How are you going to get the farms productive? I assume you’ve thought about it.”

This topic was discussed for a long time. I kept asking why we couldn’t export food, and Gabriel kept evading the question until I nearly yelled it at him. He sighed. “If you tell anyone this, and I mean anyone—even your pals in Catfish, I’ll come after you, understand?”

I nodded. I believed him.

“I’m not kidding, Madde. I told you once to keep the things we discussed to yourself. I’m asking you now, did you?”

Crap.
I thought I’d dodged this bullet. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“Hmm.” He obviously didn’t believe me.

I decided to ‘fess up or he might just decided to force the issue. “I told them what I judged they needed to know in order to back me in my decision to join with you.” I gave him a small smile. “Now you can yell at me if you want. I promise I won’t cry or commit hari kiri.”

He said with a clear warning in his voice. “Nothing to them of this. Promise me and mean it.”

“I promise.”

He said slowly, “I know why people get sick here in the Hot Zone.”

My eyes widened. “Why?”

He still seemed undecided whether to tell me or not. I tried to reassure him. “Gabriel, I know I don’t agree with everything you do, and I give you a hard time about things, but I do believe you are doing what you think is best for everyone here. I shudder to think what would have become of the Cities if you hadn’t been around. I won’t betray you, even if I was so angry I was ready to kill you.”

He fought off a smile. “Your reassurance is mixed with a murder threat? You really aren’t very good at this.” He took a deep breath. “Have you ever heard of BZ?”