CHAPTER TWO

"Please, don't cry."

I started, not out surprise, but out of relief, for I knew that voice.

I turned, and sure enough my elemental friend Mercury was crouched behind me, a worried expression on his handsome features.

A brief foreword on Mercury. I met him a few hours later than Sapphire and Steel and, although he didn't really work in any of our assignments, we shared a few difficult moments together. He's a very nice operator, and he's specialized in communications.

Without thinking, too relieved to care about my image of strong, tough detective, I threw myself at him. Without hesitating, he wrapped his solid and reassuring arms around me and hold me tight, soothingly stroking the hair at the back of my head.

After a while my sobs subsided, and I was able to open my eyes. Behind Mercury, at a distance of about five feet, I saw Sapphire and Steel, standing motionless and waiting for me to regain my composure.

Sapphire was smiling warmly, while Steel was looking at me with an expression I couldn't read.

Surprised, I said: "You all came."

Mercury replied, chuckling: "Well, not exactly all; just the three of us. I heard your call, but it was coming from such a great distance it took me a while to find you. I'm sorry we're late."

I managed a trembling smile. "It's OK. I was just getting very worried I was stranded here forever. Now that you have reached me, you can bring me back to my own time, can't you?"

Mercury's smile disappeared, making my hopes crumble.

But it was Steel's voice that answered me: "It's not that simple, detective. We can travel through time, but you can't."

I extricated myself from Mercury's embrace, and looked at him disbelievingly and – I must confess – quite aggressively. "What do you mean, I can't? I just did, for heaven's sake!"

He shook his head, making his smooth blond hair dance in the air for a split second. "You didn't do anything; somebody – or something – else forced you to."

I growled, angrier and angrier now that the cavalry had arrived: "Somebody or something?"

Sapphire answered my question with her flawless British accent: "We don't know yet, but we strongly suspect that time tried to get rid of you by sending you back here."

I gaped at her. "How did it do that?"

It was again Steel's turn to answer my question. "It probably had a human ally; that's the only way it can hit you. What we must figure out is how it plans to erase you from history."

This was definitely going to turn into the worst Friday evening of my entire life.

I mumbled: "Funny. I thought I just heard you say 'erase me from history'."

Steel looked at me with his trademark unemotional stare, but I was able to read something else in its grey depths. Sympathy, maybe?

He said: "That's the reason why it brought you here; either it wants to prevent you from being born, or it's counting on you to meet your own younger self and destroy both of you."

I still didn't understand. "How could it destroy both of us?"

"Not it; you would destroy yourself."

I raised a hand to massage my forehead, where I could feel a king-size headache starting to develop.

"Steel, just pretend I'm not following you for a minute. How the hell would I destroy myself?"

Sapphire, knowing that her partner was already losing patience for my not being able to follow his reasoning, answered my question: "Think about it, detective: your body carries atoms that belong 30 years in the future. What do you think would happen if they came into contact with the same atoms from 30 years earlier?"

"They would go boom?"

She smiled. "Crudely but accurately put."

My police training kicked in and demanded a counterattack.

"So, what do you propose we do to thwart time's efforts?"

Steel's pensive expression was reassuring: I knew that his mind would come up with a brilliant plan.

And, sure enough, after less than thirty seconds he voiced his thoughts to his hopeful friends.

"First of all, we need to make sure that your younger self still exists. How old were you in this year?"

I made a rapid mental calculation. "I was nine."

"All right. We will visit the house where you lived when you were nine and, if the child is still there, that means that time is counting on you to meet her and destroy both of you."

I asked, in awe: "I'm going to meet myself at nine?"

He pointed a very threatening index finger at me. "Yes, but be extremely cautious: you must not touch her, whatever happens. Is that clear?"

I nodded, dreadful of the consequences.

Sapphire added: "Even standing near her could be taxing, for both of you. It could make you both feel very ill. So Steel is right, detective: stand clear of that child, no matter how tempting it will be to see her and to speak with her."

