Audrey blinked. "You're aiming high."
"The last feud my family endured lasted for over a century." He allowed himself a small smirk. "Mars hold grudges."
"I'll have to take care never to feud with you," she said.
"I wish you would feud with me. Then, when I won, I'd reap sweet rewards."
"Picturing me as your love slave?" Audrey laughed.
Kaldar nodded. "And you are divine."
"And what if I won?"
"Then I would be your love slave, of course."
"So you'd win in either case."
"Precisely."
Audrey searched his face for something, then bit her lip. "Did you get us new wheels?" she asked.
Kaldar gave her a flat look. "Please." He dipped his hand into his pocket, pulled out the remote, and pressed the button. A black Hummer answered with a short beep.
"A Hummer?" Her Southern accent was getting thicker by the second. "Shooog, you shouldn't have."
"Only the best for my doll."
She reached over and patted his cheek. "It's too bad this partnership will be over soon. We'd own this town."
Huh. "It doesn't have to be over soon."
"Oh no, it does. It definitely does."
JACK watched the huge, shiny car swing into the street. They had been giving out flyers for most of the day. The two of them kept to themselves, and they had gotten most of their flyers handed out and had had to go back to get a second stack. Paul, the guy with the placard, even complimented them. At lunch, George and he got a sandwich each and some bottled water. The sandwich was okay, but nothing like Rose's cooking.
He missed Rose. It stabbed at him suddenly. He missed his sister, her voice, her scent, his room, his stuff. He missed the smell of the house. He even missed Declan. It all seemed so far away somehow. Jack shook his head, trying to clear the memories. Now wasn't the time to get all sad and whiny. George had let Paul talk them into a few more hours of work with the promise of a hot dinner. Jack had made all the right "I want more food" noises, and George finally reluctantly agreed.
The large black car slowed down a few feet away in front of two kids. The window rolled down, and Audrey's voice rang through the street. "Oh my goodness! Shoog, look at the children. You boys are adorable. What are you doing?"
"We're giving out flyers," the smaller kid said.
"Is this for a school project?"
"We don't go to school," the bigger kid said.
"That's silly. How can you not go to school? What do your parents think about this?"
The bigger kid shrugged. "We don't have parents."
"You're orphans? Oh, my God! Honey, give the children some money."
Kaldar's voice said something gruff. Audrey reached through the window and handed two twenty-dollar bills to each of the boys.
The other children abandoned their customers and made a beeline for the car. George grabbed Jack by the shoulder, still acting. "She's giving out money, come on!" They ran to the vehicle.
"We have no parents." The smaller kid at the window was sniffing for emphasis. "The church makes us hand these out to earn our lunch."
"What? Who makes you do this?"
Several hands pointed at Paul, who stared at the whole scene with owl eyes. "He does!"
"Is that nasty man forcing you to work for your food?"
Heads nodded.
The car door swung open, and Audrey stepped out onto the pavement. She was wearing a ridiculous pink outfit, and her hair was shiny and hard like a helmet. She tucked her purse under her arm. "We will just see about that. Hey, you!" She pointed at Paul. "Yes, you over there! How dare you exploit these children?"
Paul raised his arms. "No, ma'am, look, that isn't what this is."
The other door opened, and Kaldar stepped out. He looked the way he looked when he'd gone to Rose Cliff, dressed in a suit, with his hair slicked back.
Audrey put her hands on her hips. "Well, is it or isn't it?"
"Is it what?"
"What this is?"
Kaldar walked over to them, looking exactly the way Rose looked when Jack forgot to wipe his feet and tracked bloody mud all over the carpets.
Paul blinked again. "Look, you got it wrong. We're trying to help the kids."
"By making them work for their food? I have news for you, Mister, slavery has been abolished in this country in eighteen ninety with the Immunization Proclamation," Audrey said.
"You mean Emancipation and 1863 . . ." Paul murmured weakly.
Behind Audrey, Kaldar shook his head at him.
"Don't try to confuse me! You're using these boys as slave labor. Maybe they should go and pick cotton for you next."
"Umm . . ."
"Well, I am telling you, these kids won't have to work tonight." Audrey looked over the kids. "Who wants McDonald's?"
Jack stuck his arm out with everyone else, and yelled, "Me, me, me!"
Audrey swung to Kaldar. "Honey?"
Kaldar sighed, opened his wallet, took out a thick wad of cash, and deposited it into Audrey's hand. Audrey waved it around. "Let's go, children! I saw a Mickey D's around the corner."
She marched down the street, everyone following her.
"Wait . . ." Paul called out. "You can't do this."
"Trust me," Kaldar told him. "It's best to just go with the flow when she's like this. Come on, I'll buy you a cup of coffee."
KALDAR walked next to Paul through the shiny, polished hallway of the Church of the Blessed and pretended to listen to the man droning on about the camp and the runaways, while keeping an eye on Audrey and the gaggle of children ahead. They had gone to McDonald's, and, afterward, Audrey insisted on seeing where the "poor boys" were sleeping. She made it sound like she expected them to be chained to the walls in some cell somewhere, which caused their handler no end of distress. Paul was a true believer. He was honest and hardworking, and he genuinely wanted to help the children.
"You see, most of them really have no place to go. It's horrible what they're reduced to on the streets. Drugs, violence. Some of them even prostitute themselves. I had two boys just today standing there, looking as hungry as could be, and I had to promise that nobody would touch them, or they wouldn't come near me. What is the world coming to, I ask you? These children, they're suspicious of charity. I mean, wrap your mind about that one, will you? Childhood should be a happy thing. At least this way they get two decent meals a day."