Wild Cards [06] Ace in the Hole by George R.R. Martin Page B

bright crimson contrast to her pale face and dark hair. "Fleur van Renssaeler, I presume," Jack said. "I'm surprised you remember me."
    Which was the civil thing to say, but perfectly ridiculous. According to some, Jack had murdered her mother, and Fleur must have found that impossible to forget even if she wanted to.
    The heart-shaped face tilted far back to look him in the face. " I was-how little? Three or four?"
    "Something like that."
    "I remember you playing with me on the floor of my father's house."
    Jack gazed at her with a face of stone. She was dragging this out incredibly. Why didn't she spit on him or claw his face or otherwise get it over with?
    "I've always wanted to say how much I admire you," Fleur said. "You've always been one of my heroes."
    Shock ran like cold fire through Jack's veins. It wasn't that he believed in the sincerity of the words ... the shock came from the fact that Blythe's daughter would prove this adept at sadism.
    "I hardly deserve it." Truthfully.
    She smiled. It was a very warm smile. He realized she was standing very close, and his groin tingled at the thought she might try to bring her knee up between his legs. His wild card would keep him from harm, but old reflexes died hard.
    "Aside from the Reverend Barnett," Fleur said, "you're the bravest man I know. You risked everything to bring down the aces and ... that alien. I think you've been treated shamefully ever since. After all, your whole career was wrecked by those Hollywood liberals."
    Jack's thoughts dragged with glacial slowness. She was, he realized dumbly, absolutely sincere. Something cold crept like a stalking insect up his back.
    "I'm .. surprised," he said.
    "Because of my mother?" She was still smiling, still standing close. Jack wanted to run as fast as his legs would carry him.
    "My mother was willful and obstinate. She deserted my father to whore with ... that alien creature. The one who brought us the plague." She couldn't say Tachyon's name, he realized. "I was well-rid of her," she went on, "and so were you. "
    Jack remembered he was holding his drink in his hand. He took a long swallow, needing the bite of the whiskey to return his staggered senses to reality.
    "Surprised at my language?" Fleur said. "The Bible is explicit about whoredom and its consequences. The adulterer and the adultress shall surely be put to death. Leviticus 20."
    "The Bible was also clear about who got to throw the first stone." Jack's tongue was thick. He was surprised he could talk at all.
    Fleur nodded. "I'm glad you can quote scripture."
    "I learned a lot of Bible verses when I was a kid. Most of them in German." He took another drink. "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" rang in his skull.
    "What surprises me," Fleur said, "is who you're keeping company with these days." She took a step closer and touched his wrist. Jack managed barely to keep from jumping out of his skin. "Senator Hartmann is surely the moral heir of the Roosevelt-Holmes clique that almost destroyed our country in the forties. You saved us from those people then, and now you've fallen for the liberal humanist line again."
    "That's me." He managed to grin. "Fallen."
    "I thought I might raise you again." Her fingers ran up and down his strong wrist.
    Slut for the Lord indeed, thought Jack.
    "I wanted to talk to you in person. That's why I'm here in the--" She gave a bell-like laugh. "These unhallowed halls."
    "Everyone needs to go slumming now and again." He stared at her, sickness rising in his belly. Fleur van Renssaeler, he realized, was the most twisted bitch he'd ever met in his life. His third wife included.
    "I thought perhaps we could get together. Talk about ... politics. Talk about Senator Hartmann, Reverend Barnett."
    "Barnett wants to put me in a concentration camp."
    "Not you. You're a proven patriot. The Lord has turned your curse into a blessing."
    Jack could taste bile. "Glad to know I'm immune to the Lord's roundup. How about every other poor sucker who's got a