"Brigitte Snaps"
47. Stratagem
They launch on their binary orbit, better accustomed to each other's movements and rhythms this time, and they circle, their thoughts locked onto the same notion, the notion that guides their thoughts in their circling as well as their steps.
"What do we do?" Sam asks.
"I don't know. We tried to wait it out, but it's clear that it won't work to our schedule. Besides, we never had a plan besides the monkshood."
"When's the next full moon?" Sam asks.
Brigitte checks the small calendar that Sam thought qualified a set of pads above others. She has every full moon marked.
"Today is what, the sixth?"
"Yeah."
"Three days."
"Fuck..." Sam says, his voice breaking, "Not enough time to bail, not unless we want to end up somewhere in Alberta with no money and nowhere to go. Barely enough time to prepare."
"You think it'll come?"
"I think it won't be able to help itself. Fuck me..."
He stops his hovering and sits down, prompting Brigitte to do the same. They stare at each other, hoping, perhaps, to find in the other one's eyes the solution they're both looking for.
"What do we do..?" Brigitte asks.
"Well," Sam sighs, "There's no avoiding it. It's gonna come, one way or the other."
Brigitte realizes in his refusal to say anything else what he actually means.
"That's your strategy? To wait here until it comes and then try to kill it before it kills or even wounds us?"
"I've got nothing else, Brigitte. I've got nothing."
Brigitte thinks about it. She doesn't have anything either.
