The Arbiter
Copyright© 2025 by James Girvan
Chapter 33
To say that Robbie was a little excited was putting it mildly, he was veritably bouncing around in the back seat. “Fuckin’ A! Man” he shouted when I dumped 112 Silver in the seat beside me. The lumps disappeared and I stole a single one back from him, just out of habit.
“Tell me about that collar, I want to know everything before I take it off you, the last guy who wore it didn’t say much.” That was an understatement. Mace had only one single episode of what I’d call human interaction in the months I’d spent with him. It saved his life though since I couldn’t kill him after he asked me to take his inventory and Silver to his widow if he died, it’d just be too weird.
“I ... Ungh ... can’t?” He grunted. “Part of it; feels you can only discuss it with the Pack.”
I guess that’s why Mace only referenced it obliquely.
“I bet that you can’t tell from there, but it chokes me when I fight it. Part of the problem putting it on was the fact that I was trying to fight the connection. Gotta say, I’m not looking forward to you either taking it off or having to put it on again. Guess we’ll try it the one time and see what we do from there.”
I think in the last hour I’d spoken to Robbie here more than I’d spoken to Mace in the last month. Time would tell which I preferred in the end. “When you figure out a way to tell me something about it, just slide it in then ok? The more I know the more I can help. The last guy who wore it once told me that the smell of other people made it impossible to get with a woman. Was that true or was he bullshitting me and just a closet Queer?”
In the rearview mirror I saw him shrug. “I can smell you, fuck; I can smell your farts like they were shit right up my nose. I can also tell that you got dried sweat and that it’s more from nerves than hard work. You didn’t even break a sweat when you robbed that dealer, so I figure that happened when you escaped the guy who used to wear this? The detail just gets finer and finer. I bet after a month I bet I’ll know your blood type!” He paused here. “I been around other men, uh ... quite a bit in the last few years so maybe my tolerance is different. Maybe women are different? I only smelled a few in the last while, an’ they were a-ways off.”
I thought about that for a moment then pulled the Collar from him. There was a gasp and a muttered curse from the rear seat. “I figured it would be like a bandaid, and besides; I wanted to find out just what Mace felt.”
“Well, that poor fucker had a hella’ surprise then. Imagine losing some of your sight and most of your sense of smell all at the same time. Strange how my vision changes. It’s less sharp and I notice the stuff at the sides more. Weird.” He yawned and rolled his head as though ready for bed.
I kept my mouth shut, ideas forming in my head that I hoped wouldn’t form in his. “I figure we should head towards a big city, stay in the periphery and then run in to raid. We might grab some portal runs too if we’re careful. We can call it ‘practice’ for when we get to Vegas.” I glance back, but Robbie was already fast asleep, his chin on his chest.
He didn’t wake up when I pulled off for gas. He did wake up for the bucket of chicken though, eating enough for two or three then dropping off again. Didn’t matter much though, I needed him rested to drive through the night.
I woke him at about 2am, we switched drivers and filled the car’s tank while draining our own at some truck stop. He just shrugged when I pointed out our destination.
“Never been there...” he sipped a coffee and pulled back onto the highway, heading south and west.
I had never been to Nashville either, but I’d heard the place was busy, wild, and kinda criminal.
We might just fit in.
I slept through the rest of Virginia, and on through the rest of the night until Robbie pulled over for gas. We’d stopped up the road, switching me to the drivers seat which allowed him to ‘Fade’ into the back ground. His thought (and I agreed) was that if someone was looking for us, there’d be no indication of the second person; Robbie.
After pre-paying the $150 it cost to fill the tank, I bought food, drinks and snacks for cash, hoping to keep our digital footprints as small as possible. Wishful thinking, I know.
I continued driving, and besides him telling me what he could about the Collar, we did that thing where two guys try to get to know each other while trying to say as little about themselves as humanly possible.
It was a long drive.
We broke it up in sections, and from time to time Robbie put the collar on again, eventually getting to the point where he’d ‘bonded to it’ within a dozen seconds or so. His major complaint with it was when it took it off him.
“Fuck, it’s like going blind man.” He’d said. I figured that if I ever had to ditch him, stealing the collar from him when he was in a tight spot would be enough.
I swapped to even smaller roads as we closed in on the outskirts of the city. Small-time motels and family owned rentals were most likely to take cash and least likely to ask for ID according to Robbie. I deferred to his greater experience in this area, he’d been dodging the authorities for longer than I had.
“Woah, this might work! Turn right here.” Robbie exclaimed. He had just put the Collar on again a minute ago, and I turned us down a gravel road from the mostly paved side road we’d been on for the last half hour. Robbie was wearing the collar now whenever he wasn’t driving, claiming that it helped him navigate and know what was going on around us. I think he was just looking for people to rob that were just out of my range, and hoping to guide me to them. As it was, I’d picked off over fifty Silver from three Weapons that happened to be pulling out of a gas station as I was pulling in just a few hours back. I’d told him that it was only thirty, and dropped half of them into the cup holder for him. When he didn’t correct me or even react, I figured that he actually couldn’t see other Weapons inventories. I’d always really wondered.
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