Watching Yute (43 page)

“
Frig, you're that Regan
chick, aren't you?”

“
Guilty!” she chirped, happy
to be recognized.

Cassidy sighed. The world knew of her,
and her girlfriend. “You still with that Major? Terone?”

“
Yupyup. I'm only here
because Alisia teaches some course about zombies here. I thought
when a gal retired, they stopped working. Pfft.”

“
So, you're waiting for
her?” The media amused itself for some time over Regan 'converting'
Major Terone to lesbianism. Some theorized that Terone had been bi
all along, and just didn't want to advertize it to Regan when they
first met.

Regan paused, looking as innocent as
she could. “She kicked me out of class. Said I was a
disturbance.”

Cassidy couldn't help but chuckle a
little bit. “I think she'll forgive you.”

“
Yeah, I have my ways. So
really, what's with the funky spear?”

Cassidy briefly explained, although
Regan seemed to lose interest half way through.

“
Yeah. I kind of got to do
that. No spear, though. Bullets. And a big-”

Cassidy chuckled again. “I know, I
know. The world knows!” She sighed, and put her hand on Regan's
shoulder. “Hey Regan, listen up. As a fellow 'sister', can you do
me a favour?”

Regan seemed to clue in to the keyword
'sister', and nodded.

“
That Alisia of yours?”
Cassidy said, sighing again, “Treat her good. Treat her like she's
your everything.”

“
I do...! She
is!”

Cassidy smiled. “Good. And make sure
she knows it. Every day, alright?”

Regan nodded again,
solemnly.

With a heavy and envious heart, Cassidy
went back to the helipad, walked across to Armil’s airlimb, and
climbed back onboard. As she made her way to the ops room to see
Colonel Nafim, Cassidy noticed that no one spoke to her. Storms got
out of the way, and sort of stood at attention until she passed.
She glanced at a couple faces as she went. They looked sad to see
her carrying the spear again.

She agreed. It was heavier now,
somehow. Without the rage for Horad to fuel her, it felt like an
imposed duty. She should have told Armil to keep his damned
spear.

She stepped into the ops room. “Hey,
Nafim.”

Colonel Judith Nafim turned away from
her workstation to face Cassidy. “Stanton. I see you’ve spoken with
Armil. You’re on board then.”

Cassidy looked at the spear and sighed.
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am.” The damned spear seemed to be looking
back at her, almost expectantly. “Hell, Colonel, I don’t know what
I’m doing here. I feel like I’m done. Is it just the spear? Am I
here to wave it in Samuel’s face when we find him, and hope it
scares him into a big confession?”

“
That would be nice,” Nafim
said, “Still gotta find him first. And as long as that spear is
‘active’, we’re running Aguei law, which has a lot less red tape
than federal law. Heck, if it was federal law, Horad would probably
still be in a cell waiting for charges to be officially
laid.”

“
Yeah, what about him,
anyway? What’s the process?”

“
Armil gets the final say on
his sentence. Could still potentially be death.”

Cassidy scoffed softly. “I wouldn’t
lose much sleep.”

“
Me either, but he did
supply us with a sketch of Samuel. It’s not a lot, but it’s being
sent around. Checking with tech companies and A.R.A. informants.
We’ll see what we get.”

“
Well, that sure sounds like
work for a gal and her sacred pokey stick,” Cassidy said
sarcastically, “Unless you have something useful for me to do,
Colonel, I think I’ll get some things done in my
quarters.”

Nafim’s voice replied in an
understanding tone. “Sure thing, Stanton. I’ll keep you
posted.”

~~~

Empty.

That’s how she felt, and how her
quarters looked. Nanites bad, blah blah. Whoever is abusing these
nanites could be a national threat, whatever. She had caught the
guy that killed Cheryl, and it didn’t fix a damned thing as far as
she was concerned.

She stuck the spear back on it’s rack,
and flopped down onto the bunk with her terminal, to call Sandy
Lowe. The screen went blank except for the text [Please wait,
ringing.] for a few moments.

Sandy popped up onscreen with a smile.
“Cassie! So good to hear from you!”

“
Hi, Sandy. I’m sorry I
didn’t call earlier. I should have. I assume you’ve seen the
news?”

Sandy’s smile dimmed a little, and she
nodded. “Yeah. You got him. Thank you, Cassie. It couldn’t have
been easy for you.”

With a wry smirk, she pointed the
terminal towards the spear on the wall. “The hard part was not
sticking that into his throat.” She turned the terminal back to
herself. “The thing is, I’m still undecided on whether I should
have.”

“
Hmm. Yes, you neglected to
mention at the funeral that it was an option. I had to hear that on
the news.”

“
Sorry. It didn’t really
seem like the time to mention my ‘licence to kill’. Do you think I
should have done it?” She asked, already predicting her answer,
more or less.

“
That’s not something a
person should do if they don’t have to.”

Hmm. That seemed a little
oversimplified, but she’d let Sandy get away with it. “Oh yeah, and
the reason I remembered to call now…” Cassidy smiled sadly, and
held up her hand to show the engagement ring.

Sandy clutched her hand in front of her
mouth. “Oh! Oh Cassie. It fits?”

“
Yeah. Yeah, perfectly. She
already knew my size.”

“
It came in the mail just a
while ago. It had been bouncing around, being forwarded around
military mail rooms or something until it finally came to the next
of kin. Cassie, you have to come visit us. Soon. And then often.”
Sandy’s eyes were glassy with suppressed tears. Cassidy wondered if
it would be a good idea. She didn’t want to be Sandy’s replacement
for Cheryl. That would be… uncomfortable. She didn’t say anything
about that idea though. She wanted to visit anyway.

“
Sure.” Dammit, Sandy was
going to make her cry. “Oh, let me put you on hold for a second, I
have something you might like.” She put the call on hold, and went
though the collection of photos she had on her terminal. She was
looking for a snapshot of the art Cheryl had painted on the camp
wall.

Immediately, she knew it was a terrible
mistake. To find it, she had to flip through countless other
pictures. Of Cheryl, of the good times, and a couple of the
explicit times. Pictures of her smile. Her eyes.

And now, a pinch of ash that used to be
part of that beauty was crammed in a little pendant.

It was too much for her. She felt
herself shake.

She put the call with Sandy back on,
audio only.

“
Sandy,” her voice trembled.
“I’ll have to send the picture I was looking for later. I have to
go.”

“
Cassie! Are you
al-“

Cassidy disconnected, and with
trembling fingers, set the terminal offline. She held her trembling
hands out front, and watched them tremble uncontrolled. The
pictures of Cheryl bombarded in her mind, nearly knocking her
over.

She wanted to scream.

To scream, and rip, and tear, and
smash, until she passed out. The futility of the idea stopped her,
and that futility infuriated her more. She crumpled into a ball on
the bed, sobbing, and grabbed at the pendant tightly, hoping that
the chain would somehow slice her head off.

And she felt the holster on her hip.
And with a deep breath, stopped shaking.

