Veil (60 page)

“Smell, Suren. Smell,” Ken whispered in her
ear and let go of her shoulders. He snapped his fingers at Hunter
and pointed at the chair he’d been sitting on before he leapt up to
help her. Hunter pushed the chair over to within Ken’s grasp, and
Ken positioned it next to Suren’s.

She caught her breath and focused on the
incense Roy smelled. She found herself back inside Roy’s memory.
She experienced Roy recall another instance of Jin walking through
the doors of the hospital. Still a generic memory
,
it was nothing specific. It was pieced together from
how Roy’s mind remembered Jin Tsay.

Over her initial shock, it sunk in. Suren saw
her Jin. She could see him. He stepped through the sliding doors
with his briefcase in his left hand and he looked at Roy. He looked
directly at Roy, smiled, and nodded; Jin looked at Suren, smiled,
and nodded.

Suren gasped. Her right hand covered her
mouth as her left arm reached out and grasped at the air. She let
out what sounded like a half-cough and loudly called out through a
sob, “Jin!” She kept her eyes closed tightly
,
so as not to lose the vision of him, but they still
filled with tears. She sobbed again, softer that time, “Jin.”

Her hand dropped from her mouth, and she
wailed loudly three times. With her eyes still clinched tightly,
she tilted her head back, tears streaming down her cheeks. Suren’s
arms fell to her sides, and she cried as she clinched her eyes as
tightly as she could. She watched her Jin stroll his way through
Roy’s memory toward the elevator
,
until he
was completely out of Roy’s sight.

Suren could no longer see him. With her head
tilted back and her eyes closed, she cried out repeatedly, loudly
at first and then fading, “Jin!! Jin! Jin. Jin. Jin…” When she
couldn’t say his name anymore, she clenched both fists as tightly
as she could—as tightly as she clinched her eyes—raised them above
her head and shrieked. She defiantly shook her fists in the air and
hollered out all of her frustration and anguish and
longing
.

She ripped the Veil from the back of her
neck, dropped it, and stood up. The collar beeped and the silicone
retracted into the base. Everyone else in the room, except Brock,
reflexively stood as well.

Although her body was prepared to lash out
with throws and fits of anger and rage, the sudden ripping away of
her Witness, which was mid-upload, left her dizzy and disoriented.
Lightheaded, she fell backwards into the chair.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” Roy blurted out. “I
don’t know what’s happening, what I did.”

“No, no, Roy,” Ken reassured him. “I was
expecting this. You didn’t do anything wrong. Something like this
it … it’s not going to be easy on anyone. This is normal.”

“Oh … oh ok,” Roy frowned.

Ken sat at Suren’s side and put his hand on
top of her forearm.

“Hunt, can you go get her some water? We
should have thought of that before.”

“Sure, of course. Of course.” Hunter was
already rushing out of the office.

Suren was slumped forward in the chair; her
head was bowed, her arms hung at her sides, and she was completely
quiet and motionless. Hunter came back in the room and handed Ken
the water.

“Here … drink, lady.” He squeezed her
forearm.

She took a deep breath and sat up. She
grabbed the glass of water, took a sip
,
and handed it back to Ken.

“Did … did I ruin it?” she asked, looking
down at her collar. “Did I break the Veil?” She picked it up and
examined it.

“No, babe. No. Once you took it off it
stopped transmitting. That’s how the old collars are programmed.
Once you put it back on and initiate it, the Veil will start right
back up where it left off. Take your time.”

She scanned the room. “I’m sorry you guys …
I’m … I’m—”

“Don’t you dare, Ms. Suren Tsay,” Roy scolded
her and wagged his finger.

She sighed and followed it with a chuckle.
“This is … this is,” she mumbled and held up her collar.

“Something else, huh?” Hunter finished.

“My God
.
My God,”
was all she could muster.

From the corner of the room came the voice of
Brock’s computer. “You should have seen mine. I bet yours doesn’t
have tits in it.”

Suren gave a huge smile, let out a
screech
,
and covered her mouth. When the
laughter subsided, she peered over Ken’s shoulder at Hunter, raised
her eyebrows, and replied, “I don’t think I wanna know.”

“Snitch!” Hunter barked toward Brock, who was
still grinning, as pleased with himself as ever.

After everyone calmed down, Ken put his hand
on Suren’s knee.

“We still have a lot to go through. The day
you came to the hospital with Jin. The day of the … of Jin’s
murder. The day he came back with the pizzas to … to, you know. And
the day Roy … the day he helped Jin leave, the day Jin let go.”

“I was meaning to ask,” Hunter interrupted.
“How come you didn’t have Roy recall the day he got Jin’s memory?
And the day he sent the message out?”

“I didn’t find it important,” Ken turned his
upper body and answered Hunter. “There’s not going to be anything
useable in those memories, nothing pertinent. And, well,” he turned
back to Suren, “the last memory is going to be trau … uhhh … hard
enough as it is.”

Suren nodded in acknowledgement.

“Ok, I’m ready,” she softly spoke as she
lifted the vCollar above her head and repositioned it.

Ken quietly spoke as well, mirroring Suren’s
volume, “Now for this next part, I want you to be prepared. It’s
going to be hard, too. This next part will be you. You and Jin. The
day of your Veil. From Roy’s perspective.”

