Complicity

"When in doubt, shop," she told us, slamming the car door.

William sat tight-lipped, looking in his rear-view mirror at the argument continuing further up the slip. "Bastards," he said. "People are so fucking inconsiderate."

"Shoot the lot of them," I said, thinking about getting out and having a cigarette (no smoking on the champagne-hued leather of the Merc).

"Yeah," William said, hands kneading the steering wheel. "People might be a bit more polite if everybody carried guns."

I looked at him.

It was all sorted out after some confusion and a lot of ill-feeling; the BMW people moved their boat forward so cars and trailers could get past it to the road. We picked Yvo

She didn't seem to have bought much; she tossed me a box of matches as she got into the car. "Here," she said.

I studied the matchbox. "Wo. Hey, you sure about this?"

I looked back as we powered away up the hill through the trees, heading for Edinburgh. There was another commotion going on down on the slip; the BMW people were gesticulating wildly and pointing at the tyres on one side of the trailer holding the big ski boat, which appeared to be listing slightly in that direction now. It looked like it was all getting rather heated again down there; then the leaves got in the way and we couldn't see any more. I was sure I'd seen a punch thrown.

I turned back to find Yvo

"Looks like they had some sort of problem with their trailer there," I said.

"Good," William said.

"Probably a puncture," Yvo

William in the woods, outskirts of Edinburgh, almost within sight of the estate where his and Yvo

It was pretty fucking a

"But it is good," William protested, waving his gun around. "That's how we measure fitness to survive these days." We were being shown round the paint-ball site, having flagpoles and log barricades and that sort of stuff pointed out to us. "It's natural," William insisted. "It's evolution; when we still lived in caves we used to go out and hunt and whoever brought back the mammoth or whatever ate the best meat and got to fuck the women, and all that was good for the human race. Now it's got a bit more abstract and we use money instead of animals but the principle's the same."

"But it wasn't just individuals who hunted animals; that's exactly the point," I told him. "It was all about cooperation; people worked together and got results and shared the spoils."

"I agree," William agreed. "Cooperation is great. If people didn't cooperate you couldn't lead them so easily."

"But —»

"And you'll always need leaders."

"But greed and selfishness —»

"— have produced everything you see around you," William said, waving the paint-ball gun around again.

"Exactly!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms out wide. "Capitalism!"

"Yes! Exactly!" William echoed, also gesturing with his hands. And we stood there, me with a great big frown on my face, quite mystified that William couldn't see what I was getting at… and William smiling but looking equally puzzled that I appeared to be incapable of understanding what he meant.

I shook my head, exasperated, and brandished my paint-ball gun. "Let's fight," I said.

William gri

So I really wanted to nail the bastard — preferably with the cooperation of my team-mates just to prove the point — but the fucking technology let me down and the gun jammed and he had me pi

"Bastard!" I yelled at him.

He twirled his paint gun around one gloved ringer. "Evolution!" he shouted. "You learn a lot when you live with a liquidator!" He started laughing again.

Later at the buffet lunch in the marquee he barged to the front of the queue saying, "Oh, I don't believe in queuing!" and when somebody behind him objected, convinced her with a sort of apologetic bashfulness that actually he has diabetes, you see, and so needs to eat right now. I cringed, blushed, and looked away.

Still thinking; thinking about all the times I've seen people I know do something for revenge, or do anything vindictive or sneaky or smart or even threaten to. Hell, everybody I know's done something like that at some time or another but that doesn't make them a murderer; I think McDu