by RS McCoy
“How much longer is that going to take?” Jane fussed from the bed. Her bob hung limp over her face and her feet were kicked up in the air.
“A few more minutes. You can go on without me.” Theo was hungry, too, but he wanted to get it done. He felt so disconnected without a functioning wristlet.
He didn’t tell her how much he wanted to see if tablet connectivity would let him contact Nate. There were so many things left to say.
“No, I want to go with you.” She climbed from the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her body pressed against his shoulders.
“Almost done. Promise.” Then he felt her lips on his cheek, moving along his jaw until the lobe of his ear was tucked between her gently clenched teeth.
Theo froze.
He had no idea what to do. Kiss her back? Push her away? Make a move?
He stayed perfectly still.
Jane swung around and slid onto his lap. “Am I distracting you?” She batted her almond eyes.
Yes.
No.
Yes.
“Fine.” In a heartbeat, she returned to the bed to wait.
Theo hurried to finish, to make sure he wasn’t caught so off guard again. All he needed were the nine digits from the relay, the connectivity code the wristlet used to tap into his files. It was a shame he had to remove half the internal components to get to it.
In less than five minutes, he found the code and entered it before reassembling the tablet as fast as possible. He slid the wristlet onto his arm and tested it, pulling up the latest files from Nick, a list of previous cases involving the bugs.
“Ready?” he asked, eager to leave the room and the situation.
“Yeah,” she replied, though more somber than before.
It wasn’t that Theo didn’t like Jane, he did like her. She was intelligent like a Scholar but exciting and full of life like an Artisan. And here, at CPI, he didn’t have to choose between the two. She was just the type of girl he liked.
But Jane liked to have his full attention. He wasn’t sure he could handle that for the rest of his life. Theo was starting to think maybe he wanted someone easy, someone whose company was effortless and natural.
Maybe he needed time. It had only been a few days.
Besides, there weren’t a lot of other options. Dasia was nice, but plain. She was a Craftsman who didn’t say much. A small town girl with a small town life. And Mable was pretty much the last person he could choose, a human cactus.
No, it was Jane or no one.
So he tried to make it work with her.
At the galley, platters of mini-sandwiches, fruit kabobs, and green salad spread across the table. Knox sat munching on his creations as Osip, Georgie, Dasia and even Mable sat chatting and tasting his foods.
“Well, well if it isn’t the princess!” Georgie said with feigned gratitude.
Jane shot him a glare. She slid into the chair beside him and selected a sandwich to try. Theo was left to the seat between Jane and Mable. He tried not to look at her.
“What are these?” Theo asked as he grabbed one as well. If Knox made it, he was going to eat it, but still, he was curious to know.
“Egg salad sandwiches. They pretty much smash your crepes,” Knox replied with a laugh.
“Do you ever make sense?” Osip whined and they all laughed.
“Slow your brain cakes, peanut butter.” Knox’s full cheeks giggled with laughter.
Theo chuckled as Osip replied, “I’ll take that as a no.”
“Nick shot your noggin with the bugs, eh?” The mood fell from a mid-flight shuttle.
“Something like that. Damn, those things are freaky.” They all stared at the table, Theo included. They had all had seemingly messed up lives before, but now, now that they knew there were brain-eating bugs sneaking around the world, it was a whole other level of messed up.
Georgie was the first to speak, his face mostly hidden behind a curtain of blonde hair. “Have you ever seen one? A living one?”
“Grease on a grill.”
“What were they like?”
Knox leaned his bulk back in his chair and considered the question. “Honey.”
“Honey? As in sweet?” Theo stared along with the rest of them. Only Mable seemed calm.
“Sticky,” Knox clarified.
Theo’s stomach plummeted. Jane leaned close and rested a hand on his thigh beneath the table where the others couldn’t see. It wasn’t the aggressive move like she’d made before. This was something else. She was afraid.
Theo covered her hand with his and squeezed it tight. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.
The mild vibration of his wristlet sounded in the thick silence. On the small screen, he read the ecomm. “Nick wants us to meet him in the auditorium.”
“Now?” Osip asked as he grabbed two sandwiches in each hand.
They all stood, all but Knox, and started down the corridor. When he looked back, Theo saw Mable leaned over Knox as she planted a kiss on his cheek. He smiled wide as she left.
By the time Jane and Theo made it to the auditorium, hands clasped tight, Osip and Georgie were already seated. Dasia and Mable came in next. It took a full ten minutes for Nick to arrive.
“Hey, sorry for the short notice. I forgot to send the ecomm this morning. Anyways, now that you’re all here, I want to go over the specifics of the program. Hopefully you’ve had some time to get used to the idea of bugs.”
Nick looked around the room waiting for protest, but none came.
“How this usually works is, you will be assigned teams of two.”
Jane squeezed his hand and leaned her head against his shoulder. Theo didn’t miss her meaning.
“Some teams will be responsible for collecting data, analyzing trends, performing interviews, using any means available to determine if a person is infected. The existence of bugs is a highly-guarded secret, so while this may seem like an easy job, it’s quite challenging. Your options are extremely limited.”
