Bacchus

From his vantage point on the roof Bron looked around but there were no more assailants.

He heard the sound of sirens approaching in the distance. Bron hopped down from the roof and went inside to check on Bailley. He saw the bathroom door was still closed.

"Bailley? All clear. The police are arriving."

The door flew open and she rushed out to cling to him. He felt her shaking. He felt a twinge in his left arm where he'd been grazed by the bullet. "I think you're going to need a new place to live."

"Brisbee," she said into his chest.

"That works for me," he smiled.

The flashing lights of the police cruisers painted the inside of the house with lurid light as they pulled into the courtyard.

Hours later Bron woke from the nap he'd taken in the holding cell at the local jail. The police weren't quite sure what to do with him. They had four dead bodies of local good ol' boys and one in critical condition in the hospital. Three of the men had been on the offenders list from the women's shelter and the apparent target of the 'attack' appeared to be one of the administrators of the shelter. The detectives were taking her statement.

The problem was, Bron had killed. The grisly proof was evident in the burnt corpse of Larry Gibson and the broken neck and fractured skull of Dean Stotts. While Dean was responsible for the shooting deaths of Brad and Jeff Kilgore the other two were killed by Bron. Granted it was in self-defence but the public's fear of him mandated that they take extra precautions. The public had been aware he was no longer controlled by Genie conditioning but the evidence that he wasn't violent had eased their fears. Now this happened, showing he was capable of terrible violence. The public was in an uproar.

So Bron stayed in the cell.

The holding area was quite quiet and cool and he had a bed to rest on so he was comfortable. He was a little hungry but he wasn't desperate yet.

He sat up and heard the distant sound of a door opening. This was followed by additional thunk and clank sounds of the outer gates being opened and closed. Then he heard the slow click of heels approaching. He waited patiently and watched the hall. The footsteps stopped then started up again.

Angelina, a very pregnant Angelina walked around the corner and looked at him.

Bron stood and felt his heart clench as he stared into familiar blue eyes.

"Hello Bron."

He opened his mouth but no sound came out. He blinked and cleared his throat.

"Hello Angelina," he was finally able to say.

They stood staring at each other.

Angelina's eyes dropped to the bandage on his arm. "You were injured again."

"It's nothing. A scratch." He looked at her belly. "You- congratulations are in order I guess."

Her hands moved to rest on her domed belly and she smiled. "Thank you."

The silence stretched out. Bron finally sat. "Well, it was nice of you to come visit."

Angelina looked away and brought her hand to her mouth. "You left me," she gasped through her fingers as she struggled to hold back her tears.

"What?" Bron wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly as what she'd said made no sense.

"The night of the explosion... you left me." She was trembling now.

Bron looked at her, unable to defend himself as he had no memory of the event.

"I don't understand. I left you in the building?"

"NO! You got us to safety THEN YOU WENT BACK FOR LAURA!" she screamed.

Bron racked his brain trying to understand. Having no memory of Laura from before meeting her in the hospital when he woke up he had no idea why he would have left Angelina for her.

"I NEEDED YOU AND YOU LEFT ME!" Angelina sobbed and Bron sat looking at her helplessly.

"Do you know why I did that? I can't defend my actions of that night as I lost the memories. The last memories I have are of being desperately in love with you at the eye doctor's office and my joy at seeing your face again," Bron said quietly.

Angelina slid to the floor, leaning back against the wall as she continued to cry.

"When I woke in the hospital you'd already left. To begin your new life here. With him." Bron's heart ached so much as he looked at the beauty crying quietly on the other side of the bars.

Angelina summoned the strength to force back her tears and she looked at him. Her blue eyes were glassy with unshed tears and her lips trembled but she faced him. "I watched you breathing, connected to the machines, healing but asleep. I did that for months and it was tearing me apart. I'd wander the hospital corridors going over that critical moment in my mind again and again. How we'd miraculously escaped death, how we had our future as a couple ahead of us, and how you chose to return for her. Every time I came back from my thoughts I'd find myself in the maternity ward outside the nursery. I watched the babies sleeping. Sweet innocence. A new beginning. Eventually I realized my feet were wiser than my brain. I needed a new start as well. I knew what I had to do. I had to listen to what my body was telling me."

