Page 17 of A Better World

“I won’t make friends that way.”

Linda shrugged. “Heinrich sounds like middle management. The top people didn’t get this far without cracking a few eggs. They’ll see what you’re saying. I’d do it.”

Unburdened, Russell sighed with fondness. “I know you would. I thought you were going to break Amir Nassar’s nose.”

“He had it coming.”

“He did,” Russell agreed. “I’m almost sorry I stopped you.”

“Ohhh,” she said. “I wanted to sucker punch him so much. I mean, get over it, dude. It’s a soccer game. Live your own life.”

“Yeah,” he said. “But then you’d have punched a guy in front of a hundred witnesses.”

“I wasn’t really going to do it.”

They chuckled.

The sun’s yellow rays shone down through a hole in the passing clouds like a spotlight over their new house. Even from far away, she could hear the kids screaming as they wrestled. You’d think they’d have outgrown the half nelsons, Irish toothaches, and noogies, but whenthey were on their own and no one was looking, they played together like puppies.

She considered her family, and where they might go from here. Maybe the Great Lakes, though she’d heard that unless you had roots there, you weren’t wanted. You were considered a refugee. Maybe Canada, but they kept a tight border. She could always get a job with Fielding back home. But they would lose so much if that happened. Between the pollution and the guns and the Glamp, the city was literally rotting. How many years would PV add to their life expectancy? Ten? Fifty?

“Whatever happens, we’ll be okay.”

“How?” He looked at her with those bright green eyes that hadn’t changed since their youths. She’d thought, when she met him, that he’d grow into himself. He’d fill out. Learn to feign ease in social settings. But that never happened. Even at forty-two, there was something youthful and gentle about him.

“We’ll manage. We did it before.”

“But it’s worse now. There aren’t any jobs. The air’s worse. There’s nothing.”

She didn’t want to cry. It would only upset him more. “I don’t know.”

At last, he took her in his arms. “I’m sorry to burden you,” he said.

“Don’t be. I need to know these things. It’s important you told me. You used to not tell me things and I hated it. This is better.”

“No,” Russell said. “I mean, I wanted this to be easier for you. For the kids, too.”

Years ago, she’d been in the habit of ruining good things—like screwing strangers to prevent them from becoming friends. Recognizing that she liked him that first night they met, that his opinion of her hadmattered, she’d taken him to Sluggs’s bathroom stall and screwed him two whiskeys in. Then she’d cleaned up like it had meant nothing to her—left him alone in the stall and ignored him the rest of the night.

You’d think a guy would be furious after something like that. But he hadn’t scared easily. He’d stuck around that night, and many nights thereafter.

“It doesn’t work like that,” she said. “You’re not some kind of money machine.”

“I know that logically,” he said. “But it is my job. To make the money.”

“No. Your job is to be Russell.” She kissed him. She’d always liked his lips. They were especially soft. He kissed her back. It lasted, and deepened, until it began to feel unseemly: two middle-aged parents making out in their own driveway.

“To be continued,” he said with a raised eyebrow. He could be so nerdy. She found it charming.

Gauntlet

They figured, ifthey were going to find a way out of this, it would be easier if they plotted together. That Sunday, Russell showed Linda the Omnium studies he’d compiled for use as testimony. These were classified—meant for his department only—but he needed the advice. “Am I right that the sample sizes are too small here?” he asked.

“They’re a joke,” she agreed. “Jesus, there’s no data on ethnicity, gender, or even their state of health at the onset of the study.”

“That’s why I assumed there was missing data,” he said.

“I wouldn’t bother with any of this. Just get all the landmark studies that set precedent, and maybe order some new ones. Then you’re in direct contact with the labs. You can cut out all the underminers in your office. You’ll need the board to push the court case. Tell them even some Podunk expert witness from the panhandle would tear this crap apart. You had no choice but to order new studies. Nanny lives in fantasy land if they thought this made any sense at all. I’m shocked, actually. The only way an opposing science team would go along with this data would involve a bank deposit.”

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