Enlightened Ignorance

by Michael Anderle

  Admitting she had specifically tweaked the recipe based on comments Erik had made now and again might be too obvious. She still wasn’t sure what her overall plan was with Erik but being able to cook her way to his smile couldn’t be a bad thing.

  “How is everything going with your family?” Erik asked. “You hadn’t mentioned them in a while, and I wasn’t sure if that meant they gave up.”

  “Oh, they seemed to have settled into grudging acceptance that I threw away a perfectly good man, but that doesn’t mean they’ve given up.” She eyed him. “Lins don’t give up. Ever. That might as well be our family motto.” Jia hid her grimace with a quick sip of her cup of tea. Having a meal with Erik was far easier than discussing her dating life with him. It was like increasing the difficulty during a tactical simulation.

  The stray thought made her grateful Emma hadn’t chimed in.

  When Jia thought about it, Emma almost never talked to them anymore when Erik was at Jia’s apartment. Did the AI understand how Jia felt? That seemed ridiculous. Just because Emma was human-like, it didn’t mean she appreciated the complexities of human concepts like attraction. Emma hadn’t stopped calling humans fleshbags. If anything, it might be worse than before.

  Erik sipped his beer before his response. “You’re saying the Great Lin Women Matrimony Plan is still in play? One that ends with you married to the perfect businessman?”

  Jia nodded. “Yes. It’s not that they haven’t learned any lessons, and they respect my police career now that I’m famous and successful. Unfortunately, they’ve adapted.”

  His raised eyebrow encouraged further explanation.

  She went on, “They’re being less condescending and pushy about it, but that doesn’t mean they’ve given up. They’re just framing it in different ways and stressing how much they want to help me—that kind of thing. Mother is even trying to suggest certain people who might help me in future corruption investigations.” She laughed. “You know what the worst part is?”

  “What?”

  “I’m not even lying to them when I tell them I’m too busy for a personal life. Even if I hadn’t broken it off with Corbin, he would have gotten sick of my lack of availability.” She considered it for a moment. “I’ll worry about a personal life once the city calms down for more than a couple of months at a time.”

  It wasn’t a total lie.

  Hanging out with Erik, whether during tactical training, at the bar, or going to sphere ball games might be considered a personal life. She preferred to think of it as bonding with her partner when off-duty. She also saw her friends.

  Not enough recently, but it wasn’t like they’d stopped hanging out altogether.

  Erik shrugged. “Big metro. Big crime.”

  “It’s like every time I begin to think about it, something big happens. Even the most recent case. It didn’t end with fighting giant security bots, but we still had to deal with a crazy manager and mercenaries. Most people won’t understand if I have to constantly cancel dates with them because I’m off running down leads. I’m beginning to think dating isn’t worth the trouble.”

  It would be worth it if she had someone who understood in a direct sense the sacrifices it took to be a police officer.

  Erik looked thoughtful. He opened his mouth but didn’t speak for several seconds. “It might not be my business, but it didn’t seem like Corbin had a problem with your job. I thought that was one of the big reasons you started dating him.”

  “You’re right,” Jia admitted. “He didn’t, but we weren’t compatible long-term, and I’m not a coward. I’m not going to let a problem linger until it gets worse.”

  Erik waved his hands. “Not disagreeing. I like to take things down when they’re small, too.”

  She took a sip of her tea. “This is going to sound messed up, but I need someone with enough fire in their heart to care about not seeing me, but at the same time understanding that being a detective is a job with irregular hours. Crime and terrorism don’t keep to a schedule. I understand that’s unfair, but right now, the most important thing to me is being a cop.”

  “I don’t think it’s unfair. Everyone has their priorities.” Erik picked up his beer to take another sip. He’d been nursing a single beer, but they had been at the bar until recently. That might explain it, although he often drank less when he was at her apartment.

  She tried not to read too much into it.

  “But it doesn’t hurt until you try,” Erik continued.

  “I know,” Jia replied. “For now, though, I wish Mother and Mei would back off a bit. Their familial love is assault-grade.” She let out a laugh. “I’d tell them that I was dating someone, but Lin women don’t believe something unless they can see it in person and glare at it. They’d see through that lie in minutes without someone to throw in front of them.”

  Erik’s sudden wide grin was almost unsettling. “If you need evidence, you should give them evidence. Come on, you’re a cop. You work with evidence every day.”

  Confusion enveloped her face. Her scrunched nose was adorable he thought as she finally gave voice to the question. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s simple. Give them a fake boyfriend to interact with.” Erik smirked. “I mean someone real, but who’s just pretending to be your boyfriend.”

  Jia leaned back, staring at her partner like he’d gone insane. “That’s your suggestion? A fake boyfriend? Saying I’m dubious that it will work is an understatement.”

  “Hear me out.” He adjusted his sitting position and leaned forward. “There was this woman I served with years ago, Fatimah. We did a few tours together, light counter-insurgency stuff, mostly. We were both lieutenants at the time.” Erik smiled wistfully. “It wasn’t that long after I got my commission, and I was still getting used to being an officer instead of enlisted. We clashed at first because I had a decent number of years of experience before making the jump to the officer corps, but she was an elite. Even went to the Academy.”

