Undesirable Chapter 29
TITLE: Undesirable (A vampire novel)
RATING: NC-17 (This chapter PG-13)
SUMMARY: Chuck discusses George's past and future.
Word Count: 6130
Chapter 29
Neither of us spoke for a full minute. Then I lowered my hand and sat down on the edge of the bed again. My head was swimming. Too much at once, it was hard to cope with. When was the world going to stop flipping on me?
"I tried to contact you when this started," I said at last.
"I know, I got your email." It was a statement of fact without even a trace of regret or acknowledgement of responsibility. Oh, no he didn't get to pan that off like it was no biggie. All my problems had a genesis in his actions and inactions. I was damn well going to call him out on it.
"But you didn't do anything!" I accused, sitting up straight and leveling my hardest glare at him. "You were supposed to be my goddamn patron and you let me get captured by Nadette," I accused. "You let me sit on her compound for a week and then get auctioned. Don't tell me you sent Darlene--"
"--I had no idea that Darlene had tried to get you," Chuck leapt on my words. He leaned forward in his seat, his brown eyes darkened with grief. "If I'd realized, I would have stopped her. I would have dropped everything and intercepted her before she arrived. She was my childe, George. I love her. I would have saved her, but she didn't tell me."
Of course, he cares more about protecting the vampire. part of me thought before the rest of my mind had a chance to squelch it down. Shut up, shut up, I don't give a rats ass if Chuck cares about me or not.
"She was my childe," Chuck said, reading my thoughts anyway. "Of course, I cared about her."
"Well you failed her good," I said, feeling vengeful. "She thought you'd be angry that she'd miscatagorized me. She didn't think you'd protect her if she didn't have me in hand."
"She was wrong. I would have helped her regardless." Chuck's eyes glittered. I was hurting him. Good. I wanted him to hurt. "Forgive me, George, but I never cared about whether or not you were in my possession." Yeah, that's amply clear. "Nothing personal," he went on. "I'd never met you, you were simply a number on a list that I'd all but forgotten about. And when you asked for my help and I looked into your situation it seemed settled to me. You were with one of the most well connected vampires on the continent. I knew you'd be fine. As a white, your health and welfare would be protected regardless of your circumstances. That's why I didn't bother to answer your call myself."
"If I was just a number to you, why the hell did you insist on Darlene tasting me? And for that matter why couldn't you just taste your own damn harem? Were you afraid I might taste too nasty for you?"
" I find my own meals every day without help. I often have to resort to feeding on less than the cream of the crop - why would you think I needed her to screen for that? I didn't taste you because I never had any intentions of claiming you even if you hadn't turned out to be undesirable."
"…What?" My mouth dropped. "You weren't going to claim me-- what?!"
"I can't have a harem, George. Not with this job. Much less a white in one. I thought you understood that."
"Then why have her taste me at all?"
"Because even though you turned up on my list, I planned on giving you to her. If you were any good, that is." Chuck rubbed his eyes with heel of one hand. "You were supposed to have been a way to make her life easier. Not mess it up more."
"I was eleven years old," I said, my throat hurting with tightness. "And you sent me to her to be tasted. How would that not mess us both up?"
"I DIDN'T KNOW!" snapped Chuck, all good humor was gone and I was struck by how terrifying he could be. Then he softened towards me. "Do you really think that I would have knowingly given little boy to my childe to be in her harem? Does that make sense to you given what I do?"
"But how could you not know?"
"How could I know?" Chuck countered. "Like I said, all you were was a crazy number on a fax labeled 'Potential Harem'. When I'd last checked, everyone on those lists was between 18 and 40 years old. Somewhere along the line my good compatriots in the Portland Protectorate changed the rules to include children as well on the thought that they could be groomed and traded before they started their duties. But I didn't know that had happened. Because I wasn't in Portland at the time. I was in Wisconsin. And it didn't occur to me to check."
"Really? All this pain and mess is because you got lazy and never checked before you gave her an order?" My heart was beating hard. "Why the hurry? Why couldn't you have checked?" It felt like I was fencing him, only with words rather than blades.
"She was leaving me, George," Chuck's voice sounded raw. "I couldn't keep her in submission forever. She was too proud. Despite her handicap, she was determined to have her own household, her own harem, her own job and finances - unconnected to me. I wanted give her an edge. A white in her harem would not only have provided her with a steady source of income, it would have guaranteed her political and social connections. She could use those to help shore up her weaknesses.
"So, yes, it was a mistake." Chuck shook his head. "I made a mistake, she made a mistake, even you made one. Darlene would still be alive if you simply stayed with Jeffrey the way you knew the law required. At least my mistake was made in good faith."
"And so, you let the whole matter go," I said, bitterly. "Not your problem." Attack.
"When she reported back you tasted like puke, I dropped the matter," Chuck parried. "An undesirable would have made a poor gift."
"She said you erased her memory," I said. "You clouded her mind. Would she have known that you would have protected her if you hadn't?"
"Yes. And that's the tragedy." I could tell by the wounded look in Chuck's eye that I'd gotten him on that one. "But if I had let her keep her memory, my enemies would have plundered it the moment she was outside of my protection. They would have known my entire operation within days. I had to erase anything incriminating, or else give up the resistance. She agreed to have her memory erased," said Chuck. He sounded tired. "She wanted it - at the time. She didn't want to betray me. And if my enemies had realized what I was doing, I'd have been in very, very hot water indeed."
"You have an excuse for everything don't you," I said, still determined to get my pound of flesh from him.
"What do you want me to say, George? I'm sorry? I lost my childe because of this. Trust me, I am very, very, sorry!"
And that got me.
Chuck took a deep breath in through his nose. "You want to know why I was too busy to check? Why I might have been a bit distracted and not given your situation the deeper thinking it clearly merited? Do you know what I was up to at that time you were being tasted, George?"
Not really. "What."
"I was killing vampires."
Chuck let that hang a moment.
"Vamp-" I began.
"--Abusive fucking vampires. Vampires taking 13 year old girls into their harem. Vampires who were breaking their harem's arms and letting them heal broken as punishment. Vampires who were extorting thousands of dollars out of their humans, money that the humans needed for food and medical care, and using that money to gamble. On the dog races of all things." Chuck's face darkened with fury. "They were getting away with it, because they weren't interfering with other vampires. I was saving a human life at the very moment you were upchucking your lunch on Darelene's shoulder."
I colored. Much though I didn't want to believe it, maybe I was being unfair to Chuck. There were worse situations out there than what I was in. Still it didn't make me any happier about my situation. "Listen, don't get me wrong, I appreciate what you do with the Resistance."
"I don't think you can appreciate it, George. What I was doing was absolutely unheard of. To all the other vampires, my actions were completely unprovoked fits of violence! Those vampires I killed had never wronged me or mine. When I attacked them, they were so surprised, they couldn't even fathom why I was there. And when they did…. I mean, who the fuck was I to create and enforce my own etiquettes? It wasn't any of my business what goes on between a vampire and those he champions. Who died and made me god." Chuck seemed to be arguing with himself. "But how can humans accept us as their patrons, when we pull this sort of petty, stupid, short-sighted shit?" Chuck looked at me.
