The Rebel

by Gerald Brandt

  Jack shook his head. “Our resources are spread so thin, we can’t afford to have these kinds of distractions. You should have come to me.”

  “And say what?” I leaned over his desk. “Tell you that Doc Searls’ son may be up there? What would you have done? Anything? More than likely, you’d push me away and tell me to stick to what I know. What if I told you Doc was on Level 4 and needed to get back up to Level 5? Would you help him?”

  Jack paused as if considering my last question before he decided to ignore it.

  “You have a year’s training with ACE, and you think you’re ready to take on a Sat City?”

  “I have no idea what I can do, and neither do you. You won’t let me. You’ve been putting me on the same jobs you would give anybody off the street. You haven’t trusted me since day one.”

  “Trust? Trust is earned around here, young lady. The first time you worked with one of my teams, you pulled your gun on them, and almost destroyed the mission trying to get your fucking boyfriend out. The second time, you left your own partner to try a stupid rescue. How am I supposed to trust that? You’re just a kid.”

  “I saved the Pasadena mission. I gave you the information on the Level 1 food trucks.”

  Pat sat up straight. “Jack, she—”

  He raised his hand, telling her to stop. “This isn’t about you. I’ll get to you pulling a gun on one of my men later.”

  Pat stood beside me. Her entire body was vibrating, though I didn’t think Jack would see it. “She’s right. Kris and I joined you because ACE was gone. You’ve never really trusted us. You should have teamed Kris up with one of your own men so she could get field experience. You should have pulled Kai and me into your planning sessions instead of giving us the lowest job you dared.”

  “Pulling in old ACE people isn’t a low-end job.”

  “No? Then how about food management? You had me counting apples in the bloody basement.”

  “It’s an important job.”

  “Yes, it is,” Pat said. “But it’s not the best use of the resources you have.”

  “I haven’t worked with my teams for too long,” Jack sighed. “But I know what they can and can’t do. You two were unknowns. I wanted you someplace I could keep an eye on you. I had no idea what to do with Kai. He wanted out, you know. He didn’t want to have any part of this. The only reason he stayed is because he wanted to be close to her.”

  “So you ship him as far away as you can, looking for other people you’re not sure you can trust?” I asked.

  “You don’t understand.”

  “No, I don’t.” I turned to go. “I need to get my stuff, then I’ll be out of here.”

  Pat followed me out. Jack stayed quiet.

  KADOKAWA SAT CITY 2—THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2141 8:37 P.M.

  Andrew stood at attention, his Kaisa beside him. Around them the general noise and activity of the docking area continued. An unscheduled shuttle had arrived from Okinawa. The doors opened and Andrew pulled himself even straighter.

  The moment Kaishō-ho Kadokawa stepped out of the dark interior of the shuttle, he knew why she had come. He let out a shaky breath and Mori gave him a quick glance before staring ahead again. Perhaps he would chalk it up to a Kadokawa coming to the station. Andrew left the line and met her at the bottom of the stairs. He bowed. “Welcome to Kadokawa 2.” He always got butterflies in his stomach when she was around.

  “It is good to be here, Kaishō-ho Ito. Please forgive my unexpected arrival. I was inspecting our efforts in Mexico. They have had some recent flooding and many people are homeless.”

  “You are a long way from Mexico.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  He led her back to the line. “Please, may I introduce Kaisa Mori? He has proven to be an excellent leader, and has helped me immensely.” He caught a slight flicker of surprise crossing Mori’s face, followed by a deepening of his skin color.

  Mori saluted. She returned it. “I have heard good things about you, Kaisa. Your name has come up more than once in Okinawa.”

  Mori’s skin turned even darker. “Thank you, Kaishō-ho. You are too kind.”

  “Not at all. I have learned to give credit where credit is due.”

  Mori bowed low.

  She turned to Andrew. “I cannot stay long. Will you honor me with a small tour of the city?”

  “Of course.”

  Mori bowed again. “Please excuse me. I should be in Operations.” He left the two alone.

  “It has been a long time, Andrew. You seem to make it a habit to only visit Okinawa when I am not there.”

  “I . . .”

  She smiled, her face gentle and kind. “I only wish that this time we could have met under better circumstances.”

  “As do I.”

  “Ah, Andrew. You have never been able to lie to me. I see it too clearly in your eyes.”

  “Then you know it is true when I say that I have missed you.” He shocked himself with his abrupt honesty.

  “I do.”

  He turned and followed the path Mori had taken off the flight deck. “Your message came as a surprise to me.”

  “Yes. I wish it could have waited till I was here, but my visit wasn’t a certainty. You did not respond.”

  He held open a door for her, closing it softly behind them. Almost immediately the noise of the flight deck disappeared, replaced with the normal sounds of air recyclers and the background hum of electronics. “As I said, it took me by surprise.”

  “Have you thought about it?”

  “I have found it difficult to do much else.”