Bron sat looking at her in silence. He swallowed a painful lump in his throat.

"I'm sorry. You deserve children. That's something you were never going to have with me. I would have understood if you had told me that's why you left me-"

"YOU LEFT ME!" Angelina screamed then her tears started afresh. Her body was shaking as deep sobs racked her.

Bron leaned back against the wall and stared at her.

In his soul he knew what she was saying wasn't the truth. He couldn't recall the events of the night but he knew with every fibre of his being that he hadn't chosen Laura over Angelina. He wanted to scream the truth at her. That it was her who'd abandoned him. He wanted her to take responsibility for the terrible pain she'd caused him.

It finally crystalized what he'd seen in her eyes. She was begging him.

He suddenly recalled what he'd told Bailley. A part of his heart would always love Angelina and that part was now telling him he had to let her have this.

She needed the lie. As much as she needed children she needed to believe that he'd left her.

She needed it to heal. To move on with her life. To enjoy her new life with her husband and children without reservation.

A wave of pain washed over his soul. Then he sat upright and looked at the crying woman.

"Yes. I did."

Angelina looked up at him in shock.

"Like I said, it was nice for you to come by for a visit," Bron said with a cool voice.

She struggled to get back on her feet and Bron kept his expression flat, eyes looking off to the side at nothing.

Angelina looked at him once more.

"Goodbye," he said with a cool, indifferent tone.

Unable to speak she nodded and left slowly.

When she was out of sight he listened carefully to the sound of her footsteps. Slow and unsteady at first, the clicking pattern smoothed and by the time she reached the exit she was back to a normal pace.

When he heard the outer door close he sagged on the bed and leaned his face in his palms. He felt that small part of his heart reserved for Angelina tearing itself open once more, the pain fresh and sharp. For the first time in his life he wished for the ability to cry.

Chapter 30

Pietr had Bron transferred to the police in Brisbee. The locals in Garroon were making noises about forming a lynch mob to kill the monster that took the life of the men who were just defending their way of life.

Laura Augustine was all over the Garroon media actively challenging each of these people to justify their claim that the abuse of their wives and daughters was a 'way of life'.

Bailley was transferring her duties at the woman's shelter to another worker as she prepared to return to Brisbee. She moved in with Laura at her hotel while that happened as her house was no longer safe.

Bron found himself in the brought to the detention wing of the Brisbee Court House in shackles. His chains were passed through a loop on a table he was seated behind.

Thirty minutes later two armed security officers entered the room and took up stations on either side of the room facing Bron. Next came a camera crew comprised of a director and his camera man who set up several miniature camera pods managed with his wireless control station. Pietr finally arrived with one of Walla's Supreme Court Judges, His Honor Lawrence Dizdale. Pietr took one of the chairs across from Bron and scowled when he saw the wrist chains.

"Are these necessary?" he said addressing the guards.

"Standard operating procedure," one stated. Dizdale nodded to indicate it was.

Pietr turned to face Bron.

Bron lifted the chains slightly and they made a frightful rattling against the desk loop. The guards tensed and the reporters eased back. "Why am I in custody?" Bron began.

"It's protective custody, Bron," Pietr said with a tired voice.

"So I'm not being charged with murder for defending Bailley and myself against those armed attackers?"

"No," Dizdale said.

"Am I allowed to refuse the protective custody?"

There was a pause as Dizdale looked at Pietr. "No."

"So it's not protection for me. It's protection from me. I'm just in custody." He sat back against his chair back with a thump. The chains rattled loudly and the camera crew jumped at the noise. He gave them a frustrated look. "Really? Have I become the big bad boogie man just because I didn't roll over and allow those men to kill us?" Bron looked to the man controlling the cameras. "If five armed men surrounded your house with you and your family inside and began to break in and you had no weapons to protect yourself, would you just sit there and let them kill you?"

The man shook his head. "Of course you wouldn't! You'd want to live! You'd want to protect your loved ones! You'd fight back by any means you had at your disposal!" He looked back at Pietr and the Judge. "I was told that I was a citizen. Every citizen is responsible for following society's laws. If they break one they face criminal prosecution. Am I a citizen or not?"