I answered: "Don't worry, Sapphire: I have no intention of helping time on with its plans against me. I do remember where I was living at that age. Shall we go?" Now that we had a plan of our own, I was eager to plunge into action.

But Steel grabbed my arm and stopped me in my tracks. "Wait. We must first find out who time's accomplice is."

I asked, surprised: "How could we find that out?"

"It's simpler than you think. It has to be the person or the persons you were with when you were hurled back in time."

"But I was alone."

Sapphire interjected: "What were you doing?"

"I was running after a thief."

The blonde time agent flashed her beautiful smile at me. "Well then, there you are."

I asked, surprised: "The thief? Wait a second, he wasn't the only person around. There was also a hot dog seller nearby. I would say I was halfway between the two of them when it all started."

Steel said: "Then we will have to find out which one of them is time's ally, and we will also need his name, to hunt him down in this timeline."

Bluntly, I asked. "How?"

"One of us will return to the present and question both of them. The problem is, whoever goes won't be able to come back here again. We have depleted all our energies to teleport to the past, and cannot afford to bring back the person who goes, or we would all end up stranded here."

Sapphire volunteered: "I'll go."

Steel almost growled. "No, you won't. I don't want you to be alone with one – or possibly two – criminals. You are too closely related to time; it might sense your presence and decide to strike you instead. And you would be an easier prey than our detective: it wouldn't need a human agent to hurt you. And I won't be there to protect you."

Sapphire insisted: "But I'm better qualified to question a human; all I need to find out the truth is to touch him."

I knew that she was right, but I also knew that she had no chance of convincing Steel: he was far too fond of his partner to let her run such a risk alone.

Before Steel could protest again, the developing argument was broken up by Mercury, who wisely interjected: "No, Sapphire. Steel is right: it's too dangerous. Also, how could you communicate your findings this far in the past? Only I have the power to do that. And I'm quite adept at interrogating humans, too."

While Sapphire was glumly forced to agree with her colleague, I didn't miss Steel's thankful look to Mercury. Boy, either he really hated to be parted from his partner, or something significant happened before they were assigned to help me.*

The tall and dark-haired operator looked at me with his cobalt-blue eyes, and said: "Trust me, detective: I will soon find out who your enemy is and I will contact Sapphire to let you all know."

I was sorry to see him go. "Just be careful, Mercury. Don't underestimate those people. One looks too young to be dangerous and the other looks too ordinary, but one of them is as ruthless as time itself."

He dimpled at me. "I realize that. But I do have a few arrows in my quiver."

He then lifted one hand and softly cupped my cheek, lightly kissing the other one. "Take care of yourself, detective. I'll see you in the present."

With a final farewell look to his fellow operators, he promptly disappeared.

I silently led the two remaining time agents toward Santa Monica Boulevard, where I was hoping to find a taxi which could take us to Brentwood, the area where I used to live when I was a child.

Approximately thirty minutes later we got off the cab in a quiet residential area. I looked around, memories flooding my mind. I hadn't been there in at least fifteen years, but I quickly recognized my parent's house. Now they don't live there anymore; they sold the house and moved to Florida. Or maybe I should say they will move to Florida. Sometimes figuring out the right tenses can be confusing when time travel is involved.

I pointed at the house and said: "That's the one. That two-storey yellow house."

We were standing at a safe distance, but we didn't take the precaution of taking cover. We belatedly realized that we were quite conspicuous in that family-friendly neighborhood, not to mention the fact that we were wearing what probably like a very unusual style of clothing. Especially Sapphire, who as always looked overdressed in her blue, elegant dress and in her high heels.

When we heard a female voice addressing us from behind, I jumped a good foot, for I had recognized that voice. Although it sounded younger, that was my mother's unmistakable voice.

"Good evening. Are you looking for someone?"

