“Oh come on, don’t give me that. Why don’t you tell me? It’s stupid to be bitching at me when I don’t even know what for.”

“You don’t, do you.”

“No!”

“That’s just like you, Jim. Off in your own little dreamworld, completely unaware of what’s going on around you. People don’t mean a damn thing to you. I could be dying and you wouldn’t even notice.”

“Dying! What do you mean, dying?”

Virginia just grimaces with disgust, turns to walk away. Jim grabs her by the wrist to pull her back around, and furiously she swings her arm free. “Leave me alone! You don’t have the slightest idea what’s going on!”

“You’re right I don’t! But I do know that I hang out with you by choice—I don’t have to. If it’s going to be like this—”

“Leave me alone! Just leave me alone!” And she storms off, back to the others out in the sun.

Well. So much for that alliance. Jim doesn’t understand why it’s ended, or why it began, but … Oh well. Confused, frustrated, angry, he walks back out onto the playing field. Beyond the seated group of friends, Virginia is conferring with Arthur; then, to Jim’s relief, she walks off with Inez and they track away.

But the feelings generated by the fight don’t go away; the real world has intruded back into Jim’s afternoon, and anger makes the Whopper lie heavy on his stomach. Virginia’s bad mood adds to the other more serious bummers of the last couple of days, forms a fierce brew, a desire to strike back somehow.…

When Arthur stands to leave Jim approaches him. “Arthur. You talked about real resistance work. Something more serious than the postering.”

Arthur stops and stares at him. “That’s right. And you called the other day. I was wondering if you’d ever do anything more.”

Jim nods. “I had to think about it. But I want to do something. I want to help.”

“There’s something coming up,” Arthur acknowledges. “It’s a lot more serious, this time.”

“What you mentioned before. Sabotaging weapons plants?”

Arthur looks at him even longer. “That’s right.”

“Which one?”

“I’d rather not say, till the time comes.” And Arthur’s look becomes sharp indeed. They both know what this means: Jim has to commit himself to sabotaging any of the defense corporations in OC, including, presumably, Laguna Space Research. His father’s company.

“All right,” Jim says. “No one will get hurt?”

“No one in the plants. We could get hurt—they’ve got some tough security on those places. It’s dangerous, I want you to know that.”

“Okay, but no one inside.”

“No. That’s the ethic. If you do it any other way, you just become another part of the war.”

Jim nods. “When?”