Hours later they arrived in Denver. It was sunny morning, with beautiful views of the mountains around. But Regina hadn't registered it at all, because thoughts about their conversation occupied her mind. Now he knew almost everything about her but one thing. She hadn't told him that that night backfired at her for the third time and that it had cost her another job because only a close circle of high-ranking persons knew about ROTOR.
All three of her guests were awake when they spotted a big ad for the open-air market.
"Hey, can we make a detour there? I need my veggies to stay in my glorious shape," Darius jumped in his seat and moved his head between her and Marcus' seat.
The last thing what she wanted to do was to go to the market and stroll between a large section of vegetables and fruits and a significant amount of people. She was so tired, not only physically, but morally also.
"What about others? Let's vote," she said tiredly.
"I'd like to go there too; I want to taste what your soil is offering." Marcus looked fresh after he'd fell asleep a couple of hours ago, and sheepishly looked at her, "It won't take long. Right after that, we'll go to the hotel. I promise."
She glanced in the rearview mirror at Kos, who was looking back at her almost pleadingly, "I thought, that you're a protein guy with all your mass, but okay, I take it as you also want to go."
He grunted, and half smiled back. Three to one. She sighed and turned to the market.
It was a huge field of tents with vendors who offered their ecologically clean products. Or so they said to everyone, who came closer to look at their offerings. All kinds of vegetables, fruits, salads, greenery, herbs, and even spices and nuts. To say that there were a lot of customers was nothing. The market was swarming with them, and it seemed that everyone was obsessed with eco-products. She even heard someone asking what kind of fertilizers they used and was disgusted after hearing a couple of answers. It didn't mean that she didn't know about using shit for growing but learning something in school and hearing it now were two different things, and she doubted that she would eat veggies in the near future. Brr...
But the guys were all over everything. They were like kids in a toy room. Who could have ever thought? All three of them were with big paper bags each, with a lot of eco-goodies in them. A lot of products they saw for the first time and wanted to taste it. For half of them, she didn't even know how to cook it. Like artichokes, squashes, or asparagus.
They stopped at one tent, where boys wanted to buy nuts. In front of them was an old couple, who were asking the seller something in another language, and he was standing in a stupor with wide eyes, not knowing what to do, because he couldn't understand them. The couple was frustrated and gesticulating, trying to explain to him what they want when Marcus greeted the couple in another language.
"Is that...Japanese?" she said.
"Chinese," Marcus said. "Mandarin, to be specific." Then he stunned her by talking back in rapid-fire Chinese to the vendors.
They turned to him, faces happy, and in a rapid staccato of syllables started talking with him.
"They're asking you if these macadamia nuts are truly from China?" Marcus asked the seller, who exhaled in relief and with a sincere smile confirmed its origin.
Marcus translated and helped them to place the order. The happy couple went away, and Marcus stood a bit taller, as if proud of what he did.
The equally happy three Marsikons went away from the tent with her. Darius and Kos were eating almond like there was no tomorrow. Marcus offered her his bag of pistachios, and she gladly dug into them, sipping her water from the bottle in between.
She asked looking at him expectantly. "Where did you learn Mandarin?"
"Marsikons have several basic languages, and Mandarin is one of them. Every Marsikon can choose which language they want to learn more deeply, but in the end, almost everyone knows every language at least on a basic level. It isn't mandatory to learn it at school; it's just a choice that every person makes. It's respect to each nation. After we went underground, we were left so few, that we needed unity, and by learning all languages we managed to stay united through the hard times."
"And what about your ID?" Regina scowled at him.
"Oh, good memory you have," he chuckled leaning down to her while they were trying to go through the crowd. "In documents we still use Sanskrit."
"Hmm..." she hummed thoughtfully. Her brain was slowly working, and she was half asleep, but despite it, something caught her eye.
Marcus was telling her something else when they were coming closer to the end of the aisle, but she tuned him out focusing her gaze on the boy who was moving suspiciously at the last tent. He was looking at the stand with fruits, and when the vendor asked him something, he just shook his head and turned around. But when another customer came closer, the boy swiftly turned back, grabbed something, and jolted running outside of the market.
Little thief, I'll show you how to steal!
All her instincts came awake, and sleepiness was gone in an instant. She went right after him shouting, "Stop right now, fruitlifter!"
Faintly she heard Marcus shouting at her to stop but she couldn't. She needed to catch him and return the fruit.
One second, Regina was running, her legs eating the ground and getting her closer to the fast boy, and the next she went airborne. Somebody tackled her from behind and turned her around so swiftly that her stomach even flipped a bit. Marcus turned her to him still gripping her shoulders. She tried to break free, but his hold was steel.
"What the hell! He stole a fruit, and I need to catch him," she shouted in his face breathing heavily.
"Regina, stop!" he shook her a bit; his breath wasn't even either. "Did you not see how thin he was. He's probably starving, and this fruit is maybe the only nourishment he had in three days."
"And what? It doesn't mean that he can just go and steal what he wants whenever he wants. If he won't get caught, the next time he'll steal something bigger and will go to jail. I need to teach him a lesson," she growled, stomping her foot.
