Michael did not fail to notice that Forrest was smoking a lot, and that he was obviously under a lot of stress. “Do you plan to smoke down here after the civilians arrive?”
“I’ll do my smoking in the cargo bay,” he said. “That’s where the lift elevator is located. There are two blast doors separating the bay from the main complex.”
“I take it you’ve stocked up on cigarettes?”
“I’ve been smoking for a long time. I intend to cut back, maybe even quit, but now is clearly not the time for me to attempt to do that.”
“No, of course not,” Michael said. “Only curious.”
“You’re analyzing me,” Forrest said. “I get that. You’re a shrink and it’s probably to be expected. So what’s your evaluation so far?”
“Well, we could talk about that later if you—”
“Lay it on me, Doc. I don’t keep secrets from these guys. Do you think I’m a narcissist?”
“Not at all. But at the risk of offending you, I will say that I think the loss of your family has—”
“Michael…”
“He asked, honey, so I’m telling him… I think the loss of your family has clouded your better judgment in terms of how many people you should try to save. Beyond that, this seems like an entirely worthwhile endeavor to me, considering what’s to come. And you seem to me a capable group of men.”
Ulrich exchanged glances with the others, none of them exactly disagreeing with Michael’s observation about Forrest, though they had not considered the point before. Forrest had always been their leader, and soldiers weren’t generally in the business of questioning their officers’ motivations, though Special Forces operatives were typically allowed a higher level of input than members of the regular rank and file.
“How about you?” Forrest asked Veronica. “What do you think?”
“You know,” Michael said, “I’m not sure she’s entirely capable of offering an unbiased opinion where you’re concerned. She’s attracted to you.”
“Michael!” Veronica nearly shouted. “That’s not funny!”
“I think thou dost protest too much. Are you going to deny there’s chemistry between the two of you? If you are, then there’s really no sense in my being a part of this equation… is there?”
She sat staring at him, her eyes angry and embarrassed. The other men stifled grins.
Forrest, however, admired Michael for bringing it out into the open. It forced them to acknowledge a reality that had been an eight hundred pound gorilla in the room.
“It’s not anything to be ashamed of,” Michael said easily. “Nor is it something to be denied. Not if we’re considering living among these men and so many others in such a confined space for such an extended period of time. Because now we’re getting into your area of study, and you understand the social dynamics involved here even better than I.”
She crossed her arms, painfully aware that her body language, as usual, was confirming what Michael already knew. “This could have waited,” she said thinly.
“I don’t think so,” Forrest butted in. “Not from Mike’s point of view, it couldn’t.” He turned his attention to Michael. “I think Veronica’s one of the most attractive women I’ve ever seen,” he admitted. “It’s why I told her about our little project here. But the truth is that she reminds me of the way my wife Monica used to be. So do I enjoy her company? Absolutely. Is it my intention to try and steal her away from you? No. And for the record, I don’t feel that I could if I tried.”
Veronica realized that this was very probably only the beginning of the gender dilemmas they would all be facing if they chose to continue with this attempt. Women were going to be commoditized the world over; there would be no forestalling that phenomenon after the asteroid hit. Females enjoyed parity with males only as a result of law and order, and while this concept was fascinating to her from a sociological perspective, as a woman she was frightened by it. This was not some collegiate hypothetical case study. Humanity was on the very brink of being thrust into a world where the strong would hold absolute dominion over the weak.
“May I assume that I’m to have at least some say over who I do and do not choose to be with?” she said, looking between the two of them.
Forrest grinned. “I was merely stating my opinion.”
“Well, for everyone’s general knowledge here,” she said, looking at all the men, “I love Michael and—unlike most men—I’m quite capable of controlling myself, even if I happen to find someone other than my mate attractive. So to answer the question, yes, there is chemistry between Jack and I, but it’s not an issue for me. Nor do I believe it will be for him.”
“Well, I have a more important question for you,” Kane said to her.
She looked at him. “Yes?”
“Do you have a sister?”
Everyone laughed.
“I do,” she said, smiling, “but I’m sorry. She’s married with two kids and lives on the East Coast. Now, if no one minds, I’d like to clean up before we turn in. Is there hot water in the shower room?”
“Yes,” Ulrich said. “We’re tapped into a natural gas line and we have our own well, so there will always be plenty of hot water.”
“Excellent,” she said getting up. “This feels a little like being away at camp.”
When she was gone, the trio went back to playing Halo and Forrest turned to Michael, asking, “Does she fully understand what’s going to happen? It’s the ‘camp’ remark that makes me ask.”
“She understands as well as I do,” Michael said. “But then I’m no less a stranger to death and destruction than she is. Regardless of how much we prepare ourselves, it’s still going to be an incredible shock if and when it finally happens.”
“I understand you’ve got a big family.”
“I do.”
“It won’t be easy to leave them,” Ulrich said. “How does Veronica feel about leaving hers?”
“She’s not really close with her sister,” Michael said. “She’s all for this, so if we choose to pass on your offer, it will be because of me.”
“I feel I should apologize for the way this has played out,” Forrest said. “It was purely on a lark that I said anything to her that day.”
“And I appreciate that. But it is what it is. Had you not found her attractive, and vice versa, I wouldn’t be sitting here trying to decide whether I want to take advantage of such an opportunity. And maybe that would be a good thing… I don’t know. But I guess the truth is that hundreds of thousands of people might soon find themselves wishing they’d had such a decision to wrestle with.”
Ulrich leaned over to put a hand on Michael’s shoulder. “There is no ‘might’ in this equation, Doc. The four horsemen are right over the hill… and they’re riding hard.”
Eleven
Michael stood in his parents’ backyard looking north into the night sky, a glass of wine in his hand, listening to his brothers and sisters and their families visiting inside the house. He’d been drinking a lot of wine lately. Many of them had. There were dozens of bottles in his father’s cellar, and there was no point in letting so much expensive wine go to waste. No one knew exactly where the asteroid was going to strike, but Phoenix was almost certainly within the danger zone.
He felt his father’s reassuring hand on his shoulder and turned to give him a smile. “Hey, Dad.”
“Can you see it?” his father asked, looking up with him.
“No, but it’s hard not to look.”
“And even harder to believe,” his father said. “It looks so peaceful up there. But it’s actually a very violent place.” Robert Porter was a retired vascular surgeon in good health, with a head of thick white hair and discerning eyes. He had always been well respected by his friends and neighbors.