Robert Ferrigno - Heart of the Assassin

Rakkim lightly touched the tiny flowers. Barely larger than a pinhead, but perfect in every way.

"I did the same thing myself. Hard not to touch beautiful things…make them part of you." Baby bent forward over the box. "Don't know what kind of flowers they are, but they sure smell good." She inhaled, holding on to his leg to brace herself. "Smells like some kind of spring day when I was a kid, and everything was new…and good."

Rakkim closed the box. Held on to it.

"Up to you what you do with it, but I'd put it back where it was," said Baby.

"You really think it's helped him?"

"Rikki…I don't know, I truly don't. Might have been just good doctorin' or that Fedayeen bounce-back, but he should be in the cold, cold ground by now and he's not."

Rakkim put the box back in the footlocker, pushed it under Moseby's bed. If she wanted to steal it, she would have already done it and been long gone.

The two of them watched Moseby sleep, his breathing rough.

"One thing I thought was interesting," said Baby, slipping her arm through his. "The pine box, and the cross itself…they're not radioactive. Hardly moved the rad-counter at all."

"Moseby noticed that too."

Baby's eyes were a deep blue, the color of the sea that he had been floating on before he woke up. "That's kind of strange, don't you think, considering all the years it's been in that terrible place." Her eyes warmed on him and he felt dizzy. "Guess God can do anything he sets his mind to."

"This is nice, isn't it?" said Baby.

Rakkim watched the sun just starting to set over the mountains, streaking the snow with rivulets of orange and red. Baby sat beside him on a rocky outcropping overlooking the valley below.

"You're looking a lot better today," said Baby. "Told you a long walk was what you needed."

Rakkim watched hawks floating above the valley, predators, always on high alert-had to appreciate a creature that knew what it was doing. Yesterday, he had sent a confirmation message to Sarah, a single word- Yes -but with the chaff in the atmosphere kicking up, there was no way to know if the satellite transmission had been received. He didn't expect a response anyway. The Belt had gone into lockdown mode after Graceland was hit. No way anyone was going to extract him and Moseby. Rakkim would have to get Moseby home by himself, then bring the cross back to Seattle. No telling when Moseby would be well enough to travel to a real hospital.

"Fine, don't talk," said Baby, her knees tucked up, wearing those same tight jeans and a fresh dress shirt with the sleeves rolled. "I don't know why you act so mean to me."

"Because I know you."

"You think you know me."

Rakkim glanced at her. The sunset was reflected in her eyes.

"You don't think people can change?" said Baby.

"Some people."

"But not me?" Baby's lower lip quivered. "Why not me?"

Rakkim watched the fire in her eyes. "I just wonder why you came back. I wonder what you want from the Colonel."

"What if I came back because I felt bad for the way I treated him?" said Baby. "What if I wanted to try and set things right between us, because I cared about him?"

Rakkim forced himself to look away. Concentrating instead on the dark clouds forming toward the northeast, storm clouds building up. He imagined it already raining in D.C., the zombies still toiling away as the rain sluiced down the gutters.

"You never made a mistake? You never tried to clean up the mess you made?"

Rakkim looked back at her. It was hard not to. Hard not just to watch her…the way she moved, the way she sat, the way the sunlight eased across her skin. The Colonel never had a chance. Most men didn't. "I've tried," he admitted.

"I guess you're a special case then," said Baby. "Not a bit like me."

She hadn't done anything to make him suspect her motives. Not this time anyway. He had been as surprised as the Colonel when she skipped out with Gravenholtz. Just as surprised to see her back here. The worst thing, though…the absolute worst was he was glad to see her. Half dead, feeling her cool hand on his forehead as he blinked his way back to consciousness, then seeing her face…before he remembered all the reasons he had to worry, he had been happy to see her. More than happy. The way he felt, it was as if she'd come back for him, not the Colonel.

"I'm not so bad, am I?" said Baby. "For a moment just now you almost liked me, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I caught myself."

"I wish you didn't think you had to do that." The temperature was dropping, a cool wind rolling down the mountains, sending Baby's hair billowing around her shoulders. A brown rabbit zigzagged across the field toward its burrow, and Baby wrapped her arms around herself. "First time we met, I could see you were attracted to me. I felt the same way about you. Not like we'd have done anything about it, but there's nothing wrong with what goes on inside our heads. Not like God reads minds or anything."

"He better not, or we're all fucked forever."

Baby laughed and it was clear and warm and honest, just the two of them alone in the middle of nowhere.

"We should go back," said Rakkim. "I want to check on Moseby."

"You did like me when we first met, didn't you?" said Baby.

"Just a little," said Rakkim.

"I could tell." Baby rubbed at the goose bumps covering her bare arms, then kissed him. A short kiss, but she was the one who pulled away, and the taste of her lingered in his mouth. "I'm sorry, Rikki…" She blushed. "I didn't mean to do that."

"No harm done." Rakkim said it, but he didn't believe it. "We'll let it be our little secret." Stupid thing to say. He hadn't meant to say it…just like she hadn't meant to kiss him. Baby was the last person he should be sharing a secret with. He started back to the field hospital before he said something else he would regret.

She caught up with him, walked with him down the winding, stony path, neither of them talking, wrapped in a prickly embarrassment…the nervous edge of desire. A Belt joke, one he had heard in every filling station in the Appalachians: What's three things'll turn your head inside out faster than fresh moonshine? Mountain air, mountain water, mountain girls. It wasn't particularly funny, but it was true.

"I wasn't honest with you before," said Baby, watching where she stepped. "I didn't come back to make things right by the Colonel. I decided that after the fact."

Rakkim kept walking.

"I came back in case you found that piece of the cross you were looking for," said Baby. "The Old One sent me and Lester to fetch it for him."

Rakkim stopped.

"I don't like lying to you," said Baby.

"We all do things we don't like," said Rakkim.

"Don't get all high and mighty with me. I don't want the cross."

Rakkim grabbed her arm. "Where's Gravenholtz?"

"I sent him on a wild goose chase into zombie country." Baby jerked away from him. "Hope he dies there. Him and the Old One can go fuck themselves." She started back down the mountain. "You can all go fuck yourselves."

Neither of them said a word as they slowly descended the mountain. He thought of Baby every step he took. Wondered what she had been doing with the Old One for the last year, and why she had decided now to free herself from him. You don't think people can change? She didn't have to tell Rakkim the truth, but she had. She could have grabbed the piece of the cross anytime in the three days she had tended to him, but she hadn't. You never tried to clean up the mess you made?

Gunshots echoed from down below and Rakkim started running, careening down the path, sliding on loose gravel. So much for Baby sending Gravenholtz on a wild goose chase. Three or four times he almost skidded into the brush, but he stayed upright, kept running. He could hear Baby far behind him, trying to keep up, but he didn't look back. It took a half hour to get back to camp and by then it was too late. It had probably been too late when he first heard the gunshots.