Chapter 4

"Yes it was pretty awful, Aunt Ruth," Sophie said through a mouthful of food, "but you know, I'm glad I went through it. If nothing else, I now know that there's not much that I can't survive, if it doesn't kill me outright. That's some pretty powerful knowledge."

"You should have seen her, Ruth," Kyle Nguyen said, putting his fork down on the spotless plate that had, only minutes before, been piled high with food. "She took down all five of those guards. Damn, I wish I'd been there to see the look on Seamus O'Donnell's face!"

"Or Sergeant Sweeney's for that matter," Linda Ramirez was a bit more dainty with her food, but was still making good progress. "That bastard wound up in the infirmary with a concussion. I can't think of anyone who deserved it more!"

Ruth shook her head, watching the way the youngsters packed away the food. It was good to have them hanging around again, if only for a short while.

"Well, I don't think I could have survived the first week, much less that ERE training," she said, shooing Tracy back into the kitchen. "Although, now that you mention it, I did survive some pretty awful things myself after the sickness. If it hadn't been for Gavin, your father ... Well, I don't know what I would have done. Of course, Jamaal was a big help in keeping my sanity, too."

"Yeah," Sophie said, her glance encompassing Linda and Kyle, "It's good to have people you can depend on in those situations. Is there anymore of that cherry pie?"

"I don't know where you put it, Sophie!" Ruth laughed, retrieving the pie plate from the display case. "You must have hollow legs or something!"

"Hey, we already did a twenty mile run this morning," Sophie protested, shamming a hurt look that was soon replaced by a smile. "Besides, you make the best pie in Phoenicia."

"You can flatter me all you want, young lady," Ruth laughed, "but you still have to pay for the pie!"

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Auntie," then, changing the subject, she said, "I went by to see Scooter yesterday. Those twins of hers must drive her up the wall!"

"Don't you think the First Lady should be called by a more dignified name than 'Scooter'?" Ruth asked as she picked up the empty dishes from the table where the three sat.

"It's what I've called her all my life," Sophie laughed. "In public, she may be Mrs. Susan Chen-Thompson, but she'll always be 'Scooter' to me."

Ruth smiled, but the comment sent her mind back, too.

"You know, it seems a little strange seeing you three together after all the trouble you had as children," Ruth said. "If I recall, Kyle gave you at least one black eye."

They all laughed at that. Very few understood their relationship, and there were few of those to whom they cared to explain it.

"Oh, he did, Aunt Ruth," Sophie smiled, "but that was just the beginning of the story."

"Yeah," Kyle took up the narrative, "you've got to remember how stubborn she is, Ms. Warner. Even when she was a little girl, Sophie wasn't going to let a little thing like a black eye stop her."

"Actually," Linda said quietly, "it was all my fault. If I had kicked Kyle's ass when he first started picking on me, that probably would have been the end of it, but, well, even then, I kinda liked him, and when I fight, I go a little crazy. I was afraid I'd hurt him too badly."

"Somebody had to get him off her back, though," Sophie said. "So, since she was my friend, I volunteered."

"That first fight was when she got the black eye," Kyle continued as Ruth marveled at the way three voices told the story as if they were one person with three different points of view. "Even then, I thought she had a lot of guts, coming after me when she was two years younger and a lot smaller than me."

"Yeah," Sophie said, "and he wasn't mean about it, you know? He didn't gloat about beating me."

"We thought that would be the end of it, Sophie and I," Linda picked up the story, "But a couple of weeks later, Kyle started up again."

"What can I say?" Kyle shrugged, "I had a crush."

"Well, Linda still didn't want to fight him," Sophie took her turn, "and I had learned something about his fighting last time out. This time, it lasted almost half an hour, and both of us were so tired, we just couldn't go on."

"Well, I was," Kyle said sheepishly, "I think Sophie let me off the hook."

"That's no way to win a fight," Sophie shrugged. "We agreed to continue another time."

"I'm no dummy," Kyle said, "and I noticed that she was countering moves that had gotten to her before, so I tried to learn from her style, too, but I guess she learned more. The next time we fought, she used a totally different style, and I was completely outclassed. I never knew anyone who could adapt so quickly and analyze my moves even while she was fighting me. Right then, I knew that this was somebody I wanted on my side."

"A couple of days after that fight," Linda took a turn at the narrative, "Kyle came to us and asked if he could hang out with us if he promised not to bug me anymore. I was going to tell him to take a hike, but Sophie beat me to the punch."

Sophie took it from there. "I knew he liked her, and I could tell he wasn't mad at me for beating him, and that's pretty rare. Linda was a little pissed because of the teasing, but I knew if she got to know him, they'd get along okay."

"She was right," the other girl continued. "Kyle became like our own private big brother. We got to where we never went anywhere without the other two."

"So, as far as anyone can tell, none of you has taken a lover," Ruth observed pointedly. "You are aware that there are other people out there, aren't you?"

That got a laugh from all three, but no verbal response.

Ruth, observing the glances they exchanged, smiled and nodded, then busied herself cleaning up the used dishes. She had suspected that the three were lovers, and those glances confirmed it as if they had told her outright.