“I understand,” she replied. “I think I’m
over the shock of it. It’s just hard. Seeing him. It’s not like the
videos from the elevator. It’s like I’m really … I’m really—”

“Seeing him,” Roy finished.

“Yes, seeing him,” she whispered. “And thank
you. For giving me this.”

“Of course. Of course.”

When her Veil resumed the uploading of her
Witness, she was instantly struck by the smell. The smell of
incense
,
which completely dissipated from
the room she was sitting in. In Roy’s perception that she began to
experience again, the smell was still as strong as ever, and it
helped her slip right back into being Roy.

“Dang,” she announced to the room, “that
incense trick really works.”

Suren heard herself direct Roy to remember a
time he might’ve seen her before. Seen her with Jin. With Jin at
the hospital. A time when she went with Jin all the way to the
elevator, not just in the lobby. A time that Suren came into the
hospital with Jin. She referenced the specific date of the
incident, which Ken believed would trigger Roy’s memory as well,
even if unconsciously
.

Roy remembered with some vagueness a time
when he saw Ms. Tsay before. He had trouble remembering, but he
knew he saw her before, coming into the hospital with Jin. It
didn’t stick out really, really well in his memory because he
didn’t interact with them, but he remembered it in the sense that
it was out of the ordinary, so it acted as a kind of marker in his
unconscious. As Suren spoke, directing his brain to recall that
day, it took shape in his mind.

Through Roy, Suren saw herself and Jin enter
the hospital. She braced herself, like Ken suggested. However, the
way it played out for her, seeing a memory of herself in a
situation she couldn’t remember, was kind of creepily surreal. It
gave an impression of watching a movie, with actors portraying her
and Jin. It made her giggle.

Then it passed. She and Jin left Roy’s sight
and presumably rode the elevators to Jin’s lab. She heard herself
instruct Roy to try to remember, later in that same day, when Ms.
Tsay left the hospital, noting that she would’ve left not too long
later and would’ve been alone. She again referenced the specific
date to trigger his mind.

Suren immediately noticed Roy’s memory of
that situation seemed clearer. The hospital was suddenly brighter
and became more detailed and defined than when she and Jin walked
in together. Roy recalled that incident specifically and with
greater clarity
,
because he seemed to find
himself more personally involved in that moment. Since he was
personally involved, his brain absorbed and retained more of the
information, more of the detail
.

Roy’s brain responded to Suren’s directions.
As his memory recalled that day, the scene filled up Suren’s mind.
An image began to take shape
.
Hazy at
first, then taking the form of a person—a face. A person stood in
front of Roy, face-to-face with him. Roy was at his station talking
with that person. The more Roy’s brain responded to Suren’s
directions, the more the face took shape.

With her eyes closed, Suren bolted upright
and put her hands on either side of her vCollar. She grabbed onto
it tightly. She stood
.
Her eyes were still
closed and she was still holding onto her collar. She let out
increasingly loud groans. They were groans of disbelief and
disgust.

Her “ehhhh … ehhhhh … ehhhhhh…” sounds turned
into “nooo … nooo…” and then a final, “NO!”

With that last word, her eyes flew open; she
ripped off her collar and flung it across the room. It hit the
wall, slid down
,
and landed on the
floor.

Suren shouted, “No! No! No!” She shook her
headed and covered her ears.

Ken jumped up and stood in front of her. He
grabbed her by the wrists.

“What?” he yelled. “What? What did you
see?”

Her eyes widened and she took a step back,
which forced Ken to let go of her wrists. Her arms fell down to her
sides
.

Suren’s eyes remained wide, but all emotion
fell from her and she appeared entranced and disconnected.

“I saw him.”

“Him?” Ken replied, followed quickly by,
“HIM?”

“Yes. Him!”

“Ok, you saw him.”

She pointed at Roy. “Roy was talking to him,
I don’t know about what, but as I walked by, he turned and saw me.
He left Roy’s station and walked over to me.”

“He walked over to you? What do you mean he
walked over to you?”

“Exactly what I said! Let me finish!”

“Ok, ok lady.”

“Roy saw him walk over to me. Roy saw him say
something to me. And then … and then…”

“And…”

She fell back onto her chair and, in utter
disbelief, flatly stated, “And then we walked out together. Me and
him. Roy watched me walk out of the hospital with Jin’s
killer.”

Speechless, Ken moved backwards until he fell
onto his chair as well.

Genuinely confused, Roy looked back and forth
between Suren and Ken and asked, “I saw all that?”

K
en was unconscious
and lying on a bed. Hunter rambled on and paced in the background.
Suren dabbed Ken’s forehead with a damp cloth. He was sweating
and
,
although unconscious, was still
writhing and moaning.

Over and over, Suren whispered to him, “I’m
sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Hunter walked
to the windows. He raised his arms and entwined his fingers across
the top of his head. “I’ll tell you one thing, though. He,” Hunter
swung around and pointed at Ken, “is never using Veil ever fucking
again. Ever. Over my dead, gay ass body.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Suren repeated
him.

It took nearly five hours for Ken to scream
himself into unconsciousness. Five hours straight. The chemical
Hunter used in the past to block Ken’s access to Jin’s memory
didn’t work. Using it was a tossup anyway. They merely hoped it
would do something.