“Have you looked around Choudrant at all since you been here, Agent Khard? Have you seen the state of our buildings, of our roads? You see the cracks that line our sidewalks, the weeds that grow this way and that?”
“I have, yes.”
“What you think that means for our schools? For our local social programs? When all the housin’ in the city is low-income specific, how far you think federal subsidies go? This city isn’t jus’ broke, Agent Khard. It’s broken. And it’s dyin’.”
“How does an underground station or a warehouse full of robots help any of that?”
“Some peop’ll pay a lot for a good idea,” Syndi said before sipping the whiskey. “We need a lot of money to fix Choudrant. Much more’en we’ll ever get from the World Government.”
Khard thought for a moment, smelling the whiskey in the glass before taking a sip. He had to breathe out as he drank to prevent himself from coughing. “You’re saying those were… prototypes?”
“We took a chance on a good idea. Twice. It just didn’t quite pan out. Those robots’re built from old, rusted scraps. That idea shoulda have been a slam dunk. Shoulda—”
“Syndi, stop. You wasted what little money this city had on two long shots? How could you do that? How did you even accomplish it?”
“You think it was all me? Agent Khard, I can be a royal bitch, but I love Choudrant. We took a citywide vote. Majority ruled, and those were the projects we went with. The underground station almost caught on. We even got an offer fer the plans, but it was retracted.”
“Okay, but how did you get access to the funds? You’re just the Chief of Police.”
“You seen our mayor?”
“No.”
“Neither have we, not for… oh… fifteen years? Local governments don’t go much higher than that anymore, as you know. Hell, downtown Choudrant, our City Hall, it’s literally a circus right now. When he disappeared, I stepped in. Our people’re starvin’, Agent Khard. I had to do something.”
“How does any of this relate to what’s happening with O-Rell?”
“Latest idea,” Syndi said, leaning in. “It took three years to get working, but we finally reconstructed something that we know without a doubt will put this city on the map. Wallace found the plans one day, lookin’ around on those parts of the internet none’a us can be bothered to go to. One of those things you see, and you just know it’s gon’ help you do somethin’ great.”
“Okay. What is it?”
“It’s CRISPR in a gun, Agent Khard. It’s targeted gene manipulation on a level no one has bothered to tinker with yet, at least not publicly. We built somethin’ that can take a low-level Ch05En gene, like O-Rell’s, and bring it up to the level of Supreme.”
“And O-Rell volunteered to be the first test subject?”
“Somethin’ like that,” Syndi said, sitting back in her chair. “We had other people lined up for human trials, but O-Rell stole it! Right out from under our noses. We all came back one mornin’ to see that it was gone. We knew the picture of him from the Halley’s property would get back to y’all eventually, or whoever else in the government, so we called it in. Figured if we played it right, you’d do the heavy liftin’ for us, and maybe we could follow along and steal back the machine.”
“Seems like a pretty long shot to take, Syndi.”
“Well, as you’ve recently learned, we’re a town that likes to gamble. It was the only play we had, Agent Khard. But I’m done playin’ and I’m done lyin’. Y’all can do what you’re gonna do. At least now you know how bad it is here.”
“Did you really come back here to pick up clothes for Lucy?”
“Ha! No, no I didn’t. I wanted to look around some. Figured it must have been O-Rell who done the digging on the side of the house. Wondered if maybe he buried the machine ‘round here. Brought my shovels and hoe, figured I’d do some diggin’ myself.”
“Not a bad idea. We didn’t see anything before, but we also didn’t know what we were looking for.” Khard finished the whiskey. “Oof, that’s rough. Come on, Syndi, I’ll help you dig.”
Khard and Chief Rainch made their way outside, Khard easily carrying all of the tools from Syndi’s truck over to the side of the house, where the large hole was as present as ever. Khard began to dig, deftly scooping patches of earth up with the shovel as Syndi dug her hoe into the loosened dirt to separate it further. This continued for several minutes, the two of them chatting easily, Khard telling Syndi about a similar city he’d stayed in during his younger days as a Cape.
