by P. S. Power
"Don't worry about your heart, it's fine. It's just a thing that some people have, that medical science hasn't encountered a lot of. Thankfully they didn't bury you first. That's pretty annoying, let me tell you."
Zack smiled and nodded.
"Yeah. You've been that way since you were a kid, so this isn't something to worry over now. Anyway, I just came to tell you that everyone else is all right. Well, the guy you kicked in the head has a pretty bad concussion, but he'll live to stand trial. Oh, I have your cell phone for you. I took the liberty of putting the footage you got up on-line. It wasn't too bad. You need to work on how you frame your shots, but at least you got all the faces. The sound picked up a lot of it."
Tyler didn't know how to feel about that. On the one hand, it was good that people could see what was going on, on the other, it probably wouldn't change anything.
Darla snorted a little at that.
"True. Ideologues won't change due to this. The people that hate women will just have more fodder to do so, and the ones that hate men will see this as oppression. I noticed that some of the more radical groups are already applauding their sisters for nearly killing you. It really isn't a good thing. They should at least keep their mouths shut, since it hurts their movement. No one knows that you're the head of the Coalition of Nations yet either. They do know that you were the one to stop the shooter. The other man that stopped him, Will, made sure that the press got that message. Now there's a man who suddenly seems to be turning against the people he was with." She didn't seem pleased by that, just matter of fact.
"Good? It's probably best not to hang with fringe groups like that anyway. Hopefully he was at least getting laid for his good-girl-centric works."
That got Zack to shake his head, not even trying to be subtle about it.
"Nope. It was part of his reason for being there, if only subconsciously, but he was just being used the whole time. This kind of thing is ridiculous, but can be useful, in the right hands. Honestly, you should see about taking over feminism, Darla. I know that you aren't wild about Gregor's whole Christian thing. They're already pretty much against the church, so it wouldn't be that hard to use them to unravel it."
That got the blonde to nod, one time, while looking at Ty.
"There's truth in that. In fact, all I'd have to do is make two or three tiny alterations. It wouldn't be that hard. Or I could have them all turned into men, to teach them a lesson? What do you say, Tyler? I'll trade you for it. All those Rad-Fems that hurt you and made a wasteland of the bookshop, waking up tomorrow with penises, testosterone coursing through their systems, suddenly learning the hard way that being male is very different than they thought it was?"
It was a tempting idea, but he shook his head.
"Nah. I don't care enough about any of them to want to help them out that much. I'm all for having people walk a mile in the others shoes, but I can't think of a single thing I could give you that would be worth that. Besides, like I said, I don't care about them. I'm a bit pissed at them, actually. Not enough to hurt them back, but I can't say I'll be making a donation to their cause this next Christmas."
That got a low laugh from Zack, and a wave at the female Greater Demon.
"We should head out soon. I'll leave your cell phone here." That went on a movable table that seemed like fake wood on top, but had a lot of metal too. The frame was made of it, with hinges and things like that, so it could move around.
It was within reach, so at least there was that.
"Thanks. I'll try to get back to work soon. I know that it's going to be a lot of work to fix everything." That caused a real flash of anger toward those women. They'd made his life a lot harder, not caring about anyone else.
Worse, from what Darla had said, it seemed like a lot of women didn't care about it at all. It was hard to believe, but some people were online already announcing how happy they were that evil old him had been shot? That, or the Greater Demon had lied to him, in order to manipulate him. From where he was, it would be hard to tell.
His phone rang, the soft chirping getting him to snag at it too fast. It hurt, but he managed to sound all right when he spoke.
"Tyler Gartner, Coalition of Nations, how may I help you?"
"Mr. Gartner? Richard Swerlin here. I don't know if you've heard about the shooting at Westfield?"
It was hard not to snort, but the man wouldn't be calling him if he knew the whole thing. It took a bit of mental searching to get who the man was. The Vampire House of Representatives member. From Maine, or New York. Honestly he couldn't remember which. Famous. He was the first of the Vampires to come out in a way that anyone had believed.
Given his new job, he needed to learn that kind of thing. That, or gain access to a computer, so he could find out what was needed. That would count too, he bet. They had them at work, in the back room, so that might be doable, until he could get his own. Zack had asked him to set the whole thing up, so he could help out that way. It seemed fair.
"I've encountered that one, actually. In a closer way than I like. Um, Human feminists upset that Alede have an easier time getting laid than they do, if I have it right." It was a bit mean to say it that way, probably, since the women had probably considered it differently than that. To them it had probably even made some kind of sense.
If it didn't, then they wouldn't have taken action.
The man on the phone spoke firmly, his tone relaxed, but confident. Like a politician, which fit pretty well.
"That's what I've heard as well. It seems that one of the ladies involved, a Carol Montague, is from Maine. Her mother called me, to ask if there was something I could do to help her get out of trouble. I don't know that I can, but I've heard about your group, and wondered if that would be possible?" The man did sound hopeful.