Theo immediately rejected that role. He didn’t want to sit at a desk and process data all day. He would have selected Craftsman if that was his goal.
“Other teams will be extraction teams. In these circumstances, one person, the agent, will be in the field to perform the extraction while the other, the handler, will be in a secure location leading them through the process.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to have two people go in the field?” Georgie asked, his nerves worn plainly on his face.
“No, then both recruits are in danger of infection. Only one in the field at a time. We’re trying to limit the body count.” The room fell silent.
Nick pushed his hands into his pockets. “There are six of you, so this week Dr. Arrenstein and I will start arranging you into your teams. Some for recon and some for extraction. To determine your compatibility, you’ll each take a series of tests. Intellect. Personality. Make sure you complete each one in the next two days. Once assigned, your teams are permanent. Dr. Arrenstein believes a long working relationship helps build trust.” Nick rolled his eyes.
“If you have a preference of role or partner, that will be taken into consideration, but ultimately the decision is ours. Should you have any requests, please send me an ecomm by the end of day tomorrow. Until your teams are assembled, you should continue looking through the files and familiarizing yourself with the types of bugs and how to extract him. There are a few vids for you to download. I’d recommend watching them very closely. Some of you will be performing extractions in the next few months.”
Then he was gone. The six of them sat in their chairs in shock.
With Jane tight on his side, Theo knew exactly what his ecomm would say. He would be the agent, and Jane would be his handler. It was the only way.
He pulled up the command on his wristlet and sent it off.
“You want to be with me?” Jane asked, her voice sweet.
Theo nodded. He realized it was true, he did want to have her with him. They al
ready had a connection. And now, they would be together, working together day in and day out.
That was enough for him.
MABLE
CPI-RQ2-06
AUGUST 12, 2232
Mable returned to her room with quick, uneven breaths. Dasia was getting the hang of her movements faster than Mable would have expected. She’d actually had to work to dodge her blows. It had been a good workout for both of them.
She cued up her tablet and turned on the shower, letting the cool water dance across her fingertips. Once clean, she set to read through the case files in earnest. Clearly designed by a Scholar, the reports were lifeless lists of data and intel. The photos were all the standard style of the Scholar Academy or some Craftsman facility.
After the first fifty or so, the reports were more or less the same. She learned to look for the differences, mostly in the hosts. What did they have in common? Why were they infected when not those around them?
There was a seemingly random distribution of bug infections. She knew it only seemed random because she didn’t understand the pattern yet, but so far, it eluded her.
Of all the information Arrenstein had sent her, the extraction vids were by far the most interesting, and disturbing. Alive and in motion, the bugs were beautiful and horrible all at once. The Echo shimmered an iridescent green and teal as it was ripped from the throat of the host.
She wondered if her fellow recruits were cut out for the job. Certainly the Osips of the world wouldn’t be given clearance for such high-stakes assignments.
There was one person in particular she knew didn’t belong. So she went to see Arrenstein.
She rasped her knuckles against the door.
“He’s in a meeting, what can I help you with?”
Mable turned to see Nick, smug as usual. His eyes floated the length of her body. He took a long look at the mint green pants that hugged her legs and the loose white top that hung over her shoulders.
A chill ran up her arms.
“Nothing, I want to talk to Arrenstein.” She knocked again and turned away from him. While she loathed Arrenstein, at least she knew what to expect from him. She wanted nothing to do with his stooge.
“I told you, he’s in a meeting. For someone who hates him, you spend a lot of time with the guy.” Nick skulked off to whatever hole he crawled out from, leaving Mable to question what the hell he was trying to insinuate. And how did he know she hated him?
Then the door opened.
“Maggie.” Arrenstein sighed as she pushed in. At least he liked their little chats as much as she did.
“Dasia doesn’t belong here. You need to send her home.” Mable flopped onto the couch and pulled her legs up under her.
“Oh, you think you know these kids better than I do?” Arrenstein walked to his little bar and poured himself a drink. “Want one?”
Mable didn’t know what the drink was but if a snob like Arrenstein drank it, then it couldn’t be half bad. She eyed his glass and replied, “With ice. And yes, I do. She’s completely consumed with the death of her friend. You pounced on her like a predator. Shame on you.” Mable crossed her arms for effect.
“Did she happen to mention how her friend died?” Arrenstein handed her the glass of ice and honey-colored liquid.
“No, but it shouldn’t matter. She—”
“She watched him die. They were both so down on anth, neither of them noticed they’d been breathing haze for hours. Even in the hills of Montana, the haze is thick at night.”
“She was on anth?” Mable found it hard to believe someone as harmless as Dasia had the gall to do drugs. Then again, people were never ever as simple as they appeared. It was kind of sexy.
“A massive dose,” Arrenstein continued. “They’d both been on it for years. She had a stash in her room, in her pockets, in her system, not to mention a dead boyfriend they found in a field. If she hadn’t gone to cleaning when she first arrived, the withdrawal would have killed her.”
Mable took her first sip of the drink and lavished the heat sliding down her throat. It hurt, it was like fire, but in all the best ways.
