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manipulated. He felt that way himself, though he’d seen lawyers at work so often by now he had more resistance than most people. He felt that way even though he agreed with her. They couldn’t let Cal stay. It would lead to the kind of trouble it always had, and that was, in its own way, worse than zombies. Zombies were easy. You killed them. Men were harder to deal with.
    The fact he wanted Cal was irrelevant. Maybe before Cal left they might help each other out a little. Give each other some relief. It would only be a physical thing, a release for both of them. But then Cal had to go. Mitch shifted in his seat and tried to concentrate on the meeting.
    Ella finished and sat back down. Kathy looked around. “Does anyone wish to add anything?”
    Phyllis raised her hand. “Yes. As much as I agree with a lot of what Ella said, the fact is, I gave him the vaccine, and I would like the chance to follow up on what happens to him. It could be essential to my research.”
    “Damn,” Bren muttered. Mitch gave her a glance, but she didn’t meet his eyes, just looked thoughtful.
    “Anyone else?” Kathy asked. “Mitch, Bren, you’ve both spent time with him. Do you have any specific objection to his staying, if he chooses to?”
    Did they? Bren shook her head. “No. Aside from when he first woke up and found himself chained up, which probably scared him a bit, he’s been cooperative and hasn’t been violent to anybody.”
    “Mitch? Do you agree?”
    He had to, didn’t he? She was right. Cal had calmed down after his initial shock. But so what? None of the men who’d been a problem in the past had started out as obviously violent.
    “I agree that he’s been cooperative.”
    “There’s one other thing,” Bren said. “I’d really like to keep that boat we found him on. But since he arrived on it, that kind of makes it his, and he’d leave in it, unless we can persuade him to swap it for one of the smaller ones. Of course we can just keep it without his permission, but—”
    “That would make us pirates,” Ella said.
    “Exactly.” Bren gave Mitch a rather guilty look. He knew she was going to vote for Cal to stay. He couldn’t believe it.
    “If nobody has anything else to add, let’s take a vote,” Kathy said. “Would anyone prefer a secret ballot, or is a show of hands okay?”
    Hands it was. They took the No votes first. Mitch and Ella raised their hands quickly, followed a second later by Alicia. She was the youngest member of the council, but one of the teachers, someone with a wide reach among the women with children. How many children had she seen come into school with bruises on them in the old days?
    The Yes votes next. Dolores’s hand went up promptly, followed more slowly by Bren and Phyllis. Neither looked especially happy to be supporting Dolores, but both had their own agenda.
    Three for Cal staying, three against.
    “Then it appears the chair breaks the deadlock,” Kathy said. She paused for a moment. A held breath. “I vote yes.”
    Murmurs rippled around. Mitch sat back in his chair, arms crossed, realizing Ella was mirroring the exact same movement. Well, shit. Kathy banged the gavel to silence the mutters.
    “Quiet, please! The motion is carried, four votes to three. When and if the doctor passes Mr. Richardson as fit and uninfected, he will be offered the chance to stay here on a trial basis to last no longer than three months. Any other business?”
    “Where’s he going to sleep?” Naomi called. She was the group’s quartermaster, making sure everyone had suitable places to lay their heads—not easy in a group like this, with such a range of ages and a mix of childless women and mothers. “I can’t put him up with the girls, and I don’t have any spare rooms.”
    “Perhaps he can share with Mitch?” Dolores suggested.
    Mitch looked up, startled. He’d been busy fuming and deciding exactly what he’d say to Bren when he got her alone. But this shock statement broke him