I’d rather have a restraining order on my side than all the eagles in the country overhead when I’m facing the Feds.

He sighed, and continued to listen to the latest story. The way he had it pegged, the mystics were deluding themselves … confusing the symbols of power with the real thing.

But if it makes them get their act together to save their tribal identity and maybe do something so that the whites are forced to get their act together, well, fine.

And despite Jennie’s accusations, he had a larger goal in mind, too. The way he saw it, the Native Movement should be taking a larger role in ecological matters. Since so many of the eco-freaks were looking to the Indians for spiritual guidance, the Peoples had damned well ought to give it to them. We have to do something to save the world from poison. If it takes talking to crystals, it’s all right with me, as long as they start cleaning up the air and water too.

We all have to live here. The whites aren’t going away, and that’s reality. So the best we can do is get as much back as we can, and shame them into cleaning up the rest. …

At least Jennie has that part right.

He frowned a little, and caught himself. He took a quick look to see if the latest speaker had seen the faint grimace, but the guy was so wrapped up in his own story that David could probably have stuck his tongue out without the man noticing. The smell of tobacco back here was overpowering. Made him really sorry he’d given up smoking. But damned if he was going to let a stick of dried weeds rule his life.

But that made him think of Jennie again, since she’d been on him all the time to quit, and that just reminded him of that last confrontation. He was really glad none of the guys here had known anything about that. How the hell had she managed to get him to leave when he hadn’t wanted to? The door trick, that was easy to figure out, but not the rest. He’d still had plenty to say to her—but somehow he hadn’t been able to get the words out of his mouth, and he’d found himself walking right out the door on top of that!

That crazy old man, her grandfather, was with her, too. Shit, he used to be able to do some weird things, back when we were kids. …

Hell, now I’m starting it! That stuff the old man did, it wasn’t anything more than sleight of hand and the suggestibility of kids!

What was the old man doing living with her, anyway? That only complicated matters. Especially since a lot of the guys here held the old man in pretty high esteem.