"They can't," I agreed.
"Exactly. I had to stop these vampires. And stopping them meant killing them. And killing them meant I had to remain incognito, maintain this human charade. Because the moment vampires realized that I'd gone vigilante on them, they would come after me."
Chuck leaned forward and rested his forehead on the palms of his hands. "I want to quit this job so badly, George. But until we as a people grow up to our responsibilities, I can't. In the old days, vampires could do whatever the hell they wanted to so long as they maintained the secrecy. But those days are over for better or for worse. Now we need something new to curb ourselves with. We need to rise up to the job given. Prove that we are worthy of it."
"Amen," I said.
"Amen," Chuck rolled his eyes, "Well I'm glad you like my opinion, because I can tell you that pretty much no one in the Vampire community does." He shook his head. "No one is going to take up this cause if I quit."
"Then don't quit," I said. It seemed to be what Chuck wanted to hear.
But to my surprise Chuck laughed and shook his head. "It's too late," said Chuck. "I already have quit. I'm done. I'm going legit."
"What?"
"I'm done," said Chuck. "I want a home and a harem like all the other vampires. I'm tired of hiding. And I'm absolutely sick of pretending that I'm human. Never letting my guard down. Never getting close to anyone. I'm exhausted and just like you and Wally, I want to go home."
I felt that creepy awkwardness that comes from being the wrong person privy to a confession. I was the very definition of a hostile audience and I still hadn't really forgiven him for the shit he'd put me through. But apparently the catharsis of speaking to me seemed to be good enough for him. Once more he seemed at ease.
"Well, I guess that's your choice," I said, to fill the quiet.
Chuck's lip twitched. "You are right. It is."
A yawn took me by surprise. My eyes felt heavy and itchy and my body ached with tiredness. I glanced at the clock. It was 4:23 am. The sun would be up in about an hour and then we'd be off on yet another exhausting, long car drive, the final leg for all of us to get home. I needed to sleep.
"You should hit the sack," Chuck agreed.
I glared at him. Oh, no. He wasn't worming out of our agreement this easily. He was going to answer all my questions for the night in return for my blood. I had an hour left and while everything we'd discussed had been interesting, none of it was really relevant to my situation right now. I still didn't have a patron picked out. Apprehension brought me back to wakefulness and I had that itch of worry that events would be catching up to me soon.
"I suppose I should look at the files and make my choice," I said staring at Chuck's closed laptop. The little LED blinked to say that it was still on. One hundred and twenty some files. I couldn't really remember any of them. I didn't want to choose.
"There's no need of that," said Chuck, smoothly.
"Hmm? What do you mean." The apprehension deepened. I frowned and studied Chuck's face.
"I accept," said Chuck. He was smiling that same languid smile I'd seen on him when I'd first woken up and he'd called me to his room.
"You accept what?" My brain was muddled. Had I missed a piece of our conversation?
"Your offer. You said you wanted me as your patron." Chuck tilted his head with a grin. "More than once. You actually begged me to take you in your email. Don't you remember?"
Oh god, I had, hadn't I. Apprehension exploded into panic. I felt the doors of opportunity slamming around me. I'd taken too long. Chuck had made my decision for me. And no, no, no, I wasn't ready for it. This wasn't what I wanted. I stared at Chuck's dark brown eyes and realized that this was it. This was the person who would be making all my decisions for me from now on. My freedom was over. It was done.
"I thought you said you couldn't have a harem."
"I couldn't. But I just quit."
"You said you'd just sell me!"
"I won't sell you. I can use you to reestablish a place in society again. Curry some favor. Get into politics. Who knows, if I work hard enough to establish my reputation, I can be an effective advocate for humans. Having lived as one for years, I think I have a pretty good handle on what they want."
I stared around wildly. "But what about all the people who need you? Who will rescue the people who run afoul of vampires? There's still a need of that!"
"Yes, but then, would the world really be worse off for not having people like Rod in it? And it will never end, George. Don't you see. Never. Do I have to sacrifice the rest of my life to this cause, which will never change? And when I'm gone, there will still be humans getting themselves in trouble. Maybe I'm not helping the situation at all. Maybe both vampires and humans will adjust better if I stopped bailing them out."
"What will happen to your resistance?" I asked.
"Oh I'll dismantle it. Once my top leadership has been dissolved, my runners and informants will melt away into the woodwork from where they came."
"And if they don't and they form their own resistance?"
Chuck paused and looked blindly at the wall for a second then smiled at me. "Well that should please you, shouldn't it. It would be legitimate. Who knows, maybe they'll actually manage to get somewhere."
"But you don't think so," I said. "You think they'll get killed. They are your friends."
"Which side are you on George?" Chuck asked abruptly. "Do you want a vampire running a limited human resistance that ultimately preserves the status quo? Or do you want a real resistance that has maybe a chance in a million of actually destroying vampirekind and putting humans back at the top of the food chain - on their unchecked way to self-destruction?"
My gut wrenched and my face burned with anger. What the fuck kind of a choice was that? "I don't want either!" I shouted. "Is that how you vampires see this? Either humans are kept utterly powerless, or else it's genocide and utter destruction? Why can't there be something in between."
"What in between is there?" asked Chuck. "Vampires can't change our nature. We need to feed on you to survive. We can't be held hostage to humans saying 'no'. And that terrifies humans. They can't tolerate our existence given a choice."
I ran a sweaty hand through my hair. "Have you considered they might not say 'no'?"
Chuck's eyes sharpened. "And pigs might fly. Tell me that if there was an opportunity to go back to your old life you wouldn't jump on it without a backwards glance. Tell me you like being White more than you liked being undesirable."
I opened my mouth to reply but had none.
"Now, why do you think that you are any different from all the other harem out there, George?"
"I don't," I snapped back. "But I don't think I'm the same either. The sex you guys offer, I'll be the first to admit, it's really good. Scary good. Humans are horny bastards. You can work with that. Trust me, there are tons of people who'd be glad to receive a blow job from a vampire. And if you throw a little money into the mix, you'll have even more takers."
"Not a chance," said Chuck. "You underestimate the power of prejudice. Oh maybe a few perverts would agree. But there wouldn't be nearly enough of them. And as for money -- The kind of people who are in such desperate need of a quick buck that they'd prostitute themselves to us are generally sick, starved, or strung out and their blood is totally worthless. Those who taste good have no trouble finding human sexual partners. And don't you go waving your lack of sex life at me - that was by your own choice. You could have walked into a club at any point and gotten laid. For that matter, Wally would have been happy to warm your bed, if you'd simply opened your mind enough to see him that way. You've never been so hard up that you'd consider offering yourself to a vampire."
"Well there has to be something -" I started.
But Chuck was on a roll. "-- And more than that, my kind will never, ever agree to letting humans choose. They will never compromise on basic survival! And why should they? They have the power now, they can pick who is in their harem, and they can make those in their harem happy."
