Watching Yute (41 page)

“
Hm. Hey, how often do you
loan this thing out, anyway?”

Armil chuckled softly. “This was my
first and likely only time. You have to go back three Grand Elders
to find the last time it was loaned out.”

Cassidy was taken aback. “Woah. If it
gets to the media, it’d be fairly big news, huh?”

“
I’d say, if only because
you’re the first to hold it who was not born Aguei.” Armil seemed
content with himself. He looked over to Keith, who had been
standing by the door, awaiting orders. “Keith, have that man…
‘Horad’, was it? Brought here.”

Keith paused, and then nodded. “Yes
Sir.”

As Keith left, Cassidy turned to Armil.
“Uh, Sir? What are you planning?”

“
I want to talk to him. One
of us may gain some understanding.”

It wasn’t long before Horad arrived,
shackled, and escorted by four Storms. Cassidy stood up, feeling
the need to be ready for anything. She quickly glanced at her hip
to make sure she had her gun.

Horad stood as proudly as he could,
being shackled. He looked back and forth between Armil and
Cassidy.

It was only a moment before Armil broke
the silence. “Horad, have a seat.” He gestured to the spot where
Cassidy had been. Horad and Cassidy both looked a bit perplexed.
More awkward silence.

Cassidy gasped. “Oh, just sit the fuck
down, I’d hate to splatter your brains all over the Grand Elder’s
office. It would be unseemly.” She didn’t think she had licence to
kill him anymore, but the urge was there regardless. She tried not
to look at his hands. Tried not to imagine them pushing that blade
into Cheryl.

Horad gave Cassidy a sullen gaze. He
didn’t seem especially frightened, his face didn’t seem capable of
it, yet he went and sat down across from Armil anyway. The Storms
weren’t too comfortable with the idea of a murderer, chained or
otherwise, so close to the Grand Elder, but they trusted in Armil’s
decisions.

“
Why am I here?” Horad asked
in monotone.

Armil set his sights onto the spear
case sitting between them. “You know why. It is by unlawful actions
that a man is forced before law. And sometimes death.”

“
I meant in this room. Why
am I here? Did you want to see me die?”

Armil sighed. A snarky comment, or was
this man just that delusional? “No, Horad. I take no pleasure in
vengeful death. You might want to be thankful that Leftenent
Stanton does not either.”

Horad grunted.

“
What I want,” continued
Armil, “is to understand what purpose your attack on the temple
served.”

“
I have released the prayer
before the statue. The strength of the Aguei which you sat by and
allowed the government to keep bound, is once again free! You
should thank me, were you not such a useless
figurehead.”

Silence. While Horad felt smug, (but
not allowing his face to show it,) everyone else stared at him in
bewilderment.

Cassidy stared, jaw agape. She tilted
her head slightly, and the syllables dropped out of her mouth like
marbles.

“
In. san. i. ty.
Plea?”

Armil stared at Horad, with his hand
over his mouth. “Where… where do I start trying to understand
that?”

“
The Aguei people have been
repressed by the-“

“
Oh, oh, I understand the
complaints of the Aguei Rights Activists. Where I’m confused is
some prayer releasing our strength?”

Horad grunted in disgust. “You dare
feign ignorance, even now that the spell around the statue has been
broken?”

Armil strained to see the logic. “Who
exactly told you our strength was being… what did you say?
Bound?”

“
I will not betray someone
who helped our people.”

Cassidy let loose an exasperated sigh.
“Horad, ole buddy, old pal, bastard that ruined my life, is this
prayer a metaphor for giving orders to nanites?”

“
Nanites?” Horad’s face
broke from his stoic mask ever so slightly, to show a little
confusion. He was no tech lover by any means, but after the Erebus
attacks, ‘nanite’ had become a household word… even if it was
largely misunderstood.

“
That little wood thing you
left at the statue? It was loaded with em. And the sandstorm you
used as cover to get in and out? Huge nanite fleet.”