Their conversation was cut short by an explosion, big enough that the both of them heard it in spite of its distance. Khard jumped and grabbed onto the roof of the house, flipping himself over to look in the direction of the noise.
It was City Hall. Khard zoomed his eyes in to take a better look and could see what appeared to be the entire population of Choudrant running away from the government building currently housing the circus. Khard jumped back down, then told Chief Rainch what had happened.
“Sounds a bit above my paygrade,” Syndi said. “Let the Capes handle it. That’s what they’re here for.”
“Hm. No, I think I should go,” Khard replied. “It was nice chatting, Syndi. Thank you for telling me the truth.”
Khard stepped around the tools and took off, his robotic legs carrying him upwards of twenty miles an hour as he trampled an entire row of flowers, coming quickly back to the road. He kept his path straight, easily long-jumping over a canal that had been dug to deal with flash floods, he seemed to fly as he cleared it. His feet hit the ground on the other side easily and he moved even faster as he stepped onto concrete and asphalt. Khard dipped through an alley, turning on a dime and jumping off the wall to his right. He landed on the other side of Main Street and began weaving in between the scurrying citizens of the town.
The old Agent stopped when he reached the front of the circus tent, where heavy drapes were held to the sides by the same ropes that were strung through the body of the tent. A line of flags had been knocked free and hung directly in front of him, the flags to flapping loudly. Khard pulled them free of whatever was holding them up and stepped inside the tent.
As he did, he saw Lochlan. The young Agent was holding up two men, one in each of his hands. The men appeared to be twins, their facial features as identical as their dress. Had Lochlan not been mostly machine, the men would have easily outweighed the thin Agent, their portly bellies touching as Lochlan held them in the air. The younger agent turned as Khard called out to him.
“Lochlan! What are you doing?”
Lochlan thought for a moment, tossing one of the large men to the side as he did. His reply chilled Khard to his metal-covered bones.
“I don’t know.”
CHAPTER 8—IVY AND THE AGENTS
The last thing I had to do was give my demonstration, and my scores so far were well above passing. I was practically glowing after doing so well on the obstacle course, even though I was still catching my breath almost twenty minutes later.
You ran really hard
Well, I had to.
The GHS officials had let me go and clean up before I had to show them my powers. Fibre had suggested that I demonstrate outside, which I thought was weird until I got there. I stepped out of the building to see a few of the officials, some Senior Capes—including Hunter—and thirty copies of Fibre. He’d split himself into fifteen male and fifteen female copies, some of them slightly distorted, which he said can happen when a copy makes a copy. The copies of copies had foreheads that were a little too big, or eyes that were too far apart. One of them was blind, though he seemed to be able to walk around just fine in spite of the murky whiteness over his eyes.
“That’s a lot more than we talked about,” I said to him as I stepped outside. The GHS officials were talking to Hunter—they hadn’t seen that I’d walked out just yet.
“You’ve done a lot better so far than they expected. Your grappling was good enough that they thought
that was your gene.”
“So what are you saying?”
“If you give them a big display of power, you’ll probably get onto a good team.” Fibre’s copy whispered the last part as we walked forward, raising his eyebrows at me before turning back toward the officials with a blank face. “I think we’re ready,” he said.
“You’re ready, Ivy?” Hunter asked. “If you need a few minutes, I think we’d all understand. You had a really quick time on the obstacle course.”
“I’m alright,” I said. “I feel good.”
Are you all ready?
What do you need, Little One?
These people want me to show them how my… uh… how you, you know… they want you to show them what you can do.
Are you in danger?
Well… no, not really.
Then what do you want us to do?
I need you to help me, like you normally do.
But we only help you when you’re in danger, Little One.
Okay, but—
“Ivy?” Hunter asked. “Were you, I mean, are you talking to them right now? You went blank there.”
