“You should be,” Kaylee scolded.
“Vigilantes!” Jayne thundered.
Everyone turned and looked at him.
“What?” said Zoë.
“Now you’re all listenin’ to me,” Jayne said. “I was wondering what a man had to do to get his voice heard around here.”
“Vigilantes?” said Book.
“The kid,” Jayne said, “the one Zoë and I rescued at Taggart’s, Allister — he and his mom told me there’s this group of vigilantes on Persephone who’ve taken a strong dislike to Browncoats.”
“And you’re telling us this only now?” said Zoë.
“I’ve been trying to get a word in edgeways. ’Sides, it ain’t a dead cert. Could be it’s got nothing to do with any of this whatsoever. But still, Allister overheard some guy claimin’ there’s folks eager to take revenge on Browncoats for all the wrong they done during the war.”
“Browncoats did not do wrong,” Kaylee cut in. “Did they, Zoë?”
“What was the name of the group?” Zoë asked Jayne. “Did he say?”
“No.”
“Vigilantes,” Book said. “Targeting Browncoats. You know, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve heard tell of such a thing.”
“Care to elaborate, Shepherd?” Inara said.
“After the war,” Book said, “there were a number of extremist Independent factions who felt that certain aspects of the peace were inadequate. Their thinking was that members of the Browncoat leadership had surrendered too easily and conceded too much to the Alliance, and that these people were in effect wrongdoers who had escaped punishment. Secret societies formed in order to mete out justice.”
“Is this true?” said Kaylee.
“Even in the cloistered confines of Southdown Abbey, rumors to that effect reached us,” Book replied. “The vigilantes were known to sneak into houses at night and kidnap people out of their beds while they slept. Their victims were never seen again. Anyone who got in their way was taken care of, too. Seems a gang of such ruthless individuals might well be operating on Persephone.”
“So if someone is saying Mal is a traitor,” Zoë said, “it isn’t too much of a stretch to assume vigilantes — the kind you’re talking about, the sour-grapes-about-the-war kind — have taken him.”
“Oh, no!” Kaylee cried. “What would they want with the captain? He never did nothing wrong!”
“Maybe he did, and you just don’t know it,” Jayne said with a fierce grin.
The room went quiet again. Everyone stared at Jayne in disbelief. Even though they knew his loyalty was always in doubt, to accuse the captain of betraying the Browncoats seemed a step too far. As mysterious as Mal was, as protective of his past, Inara knew that he had given his all in the fight for independence, and that he would do it over again even if he knew the result would be the same.
Jayne was unrepentant, and defiant in the face of unified opposition. “Just sayin’, people done all kinds of things in the war they ain’t proud of.”
“No,” Kaylee said. “I know the captain. I mean, I don’t know everything about him, but I know that isn’t him.”
“But you don’t,” Jayne argued. “You just know what you want to know.”
“Mal laid his life on the line more than a hundred times during the fighting,” Zoë said, her teeth clenching as she struggled to maintain her composure. “I saw it with my own two eyes. I was there.”
“Maybe you saw what he let you see?” Jayne said smugly. He thought he was on a roll.
“Jayne, you don’t want to be here right now,” Zoë said, beginning to rise.
“Zoë, please, hold still,” Simon said. “You’re going to waste my doctoring efforts.”
Kaylee said, “What if some vigilantes only think Mal did something wrong? What if they took him captive and…” Her eyes grew so huge Inara could see the whites all around her irises.
“That would be one hóu zi de pì gŭ of a mistake,” Zoë said.
Shepherd nodded. “The sad truth is, there were plenty of Browncoats who were responsible for atrocities during the war. It wasn’t just the Alliance who conducted massacres and refused to observe the conventions on the fair treatment of military prisoners. There were horrors on both sides. Sinners on both sides, too.”
Jayne narrowed his eyes, maintaining a safe distance from Zoë. “How come you know so much about that, preacher?”
Inara wanted to know the answer, too. The Shepherd’s past was cloaked in mystery, but on several occasions the Alliance had extended deferential treatment to him — life-saving medical assistance, for example — and he had proven a fierce fighter on many occasions, including the assault on Niska’s space station to rescue Mal. Where did a man of God learn advanced martial arts techniques?
“Our abbey provided refuge for any and all affected by the war, no matter which side,” Book said. “It’s often said that confession is good for the soul. Many of those who came to us, Browncoat and Alliance soldier alike, unburdened themselves of their past sins. It was not our place to judge, but to listen. Everyone wants a chance to be heard.” He paused to look at each person in the infirmary in turn. “At the abbey, we have sworn a vow to respect the privacy of those who have entrusted us with the secrets of their souls.” Holding up a finger, he added, “Unless by not speaking up, we become complicit in wrongdoing.”
Jayne said, “Huh?”
“Jayne, why are you still here?” Zoë demanded.
“Hey, I care about Mal,” Jayne said. “I never said he was a traitor.”
Inara realized that somewhere deep in his avaricious heart, all appearances to the contrary, Jayne actually believed that.
“Kinda did,” Kaylee said. “What the Shepherd means is that if someone confessed that he was going to do something really bad, the monks would tell on him.”
“Yes. We would tell on him,” Book agreed. “Or her.”
“Now at least we have another potential lead,” Zoë said, “although I don’t know how much good it does us.”
“I’m prepared to volunteer to go back down to Persephone,” Book said. “In light of what I’ve just learned, I can think of someone who may be of assistance.”
At that moment, Wash’s voice sounded over the intercom. “Guys? I just got a wave from Guilder’s. They really want their loaner back and they’re saying that if we haven’t contacted the police about our shuttle, they’re going to make us sign a statement saying that we release them from all liability.”
Zoë looked even more tired.
Inara said, “We don’t really need the other shuttle. I haven’t scheduled any clients for the next couple of weeks. Book can use mine if he wants.”
“Who is he?” Zoë asked him. “This ‘someone?’”
“An old acquaintance,” Book replied. “An Alliance officer by the name of Mika Wong, who headed up the team tasked with gathering intel on vigilante groups. He used to talk about retiring on Persephone, and I believe he now has.”
“A retired purplebelly?” Kaylee said, aghast. “We don’t have time for this. If a bunch of no-good hún dàn scumbags have kidnapped the captain, we gotta go after ’em.”
“But if we don’t know who they are, or where they’re headed, we’re just chasing our tails,” Simon put in.
“There’s gotta be somebody on Persephone who saw the whole thing or who knows about it,” Kaylee persisted. “Zoë, we should put back down and—”
“We can’t go back,” Zoë reminded her. “We have unstable cargo and the Alliance is looking for us.”
“Yes,” Simon murmured, “there is that.”
“And anyway, I’ve already tried beating the bushes looking for Mal,” Zoë went on. “Didn’t get hardly anywhere.”