I pressed my lips together and shook my head. "But it's wrong and you know it. We aren't cattle. We aren't even another species. You came from us."
"It's wrong. But it's also life. And there comes a time when you just have to accept there are some things that will never be fair."
Chuck stood up and placed his hand on my cheek, stroking it softly. "I really enjoyed what we shared tonight. I even enjoyed this conversation, or at least most of it. But I think it's time for you to sleep. Forget about our bargain. There's no time limit on my honesty, I'll answer any questions you have when we return to Portland. But now, I need to start planning our route and making arrangements for when we arrive."
He didn't give me a choice. Though his touch was much gentler than any of the others I'd experienced, I still recognized my strings being pulled. It didn't matter. I couldn't muster a fuck about anything else but doing what he wanted, anyway.
Without a word, I stood up and walked back to the RV. As I climbed back up the steep steps, rocking the vehicle just a bit with each step, I saw Wally shifting in his sleep. He rolled over onto his side and pulled the blankets up to shield his eyes from the light. Part of me dimly thought that I should wake him up and tell him, but Chuck had planted the impulse to sleep too strongly. I barely had the will to flick off the light before walking to my bed and crawling in. Sleep overtook me immediately.
Wally woke me the next day with a not too gentle shake. I groaned. My eyes didn't want to open. I lifted a hand and shoved him away. What was the point of waking up? Didn't Wally realize our lives were already screwed? Might as well sleep.
Wally was insistent. "Unless you want to eat nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all day, I suggest you get up. Chuck says we are leaving in fifteen."
I opened my eyes again and rubbed my face. "What's the hurry?"
"Who the hell knows. If it were up to me I'd let you sleep 'til three. This is Chuck's call. He's the one coordinating everything." Then Wally gave me a strange look. "He also said you'd decided who our patron was going to be last night."
I sat up angrily. "He said that? Lies. I didn't decide. He did."
Wally shrugged. "Well, it'll be okay then. The decision is done. Chuck wouldn't set us up with someone bad."
Ha. "Did Chuck tell you who it was?" I asked Wally.
Wally looked momentarily disconcerted, as though he recognized that he should have asked but he hadn't. I knew exactly why it hadn't. Chuck, for whatever reason, didn't think it was time for Wally to know. I watched his face as the cognitive dissonance faded almost as quickly as it came on. "Who is it?"
"Chauncey Towers."
"Really?" Wally looked surprised. "I thought Chauncey was a hermit."
"He's decided to rejoin society," I said.
"Well, okay then. I guess we'll get to see him now. I gotta admit I've been curious about him."
I opened my mouth to say something but just then Chuck appeared in the stairwell and said. "We gotta get going, boys. Rod's heading out to La Grande in twenty minutes and we've got a long drive ahead of us as well. George, go inside and eat something."
It was an order. I couldn't disobey it. Chuck was done with playing around. I jumped out of bed with my strings pulled taunt and didn't stop walking until I met up with Rod in the kitchen. Our host had laid out a selection of breakfast cereals on the table along with a bowl a spoon and a quart of milk. He greeted me with a grunt, a nod, and a: "When you are done eating, rinse the bowl and put it in the dishwasher." He then closed the top of the blue cooler and wiped up the counter.
With Chuck's instructions still firmly in my head, I choked down a bowl full of cornflakes and then found myself pouring a second, even though I didn't think I wanted more. When I was apparently full enough to satisfy Chuck, I did as Rod had instructed and put my rinsed bowl in the dishwasher. The most annoying part is that I would have done all these things even if Chuck hadn't whammied me. It was like he was taking no chances with me actually falling off the "everything's normal" script. God damn it, if Chuck wanted me to play it cool he could have just asked. I had no reason in the world to spill the beans to Rod. And as for Wally, he'd have to find out soon.
When I arrived back in the front yard, Rod was clapping Chuck lightly on his back. "If you go head north then take the left at the first light, there's an Arco just about 2 miles down. Don't use the Chevron - that place is owned by Mexicans and you can bet they've fixed their pumps. Goddamn illegals."
Chuck stiffened just slightly. "I'm sure they haven't," he said, putting his hand lightly on Rod's. Rod appeared not to be the least bit bothered by contact, which was not precisely within the guy code, nor did the darkness of Chuck's skin bother him. I wondered how Rod perceived what was going on. Had he forgotten his prejudices for that moment, or did he just not realize he was holding hands with a non-Caucasian man?
"Well I don't know that for sure," Rod said after a moment. "There's some honest Mexicans. They're a hard working people." He stepped away shaking his head. "Well see you around."
Chuck gave his falsest smile. "I'm sure." He then waved more imperiously to Wally and me, "In the car. Let's get out of here."
Wally climbed behind the wheel without question. I sat shotgun and Chuck settled himself into the back. I waited for Chuck to tell Wally who he was, but instead he simply curled up on the bench and got comfortable. It was as if all our talk last night hadn't happened. I wondered if Chuck might be getting cold feet about his decision to give up the Resistance. But then if he had, he'd have certainly wiped my memory of our conversation.
"I'm completely and utterly trashed," Chuck said. "Please don't wake me unless there's a police cruiser on our tail or a vampire trying to run us off the road or we arrive at Portland. Otherwise, you know the drill."
"Aye-aye, Captain," I responded. I then deliberately concentrated on reading the map.
After forty minutes on the road, I turned in my seat and looked back at Chuck. He'd thrown a towel over his face to ward off the sun and his curled body was breathing slowly. If he wasn't out, he was doing a damn good impression of it. I allowed myself to start thinking freely again. Reaching into the door pocket I pulled out the atlas again. The red line had a whole lot fewer wiggles than yesterday - basically Chuck expected us to stay on I 84, avoiding only one random semi-rural protectorate. I'd always been reasonably good at math and with a little mental effort I figured it would take us about 3 1/2 hours to Portland protectorate. Not a lot of time.
"Wally, could you pull over at the rest stop coming up?" I asked. I checked to see if Chuck stirred. He didn't. He wasn't in my mind.
Wally naturally thought nothing of the request and quickly pulled off the freeway and into the rest stop parking lot. The place was laid out similarly to every other rest-stop in existence. There were a pair of familiar hut like houses where the toilets were kept. Cement poured picnic benches and trash cans chained to the ground and vending machines jailed behind bars. Sprinklers watered the various beds of pansies and pigeons wandered boredly here and there. There were two vehicles other than ours, a double parked lazily across several lines in the truck lot and a pickup next to the toilets.
Wally climbed out with me and started heading towards the bathrooms but I caught his arm and led him even further away, past the truck parking and all the way to the far fence. It seemed to me to be at least 3 city blocks of distance. Was this far enough that Chucks' vampire superhearing wouldn't work?
Wally looked at me curiously. "What's up?"
"Chuck's a vampire."
Wally stiffened. He glanced back at the car. "You sure?"
"Absolutely. You wanted to meet old crusty hermit Chauncey Towers- well that's him back there."