“Sorry,” I said. “Yes. They’re being kind of weird.”
“What does she mean?” one of the officials asked.
“They only help me when I’m in trouble,” I replied. “I guess they don’t want to do it if I’m not.”
Three copies of Fibre walked over. “Only if you’re in trouble?” he asked.
“Yeah, I guess—” The two copies of Fibre kicked me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me. The double-hit was so hard I flew back, my body first going straight and then turning over as I landed on my face. I propped myself up on my forearms to get up, but was met with kicks to my side before I could. Fibre’s copies were holding back, but he wasn’t exactly taking it easy. I curled in a ball to defend the softer parts of myself, searching with my peripherals for a way up.
Will you help me now?
Little One… that man is your friend. Ask him to stop.
It doesn’t work like that. Not today.
We may not think like you do, but we are not stupid. When you need help, we will always help you. But we will not kill this man just because you ask us to.
Ugh.
I wanted to explain to the voices that what I wanted was for them to do something similar to when they’d helped with Tristan, but the attacks from Fibre were making that difficult. Seeing an opening, I rolled, grabbing the back foot of one of the copies, which tripped him and knocked him into the other as I got up. I punched three versions of Fibre in the face one after another as they ran forward, afraid to lose my momentum. Most of the copies were sitting down, and a few of the weirder-looking ones were walking back and forth behind the group, seeming lost. I stared a second too long, finding their behavior curious, and took a hit to the back of the head, which nearly caused me to fall forward.
Are you alright?
I’d be better if you helped me.
I kicked two more copies, then ran around a tree to find four more waiting for me. I knew when I saw them that I was too gassed out to keep going. My body ached from the fighting earlier, and I was already bruised and battered from the obstacle course.
“When is she going to use her powers?” one of the officials asked. I wondered where the woman who could talk with cats was—the officials nearby didn’t seem to understand that I was a Communicator.
“I’m working on it!” I called back, ducking under two swings as I jabbed a copy of Fibre in the ribs. I wasn’t looking where I was going, my vision partially obstructed by a different copy of Fibre, and I knocked my head directly into a tree branch.
That was enough to stop me in my tracks. I could feel a small stream of blood run down my forehead even as my body slammed into the ground. The copies that had been chasing me wasted no time, their boots finding the places that would do less damage to my organs as they stomped down on me. I tried to keep my hands up, working on blocking the hits, but I was too dazed from the tree.
Can you… ah…
Little One?
I need… help.
The thoughts were hard to form, my vision quickly tunneling, fading almost certainly to black as my brain was preparing to shut down.
Okay, Little One. We’ll help you.
And just like that, Fibre’s copies stopped. The six of them that had been kicking me dissolved immediately, followed by the copies of copies. The eyes of the copies who had been reluctant to fight dissolved as well, until only one was left.
“Oh no!” the copy yelled.
But I didn’t hear him.
I woke up with the angry nurse wiping my head. She would later tell me that I hadn’t really gone to sleep, but I don’t have any memory of walking back into the academy and into the hospital wing. The rag she was using stung, whether from what she had dipped it in or from how hard she was wiping, I don’t really know.
“Ah, you are back. Good. Explain what is wrong with him.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
The nurse turned her body so I could see the other bed in the room. Laying in it was Fibre, his complexion much whiter than normal. “I don’t know what his issue is,” the angry nurse said. “But Hunter said it was you.”
What did you do?
We helped you, like you needed. Like you asked.
Is he…?
Yes, he’ll be fine. He is… different, you know. Not like you, or us, or the nurse.
Can the nurse help him?
He should eat when he wakes up.
Okay, I’ll tell her. Thank you.
“He’ll be okay,” I said. “He’ll need to eat when he wakes up.”
The angry nurse looked at me. She dipped her rag in a small bowl to the side of my bed and wrung it out, then wiped off my forehead a little more. The droplets on the rag rolled down my face and I reached to keep them from going into my eyes, but the nurse stopped my hand before I could. The liquid stung.