“
Ridiculous!” The arrogance
in his voice reminded Cassidy that she had a gun. Oh it would be
easy. It would probably be illegal now that she’d given back the
spear, but that was not a large concern to her.

“
I should have lopped your
head off back in your little ditch. Are you seriously unaware of
it? Next you’ll tell me that the I.R. suit you had on is a
traditional Aguei war outfit.”

Horad’s eyes narrowed slightly. A
sliver of doubt scratched at his mind. It did seem a little odd
that someone who knew a High Elder, would have access to a suit
like that. Surely Samuel was just fortunate in his contacts.
Right?

~~~

So much fun. Kirison flipped to another
slide, peeked down the eyepiece at the little germ, marked a couple
of notes down in the nearby computer. Then flipped to another
slide, and so forth.

This was so much fun. It was amazing.
He was so glad that his life’s work had been made illegal because
of one git and a pile of zombies. Doing the work of a grunt intern
was far more fulfilling than what he had been doing.

So. Much. Fun. Pass the
noose.

More fun yet, he couldn’t work from
home at all. He was stuck in the Lancer lab. Thankfully it didn’t
result in many run-ins with that human barge, Book.

Maybe he shouldn’t begrudge Mr. Book so
much. He was unpleasant to deal with, but he’d been fair enough.
And it wasn’t Book’s fault that the government was full of tightass
knee-jerk reactionary assholes.

It was just that Book made for a good
symbol to hate. Well, and Jonathan Coll, of course.

Flip a slide, take a note, again,
again. He wasn’t even sure what this was for. It was someone else’s
project, and he was a tiny cog in something meaningless to him. It
paid rent though. Time for a break.

He closed up the sample tray and walked
off to the break room, gladly ignoring (and ignored by) the other
techs. As he got close to the coffee machine, he could smell that
the coffee was ancient, and burnt. The little terminal on the table
had been torturing him all week with ‘adult contemporary’ music. He
had tried to get the thing changed to classic rock, but the
supervisor shot that down.

He poured some of the burnt coffee into
his mug, and stared down at it. It seemed to stare back at him with
contempt, daring him to drink it. “Go on, drink me, I taste like
shit! You don’t have the balls to drink me!”

Today, Kirison opted to deny the
stagnant brew it’s victim. He dumped it down the sink, and rinsed
out his mug. Then he grabbed the coffee pot, and dumped the rest.
Take that, you vile, bitter bile.

Perking a fresh pot would take time,
and make a decent excuse to sit around a little longer. And if
someone else noticed him doing it, he’d look like a coffee hero.
When he set the pot to brew, he sat down and stared at the wall.
The wall was a relaxing enough view, but a tad dull.

He dug out his own terminal, and popped
up news headlines as the coffee began its noises.

“
A.R.A. TERRORIST CAUGHT”
Oh, here we go. Kirison was wondering if this would get released to
the news. The story briefly summarized the attack, and something
about a non-Aguei being put in charge of something by the Grand
Elder, blah blah. They showed a few seconds of footage of some lady
with a freaky looking stick, hanging out with a pile of heavily
armoured guys. The news could be so annoying sometimes, When it’s a
story you want to know more about, they can be frustratingly
vague.

Oh well, it was good enough. He knew
Horad was in the clink, thanks to Kirison’s tip. He had done his
part.

The smell of the new coffee had surged
forth, but the stench of the old bitter brew still somehow
lingered.

