He awoke a few hours later, just before his alarm tones, with a vague sense of excitement. In the light of morning the night’s suspicions about sabotage and conspiracy seemed less likely. He dressed in a fresh set of greys.
The temperature on the container set into the food delivery slider next to his quarter’s entryway showed that whatever pre-breakfast snack was inside was still hot. He left it, but took the water bag included and drank the entire liter on his way through the corridors.
If Disar is right, then we might be out of roselaurels today. It’s really happening. We’re almost there.
Thwip looked for Disar as he entered the training theater. He moved past the fitness area, where there were more resistance machines than any of them ever found use for. Ahead a red oval impact track brought to mind the Leto Cross maglev rink. He turned right into the annex housing the enormous arc wall that governed their schedules, expecting to see Disar sifting through talon and chessie rankings as usual, but instead Kevlin was there, laughing so hard that he had trouble speaking. The rest of their shared recruit group stood around him in their greys, laughing, cringing, or both. Thwip doubled his pace, wanting to get in on whatever was so funny.
“My—my dearest Airwreka…”
Kevlin’s smirk. The laughter. The arc wall. But… I’ve trained with him, he’s reliable. His scores are always solid. Surprise was crushed by a sharp flash of anger, coupled with the fantasy of rushing him. Kevlin is Shadow.
I didn’t think it would work so soon.
He looked for Disar.
“Hey, Thwip!” Kevlin gestured him over, sliding his other hand over the arc wall. “Still like a good joke during downtime?” He turned to the arc wall and repeated, “My dearest Airwreka,” and then continued to read aloud Thwip’s very personal and embarrassing messages of affection.
Kevlin had timed the ambush well. Block ones were about to begin, so the entire group was gathered for assignment and Thwip couldn’t escape the performance. There were a few amused but sorry glances in his direction. Magi, Silo, and Stacz strayed away past the arc wall toward the track, not wanting to participate. Beau moved a few paces to stand next to Thwip, squinting at the arc wall, as though skeptical. Tyner smoothed her greys and appeared annoyed, but looked up in alarm at Kevlin’s next words.
“I can’t hide this feeling any longer, Airwreka. I know that I love someone in my recruit group passionately, so I used the code name Airwreka in these messages, thinking I would suffer in silence without ever sending them to you.”
Someone gasped, but Thwip didn’t see who. Beau glanced sideways at him in confusion.
Don’t respond. Don’t respond. Don’t respond…
“Well, fuck, that’s not funny at all,” Kevlin commented. “But we have a duty to get to the bottom of this business.”
The group must have agreed; there were no objections. Thwip worked to master the urge to speak, held his position.
Kevlin split the flat arc, leaving Thwip’s letters on the right. On the left he magnified the relevant article of the Elite Code of Conduct that the recruit oath held them to.
AR 10.8 OVERVIEW—IMPROPER INTERPERSONAL CONDUCT AND CONTACT
NO ELITE OR ELITE RECRUIT MAY ENGAGE IN A ROMANTIC OR SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP WITH ANOTHER ELITE OR ELITE RECRUIT. NO ELITE OR ELITE RECRUIT MAY MAKE ROMANTIC OR SEXUAL ADVANCES TOWARD ANOTHER ELITE OR ELITE RECRUIT. UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR OF A SEXUAL OR ROMANTIC NATURE SHALL BE PUNISHABLE UNDER ARTICLE 4 (FAILURE TO OBEY AN ORDER OR REGULATION) AND ARTICLE 5 (ENDANGERING UNIT INTEGRITY) WITH IMMEDIATE PUNISHMENT OF DISMISSAL AND FORFEITURE OF ALL PAY AND ALLOWANCES.
With victory in sight, Kevlin hastily resumed reading the last letter. “But it is time for me to send these messages to you, Airwreka, and to profess my undying affection, my endless attraction to your body and soul. It is you who I must be with, even though it is forbidden, even if it washes us out of training. I, Kevlin—”
At the sudden appearance of his own name on the arc, where it had read “Thwip” when he earlier accessed Thwip’s data, Kevlin stopped.
