"Those are my principles. The state will thrive through them.
Today I have proclaimed more laws akin to those."

"Antigone," Translation by R.E. Braun. Lines 230-231. Used without permission.
 

LANGLY:

This doesn't make me happy.

I got work to do. Lots of work. And I'm tired. I wanna take a nap again. And if the goons come and I'm not done with my stuff, I get shit on the phone from Zupan-prick, and I don't need that.

Plus I had to get dressed, and lemme tell you, it's a drag dealing with clothes when you only got one working arm. Sucker doesn't hurt as bad as it did, but it's like I still always know it's there.

And letting Fro wash my hair, well, that was total desperation on my part. If we weren't having company, I'd have waited for Ally to get back, she doesn't do body damage.

And now Fro and Byers went and set up this meeting, for God knows what, at my house, in my living room...

I have to remind myself sometimes that this IS my house. It's really bad when you have to keep telling yourself that. I mean, so what if I pay the mortgage and provide the beer and people just walk in and out of here like they own the place?

I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. I seriously get no respect. I sort of realize in this minute why Ally's like she is with people lately. I think she's just tired of feeling like it doesn't matter that it's her house, and it is her house, too.

Frohike takes over the role of gracious host, I think he knows that I'm not gonna do it in this case. I mean, I didn't invite this party over, I'll be damned if I'm gonna knock myself out.

But at least Renegade's here, and that's cool. Maybe he'll stick around later. He's given me some help on my latest, not a lot, but he sort of knows what's going on. We might fight among us three whose kung fu is best, but if you throw Renegade in the equation, well, we'll all confess that his kung fu is like so far above anyone else's that we're not even sure he's mortal.

Mr. Byers remembers me, I remember him. He's got too much priss in him to make cracks about my hair, but I can see the look on his face like I'm some kind of lowlife derelict.

Y'know, Byers, he's got a rod up his ass, but Byers is the kindest dude you'll ever meet. He's just so damn gentle, to people and other living things. You can just tell, too. With his old man, well, you don't get that from him. He's got the rod up his ass without the redeeming qualities.

And what the fuck is he doing here, anyway? I don't do robber barons in my home. Good thing Ally's not here. She'd probably have a red-headed tantrum. Not in front of everyone, but she'd later on read the riot act to the three of us.

I grab the Papa Bear chair before anybody else can. I mean, NOBODY sits in my damn chair but me.

"Thank you for letting us meet at your home," it's Lu, of all people. My incarcerator's the only one who even recognizes that I'm supposed to be the fucking lord of the manner.

"Didn't have a damn thing to do with it," I tell her.

"Langly!" Frohike gives me the look of death. This really hacks me off. Who the fuck is he to boss me around in my own place?

Oh, you know the answer to that one, he's Frohike, and he can do what he wants. Deal with it.

Lu's the one in charge here, this is okay, I guess. She's like, here's the situation.

Papa Byers wants us to do a little digging, which may or may not involve some funky poaching. She doesn't say it, of course. Lu is ex-FBI, she doesn't acknowledge that she's really an old hacker at heart.

Juliet's the first one to speak up, guess they dragged her out for this. I mean, Juliet's kung fu is not wimpy. But she's pregnant, for Christ's sake. And she's gonna work on this?

"You're talking about 26 domestic locations and 11 overseas operations. That's a lot of ground to cover."

"That's why I'm talking with all of you," she says, and goes on. "We have two seemingly separate issues here: the incidents that have taken place at various operations of Mr. Byers, and the shootings which have occurred at the homes of Mr. Byers, his son, and his daughter. Whether or not these are related, we have no idea."

She goes on to tell us about Byers's bro-in-law, who is apparently a much ballsier guy than Byers ever gave him credit for-I mean, Byers, for God's sake. She tells us about the deaths of a couple plant managers, about labor problems in the plants, problems in employee morale-

"'Scuse me, these people can quit, you know!" I'd like that freedom.

Question is, would I quit?

I'm not sure.