We turned. My mother looked so nice and so young, I just stared at her open-mouthed, and I didn't immediately notice that she was holding a little girl's hand. When I looked down, I saw myself at nine. It felt like a blow to the stomach. Literally, because not only was I shocked to see my younger self, but I also suddenly felt so nauseated, I would have collapsed right there, hadn't Steel reacted quickly and put a supporting hand on my upper arm, painfully grasping my biceps with vice-like fingers, as if daring me to yield to panic.

Sapphire was the first to recover. "Good evening. We were just looking around this nice neighborhood. You know, my husband and I plan to move to Los Angeles, and our realtor, here, told us that Brentwood is a very safe and quiet area."

My mother looked at me, probably wondering why the realtor was turning slightly green, but I knew she was far too polite to make an observation. And of course she totally missed the resemblance with her own features, because the last thing she was expecting was seeing her own grown-up child.

She just replied enthusiastically: "Oh yes, she's right. Brentwood is a very pleasant place to live. As you can see, there isn't too much traffic and it's very safe, so it's actually the perfect place to raise a family."

If I weren't about to sprawl on the pavement, I would have laughed at the thought of Sapphire and Steel starting a family. My overloaded brain produced the oddest question: what would be the offspring of a union between a gem and an alloy?

Sapphire's answer was cut short by the girl suddenly bursting into tears. My mother questioned her worriedly: "What's the matter, dear?"

The girl sobbed. "I feel sick, mom. My head and my stomach hurt."

I knew how she was feeling, and I couldn't help sympathizing with her.

I've never been an illness-prone girl, so my mother became alarmed by the sudden quality of the girl's sickness. With a very worried look in her familiar green eyes, she said: "Excuse me, I need to go, now. My daughter Connie isn't feeling very well, and that's not like her."

Sapphire tried to relieve her anxiety. "She probably has got a bit of the seasonal flu. I heard that the virus is spreading again in schools."

My mother said, heading home: "Yes, I guess you're right. Well, good luck with your home hunting."

As soon as she turned her back to us, I felt entitled to give in to my own sickness. My knees buckled and I leaned against Steel, who promptly grabbed me and lifted me as if I weighted no more than a few pounds.

He carried me to a nearby playground, deserted because it was almost dinner time, and gently laid me down on a bench. I had closed my eyes and I was desperately trying to fight the overwhelming wave of nausea that seized me.

He softly stroked my forehead and asked: "Are you all right, detective?"

I was too busy trying to control the nausea to answer him. His voice grew uncharacteristically worried: "Detective? Can you hear me? Constance!"

I was so surprised to hear him call me by my given name, that I managed to briefly open my eyes, although my voice still refused to cooperate. Luckily Sapphire came to my rescue. "She can hear you, Steel. She just doesn't feel good enough to answer yet. Give her a moment."

Once he had ascertained that I wasn't about to die before his eyes, Steel became as irritable as usual, and grumbled: "That was a close call. We cannot afford to be so careless again."

Sapphire tried to soothe him: "It was nobody's fault. We had no way of knowing the mother was going back home precisely when we showed up."

I could hear that Steel was pretty upset. "We should have expected time to set up the right circumstance. We should know better than to fall into all its traps. This woman is counting on us to take her out of here, not to assist in her destruction."

I wanted to reassure him that I had the utmost faith in their capabilities, but I still didn't trust my own voice, so I just grabbed his hand and squeezed. That distracted him from his self-blaming outburst. I managed to open my eyes and looked into his grey ones, moved by the concern they couldn't hide.

I croaked: "Help me... sit up."

He put his arm on my back and gently pushed me up. When I was in a sitting position, he left his hand on my back and softly rubbed soothing circles to help me recover. His hand was warm and was conveying a strange form of healing energy that immediately made me feel better.

Thankful, I said, in a stronger voice: "Thank you. I feel much better now."

In a split second he was back to his callous self again: "Good, because I want to clear this area as soon as possible. Let's go."

He grabbed my arm and unceremoniously forced me to stand. I wasn't feeling good enough to walk yet, but I knew I couldn't change Steel's mind, so I just sighed and started walking, staggering just a little bit.

