Children of the Knight (27 page)

Jack looked away again. “I know, but….”

“Remember on the streets, Jacky, what we always hoped for and wished for and talked about?”

Jack did not meet his eyes. He just nodded. “Yeah. A family that would accept us and love us.”

“Right,” Mark confirmed enthusiastically. “And we’ve found that here with Arthur and Lance and the others.”

Jack returned his gaze to Mark’s earnest face. “They don’ all accept us here, ’specially them gangsters. I been hearing ‘faggot’ whispered when I’m around.”

“So?” Mark replied, moving around to sit right in front of his friend and forcing their eyes to meet. “We’re always gonna hear that shit from somebody. But they won’t try anything here cuz you’d crush ’em with these guns a yours.”

He squeezed Jack’s biceps and grinned, which sent a shiver of longing through Jack’s entire body, but still elicited a smile.

“Look, Jacky, you’re my best bud and always will be. But we got a home now. We got Arthur, an’ he’s the best thing to ever happen to a guy. It’ll be great, you’ll see!”

His gushing enthusiasm finally overwhelmed Jack, who smiled and dropped his knees, grabbing the boy he loved in a tight hug. “You’re right, Marky Mark. I just worry about you, that’s all.”

“Well don’t,” Mark said against his shoulder as they held each other. “Arthur’ll take care of me.”

That made Jack frown again, and his heart drooped even lower. It felt like he might be losing Mark after all, but
not
to Lance.

A
FTER
lunch, the hundreds of kids of varying ages and backgrounds, including the few girls who usually clung to Reyna, gathered in The Hub and packed it so tightly it was a miracle anyone could even breathe. Arthur sat upon his throne, Lance seated by his side. Eager faces gazed up at the king expectantly.

“To all of thee I posit a question,” Arthur began when everyone had settled. “Doth any of thee believe thy city, indeed, thy state and country, hath at its core the best interests of children?”

“Fuck, no!” spat Esteban with a disgusted laugh.

Arthur gazed at the handsome boy without malice but with firmness, and Esteban got the point.

“My bad, homie, it’s a habit.”

Arthur nodded. “One of an excessive number of bad habits taught to thee by thy parent’s generation.”

“How you mean?” Darnell put in. “My granny, she don’t cuss none at all.”

Arthur nodded again. “And yet, in thine entertainment—which was not in existence in my time—thy music and movies—art not these cuss words utilized with frequency?”

Darnell shrugged. “Yeah, so?”

“And doth these entertainments for children be created
by
children, or by adults?”

Darnell and Esteban exchanged a look, and Esteban nodded Arthur’s way. “Okay, so what about it?”

“Doth thou know the meaning of the word hypocrite?” Arthur asked the assembly at large.

Reyna called out, “Yeah, my parents!”

And the assemblage laughed.

“How so?” pressed Arthur.

All eyes turned to Reyna, as usual holding court in the rear. Esteban winked at her, but she ignored him. “My parents complain about poor people who don’t take good care of their kids and let ’em run wild, ’cept they do the same thing, right? Where are they now—partying in Italy while they pay me to stay here and do whatever I want.”

“Well said, Reyna,” Arthur replied. “Hypocrites decry behaviors they themselves doth do. Rich or poor, it doth not matter. All that be of import is values.”

“Okay, Arthur,” said Esteban, turning these ideas over in his head. “So what’s that got to do with music and movies and sh—stuff?”

Arthur noted the near slip with a slight smile. “Alas, the very activities and language children be punished for in this state be the very same activities most common in the entertainment for their usage.”

That light went on in Esteban’s head, and he turned to Darnell and the others with a revelatory look. “He’s right, homies. All the sh—stuff that’s in our music and movies, that’s the same stuff we get busted for and kicked outta school for and… even kicked outta the house for.” He glanced around at a lot of nodding heads.

“What about all the grownups who abuse us kids, Arthur?” Lavern asked. “I know kids beaten by their folks, well, like me, and nuthin’ happens to the parent. But the kid beats on another kid smaller ’n ’im, and he goes to juvy.”

“Or prison,” Duc, the Korean gang member called out. All eyes turned to him. “One a my homies tried to kill his mamma’s boyfriend cuz the guy used to beat the sh—crap outta him and her. Nuthin’ happened to that guy, but my homie’s down for twenty-five to life. He’s only fourteen, man.” Duc shook his head with anger, and further livid murmurings rippled through the chamber.

Arthur cleared his throat, and silence fell once more. The king eyed Lance beside him. The boy had been attentively following the conversation, his own bitter life experiences rising in his throat like bile. “And what, Lance, doth thou think might improve the lot of children in this city?”