I get lots of ugly looks, but Lu stays cool. "Unemployment in this country, and overseas, is reaching new record highs not seen since the Depression. Granted, the figures are nowhere near those, at least in terms of statistics, but in actual numbers, it's extremely high. It sounds melodramatic, but the fact is, I think we're headed for economic meltdown, and people are scared."

"Only it ain't normal meltdown. We got checks and balances keeping the normal cycles in place, but this, this has gotta be engineered." Renegade.

When Renegade talks, people listen.

"Well, whatever is happening, it needs to stop. Our stock prices are in the gutter." It's Papa Byers.

I feel like slugging the dude. World is crumbling, and he's worried about his damn stock prices. Fuck him. I don't wanna help him, I don't wanna have anything to do with this.

Problem is, I owe Byers. And he'd do it for me. So when Lu asks us like if we're on, I'm like, yeah. She says she'll gather more info, get the scope of the problem more in her line of vision, and then she'll delegate stuff out, that way nobody's stepping on anybody's feet.

Wouldn't mind stepping on Papa Byers's feet. And a few other places. Guy is such a dickhead. Okay, so he did for Fro and Martha. Probably petty cash for him, nice tax write off. It's not gonna make me like him, and it's sure as hell not gonna make me trust him.

Lu at least knows how to keep things short and sweet. I know this from being booked by her. So after about an hour, she says she and Papa are gonna work out a contract, and she'll have a better clue what it's gonna cost him after she figures it out.

I almost cheer when she says she wants a 50K retainer up front. I'm expecting Mr. B to bitch, but the dude just goes in his briefcase and pulls out one of his checkbooks.

Must be nice.
 

Everybody bails out except Lu and Renegade, Fro heads out back, Juliet and Byers and Papa hit the road. I offer Lu and Ren some beers, they're like, sure, and I decide, haven't had that much codeine syrup today, I can have one, too.

"Langly, you fuckhead. You're not supposed to be sick when I'm in town. And you pulled this stunt before, you asshole."

"I knew you were coming, so I did it specially for you."

"Know I e-mailed you on it, but lemme say, sorry about your bro," he's like referring to Scott.

"Yeah."

"Lu says your sister went, too."

"Yep. Both of 'em in one summer. Sucks."

"Yeah, it does."

"How's the rugrat?"

"Patrick? He's cool. Got sick last week, but he's better now. You know, you recover fast when you're young."

"And your stepdaughter?" Lu asks me.

"'Randa? Don't really know. Don't think she likes school too much this year, which is kind of weird for our little campus queen. She's been having a bitch of a time, but she's dealing. 'Randa's nothing if not tough."

Lu looks at me with her big green eyes, real hard. "Just be careful. Try and talk to her. She might not be telling you everything.""

"Hey, I don't do the Spanish Inquisition on my kids. I save it for 'Randa's boyfriends."

They like that. But Lu looks at me, like pleading almost, which is weird. You have to know Lu to imagine that she never pleads with anybody. "I'm just thinking...when I was growing up, in small-town Maine, a preacher's kid, my parents would ask me how things were. I would always say 'fine,' and they'd never ask for any more details. I wish they had. Because things
weren't fine, Langly. I was miserable. My life at Miranda's age was horrible. All I'm saying is, don't be afraid to probe a little more than you're comfortable with."

"Spoken like a true Fibbie."

"Langly, it's got nothing to do with my previous occupation. I'm just saying, if she's given indications that things are not going well, it's possible that they're going a lot worse than she's letting on. I know they were for me. And I've talked to many people since then that have indicated the same thing."

"'Randa's cool. She takes it standing up."

"She may want to believe that about herself, but I'm not convinced she wants you to believe it. Tell me, Langly. When you were her age, wouldn't you have liked it had someone asked you, when you were Miranda's age, what was really going on with you?"

"Didn't think about it. Just assumed nobody gave a fuck." And I'm pretty damn sure they didn't.

"Well, you wouldn't want your kid to think that, would you?" Renegade polishes off his beer in two gulps.