Dynamic text, set to change to the name of whoever accesses and duplicates it. Very basic and effective hash commands, motherfucker.
Tyner darted forward and took up reading before Kevlin could dismiss the text. “…love you. I, Kevlin, love you more deeply than deep space. I, Kevlin, come to your quarters and watch you in your sleep, and in that sleep, when you don’t know it, I, Kevlin, join you in your sleeping area, pressing my—”
Tyner’s prim lips shut in a surprised smile, and she read the rest silently. The group looked at Kevlin. Another second passed wherein they all looked at Thwip; a third, wherein various glances were exchanged. Then Tyner burst into relieved laughter, along with most of the group. Kevlin read the text again, his flat face furrowed in confusion.
“Nice one,” Beau said low, so only Thwip could hear.
“So just to be clear, there is no Airwreka?” Fade called to him.
Jinn guffawed. “Do you need every joke explained to you, Fadie? He was set up by the master!”
“Made her up,” Thwip confirmed, forcing a shrug and a grin, and cutting toward Kevlin.
Tyner turned to Kevlin, half bent, her words separated by uncontrollable laughter, “Cosmos, man, your face when your name came up!”
Kevlin attempted to close the copy of Thwip’s letters by swiping out of his own personal data where he’d stored it. The words I, KEVLIN were suddenly magnified, and grew larger each time he tried to dismiss them, until the arc froze so that he couldn’t dismiss the text.
The laughter was louder. Thwip had hashed that trick in, too, just to hold Shadow accountable in case he wasn’t present when the honeypot succeeded. He glanced around the group, marking responses.
It might not just be Kevlin. He might be working with someone.
“Do me a favor,” someone shouted. They all looked up. Behind the arc wall were rows of high bleachers used when upchainers came to observe recruit progress. Illotar lounged alone at the top row, watching the group. He called down to Kevlin, “If my private data appears in public by some personal mistake, be professional and fucking alert me instead of going through it and then trying this fucked-up shit. You deserved that. And more.”
Fade looked thoughtful, “But if Kevlin thought that someone violated the Uniform Code…”
Illotar crossed his arms. “But no one did, so he couldn’t have had suspicions before he went through Thwip’s personal data. He had no reason or right. That’s a violation of the article that protects privacy.” He glared at Kevlin. “Why don’t you bring that up on the wall?”
Kevlin tossed a condescending grin Illotar’s way, as though he found him pathetic. Illotar dropped off the side of the bleachers from the top row to the floor. Kevlin sneered. “What are you going to do about it?”
“That’s out of order!” Tyner warned.
He ignored her in favor of returning Illotar’s glare. Some of the group looked astonished. Kevlin had never been confrontational before.
Shit, if he baits Illotar into swinging at him, then Command will wash Illotar out for internal fighting.
Oly stepped forward, sidling up to Illotar, chuckling. “Shit, Illotar. It’s a mellow prank. Thwip left the data unprotected just to bait someone.”
Yeah, I did, but it was the most honorable way I could figure out how to gain intel.
Illotar unfolded his arms. “He chose to go through someone else’s personal data! Would any of you have done that?”
Kevlin shrugged. “It wasn’t secured behind his swipes.”
“How many of you noticed this morning that Thwip had left personal data unsecured?” Illotar demanded.
A third of the group lifted a hand, including Illotar. Kevlin, his smirk returning, seemed unfazed, as if he knew something they didn’t.
“How many of you accessed it?”
The third put their hands down. His point made, Illotar gestured to Kevlin to take responsibility.
> Kevlin leaned against the arc wall, and yawned. “You won’t make Commander if no one listens to you, Illotar.”
“That’s enough!” Tyner snarled over the sound of group outrage.
“That goes for you, too,” Kevlin taunted her. “Funny how you don’t care that he set me up and used me for a joke.”
Illotar’s face was red. His hands clenched to fists. Kevlin leaned off the wall, his grin daring Illotar to try something. Thwip looked for Disar.
Tyner shook her head. “If you are going to wash each other out by fighting, then take it outside of the elite area. Where it belongs.”
