Campbell Read Online Free PDF

table, followed by a pot of chilli . “I don’t know what you boys want from us. We’re good with what we’re doing.”
    Tal finally asked the question that he’d been curious about for months. “What are you doing, exactly?”
    Her eyes gleamed. “And give away all my secrets? Who are you?”
    Tal held his hand out. “Tal Bauman. I’m Second in West.”
    “The Jew Vice,” Lucy nodded thoughtfully, ignoring his hand. “Okay, well, since you asked so nicely, here’s what’s happening, since you’ll be living it someday, and it’ll probably take neanderthals like you longer to adjust. Social democracy.”
    “So you’re a communist,” Connor snapped. “And you expect us to buy into that.”
    Lucy glanced around at her companions, who mostly looked amused. “If you think socialism and communism are the same thing, then I suggest you go back to California, do some reading, and come back in a few months when you’re better educated, and we’ll talk again.”
    Tal put his hand up, willing Connor to keep his mouth shut. “So what are you offering them?”
    “Higher taxes for greater returns. Like Canada used to do.” She nonchalantly slathered some mayonnaise on her bread. It all looked fresh and delicious, and although Tal had a hard time resisting, he didn’t want to seem too eager, so he decided he’d wait until everyone had eaten. “Technically, they’re getting what looks like a worse deal, which is probably why they’ve been hesitant to tell you too much.”
    “What are you offering in return?”
    She smiled. “Tal, right? Bauman? I’m offering an alternative to you. They don’t like you. They don’t like making you richer, while they struggle.” She waved around her house. “See, they come here, and they see something they’ll never see with you.”
    “A run down farmhouse and piss poor cell reception?” Connor snapped. “That makes a lot of sense—”
    “They see themselves, and the potential to be a part of something better. There’s only room for you in your system. A lot of us grew up without much. This life, all we’ve been through, it’s got to be for something, right?” She smiled, in a way that was almost innocent, and certainly idealistic. “So that’s it. That’s what we’re selling. Potential for happiness on one’s own terms, without the everyday stress of surviving.”
    Juan stood and wandered off into the large, lush back yard with his sandwich, seemingly disinterested in the conversation and Tal wished he could do the same and check out her lush garden, which he knew Leah would be all over. Their conversation was going nowhere fast, and from the expression on Connor’s face, he knew he was seconds away from saying something insulting that there would be no stepping back from. He’d call her a whore, or a bitch, or imply something completely out of turn. Sometimes Connor’s bluntness was effective, and sometimes, like a bad night in Dallas they both would have preferred to forget, it got him a black eye, a broken nose, and a fairly sincere death threat.
    “I’m not just going to let you undo everything I’ve worked for,” Connor hissed. “No fucking way.
    “Okay,” Lucy said with a nonchalant shrug, slurping her chilli . “That’s up to you.
    “We can’t reach some agreement?” Tal asked, rubbing his temples, desperately wishing that Connor would walk off his anger and let the situation diffuse.  
    “We could do that too,” she replied, beaming at him. “Here’s what I’m proposing. You go back to West, and do your thing, and I’ll stay here and do mine, and we’ll see, in ten years, who’s more popular. The assholes that got rich off their backs, or the ones that offered them a chance to make themselves, no matter where they started out, the ones that helped them when they needed it, no matter what they had. We’ll do a West/Campbell potluck or something cute. Connor, Tal, do you know where Cole and I started out?”
    They looked at