Sophie paid for all three, and they left the cafe to find a man in the process of trying to load their motorcycles onto a flatbed truck.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sophie asked.

"These bikes are being repossessed, ma'am," the guy said, apologetically. "The dealer sent me to get 'em."

"Why? I'm not behind in my payments, are you guys?" Sophie looked at her friends, receiving bewildered looks and negative shakes of the head.

"I'll tell you what," Sophie told the man, "we'll save you the trouble. We'll take them down to the dealer ourselves."

With three to one odds, the man was only too happy to oblige. Sophie led the way as they drove down the valley to the edge of the newer part of Phoenix. The dealer was talking to a customer when the three rode up.

Sophie didn't wait for him to finish.

"I hear you want to repossess these bikes," she said.

"If you'll wait a moment, young lady," the grey-haired dealer said smoothly, "I'll finish with this customer and be right with you."

"Oh, I think this prospective customer would like to know just what kind of snake he's dealing with, wouldn't you buddy?" Sophie turned her gaze on the confused younger man, who only shrugged.

"So, here we are, current on our payments, and you want to repossess our bikes?" Sophie said to the dealer, without waiting for a decision from the other guy. "Just what the hell is your excuse?"

"It is my understanding that the three of you volunteered for Special Operations," the dealer replied smoothly. "Since I'm carrying the financing on these motorcycles, that puts my money at risk. I'm repossessing the bikes to minimize my risk. It's as simple as that."

"You can't do that!" all three said at once.

"On the contrary," the dealer smiled, never losing his composure. "I'm perfectly within my rights under Phoenician law. I have studied the laws governing this, and there is no prohibition against my taking this action."

Kyle and Linda, recognizing Sophie's smile for what it was, spread out and automatically began watching for other threats.

"You're quite the expert on Phoenician law, then," Sophie said. "I happen to have a certain amount of interest in the subject as well."

"Good. Then you know I'm within my rights," the dealer said smugly.

"Yes, and by that same law, you have to have passed Level three training to own a business like this. See, my father was quite the expert on Phoenician law, and he once explained to me why the code was written so simply."

"And why is that?"

"Because it contains one provision that helps to plug many of the inevitable loopholes."

"I don't understand, young lady," the dealer said. "What provision is that?"

"Perhaps this will give you a clue: I take personal offense against you for your unethical business practices and demand that you cease and desist."

The term 'personal offense' finally gave the dealer a clue as to what was about to happen. "How dare you? This is a business matter, nothing more!"

"No, it was a business matter, but you chose to do business in an unethical fashion, and I choose to make it personal. Will you change your practices, or will I have to change your face?"

The dealer made the same mistake so many people in her life had made. He underestimated her. "I see no reason to change my practices, young lady, so run along, and leave the motorcycles here, or I shall call my security."

"I'm afraid your security is going to be too late," Sophie told him, stripping off her weapons harness and handing it to Kyle.

"Security!" the dealer called, still not too worried.

A large man came out of the office, saying, "What's going on here?"

"This young lady wants to fight me over the lawful repossession of her and her friends' motorcycles," the dealer said. "Get rid of them, will you?"

"I don't understand," the security guard said. "Are they behind in their payments?"

"No, but since I financed the bikes, and they have volunteered for high-risk duty, I decided to protect my investment and repossess the motorcycles."

"You tried to repossess Sophie Chen-Thompson's motorcycle?" the security guard asked, "And her friends' bikes, too? Man, you are too stupid to be in this business! Uh, hi, Soph!"

"Hi, Walt," Sophie replied, "How's your mom?"

"Wanda? She's good. Dad's gone over to the Colorado for a while, but he's doing good too."

"Well, say hi to 'em for me, okay? Are you and I going to have any trouble over this, Walter Sykes?"

"You kidding, Soph? I just took this job for a little extra money while I'm goin' to college. You want to kick this jerk's ass, I'm not going to stand in the way, especially not with these two backing you up. Hi, Linda, Kyle."

Sophie's friends nodded their greetings and Sophie turned back to the dealer. "Well?"

"I don't give a fuck who you are. Business is business. If you don't like the way I do it, go somewhere else."

"See, that's the kind of pre-sickness crap my dad wanted to avoid in our society. Who am I to say he's wrong?" Sophie asked conversationally. "While it's true that you have the legal right to conduct business any way you like, it's also true that I have the legal right to kick your ass if you try to screw me."

Sophie's fist slammed into the dealer's gut, doubling him over, but he was Phoenicia trained, and wasn't going to give up that easily. He back-pedaled to get clear enough to get his breath back, then tried a roundhouse kick to Sophie's head. She ducked under the kick, and instead of the blow to his nuts that he was expecting, and preparing to block, she gave him a hard elbow to the sciatic nerve along the back of the extended leg.