  She placed her hand on his arm, stopping him in the empty hallway. Her touch was hot, even through his uniform. “I know this is not easy, Andrew. Duty and honor have always been strong for you. But you have to think about where that sense of duty is placed. Is it with the people we help every day? Is it with the men and women under you who will die if this war continues? Or is it with our new leaders and the way they are changing Kadokawa? Changing it away from the reason we both signed up. Together.”

  A private walked down the hall toward them, and she removed her hand.

  “This is not the proper place for this discussion,” he said. They continued walking. The private hugged the wall and stood at attention, giving a crisp salute as they walked by. “Would you like some tea?”

  “I would, thank you.”

  He led her to his office, instructing his steward to bring in tea and a small bite to eat.

  “Please come inside. It will take him a few moments to bring everything.”

  Once the door was closed, she sank into a chair, rubbing her eyes with her thumb and forefinger. “Andrew, things are changing so fast. I wonder from moment to moment if we are doing the right thing.”

  He noticed her use of we. Was she already including him, or were there others? Perhaps someone she cared deeply about. The thought stilled him to his core. He pushed it aside. It wasn’t worthy. “Do you believe with your heart it is right, or with your head?”

  “Both. Our new leaders are creating a Kadokawa that revels in war, that does not care about the loss of sons or daughters, but only cares that they get more power, more control. More profit. Do you not see it?”

  “I see it every day. I have already sent two letters back to families who will never see their loved ones again, to husbands and wives who now must raise their children alone. I have sent those letters before, but never because of a pointless war.”

  “Then you know why we do this.”

  “I do. I . . .” He stuttered and looked into her eyes. “I do not yet know if I can be part of it.”

  A soft knock at the door brought her back to her feet. The steward brought in a tray with tea and freshly made rolls, placing it at the conference table.

  As he moved the cups from the tray to the tab
le, she stepped forward. “I will do it.”

  If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. He verified everything that was needed was on the tray, and backed out of the room.

  They sat at the table, not across from each other as rank and protocol dictated, but beside each other as friends. She picked up the pot and poured the black tea into a cup. The pot returned to the tray and she handed him his steaming tea before pouring her own.

  “I have missed you as well,” she said softly, almost too low for him to hear. “I long for the days when we worked beside each other. When we spoke freely of our hopes and dreams. Of our desires.”

  “I could no longer do that when you were made Kaishō-ho. You outranked me, and it would not have been proper.”

  “That was a long time ago, Andrew. Do you really believe something as silly as rank should have taken away what we had?”

  Andrew sat silent, sipping the hot tea.

  “When this is done, what will you do?” she asked.

  “If I live through the war, I will retire,” he said. “My family home has been sitting vacant for too long. I want nothing more than to sit and listen to the wind rustle through my father’s bamboo.”

  “Nothing more?”

  He shifted, a flush coming to his cheeks. “I cannot ask for more.”

  “Cannot or will not?”

  “Perhaps a little too much of both.”

  Another knock on the door halted her hand from reaching for him again. The door opened.

  “Sorry, sir. SoCal Sat City 1 is showing some of the strange behavior we are seeing in SoCal 2.”

  “Thank you. I’ll be in Operations shortly.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Before the door fully closed, she was already standing, the moment gone and back to business. “I read your reports. Do we know what is causing the disruptions?”

  “No. My officers each have their own ideas, but nothing that can be proven.”

  “Is it possible they are purposely confusing us, hoping to distract us from an attack?”

  “Anything is possible, Natsumi, nothing is known.” When he looked at her, there were tears in her eyes.

  “I have waited a long time for you to call me that again.”

  “I . . . I am sorry, Kaishō-ho. I should have been more careful.”

  At his switch to her formal title, she wiped her eyes and took a step to the door. “I understand. Come, let us see the strange occurrences for ourselves. Then I must return to Okinawa.”

  “Of course, this way.”

  LOS ANGELES LEVEL 2—THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2141 8:58 P.M.

  Pat walked me all the way to my room. When I opened my door, she followed me in and closed it behind her.

  “Do you mind if I stay?” she asked. “I don’t like what happened downstairs, and I . . . I just want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  “So now you care? Why, because I’m pregnant?” As soon as I saw the pain my words caused I felt horrible. I knew she’d always been here for me.

  “Things have been tough since Miller died. I didn’t always know how to help you. I saw how much pain you were in, how you tried to hide it, and nothing I did worked. You did your best to push me away. I always cared.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Me too. We’re both to blame. You know Kai stayed with the insurgents because of you. Sometimes I think you mean more to him than his own family.”

  I turned my back to her, speaking over my shoulder. “Is that why he’s never here? So he can keep an eye on me?”

  “Even Kai has his limits, Kris. When Jack asked him to find ex-ACE operatives, he refused. He believed you needed him here. Your walls went up pretty high, and pretty fast. It pushed him away too.”

  “Pushed him away? It’s barely been two weeks, and he decided he’d had enough? Some friend.” I didn’t know why I was being so mean. It wasn’t good, or right, but I didn’t apologize.

  “Don’t do that.”

  “Do what?”

  “You’re trying to push us away again.” She put her hand on my shoulder. “We’ve all lost someone.”