"That's isn't exactly what we do, as an organization. It's more about making certain the right authorities in different groups know that things are going on. I don't actually have any influence that way." He sighed though, because it wasn't like he really couldn't make some calls. "That said, I might be able to see if anyone wants to listen to me? I don't have anything to write with here. Um, I have your number. That was Carol Montague? If she was behind the attack, or a shooter, then she's going to be punished for it. You get that one, right?"
"Understood. I don't actually have a horse in this race, but it never hurts to try and help a constituent. Thank you. Do you need anything from me in return?"
He nearly just said no, but then realized that having the man owe him a favor might not hurt.
"Just keep this in mind when I call you and ask if you'll use your influence to help someone that probably doesn't deserve it?"
There was a chuckle then, a warm thing that seemed genuine. Friendly even.
"I think I can do that. Let me know if anything might come of this? I might be able to leverage this into some free publicity."
That was enough for him, so he hung up, and tried to think of who he needed to get in touch with about the whole thing.
That was, funnily enough, Chief Sims. His old buddy. Seriously, he'd been calling her so much that he needed to send her a Christmas card at the very least, when the season came around. Over the course of two hours they worked out that Carol, while a vandal, and guilty of real enough resisting arrest and assault on a police officer, wasn't part of the actual assassination attempt. That knowledge had required sending Zack in, to find out who was really part of the whole thing, but Althea was willing to take his word for it and so was, for some reason, the prosecutor. Even if they were moving very fast. In the end there were only five people in on the murder plot, which had been directed at the Alede.
All of them. Any that were available to kill at the time.
That part was scary, since it meant that people were trying to hurt others, simply for being what they had to be.
By six he was able to get back in touch with Swerlin though, his voice a bit rough.
"Richard? Ty Gartner here. Okay, so
I made some deals, and got your girl about halfway off the hook."
"Oh? That sounds good."
"Yeah. She has to help fix the bookstore she and her friends trashed. Most of them didn't know anything about it. The assassination plot, I mean. The Line Walker, Zack Hartley... Do you know him?"
There was a soft gasp.
"I do. Gods, please tell me they didn't do this at his node location? I've been praying that it was some other bookstore they went after there."
"I could tell you that, but it would be a lie. Anyway, he's not pressing charges for the vandalism. They have to fix it though, and pay for any damage they can't repair, as a group. Carol also attacked a cop, which she'll probably sit in jail over for a while. Nothing I can do about that part of things. Or, well, I might have been able to, but a favor from you later isn't worth as much to me as burning one with the local Chief here. She's already backed me up with her own people twice so far, without asking for anything in return. I can't let her people be hurt or attacked, or ask her to give these people a pass for it."
"Of course. I can see that. Good to know, however. I wasn't aware that the Line Walker was part of this. I swear that to you. I wouldn't have asked at all if I'd known about that. They're lucky to be alive. Well, I think we can use this. I'll keep you in the loop from my end on this. Talk to you soon, Mr. Gartner."
"You too, Mr. Swerlin."
That wasn't the last call, but he didn't get a lot more work done that night. The nurse, who'd made a point of checking on him regularly, even as he chatted on the phone, gave him a shot of something that knocked him out pretty well.
Luckily he managed to get hold of a charger that the lady had at the front desk said would work for his cell. Keeley hadn't given him one, but the charge was almost gone already. That meant it wasn't a special, magic phone, that would work forever. Not that he would have ever considered that. It was good enough to have a free phone to use, as far as he was concerned.
The next day he finally got to meet a few of the doctors, who were a lot less concerned about his wounds than they were about the state of his heart. The truth there was that he was fine otherwise, as far as they could tell. They wanted to do a lot more tests, but since he was going to be paying for it all, he said no. That didn't leave them all feeling happy about him, but they did leave him alone after a while.
Several calls came in about different issues around the U.S. It was all easy enough to deal with however, and it was funny, but about half of them actually went back to the attempted murder of Alede the day before.
At a little after one in the afternoon, about twenty-four hours later exactly, after the shooting, the phone rang again. This time at least the voice on the other side was a woman. She sounded friendly, and like she wasn't too worried about anything. A bit sexy, actually, but in a normal, healthy way. One that meant, three bullet wounds or not, he probably wasn't all that hurt. Most of the damage had come from the surgery to get the lead out, he bet.
"Hello? This is Ty Gartner, Coalition of Nations."
"Oh? Good. Hi! I'm Judy Swan. I'm... An Alede. You've heard about the events that took place at the Westfield node complex yesterday, haven't you?"
It was the most common question people had been asking him. Like he wouldn't have known about it, for some reason. The idea was funny, since this was about the tenth time he'd gotten that one.
"I have. Judy Swan... Wait, the actress?"
"That's right! My daughter and granddaughter were there, at the complex that was attacked. I don't know if this is the kind of thing you handle, but a coworker of theirs, a Human male, was shot, protecting one of our people. An Alede. I heard that they're all okay, but this man is in the hospital right now. Because of evil carpet munchers targeting my people." She seemed a bit concerned, as shown by her using carpet munching as anything except a suggestion for a fun evening's activity, but Tyler couldn't work out what it was she wanted.
