Trouble looked at him for a moment longer, trying to assess what she was hearing in his voice. Challenge? she thought. Mockery? Something of both, but not quite either one. “Does it matter?”
“It might,” Callier said.
Dumesnil stirred uneasily, but then said nothing.
Callier said, “I don’t know about on the nets, but on the streets, turning cop’s going over to the enemy.”
“I suppose it’s not that different,” Trouble said. It took an effort to keep her tone level, detached, and she wished with sudden passion that Cerise were with her. Or maybe not: Cerise would take Callier apart, or try to, and that, she thought, was not the answer now.
“So how do you feel about it?” Callier asked. “Which one bothers you more, being legal or that you were in the shadows?”
“Jack,” Dumesnil said, a warning in her tone.
“No, it’s important,” Callier said. He smiled suddenly, the unexpected gesture taking some of the sting out of his words. “It is important.”
Trouble said, slowly, compelled in spite of herself by the change of pace and tone, “Yeah, it’s a problem, my coming out of the shadows. It couldn’t not be a problem. The way I figure it is, I was a kid when I started—I didn’t have a lot of other choices, for reasons that are none of your business—and in a way I’m grateful to Evans-Tindale because that gave me the chance to get out. But I don’t regret it, not exactly—I’ve done the best I can. I’m still trying, still trying to do what’s right.” She stopped abruptly, embarrassed by her own passion and her own lack of certainty, and saw Callier relax.
“I know what you mean,” he said. “I was a right tearaway when I was a kid, caused all kinds of trouble myself—nearly killed another kid once, just lucky I didn’t.” He saw Dumesnil looking at him, and grinned again, the expression wry. “Yeah, I didn’t think you knew that, Annie.”
“It doesn’t fit you,” Dumesnil said, expressionless.
“It’s true. He pulled a knife on me, I hit him with a piece of pipe, broke his shoulder. I was aiming for his head.” He looked back at Trouble. “But you got to grow up sometime.”
Trouble nodded. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye, a shadow crossing against the cool greys and browns of the window, and turned to see Mabry making his way toward them, bulky against the dying light. She lifted a hand in greeting, but turned back to Callier. “Sooner or later,” she said, and Callier nodded back. Mabry beckoned, and she excused herself, moved to join him, into the cool light of evening.
About the Author
Melissa Scott is an acclaimed science fiction and fantasy author noted for her science fiction novels featuring LGBT characters and elaborate settings. Trouble and Her Friends, first published in 1994, won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay & Lesbian Science Fiction and Fantasy. She often resides in RL at Chapel Hill, North Carolina and can be found online via all the latest social media, Twitter, Facebook, Simuland, VirtFirstClass and others yet to be found.
Trouble and her Friends Page 41