Wally stood there a second, obviously thinking things over. "I knew there was something off about him," he muttered. "I keep thinking vampires are going to be like Darlene. But they're not." He stared off across the parking lots at the Taurus. "What's going on Geo? What does he want?"
"Well for one thing, he's planning on dismantling the resistance and taking us as Harem as soon as we get to Portland."
Wally's eyes narrowed. "Wait, dismantle the resistance? Does this mean he's not going to take out Abram?" Wally stiffened. "What about all those people who get caught in the gate traps. What about the people he brainwashes into making stay? Is that it? Chuck gives up and Abram gets away with it?"
"I don't know. I think so." I rubbed my hair. "God, I hate to admit it, but I was wrong, Wally. Even a spineless resistance is better than nothing. There's got to be someone stopping the worst of the vampires from screwing people over like Abram." I grabbed Wally's sleeve. "And I'm not sure if Chuck doesn't have cold feet. Why would he be coy with you about this if he wasn't wavering?"
"No," murmured Wally doubtfully. "I'm not sure about that. Chuck doesn't strike me as the indecisive type."
I blew out a breath. "Well it doesn't matter if he's the indecisive type or not, we gotta take this decision away from him. Think about Mindy and Tea-For-Two. What's going to happen to them when their resistance falls down around them. Maybe the old guy will give up the cause, but not Mindy. And she really is undesirable. She's not going to get a slap on the wrist if she gets caught. She's going to get a claw to the back like Rod." I grabbed Wally's arm. "I've got enough death on my head - I'm not going to be responsible dismantling the only thing that is keeping the vampires from torturing innocent people. Weak as it is. Crap."
"Do we really have a choice?" Wally asked, frowning.
"Of course we do. Gimme your phone."
Wally pulled his Iphone out of his belt clip. He frowned. "I thought I'd turned this off." He handed it to me.
I quickly started texting a message to my dad's cellphone. Unlike mom, I knew he'd check his messages in a timely way. My old man seems to be caught somewhere between mid-life crisis and the I don't give a fuck what people think about me stage. Admittedly he needs to be somewhat up with the new tech since his job as a home inspector means that he spends all his time in random places. It still doesn't excuse the leetspeak and haxxor jargon. Perhaps part of my reluctance to upgrade or even much use my cell phone had to do with the embarrassment of having a dad who texts like a 14 year old. But unlike mom, I could trust him to check his messages in a timely way.
Sure enough, less than thirty seconds later there was a message back.
"I don't think I've ever seen a grown man use the word 'jooz'," commented Wally looking over my shoulder.
"Shut up," I said lightly. "He's gonna do it, that's the important thing. This is how we get out of taking the Resistance inside man away from them."
"But what then? This is just putting off the inevitable. Don't tell me you are going to look for another resistance to join?"
"Then you get to be home, Wally. You'll have your gaming group, your stuff, your family. New patron who will maybe give you a bigger stipend."
Wally shook his head. "You think I care about that? My family and I barely get along. And yeah, the game group are my friends but I can let that go."
"And you'll have me, too," I said. "At least until I get sold somewhere else. The moment we get home you can call up whatever vampire you want," I said. "So long as it's not Chauncey."
"Speaking of which, we should go back. We don't want Chauncey noticing we are up to something."
I nodded. "We're going to have to not think too much about what we are doing either. We gotta stay focused on something else, something sure to bore Chuck if he wakes up enough to listen in on it. Tell you what, I've never asked you to do this before, but just this one time…"
Wally blinked, "Yes?"
"Why don't you tell me all about your Level 20 Paladin."
Turns out, Wally plays a druid and GURPS doesn't use levels that way. What it did have was a list of spells and skills and attributes literally 30 books long. And Wally had it all memorized. Once he started, it wasn't difficult to keep Wally talking the intricacies of table-top role playing. It was even mildly interesting at times. I finally found out what "munchkin" meant. Then once Wally figured I was grounded enough in the mechanics, we got into the campaign itself and I felt like I was back in history class, learning all about the politics of a fantasy world and the unlikely and absurd hijinks of the player character heroes.
Chuck didn't even stir, not even when Wally forgot himself and started shouting. He was truly out. I limited my checks on him to every ten minutes, because I'm sure I would have spent the entire trip staring at him otherwise. The feeling in my stomach was not too different from the one I'd have if we'd been transporting deadly vipers. After all if Chuck ever roused enough to make a check on us… I honestly didn't want to know what he'd do.
Thankfully the time went somewhat quickly. I shushed Wally mid-story to point out the exit. "Hey, are you hungry?"
Wally glanced in the rear-view mirror. "Sure am."
"Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, just like mom made."
Wally spun the wheel around and pulled into the first spot in the rest stop parking lot. "Lets eat at a table." He popped the back and we both got out of the car. I opened up the blue cooler and removed a couple of sodas while Wally yanked out the pillow sack containing our meager possessions. While he closed the trunk, I dared give Chuck one parting glance. He was still sleeping with that towel on his face. He hadn't even twitched.
It was with a sense of growing relief that we walked out across the dog run, past the bathrooms to where some park benches rested under a grove of pine trees. As Wally settled down at a green painted table, I grabbed his shoulder and pointed again.
Dad had arrived.
It was as if we didn't want to break the spell by speaking. Wally turned to look where I pointed and nodded. He stood back up and we walked back to the far end of the passenger parking area to where a blue Tacoma had just pulled in. Definitely dad, it had his company logo on the side of the truck top. I watched him get out and start walking towards us. He was a such a good sight. My heart leaped and all I wanted was hold him and press all the horrors and fears of the last few weeks away.
Dad grabbed me in a hard embrace. I let the sodas fall into the grass to hug him back. He was a small thin man, barely 5'1" and even with a bit of a potbelly, still ten pounds less than me. Perfect build for mucking around in people's crawl spaces and attics. His 2 o'clock shadow scratched against the side of my neck and I felt his calloused hands digging into my upper arms as he stepped back and looked me over.
"Me and your mom have been so damn worried about you, George," he said, his eyes glittering and his lips drawn down. He then turned and craned his neck up at Wally and managed a pained smile. "Hey there, Wally. So you found him after all."
"Yes, Mr. Handle," said Wally.
"Thanks for bringing him back."
"Dad, we need to get going." I glanced back at the Taurus. It's faded black paint gleamed dully in the sunlight. I couldn't see anything inside.
Dad nodded and grabbed the sack from Wally, opening up the back of the truck and tossing it on top of his tools. Wally and I got into cab of the car, me taking the middle and Wally the window seat. It was a bit of a tight squeeze. The urge to make sure we weren't being followed made me lean out over his lap to see out the side mirror as Dad pulled out of the rest stop and onto the freeway once more.
"You can relax," said Wally as I tried to look through the back window, past all Dad's tools, and the tinted back window of the truck top. It was an exercise in futility.
"No I can't," I said.
"Yeah you can," he dangled the key to the Taurus off his forefinger. "Even if he wakes up, I don't think Chuck is going anywhere soon."
