Planning

***

"Who do you like better, Alex or Falling Smoke?" Dorsey asked.

"What?" I asked incredulously, wondering whether I was more angry or stunned. We were driving down to the truck storage to stock up on medical supplies. We'd left Henry and Alex at the motel to freshen up after our long stint at Margie's camp.

"It's a valid question," she said. I shook my head and concentrated on the road.

"Ok, tell me about when you first met Alex," she said. I sighed, digging back around forbidden memories.

"Uh, well, he was going to kill me so I pulled a gun on him…"

"Alrighty then!" she said hastily, "tell me why you didn't turn him in."

"Because he had my gun?"

"Flame!"

"Alright, alright," I tried to remember, "Because," I took a deep breath, "because Bhask wouldn't let me."

"Oh you're kidding."

I shook my head. Amazingly I wasn't dissolving into a mass of tears by saying his name. This was a first.

"Oookay, so why did you let him go?"

"I couldn't have him in the house."

"Oh. My. God." She stared at me.

"Well, I couldn't turn him in and I couldn't have him in the house, so what other choice was there?"

"Fine! You got him out of Seeker Headquarters? Why did you do that?"

"He was going to be implanted! It was wrong," I said. That was obvious.

"You are utterly impossible," she said, shaking her head. I looked at her but she was facing out the window.

"You know what I think?" she continued, "I think you have two lovely guys madly in love with you-"

"They're not madly in love with me-"

"And something is holding you back. Or someone," Dorsey said, leaning into me and lowering her voice, "I think you're still holding onto Icefire."

I said nothing. I didn't want to talk about Icefire almost as much as I didn't want to talk about Bhask.

"Tell me how he died, Flame," Dorsey said.

"No!" I said, annoyed.

"Why not?"

"Just like I wouldn't ask you about that horrible school place you went to. I know it hurts you to talk about it and I don't want to put you through that."

"Ok fine. But if it were you that died, would you want Icefire to never love anyone else?"

"Well, it would be sort of nice…" I mused. She rolled her eyes.

"What if it was years and years ago," She said, "and he had two lovely women madly in love with him-"

"Dorsey!" I interrupted. She talked over the top of me.

"Would you want him to ignore them and spend his whole life pining after you?"

"Well…," I said, "no…"

"Ok," Dorsey said, and thankfully left it at that.

***

We repacked our bags at the hotel, catching up on news from the television and eating pizza. There was a segment on a theft at a Seeker depot. Some weapons had been stolen. We stopped packing and looked at each other.

"I don't like the smell of that," Dorsey said

"That'll be our friend Foreks for sure," Henry said.

"Great," said Alex, "armed and even more dangerous." Dorsey and Henry looked at each other, and said no more. Alex was obviously not in the mood discussing our plans for Foreks.

I called Jan to tell her about the lost camera and footage. She had a message for me from Falling Smoke.

"Why didn't he just call you?" she wondered.

"Oh, I lost my phone," I said. It wasn't untrue.

"You lost your phone, you dropped the camera… you must be the unluckiest Soul around!"

I was glad she couldn't see me blushing through the phone line.

***

Falling Smoke had asked to meet us at the warehouse again. Dorsey came along for the ride. Though the complex was deserted at this hour of the night, we parked inside the warehouse, and got out, staring in amazement. It was as if the truck had never emptied it. Pallets of medical supplies stacked everywhere.

"Impressed?" Falling Smoke asked.

"There can't have been another earthquake," I said, narrowing my eyes at him suspiciously.

"Turns out there was interest in creating a stockpile for just such an emergency. Aaand, these things have a use-by date, so the stockpile has to be constantly replaced."

"That's perfect." I looked at him in wonder.

"Have you worked out a plan for taming our dear Mr Foreks?" he asked. I told him about my idea.

"It's so stupid, it's positively brilliant" Falling Smoke said, "and what's more, heat-seeking goggles are standard kit for disaster situations."

"You are not serious!"

"Would I lie to you? Ta-da!" He pulled out a box.

"Oh baby," Dorsey crowed, "No way Alex can stop us now!"