Another taxi carried us to a cheap motel in an entirely different area, where we shared a very small but otherwise clean room. My elemental friends could not teleport this time, because they had to spare the energy to return to their own time, so they were forced to spend the night the human way.

The room had two double beds, so I asked: "Well, who will be the lucky soul to get his or her own bed?"

Steel glared at me, so I asked, baffled: "What?"

It was Sapphire who answered: "Steel doesn't need to sleep. So I guess the beds are all ours, detective. He can spend the night on the armchair."

As if on cue, Steel sat on the shabby armchair, crossed his legs and looked like a patient waiting in the doctor's office.

Sapphire lay on one bed, closed her eyes and just went dead to the world. I envied her ability to shut off so quickly and easily. And then I thought: well, that's probably what she just did, she literally shut off. Somehow that seemed like a very... elemental thing to do.

I sat at the foot of my own bed, and asked Steel, in a low voice to avoid disturbing Sapphire: "How can you rest your brain if you don't sleep?"

"I can discontinue the thought-producing process, and still keep alert."

See, I wasn't far from the truth. I was impressed nonetheless. "Wow. So you don't dream either, I guess."

"I do not. Now try to get some sleep, detective. You, unlike me, need it."

I protested: "I'm too excited to sleep, Steel. Do you realize I just met myself? Not to mention my younger mother."

He nodded. "Yes, I do realize that. I also realize that you almost died because of that nostalgic encounter."

I couldn't let the chance slip by, and asked him: "By the way, that healing trick you did with your hand?"

"What about it?"

"Couldn't you use it to help me sleep?"

I couldn't read the look in his eyes, but it was definitely different than his usual expression.

He said: "Yes, I could do that, if you really need it."

I flashed him my most convincing smile, and said: "Yes, I really need it."

He said, standing up: "Lay down."

I complied eagerly, closing my eyes. He sat on the side of my bed and put one hand on my forehead and the other one on my shoulder. I could feel waves of soothing heat cross my upper body, but his closeness actually prevented me to relax.

He sensed that I was not unwinding, and asked: "What's wrong?"

I opened my eyes again and bored into his own grey ones. "Nothing's wrong. Your being so close to me brings back a few memories."**

I was sure he would pull back but, much to his credit, he didn't even flinch. A soft smile tugged instead at the corners of his mouth, and he said: "I am very fond of those memories. And I know a little trick that could help you both revive them and sleep."

I asked, intrigued: "What trick?"

He whispered: "This." Then he leaned forward and kissed me lightly on my lips. That feathery kiss did bring back memories of other, more passionate kisses we shared a few months before, but it also inexplicably and effectively sent me to sleep.


I was dreaming of Mercury. He was standing right in front of me, and he was saying something about the hot dog seller being very bright. Bright and dangerous. I slowly climbed back to consciousness with a nagging feeling that I should have remembered something important. Something that kept hiding in some remote part of my unconscious, refusing to surface.

When I opened my eyes, I looked around to locate my two partners. They were both sitting at the small table, and both had their eyes closed. They didn't look like they were sleeping though, so I reckoned they were receiving a mental communication, probably from Mercury. That's why I was dreaming of him: his thoughts reached my subconscious but they didn't make it to my consciousness, probably because of the huge distance they had to cross along the corridor of time.

I concentrated, but all I could hear was the wind whispering in my ears. So I decided to let my two friends do the job and went into the bathroom to shower.

When I got out, they were both standing and ready to go.

I grumbled: "You're not taking me anywhere before my morning coffee."

While I was fixing a much needed coffee, I took the chance to keep up to date.

"So, what did Mercury say?"

Steel was surprised: "You heard him? His voice was very faint. We barely picked up his words."

I shook my head, sipping my coffee. "No. I dreamt about him. He was saying that the hot dog seller is very bright. And very dangerous."