"She knows we're not like that. Jesus, is this pick on Langly day? Frohike can't decide if I should wake up or go to sleep, I got work to get done, I'm tired, I get my house invaded-"

"We didn't mean to intrude." Lu looks down.

"Not you. I mean, tell me, instead of assailing my lack of talent at parenting, which okay I'll admit I'm not that good, but I love these kids-"

"Just make sure they know it," Lu holds her hand up in like a truce gesture.

"I do make sure they know it! Jesus! What I wanna know is, how'd you get sucked into working for Papa Byers?"

"I don't get sucked into anything, Langly."

"No, that's true, you probably don't. Unlike some of us."

"Langly, stop whining, you dickhead." Renegade helps himself to another beer. "Byers called us. Asked us to help. And Lu's got a good feel if this is good stuff, if it's important. She's got enough goddamn work she doesn't need to do it. So if she says it's the right thing to do, maybe you oughta go with it."

"Last time I went with it, she got me a two-year vacation, all paid by the American taxpayer."

"Langly, I'm not going to apologize for doing my job. Then or now. I think...I don't know why, Langly, but I think this case could reveal a lot of the reasons why things are in such poor shape out there. Why a previously healthy economy is now hobbling and ready to fall to its knees. Why minority groups of every stripe can't work, at least not in their chosen professions. I don't know Mr. Byers's politics, so I can't comment on them. I think his religion is the almighty dollar, which is true of many of my clients. If I rejected people on that basis, I'd never work."

"He's such an asshole."

"Langly, I got to admit, I think the guy's a stiff. I think if you stuck him, he wouldn't bleed, but Lu says we go with it. Now you wanna bail out, bail out now." Renegade has a way of reducing things to lowest terms.

I think about that. Last chance to scream and run and still maintain a shred of dignity is now.

"Nah, I'll do it. Byers, he's like my friend, he's like a brother to me, I got to."

"Fine. Then shut your skinny white ass up and stop whining." Renegade laughs at me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. "You know, I'm having such a pleasant time having this little chat with you two, but believe it or not, some of us work for a living, and don't get 50K retainers to do it. So catch you guys later."

Lu looks at me disbelieving like. "You're working? I thought you were home sick."

"I am home sick. Apparently my boss doesn't think a little thing like pneumonia or a busted arm should keep me from producing."

Lu sighs. "This is getting to be so commonplace. Bosses now have far more power than they ever did, and I don't think it's healthy. I get a lot of calls like this."

"Really."

"Yes, I do. I've actually been taking a lot of work from employees, not managers, as of late. And I'd just like to say that corporate behavior has sunk to an all-time low.   Not that it was ever exemplary to begin with."

"Yeah, well, we can thank Bill Gates for some of that."

"Well, he hasn't helped things, that's for certain. He's had a lot of clout in the courts, and almost all the decisions have been beneficial for those who have power, not for whom the power is wielded over. I don't find it distressing in particular when employees want to fight back. I find it far more distressing when they don't. And there's a lot of that these days."

"Yeah, makes you wonder what they're putting in the water supply."

"Langly, that may not be so far fetched as you might imagine. But I think you could prove that better than I could." She laughs.

"I was sort of kidding, you know."

She stands up, grabs her blazer, and Renegade grabs his leather jacket. "I wasn't."

I'm left to ponder this as they leave.
 

MICHAEL:

Seems like about half the school is out sick. I don't have many people to work with today. That's cool by me. I need to study, and I get some done, but also, I plan to leave early today.

Go see a friend.

I haven't seen Jo enough since she started chemo, and I feel bad about it. So I'm gonna go see her today.

I tell Debbie I'm leaving at 5, and she just about has a shitfit-I hate these emotionally fragile types-but I tell her I got practically no people today, and I got a real sick friend. Then she starts to cry.

Jesus, I'm glad Kelly's not like her. I couldn't deal with that. Shit, I can barely deal with Kelly's occasional I-miss-my-mommy spell. For one thing, I wonder why she does. Her mom was a loser. Kelly's better off without her.