Back to chapter 28
On to chapter 30
RATING: NC-17 (This chapter PG-13)
SUMMARY: Chuck discusses George's past and future.
Word Count: 6130
Chapter 29
Neither of us spoke for a full minute. Then I lowered my hand and sat down on the edge of the bed again. My head was swimming. Too much at once, it was hard to cope with. When was the world going to stop flipping on me?
"I tried to contact you when this started," I said at last.
"I know, I got your email." It was a statement of fact without even a trace of regret or acknowledgement of responsibility. Oh, no he didn't get to pan that off like it was no biggie. All my problems had a genesis in his actions and inactions. I was damn well going to call him out on it.
"But you didn't do anything!" I accused, sitting up straight and leveling my hardest glare at him. "You were supposed to be my goddamn patron and you let me get captured by Nadette," I accused. "You let me sit on her compound for a week and then get auctioned. Don't tell me you sent Darlene--"
"--I had no idea that Darlene had tried to get you," Chuck leapt on my words. He leaned forward in his seat, his brown eyes darkened with grief. "If I'd realized, I would have stopped her. I would have dropped everything and intercepted her before she arrived. She was my childe, George. I love her. I would have saved her, but she didn't tell me."
Of course, he cares more about protecting the vampire. part of me thought before the rest of my mind had a chance to squelch it down. Shut up, shut up, I don't give a rats ass if Chuck cares about me or not.
"She was my childe," Chuck said, reading my thoughts anyway. "Of course, I cared about her."
"Well you failed her good," I said, feeling vengeful. "She thought you'd be angry that she'd miscatagorized me. She didn't think you'd protect her if she didn't have me in hand."
"She was wrong. I would have helped her regardless." Chuck's eyes glittered. I was hurting him. Good. I wanted him to hurt. "Forgive me, George, but I never cared about whether or not you were in my possession." Yeah, that's amply clear. "Nothing personal," he went on. "I'd never met you, you were simply a number on a list that I'd all but forgotten about. And when you asked for my help and I looked into your situation it seemed settled to me. You were with one of the most well connected vampires on the continent. I knew you'd be fine. As a white, your health and welfare would be protected regardless of your circumstances. That's why I didn't bother to answer your call myself."
"If I was just a number to you, why the hell did you insist on Darlene tasting me? And for that matter why couldn't you just taste your own damn harem? Were you afraid I might taste too nasty for you?"
" I find my own meals every day without help. I often have to resort to feeding on less than the cream of the crop - why would you think I needed her to screen for that? I didn't taste you because I never had any intentions of claiming you even if you hadn't turned out to be undesirable."
"…What?" My mouth dropped. "You weren't going to claim me-- what?!"
"I can't have a harem, George. Not with this job. Much less a white in one. I thought you understood that."
"Then why have her taste me at all?"
"Because even though you turned up on my list, I planned on giving you to her. If you were any good, that is." Chuck rubbed his eyes with heel of one hand. "You were supposed to have been a way to make her life easier. Not mess it up more."
"I was eleven years old," I said, my throat hurting with tightness. "And you sent me to her to be tasted. How would that not mess us both up?"
"I DIDN'T KNOW!" snapped Chuck, all good humor was gone and I was struck by how terrifying he could be. Then he softened towards me. "Do you really think that I would have knowingly given little boy to my childe to be in her harem? Does that make sense to you given what I do?"
"But how could you not know?"
"How could I know?" Chuck countered. "Like I said, all you were was a crazy number on a fax labeled 'Potential Harem'. When I'd last checked, everyone on those lists was between 18 and 40 years old. Somewhere along the line my good compatriots in the Portland Protectorate changed the rules to include children as well on the thought that they could be groomed and traded before they started their duties. But I didn't know that had happened. Because I wasn't in Portland at the time. I was in Wisconsin. And it didn't occur to me to check."
"Really? All this pain and mess is because you got lazy and never checked before you gave her an order?" My heart was beating hard. "Why the hurry? Why couldn't you have checked?" It felt like I was fencing him, only with words rather than blades.
"She was leaving me, George," Chuck's voice sounded raw. "I couldn't keep her in submission forever. She was too proud. Despite her handicap, she was determined to have her own household, her own harem, her own job and finances - unconnected to me. I wanted give her an edge. A white in her harem would not only have provided her with a steady source of income, it would have guaranteed her political and social connections. She could use those to help shore up her weaknesses.
"So, yes, it was a mistake." Chuck shook his head. "I made a mistake, she made a mistake, even you made one. Darlene would still be alive if you simply stayed with Jeffrey the way you knew the law required. At least my mistake was made in good faith."
"And so, you let the whole matter go," I said, bitterly. "Not your problem." Attack.
"When she reported back you tasted like puke, I dropped the matter," Chuck parried. "An undesirable would have made a poor gift."
"She said you erased her memory," I said. "You clouded her mind. Would she have known that you would have protected her if you hadn't?"
"Yes. And that's the tragedy." I could tell by the wounded look in Chuck's eye that I'd gotten him on that one. "But if I had let her keep her memory, my enemies would have plundered it the moment she was outside of my protection. They would have known my entire operation within days. I had to erase anything incriminating, or else give up the resistance. She agreed to have her memory erased," said Chuck. He sounded tired. "She wanted it - at the time. She didn't want to betray me. And if my enemies had realized what I was doing, I'd have been in very, very hot water indeed."
"You have an excuse for everything don't you," I said, still determined to get my pound of flesh from him.
"What do you want me to say, George? I'm sorry? I lost my childe because of this. Trust me, I am very, very, sorry!"
And that got me.
Chuck took a deep breath in through his nose. "You want to know why I was too busy to check? Why I might have been a bit distracted and not given your situation the deeper thinking it clearly merited? Do you know what I was up to at that time you were being tasted, George?"
Not really. "What."
"I was killing vampires."
Chuck let that hang a moment.
"Vamp-" I began.
"--Abusive fucking vampires. Vampires taking 13 year old girls into their harem. Vampires who were breaking their harem's arms and letting them heal broken as punishment. Vampires who were extorting thousands of dollars out of their humans, money that the humans needed for food and medical care, and using that money to gamble. On the dog races of all things." Chuck's face darkened with fury. "They were getting away with it, because they weren't interfering with other vampires. I was saving a human life at the very moment you were upchucking your lunch on Darelene's shoulder."
I colored. Much though I didn't want to believe it, maybe I was being unfair to Chuck. There were worse situations out there than what I was in. Still it didn't make me any happier about my situation. "Listen, don't get me wrong, I appreciate what you do with the Resistance."
"I don't think you can appreciate it, George. What I was doing was absolutely unheard of. To all the other vampires, my actions were completely unprovoked fits of violence! Those vampires I killed had never wronged me or mine. When I attacked them, they were so surprised, they couldn't even fathom why I was there. And when they did…. I mean, who the fuck was I to create and enforce my own etiquettes? It wasn't any of my business what goes on between a vampire and those he champions. Who died and made me god." Chuck seemed to be arguing with himself. "But how can humans accept us as their patrons, when we pull this sort of petty, stupid, short-sighted shit?" Chuck looked at me.