Sapphire smiled. "Pretty close. He said that the hot dog seller's name is Jerry Bryce. It was him, and not the thief, who conjured the time slip."

I snapped my fingers, finally nailing down the thought that kept eluding me. "Of course! It couldn't be the thief. He was too young, and he wasn't even born in 1983. But the hot dog seller looked in his 60s, so he's probably around 30 years old in this timeline."

Steel growled: "Why didn't I think about it? You did mention that the thief was young when you spoke with Mercury. How much more careless can I become?" Then he stormed out of the room, fuming.

Stunned, I asked Sapphire: "What's gotten into him?"

Frowning, she said: "He's angry at himself for not paying attention to that important clue you gave us yesterday."

I protested: "But none of us did, not even me! And I am supposed to be the detective. I should at least listen to myself."

"He's not like us. He's supposed to catch those seemingly insignificant details. It's really not like him to miss something so important. He's not concentrating enough during this assignment, and he's not taking it very well."

I felt sorry for him. "Isn't he a bit too harsh with himself?"

Sapphire made a small smile. "He always is."

When we heard his angry voice shouting from outside "What are you waiting for? A written invitation?", I added "And with everybody else, too."

Before leaving the room, I grabbed the yellow pages standing on the night table. When we reached him outside, I said, waving my trophy: "We need to find this Bryce's address, and then we need to rent a car. It's getting too expensive to get around by cab, and I'm not carrying much cash. My credit cards won't work, since they haven't been issued yet, so we need to watch our expenses."

Sapphire commented: "This city really isn't made for walking."

I laughed. "Walking? In L.A.? You could get arrested!"

Steel mumbled something in the line of "Why do they bother to send us here?", but I wasn't really listening, too busy to look up the hot dog seller's name in the directory. It took me a while, but I finally found him in Orange County. I memorized the address and grumbled: "I got you, son of a gun!"

After renting a brand new Dodge – well, it did look brand new, but it was a 30-year old model to me – I drove the 50 miles to Orange County. I was in a hurry, and when I'm in a hurry I tend to drive a bit carelessly. I was concentrating on the drive, but I could not miss Steel's paler than usual complexion. Was my elemental friend getting car sick or was my driving scaring the hell out of him? Either way, when I parked the car and shut off the engine he darted out of his seat and looked very relieved of being on solid ground again.

I couldn't help teasing him. "What's the matter, Steel? You don't like cars in general, or is it my driving?"

He just glared at me, and Sapphire answered in his place, barely hiding an amused smile: "I think both, detective."

Eager to change the subject, Steel said: "We need a plan before storming into Bryce's house. Are you armed, detective?"

I nodded: "Yes, I still have my handgun."

"Good. I don't want you to shoot him, though: that might change the future. You should use your weapon only as a means of persuasion."

"Got it. If you two guard the back door, I will go through the main door."

He sensed that my adrenaline was starting to rise to a dangerous level, preparing for battle. "Remember that he hasn't met you, yet. You don't need to crash the door. You can simply ring the bell and talk to him."

"What am I going to tell him?"

"I'm sure you can come up with a plausible story and convince him to let you in. Once you're in the house, you will restrict his movements and then you will let us inside. Sapphire will interrogate him."

That sounded easy enough, so I tried to relax a bit. I had to look calm and convincing.

I rang the bell and waited. After a couple of minutes, a male voice asked: "Who is it?"

I said, in my most coaxing voice: "Good morning. I'm from the IRS. Are you Mr. Bryce?"

His voice was suspicious: "Yes. What's that about?"

"It's about a tax refund. We need a few missing data to be able to give you some money back from last year's return." Nobody can resist a tax refund; it's like winning the lottery.

And, sure enough, the man opened the door instantly. Only it wasn't the hot dog seller. He did bear a vague resemblance, but this man was much older than the 30-year old I was expecting.

He gestured me to come in, and led me into his living room.