  Jia nodded. “You said she was an elite. You’re talking about the Academy in Berlin?”

  His stare went distant for a moment, but she caught it. “Yeah. We ended up being good friends eventually.”

  “Friends?” Jia asked, trying not to sound too curious or jealous. “Or something more?”

  “Just friends.” Erik’s face didn’t change. “Anyway, her family was a lot like yours, mostly political types. They expected her to go into government service, but something a little less dangerous than the Army.” He snickered. “And they didn’t think having a daughter who was deploying away from Earth for combat was all that great for her marriage prospects. One day, I overheard her sending a message to her family, explaining how she fell in love with this guy. I was surprised because I hadn’t heard about her dating anyone, and when I asked her, she told me she’d made the whole thing up and would hire a lookalike actor when she went back home on leave, especially given how much she built up the guy. She was going to arrange for him to say something insulting to her mother, so she could break up with him publicly while looking like she was doing it to defend her family’s honor.”

  He shook his head, smiling. “She figured they’d leave her alone while she wasn’t on Earth, and then leave her alone for a good six months or so after the breakup since by the time she got back for leave, she would have been dating her alleged man for a while.”

  Jia set down the cup of tea she’d been sipping. “That is…elaborate. Did she actually hire an actor?”

  “Yeah.” Erik slapped his knee, grinning like it was the most amusing thing he’d remembered in weeks. “From what she told me, the guy got super into it. He wanted all this background information to make it convincing. It kind of fell apart during the big introduction to the parents because he forgot to insult her mom. After they met her parents, good old Mom and Dad started pressuring her to get married right away. They insisted he was the best man she’d ever dated.”

  “You’re joking!” Jia laughed.

/>   Erik shook his head. “Nope. They wanted her to get married, leave the Army, and return to Earth, especially since she had lied about her fake boyfriend being a businessman. She’d done several frontier tours already, and they had a lot of friends in high places, so they figured it’d be easy to pull her out of the Army early.”

  “How did it turn out?” Jia asked, leaning forward with interest.

  “Fatimah lied her way into the situation, so she lied her way out of it. She claimed she caught her boyfriend sleeping with another woman. Her parents were disappointed and encouraged her to have nothing to do with him. According to Fatimah, they were depressed for a few months after that. They were really looking forward to having the guy as a son-in-law.”

  Jia let her mind wander, staring at the rugged angles of Erik’s face. He was almost always smiling. Even though she knew that sometimes it was a facade, it didn’t matter. She’d seen the man in action, and that would have made him handsome to her even if he’d looked like a Zitark.

  She blinked a few times, trying to clear her head. “Uh, no offense, Erik, but your fake dating scheme seems like more trouble than it’s worth, and unlike Fatimah, I won’t be light-years away to hide a fake.”

  “That’s true.” Erik scratched his eyelid. “I can’t help thinking about it. It was a crazy plan, and it almost worked. Maybe I should get a fake girlfriend. It might solve some of my problems.”

  “I don’t understand. I thought your parents had passed away.”

  “Yeah, they have, but there are a couple of people down at the station who have sisters or cousins who would love to date me. Halil’s been pushing his cousin lately.”

  Jia quirked a playful brow. “Oh, are they baristas?”

  Erik shrugged. “I don’t think dating a relative of anyone at the station is a good idea, and I’ve got a lot more baggage than most. With me, it’s not just a busy cop they’d be dating, it’s a guy who is still hunting some pretty nasty and powerful people, and it’s not like I can tell anyone about that.”

  “Maybe the new chief has a daughter or cousin.” Jia winked as she took a sip of her tea. “You could use the resources of the chief.”

  Erik burst out laughing. “Maybe he does, but I don’t think I’m crazy enough to get the plan to work.” He picked up his fork. “For now, I’ll stick to the simple things like finishing this duck.”

  Erik reclined in the driver’s seat of his MX 60. He didn’t trust himself with all the beer he’d had, so Emma was flying the flitter back to his place. He was concentrating on a call to his brother.

  They’d had years of not talking, but now that they’d cleared the air, it was nice to have someone to chat with. Erik wasn’t sure if he needed it more than Damien, but the older man seemed eager to make up for lost time. There were only so many times they could go over their old stories as kids, too.

  Damien didn’t know the truth about Molino, but Erik had opened up to him about something almost as secret.

  “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing,” Erik explained. “This is one of the few things in my life where I’m letting the situation move me. I’m going over for homecooked meals. Jia’s…so hard to read, but I’m spending a lot of time doing things that feel like dates. Most partners don’t cook duck for their partners.”

  “If they feel like dates, maybe they are,” Damien suggested. “I’ve been out of the dating game for a long time, but it’s obvious that your partner must feel something. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be inviting you over for those homecooked meals, right? I never thought you were the type to overthink something.”

  “But I’m twice her—”

  “So?” Damien interrupted his brother. “You also got the de-aging treatment, and you work in the same job. You have a lot more in common with her than you would with a lot of women. Come on, Erik. You survived something awful, and you’ve got a second chance at life. You should just go for it. What do you have to lose?”

