The Warriors by Sol Yurick Page B

Family through. After all, the matter should be discussed in council. They talked a little about one another’s reps, what brother gangsthey ran with, what interborough affiliations they had, who they knew. But though the Dominators and the Blazers had never heard about one another, they took care to admit one another’s big reps. They pulled out clippings: Hector’s from the
Daily News;
the little leader’s from
La Prensa,
in which their gang’s raids and bops were written up. They bragged how many men they could field. Hector said that they had a Youth Board Worker. The little Borinqueno had to admit that they didn’t have a worker yet, but they were busting out hard and should be assigned one any day now. Hector hastened to say that the Youth Board was overworked, short-handed and it was shortsighted on the Board’s part, not so much an insult.
    The girl was chewing gum and smoking a cigarette, looking at the diplomats coolly, staring at the Family, turning to talk softly to the other Blazer now and then, swirling as she turned so they could see where the tops of her rolled stockings cut into her thighs. She did a few dance steps. The sound of her heels clicking on the sidewalk made them edgy.
    Hector offered a cigarette to the little leader; the Borinqueno took it—a good sign. They compared their individual reps and gave one another full credits as tough warriors. The talkers relaxed a little, but the Family wondered what was taking so long. What if they were being kept here while reinforcements were being brought up? Bimbo coughed twice to warn Hector. The girl went back into the candy store and came out with a Coke. She stuck it into her mouth slowly, her lips low around the neck, tilted the bottle up, a little to the side so she could keep challenging them with that stare. Bimbo watched Lunkface. Lunkface didn’t do anything; he was still keeping his head. The little leader decided that there was nothing wrong with the Family taking passage through the territory of the Borinquen Blazers, as long as they came in peace. Hector spread his fingers, palms up. So he told Hector it was a matter of following elevated tracksdown two, three stops, he wasn’t sure. The buses went there and train service began again.
    But the girl was bored. She had been hanging around all day and nothing interesting had happened. Sure, some of the boys had brought a little wine for her. She had gone off and had a little fun with some of them. But the whole day had been dragging and now she was a little headachy because the wine was wearing off. She yawned—it was much too early to go home—was there any fun in shooting off firecrackers? Mankid stuff. The invaders looked interesting, almost men. Now, if she could promote a little excitement for herself, things might look up. She could boast about what her powers were; armies fought over her.
    She came up to the little leader, and they all knew they were going to have a little trouble. Hector hoped the little leader had control enough to stay cool. The little leader knew what was happening, too, and he decided that they wouldn’t have any trouble; certainly it was pointless. They were outnumbered; reinforcements hadn’t come up yet. Maybe Chuchu was having trouble finding everyone at this time of the night, or they were all off having fun with explosives.
    The girl looked Hector up and down and turned away a little, raised the Coke bottle, surrounded the glass rim with her lips, clicking it against her teeth. The boldness embarrassed the truce makers, but the little leader didn’t have the sense, or the manhood, to stop her. Hector would have just slapped her away. She turned and looked the Family’s dirty clothes over in the cool way that always meant “show me.” The Blazer who thought he had control got irritated without knowing why. Hector turned his face away carefully and looked back at the Family. No one was moving, not