~~~~~

:::C /41

~~~~~

From: Book

To: Jacob Kirison

Topic: FW: Seeking
assistance

Kirison, you were the go-to man for
nanites in the company ever since Coll disappeared. Does this man
they’re looking for look familiar to you? I thought perhaps you
might know something useful to them.

Original message:

From: Col. J. Nafim

To: Undisclosed recipients

Greetings. If you are receiving this,
it is because you or your organization has in the past been linked
to nanite development. It is important to note that we are not
investigating you for infractions against the anti-nanite
legislation, however we are in search of someone who is.

Attached is a sketch of an Individual
known only as “Samuel”. Samuel is wanted for questioning in
relation to a recent violent crime, resulting in the deaths of two
soldiers

This individual apparently had access
to clothing capable of hiding the wearer from infra red
detection.

I trust that you take possible nanite
offenses seriously, as we all have since the Erebus incident, and
hope that you can supply information to assist us in containing any
possible threat to public safely.

Col. Judith Nafim,

Commander, Grand Elder Guard

~~~

Kirison coughed up a half-chewed bite
of pastrami sandwich, and stared at his monitor in
shock.

He opened up the attached image. Yup,
that was him, more or less. Better than most criminal sketches. He
needed a shave in it, worse than he remembered needing at any
point. But it was him.

This was bad. This was very bad. He
started to feel paranoid until he realized that they actually were
out to get him. Was this room always so small? Damn, damn. What
now? Run, of course.

He looked about quickly to see if
anyone was watching He took a small sample of his blood, and shoved
it under a microscope.

Thankfully, he saw that his ‘insurance
policy’ was still valid. Quite valid. He’d be thankful to Jonathan
Coll’s work about now, if it wasn’t for the fact that the nanite
ban was inspired by Coll’s idiocy.

Kirison took the microscope slide, and
held it over a bunsen burner’s flame for a few moments to get rid
of the evidence in his blood. Alright. Alright. Now what? Now what?
Leave! Alright. There was no time for anything else. Leave.
Disappear.

He grabbed his jacket and his terminal,
and headed for the elevator. A co-worker greeted him along the way,
and Kirison nodded with a polite smile, trying not to raise
suspicion. He got to the elevator, and jabbed the down button a few
times. Relax, relax. Breathe.

The elevator doors opened to reveal Mr.
Book, standing inside stoically, with his usual lifeless, joyless
expression. Book’s eyes turned to Kirison, who was paralyzed with
fear. Seated, Book was intimidating. Standing, he was a gargantuan
monolith of hopelessness.

“
Kirison! Are you getting
on? Today?”

Kirison nodded sharply. “Ah, Sir,
Sorry.” He scuttled onboard, and saw that no other buttons were
lit. Book was coming to see him. He pushed the lobby
button.

“
How are things,
Sir?”

Book huffed, and breathed a few of his
usual deep, congested breaths. “Kirison. Did you see the email I
forwarded to you, from the military?”

“
Ah. Yes Sir, I think I did,
yes, a while ago.”

Book looked at Kirison with a raised
eyebrow. “I must be getting slower. I sent it right before I
started heading down here.”

“
Ah, well, it wasn’t that
long ago.”

Book huffed again. “Looks like some
ugly business.”

“
Yes, Sir, it certainly
does.”

“
Not the kind of thing a
company likes to be attached to.”

“
Oh, No Sir, I expect
not.”

“
Especially when it involves
an experimental piece of hardware walking out the door.”

The I.R. suit. Kirison fell silent. He
was had.

“
It would be a shame,” Book
continued, “if such a talented person as this ‘Samuel’ were to lose
his career, and be unable to contribute his talents to the
world.“

“
Sir?”

“
Perhaps he has reasons for
what he did. Things can go very wrong from time to
time.”

Kirison stared at the lights counting
down the floors. “They… they sure can, Sir.”

“
Perhaps there might be a
future for a person like that. I don’t know for sure, I can’t see
the future.”

For a few floors, they both stared at
the floor counter silently, aside from Book’s laboured
breathing.

“
That was a pretty good
sketch.” Book coughed. “I expect that this Samuel person has one,
maybe two days before the right person opens up their email box,
and turns him in.”

“
One, maybe two.” Kirison
quietly repeated.

“
I can’t see the future. But
I’m sure someone as resourceful as this Samuel person would be well
prepared to disappear for a time. For all we know, he might have a
whole other identity lined up with certain people in organized
crime.”