A Hard Rain: Book Two Of The Shift Trilogy

Chapter 24

Charlottesville, Virginia

Greater Monticello

January 2013

The ride up the mountain to Monticello was painful on a number of levels. Neko Lemay hadn't been on her horse Buffy since before the assassination attempt. She mounted her gingerly, careful as to not tear any of the stitches that replaced the other stitches she'd torn a week earlier. Buffy could sense Neko's weakened state and strode as steady as a beast could, yet each step reverberated right up her injured shoulder.

"Sweetheart, you sure you wouldn't rather take a carriage up," Lucille asked, seeing Neko wince in pain.

"No, Sheriff. What we're doing tonight is going to get real. And I'm not arriving like some pampered aristocrat."

"That's why no one else but you could do this."

Neko acknowledged the response and guided Buffy up the road passing the common funeral mound where members of the Blue Ridge Militia and the nascent defenders of Monticello were interred together. In some strange way, Neko had come to have a certain reverence for their first foes. Certainly, she had no love for their arrogance, their dismissive misogyny, their devotion to a dead patriarchal mythology contrived by 18th century slave owners. But as rotten as they were, Monticello wouldn't be the force they were without them. Neko had come to understand that the Blue Ridge Militia's attack on them tested their mettle and became essential in forging their identity as Monticellans. Monticello was borne out of violence, much like the pangs of being born, she supposed. The blood of their enemies mixed with their own, integrating and becoming an indelible part of Monticello's identity and for that, she placed her left hand, on her heart and lips, a sign of devotion and respect.

As she and Lucille Schadenfreude slowly trotted up the embankment where the wall once stood as a real barrier and not just a ceremonial entrance, she was reminded of that desperate struggle of survival. Back then she still thought of herself, at least residually, as a Poli Sci major, a student at Olympia, a New Pornographers fan. After that battle, she was a Monticellan and a daughter of Gaia. And one of the men who stood with her through it all was none other than Juan Ramirez.

Her lover Eric Starke, may Gaia guide him someplace peaceful, and Juan had together trained her in the basics of soldiering. Juan had taken his sordid experiences as a child soldier in the Salvadoran Army to benefit the community made up of upstanding suburbanites. He had fought by her side. The two shed blood together, and he risked his life to save hers. In sum, Juan Ramirez had been a rock for her.

That was what was going to make this all the more difficult. It's not as though Juan was some scheming traitor wringing his hands, and twisting a greasy mustache with a top hat. He was a friend, a good man, someone she had trusted. At the same time, she couldn't deny the evidence Lucille presented to her. But as shocking as it was, some small part of her understood his motivation. Had she family, if her father was still alive and he needed her help, she might have...no, she protested. Now was not the time for sympathy. It was that weakness that had allowed so many infiltrators into Greater Monticello in the first place. She would never betray Mother Earth, especially to that bug-eyed, imperialist crusader Gordon Boche.

She could not indulge personal sentiment over the greater good. The reverend was gone, who knew when she would return, if ever? Monticello was besieged with infiltrators as the Lambs of God were mobilizing for a full-on invasion. She needed to act to save Monticello now, and she would have to flush the remnants of her pity along with what was left of her innocence.