Campbell by C. S. Starr Page A

at her. “You do what you have to do. No one’s going to stop you now, and probably not for a long time.”

    September 2012
    Los Angeles, West

    “So the money is…” Tal quizzed Leah for what felt like the thousandth time.  
    “Buried under the stairs at the old Scientology Center. I got it,” she nodded. “But I think you’re kind of taking this to extremes.”
    “I hope I am,” he said with a shrug. “But if I’m not, you’ll be happy you have it. Just like the other money—”
    “Our seed fund.” Leah beamed, peering out over their garden.  
    It had been a rough summer, beginning a week after they returned from Campbell and had to squash a small rebellion in Orange County. Two days after that, a series of forest fires devastated the Angeles forest, which was bad for general morale, and took a lot of resources to get under control. During that time there were a few more uprisings, which Tal knew had made a lot of people think, and not in ways that were favorable to their current situation.  
    Still, it was only a small part of the population who were taking it to such extremes. Small pockets of resistance, who really didn’t know what they were resisting at all. They’d just heard things were better, and wanted more. They didn’t understand the costs associated with actually making things better. General consensus was that the revolutionaries were whiny brats whose solutions wouldn’t be any better than the current situation.
    Connor had done a great job of putting that rumor out into the masses, and people were actually buying it.  
    “I was at the market yesterday, and people were saying that they were happy with Connor. Happier than they’ve been in a while.”
    Tal nodded, aware that the dropping of taxes on booze had certainly increased his popularity in some circles. “I know he’s trying. But things have a way of falling apart when you’re least prepared. I just want to make sure you’re okay. We’re okay.”
    Leah hugged him tight. “I know. And I’m grateful that you think like that. We all need to think like that a bit more.” She looked up at him. “You’ll be home for dinner?”
    Tal nodded. “I should be home by seven, since we’re going to Fresno for the election.”
    “Bring Connor if you want. I’ll make lots. I’ve got a bunch of tomatoes. I’ll make something with those.”
    “I’ll ask,” Tal nodded. “Call if you need me?”
    She nodded, a troubled look crossing her face. “Call if you need me.”
    Leah had been distant since he returned from Campbell a couple of months earlier, and he flip-flopped between loving and hating it. He knew she was doing a lot of thinking, but she wasn’t telling him what about, which was unlike her. She’d taken to crawling in bed with him in the middle of the night, sometimes looking for something, and sometimes just to sleep, but other than that, they weren’t communicating much. When he asked her what was up, her response was usually to change the subject, but Tal knew she was worried about their security, and there wasn’t much he could do about that. He had his concerns too, but Fresno was thriving.  
    “It’ll be fine. Fresno is fine.”
    “Not reassuring,” she muttered, grabbing his hand. “Has Juan cooled down yet? Is he driving you?”
    Tal shook his head. “We’re driving ourselves.”
    Connor had fucked things up with Juan a few days earlier by causing a fuss over a little questionable overtime that he’d marked down and made some rather unflattering comments about the mother of his two children in a moment of anger, which left Connor with a swollen lip and without a driver or a pilot.  
    In a rare moment of fury, Tal had completely and utterly lost his cool on Connor. It was not the time for them to be pissing off people they’d known since they were kids, and their history with Juan went back almost as far as their history with each other, since Juan’s mother, Lupe, had been Connor’s nanny