“Let it go. The group’s what’s important.” Oly put a hand on Illotar’s shoulder and took him with her, walking him aside and changing the subject to chessie scores. “It’s just a prank.”
But it’s not.
Thwip reached Kevlin’s position by the arc wall. Fade eyed him a moment, then broke off his conversation with Kevlin and crossed the training theater toward Morrow and Magi.
“Yeah, you fucking got me,” Kevlin said to Thwip, brushing him off to follow Fade. “I should have fucking known better after some of the stories you’ve told. Maybe I didn’t believe them; never seen you do much except wimp your way around the lab.”
“You owe the group a confession,” Thwip said. Kevlin stopped and turned back to look at him, unflinching. Thwip kept his face neutral and leaned against the wall. “For what you did these past few months. All that wimping around the lab means that I know about the suits. And I have the evidence that it was you,” he bluffed. “You’re an elite recruit. Take responsibility by the end of training day. Otherwise, I run it all upchain.”
“Fuck,” Kevlin said loudly, looking Thwip up and down. “When’d you get so stupid serious? Learn to take a joke like the rest of us. It’s like Oly said, the group’s what’s important.” He gestured lazily at the arc wall. “And take that shit you hashed on the data off my swipes so the arc will close out.” Kevlin left him.
He knows I don’t have evidence that it was him. If I did, I wouldn’t be playing games; I would have used it already.
Thwip unballed his fists and surreptitiously swiped an X over the corner of the arc wall. The arc unlocked and the honeypot text he’d hashed to come last in the sequence appeared.
The change caught Tyner’s eye. “Is there more?”
Thwip joined her at the other end of the wall.
“Let’s hear the end, then!” Wiji said. Jinn echoed him.
Tyner’s smile was curious. “Another letter. It’s your data, but is it part of your prank? This is all a little untoward. Should I…?” She glanced at Kevlin, and Thwip could tell she wanted to. Thwip shrugged to say he didn’t mind, and confusion crossed her face. There were more calls from the group to continue. Thwip nodded.
Tyner hesitated, then read, “Airwreka, I, Kevlin, confess my love to you now—”
“Yeah, we get it,” Kevlin complained. “Take that shit off my swipes and close it out!”
“—because we have a serious situation unfolding. I, Kevlin, see signs that someone is sabotaging recruits in our group.” Tyner’s voice flattened. She read faster, “I, Kevlin, fear we could be next. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you before I could warn you. But who among us could be so dishonorable? Surely no recruit would betray another to improve their own position, not even in the slightest way.” She paused. The group waited for the rest. “That’s the end of the message. Thwip, are you alleging that whoever exploited your data is—”
“Good morning, potential washouts!” Tomtom’s voice boomed ahead of his entry, his external chatter amplified by his hardhood mechs.
They all stood at attention in place. “Good morning, sir!”
Tomtom trudged through the annex entry in his trepid suit and flung a pulse-gloved hand toward the arc wall without looking at what was there. Under his remote command the wall changed, populated with assignments, and the countdown for block-one training took over, accompanied by a loud tone. A moment of hesitation mixed with confusion and frustration followed, was long enough to make Tomtom look away from the wall and wonder what they were doing. Reading him, the group scattered to arrive at their first training assignments on time.
Thwip’s schedule sent him to physical exercise first, so he didn’t have to leave the training theater to suit up. He paced toward the stretching area near the track, ready to blow off his worry and frustration in the first circuit. As he passed the bleachers he glanced to the left. Between the bleachers and the arc wall was an alcove, and Disar was there, leaning inside, her back against the wall in the shadows under Illotar’s perch, defying the tones of the countdown. She wore a cool expression that said she found the morning’s entire exchange unacceptable.
He couldn’t talk to her from this far away without being overheard, and the countdown was slipping away, so he attempted to make his face convey his thoughts. I don’t have time now to explain.
She walked toward him, her eyes tracking his movement counter to hers in a way that forced his eye contact, and seemed to slow time.
“Do you know what you’ve risked in making that indirect accusation?”