~~~~~

:::C /39

~~~~~

Cassidy was the last of the group to
step out of the airlimb onto the Yute central pad. Ahead of her
walked a shackled Horad, surrounded by Storms, and led by Keith.
The sun was strong today, and the heat poured up from the deck more
than it was coming down from the sky.

Others on the deck stopped to watch.
Cassidy looked around, and saw that several were throwing her
salutes. She returned them with reserved nods of
acknowledgment.

“
Shoulda gutted him.”
Mumbled one Aguei soldier as she passed by.

Cassidy sighed. The A.R.A. seemed to be
disliked the most by ordinary Aguei, who didn’t want the A.R.A.
damaging Aguei reputation. “Maybe.” She replied.

The thought occurred to her that if she
had killed Horad, it would have made him some kind of martyr for
other A.R.A. to rally behind. Did that possibility dawn on Armil
before he offered her the spear? Whatever. She didn’t kill him, so
there was no sense in painting it all in a political light now.
Still, even a prisoner can be a symbol to help justify A.R.A.
action.

Half way to the door, Cassidy’s
terminal rang.

The display read “Incoming call: Brandy
Wicklow.” Sure. She picked up.

“
Hey, what’s up? How's life
in Densfarn?”

“
Hey yourself. Your little
adventure made the news, huh?” Brandy seemed to be in a decent
mood.

“
Oh yeah? Did they print a
photo of me? Did they get my good side?”

“
Yeah, but you still looked
like a bitch anyway.”

Cassidy sighed. “Yeah, shut
up.”

Brandy tilted her head. “No, no. They
showed a little footage of you at a distance. I guess you were at
some base.” Cassidy wondered when they took that footage. She
hadn’t really been on the lookout for reporters though. “Actually
Cass, they didn’t even mention you by name. They did mention that
you didn’t kill the guy.“

“
Yeah, well, we all make
mistakes. You want to talk to him? He’s like four metres ahead of
me. Charming guy, friendly, funny. In fact, the whole reason I
didn’t lop off his head was cuz of his winning smile.” She raised
her deadpan voice just a little bit, hoping Horad would
hear.

Brandy smirked a little. “Well, good on
ya for sparing the bastard, y’know? Are you serious, he’s right
there?”

Cassidy held up her terminal so its
camera would get Horad in the shot. His back, anyway. “Yup,”
Cassidy said, “Hey Horad! Say hi!” Horad ignored her entirely. She
brought the terminal back down. “Sorry Brandy, I guess you’re not
his type.”

Brandy looked a little stunned. It had
all just become a little more real to her. “Damn, Cass. You’re…
really calm. I mean, that’s the guy? You know it? He’s the one
who…”

“
Yeah. He’s totally
delusional, too. He thought he was on some big mission for Aguei
spirits or something, and the whole time he was just there to
transmit an electronic signal that he didn’t even know he was
carrying. Total pawn.”

“
Shit, that’s
sad.”

Cassidy’s voice grew more sullen.
“Yeah. Killing two people for a made up cause. Completely fucked
up.”

“
Well, even if he was
delusional, he still killed. So, was he hard to catch?”

“
Easier than I expected,”
Cassidy said as they entered the base interior, “but I can’t take
the credit. Besides, we got a really good anonymous tip that told
us right where he’d be. Whoever sent the tip knew a lot, like the
fancy suit Horad had on to dodge the infrared. I wouldn’t mind
talking to that guy. If Horad’s confession to me wasn’t as good as
a conviction under Aguei law, it’d be nice to have a backup
witness, but I guess it’s not too important now. Heck, there's
blood traces on the suit, and-”

Cassidy had to stop walking. The group
had stopped.

“
Keep moving.” One of the
Storms ordered Horad. But Horad just turned around slowly to face
Cassidy. He looked up from his shackles.

“
He sold me out?”

~~~

On the way back to the temple base,
Cassidy leaned her head against the airlimb bay window, watching
the sand rush by below. Her gaze glazed over, looking but not
seeing. Half-thoughts started in her head before she changed her
mind again.

“
Is it done?” Cipriana’s
voice shattered Cassidy’s self-generated oblivion hard enough to
make her jump.

“
Huh? Oh! Hi Cip, what did
you say?”

“
Is it done. Now that the
killer is caught, do we just go back on duty, and go on?“ Cipriana
looked a little spaced herself. Cassidy leaned her head over to see
if she had her fingers crossed.

Cipriana noticed, and held up her hand,
fingers spread. “It’s just me asking. But it doesn’t feel like
closure, does it?”

Cassidy looked out the window again and
scuffed her boot against the deck. “Naw, it doesn’t. Do you wish
I’d killed him?”