"They can't," I agreed.
"Exactly. I had to stop these vampires. And stopping them meant killing them. And killing them meant I had to remain incognito, maintain this human charade. Because the moment vampires realized that I'd gone vigilante on them, they would come after me."
Chuck leaned forward and rested his forehead on the palms of his hands. "I want to quit this job so badly, George. But until we as a people grow up to our responsibilities, I can't. In the old days, vampires could do whatever the hell they wanted to so long as they maintained the secrecy. But those days are over for better or for worse. Now we need something new to curb ourselves with. We need to rise up to the job given. Prove that we are worthy of it."
"Amen," I said.
"Amen," Chuck rolled his eyes, "Well I'm glad you like my opinion, because I can tell you that pretty much no one in the Vampire community does." He shook his head. "No one is going to take up this cause if I quit."
"Then don't quit," I said. It seemed to be what Chuck wanted to hear.
But to my surprise Chuck laughed and shook his head. "It's too late," said Chuck. "I already have quit. I'm done. I'm going legit."
"What?"
"I'm done," said Chuck. "I want a home and a harem like all the other vampires. I'm tired of hiding. And I'm absolutely sick of pretending that I'm human. Never letting my guard down. Never getting close to anyone. I'm exhausted and just like you and Wally, I want to go home."
I felt that creepy awkwardness that comes from being the wrong person privy to a confession. I was the very definition of a hostile audience and I still hadn't really forgiven him for the shit he'd put me through. But apparently the catharsis of speaking to me seemed to be good enough for him. Once more he seemed at ease.
"Well, I guess that's your choice," I said, to fill the quiet.
Chuck's lip twitched. "You are right. It is."
A yawn took me by surprise. My eyes felt heavy and itchy and my body ached with tiredness. I glanced at the clock. It was 4:23 am. The sun would be up in about an hour and then we'd be off on yet another exhausting, long car drive, the final leg for all of us to get home. I needed to sleep.
"You should hit the sack," Chuck agreed.
I glared at him. Oh, no. He wasn't worming out of our agreement this easily. He was going to answer all my questions for the night in return for my blood. I had an hour left and while everything we'd discussed had been interesting, none of it was really relevant to my situation right now. I still didn't have a patron picked out. Apprehension brought me back to wakefulness and I had that itch of worry that events would be catching up to me soon.
"I suppose I should look at the files and make my choice," I said staring at Chuck's closed laptop. The little LED blinked to say that it was still on. One hundred and twenty some files. I couldn't really remember any of them. I didn't want to choose.
"There's no need of that," said Chuck, smoothly.
"Hmm? What do you mean." The apprehension deepened. I frowned and studied Chuck's face.
"I accept," said Chuck. He was smiling that same languid smile I'd seen on him when I'd first woken up and he'd called me to his room.
"You accept what?" My brain was muddled. Had I missed a piece of our conversation?
"Your offer. You said you wanted me as your patron." Chuck tilted his head with a grin. "More than once. You actually begged me to take you in your email. Don't you remember?"
Oh god, I had, hadn't I. Apprehension exploded into panic. I felt the doors of opportunity slamming around me. I'd taken too long. Chuck had made my decision for me. And no, no, no, I wasn't ready for it. This wasn't what I wanted. I stared at Chuck's dark brown eyes and realized that this was it. This was the person who would be making all my decisions for me from now on. My freedom was over. It was done.
"I thought you said you couldn't have a harem."
"I couldn't. But I just quit."
"You said you'd just sell me!"
"I won't sell you. I can use you to reestablish a place in society again. Curry some favor. Get into politics. Who knows, if I work hard enough to establish my reputation, I can be an effective advocate for humans. Having lived as one for years, I think I have a pretty good handle on what they want."
I stared around wildly. "But what about all the people who need you? Who will rescue the people who run afoul of vampires? There's still a need of that!"
"Yes, but then, would the world really be worse off for not having people like Rod in it? And it will never end, George. Don't you see. Never. Do I have to sacrifice the rest of my life to this cause, which will never change? And when I'm gone, there will still be humans getting themselves in trouble. Maybe I'm not helping the situation at all. Maybe both vampires and humans will adjust better if I stopped bailing them out."
"What will happen to your resistance?" I asked.
"Oh I'll dismantle it. Once my top leadership has been dissolved, my runners and informants will melt away into the woodwork from where they came."
"And if they don't and they form their own resistance?"
Chuck paused and looked blindly at the wall for a second then smiled at me. "Well that should please you, shouldn't it. It would be legitimate. Who knows, maybe they'll actually manage to get somewhere."
"But you don't think so," I said. "You think they'll get killed. They are your friends."
"Which side are you on George?" Chuck asked abruptly. "Do you want a vampire running a limited human resistance that ultimately preserves the status quo? Or do you want a real resistance that has maybe a chance in a million of actually destroying vampirekind and putting humans back at the top of the food chain - on their unchecked way to self-destruction?"
My gut wrenched and my face burned with anger. What the fuck kind of a choice was that? "I don't want either!" I shouted. "Is that how you vampires see this? Either humans are kept utterly powerless, or else it's genocide and utter destruction? Why can't there be something in between."
"What in between is there?" asked Chuck. "Vampires can't change our nature. We need to feed on you to survive. We can't be held hostage to humans saying 'no'. And that terrifies humans. They can't tolerate our existence given a choice."
I ran a sweaty hand through my hair. "Have you considered they might not say 'no'?"
Chuck's eyes sharpened. "And pigs might fly. Tell me that if there was an opportunity to go back to your old life you wouldn't jump on it without a backwards glance. Tell me you like being White more than you liked being undesirable."
I opened my mouth to reply but had none.
"Now, why do you think that you are any different from all the other harem out there, George?"
"I don't," I snapped back. "But I don't think I'm the same either. The sex you guys offer, I'll be the first to admit, it's really good. Scary good. Humans are horny bastards. You can work with that. Trust me, there are tons of people who'd be glad to receive a blow job from a vampire. And if you throw a little money into the mix, you'll have even more takers."
"Not a chance," said Chuck. "You underestimate the power of prejudice. Oh maybe a few perverts would agree. But there wouldn't be nearly enough of them. And as for money -- The kind of people who are in such desperate need of a quick buck that they'd prostitute themselves to us are generally sick, starved, or strung out and their blood is totally worthless. Those who taste good have no trouble finding human sexual partners. And don't you go waving your lack of sex life at me - that was by your own choice. You could have walked into a club at any point and gotten laid. For that matter, Wally would have been happy to warm your bed, if you'd simply opened your mind enough to see him that way. You've never been so hard up that you'd consider offering yourself to a vampire."
"Well there has to be something -" I started.
But Chuck was on a roll. "-- And more than that, my kind will never, ever agree to letting humans choose. They will never compromise on basic survival! And why should they? They have the power now, they can pick who is in their harem, and they can make those in their harem happy."
