Like a Boss by Adam Rakunas Page B

orbit after what he did?”
    She shook her head, hard and fast. “You don’t know me.” She went for the door.
    I waited until she had left before bolting after her. She walked up the Belt, her head down and her steps quick. “Serena!” I yelled, then ran. She didn’t stop or turn around, not until I put a hand on her shoulder. She grabbed my wrist and spun me around, smashing my face into a café’s window. I glanced down at a couple, cups halfway to their open mouths. I tried to smile, but it probably looked like a grimace as she drove her elbow into my back.
    Serena put her mouth next to my ear. “You don’t touch me, you understand?” she hissed.
    “Okay,” I said.
    “You have no idea what I’ve been through.”
    “You’re right.”
    “And I don’t need your pity.”
    She gave my arm an extra crank, and I yelped, “Okay!” She eased up enough for me to peel my face off the window. I backed away, my hands up. Her entire body coiled, ready to lash out, ready to hurt . “I don’t want to cause trouble, okay, Serena? I just… I want to know why .”
    Her eyes were fixed on my feet, so I took another step back. If she bolted, I would have to let her go. But I didn’t know how to keep her here, keep her talking. All I could do was bullshit. “I went to his place on Hawks today.”
    She looked up. “Then why did you come to me?”
    “I didn’t stay there,” I said. “I just heard that he was out of prison and had started a church. I had to see for myself. He tried to kill me, remember? Remember the trial?”
    Serena nodded, and she straightened her shoulders a little. “I don’t know how he got out early, either. I wanted him to rot.” She shook her head. “It was so hard running that refinery, to keep scrimping for parts and expertise. People got hurt all the time, and it was on me . You know what that’s like, to have everyone think you’re incompetent when the problems start from above you?”
    I nod. “I work in the lowest part of the water plant. I know.”
    She nodded, her face still taut. “I went to Lu Yua ’cause I wanted to punch his lights out. I wanted him to tell me why he built that secret refinery.”
    “Did he?”
    Her eyes softened. “He did. He said he was an asshole and that he was wrong and that I should have been given everything I needed to be successful. I didn’t believe him, and I told him so.”
    I nodded. “I didn’t either.”
    “He said he didn’t expect me to believe him, but he wanted to make amends. He had to show me that he was sorry, that he’d changed. He asked me to spend the day with him bringing food and clothes and meds to people who needed them.” She laughed. “I said he was full of shit, but I went. Just curious, I guess. We went all over the city, finding people hiding in tenements and hovels. And I kept running them through the Public and seeing that they were supposed to get all kinds of help but weren’t.” She shook her head. “Our system has broken down, Padma. It’s just like the old refinery, teetering along, ready to collapse.”
    Serena looked me dead in the eye. “So, yeah, I go to his church, because I’m actually fixing things. The Union’s supposed to take care of its members, whether they’re working Slots or they’re living off pensions. Everyone’s supposed to have a floor to hold them up, but it’s punched full of holes. I don’t know who’s letting this happen, if it’s the Executive Committee or the Prez or what. What I do know is that Evanrute Saarien is committed to helping out everyone who’s getting left behind.”
    “But you trust him?”
    She shook her head. “I probably never will. But I trust the work that he’s doing. I can see it right in my own neighborhood. I know three different people on disability who aren’t getting their pensions, and that means they go hungry. Saarien’s church has kept them fed. I trust that’s going to make their lives better. Even though things are going to get