Джеффри Дивер - The Goodbye Man

More confused words. It was hard to hear.

Then a shout from the back of the crowd. “...questioning you! Master Eli!”

Eli held up his hands for silence and peered into the crowd.

A skinny male Apprentice, with a sallow face, was pointing at a woman near him. It was Carole, whom the detectives from San Francisco had approached upon landing. Her husband stood beside her, looking flustered.

“She says you lied to us!”

Turning on the spigot of murmurs.

Eli said, “Hush, everyone!”

Carole, red faced and angry, pulled away from the woman who was gripping her by the shoulder.

Eli said to the slim man who’d called Carole out. “Tell me.”

“She said...”

Carole stepped forward. “I didn’t say you lied, Master Eli. I just... Well, those policemen. They asked for David Ellis. They said he was also known as Artie Ellington. And Hiram Lefkowitz. I just wondered, who are you really?”

A collective gasp.

Steve rose and whispered in Eli’s ear, then returned to his seat.

In a solemn voice, Eli called, “Apprentice Carole. Come up here in front of me.”

“I just...”

“Bring her here. Now!” He glanced at two AUs.

One of them stepped in front of Carole’s husband and put a hand on his chest to keep him in place. The other gripped Carole’s arm and ushered her to a place in front of the stage, directly below the cold gaze of Master Eli.

Arms crossed, Eli looked down at the woman with an expression both bewildered and contemptuous.

“Apprentice Carole. Did you think ‘Eli’ was my birth name?”

“I didn’t know. It was just... odd. The police asking about different names you had. I was just wondering why.”

“Oh, I do? I have more names?” Appearing deeply perplexed, he looked out over the audience, then returned his searing gaze to her. “Do I?”

“That’s what that man said. The detective.”

“So you know him.”

“Know him? No. He just came up to me and asked where you were and he mentioned the other names.”

Shaw glanced back at Thomas, her husband, who was arguing with the AU. The security man motioned to a Select, who uncrossed his arms and, in a slow lope, joined them. He whispered something to Thomas and the man fell silent.

“So you’re assuming what he said was true.”

“I... well...”

“You... well,” Eli mocked. “Not very articulate at the moment, are we, Carole? You, well , don’t know him but you, well , believe it when he says I have different names.”

“I didn’t say that. I’m just—”

Somebody shouted, “Yes, she did! She doubted you.”

“She broke Rule Fourteen!”

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe the Toxic called the police, claiming I have other names?”

“I just...”

“Ah, we move from ‘I well ’ to ‘I just. ’ And you believed them. It never occurred to you that some Toxic learned that, yes, my given and family names are David Ellis. That’s no secret. That’s a matter of public record. Did you think I was born Master Eli? That’s not something you see on birth certificates, now, is it?”

“No, I—”

He looked over his rapt audience, enjoying every moment. “Would you see that on birth certificates? I don’t think so.” Eli leaned down. “I died in the car crash!”

Whispers of sympathy for the poor man rose from the crowd.

“I died! Do you understand that? And when I died, I saw myself in the past, and saw that I was named Eli. And ‘master’? A title, of course. One I earned, I like to think. Maybe you don’t.”

“Shame on her!”

“Toxic!”

“We love you, Master Eli!”

“Our Guiding Beacon!”

A man in the crowd stepped forward and shoved Carole. She barked a fast scream and stumbled back. Eli gave no reaction.

“Leave her alone,” her husband shouted.

Another word from the Select shut him up.

“So Carole here is accusing me of something I haven’t done. Is that fair? Is that right?”

A gasp from the crowd. It took Shaw a moment to understand the reaction. Eli hadn’t used the title “Apprentice.” Was she being ostracized?

“Punish her!”

“Didn’t I tell you to look out for the Toxics? Look out for their lies? But you believe them, Carole, over me.”

“No.” Her eyes were wide. “I was just...”

Some in the crowd reacted with angry muttering. Someone, a young Journeyman, swatted Carole with his notebook. “Bitch,” he muttered.

She was looking panicky now. “I was only... I didn’t know what to think. Three names, different names. You can understand—”

“What I understand, Carole, is that I’m beginning to think you’re a Toxic!”

“No. I just—”

“Just, just, just!” His mockery was fierce. “Carole, when you told me about the times your father came to your bedroom, when you were a teenager, I was sure you were innocent. But, seeing you now, taking the Toxics at their lying word over me, it makes me think you weren’t so innocent after all.”

“What?” Carole looked mortified.

“I’m thinking you’re so toxic that your boyfriend had a good reason to put you in the hospital.”

“That’s not what happened.” Gasping. “I didn’t do anything! He was drinking. He hit me. He abused me!”

Eli smirked. “But he never went to jail, did he? If you were innocent and he was guilty, wouldn’t he have been arrested?”

Red faced, choking back sobs, she looked toward Thomas. His face was a mask; apparently Carole had shared the hard details of her past with Eli but not with her spouse.

Like a lawyer on cross-examination, Eli snapped, “Did your boyfriend go to jail?”

“I was scared.”

“So the answer’s no. Look at this, Carole.” He lifted his arms. “I was speaking to all our dear Companions, reassuring them that I can stand up to the Toxics. And you ruin it. Because you don’t believe in me.”

She’d lost and she knew it. “Please, Master Eli... I was wrong. I just...” She froze, afraid to be mocked again. “I wasn’t expecting what they asked and said. I didn’t think. Of course they were sent by some Toxics. They were Toxics too.” Her voice dropped and she wiped tears. “You told my secrets to everybody.”

Eli’s voice was snide. “Because you broke the rules.”

Most of the crowd was glaring at her. Cries of “Toxic!” And then: “Traitor!”

“Throw her out!”

“Judas.”

Carole held her hands toward Eli. “Please.”

He shook his head. “I never thought I’d have to question your loyalty.”

“You don’t have to.”

“What happens to Toxics, Carol?”

She recited what was probably a lesson from a session with a trainer: “They don’t true up. Their True Cores stay covered. They can never see the Yesterday and can never advance to the Tomorrow.”

Dozens in the crowd took up a chant of “Toxic!” Hands clapped sharply on the first syllable.

Another man near Carole shoved her hard. An enraged woman slapped her face. Blood spurted from her nose, and she dropped to her knees, covering her head protectively. She was being pummeled and kicked. Someone flung a rock. It glanced off her forehead. She let out a faint scream.

The AUs and the Select were holding back Thomas, her husband. Shaw glanced at Henry, the bald man he’d been inducted with. Eight or ten other Companions too. They nodded.

Time for this to stop.

But before Shaw and the others stepped toward Carole, Eli lifted his hands. Everyone quieted. “All right, friends and Companions, enough. Enough!”

He strode off the stage and, flanked by his bodyguards, walked toward Carole. The crowd dutifully parted but not before one woman gave her a solid kick in the belly.