Marcus looked frustrated, still gripping her, he leaned closer in her face, "The problem is not in him stealing something, the problem is that he doesn't have money for food. Or his parents don't have money to feed him. You're so smart but could be such a fool sometimes. This is the problem that I've told you about. You have a lot of poor people with no job. And they can't get a job, because they don't have a proper education. But to get this education, you need money. It's a vicious circle and the greatest problem of big countries. Give them a job, give them a salary, and they won't steal."
"Oh, you think that rich people don't steal?" she laughed bitterly in his face.
"It's the second biggest problem –greed. These people need to learn how to share. But it's not what we're talking about right now."
"It's not so simple what you're telling about the job."
"Yes, it is. On Mars, we don't have poor people, because no one claims ownership of a particular resource. What we focus on is a contribution for the well-being of our community. They're doing their job, and even if it's something minimal, they know that they do it for the good of everyone. If you want to do something good, pay that vendor for the thief."
Was he joking? No, his face was solemn.
"If I'll start to pay for everyone who steals, soon I'll be stealing myself because I'll be out of money. And who would pay for me then?"
"People who are like you. People like me. Don't be so focused on yourself," Marcus said accusingly and sharply released her arms taking a step back. "There are good people in the world. I'm just asking you to consider whether you want to be a part of their world—or one where people steal because they were left to starve."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" she stepped to him and raised her chin in defiance.
"I mean, that you're so focused on catching people, who in your vision is bad; on making this world safer, that you don't see that they're not the ones who are criminals. You think that you're so righteous, so superior. But do you even realize, that you just did the crime far worse than that little hungry boy?"
Now he was doing that again, staring at her down his nose and she wanted to punch him in it.
"What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Talking. About." She barked at him with rising fury. She was the most law-abiding citizen who knew every law by heart. Did the sun boil his brain?
He folded his arms in front of him and in a silky voice asked, "Where is your bottle of water, Regina?"
He purred her name with such caress, that she shivered and for a moment forgot that she was mad at him. "It's there somewhere. I dropped it because I needed to free my hands to catch that boy."
"Ah, you dropped it. And it's normal for you. Thinking that somebody eventually would pick it and drop it in the bin, or if it will stay scattering around it's not a big deal, is it? It's not a crime to drop a plastic bottle on the ground, is it?"
He leaned down again and in a quiet voice said, "But it is a crime," His voice rose with every word. "It's a crime, because of the people who think like you, your planet is being polluted and is slowly dying. You don't see it for now, because your brain is full of catching 'bad guys.' But for your planet, you're the bad guy. You're a killer of everything that is alive now," without waiting for a reply, he turned around and went in the direction of her car without waiting for her.
Regina stood there blinking, her anger slowly melting away. Suddenly she was so tired, that all that she wanted was just to lay right there and fall asleep. She turned around and saw Darius with Kos a couple of steps back.
Darius pursed his lips and raised his arms in an "I'm out of here" gesture, and Kos only exhaled tiredly. Then they slowly went away after Marcus.
She couldn't remember the last time someone scolded her like that. Maybe in school for her crazy behavior. She wanted to argue with Marcus, tell him that he was wrong, shout at him to stop, and continue this bullshit conversation. But something in her stopped her and made her think for a second. Was he telling her that throwing a bottle somewhere outside of the bin what had killed Mars? She was too tired to think about it now, but she needed to prove to him, that she wasn't a bad guy. On heavy legs, she went back to the market, found her dropped water, drank it, and put it in the specially designed bin for plastic.
Then she went and paid for the stolen fruit and even felt something lifting inside when the vendor thanked her profusely for the apple. Now she was a good guy, right?
She slowly shuffled to her car and sat behind the wheel. Marcus was aloof, staring at the horizon and she couldn't decipher his mood. Was he mad at her or just deep in his thoughts? And why she cared if he was mad at her? Why she suddenly started to care what he thought about her? All these questions were just too hard for her right now.
She carefully drove down the streets in search of their hotel, when she spotted him. When she parked the car and quietly came from behind, he was hungrily eating the stolen apple. Indeed, he was thin as a stick, maybe ten years old, and his clothes were heavily worn out and a couple of sizes too big.
When she said "Hey," he turned around and almost choked on his apple and wanted to run, but she quickly reassured him, that she wouldn't call the authorities, that she paid for that apple and he was out of trouble. He looked like a scared mouse, ready to bolt at any minute and her heart squeezed in sympathy from the look on his face. It was desperation and longing. When she asked him to tell about his family, she'd found out that his dad had left them, and his mom couldn't find a permanent job. That he was fourteen, and not ten like she thought.
She left her phone number and gave him more money with the promise to buy healthier food. She promised to help his mom to find a job, maybe not in this city, but somewhere else. At the end of their conversation, she saw hope in his eyes, and he even smiled a little, thanking her for her kindness.
Her eyes were full of tears when she went back behind the wheel. She wanted to weep for him, for Donovan, and she barely held herself together putting her sunglasses on.
Marsikons hadn't said a word on the way to the hotel, while silent tears were strolling down her face.