Silent Heroes: Wildcat

Chapter 22: Danielle's Dilemma

"It's nothing we haven't dealt with before.  Most people will go out of their way to rationalize something these things.  It'll all be forgotten in a month.  Trust me."

"And if it's not?  If it doesn't blow over?  What then, Reza?"

Reza shrugged, his dark, handsome face still perfectly calm.  "There's no sense worrying about it."

Clearly, Danielle did not agree with his assessment.  Her pacing increased in speed and intensity, long legs carrying her swiftly from one end of the room to the other.  She reminded me of a beautiful panther trapped in a tiny cage, angry and agitated. 

I swallowed hard.  She was making me extremely nervous.  "I-is Deanna going to get in trouble for this?" 

Danielle halted in her tracks and turned around to face me.  "Is that who it was?"

"Yeah.  Those guys that got mauled?  She overheard them planning an attack on some girl, so she intervened or... something like that.  I don't know the whole story."

Danielle pursed her lips and angled her head to the side, like an angry mother about to discipline her children.  But Jewel cut in before she could speak.

"Hey, don't you start, all right?"

"I didn't say anything," Danielle protested.

"You were about to."

"Listen, I like Deanna, all right?  She's a good teacher and everything, but she's taking this "Silent Heroes" thing way too far."

"Oh, I see," Jewel's eyes narrowed slightly.  "So protecting someone from being attacked is taking things too far, in your opinion."'

"That's not what I said."

"That's exactly what you said."

"I agree that we should help people, Jewel.  When we can do it safely."

"I don't think she was planning to shift," I said, remembering Deanna's conversation with Shane.

"Whether she was planning to shift or not, the fact is she did," Danielle said, rounding on me.  "And now those men she attacked are on the verge of exposing us. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that's what she wants.  I'd say she wants us to expose ourselves, just so she can play at being... what?  A super hero?"

That crazy gleam suddenly reappeared in Jewel's eyes.  The one that made me feel like she was about to do something both incredibly exciting and incredibly reckless.  "So what if she does?"

Danielle whirled back around and looked at Jewel as if she had just threatened to commit suicide.  "You're not serious are you?"

"I don't understand the point in hiding like this, Danielle," Jewel said.  "I really don't.  So what if normal people find out about us?  What do you expect them to do?"

"I know what they would do, Jewel!" Danielle's voice was rising, and I got the sense she wasn't someone who raised her voice very often.  "They would hunt us down, corral us.  They would lock us up in cages.  They would turn us into slaves or performing freaks!  The worst of them would slaughter us as crimes against God and nature!  They would see us as animals!  As sub-human monsters!"

Danielle was shaking.  Her hands were curled into fists at her sides.  "I understand that you want to help people, Jewel, but this disregard for the safety of your own kind borders on suicidal!  By saving one person, you could be sentencing hundreds more to death.  Is that really what you want?"

"What I want, is to stop hiding and cowering in fear because of what might happen,"  Jewel held up the newspaper, though it was now so crumpled and torn that the snarling tiger looked more like a goat.  "That's what the Silent Heroes Movement is all about, Danielle.  It's about doing the right thing.  No matter what.  If we have to take risks, break laws, even expose ourselves, it doesn't matter.  If we can stop someone from getting hurt or killed, then we should be able to do it.  No questions asked."