Before wasting my time telling the fake tax refund story, I asked him: "Are you Jerry Bryce?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm Stephen, his father. Jerry is right behind you and is going to knock you unconscious."

I was so stunned I didn't almost feel the pain on my head when somebody – presumably Jerry – hit me with something very hard and very blunt. Let me rephrase that: I did feel the pain, but it lasted only a split second. I was out cold before hitting the ground.


When something wet and cold hit my face, I spluttered something incoherent and slowly came to. The pain to the back of my head was pounding, and the light was aggravating.

When I tried to move I realized that I was tied to a chair. Based on the smell, I was in some sort of basement or cellar.

I laboriously tried to focus on the person standing in front of me. He was thirty years younger, but I recognized him immediately as the infamous hot dog seller.

I grumbled: "Son of a bitch."

He just laughed. "Oh, the pretty lady detective is not happy she's been outsmarted. How can we remedy that?"

"Start by telling me why you're doing this."

"Oh, that's right, you don't know why I hate you so much I want to erase you from history."

Was this guy stealing Steel's lines? Speaking of whom: where the hell were Sapphire and Steel?

I said: "I have never seen you before. I mean, I have, but it will be many years from now, and I will just buy a bloody hot dog from you. Why should you hate me for that?"

He was looking at me with a paranoid stare that spoke volumes of the man's sanity and was foreboding troubles. Big troubles.

"So, you've forgotten all about me. After you flushed my life down the toilet, you even have the guts to forget about it. What is it, a defense mechanism for your conscience? You ruin people and then you forget so that you can sleep peacefully at night?"

I really wasn't following him. "What are you babbling about?"

Uh oh, wrong remark. The guy got all red in the face and started yelling. I really don't have a knack for psychology.

"I'm talking about the ten years of prison I served because of you!"

I searched deep in my memory, but he wasn't there.

"I've never arrested a Jerry Bryce. I would remember your name."

His voice's volume lowered considerably, but now it carried a chilling tone that sounded much worse that the shouts. "That's because I didn't have that name when you arrested me. I was called Jerry Bright."

Jerry Bright! My God, I was the only one who got Mercury's message right. He did say he was Bright, not Bryce. He tried to warn us, but we couldn't hear him clearly enough.

And of course I remembered who Bright was. He was a bank robber we caught after an epic car chase approximately fifteen years ago. I mean, fifteen years from now. Whatever.

I remembered it very clearly, because it was my first arrest. I actually got my first promotion for that action.

Bluntly, I asked: "What happened to your beard and long hair?"

He looked surprised. "Beard and long hair? Really? I didn't think I'd fall for that hippy stuff, but that explains why you haven't recognized me."

Now I was utterly confused. "Wait a second. If you don't know how you will look like in fifteen years, how come you know what you will do, and above all how do you know I will arrest you?"

He made a creepy smile. "Because I've been told. By myself."

"How?"

"I will record a tape, where I will tell myself everything that is going to happen from now on, and I will send it back to 1983, meaning now."

I really couldn't buy that. "Send it back? I'm pretty sure SDA doesn't provide that service."

Enraged, he slapped my face with the back of his hand. The man didn't have an ounce of humor.

"Time helped me with that. We both want you dead."

"Why don't you just shoot me? Why this complicated plot?"

"Now you're using your brain at last. This is the first smart question you're asking. And it deserves a proper answer. You see, I want to give you the opportunity to save one of your friends' life."

I didn't like the sound of it, not one bit. He made a few steps back, and he lit another light in an adjoining vaulted room. The bulb was very weak, but the two people that were standing there, their hands tied in front of them, were unmistakable: both my elemental friends had been captured.

Steel's expression was as cold as his name, and Sapphire's was so sad it broke something inside me.

I asked them, almost shouting: "Why don't you just do something, for heaven's sake? Steel, grab this bastard and freeze him to death."

Steel just shook his head, and lowered his eyes. What the hell was going on?