I pressed my lips together and shook my head. "But it's wrong and you know it. We aren't cattle. We aren't even another species. You came from us."
"It's wrong. But it's also life. And there comes a time when you just have to accept there are some things that will never be fair."
Chuck stood up and placed his hand on my cheek, stroking it softly. "I really enjoyed what we shared tonight. I even enjoyed this conversation, or at least most of it. But I think it's time for you to sleep. Forget about our bargain. There's no time limit on my honesty, I'll answer any questions you have when we return to Portland. But now, I need to start planning our route and making arrangements for when we arrive."
He didn't give me a choice. Though his touch was much gentler than any of the others I'd experienced, I still recognized my strings being pulled. It didn't matter. I couldn't muster a fuck about anything else but doing what he wanted, anyway.
Without a word, I stood up and walked back to the RV. As I climbed back up the steep steps, rocking the vehicle just a bit with each step, I saw Wally shifting in his sleep. He rolled over onto his side and pulled the blankets up to shield his eyes from the light. Part of me dimly thought that I should wake him up and tell him, but Chuck had planted the impulse to sleep too strongly. I barely had the will to flick off the light before walking to my bed and crawling in. Sleep overtook me immediately.
Wally woke me the next day with a not too gentle shake. I groaned. My eyes didn't want to open. I lifted a hand and shoved him away. What was the point of waking up? Didn't Wally realize our lives were already screwed? Might as well sleep.
Wally was insistent. "Unless you want to eat nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all day, I suggest you get up. Chuck says we are leaving in fifteen."
I opened my eyes again and rubbed my face. "What's the hurry?"
"Who the hell knows. If it were up to me I'd let you sleep 'til three. This is Chuck's call. He's the one coordinating everything." Then Wally gave me a strange look. "He also said you'd decided who our patron was going to be last night."
I sat up angrily. "He said that? Lies. I didn't decide. He did."
Wally shrugged. "Well, it'll be okay then. The decision is done. Chuck wouldn't set us up with someone bad."
Ha. "Did Chuck tell you who it was?" I asked Wally.
Wally looked momentarily disconcerted, as though he recognized that he should have asked but he hadn't. I knew exactly why it hadn't. Chuck, for whatever reason, didn't think it was time for Wally to know. I watched his face as the cognitive dissonance faded almost as quickly as it came on. "Who is it?"
"Chauncey Towers."
"Really?" Wally looked surprised. "I thought Chauncey was a hermit."
"He's decided to rejoin society," I said.
"Well, okay then. I guess we'll get to see him now. I gotta admit I've been curious about him."
I opened my mouth to say something but just then Chuck appeared in the stairwell and said. "We gotta get going, boys. Rod's heading out to La Grande in twenty minutes and we've got a long drive ahead of us as well. George, go inside and eat something."
It was an order. I couldn't disobey it. Chuck was done with playing around. I jumped out of bed with my strings pulled taunt and didn't stop walking until I met up with Rod in the kitchen. Our host had laid out a selection of breakfast cereals on the table along with a bowl a spoon and a quart of milk. He greeted me with a grunt, a nod, and a: "When you are done eating, rinse the bowl and put it in the dishwasher." He then closed the top of the blue cooler and wiped up the counter.
With Chuck's instructions still firmly in my head, I choked down a bowl full of cornflakes and then found myself pouring a second, even though I didn't think I wanted more. When I was apparently full enough to satisfy Chuck, I did as Rod had instructed and put my rinsed bowl in the dishwasher. The most annoying part is that I would have done all these things even if Chuck hadn't whammied me. It was like he was taking no chances with me actually falling off the "everything's normal" script. God damn it, if Chuck wanted me to play it cool he could have just asked. I had no reason in the world to spill the beans to Rod. And as for Wally, he'd have to find out soon.
When I arrived back in the front yard, Rod was clapping Chuck lightly on his back. "If you go head north then take the left at the first light, there's an Arco just about 2 miles down. Don't use the Chevron - that place is owned by Mexicans and you can bet they've fixed their pumps. Goddamn illegals."
Chuck stiffened just slightly. "I'm sure they haven't," he said, putting his hand lightly on Rod's. Rod appeared not to be the least bit bothered by contact, which was not precisely within the guy code, nor did the darkness of Chuck's skin bother him. I wondered how Rod perceived what was going on. Had he forgotten his prejudices for that moment, or did he just not realize he was holding hands with a non-Caucasian man?
"Well I don't know that for sure," Rod said after a moment. "There's some honest Mexicans. They're a hard working people." He stepped away shaking his head. "Well see you around."
Chuck gave his falsest smile. "I'm sure." He then waved more imperiously to Wally and me, "In the car. Let's get out of here."
Wally climbed behind the wheel without question. I sat shotgun and Chuck settled himself into the back. I waited for Chuck to tell Wally who he was, but instead he simply curled up on the bench and got comfortable. It was as if all our talk last night hadn't happened. I wondered if Chuck might be getting cold feet about his decision to give up the Resistance. But then if he had, he'd have certainly wiped my memory of our conversation.
"I'm completely and utterly trashed," Chuck said. "Please don't wake me unless there's a police cruiser on our tail or a vampire trying to run us off the road or we arrive at Portland. Otherwise, you know the drill."
"Aye-aye, Captain," I responded. I then deliberately concentrated on reading the map.
After forty minutes on the road, I turned in my seat and looked back at Chuck. He'd thrown a towel over his face to ward off the sun and his curled body was breathing slowly. If he wasn't out, he was doing a damn good impression of it. I allowed myself to start thinking freely again. Reaching into the door pocket I pulled out the atlas again. The red line had a whole lot fewer wiggles than yesterday - basically Chuck expected us to stay on I 84, avoiding only one random semi-rural protectorate. I'd always been reasonably good at math and with a little mental effort I figured it would take us about 3 1/2 hours to Portland protectorate. Not a lot of time.
"Wally, could you pull over at the rest stop coming up?" I asked. I checked to see if Chuck stirred. He didn't. He wasn't in my mind.
Wally naturally thought nothing of the request and quickly pulled off the freeway and into the rest stop parking lot. The place was laid out similarly to every other rest-stop in existence. There were a pair of familiar hut like houses where the toilets were kept. Cement poured picnic benches and trash cans chained to the ground and vending machines jailed behind bars. Sprinklers watered the various beds of pansies and pigeons wandered boredly here and there. There were two vehicles other than ours, a double parked lazily across several lines in the truck lot and a pickup next to the toilets.
Wally climbed out with me and started heading towards the bathrooms but I caught his arm and led him even further away, past the truck parking and all the way to the far fence. It seemed to me to be at least 3 city blocks of distance. Was this far enough that Chucks' vampire superhearing wouldn't work?
Wally looked at me curiously. "What's up?"
"Chuck's a vampire."
Wally stiffened. He glanced back at the car. "You sure?"
"Absolutely. You wanted to meet old crusty hermit Chauncey Towers- well that's him back there."
