Jeff finally looked at her, seeing a serious expression on her face. "What do you mean?"
"She's not with either one of us because both of us have told her that we won't be with her until she says 'I love you'. Right?"
"Right," he said, "although I hear that she did actually say that to you and you still turned her down."
Belinda chuckled. "She has a big mouth. But yes, that's pretty much what happened. Although I know she really loves me, she didn't mean it when she said it to me in the tank. I mean... well... she means it, but she wasn't saying it because she wanted me to know she loved me, she was saying it because she was horny and wanted me to munch her out to relieve that. That's why I turned her down. I want a sincere, genuine 'I love you' before I give up the tongue."
"I will admit," he said, "you have some rankin' willpower."
"She'll never know how close I was," Belinda said with a small shake of the head. "But anyway, you know what she's been telling us about why she doesn't say she loves us?"
"About how we're in the middle of a war and she doesn't know if we're even gonna be alive?"
"Right," Belinda said. "I don't think that's really the reason why. I think she might believe that's the reason — that's why she sounds so sincere when she spouts off about it — but I think it's really something else."
"What?" he asked.
"She loves us both and she's afraid to choose."
Jeff thought this over for a few seconds and then nodded. "That could be," he said. "And do you have a solution to this dilemma?"
She laughed. "You're picking up some mighty big words there, Mr. Capitalist gang banger dust runner."
He shrugged. "I've been hangin' out with educated people. So what's your solution?"
"Well, we've been assuming all this time that whoever she says she loves the first time — whoever she says it to sincerely — is the one who wins, right?"
"Yeah," he said. "Are you saying that's not the case?"
"I'm saying that's why she hasn't told either one of us. She loves us both and she doesn't want to pick one or the other. If she does, she'll lose the one she didn't pick. Either you or I will be hurt and she'll probably have some lingering resentment towards whoever she did pick because she lost that person, possibly enough resentment to sour any further relationship."
"So what are you saying?"
"I'm saying that the path we're traveling on has the potential of making everyone lose. There's another path though. One where everyone can win."
"What path is that?"
"You ever heard of a triad?" she asked.
He licked his lips a little. "You ain't talking about the city up in fuckin' orbit, are you?"
"No," she said. "I'm talking about a relationship between three people instead of two. A relationship in which we would basically share Xenia instead of forcing her to choose between us."
Jeff was quite flabbergasted. "Share her?" he asked. "Are you fuckin' dusted? That could never work."
"On the contrary," she said. "I know of many triad relationships back in New Pittsburgh. A few of them that have been going on for ten years or more."
"You're shitting me," he accused.
"Not at all. When you're a muff-muncher or a rump-ranger you get quite attuned to the ins and outs of the members of that community. Such things are illegal, of course, under the WestHem system, but we're not really under the WestHem system anymore, are we?"
"These people you're talking about," he said. "They've been doing this for ten years?"
"Yes."
"Do you actually know them?" he asked. "Or are you spouting off some rumors you heard from the other muff-munchers?"
"One of the triads I know very well," she said. "When I first started working for the Mama Rosa's in NP the manager there was part of a triad. I didn't know that at first until I ran into him at a community bar but..."
"A community bar?" Jeff asked. "What's that?"
"It's a bar where muff-munchers and rump-rangers hang out. Surely you've heard of them?"
"I'm vermin, remember? We don't have bars in the ghetto, community or otherwise. We get our intoxicants at the fuckin' AgriCorp welfare mart."
"Oh... I see. Well, anyway, I went into the bar and found Robert — he's the manager — in there with this other dude and this bitch. And both of them were hugging and squeezing and kissing and sucking all over him. He invited me over to join them and that's when he first told me about the whole triad thing. They've been living together for years and all three of them are quite in love. They are some of the happiest people I've ever met."
"In love," he said. "Doesn't your plan kind of fall apart there?"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, you love Xenia and I love Xenia and she loves both of us, right?"
"Right," she agreed.
"But we don't love each other," he said. "In fact I think it would be safe to say that we can't stand each other. Wouldn't that make it kind of hard to work this triad thing?"
"That is a very good point," Belinda said. "But let me ask you something. Why don't we like each other?"
"Huh?"
"Well why don't you like me?" she asked. "Is it because I'm a muff muncher?"
"No," he said. "Why should I give a shit if you fuck girls? It ain't none of my business."
"Exactly," she said. "That's a very Martian attitude. Do you not like me because I wasn't vermin? Because I've been part of the working class all my life?"
"Well... no," he said. "I used to hate all working class people — that's true enough — but since I signed up I've been around them a lot. I've realized what Laura Whiting has been saying is true, that we were programmed to hate each other. Shit, Xenia is working class and I sure as shit don't hate her."
"And I don't dislike you because you're not a rump ranger," she said. "And I don't dislike you because you were vermin. I've been around a lot of former vermin myself and I've come to the same realization. So what does that leave us with?"
"You're saying we don't like each other because of Xenia?" he asked.
"Fuckin' aye," she said. "That's the only reason. Jealousy and competition with each other. We both love the same woman and we developed an instinctual dislike for each other because of the competition. But what if we're not competing? What then? When I force myself to do some examination of your character without the factor of Xenia involved, I find that you're actually quite a nice guy. You're funny. You're actually kind of smart. Most of all, you care for Xenia a whole lot. If the competition is removed maybe we could learn to like each other."
"Wow," he said, doing as she suggested and removing Xenia from the equation. If she weren't there would there have been any reason for him to dislike Belinda? No, there really wasn't. "But what makes you think the competition and the jealousy would go away if we tried this? Wouldn't we still be trying to prove something to each other?"
"That's possible," she admitted. "I'm not saying this thing will work. Hell, we might end up all hating each other. I think it's worth a shot though. It's better than where we're at now, which is hating each other and neither one of us getting any fuckin' poon from a bitch who is dying to give us some."
Jeff was still thinking it over when the first two hovers came flying in from Eden, preparing to land and pick up the worst of the WestHem wounded. He was ordered back to his position by Sergeant Walker.
"Think about it," Belinda told him as he stood up from the tread guard. "We'll get together when they let us back inside. If you're game, maybe we'll have a little chat with the X-girl about all this."
"I'll do that," he promised. And he did.
Eden MPG base
2206 hours
Matt Mendez was barely cognizant of the fact that the Mosquito he was in had just touched down on the main runway outside the base. He felt the gentle thump, felt the push against his restraint harness as Brian put on the brakes and slowed them to taxiing speed. He was weak all over, feeling like it was an effort just to move his arms or turn his head. He had never been so tired in all his life. The pain in his butt cheek was still there but had mostly faded to a dull, aching numbness.