Reprisal

"I didn't think brotherhood was limited by distance."

"It's not. But you simply don't dwell on those things day in and day out. They're so far away. And the numbers are so staggering they don't seem real. Like it's not happening to real people."

"Exactly. You've never seen them, never visited their lands, and what happens to them does not affect your life." He gently poked her shoulder with his index finger. "That puts you on an island, Lisl. A big island, maybe, but still an island."

"I don't accept that. I feel for them."

"Only when someone reminds you—and even then only briefly." He gripped her hand. "I'm not putting you down, Lisl. I'm the same way. And we're no different from anyone else. We all need a certain amount of insulation from what our fellow humans do to each other."

Lisl stared out the window. He was right, dammit.

"Let's go shopping," she said.

They locked up the car and headed for the new Nordstrom's. Rafe put his arm around her shoulder.

"Okay now," he said. "Let's move closer to home. Look around you at these houses, these apartment buildings. They look peaceful, but we know from statistics that there's a certain amount of violence and brutality going on behind those walls. Wives being beaten, children being sodomized."

"But I can't feel anything for statistics."

"What about that three-month-old in the paper this morning?

Scalded to death by his mother yesterday. I believe his name was Freddy Clayton. He's more than a statistic. Think how that child felt as the person he depended on for everything forced him down into that steaming water and held him there. Think of his agony as—"

"Enough, Rafe! Please! I can't! I think I'd go mad if I even tried."

His smile was slow. "The water around your little island just got wider and deeper."

Lisl was suddenly depressed.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

"I'm only trying to open your eyes to the truth. There's nothing wrong with being an island. Especially if you're a Prime. We Primes can be self-sufficient on our islands, but the rest of them can't be. Thus the 'No man is an island' lie. We are the wellspring of human progress. They need us to get by. What's wrong is to allow yourself to be deceived into believing you need them."

"But I like the idea of brotherhood. There's no deception in that."

"Of course there is. You've been culturally conditioned to believe in it. The leeches, the consumers, they want everyone—especially us Primes—to swallow the brotherhood of man myth. It makes it so much easier for them to suck off our juices. Why should they bother stealing from us if we're gullible enough to let them convince us to give of ourselves willingly in the name of brotherhood?"

Lisl stared at Rafe. "Are you listening to yourself? Do you realize how you sound?"

He signed and lowered his eyes to the sidewalk as they approached Nordstrom's.

"I can imagine: paranoid. But Lisl, I'm not crazy. And I'm not saying we're the victims of an overt plot. It's not that simple. I think it's more of a subconscious thing that has developed down the centuries. It's persistent and pervasive for a very simple reason: It works. It keeps us producing so they can milk us."

"There you go again."

He held up his hands. "Okay. Maybe I'm crazy. But then again, maybe I'm not. One thing I'm sure of is that you and I aren't like them. I want my island to fuse with your island. I want an unbreakable bond between us. Look at these people, Lisl. Your so-called brothers. Is there one of them you can count on? Really count on? No. But you can count on me. No matter what, no matter where, no matter when, you can count on me."

Lisl looked at Rafe and saw the intensity in his eyes. She believed him. And that lifted her spirits. Suddenly she felt like shopping again.

They wandered the crowded aisles, finally stopping at the jewelry counter. The three saleswomen were busy with other customers. Lisl squinted at a wide twenty-inch, eighteen-karat gold necklace out of reach behind the counter. The herringbone pattern appealed to her.

"You like that?" Rafe said.

"It's beautiful."

He reached one of his long arms across and plucked it off its peg. He undid the clasp.

"Here. Try it on."

He reclasped it around her neck, then guided her to the mirror. The gold gleamed as it hung between her breasts, all but obscuring the slim chain and the cowrie.

"I love it."

"Shiny metal makes you happy, does it? Well then, let's get you some more."

He reached again and picked out a pair of gold earrings with onyx centers. Lisl pulled off the little studs she had worn today and allowed him to fasten the new ones onto her earlobes.

"Perfect," he said. "And now the final touch."

A moment later he was slipping an eighteen-karat gold filigree bracelet over her right wrist.

"There!" he said. "The picture is complete." He gripped her elbow and gently propelled her away from the jewelry department. "Let's go."

"Where are we—?"

"Out."

"But we haven't paid."

"We don't have to. We're Primes."

"Oh, God, Rafe!"

Lisl tried to turn back toward the counter but Rafe had a firm grip on her arm.

"Trust me on this, Lisl," he said in her ear. "Follow my lead. I'm the only one you can really trust."

She held her breath and let him guide her toward the exit, sure that at any minute the store detectives would leap upon them and escort them to a back office where they'd be grilled and then arrested. But no one stopped them.

Until the exit. A uniformed doorman stepped in front of them at the glass door that led to the street; his gloved hand gripped the handle.

"Find everything you need?" he said with a smile.

Lisl felt her knees begin to wobble. Shoplifting! And with what this jewelry was worth, she'd be charged with grand larceny instead of petty theft. She saw her reputation, her whole academic career heading for the sewer.

"Just looking today," Rafe said.

"Fine!" said the doorman and pulled open the door. "Come back anytime."

"We'll be sure to do that," Rafe said as he guided Lisl ahead of him.

Relief flooded through her as they joined the pedestrians outside and walked up Conway Street. When they were half a block from the store, Lisl snatched her arm away from him.

"Are you insane?" she said, keeping her voice low with an effort. She was furious. She wanted to run away, break it off, never see him again.

Rafe's expression was one of shock, but the hint of a smile played about his lips.

"What's wrong? I thought you liked gold jewelry."

"I do! But I don't steal things!"

"That wasn't stealing. That was merely getting your due."

"I have money! I can afford to buy my jewelry!"

"So can I. I could buy out that whole department in there and cover you with gold. But that's not the point. That's not why I did it."

"Then what is the point?"

"That there's Us, and there's Them. We don't have to answer to them. They deserve anything we do to them, they owe us anything we take from them. They've been dumping on you all your life. It's high time you got something back."

"But I don't want anything from anybody unless I earn it."

His smile was sad. "Don't you see? You have earned it. Just by being a Prime. We carry them on our backs. It's our minds, our dreams, our ambitions that fuel the machinery of progress and give them direction. Without us they'd still be boiling tubers over dung fires outside their miserable little huts."

Lisl reached back and unclasped the necklace from around her neck. She removed the earrings and pulled off the bracelet.

"All that may be true, but I'm taking these back. I can't wear them."

And I can't stay with you.