“Builds character,” the nurse said. Then she dropped the rag back in the bowl and shuffled off. I laid back for a moment, my head cloudy and my body aching. The activities of the day had caught up with me, I wanted more than anything to sit in a hot bath and soak the rest of the day away. I reached up and was surprised there was no knot on my forehead behind the cut, and I found no bump on the back of my head either. I looked over to Fibre, his skin still whiter than normal, and thought that if I hadn’t known what he normally looked like, I might only think he was sleeping peacefully. He was curled on his side, with both hands underneath his pillow. It almost looked like he had a faint smile on, but I’m sure I was imagining it.
I waited a minute or so for the nurse to come back, but couldn’t even hear her walking around in the hall. I got up as quietly as I could, thinking it might do Fibre some good to keep resting, but he woke up anyway.
“Ah, hi,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I could eat a—” Fibre paused as the nurse walked back in, a tray full of food in her hands as she entered—mostly some nuts, oatmeal, and a few pieces of fruit. “—whole tray of fruit,” he finished. “Thank you so much for bringing this.”
“Thank her,” the angry nurse said. “She put you here. Said you need food.”
“Do you need me to stick around for anything?” I asked the nurse.
“You feel sick?” she responded.
“No, I don’t think so. I feel okay.”
“Then what are you doing in the hospital wing?” the nurse replied as much as asked.
The nurse left again after, huffing away. “So, you gonna’ go find out what your results are?” he asked.
“I was thinking I would, yeah. Are you doing okay?”
“I got my feet up; I got a tray full of treats. What more could I need?”
The color was already beginning to return to Fibre’s face as he crunched on the oatmeal. “Fibre, I just want to apologize. I’m not sure why you ended up getting hurt too and not just your copies.”<
br />
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I think I understand what happened.”
“You do?”
“Yep.” He replied, then took a big bite of fruit.
“How does—” I started to ask, but Fibre cut me off before I could finish asking him to explain to me how attacking his copies ended up hurting him.
“I’m going to be fine. You power really did a number on me, though. Incredibly useful, whatever you did.”
“Th-thanks. Well, okay, if you’re feeling alright, then I’m going to go find the officials and see what the story is.”
“Don’t worry about that too much,” Fibre said. “Your scores were right up at the top. I’m sure you’ll end up somewhere great.”
“Thanks. Sorry again. See you later.”
Fibre went back to eating his food before I walked out of the room. I made it halfway down the hallway before it occurred to me that I had meant to ask him something else. I wanted to see if he’d found out where Tristan was going to be sent to; I hadn’t seen my friend for over a day and assumed he’d already left. I didn’t know if that was information I was allowed to have yet, or at all, and didn’t want to feel embarrassed asking the GHS officials.
When I walked back in, Hilly was in the room, sitting on the other bed.
“Oh, Hilly. Uh, hey.”
“Ivy,” Hilly replied.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize I’d be interrupting.”
“That’s alright, Ivy. Did you need something else from me?” Fibre asked.
“I had a question… but, you know, uh, I’m alright. What brought you by, Hilly?”
“I came to check up on Fibre,” she said. “What was your question?”
“No, it’s alright. I’m headed over to the GHS officials, so I’ll just ask them. I’ll see you two later.”
I had thought about pressing further, maybe asking why Hilly waited until she thought I was gone to show up, but I really couldn’t be bothered. It was all almost over. I knew I’d graduated, Fibre had said as much. If there was something weird going on between Hilly and Fibre, it was about to be even less of my business than it might have been before. She was obviously going to successfully become a Cape as well—they’d probably never even see each other again. Whatever they were talking about, it was their own business. A part of me wanted to try one more time with Hilly–maybe find her later, at dinner or just when we were both back in our room. It was her choice to be so cold to me, though, and it looked like she was going to stick to it.
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