by V. St. Clair
“The buildings, perhaps,” Ana conceded. It wasn’t the first time she had ever wondered whether people were watching from the Augenspire; it was part of the psychological effect of placing it over the Academy. “Maybe the Viceroy can see us, if he has a good telescope up there. Or the Majors, if they have a Talent for that sort of thing. I guess I can’t blame them for looking down at us all the time, since that seems to be the most interesting thing to stare at from up high.”
“Hmm,” Risa contemplated this for a moment, a wistful look on her face. Before Ana could ask about it, they were called by the nurse.
“If you two will please follow Clark, he will take you to Mr. Vucanis,” the receptionist informed them, indicating a tall, dark-skinned nurse who was waiting near the locked double-doors.
Risa and Ana thanked him and watched as Clark scanned his wrist over the electronic reader, which popped the locks on the doors and allowed him to push the button to open them. One door opened towards them and the other away from them, forcing them to follow behind the nurse as he led them down the spacious hallway and past individual patient rooms. All of the rooms they passed had a glass wall facing the hallway, but some of them had the curtains drawn to prevent anyone from seeing inside as they passed. Ana was surprised by how normal everything looked; she had been expecting something top-secret and strange. She was also surprised they hadn’t been searched for weapons, though their most dangerous weapons—their Gifts—couldn’t really be taken from them anyway.
Thanks again, Topher, for your high-level clearance. They probably wouldn’t dare search anyone who was vetted by a Provo-Major.
They stopped in front of a sliding glass door that opened as soon as Clark scanned his ID-chip, though he stepped out of the way to allow them to precede him into the room.
Risa shot Ana a nervous glance and crossed the threshold first, with Ana right behind her. The first thing they noticed was Carl lying in the bed at the far side of the room, his head propped up on pillows while he watched television. The relief at seeing him alive and conscious must have been overwhelming to Risa, who vented a quiet sob of relief and said, “Thank heavens…”
This drew Carl’s attention, and he turned his head fractionally to see who his visitors were, eyes widening in surprise.
“Good lord, Risa? Ana? How in the world did you two get up here?” his voice was slightly hoarse but he seemed to have his wits about him. It was only then that Ana noticed the heavy cast around his entire right arm and part of his leg, and the half-brace supporting the right side of his face and neck.
“We heard you were injured, but no one would tell us anything about what happened or how you were recovering,” Ana answered, when it became apparent that Risa was still too overwhelmed to speak. Clark had retreated silently from the room and left them alone, though Ana had no doubt the room was monitored with security cameras.
“I’m not entirely sure how I got injured either,” Carl admitted with an attempt at a smile that seemed to pain him. “I’m pretty sure my bus got hit by another bus—a sky-bus, I’m told—but I don’t remember much of the accident other than the weather was terrible.” He was speaking to Ana but kept glancing at Risa. Finally he said, “It’s okay, Risa, I look much better than I did when I first got here. I’ve seen the pictures.”
Risa shook her head slightly to brush aside the joke, approaching his bedside carefully.
“I didn’t know if you were going to survive,” she told him softly, gently touching his uninjured hand while Ana tried to decide whether to leave them alone or not. She didn’t want to run afoul of the security system by leaving the room unescorted to wander the hallways, but this seemed like a private moment between her friends.
“Oh sure, modern technology is great as long as your brain is mostly-intact,” Carl said airily, which Ana suspected was for Risa’s benefit. “The right side of my body took quite a pounding, but it should be fine in another week or so. I apparently got wedged under the engine cage, which protected most of my left side and is credited with my survival. So I was actually quite lucky, not to mention I scored some top of the line, brand-new bones out of the deal too.”
“You had a bone replacement?” Ana asked curiously, wondering at the exorbitant cost of having to rip out a bone and replace it with one of the high-dollar synthetics. Typically only the wealthy could afford such a transplant, while poorer people had to settle for lower-grade materials that had to be replaced every decade, or a simple amputation.
“I think I had about ten of them, to be honest with you,” Carl grimaced. “My whole right arm was destroyed in a mass of blood and pulp, so they pretty much rebuilt it from scratch,” he gestured to the hard cast with his good hand. “They change the cast twice a day after soaking it in a mineral solution. It would have been a hellish replacement if any part of my arm was reusable, but they just amputated it at the shoulder and started with new bones and connective tissue. Two days ago the muscles went in and just yesterday they started on the nerve network, which is actually really ingenious because they install a few of these cluster boxes that act as marshalling points for relaying information between the brain and—”
“You lost your arm?” Risa interrupted his technical ramble, looking horrified at the cast.
“Yeah, but they’re replacing it so I’m not too upset. Soon they’ll be ready to put some skin on it, and then the trick is coloring it as closely as possible to the rest of my body. My right leg was a lot harder to fix, because the bottom part is fine but I shattered my femur so badly it took them fourteen hours to pull out all the bone splinters before they could even begin rebuilding it with synthetics. That one hurts more when they kill the nerve block on it to test my healing progress.”