"You are Bron but-" Pietr began.

"Ok, I'm a citizen. Have I committed a crime?" he pushed on.

Pietr was quiet for a second, looking at Bron. "No."

"So I'm a citizen who's broken no laws yet I'm being held in custody and I'm chained to a table? Have any other citizens been treated in this manner?" Bron asked.

"No, but you're not just any citizen-" Dizdale began.

"Oh! You have a graduated scale of citizenship with each level having a separate and distinct set of rights?" Bron asked.

Pietr was becoming frustrated but he could see Bron felt the same way. "No."

"Then I'm just another citizen. I should be given the same respect and should be held accountable for my actions just like every other citizen is. I know I'm not human but I was given citizenship on Walla because I want to be a good citizen. I want to contribute in a positive way to the planet. I want to help people! That's why I took that course to learn massage therapy. I'm not a violent person. I despise violence. That doesn't mean I won't protect myself and those I care about when circumstances demand it."

"The other citizens are frightened Bron. It's our duty to protect them," Dizdale said calmly.

"I applaud the intent but when you violate a citizen's rights to do it aren't you becoming more of a risk to them than I am? I'm just one being who wants to live in peace. You represent Walla's governing body. You're demonstrating their rights mean nothing should you decide they represent some undefined threat."

"How can you say undefined? You killed two men!" Lawrence asserted.

"In doing so did I break the law? Have I committed a crime? Have I violated any of Walla's defined legal rules?" Bron asked. "If I had there might be justification in how you're treating this citizen. Don't bother answering, you've already indicated I haven't broken any laws or rules. Yet the chains remain."

Lawrence scowled at Bron and Pietr sat back and looked at the Supreme Court Judge. "He's right your Honor. There is no justification for violating his rights as we are currently doing. We're playing right into the hands of the extremists. We need a civilized and honorable response instead of just reacting to mass paranoia and hysterical fear."

Dizdale frowned at Pietr then nodded reluctantly. He looked at Bron and sighed. "We're going to need a press conference to undo the damage we've already done."

It took a few hours to arrange the press conference but the turnout was enormous. Every media outlet was represented and some were even from off-planet. Security was tight but with the sheer number of people coming and going to set up their feeds the difficulty in screening them all was daunting. There would be an element of risk. Bron was no longer chained and sat comfortably in a meeting room waiting to be called out for the conference. He'd received word that Bailley finished early and was on her way from Garroon.

Pietr entered the room and sat next to Bron.

"I've prepared a statement and I think it might be best if we limited the number of questions to roughly a dozen or so. The most volatile or inflammatory ones will typically get asked early on anyway. We shouldn't look like we're trying to sidestep anything but if the question can't be answered without causing a firestorm of controversy please let me address them."

Bron nodded.

"Did... did you see Angelina while you were in Garroon?" Pietr asked hesitantly.

Bron's stomach twisted. He nodded.

"How did that go?" the father asked.

Bron looked at the man. He wasn't going to load him with the burden of guilt for his daughter's actions. He respected the man too much to do that.

"She's really showing. Twins, I understand. You'll be a grandpa soon," Bron replied calmly.

Pietr watched Bron's face and had the suspicion that he was being spared from something... painful. He nodded and smiled at the big man.

The hall door opened and Bron heard the rumble from the gathered people in the largest conference room down the hall. It triggered a memory of the first press conference Bron had attended on Walla. His nervousness increased.

Supreme Court Judge Dizdale leaned his head in the room and gestured for the two of them to join him. It was time.

They walked down the hall and stepped into the room. Hundreds of cameras suddenly began to whir and hum and Bron's nerves flared. He cast his eyes around the room looking for threats. There were so many people crammed into this chamber. It was impossible to track them all.

The raised podium was ahead and he followed the Judge and Pietr up the stairs and moved to the back. As directed he ignored the shouted questions and waited to be called upon by either of the two men.

