“Yes,” Lisa admitted. “But he’s not a natural leader. There’s a difference.”
Kobol made an impatient snorting noise.
“No. Listen to me. I know.” Lisa sat up straighter, pressed her spine against the wall behind her. “He doesn’t know how to be a leader. Not really. He knows how to charge off and do what he thinks has to be done. But he assumes that everyone else sees things the way he does, and that they’ll follow along with him. He doesn’t even realize that he has to convince people, to cajole them or force them to fall into step behind him.”
With a slow, reluctant smile, Kobol agreed. “You’re right. That’s him. Charging off into the enemy guns without even glancing back over his shoulder to see if his troops are following behind him.”
“We must form a real government,” she said, more firmly. “These little meetings of the department heads must be turned into a board of governors or a council of some sort, with regular meetings...”
“And elections?”
“Yes. Elections. Of course. Not right away, naturally. But next year, after things have settled down a bit.”
“They’ll elect Douglas our maximum leader,” he said, that sardonic smile touching his lips again.
“Perhaps.”
“You think they won’t?”
“I’m not certain that it matters,” Lisa said, her voice hard and cold as the rock that supported her. “Let the fools vote him any title they choose. In the council he’ll have to deal with us. And he won’t know how to handle that. Three or four of us acting together can run rings around him.”
Kobol’s lean, bony hand stroked his jaw. “You’d do that to him?”
“Why not? It would be for the good of the community, wouldn’t it? He’ll want to fly back to Earth and drag as many survivors as he can find back here. We can’t handle them, you know that.”
“But you’d deliberately... knife him?”
Lisa fixed her dark, unblinking eyes on Kobol. “Don’t make it sound so dramatic, Martin. I married the wrong man. We may have to share this room, even this bed, but that doesn’t mean that I love him or I’ll follow him like a blind little slave.”
“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “I was watching you when he came through that airlock. You looked...” He hesitated.
“Well?”
“You looked happy to see him. Very happy. Almost like a schoolgirl with her first crush of puppy love.”
Her face went red. “Don’t be absurd.”
“That’s what it looked like to me.”
“Nonsense.” But she turned away from Kobol, turned her gaze to the polished metal mirror hung on the opposite wall, over the drawer unit.
“About you and me...” Kobol started to say.
“Nothing’s changed,” Lisa said. “He doesn’t know a thing.”
But Kobol shook his head ruefully. “Something has changed, Lisa. I have. I’m not going to live in his shadow. I want you to leave him.”
She looked genuinely shocked. “I can’t do that! Not now. Not yet, anyway.”
“Why not?”
“How can I, with the whole world turned inside out? Don’t you see what’s happening, Martin? Don’t you understand? The life of this entire settlement is hanging by a thread. The Earth is dead, and we’re on our own. It’s dangerous enough, just as it is, without adding our personal problems to the mix.”
He pointed a long unwavering finger at the growing blue bruise on her cheek. “Don’t you think your personal problems are already out in the open?”
“No,” Lisa said firmly. “I’m putting that behind me. For the time being. I’m going to be his wife, and he’s going to be the head of the new government.”
“You mean you’re going to be the head of the new government and I’m going to be out in the cold.”
She reached out to touch his hand. “Martin, please. You’ve got to understand. We can still be... together. The way we have been.”
Kobol pulled his hand away. “No, Lisa. You’ve got to understand something. I want to be the head of whatever government we put together. I want to have it all for myself. Including you. Especially you.”
“You will,” she said soothingly. “You will. But it will take time, Martin. You must be patient.”
“You’ll leave him for me?”
“In time.”
“You’ll work to make me chief of the council?”
She hesitated. “I’m not sure that they would elect you chief, Martin. They’ll elect Douglas. He’s their hero. We’ll have to work through him.”
Kobol broke into a bitter, barking laughter. “What you mean is, you’ll run the council through him. You intend to be boss, one way or the other.”
Lisa pressed back against the stone again, feeling its strength along her spine. “Is that what you think?”
Kobol’s laughter choked off. “No matter who wins, you want to come out on top. You want to be queen bee.”
