Chapter 10

"Harry, I want your men out of town." Barnabas said to Redwolf.

"Not a chance. I am protecting my investment."

"What you are doing is letting your men have fun pretending to be an occupying army. All right. Fun's fun. But now we have serious business to attend to."

"This is business, too. As long as my men can lord it over with their guns, Munsungan will not make trouble for me."

"There are other ways of dealing with Munsungan."

"I like this way best."

Davenport's entrance interrupted Barnabas before he could answer.

"We will get the power back, temporarily, at least until the judge rules on it." He stopped when he saw Barnabas "You back from the funny farm?"

"I am back from Wycliffe, yes. Whether or not I am out of the funny farm remains to be seen."

"What you mean by that?"

"First answer me. What is this problem you have with the courts?"

"The power company cut us off. We are taking them to court for it."

"See what I mean by funny farm? What chance will you have when things start coming out?"

"What things? Me hiring a member of the undead?"

"No. Things like Indian guards harassing local women. A blatant pattern of religious discrimination, as if we did not have a Civil Rights Act in this country. And your threatening violence to a Federal employee."

"You speak of that bastard, Torrance."

"I know what he did. It isn't pretty. But that doesn't change the fact that you need him."

"What are you, his lawyer?"

"I am the one who brought you here. But I did not bring you in to polarize the town."

"You made a wonderful job of keeping people happy here, yourself."

"Yes. I did. It only took a professional mind bender to make them turn against me."

Xavier shrugged.

"I am also the one who has Representative Evans' ear, and who can tell her whether to back you up, or drop you like a hot potato."

"You wouldn't!"

"Try me. I will tell her to back you if you convince me that you are not letting yourself be put out of business for the sake of revenge."

It was bad for Derek, Delia knew. The sheriff had spoken of a temporary inconvenience, but deep down she knew better. it could get ugly, real ugly for him.

Or were those fancies caused by the riot?

No...it was more than that. The feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that.

Roger wasn't getting better. That should be a good sing, but she feared it might not be.

They had removed her as Roger's nurse. Not that they suspected her, no. It just was, let's say, appropriate. And that hurt. No matter what else, she was a good nurse. She would never betray a patient.

She went to the coffee pot and poured herself some. She still had a few minutes until she went on duty.

There was a Tarot deck in her locker. That old deck that Lydia had given her.

Nervously she laid the cards, so see what they could tell her.

The Knight of Cups in the center, representing Derek. Then the cards came. The Queen of Wands (Delia herself?) The King of coins (Roger!) It could be that...

The six of swords. This, she knew, meant struggle. Then the High Priestess (Angelique?).

The High Priestess could also mean revelation of secret knowledge.

Then the Knight of Swords. Well, that one was certainly the Sheriff.

Justice (Would Derek get justice or would he get railroaded?)

The Queen of Coins. Carolyn, of course.

Four and five of coins. Yes, there was money involved. Well, Carolyn, with her wealth, could make a lot of trouble.

Then the Tower of Destruction.

"Well, the Prodigal Son comes home " George said to Barnabas, facetiously.

"I found out that I had business here."

"What kind of business?"

Barnabas looked down, a bit ashamed. "I don't think that you'll appreciate my telling you how to run your department."

"You are right. I'd hate it. But I guess you'll do it, anyway."

"Yes."

George crossed his arms and stood defiantly in front of Barnabas. "All right, tell me what I am doing wrong."

"You are taking revenge on your men for the way they behaved at the riot."

"I am disciplining them. And they got off easy. I did not fire them."

"I understand that many of them cannot meet their bills."

"They'll have to tighten their belts, that's all."

"You are kicking them when they are down."

"They have only themselves to blame"

"Only themselves?" Barnabas mocked him "You know better than that. How many times you did me favors?"

"I only broke the letter of the law, not its spirit."

"Still, it was a bad example."

"So I am the one who corrupted them."

"You. Me, everyone of us. Look what happened that time I shoved Frank Torrance down Carolyn's throat. I got them all steamed up about safety at the plant. The practical result was that many of them got fired. At abut the time I started working for Uncle Sam, and making good money."

"It wasn't like that."

"That was what it looked like."

"Are you taking the blame again?"

"Without meaning to, we did it. We have to accept our share of the blame."

"You are exaggerating."

Barnabas was silent for a while. He had finally figure it out since Sandy had come to him. But it still hurt.

"You know how I like doing people favors. Specially if I have been at their throats. It makes me feel that I am paying my way, if I try to do something about their problems. So it came that if you were nice to me, nice things would happen to you. You could hit me for a loan. Or get a job referral through me. Or just get an idea of where to go for help... So it came at the end that Sandy Miller could not find a better way to get justice for herself than to throw herself at me."

"And did she get it?"

"She got it, and I did not charge her for it. You shouldn't have to pay to get justice."

"I wouldn't say that. Upholding justice is a full time job, and we have to eat."

Barnabas nodded, smiling.

"Well, now that you got that off your chest, what do you suggest I do with my men?"

"You can't upgrade them so soon. But you can arrange for them to get easy loans to tide them over, until they can straighten up their finances. Promise them that you will be reviewing their records, and that after a certain interval you'll be promoting them again."

"Quite a program"

"You can present it as your own. I will not claim credit."

The wind cut through Chris as he raced on the hills.

It had been so long since he had done that, run on all fours, feeling the hardness of the soil in his paws, pushing against the earth to make himself go faster...

He had forgotten how good it felt...

Animal scents reached him. His nostrils quivered as his brain analyzed the smell and identified it. Chickens and ducks.

Alive and warm. He licked his chops in anticipation.

Better check that he wasn't going to raid his own coop by mistake.

But it wasn't his. They belonged to Simon Hays. One of those who followed Quentin and Sister Kira. Probably one of those animals who had raped Amy...

He fell on the chickens. There was a lot of noise and a swirl of feathers. And warmth in his mouth as he crushed the bodies between his teeth.

Old Munsungan listened silently. Barnabas wondered what he thought. There was no way to tell.

"And that's the whole story." he finished.

Old Munsungan's expression still did not change "What about the children?" he finally asked.

"They are being treated. With luck, they will recover. They...they were made into killers" Revulsion at what Kira Petofi had done gripped him.

"Do children matter to you?" Old Munsungan asked slowly.

"I never hurt a child. Not even in my worst moments. I can't understand why anybody would."

Of all the people who he had to deal with, Old Munsungan was the only one who could put him in the defensive. With others he could bluster and be as overbearing as he deemed necessary. But with Old Munsungan, he could only plead. And hope that he could take a refusal graciously.

"These people tried to hurt you."

"They have suffered enough."

"And you want my help to remove the Indian guards from town?"

There was a faint smile in Old Munsungan's face. "I will consider it."