The judge made his statement. In it he clarified the importance of laws in society and their role in protecting the people from sliding into the dark days of the past. He finished with a statement on the dangers of not protecting the rights of the individual civilian and how this impacted every citizen.

Bron wasn't really paying attention as he was trying to find potential attackers in the audience. Just because he couldn't see them didn't mean they weren't there.

Pietr read a statement outlining the results of the local investigation and how the five men had broken several laws in their attack and how this could only be described as a criminal act. He moved on to describe how this wasn't the first time Bron had intervened to save a human life and related the tale of their first news conference on Walla.

Bron's nerves were vibrating like mad by this point. He could feel the menace but he couldn't tell where it was coming from. There were just too many people and too much movement. He looked at the man who'd made his new life possible and realized Pietr was too exposed. Bron felt his feet moving before he knew why. He slipped between the man and the podium knocking Pietr back.

"What are you doin-" Pietr began to growl quietly. Then his face and torso were covered in a spray of blood.

All hell broke loose in the next seconds. Screams, the buzz of police drones firing shock cannons, the scrape of chairs pushed back and knocked over, and the sound of running feet filled the air all while the hum of the cameras filled the background.

The security personnel were immediately at Pietr's side, pulled him down between them and hustled him off the stage. The planet's leading statesman looked back up on the stage as they rushed from the room and saw Bron slumped over the podium facing the crowd... with a large smoking hole in his back.

Pietr's scream was lost to doors slammed between him and the room.

Chapter 31

Six months had passed since the final news conference for the planet's only Genie citizen. The shooter had been identified as a member of the violent Humanity for Humans group. His primary target had been Walla's Premier but he was satisfied with only being able to take out the secondary target before his capture. He'd been rather smug until none of the planets in the Confederacy would verify his citizenship. None wanted to lay claim to the man willing to begin a planetary war as the assassination of a Premier would have launched. With no citizenship, the Confederacy's rules for the humane treatment of prisoners did not apply. Getting information from the man proved to be a task of mere hours. The result of this was a manhunt across every civilized planet in the Confederacy for the remaining leaders of the radical group. Three had been captured, two took their own lives, and four remained at large.

On Walla life went on.

There was a small family of islands off the coast of the southern continent on Walla. Created by a dormant string of volcanos they were lush and mostly untouched by civilization. Set aside as a nature reserve, the islands were largely unpopulated with only a few research stations on a few of the southernmost islands and a small enclave of buildings reserved as a vacation spot for Walla's Premier on the largest, northern island. A base housing a division of the planet's security detail also inhabited this island to ensure the Premier's stay was uninterrupted. The personnel on the base were rotated year round to maintain the protection of the islands so it was a plum assignment.

Pietr didn't get to take many vacations as Premier. The job kept him extremely busy. He also rarely got to visit his daughter and her new family in Garroon but he'd made time for that a few months back when the twins were born. Bran and Ashley were beautiful, perfect babies and Pietr had shed tears of joy over them and his daughter. He was reserving his judgement on Dale as the man... well, no father thinks a son-in-law is worthy of his daughter.

Today he was visiting the second island in the chain which was just a little smaller than the first but was less accessible due to its rugged coastline, the dangerous reef encircling it, and its single small bay with a beautiful crescent shaped beach of fine black volcanic sand. Densely jungled it had a huge bowl shaped valley in its center with a crystal blue fresh water lake. Pietr loved this island more than the one his enclave was built on. As isolated as it was it was perfect for a day of soaking in the sun and unwinding. The security detail on the boat he took to reach the island ensured their presence was as unobtrusive as possible as Pietr enjoyed his solitude during these breaks. Once they arrived at the island two soldiers took him in to the bay with a dingy which they moored up on the beach before they slipped into the shelter of the jungle to stand guard unseen. There was a large umbrella on the beach and a few lounge chairs.

Pietr set his small beach bag down and kicked off his sandals. He went for a walk along the shore, feet in the shallow cool waters, feeling the fine sand squish between his toes. The small waves swooshed back and forth and he felt a calmness settling over him. After a short time he turned and made his way back. He was looking forward to getting back to his book. He'd visited this beach on the two prior days and found it to be the perfect place for him to lose himself in a good story.