Titans of Chaos

Victor put his hands in his pockets, shrugging a bit, and seemed relaxed and faintly amused inthat nonchalant way he had about him now, which he never had had before. He did not look like ayoung god who had just declared war on the universe.

Victor said, "That depends on what you mean by 'work.' Miss Daw, for example, is as much aprisoner as we ever were. I know Colin hates her, but if I could, I would free her. I doubt thechance will present itself. Reality is complex. The most we can hope for in life is partial solutions.

And even such partial solutions as that are temporary, and may require irritating compromises.

That is why I defined my actions in terms of an operational process, not in terms of an end goal.

There is no end. Nothing ever ends. We do what we can when we can. Factors beyond ourcontrol-" He made a gesture at the horizon and the sky, a gesture that seemed to encompass thematerial world, humanity, the stars, the fates, the actions and opinions of other people, all ofexternal reality. "-factors beyond our control... we disregard."

He turned and looked at me.

I have not said what color his eyes are. They are hazel, a penetrating golden brown, like eyes thatcould look at anything, large or small, and would never be afraid: eyes that could see through allthe lies and fears of everyone around him, and penetrate to the cold and certain truth; eyes thatwould never blink and look away, never hold shame, never be uncertain. Victor had beautifuleyes.

He turned and looked at me and said something, but I was not sure what he said, because I waslooking at his eyes.

The words penetrated: "But for now, our goal is to escape from the Olympians, who areapparently still so confident about their ability to recapture us that they are letting us wanderamong the human beings, whom they rule and control. We must prove that confidence to be false,and defeat Olympos. What do we do, Leader?" So it was back to that.

Well, just because I had been railroaded into being leader didn't mean I had to do all the thinkingfor myself. I said, "The floor is open to suggestions. We have already heard from Quentin. Go to adeserted island. Colin... ?"

He was standing with his arms folded, frowning toward the city. He looked up, startled. Perhapshe had not been listening. "What? What is it?"

"We are looking for suggestions."

Colin pointed at the city and said, "Is that Hollywood?"

I said, "What? The city? That's San Francisco. Don't you ever look at maps?"