But I guess there is something about that it's your mom. So I don't say stuff like that her. It'd be cold. And I know she misses Tracy a whole bunch. Tracy may have been a classic lights are on but nobody's home type, but she adored Kelly, thought she was the greatest.

Well, she wasn't stupid about everything. Kelly is the greatest. I wish she could come to Jo's with me today, but she's gotta work, and she was sick last week and she's real behind.

I yell to Debbie at 5 that I'm gone and I don't wait for the fallout.

I just wanna see Jo.
 

Jo comes to the door, and even though I just saw her Saturday, I'm just about knocked out of my socks when I see her. She looks like a fucking corpse.

Jo used to be like average size. She had shape. Now she's like her bones are all sticking out. And her hair, used to be thick, now there's like nearly none left. No eyebrows either. Which is real weird.

But she still smiles when she sees me. "Michael, what a nice surprise."

"I'm not bugging you?"

"Goodness, no. Come in." She leads me into the living room.

Jo's a good housekeeper, and the place always smells clean. But today, you can tell, somebody's been puking big time around here.

"I had a treatment this morning, so I'm not exactly the world's best hostess right now, but help yourself to whatever you'd like, dear. Could I ask you for a 7-up, in the kitchen?"

"Sure." I grab one for her, and one for myself.

"So how are your studies going, dear?"

"About the same. Pretty okay."

"Your cold sounds better."

"Me and Kelly slept all day Sunday."

"That's good."

"You don't sound like you're doing too good." No point in fooling around with Jo. She won't like it, anyway.

"Honestly? No, I'm not. I really feel terrible. I have two more treatments after this, and I'm dreading them. I can deal with some discomfort, but the nausea has become unbelievably bad. Today was the worst."

"You seemed better on Saturday, yeah."

"Well," she smiles at me, "I had a little help from my friends, if you know what I mean."

"Well, yeah, it ended up being a fun party."

"Well, that...and...well, Langly's little present to me was wonderful. I had two whole days of feeling good. I'm telling you, if I could get my hands on some, I'd be a very happy woman. Certainly a less nauseous one. I actually ate dinner on Sunday, if you can believe that."

"That's good."

I'm thinking.

No, I shouldn't. I got two drug busts, and one more, they'd put me away forever. They got three strikes here in Virginia. And how the hell would I get it, and from whom...

"Hey Jo. If I could get you some stuff, would that help?"

She laughs a little. "Michael, I'd never ask you to do that. It's far too risky."

"I know. I asked you."

She looks at me. My heart's gonna break, she looks so miserable.

"I can't do that, dear."

"Sure you can."

"But I won't."

"What if-"

She looks at me. "Michael, should you happen to find someone you trust, and should it work out that you obtain some...that's one thing...but please, don't go looking for trouble. For one thing, your father will kill you, and if he ever found out my part in all this-"

"He won't."

"Don't be so sure. Your father is not a fool, dear."

"I know. But he doesn't have to know."

"Michael, don't do it. I mean it. It's not worth it. You're young. You have a good future waiting for you. Don't do this."

"But you'd feel better."

"That doesn't make it the right thing to do, dear."

"I know."

"Excuse me." She jumps out of her chair a hell of a lot faster than I thought she could, and I can hear her retching in the bathroom.

I decide, I don't care what she says, and I don't care what Dad says. I'm not gonna get caught. I'm not stupid. And Jo deserves better than this. I'm gonna make sure she gets it.

Question is, where?
 

I think about this. Used to have a lot of contacts in NJ, but I've sort of fallen out of touch with lots of them...and even the ones I still talk to, it's not like you can just fire off an e-mail saying please send dope. Doesn't work that way.

I head over to the offices while I think about that. I really wanna do this for Jo. She needs it. She deserves it.

But where to go, and to who? Shit.

I see Dad's car there, I decide, I'm gonna grab something to drink first. I had a 7-up at Jo's but I'm thirsty again.