The dealer limped away, but Sophie wasn't giving him room to run. As she came in again, he threw a punch which she slipped under, and gave him a chop to the biceps which turned the arm temporarily to jelly. Working quickly, Sophie delivered a series of punishing blows to the muscles of her opponent's good arm, leaving him with only one leg in decent working condition. Then she started on his body, delivering a series of painful, but not debilitating blows to kidneys, stomach, and finally, between his legs.

As the dealer collapsed to the ground, screaming, Sophie stood over him, her breathing only slightly elevated. "Now, about those business practices..."

"Keep the damned bikes!" the dealer groaned. "I hope some damned scav uses you for target practice!"

"You don't know how many of them already have," Sophie laughed, "but I'm not just talking about our bikes here, bucko. I want you to promise me that you will, henceforth, deal ethically and honestly with all of your customers. If you don't, I will take personal offense against you for having broken your promise to me. Do we understand each other?"

The dealer looked sullenly at her, still gingerly cupping his genitals, "You can't get away with this!" he growled.

Sophie leaned over the fallen man and her tone lost its banter. "You listen up, and you listen good! I'm not trying to get away with anything. If you want to do business in Phoenicia without getting hammered like this, you'd better damn well find a more ethical way of conducting your business. My father deliberately kept our laws simple because he figured people had a better idea of right and wrong than a bunch of law books. The law that you were so proud to exploit is very explicit on this point: Phoenicians still settle their own differences. You piss people off, and you'd better damn well be ready to defend yourself. You knew this was going to piss me off, but you forgot that the sickness changed the way things are done. You can't depend on courts to protect you like they did before the sickness. Now, are you going to stop being an ass, or are we going to have to spread the word and see to it that you don't have any more customers?"

"This is extortion!" The dealer exclaimed.

"Call it what you like," Sophie replied. "If you take offense against me for having said this, get your ass up and we'll go again. I don't have any problem with you making a profit, as long as you do it fairly and ethically, so I ask you again, do we have an understanding?"

"Yeah, we have an understanding."

"Good!" Sophie said, extending a hand to help the dealer to his feet. "We have four witnesses here, and I'll expect each of you to let me know if he goes back on his word. You sir," she addressed the customer whose business she had interrupted, "may now make your best deal with this man, without fear of being cheated. Of course, if he does try to screw you, you can either deal with it personally, or give me a call. Have a nice day!"

"Want to go have a drink with us, Walt?" Sophie asked, as she retrieved her harness from Kyle.

"Might as well," Walt replied. "It doesn't look like I've got much reason to hang around here. Hang on for a sec and let me collect what he owes me."

Walt followed the dealer into the office, and the three could hear voices raised in anger, but Kyle soon returned with a handful of credits.

"Bastard tried to stiff me," he said. "I had to threaten him with another personal offense to get him to pay what he owed me. So you guys back in town for a while?"

"Gotta leave tomorrow for the rest of our training," Sophie replied. "We finished up the basic stuff, now we've got another year of advanced training. Before the sickness, they took eighteen months to train the new team members, but with no teams in operation, training's all we've got. We'll be part of the first post-sickness spec-ops team, but we got no veterans to join, so we'll have to learn some of it as we go."

They found an open bar in the older part of town that served the locally brewed beer, and sat for a while to talk.

"When's John coming back from the Colorado, Walt?" Sophie asked.

"Not for a while yet. He's being considered as a replacement for Chief Morales who claims to be getting too old to be chief, but a lot of the People are wondering if they still need a chief. A lot of their traditions got lost before the Sickness, and what was left afterward was kind of a mixture of the traditions of all the tribes. Hell, these days its hard to tell one tribe from another, they're so intermingled."

"Last time I was through there it was getting hard to tell the People from other Phoenicians," Linda said. "We've all intermarried so much that in a generation or two there will only be Phoenicians."

"That's what my father used to say," Sophie mused. "In fact, I seem to remember Gunny telling me that he told Jamaal that when they first met, even before they got to the citadel. That reminds me, Walt, did you ever hear the story about how your John Hipa met your mom?"

"Yeah, about a hundred times," Walt laughed, taking another swig of beer, "but I have to hand it to Gavin, figuring out that he didn't mean any harm, and leaving those little packets of food and water for him. Dad's told me many times that that impressed him even more than the way he got the drop on Amanda and her group. He figured a man like that was worth knowing."

"Well, my dad wasn't too sure, at first," Kyle said. "He wanted to just blow the guy away. Of course, the way my dad described his life before the sickness, it sounded like he was with some kind of scav group that was always up against somebody."

"Yeah," Sophie nodded, "according to my father there were some pretty tough groups they called 'gangs' back then. He said he was glad to have Colby as one of the first people at the Citadel, though. Said he took to that military discipline like a duck to water. Seeing him take it up like that set an example for the others to follow. Wanda was part of my mom's group that tried to ambush Dad and Gunny and the others, you know."

"Yeah, and she told me about how Amanda used to kick Gavin's butt every night, until he got better at fighting than almost any of the others," Walt said.

Sophie noticed Linda's silence. "Oh, sorry babe," she said, touching the other's hand in apology, "we kinda get caught up in the whole history of our parents and such. I keep forgetting that your family joined us after we got to Phoenix."