Lance considered a moment, and then the idea struck like lightning, something he’d considered from time to time, but had never articulated. “Methinks kids should be able to vote,” he announced, almost like a candidate running for election.

A ripple of excitement ran throughout the group.

“Yeah, right!” Tai, the Samoan boy, spat out. “Like that’ll happen.”

“And yet,” Arthur went on, “Lance maketh an excellent point. According to the laws of adults, art not children considered to be as adults when they do something wrong, but
not
when they do something right?”

Now Esteban piped up again, almost excitedly. He’d thought about this one before, especially after Shadow went down. “Yeah, guys, he’s right. We ain’t adults today to vote for these ass—these idiots, but tomorrow we’re adults for being in a gang or gettin’ caught up in a crime. It’s bullshit!” He turned to Arthur. “Sorry, Arthur, but there ain’t no other word for it.”

“But there is,” Arthur assured him. “The correct word is
stupid
.” That got a laugh from the assemblage. “If a child of fourteen beeth an adult for criminal purposes, should not the same fourteen year old beeth an adult for the purposes of voting? Doth that not seem fair, lads and ladies?”

There was a huge cheer from the crowd, and Lance grinned at Arthur, who acknowledged him with a nod.

“Esteban, Tai, Darnell, Jaime, Duc, and any others of ye who belongeth to these gangs,” Arthur went on. “What beeth the benefits?”

The shot callers exchanged looks. Most shrugged, and Darnell just pointed to Esteban. “You tell ’im, cuzz. You the smart guy here.”

Esteban looked at Arthur. “We run our own, don’t gotta listen to the stupid adults,” he began. “We got power in the streets—people’s scared a us. We got respect!” The others nodded. “But ya know, Arthur, the homies be like a family, like what you got going here. Mosta us, well, there ain’t much at home, ya know? My moms, she tries, but she works two jobs and don’t have no time for me. She’s got my baby sister to mind.”

“Doth there be no father in thy home?” Arthur asked, suspecting the answer.

“Hell, no!” Esteban spat. “If I ever find that muther—my
jefe
, I’ll kill ’im!”

Esteban’s virulent response troubled Arthur, but he let it pass for now. “And what of thy baby sister’s father?” he went on, knowing he was now likely treading very dangerous waters. But he had a point to make.

Esteban shrugged. “Oh, he was just some guy my moms hooked up with. He didn’t stick around.”

“And doth this
hooking up
be good behavior to teach children, or poor?” Arthur said, uncertain of Esteban’s reaction, and preparing himself for the likely explosion of fury to come.

Esteban glowered a moment and almost cussed, but his legendary calm quickly asserted itself.
Shit
, he thought.
This was his moms they was talkin’ about! But the guy was right, wasn’t he?

“It’s poor,” he reluctantly admitted, and no one challenged his assessment. Most had had similar experiences with their own mom or dad, or even themselves. They’d never thought of it as being bad—hooking up was just something people did for fun, without thinking. They’d never considered the possible consequences before.

“So whadda we do about all this shit?” Esteban spoke again, forcing himself to stay calm. “There ain’t nuthin’ gonna change it.”

Heads nodded all around him. Even Reyna nodded her agreement.

Arthur stood and gestured for Lance to stand beside him. “
We
shalt change it. All of us gathered here today. But we shalt not begin with thine elected officials, nor thy corrupted school system, nor thy so-called peace officers. Nay, my lads and ladies, we shalt begin where any revolution must needs begin—with the
people
.”

Excited murmuring wafted through the group, but no one even thought to argue. That’s why they were here, after all. They wanted something different. They needed something better. And they still hoped Arthur might be that something.

Chapter 6

W
ITHIN
the Hollenbeck Division Gang Task Force Unit, the officers on duty were bored. Most sat at their desks surfing the net, looking for deals on electronics, or scrolling vacation spots on travel sites. There had been no gang activity of any notable sort since before the weekend—just the standard drug dealing, but no shootings or turf battles of any note, and that “tag” hadn’t appeared anywhere else within the city. Such a development was not only surprising, but in its own way, disturbing. This kind of quiet was abnormal, like the eye of a hurricane, and officers worried about just how big that hurricane might turn out to be and when it would strike.

Ryan sat at his computer gnawing on a pencil, scrolling through site after site, devouring everything he could unearth on King Arthur, both the mythical and the historic. Gibson sat at his own desk, his computer open to similar sites, but at the moment, he was frantically texting on his phone. Frustrated, he slapped the phone down with a disgusted sigh.

“Teenagers,” he grunted. Several detectives around the squad room turned his way with a sympathetic nod.