She was curled loosely into his arms, lying half atop him in utter relaxation. There had been a long period of silence when she stirred slightly and rocked her face out of the hollow of his shoulder. "I don't think I..." she began, then lapsed back into silence. "Huh?"
"I was going to say I didn't want today to ever end. But it must, of course. Regardless of what happens next, though, I'm glad and-and thankful for-for this."
He twisted around and kissed her, then said, "I'm sorry it has to be this way, Valentina. You deserve better -a lot better."
"I guess I couldn't stand it much better," she replied, smiling shyly.
"You should at least be able to love a man you approve of," he told her. "Resist not evil," she whispered. "Huh?"
"Get out of it!" she said urgently, twisting fully atop him and peering into his face. "Go away and forget about these people. There must be any number of safe places for you somewhere in the world. I'd go with you, Mack. I'd go anywhere you asked me to go." "Now, wait a minute," he said feebly. "It isn't right to kill, Mack," she persisted. "Even if you defeat them, if you exterminate them completely, you're the one who will end up the big loser. Violence is not the answer to evil."
Bolan returned her solemn stare. "You think we, uh, should live in a world of brotherly love-and turn the other cheek and that kind of stuff, eh?" he asked quietly.
His fingers were tracing the line of her spine. She shivered and wriggled against him. "Don't do that," she breathed. "I'm trying to talk seriously."
"What could a fragile flower like you know about violence, and of the evil men do to one another?" he asked, smiling faintly.
"Evil is not received, Mack. Evil can only be given, and it can finally hurt only the giver."
"That's an interesting theory," Bolan replied. "Would you say that the Jews received no evil from Hitler?"
"Hitler was the ultimate receiver of all the evil he created."
"Yeah, but what if the whole world had just gone on turning the other cheek to Adolf? He would have just sliced that one open, too, and where would the world be now?"
"What has become of the world now?" Valentina asked sorrowfully. "We answered evil with evil. And in our end result, we have inherited evil."
He slapped her gently on the bottom. "Where'd you get such screwy ideas?" he asked her. "Look-there are two forces, two basic forces, loose in this world. Good and evil. Hell, I'm no crusader, Val, but I believe that good is more than just a lazy state of do-nothingness. Good has to be more energetic and more-more moving than the opposing force if it-if it's going to overcome."
They were silent for a long moment. Valentina lowered her face to his and nibbled his lower lip, dodged back with a tiny gasp and scrunched away from his questing hands. "How many people," she asked thoughtfully, "do you think set out to deliberately do evil? Even your own example, Adolf Hitler-don't you suppose he was acting in a movement toward what he regarded as ultimate good?"
"Sure," Bolan said agreeably. "But other people had other ideas about what was good, for them, and what was not-so they opposed him. Goodness, Val, is a very personal and individual thing. The way I see it. I'm an instinctive creature, see. Now take this Vietnam war. A lot of people think it is an evil war. Well-of course it is. But hell, we didn't start that evil, see, our side has simply chosen to oppose it, to oppose the evil. I personally go along with that idea, therefore I feel that I am on the side of good when I'm over there fighting that war. I would feel very evil myself if I hung back and didn't throw myself in there with the good guys. See? With me, it's a personal and instinctive tiling. And I'm in the same sort of situation here, with this private little war I'm in now. I didn't start this mess, see. The Mafia has been having their own way in this country for a hell of a lot of years. Well, I finally saw the evil of the Mafia. I saw what they were doing and I felt the need to oppose them. It's as simple as that You can take all the damn philosophies and beauty religions and peace movements and put them in a pile and they still won't mean as much as my individual, instinctive reaction to the Mafia. These people are a dripping, oozing, mass of evil draped about the throat of this country. I'm going to pry them loose if I can. Even if, in the end, the devil picks up all the marbles."
"It must be nice to have such a simple and uncomplicated view of the world," Valentina commented.
"Aw, come off it, Val," Bolan said half-irritably. "People like to play philosophic games with themselves, and they get all tangled up in the loose ends. Look at all these mixed up nuts parading around this country squalling about our 'immoral' war. If they feel all that strongly about it, why don't they go over and join the other side and fight for their idea of good."
"You are totally committed to the idea of violence and bloodshed, aren't you," she observed solemnly.
"No, I'm not. I'm committed to action. As long as I'm sitting around just yapping about good and evil, then I'm merely debating the question. And while I'm debating, evil might get the upper hand. No, Val. If I thought I could march through the underworld tooting on a pipe and have all the hoods and goons and rats follow me to jail, then that's the way I'd go about it. What the hell are we arguing about? I didn't start this mess. The Mafia started it by just being. Being what they are. The mere fact that they are what they are has challenged me. I've answered the challenge, that's all. And yes, in this instance, I am committed to violence and bloodshed."
"War without end," she sighed.
"Yes, war without end." He ran both hands along her back and onto the tight little buttocks. "There's no way to break off now, anyway. It's Bolan against the world now, Val. Surely you recognize that. I'll never be a free man again, not ever again. The law of the land feels bound to call me into an accounting for my 'crimes.' You see, my private little war is an immoral war, also. So, the law is after me. The Army is after me, and pretty soon I'll be declared a deserter. The underworld is after me. And now, now my dear little idealist, you are after me. I guess it's Bolan against the world."
"Is your recruiting station open?" she whispered.
"Huh?"
Her arms snaked around his neck and she squeezed against him with an almost desperate intensity. Her face, on his, was moist with tears. "I'd like to join Bolan's side," she whispered. "Are enlistments open?"
He rolled to his side, carrying her with him. She groaned deliciously and looped both legs high about him. "You're joining a sure loser," he warned her.
"I don't know about that," she replied, smiling through tears. "You seem rather capable to me."
"Your confidence is overwhelming," he said, joining her smoothly and thoroughly.
Her eyes were wide pools of essential truth. "So's yours," she sighed happily.