Eternal: Chapter Ten, Part 2

A month before the march, I met with Justin and Angeline again. While Justin was still reluctant to admit he had less than a casual understanding of the movement, Angeline had been known to call, asking questions, and not just of me. After she actually started reading the information and watched the copies of our speeches online, she was an avid follower, always wanting more information. She often complained that Justin was too disinterested, not even having an opinion on the whole thing. But it was his choice, and I already told him I wouldn’t make it for him.

“Only a month left,” Angeline stated as I entered the meeting room we always used. “You know, everyone keeps asking how it is I ended up advising you.”

“Yeah, we’re the envy of our coworkers,” Justin added, a note of bitterness to his voice.

Smiling politely, I took a seat and waited for them to do the same. Justin leaned back in his seat, crossing one leg over the knee of the other and twirling a pen between the fingers of his left hand.

“We’ve run a clean campaign so far, with minimal incidence,” I said. “What I want to know is your professional opinions on what to expect during the march.”

“It should run smoothly,” Angeline said, glancing at Justin, her voice too sweet and sure.

“Honestly,” I amended, regarding them carefully. From everything I had read about marches and such in the past, I could gather some idea of what to expect. But I needed to know for today, for this movement, what might happen.

Biting her lip, Angeline didn’t say anything. Instead, she kept glancing from me to Justin, hoping I’d withdraw the question or he’d answer for her.

Justin exhaled heavily, shaking his head, but then he turned his gray eyes on me. “You should be fine since it isn’t a riot or anything. There will, inevitably, be the people who think you’re dangerous, that you’re lying, unnatural and so on present, but a small security detail can remove them without much incidence.”

“Nick’s been talking with his detail, making sure they understand violence is an absolute last resort and won’t be tolerated otherwise,” I said, nodding my head. Justin studied me for a moment as though this shocked him.

“Just to be on the safe side, I’d have Nick tell them no violence at all.” The longer he put off saying whatever it was he wanted to say, the paler he became and the faster that pen twirled. I wondered if he realized that.

“Tell me,” I demanded softly. Whatever it was, I obviously needed to know. If I didn’t, I couldn’t take any precautions to possibly prevent it.

“More than likely, you’ll have to face some kind of government intervention,” Angeline finally said when Justin didn’t volunteer. “Anything from angry people, as Justin said, to police waiting for someone just rude enough to call violent, from your bounty hunters causing a stir to assassins.”

“Keep in mind, any shooters or assassins might not be government related,” Justin added quietly, “and the likelihood of them being prosecuted is slim if they do manage to do any harm. Your group has become somewhat high profile, so they can’t make you disappear, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try or allow something to break the movement up completely.”

Well, there wasn’t any way to guard against that. I hoped since we chose the reflecting pool, it was open enough to avoid that sort of threat. But it seemed it didn’t matter where we were. I would have to bring it up with Nick, see what he was planning to do about it, if anything at all. My concern wasn’t for myself as much as it was for everyone else with me. They were considerably more partial to bullets than I was, and I didn’t bring anyone into this to see them injured. My movement was to lessen the grievances against us, not increase them.

“You asked,” Justin reminded me, and I realized I had been quiet for quite a long time.

Smiling at them, I said, “Thank you.” I stood, and they jumped to their feet as well.

As we shook hands, Angeline inquired, “Are you worried? Because you shouldn’t be. The chances of it happening, especially at the reflecting pool—”

“Are slim,” Justin finished for her.

“So were the chances we’d end up this far in this amount of time,” I replied, still smiling. “It’s good to know what might be coming.”

Justin stopped me near the elevators again, asking if I was okay.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll face whatever I have to, as I’ve always done.”

“You don’t have to lie to me,” he said, a pained look on his face as though he were insulted and feeling guilty at the same time.

Taking his hand in mine, patting it, I said, “Don’t worry about me. But, ask her out.”

“What?” he asked, jumping back slightly and staring at me wide-eyed. “Who?”

“You know who,” I told him, smirking. “She might say no, but she’ll want to say yes. Trust me.”

Winking, I left him, muttering under his breath to himself, trying to figure out what had just happened and some way to tell me I didn’t know what I was talking about. However, I knew what he didn’t want to admit. They were made for each other. All he had to do was tell Angeline.