“I'm aware that Ethan is an escaped convict,” Karl stated bluntly. “I actually met him for the first time three days ago, in this building.”

“What?!”

Karl shrugged. “He's a master of Stealth. He just came in to use the Shop.”

“Why didn't the gargoyle attack him?” Kat demanded. “Can't it see through Stealth?”

“It can. The gargoyle is set to attack people with hostile intent. Ethan wasn't here to hurt the Zone or anyone in it.”

“So far!”

“Yes. Just like you,” Karl snapped. “And me. And everyone in this room.”

“He's a criminal!”

“Sheriff, would you care to explain how you know that?”

Kat McPhee seemed to hold her breath for a few seconds, then ground out, “my husband Ryan was a police officer. He was killed the day after the System arrived.”

God damn it. Karl closed his eyes just for a moment. She never even mentioned him. This is her way of coping with the grief. He opened his eyes.

“I'm sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you,” she muttered, then raised her voice again. “My point is that Hollis is a criminal and we can't trust him.”

“Do you know the first thing Ethan said to me once he found out I have Sense Deceit?” Karl locked eyes with Kat. “He said, 'I didn't do it.' And he was telling the truth.”

Kat froze for just a moment before answering. “That doesn't mean he didn't do a lot of other things,” she shot back.

“True. And if he's willing to answer questions you can interrogate him all you like. However, we are in a fight for survival. Ethan is an asset. He's already saved my life once. He's volunteered to help us. I consider him a resident of Endurance and a productive one. I have no intention of trying to punish people for crimes they committed before the System wrecked the world.”

“So he's just going to get away with it?”

“Get away with what, exactly?”

“...everything!” Kat seemed to be aware that she wasn't making sense to the others. “Everything he and others like him did to tear down society and ruin this country! We can't let them tear down what little we have left!”

“And I can't let you tear Endurance down either!” Karl snapped. “I don't care if he was the wheelman for a robbery years ago, or embezzled, or held up a liquor store, or—“

“Or murdered someone?” Kat cut in. “Raped a woman? Abused—“

“THAT'S ENOUGH!” Karl roared, shooting to his feet. “We will NOT declare people guilty until proven innocent in Endurance, and that is final!”

“And if he is guilty?”

“Of what?” Karl demanded. “Your vague suspicion that he committed some crime somewhere at some point? Are you going to call him a murderer for...carrying too much weed on him one night? What are you proposing we do, Sheriff? Build a jail and stash him in it for five to ten? Kick him out? And based on what? Your suspicions?” Karl's eyes narrowed. “The color of his skin, perhaps?”

“Oh sure, play the race card—“

“Justice is not a goddamn CARD GAME!” Karl slammed a fist onto the conference table hard enough to make the wood crack. “If you're going to pretend that race wasn't a serious problem with our justice system in the past then you're not fit to be the Sheriff.” There was a pause after he spoke. Karl waited.

“So you show your true colors at last,” Kat snarled, standing. “Bully me? Kick me out? While you let criminals stay? In the end you're just another tyrant mad with power, like I thought at the beginning.” She shook her head derisively. “Maybe you shouldn't be running things here any more.”

“Maybe you're right. Maybe I shouldn't. But I am running things. And I no longer have faith that you will serve justice fairly to all, so you are relieved, Katherine McPhee.”

Kat looked around the room. “Are you all just going to let him do this? Cower before his eight levels, let him run your lives? Tell him no!”

“Kat, you're losing it,” Paul said calmly. “Karl is in the right.”

“You're not waiting for evidence or facts,” Maria told her. “You're convinced that Ethan is guilty of something. You might be right, but if you are it will be by accident.” She shook her head in disappointment. “How can you have a Truth Sense and be this obtuse?”

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“If you'd just asked to interrogate Ethan and find out his situation I'd have backed you, Kat,” George said. “In fact I'd still like that done. But Paul's right, you're losing it.”

Kat turned and stared at Sarah. The jobs manager wilted a bit under her pleading glare. “I don't like conflict,” she said. “I wish you could get along. Can't you just apologize to Sir Karl, Kat?”

“You all think I'm unfit because of racism?” Kat shouted in disbelief. “I never harassed the other one!”

The 'other one.' The wording soured Karl's stomach. The other black person in town, she means. I was only guessing, before. Damn, sometimes I hate being right. A glance around the table showed that the others had noticed too.