“Did you break your neck, too?” Ana pointed to the half-brace, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.
“Cracked a vertebrae, but they hyper-glued it as soon as I got here. My jaw was worse, but they replaced a few teeth, and the hinge, so it’s as good as new now; you can’t even see the scars.”
Risa looked like she was trying not to cry, and Carl lifted a hand to touch her face.
“It’s not that bad. I told you I’m feeling much better, and they’re taking remarkable care of me. If I wasn’t so awesome I’d still be at the last hospital without an arm or a leg or part of a face.”
Risa forced a smile and touched his hand again.
“I guess it pays to catch the interest of the Viceroy,” Ana marveled.
“I doubt the Viceroy hand-picked me,” Carl said. “It was more likely one of his officers. Either way, I am glad they’re patching me back together so well for a job I haven’t officially taken yet.”
“Are you in a lot of pain?” Risa asked quietly.
“Not at all, for the most part. They’ve kept nerve blocks on my arm and leg and face while they heal, though they remove the blocks a couple times a day to make sure I have the appropriate amount of pain and nothing new or alarming to report. Actually, they removed the block entirely from my face today, and it’s sore but not agonizing.”
Risa glanced around the room as though she wasn’t sure how to feel about all of this. Ana thought she could understand the struggle, since Risa had harbored a burning hatred of the government and the military since she was a teenager, but now they had saved someone she cared about.
“How did you two get in here, anyway? I thought they were pretty strict on who they let onto the top floors of GMH, not that I’m complaining.” Carl asked curiously.
“We tried before, but were turned away for not having sufficient clearance,” Ana explained. “Today I got lucky and ran into someone who could assist us with visitation permission, though it’s only a one-time pass.”
Carl raised his eyebrows appreciatively and said, “You must have run into someone with quite some pull.”
Ana shrugged helplessly but didn’t offer any further information.
“We’ve got a lot to discuss,” Carl sighed. “I was having dinner w
ith a friend downtown, which is how I got to be on the bus that almost killed me in the first place.” He knew they both understood he was with Hera that night, though Ana still didn’t know why he hadn’t called her to come with him like she had asked.
Then again, I’m lucky I wasn’t on the bus too. The thought chilled her. I’m not being interviewed for a job at the Augenspire right now; they’d have no reason to save me.
“How did it go?” Risa asked neutrally.
“Better than I thought it would, actually. Anyway, when I get out of here, we should all talk and—”
Carl stopped mid-sentence when the door opened once more and two members of the Provo-Minor stepped into the room.
“Prospective Ground-Captain Vucanis, I hope you are—oh,” the first Minor stopped abruptly in his tracks. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had visitors.” His eyes immediately went to their emblems and narrowed slightly in puzzlement.
I’m running into way too many members of the government these days, Ana thought ruefully as her blood pressure spiked.
The only part of this that Risa seemed to register was the first bit.
“Ground-Captain?” she swiveled her head to look back at Carl, eyes wide. “You—you took the job?”
Carl’s lips flattened slightly and Ana could tell this was not at all how he wanted her to find out. Ana herself reeled with shock as this information began to sink in.
“I did…” he admitted slowly. “Though my application has not been formally approved since I got smashed by that sky-bus, and I haven’t been able to go through the physical and mental parts of the application process yet, so I am still a prospective candidate and not officially hired,” he added. “Risa, Ana, may I introduce you to Minor Havers and Minor Clees? They’ve been ensuring that my care is top-notch while I convalesce here.”
Risa still seemed too stunned to move, so Ana rose to her feet and said, “Then it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” She shook hands with each of them in turn, trying to look friendly and nonthreatening. “Thank you for taking such good care of our friend.”
The Provo-Minor kept stealing glances at their emblems but looked relieved that no one was causing trouble. Risa had the good sense to shake their hands and mumble some kind of gratitude as well.
“We wanted to discuss the remainder of the interview process more thoroughly with you now that you are coherent—not that we intend to rush your physical or mental recovery in any way,” Minor Havers assured the room at large. “It will probably take several months before you are medically cleared to receive any truth-telling serums, though the physical testing could probably occur much sooner as long as your recovery continues to progress well.”
“We’ll leave you all to your business then,” Ana touched Risa lightly on the arm to get her attention. “We really just wanted to see Carl for ourselves and make sure he was going to be alright, but he seems to be in good hands here.”
Carl couldn’t resist the urge to look at Risa, who had an odd, shuttered look about her. Ana could only imagine what kind of unpleasant rant her friend was going to treat her to on the way back to the Academy, and wondered if Hera knew about this new development yet.
“Please come again when you have time,” Carl said to the back of Risa’s head, looking mildly uncomfortable.
“Our passes were only good for one visit, so I’m not sure if we’ll be able to come back. When do you think you might be able to return to the Academy?” Ana asked, wondering if anything would persuade Risa to ever come back after this.
“Maybe another week or two if things go well; I’m not sure yet,” he admitted, frowning slightly at the non-response from Risa.