Ally's on the phone when I come in. She sounds like it's a fun phone call. I hear her say 'Bye Jason' at the end, and she giggles when she clicks off.

Jason. Her little bro.

Jason's a musician. He's gotta know...

I don't think Ally'd say anything to my dad. Would she?

Of anybody, she's the least likely, I decide. She thinks I'm an adult, one of the few people around here who gives me that much status.

"Hey, Ally, can I talk to you?"

"Sure, what's up?" She's grabbing stuff out of the fridge, to make dinner it looks like.

"Um...can we like go somewhere more private?" I mean, I hear Miranda and Patrick in the living room. And this really isn't for public consumption.

She looks a little puzzled, but says sure, why not?

We step out to the front yard, open the gate, and walk over on the deserted side of the road.

"Um, Ally?"

"Yeah?"

"Jason, that's your brother, right?"

"That's my baby brother, yes. And he'll be in town tomorrow night. They're playing a gig, and I plan to go see them."

"That's real cool."

"I'd give you a ticket, but I only have one-"

"Um, Ally, you know like about Jo?"

"Yeah, I took her to treatment this morning. She almost lost it in my car on the way back. Christ, you'd think by now they'd have gotten beyond slash, burn and poison."

"Yeah, well, you know Saturday? Like Langly gave her the rest of his stash?"

"Wasn't much there, that's for sure. Doubt it helped her much, but it was sweet of him."

"Yeah, well, it helped her a whole bunch. And I'm trying to get some from her."

She stops walking for a moment. "I'm not exactly your friendly neighborhood pharmacist."

"Yeah, but like...Jason...does he?"

She giggles. "Jason and Anne? Oh yeah...let me get this...you want me to see if I can contact Jason and see if Jason can help me out, right?"

"Essentially, yes."

She thinks about that. Takes a real hard breath, then a swallow of the beer she's carrying. "And this is for Jo. You swear to me this is not for yourself?"

"Ally, if it was for me, I'd deal with it myself, okay?"

Well, not a very convincing argument, I'll admit.

She's rolling this around in her brain. You can almost watch.

"I will ask Jason. I'll see what he can do. I can't promise you anything. He may not be too happy about my asking him, and he might turn me down. And if he does, I'm not going to argue with him about it. Is that clear?"

"Yeah."

"Jason's a pretty cool guy, and he is compassionate, but I feel like I'm asking for a lot here."

"Well, yeah, I guess it's a pretty big favor."

"But I said I'd do it, and I will. However, if he turns me down, don't ask again. Is that clear?"

"Yeah, it is." I mean, fair enough.

"All right. Now you and I never had this discussion, and if he comes through, you don't reveal your source to anyone. Got it?"

I nod.

"I mean it, Michael. You're going to do this, don't do anything stupid."

I think I've talked with Ally long enough.

Time to hit the offices.
 

I get my homework done, work on some TMB stuff. Dad and I are busy, we don't say much. He says he's gonna leave soon, Martha will be home. I say I'm gonna hang, I wanna see Kelly.

About eight o'clock, Ally unlocks the door. "Michael? C'mere."

This gets Dad to look up and raise one eyebrow, but I guess he feels like Ally won't lead me into temptation. Actually, nobody needs to lead me into temptation. I can find it myself.

"Okay, I talked to Jason. He made some calls. And yes. He's going to do it. And I hope you're ready to work off the $240 an ounce."

"What?!"

"Honey, this is not Chicago windowbox. A little'l go a long way. But it's not cheap. Now, I know you're pretty busted, at least till the end of the month. But I'm not gonna front this indefinitely. And with the spooks coming around here, I think you can sympathize with my paranoia."

Yeah, I can.

"Really appreciate it, Ally."

"Just don't bring it up again. If you need a refill, send me an e-mail saying you want to take the dog for a walk, and I'll know what you mean. Otherwise, this topic is off-limits."

"You're a cool lady, Ally."

"Would it be that that were so. Mostly, Michael, I'm just a scared one these days."

I know how she feels.

END OF PART 82