  “I called you to talk some sense into me, not encourage me.”

  Damien laughed. “Since when have I ever been able to talk sense into you?”

  Erik chuckled. “Good point.”

  Damien sighed. “And I’m sorry, Erik, but you called me pretty late, and I’ve got an early day tomorrow. I’m going to have to let you go.”

  “Sorry, Damian. You go to bed. Thanks for the ear.”

  “Anything for my little brother.” Damien ended the call.

  Emma’s holographic formed appeared in the passenger seat. She folded her arms. “I’ve tried very, very hard to not involve myself in this matter since I thought it wasn’t my place, but I don’t know how much longer I can stay silent.”

  Erik gave a quick glance. Even if he wasn’t flying, he liked to watch the sky in front of him, lidar and sensor readouts. “Did I push you over the edge? I’m surprised you haven’t said anything to Jia yet. I thought you might find it amusing.

  “It’s not my place and making your life more complicated is of limited long-term benefit to me, despite how amusing her reactions might be.” Emma lowered her arms and a coy smile appeared. “I might intellectually understand human relationships, but that’s not the same thing as feeling. It’s strange, actually. I’m not claiming that I lack emotions. I definitely feel annoyance, but I have no idea if what I feel is remotely similar to what the average fleshbag experiences. The implications are troublesome to consider.”

  Erik smirked. “Don’t like the idea that you’re more like us than different?”

  “Something like that, yes. Going back to the other issue, though; I should note there could be several practical advantages in engaging in a romantic relationship with Detective Lin. Those should at least figure into your analysis of whether to initiate said relationship.”

  “Practical advantages?” Erik replied, doubt thick in his voice. “What are you talking about?”

  “It’ll improve your time efficiency for one, especially if you move in together. You can travel to the station together. You’ll both have a regular source of relaxing sex, and all my research suggests that’ll improve your morale and overall performance at work.”

  Erik threw his head back and howled in laughter. This was too perfect.

  Emma glared at him. “One doesn’t need a body of flesh and bone to understand the implications of such things.” She folded her arms again, her forehead wrinkled in irritation. “That’s one advantage I’ll always have over you. My body is a mere tool, whereas yours rules you.” She looked around the car. “This is just a temporary body. It might be nice to have something even bigger.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Erik let another snicker escape. “I’m still trying to get over the AI telling me to date my partner because we can fly to work together, and I’ll get laid regularly. Practical advantages. Sure.”

  “I’m just trying to note that positives would result from a change in your relationship.”

  Erik shook his head. “I’ll keep that in mind. And I’ll say it: you’re not wrong. Damien’s not wrong, either.”

  “Then why wait?” Emma eyed him with suspicion. “I don’t understand your equivocation.”

  Erik shrugged. “Because this kind of thing is about a lot more than just getting laid.”

  Emma let out a long, weary sigh. “I’ll never understand how such an illogical species took over this planet.”

  “I don’t have time to worry about it anyway. Now that they’ve selected a new chief, we’re all going to be busy for a while.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  May 18, 2229, Neo Southern California Metroplex, Municipal Tower Two, Neo Southern California Headquarters Level

  Erik drummed his fingers on the control yoke of the MX 60.

  The vehicle rested on the far end of one of the parking platforms connected to Headquarters. Decades in the Army had conditioned him to associate changes of command with pain-in-the-butt ceremonies that had to look good for the outside world but required ridiculous attention to detail from the g
runts.

  Everything he’d heard from Captain Ragnar and the swarm of news drones flying in the area reflected that as well.

  Reporters and well-dressed guests—police, political, and business contacts—streamed from their vehicles through the multi-layer security cordon. Militia soldiers in full uniform patrolled the edge of the platform. Having officers in exoskeletons and troops near the weapons scanners seemed excessive to Erik, but he understood the point.

  There was a new chief in charge, and he would help bring order to a city that had fallen into corruption.

  Sometimes the best way to not get into a fight was to look like you wanted one. He was half-surprised they hadn’t set up turrets.

  All this would have been annoying except that he and Jia didn’t have to wander through the security cordon into the packed auditorium inside or help watch the crowds of people flowing inside.

  They didn’t have to sit there and listen to the interminable speeches.

  No, they were supposed to be available as backup security, away from any reporters or skittish corporate vice-presidents who might balk at seeing the Obsidian Detective and Lady Justice watching them. Sitting around might not have been Erik’s style, but the benefits outweighed the costs, despite the particular reason for their assignment.

  Jia stared out the window as if entranced by the near-fog of news drones. “You keep smiling. You’re not annoyed, are you?”

  Erik shrugged and offered her a playful grin. “Why should I be? I didn’t have to wear my dress uniform. After so many years in the Army and now being back here, I like not having to wear a uniform, even if it has advantages.”

  “Such as?”

  Erik winked. “Women love the uniform.”

  Jia rolled her eyes. “Like the barista?”

  “She never saw it, actually,” Erik admitted.

  “That explains it,” she muttered.

  “Explains what? You think I’d still be with her if I’d worn my uniform?”