He was waiting for her answer. She kept it simple. "I don't know what you're talking about."

A slight annoyance showed in his expression. "Of course you do. And you can own up to the truth, or I can have you arrested for attempting to assassinate Mr. Sullivan. He will, of course, swear that you did indeed try to kill him."

He was bluffing. He had to be bluffing. Send her to prison, and that's what that particular charge would do if the rods were used to support it, just because she wouldn't answer his question?

Panic mixed with indignation had her demanding, "Are you listening to this, Mayor?"

Sullivan was frowning at her. "All I hear is you talking nonsense to yourself."

That produced a sigh from Jorran, drawing her eyes back to him. "It is really too bad that he mentioned that. I was merely curious about what caused you to be suddenly afraid. Now we will have to detain you."

So it had been a bluff. Of course he wouldn't want to cause such a big to-do, which would only draw more attention to himself. But detaining was just as bad in her book.

"And do not ask why he does not hear or see me, woman," he added disdainfully as he sat back down. "Your curiosity is unimportant."

That easily she was dismissed. And that was what made her angry. She was inconsequential, a nuisance to be brushed under the rug. She posed absolutely no threat to their carefully laid plans.

"Ask? I don't need to ask," she said with an equal amount of disdain. "I know exactly why he doesn't hear or see you."

24

« ^ »

BRITTANY COULD CLAIM THE DEVIL MADE HER SAY THAT, but It was a known fact that anger was its own worst enemy, and she was no exception to that rule. She should have kept her mouth shut. She should have pretended that she was just what she seemed to be, just another appointment on the mayor's busy schedule. Now she had to admit that she knew more than they had counted on anyone knowing, and offer a reason for that without implicating Dalden.

He might be bigger than the lot of them, though the two bouncer types might cost him a bit more effort. He could still probably take them all down by normal means. But if all four of them were equipped with those rods, there'd be nothing normal about it. Dalden could be rendered harmless within seconds, and the only end to that would be Jorran wins, Dalden and company lose. So it was imperative that they not know he was in the building looking for them.

Jorran was standing up again, and there was no "slight" to his annoyance this time. A short, rotund fellow had also moved behind the mayor and was whispering in his ear. It looked like she had just been made invisible as well, since the mayor proceeded to ignore her as he started browsing through some papers on his desk.

"Explain yourself, woman," brought her eyes back to the regallooking Jorran.

She decided on the most plausible lie out of the few options she had. "I'm a news reporter assigned to City Hall. It's my job to ferret out anything of interest going on around here, and your crew and those sticks they've been waving around the last couple of days were most definitely interesting. I followed, I listened. A child could have put two and two together here, when your people haven't exactly been trying to hide what they were doing."

The last wasn't exactly true either, but he didn't address it, merely pointed out, "We have been following your town news. No mention of what you say has appeared in it, which means you lie."

"No, that just means I haven't finished writing the article yet."

"Then you have told no one else of your findings?"

Dilemma time. Cover her own butt and claim others knew, put the fear of imminent discovery into them, or keep them from panicking so Dalden could do his thing and round them up? Actually, there was no dilemma, when Martha had mentioned that if they went into hiding, it would be impossible to find them again. No panic-well, aside from her own.

So she took an accusatory tack, complaining, "You're kidding, right? And get labeled as writing science fiction? I need more proof before I put my name to an article as unbelievable as this one is so far. I mean, what it seems those sticks of yours can do is just not possible. Maybe you'd care to explain what exactly it is they do do?"

"What is your conclusion?"

"I'm not paid to draw conclusions, merely to report what's newsworthy," she said. "But it's pretty obvious you want to be mayor."

"What is obvious is often proven irrelevant," he replied, then nodded toward the mayor as he added, "He does not do much that impresses me. He decides no matters of great import. I am not sure now that I want his title. I am taking a few days to observe and decide."

She almost laughed. The man wanted the mayor's job when he had absolutely no idea what it entailed. Or was he trying to throw her off the track?

"The position of mayor can't be encompassed in just a few days," she told him, "when the projects he undertakes can take months, even years to finish. A mayor's greatness or failure is seen at the end of his term, in what he has accomplished during that term. It's not a title, it's a job. He works for the people, for the betterment of the town, not for the betterment of himself."

A hand was waved to dismiss that reasoning. "The position will be what I make of it, not what the townspeople have come to expect. Not that it matters. This is merely a stepping-stone to true rulership."

So much for the misleading theory. Sounded more like he was going into bragging mode now, which didn't hold much hope for her being released when they were done talking. She might as well hear it all, then…

"Rulership, huh? Don'tcha mean leadership? But just out of curiosity, how did you think you could manage to jump into an elected position of prominence in this country when you're not a citizen of it, or known to the populace?"

"I am known. The people in this building already think I am their mayor. He will make a speech today to the thing called media that he has been merely my puppet, that I have been making all decisions for him from the start."

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that such a speech would cause outrage-to say that the people had been duped-not have the desired effect he seemed to think it would give him.

But just in case they couldn't stop him before then, why give him warning that he'd be digging his own grave with that course of action?

So she said instead, "Aren't you forgetting the other candidates running for the job?"

"If I decide to continue on this stepping path to the presidency, I will be the only candidate running for mayor during the thing you call election. The others will concede to the better man."

"You plan to use those rods to force them to drop out at the last minute, don't you?"

He smiled. It was such a confident, I-can't-lose sort of smile. But that wasn't what had her belly rolling with dread, it was the realization that the man could do exactly what he planned to do, and what he planned to do was much worse than she'd been told.

The presidency? He was out of his flipping mind, and yet those rods could get him there. Men could be told how to vote. The media could be given false information about him and make it nationally known. Women who might suspect what was going on and try to prevent it could be warned off by their bosses and men in their families, or railroaded into jail all as they had threatened to do to her.

There were countless ways they could get around any opposition, just with the touch of a hypnotic stick and a few whispered words. Judges, other politicians, top law enforcement positions, hell, even the high brass in the military, all could be made puppets in Jorran's camp.