Wally stood there a second, obviously thinking things over. "I knew there was something off about him," he muttered. "I keep thinking vampires are going to be like Darlene. But they're not." He stared off across the parking lots at the Taurus. "What's going on Geo? What does he want?"
"Well for one thing, he's planning on dismantling the resistance and taking us as Harem as soon as we get to Portland."
Wally's eyes narrowed. "Wait, dismantle the resistance? Does this mean he's not going to take out Abram?" Wally stiffened. "What about all those people who get caught in the gate traps. What about the people he brainwashes into making stay? Is that it? Chuck gives up and Abram gets away with it?"
"I don't know. I think so." I rubbed my hair. "God, I hate to admit it, but I was wrong, Wally. Even a spineless resistance is better than nothing. There's got to be someone stopping the worst of the vampires from screwing people over like Abram." I grabbed Wally's sleeve. "And I'm not sure if Chuck doesn't have cold feet. Why would he be coy with you about this if he wasn't wavering?"
"No," murmured Wally doubtfully. "I'm not sure about that. Chuck doesn't strike me as the indecisive type."
I blew out a breath. "Well it doesn't matter if he's the indecisive type or not, we gotta take this decision away from him. Think about Mindy and Tea-For-Two. What's going to happen to them when their resistance falls down around them. Maybe the old guy will give up the cause, but not Mindy. And she really is undesirable. She's not going to get a slap on the wrist if she gets caught. She's going to get a claw to the back like Rod." I grabbed Wally's arm. "I've got enough death on my head - I'm not going to be responsible dismantling the only thing that is keeping the vampires from torturing innocent people. Weak as it is. Crap."
"Do we really have a choice?" Wally asked, frowning.
"Of course we do. Gimme your phone."
Wally pulled his Iphone out of his belt clip. He frowned. "I thought I'd turned this off." He handed it to me.
I quickly started texting a message to my dad's cellphone. Unlike mom, I knew he'd check his messages in a timely way. My old man seems to be caught somewhere between mid-life crisis and the I don't give a fuck what people think about me stage. Admittedly he needs to be somewhat up with the new tech since his job as a home inspector means that he spends all his time in random places. It still doesn't excuse the leetspeak and haxxor jargon. Perhaps part of my reluctance to upgrade or even much use my cell phone had to do with the embarrassment of having a dad who texts like a 14 year old. But unlike mom, I could trust him to check his messages in a timely way.
Sure enough, less than thirty seconds later there was a message back.
"I don't think I've ever seen a grown man use the word 'jooz'," commented Wally looking over my shoulder.
"Shut up," I said lightly. "He's gonna do it, that's the important thing. This is how we get out of taking the Resistance inside man away from them."
"But what then? This is just putting off the inevitable. Don't tell me you are going to look for another resistance to join?"
"Then you get to be home, Wally. You'll have your gaming group, your stuff, your family. New patron who will maybe give you a bigger stipend."
Wally shook his head. "You think I care about that? My family and I barely get along. And yeah, the game group are my friends but I can let that go."
"And you'll have me, too," I said. "At least until I get sold somewhere else. The moment we get home you can call up whatever vampire you want," I said. "So long as it's not Chauncey."
"Speaking of which, we should go back. We don't want Chauncey noticing we are up to something."
I nodded. "We're going to have to not think too much about what we are doing either. We gotta stay focused on something else, something sure to bore Chuck if he wakes up enough to listen in on it. Tell you what, I've never asked you to do this before, but just this one time…"
Wally blinked, "Yes?"
"Why don't you tell me all about your Level 20 Paladin."
Turns out, Wally plays a druid and GURPS doesn't use levels that way. What it did have was a list of spells and skills and attributes literally 30 books long. And Wally had it all memorized. Once he started, it wasn't difficult to keep Wally talking the intricacies of table-top role playing. It was even mildly interesting at times. I finally found out what "munchkin" meant. Then once Wally figured I was grounded enough in the mechanics, we got into the campaign itself and I felt like I was back in history class, learning all about the politics of a fantasy world and the unlikely and absurd hijinks of the player character heroes.
Chuck didn't even stir, not even when Wally forgot himself and started shouting. He was truly out. I limited my checks on him to every ten minutes, because I'm sure I would have spent the entire trip staring at him otherwise. The feeling in my stomach was not too different from the one I'd have if we'd been transporting deadly vipers. After all if Chuck ever roused enough to make a check on us… I honestly didn't want to know what he'd do.
Thankfully the time went somewhat quickly. I shushed Wally mid-story to point out the exit. "Hey, are you hungry?"
Wally glanced in the rear-view mirror. "Sure am."
"Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, just like mom made."
Wally spun the wheel around and pulled into the first spot in the rest stop parking lot. "Lets eat at a table." He popped the back and we both got out of the car. I opened up the blue cooler and removed a couple of sodas while Wally yanked out the pillow sack containing our meager possessions. While he closed the trunk, I dared give Chuck one parting glance. He was still sleeping with that towel on his face. He hadn't even twitched.
It was with a sense of growing relief that we walked out across the dog run, past the bathrooms to where some park benches rested under a grove of pine trees. As Wally settled down at a green painted table, I grabbed his shoulder and pointed again.
Dad had arrived.
It was as if we didn't want to break the spell by speaking. Wally turned to look where I pointed and nodded. He stood back up and we walked back to the far end of the passenger parking area to where a blue Tacoma had just pulled in. Definitely dad, it had his company logo on the side of the truck top. I watched him get out and start walking towards us. He was a such a good sight. My heart leaped and all I wanted was hold him and press all the horrors and fears of the last few weeks away.
Dad grabbed me in a hard embrace. I let the sodas fall into the grass to hug him back. He was a small thin man, barely 5'1" and even with a bit of a potbelly, still ten pounds less than me. Perfect build for mucking around in people's crawl spaces and attics. His 2 o'clock shadow scratched against the side of my neck and I felt his calloused hands digging into my upper arms as he stepped back and looked me over.
"Me and your mom have been so damn worried about you, George," he said, his eyes glittering and his lips drawn down. He then turned and craned his neck up at Wally and managed a pained smile. "Hey there, Wally. So you found him after all."
"Yes, Mr. Handle," said Wally.
"Thanks for bringing him back."
"Dad, we need to get going." I glanced back at the Taurus. It's faded black paint gleamed dully in the sunlight. I couldn't see anything inside.
Dad nodded and grabbed the sack from Wally, opening up the back of the truck and tossing it on top of his tools. Wally and I got into cab of the car, me taking the middle and Wally the window seat. It was a bit of a tight squeeze. The urge to make sure we weren't being followed made me lean out over his lap to see out the side mirror as Dad pulled out of the rest stop and onto the freeway once more.
"You can relax," said Wally as I tried to look through the back window, past all Dad's tools, and the tinted back window of the truck top. It was an exercise in futility.
"No I can't," I said.
"Yeah you can," he dangled the key to the Taurus off his forefinger. "Even if he wakes up, I don't think Chuck is going anywhere soon."
Back to chapter 28
On to chapter 30