Before they could ask someone to summon the nurse, Clark appeared in the doorway—which only confirmed that their room was being monitored—and led them away.
The walk back to the registration desk seemed very short, as did the trip down the elevators and out of the hospital. It was hard to believe that only an hour ago they were eating lunch at the café across the street.
Risa had been eerily silent this whole time, and it wasn’t until they took their seats on the bus headed back to the Academy that Ana got up the nerve to speak to her.
“I’m sure there’s a good reason for it,” she began hesitantly. “If he talked to our friend about it first, they must have a plan in mind. She may have been the one to encourage him to accept the job in the first place, if you think about it.” When this elicited no response she added, “Carl obviously cares about you and doesn’t want to hurt you.”
The look on Risa’s face was chilling when she turned to Ana and said, “Carl who?”
15
Jessamine Elaria
Jessamine tried to keep the disdain from her face as she stared at the video monitor of her husband-in-waiting. It wasn’t so much that he looked like a toad—though with his wide-set eyes and razor-thin lips he kind of did—it was the obnoxious drivel he spewed from his mouth that disgusted her more than anything.
“I plan on moving down there in the fall,” he was rattling on foppishly, brushing his black hair out of his eyes. “I know our fathers are pushing for this spring, but the festival season will be starting soon and I intend to have my fill of the parties and niceties of the south coast before I move to your dreary capital. Do you even get proper summer weather in Silveria or is it all just one endless season?”
Jessamine forced a pleasant smile to her face and said, “We experience a variety of weather conditions in Silveria, including summer, though I understand it to be milder than the weather you are accustomed to in the south.”
“Well, that’s something, at least. See if you can put a stop to all those terrorist attacks and minor rebellions before I arrive; war can take such a toll on the shipping trade,” he drawled on languidly.
Jessamine’s blood boiled, but she forced herself to remain civil and said, “The Viceroy and I will see what we can manage.”
“How are things progressing at F.O.B?”
“Better than if we had not gotten most of the blast shields in place before the attack,” she explained patiently. “There were nine casualties, including the two conspirators, but given that they were trying to bring down the entire building—”
“I meant with regards to reopening the facility,” Darius interrupted rudely, examining the cuff of his shirtsleeve idly. “F.O.B backs some of our biggest clients and conglomerates, and their headquarters have been shut down for over a week while one of their satellite offices attempts to run things. Business is at a crawl. When can we expect the doors to be open again?”
Of course he’s more concerned with business than with the lives of our people.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Jessamine said, “The doors will reopen when my people are satisfied the building is structurally sound, and all other necessary preparations have been completed.”
“Well, tell them to get a move on; some of us have empires to run.”
“I spoke to your father just yesterday and he didn’t seem nearly as pressed by this inconvenience as you are,” Jessamine said pointedly. Everyone knew his father was still in control of most of the shipping contracts and only allowed Darius to manage a small portion of them to get his feet wet.
“Father doesn’t yet appreciate the full implications of this. Apparently, neither do you. I can explain it more fully if you’d like, or with smaller words.”
“As an alternative, I can shove my armored boot so far up your ass you’ll be shitting steel for a month,” Jessamine suggested, enraged.
“What did you just say?” Darius sat upright in his chair and finally gave her his full attention, looking like he’d been clubbed over the head.
“Our connection seems to be getting poor. Excuse me.” She cut the video call without saying goodbye, resting her head in her hands to vent her frustration. She’d have to make it very clear to him that she had more authority than he did and wouldn’t tolerate being treated like an idiot, eve
n in the privacy of her own room. And she’d have to do it without strangling the man when he was actually living here and married to her.
Ugh, there’s a horrifying thought.
She shuddered and tried not to dwell on it. There was no reason why she should ever need to share a room with him, much less a bed. The Augenspire had enough rooms in it for her to stuff him in another wing—or another floor entirely!—and not see him any more than was strictly necessary for social events. Then she could follow her late ancestor’s path and sleep with every other person in the Augenspire if she wanted to, out of sheer spite.
Or just the one I’d actually like to sleep with…
That was a train of thought not worth following. Topher had such damnably good character. He wouldn’t do anything that could be construed as inappropriate, no matter how much she might wish it.
If he’s even interested.
It was hard to tell at the best of times, though there were moments when she thought she could sense the tension between them. But Topher had more prospects than any other man she knew, so there might be someone else he was interested in.
Jessamine retreated to her bedroom and stared out the window, contemplating her options. Being on the top floor of the Augenspire, the window was welded closed around the edges, meant more for looking through than for actually opening. She supposed she could break it in an emergency, but then tried to imagine explaining to her father why she had smashed a six-foot tall, reinforced window in her bedroom simply because she was feeling cooped up in the Augenspire and needed some fresh air. He would not be amused.
Talking to Darius Hamish never put her in a good mood, which was doubly daunting since he was soon going to be a permanent fixture in the capital. How could she avoid him without making it look as though she was going out of her way to avoid him?