Arrenstein laughed at her breathing a long, hot breath out her mouth. “Take it slow.”
“Wow, what is this?”
“Brandy. 2010’s. Very rare.” He said it with pride. Mable wondered how long he’d been saving it, and why he decided to share it with her.
Arrenstein sat on the far end of the couch and sipped his drink. “I get what you’re saying. She’s a good person, she’s got a good, kind heart, and she would be happier doing a thousand other things. But the reality is that she ruined her life. Outside of CPI, she’s an addict that contributed to the death of her fiancé. There’s nothing for her to go back to.” He took a long pull from his glass. His eyes closed as he savored the taste.
“What about the others?”
He thought for a moment and answered, “They all had similar situations. Wrong place, wrong time.”
“Like what?” He couldn’t say that and then not tell her.
“I’m not really at liberty to discuss—”
“Don’t be such a worm. What did they do?”
Arrenstein sighed and swirled the ice around his glass. “Georgie was the oldest of a big family, five I think. He was just hungry, desperate to help them. We gave his family a small sum to help them in exchange for his service.”
“So you bought him.”
“Think of it how you like. We tried to help them.”
“What about the rest?” Mable sipped her drink.
“Osip was an unregistered from the underground. He got caught on the surface with no file. Jane’s mother was involved in a scandal right before her Selection. She failed to secure a mentor and was left on her own.”
“What kind of scandal?”
“The bad kind.”
“I love these little half-veiled statements of yours. They provide so much clarity.”
Arrenstein smirked. “I’m glad you like them.”
“You forgot Theo,” she reminded him.
“I didn’t forget.”
“What’s his story?” Her pulse increased. It was bad, she knew already. Arrenstein wouldn’t even look at her.
“He was involved in a pod accident.”
“Don’t those things have security protocols? I thought it was practically impossible to crash one.” Mable waited a good long while for Arrenstein to answer. When he did, it gave her chills.
“He turned off the protocols. Stole the pod and drove it outside the dome. He hit a boy.”
“Was he okay?” Mable felt the tears in her eyes clouding her vision.
Arrenstein only shook his head.
It hit her like a punch to the chest. She shot the rest of the brandy down her throat and sat in silence, refusing to spill tears in front of him.
“Do you have a preference for your position or partner?” he asked, for which she was thankful.
“Agent, Dasia as my handler.”
“Done.” His tone was nothing but final. They sat in comfortable silence for a while. Mable with her mind on the boy that had been killed, a child.
“When are you going to send me the rest of the files?”
Arrenstein’s eyes flashed with fear before he started the playing-dumb routine. “I don’t know what you mean. I sent you everything.”
“You said there were 114 cases, but you only sent me 110 case files. Where are the other four?”
“I sent you all—”
“Don’t lie to me. I hate liars.”
Arrenstein sighed his defeat. “They’re confidential. Use the ones you have. There’s nothing to be learned from the others.”
Mable knew there was something to learn from them. Why else keep them hidden?
“I want you to go talk to someone.”
“I don’t need a psych evaluation.” She wasn’t crazy and she wasn’t going to be a human pincushion for some Scholar looking to test a theory. Instead, she set the glass on the c
ouch and headed for the door.
“No, not like that. I mean, she’s a Scholar, but she won’t talk to you about that. Her name is Ramona. She’s been here a very long time. I think you two could help each other.”
“I’ll think about it,” she said as she slipped out the door. She couldn’t be sure, but she could have sworn she heard him say ‘thank you’.
SILAS
CPI-AO-301, NEW YORK
AUGUST 12, 2232
A civil conversation with Maggie? Silas wasn’t sure such a thing would have been possible until it was. He sat on the couch in his office, a sad black leather thing from a time long gone. Sipping the remnants of his drink, Silas couldn’t help but smile, to breathe a little easier.
Her forgiveness was all he ever wanted, even more so once it was so clear he would never get it. Silas couldn’t change what happened to Alex, could never get him back. It was the greatest regret of his life.
He’d lost nine in total, but none so horribly as Alex. They’d been so close, a bug in hand, a live bug in a jar ready to be brought back for evaluation. Until it got out. Until it stole Alex from them.
Maybe something good would finally come of it.
Silas was trapped in the weird place between joy and pain when Nick pushed in. “How’d it go with Masry?”
He’d almost forgotten. “She wants us to send another team to LRF. That our current team isn’t being effective.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Let’s just pull recruits from thin air and send them to waste away on the moon.”
“She’s got a point. There have been four deaths since their arrival, and they’re only increasing in frequency. If we don’t nip it in the bud, we could end up with a major problem. We can only deter so much investigation.”
His assistant’s eyes went wide. “You’re actually considering sending another team up there?”
“Not anytime soon, but I’m not sure we can put it off for very long. Parr had the Yield, the first ever in LRF. That makes the third species in two years. What happens when someone gets a Slight?”
“That’s not all that surprising. Hundreds of Scholars ship to the moon every year. We’ve always said there should be screening process for anyone leaving Earth.”