He sneered. He actually sneered. She hadn’t thought anyone used that particular expression outside of bad movies and worse TV shows. “I know more than enough,” he replied. “I know how you were when I dumped you, that you figured you could get along with The Man. I know that’s shorthand for selling out. You’re still letting wasichu tell you what to do, what to say, what to think. You haven’t changed, Jennifer.”

You dumped me? Yeah, fer sure, and I’m a blond. She didn’t know whether to laugh at him or herself. Oh David, like you aren’t a tool of The Man whether or not you admit it. The Man manipulates you just by being for something—even if it was good for you, you’d be against it. And don’t think that smart people aren’t able to figure that out after talking with you for two minutes. But she didn’t say anything; she just sighed after a long moment. “Look, I have a job to do, and it happens to be for our people. Are you going to get out of the way?”

“There’s nothing in there for you, Jennifer,” he said, not moving. “There’s no one in there who wants to talk to you.”

Since he obviously hadn’t asked anyone in the meeting if they were willing to talk to her, that patent untruth made her lose her patience. “I’d like to hear that for myself, thank you! And I’d like to get a chance to talk to someone who just might know something that could help all of us, instead of a fool who acts like a white man and makes assumptions without waiting to hear the facts.”

She could have slapped herself for calling him a fool, but it was too late to take it back.

He didn’t move. He just stood there with that scowl on his face, in what had to be an unconscious reflection of a James Dean poster. “That’s what this meeting is all about,” he said abruptly. “We’re making up our minds about what we’re going to do about this situation. There are at least some people here who have the sense to talk to experts instead of waiting to get trapped by smart cops.”

“We?” she raised her eyebrow, which so far was the only change she’d made in her expression. At least she could take comfort in the fact that she had more control over her body language than he had over his. “I hadn’t noticed you driving any bulldozers lately. Or have you suddenly turned into a construction worker in the past week?”