Alien Nation #5 - Slag Like Me

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Alien Nation #5 - Slag Like Me Page 25

by Barry B. Longyear


  “Thanks for dropping by, partner.”

  George left the solarium asking himself if Matt was simply risking it all for nothing. What if the entire police department went through a vo, learned that worth comes from within, not from artificial group classifications. What if the entire city went through a vo? The entire country? It would still be a small drop in a very big ocean of racist insanity where people saw things that were never there and couldn’t see things that had stood before them since the slime coughed up its first bit of life thousands of light-years away in a now vacant part of the universe. All one can ever change is oneself.

  He punched the button for the elevator and waited for a car. There was a loud laugh that came to him from one of the hallways, and he turned his head. A voice. A very familiar voice. He walked toward it, turned down a hallway, and listened outside Room 913. There was a conversation going on. He stood square in the doorway and saw Duke Jessup in bed. His hands were bandaged, but his face was sallow and beaded with perspiration. Even so he was laughing. Seated in a chair beside him, also laughing, was Paul Iniko.

  “Paul? What are you doing here? Or is that another thing you can’t tell me?”

  Iniko faced the doorway and said, “Hi, George.”

  “I thought you were going up for your hearing today to get reinstated.”

  “It can keep. I had something to do first.”

  “And?”

  “He’s here for me, sergeant,” said Jessup. He wiped the perspiration from his upper lip and held out his wet fingers. “Going through detox. I’ve got a problem with a drug called alcohol. Paul has been kind enough to . . .” Duke held out his hand and looked at Iniko. “Is it okay?”

  “Sure. He already knows.”

  “Well, Paul has been sharing his experience with me, helping me to ride this thing out.” There was a hardcover book on his bed with a blue dust jacket emblazoned with the circle-enclosed diamond of Narcotics Anonymous.

  George frowned and nodded. “I’m sorry for interrupting. I’m glad to see you’re getting better, Mr. Jessup. Good luck.”

  “Thanks, sergeant.”

  George backed out of the room and took a few steps toward the elevator, his face still in a frown. He paused in the center of the hallway and the frown grew deeper. George Francisco had his own way to look at the universe and the beings within it. Part of that way was that he was owed by the class of Overseers. He was owed his youth, decades of freedom, and endless sufferings for the fear he had lived in since his birth. He also believed that Overseers never laughed.

  He had seen Paul Iniko laugh.

  He believed that Overseers were heartless in the human sense: cold, selfish, brutal, unfeeling.

  He had seen Paul Iniko helping a drunk by sharing his own shame and hope.

  “Some programs take longer to process than others,” he muttered to no one in particular. He turned around, walked back to Jessup’s room, knocked on the door, and stuck in his head.

  “Yes?” Duke answered.

  “I just had a question I wanted to ask Paul.” He shifted his gaze and looked at the former Overseer, former FBI agent. “Would you like to come to my house tonight for dinner?”

  Iniko’s eyebrows went up. “I think I’d like that just fine.”

  “Seven o’clock. Good luck at the hearing.”

  “I’ll be there, and thank you.”

  As he walked to the elevator George recognized that, despite everything, he really didn’t feel any different toward Overseers. What he was doing wouldn’t prevent another riot, but still he was committed to at least straightening out his own perception of the universe. Matt seemed to understand. Maybe it was that old thing about lighting a single candle rather than cursing the darkness. Or maybe it was that thing about the program he heard Bad John say at the NA meeting: “Bring your ass; your heart and mind will eventually follow.”

  It would be a step. Perhaps even the right thing to do.

  Table of Contents

  BACK COVER

  BOOKS

  TITLEPAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  The Invitation

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  A Policeman’s Lot

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  Those Cards And Letters

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  If Looks Could Kill

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  The Color Pink

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

 

 

 


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