Her mouth moved. She spoke to Raddatz, her voice lost to him. His senses failing him.
Fading. He was fading. Blood was flowing from him. Life was slipping from him.
As he traveled on, Raddatz caught up with the words of the girl as both her voice and his life headed for eternity.
The girl had said: "Don't be afraid."
There's something about dying, Eddi. There's something about it that-"
"That drives you insane?" Eddi talked through the pain in her head, the pain in her wrists; the cuffs biting into her flesh. "You didn't die."
Raddatz didn't take Eddi's acid as insult or sarcasm. He took it as point of fact.
"I died, Eddi. I did die. If not technically, then I had the NDE that changes you. How could I die and not get changed?"
"You're not changed. You're fucked-up!" Words delivered with a spray of the blood that filled her mouth.
"You've never been pushed to a state above and beyond every other thing you used to
believe, Eddi?"
"Stop saying my name!"
"There's never been a time you've done things never mind the consequences, others might find
…" From a picket: Eddi's .38. The gun that was meant to kill Raddatz. "You deserve to die."
"I do." No argument from Raddatz. Just an expression of sadness. "But not how you think. I deserve to die because… They aren't freaks, Eddi. They are different than us. They're-"
"They're fucking mutants!"
"They're not afraid."
"They ought to be scared. Kill me, but that's not going to stop us from taking out every last-"
"They're not afraid as we know fear. That girclass="underline" If she'd been identified by the police, what would have happened to her? A warrant would have been issued. She would have been hunted. Maybe killed. Her family sent inside just for being her family, for never having turned her in to the cops, but she knew she had to try and stop the metanormal that was in the middle of killing me. That is, if it didn't kill her. If the police didn't kill her. There's a difference between us and them. Not in their abilities. Not in being genetically better. What sets the best of them apart from us, sets them to a degree above us, is so basic, but beyond you and me. Metanormals, the ones who believe in good aren't scared of doing what's right. Facing persecution, without regard to self, no matter the law, they're not afraid of serving a higher cause. Serving mankind. Isn't that what lifts our species above common animals; to do good without regard? And isn't that what holds our species back; the inability to give selflessly? And I know you're thinking: Cops; we do that. Give of ourselves. We put our lives on the line to fight them. But we fight from a place of fear. Stop them, or they'll destroy us. Stop them, or they take over. Stop them.
"They don't fight from fear. They fight for right. For all They fight to end fear. That young girl, when she gave me life, she took my fear."
"You've got no fear. That makes you a, a traitor now? She saved your life, so you kill cops."
"They're using you, Eddi. Do you understand? They used Soledad, now they're using you."
Just the mention of her name. Soledad. Enough to slow Eddi down. No matter she'd been pummeled, no matter she was on the floor cuffed, for the first time since she'd gotten her sense back Eddi listened.
"What do we fear?" Raddatz asked. "What are we all scared of? A return to the days before San Francisco. The metanormals-the good, the bad-going at each other in the middle of Downtown LA, or New York, or Atlanta. We're scared of this 'cause we've been told to be scared."
"Because more than half a million people got killed on May Day."
"And do you think if Pharos hadn't gone after Bludlust, things would've turned out different, the city wouldn't have been torn in half? When that happened, we said to our leaders: Not again. Do what you have to, but never again. So there was the Executive Order, there were the MTacs and the deportations and the SPAs. The government could do what it wanted, when it wanted, in the name of security. I know, Eddi, I know what you're gonna say. It was, it is, a time of war. We need to protect ourselves and do so extraordinarily against an extraordinary enemy. But do you think the desire for power is limited to metanormals? Ordinary people want to be extraordinarily. What genetics hasn't given them, the law grants them. The Executive Order gave men power.
"But memories fade, Eddi. Every day the past slips farther and farther away. People don't remember May Day as much as they recall the sight of cops with HKs taking out metanormals in the middle of the street. You've seen it, the rise of what's called freak fuckers; the liberal fringe. How much longer before their voice takes hold, the Executive Order gets rescinded? Metanormals get rights again? There is that fear. It cuts deep among normal men who value their power. It's why someone like Soledad got persecuted for taking half a step outside the law."
"She got roasted because the brass was trying to cover up kickbacks."
"They tried to punish her to hide others' crimes. So you get it? People in power will do what they can to keep their power. Power never cedes except by force."
Eddi was getting the feeling she was going to be where she was for a while. She was losing the feeling in the arm. she was lying on. She rolled, tried to find comfort. All she found was more hard floor. More hurt.
"I'll tell you honest, Eddi. I've used my position to advance my objectives. I won't participate in hunting metanormals anymore. Not ones who aren't a threat."
"They're all a threat."
"If they were, I wouldn't be standing here,"
"And you decide that, you and your cadre? Which ones are trouble and which aren't."
"If we knew of a metanormal who committed a crime, was in the act of planning the commission of a crime, then we processed him. Got that Intel to MTac. Otherwise, we lost a number of metanormals in mountains of paperwork."
"You're protecting them."
No denial. Not even a modifier. "Yeah. Myself, a few others I was able to persuade."
He was doing a lot of talking. Giving up a lot of information. Eddi knew things were heading in one of two directions. Raddatz was going to offer her some kind of a deal, or he was going to kill her. As she wasn't dead yet, as Raddatz was rapping like a Buddhist monk on E, Eddi held out hope.
Raddatz: "Careful as we were, we couldn't keep ourselves off the radar forever. People were getting suspicious."
"People?"
"The department. IA."
For Eddi IA equaled Tashjian. She was hurting again. This time in her gut.
"And then," Raddatz went on, "the killings started. Metanormals, sympathizers. Fernandez, maybe."
"That wasn't your people?"
"No."
"If you're going to tell me it was IA…»
"It's not them. This is… we are on the edge of a whole other destiny."
"Quit fucking around!" Hurt. Humiliated. Whatever was coming Eddi was ready to get to it. Enough with the setup. "What's the situation?"
"Someone's killing metanormals. Those I'd call innocent. Harmless. But as harmless as they might be, they're not defenseless. It's a single perp. As far as I believe, one-on-one, it takes a metanormal to kill a metanormal. But if this went public-"