"Okay. I'm not really tracking you here. How can I help you with this? I want to, but I just can't see what you're getting at. Do you want me to help you punish the attackers? The Human authorities have them right now. The ones in on the attack. The others, the ones that vandalized the place, are being handled by the Line Walker. The Greater Demon? Just something like fixing the mess they made, so nothing too bad. He promised not to kill them for it, or torture them. Physically. He was really careful about adding that part in, so I bet they're in for a fun time, but they'll live."
There was a little pause.
"What I was thinking was that we need to make sure that the Human that was hurt is taken care of. I've seen this before. More than once or twice. Someone jumps in to help one of my people, simply because they're pretty, and then ends up horribly hurt, losing their jobs because they can't work for a while, and being buried in debt. The girl that was saved, Alexis, she can't afford to cover things like that, or take time off to help him, but I can. I was wondering if you could arrange that for me? I don't even know how to find him. I asked Kaitlyn, my granddaughter, but she won't tell me anything, to protect him. I guess I can see that, but there's a risk to waiting. Who knows what's happening to him right now?"
He didn't know what to say, really. After a moment of silence, he sighed. It hurt a bit. Then he tried to chuckle a little. It came out soft, and slightly menacing, to his own ears.
"I... Okay. I guess I can tell you, but I need you not to tell everyone? Promise?"
"All right? Why?"
"Um, I was the one shot. I think we're covering that up, to help protect the feminists that weren't in on the attack. I don't totally get it, since I'm not important or anything, but there seems to be a plan in place. That said, I could use some help, financially. I don't get paid for this part of things. The Coalition? So, that really would be helpful, if you mean it. I should be getting out of here in the morning tomorrow. But I don't know how soon I'll be able to get back to work. Other than answering the phone, I mean. I'm going to try and get a Mage to heal me, if I can."
"Oh... I... I'll be there then. I'm flying up now. Let me..." Then the phone went dead, which was a little off. After all, while a bit of money would be helpful, in covering the bills, he couldn't see why he needed an actress in particular.
Not that he was going to turn one down, come to think of it. After all, it never hurt to have friends. Plus, it was really kind of sweet of her to have thought of him at all. Her concern hadn't been about gaining anything, just making sure that some guy she didn't know wasn't left hanging after risking his life for one of her people.
That was kind of awesome, come to think of it.
Chapter sixteen
"What? You can't say that." The Mage Ambassador, Lisa Weise, was standing next to his hospital bed. That was really nice of her, actually, but it seemed that she didn't want to hear what had happened at the bookstore.
"Um, sorry? All I said was that a feminist hate group came to kill some Alede. They are one. Aren't they?"
He was waiting for her to explain, worried that he'd actually gotten something wrong. Were they violent Christians instead, and he'd just been confused the whole time? He had to wonder. Maybe they were something else, like a really girl-centric gang of...
Actually there was nothing that fit there, and he knew it.
Lisa looked like she was about to soil herself, but spoke rather than running to the little room next to them.
"Feminists didn't do this. It was just a group of wackos claiming that." She seemed pretty certain of that too, so he decided not to make a big deal of it. There was probably some truth to that.
His mouth started working anyway, since it had been on his mind.
"Like how most Nazi's weren't anti-Jewish, just their leadership was, and about ten or twenty percent of the population. Even they didn't want to burn people in ovens. Most of the Nazi's were just going along with the ones doing the bad things." It was a historical fact, though a bit out of context. The feminists that chose to believe as they did could simply not do it
and be fine. The Nazi's would have probably beaten or killed the ones that didn't go along with them if they'd tried it.
"You're comparing feminists to Nazi's? That's a bit... I mean, okay, they shot you, I guess that could sour a person on a group. I mean, I don't love Greater Demons, but being truthful, none of them ever really hurt me personally. Just people I knew." That was a bit dark, but she didn't leave, even though he couldn't really chase her.
He tried to explain, just in case it was important to her.
"I just meant the division of the group. Where we see a small radical version doing things that taint the rest of the group's idea. It happens over and over, too. The problem, I think, is that our minds are built to group things together. To me, well, I know that feminism isn't a single group. Women aren't, either. Or men. They're all made of thousands or millions of people. Each one is at least a little different from the others. We still do it though, for most groups. Why should feminism not be counted as one thing?"
"What? I mean I kind of see it, but..." She was either being nice, since he'd been shot, or she wasn't sure how to answer that.
"Yeah. It's that stereotype thing really. We should make the effort to see everyone as individuals, but it's a lot easier to just make bulk assumptions. A guy in a dark alley with tattoos is a 'bad guy', so we don't go down there to chat with him late at night. We know nothing about them though, we just lump them into a group, based on a few factors. He could be a saint or an opera singer, but no one would guess either of those, would they? It's probably like that. Feminism is that kind of thing. Some people that use that name say outrageous things, call for the death of all men, or claim that we're all rapists, which makes everyone assume that anyone saying they are a feminist is like that too, even if it's secret. Good point though, I shouldn't say that kind of thing, just take them as individuals." He nodded a little. It really was a good idea. Harder, but he had the time.