It was Sapphire who explained. "We can't. Our elemental powers do not work when we travel in time. And, even if they did, we still couldn't do anything. Bryce will kill you if we try. So you see, our hands are tied in more ways than one."

I tried to reason with them. "Don't you understand? He will kill me anyway. At least you two can make it out of here."

It was Steel who answered this time. "Do you think we can just stand here and watch him kill you? After we've been sent to save you?"

I shook my head, disheartened. I knew I couldn't make him change his mind. I would have felt the same if I were in their shoes.

Bryce spoke again, clearly enjoying the moment. "How touching. They actually seem to care, don't they? Well, I'll let you in a little secret: they don't. They don't care about us humans. All they care about is upsetting time's plans. If they must sacrifice a little human or two to accomplish that, well, all the worse for us."

I didn't feel like denying that, mainly because I knew that it was partly true. I knew Steel would do anything to fight time's efforts to disrupt the present, including sacrificing human lives. Hell, I was pretty sure he would even sacrifice himself or his own partner.

Belatedly, I realized I wasn't being fair; Steel was refusing to let me die by the hands of this man, one of time's allies, although that would have set things right, and that at least proved that he cared.

With that comforting thought, I told Bryce: "You have a problem with me, not with them. Let them return to the present. I will stay here with you."

He laughed wickedly. "You wish. I'm sorry, but time wants a prey, too. So, my dear detective Stunt, now you have to make a very difficult choice."

Uh oh. I remembered he mentioned that I could save one of my friends' life. One?

He laughed again. That son of a gun was enjoying himself far too much for my taste.

"I can see from your face that you haven't missed what I said earlier. Good, I like to have an attentive audience. But let me explain the rules of my little game."

He turned around my chair and stopped behind me. He crouched and cut the rope that was tying me to the chair. Of course I didn't miss the gun he kept aiming at me.

"I'm not as mean as your elemental friends, you see, so I will actually spare one of them. You will probably wonder which one. Well, this is your lucky day. You get to choose!"

That said, he extracted another gun – my own – from one of his pockets, and put it in my hand, together with one bullet. I looked at him questioningly, refusing to believe what my mind had already grasped.

Once again he moved behind me, and said: "Now you will load the gun with that bullet, and you will make your choice."

I said, disbelievingly: "You're not expecting me to shoot one of my friends."

He chuckled. "Of course I am. If you want to save the other, that is. If you don't, I will personally make sure both of them die. Oh, and don't even think about shooting me instead: I'm aiming at your attractive head and I cannot miss from this distance."

I didn't ask him what he had in mind for me afterwards, because I already knew the answer. While I was fumbling to load the gun, I started thinking furiously, trying to find an escape route.

Bryce got impatient. "Hurry up! I don't have all day. Come on, it's easy enough: will you save the cold, ruthless and heartless Steel, or the warm, nice and sympathetic Sapphire?"

Easy for him to say. He didn't know the real Steel like I did. He didn't know that he is all but heartless, and that he actually cares about us. He has to make difficult decisions like every man must do in war, but he wouldn't hesitate to throw his own life in the equation. Like he was doing right now, together with Sapphire.

No, I couldn't make that decision. And then a thought hit me: I didn't have to. Bryce stated the rules of the game, but who said I couldn't change them?

All of a sudden the solution came to my mind. It probably showed on my face somehow, because Steel looked at me in a funny way. Slowly he realized what I wanted to do, and his eyes became pleading. Wow, that was a first for me.

I looked at him apologetically, and he shook his head, while his lips formed the word "No".

I raised the gun, and I could hear Bryce holding his breath, foretasting his victory. Sapphire looked utterly confused. I knew she didn't think I could do the horrible thing I was about to do.

Steel said, in the saddest voice I ever heard him use: "Please, don't."

I wanted to tell him so many things, but all I could say was: "I'm sorry, Steel."

Then I aimed the gun at my own head, and fired.


*Author's note: Stunt is referring to my story "Alone".

**Author's note: she's referring to my previous "Stunt" story.