Paul spoke quietly and firmly. “I move we offer the position of Sheriff to Deputy Duncan Monroe.”

“Seconded,” Maria said promptly.

“I don't believe this!” Kat yelled. “You're doing the exact thing you're accusing me of! Judging me without evidence! Taking the word of that ...man over mine!” Karl winced mentally at that pause.

“Kat. Stop digging,” George advised.

“You bunch of liberal weaklings. This town is doomed with you people running things.” Kat shook her head in disgust and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

There was silence for several moments. Karl sighed heavily and sat back down. There but for a point in Personality go I,he thought with dark humor.

“I never thought she'd be like that,” Sarah said sadly.

“We never saw her interact with Letisha, so it just didn't come up. How did you know, Sir Karl?” Maria asked.

“I didn't. It was a wild guess. But something was pushing her buttons and making her irrational, and we know so little about Ethan that there was almost nothing else it could be.”

“Let's hope Duncan isn't the same way,” Paul said.

“Let's hope she doesn't go around poisoning people's minds against the town council,” George grumbled.

Karl brooded a moment. “I didn't want to do this,” he muttered.

“You had to fire her, Sir Karl. It was the right move.”

“Thank you, but I was referring to asserting control. I don't want to be a dictator, but it's starting to look like that's what we need, at least for a little while.”

“What do you mean?”

“I've got to tackle the prejudice and the laziness and all of it head on. We can't afford to play the same stupid games that dragged us down and held us back before. We have to be united. E pluribus unum.”

“Out of many, one,” Paul translated. “The motto of the United States, or close enough.”

Karl nodded. “We cannot afford to turn people away for being different. Skin color, gender, every other stupid prejudice—we simply do not have time for it. I need to explain to people what being a citizen of Endurance means. What it requires.” He sighed. “I'll write this speech up in advance, and I'd appreciate feedback and suggestions from all of you before I go deliver it.”

Karl put his face in his hands for a moment. Why did it have to come to this? He allowed himself five seconds of self-pity, then cut it off and straightened up. Just before he started to talk again, there came a knock at the door. “Yes?”

The door opened, and it was Duncan. “Hello everyone. I take it that Kat finally went and screwed the pooch? She told me she was fired.”

“Regrettably, yes. Duncan, do you believe that you can administer justice fairly to everyone, regardless of race, gender or anything else?”

“I don't know, but I'll do my best,” Duncan answered honestly.

“Then I offer you the position of Sheriff of Endurance.”

Duncan pursed his lips for a couple of seconds, hesitated, then nodded. “I accept.”

“Thank you, Sheriff Monroe. Please join us for the rest of the meeting.”

He took his seat, and raised an eyebrow at the crack in the table, but didn't speak.

Karl heaved a great sigh, and marshaled his willpower to continue. “George, I believe you were going to give us an intelligence briefing based on things Ethan told you?”

“Yes, Sir Karl. Ethan shared his map data with us, and told me a bit about the prison break from Solworth. We didn't have time to go over everything in a few minutes, but he's willing to answer questions and give us a lot of intel on the personalities and skills of some of the escapees.”

“I'd love to hear his story when he's willing to share it,” Karl observed. “How big a threat and how soon?”

“There could be as many as twenty working together, and all of them around fifth level. How soon is unknown, but a week or so is a rough guess.”

“How likely is this attack?”

“He says they're almost certain to attack any Safe Zone they find; the question is whether they will head in this direction and find us.”

“Does he know that Lazy Circle killed ten of them?”

“I'm not sure. If everyone is amenable I thought I'd ask him to join us and answer questions.”

“By all means.”

“I'll go get him.” George stood up.

Then they all heard a throat being cleared loudly, and Ethan appeared out of Stealth in a far corner of the room.

Everyone stared at him. Most looked uncomfortable. Karl's mind raced.

“Ethan? Were you there this whole time?”

The big man nodded. “Some of us don't have a truth sense, so we got to find our own ways of checking who we can trust.” He took a deep breath. “You play it straight, Sir Karl. Thank you.”

Karl made a vague gesture with his hands, unsure how to answer.

The big man stepped closer to the table, near George's seat. “I guess we should talk.”

TO BE CONTINUED IN Sic Semper Tyrannis, Endurance Book 3