“Myself. And only myself.”
She looked at him a moment longer, then pivoted into a jog, turning away from him, running against the countdown that rang from the walls to make her first assignment in the sim modules without penalty. When he looked back around the training theater, Illotar nodded him over. Thwip could usually count on him for silence, and he was not disappointed. When Illotar gave him a questioning look, Thwip shook his head in warning, and that was enough for Illotar to think better of asking for the details. They completed the circuit with no more talk than required for exercise.
Illotar parted with him after block ones. Thwip visited his quarters, stripped, stood in the body sanitizer, changed into a new set of greys, and went in hunt of the first scheduled meal, regretting the pass on the container that had been in his delivery slider earlier.
Stacz and Silo were bowed in quiet discussion in the corridor outside the entry of the recruit suit-up module. With events still unfolding, he didn’t feel like talking, and he rushed past the turn. A few lefts later an airy circular atrium filled with benches and cushy chairs spread out from where the corridor met the commissary’s wide entry. Blue-and-white two-tone flags hung floor to ceiling around the back wall of the circle, accenting the four-meter-high statues of the five Extra-Cygnus generals who oversaw the installation of P2. The statues’ marble came from Earth, just as the generals had. They faced inward, protectively towering over a moving sculpture of the Sunway positioned in the center, which Thwip touched for luck.
The deputy kitchen master hadn’t yet unsealed the commissary’s entry for breakfast. Thwip watched the rotating sunstar on the sculpture that represented Altrio, thought of home, thought of how far he’d come, and his anger swelled.
Kevlin ate here with us every day. He walked past the flags and passed right under the gaze of the generals. He took the recruit oath.
Thwip continued around the curved perimeter toward a flat arc surrounded by couches. From his new vantage he saw that a small, standing group occupied the recess behind General Arla Baroqui’s statue. He watched as Disar propped her foot up on the edge of a table, leaned forward and crossed her arms over her raised knee, and listened as Beau, Slav, and Magi whispered animatedly, as if telling her a story. A stab of excitement cut through the frustration that had overtaken the morning.
Together we’d make five. That’s my future unit. If Kevlin doesn’t confess, I’ll run it upchain, and their scores will be reevaluated justly. They’re top performers. P2 won’t wash them out. But if I approach Disar now and loop her in, there’s a risk that people will assume that she also knew about the sabotage. The situation is still fluid. He watched her. If Kevlin retaliates, or if I have to report him myself, I want you free of that.
He passed the flat arc and kept anyone from approaching him
by checking his messages on the other side of the lounge at the small panel of arc wall behind General Orinto Lee. His most recent hail came from Disar with a hash of forty-five seconds previous: CONFIRMING PT LAB APPOINTMENT TONIGHT 7 PM NT, ME + 18 BODIES. PLS CONFIRM.
Our entire recruit group, minus one. I’ll take a guess at who she didn’t invite. What’s she planning? It doesn’t matter. By tonight this will be over with.
He touched the arc wall, pulsed a return confirmation, and set a capture message from his parents aside into his personal data to watch later, replying to them in text with a joke about Scapians he’d heard Tomtom tell Pilo on their way back to P2 from Leto Cross. Another hail came through, important enough that it didn’t wait for him to consent receipt and overtook the arc.
REPORT TO RL BRIEFING ROOM.
Thwip slowed his walk through the corridors, anticipating the sound of Disar’s fleet step behind. She would receive the same orders; they were always on roselaurel missions together. He practiced how to explain the honeypot to her, but she hadn’t yet caught up when he passed the PT lab. Inside near the entry, four on-duty techs were huddled around his cramped workstation. The rest of the lab was empty; they could have worked at any station, yet they were looking at his small surface with interest.
Are they going through my station logs?
To avoid their notice, he went the long way around the lab’s perimeter, sparing a glance over his shoulder. Hurry up, Disar.
Commander Sentinel always demanded punctuality. He couldn’t hang back for Disar any longer; he picked up his pace. As he approached the RL briefing room, the entry unsealed and Kevlin exited. He grinned at Thwip and shrugged past him.
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