  I spun around, breaking the contact she had made. “I lost the man I loved. You lost a partner.” I didn’t see her hand before it landed on my cheek. The force of her slap pushed me onto the bed. I lay there stunned before the tears came.

  “Oh Kris, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.” She rushed to the bed, sitting beside me. Reaching for me.

  Everything came crashing in at the same time. I wanted Ian to be alive so bad, I could feel it in every part of me. He’d been stolen from me, and I couldn’t do anything to get him back. I couldn’t even hurt the people who had done this to us.

  Instead, I hurt my family.

  I pulled Pat into a hug so tight that I didn’t ever want to let go. For the first time, I allowed the pain to become part of me, I let it soak through my armor and into me. We shook and cried until we had nothing left to give. I held on to Pat, listening to the steady rhythm of her heart.

  We pulled apart. Her shirt was wet through to her skin and clumps of stringy snot ran down it. My dress was the same. We sat in silence for another few minutes, wiping our faces with the backs of our hands. Pat reached over and pulled at my dress.

  “That’s pretty gross, sorry.”

  She made a face, and we laughed until we cried again.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “I think we both needed that.”

  “Yeah, I think we did. I really miss him, you know?”

  “I do.”

  “I’m sorry about what I said earlier. About your partner.”

  “I know.”

  We sat in silence, each lost in our own memories. I moved to the edge of the bed. “I really need to get out of this dress. It’s not my thing.”

  “You look good, though.”

  “I doubt it.” I opened up the drawer, finding a single pair of pants and a t-shirt. I pulled them out and went to the bathroom to change.

  “You wouldn’t happen to have a shirt for me, would you?”

  “Nothing that would even remotely fit. You can try the dress when I’m out if you want. I won’t be needing it again.”

  I heard her laugh through the closed door. “It’s okay. I’d never squeeze into that thing. I’ll be fine.”

  It felt good to be in real clothes. I shoved new bobby pins deep in my hair and left the bathroom, going back to the bed.

  “I know you want to leave,” Pat said. “But a night’s sleep will do you good.”

  I didn’t argue.

  Pat had already picked a spot on the floor. The bed was too small for the both of us. I stripped the blanket off and handed her my pillow before crawling under the sheets.

  I was asleep almost instantly.

  Morning came before I was ready. The Ambients shone their harsh light through a crack in the curtain, bringing me to full wakefulness. I lay in bed for a few more minutes. Comfortable. Hungry. I stretched, realizing I’d had one of the best sleeps I could remember. It had been a long time. I crawled out from under the covers and found Pat huddled in a corner still fast asleep. She jumped awake when my feet hit the floor.

  “Morning already?”

  “Yeah.”

  She got up, all traces of sleep already gone. “So what’s your plan?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t stay here, but I don’t know where else I can go. I’ve seen what the corporations do, what they get away with. I can’t pretend it’s not happening.”

  Pat sat on the edge of the bed, silent.

  “I want to help so much,” I said. “But the insurgents seem to be making things worse instead of better. They started a civil war with their tactics and their guns. Sure, they set up the kitchens, but would that have been necessary if they hadn’t caused the water shortage?
The more I see, the more I think they want to be another corporation.”

  “I’ve started thinking the same thing.”

  “So how can I help the people who are being hurt by this? How can I help work toward weakening the corporation’s grip over us? I used to think ACE was the answer. So did Ian.”

  “Well. How about we start with family? You said your aunt was with Doc Searls. I can get Kai to meet us there.”

  We talked a bit longer before Pat went down and grabbed us some breakfast. I waited in the room, lost in my own thoughts about family, about how much I would give to be reunited with Ian. With Mom and Dad. About how Doc Searls must be feeling, knowing where his son was and the amount of danger he was in. This damn city seemed to create broken families as though that’s what it was built to do.

  Maybe it was.

  By the time Pat knocked, I had washed most of the sleep from my eyes. We ate and headed down to the parking garage.

  “Your motorcycle is gone, but I should still have access to a car. I’ll drive you.”

  “And if you don’t?”

  “Then we’ll walk. Together.”

  It was good to have a friend again.

  LOS ANGELES LEVEL 4—FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2141 8:42 A.M.

  Either Jack had had a change of heart, or he hadn’t thought of cutting Pat’s access to a vehicle. She grabbed a sporty two-door and drove toward the exit of the parking garage, where security opened the door and waved us through. Pat drove past Kai’s place and I crawled into the tiny back seat to make room for him. We got to the clinic before it was open. Pat pulled out her comm unit and called in.

  The doctor unlocked the door from the inside and held it open for us. He’d stayed the night. I guess he really had nowhere else to go.

  “How’s my aunt?”

  “Still sleeping. She woke up an hour ago wondering where you were. I told her you were asleep in another room. I didn’t want her to worry.”

  “Thanks. How’s her hip?”

  “It should be fine, even at her age. The fractures weren’t too bad. Once she’s fully healed, you’ll barely be able to see it on X-rays, so I doubt it’ll be a bother to her. She’ll be able to walk normally in a week or so.”