“It’s going.” She shrugged, dragging a hand over her face.
“That good, eh?”
She breathed out lightly with a half laugh. “Yeah.”
She hauled herself up out of the chair and headed towards the door, pointing out it. “Walk with me?” she offered.
He nodded, pushing himself off the door frame and stepping into the corridor that was becoming quieter by the minute.
“So any progress?” Her voice was low, as if inquiring about something secretive.
“A little. Mostly we’re just trying to apply the segments of frequencies that we’ve already interpreted. Taking the computer a little bit of time. But we’re getting there.”
“Oh that’s good,” she said, feigning encouragement as best she could.
“I know we agreed at this stage it’s probably not going to be much help… But if there is anything else I can be doing, just say the word.”
Molly halted suddenly in the corridor and looked at him. “You’re doing great,” she told him, “and I appreciate everything that you’re doing. Really.”
He glanced over at her with a flat kind of smile. “Thanks. I just wish that there was more that I could be doing.”
“Well if you’d like to take on marking my end of term papers next week…” She flashed him a smile.
He grinned back. “If it would stop all-out war in the system, I’d be more than happy to.”
She started walking again, this time more slowly than before. “Yeah that’s the thing.”
He brightened a touch as he ambled after her. “So any news on the liquid voting system?”
“Actually, yeah,” she said, sounding surprised, herself. “Not only was it accepted, but almost as soon as we listed our candidates we had people voting for them. I think we’ve actually got a chance of winning if this war is going to be put to the vote.”
“Well that is good news!” Giles glanced up at the ceiling as if thanking a deity. Molly wondered which one it might have been, given his eclectic knowledge of cultures.
“Yeah. I must say Paige and Maya have done an excellent job getting the word out to the folks on our side.” Her speech slowed. “I’m still not sure entirely how they’ve done it. Paige is being a little cagey about the details.”
Giles gave her a sideways glance. “You don’t suspect that she is up to something, do you?”
Molly smirked. “I fully expect that she is up to something.”
Giles chuckled quietly to himself. “Well she learned from the best. That’s all I can say.”
Molly grinned and nudged him slightly with her elbow. “Speaking of dramatic influence… How are your presentations going?”
He tilted his head modestly. “Pretty good I think. I mean obviously we won’t know until the Senate cuts the final vote, but I think the Estarian leadership have warmed to the idea that maybe there is evidence to suggest that the ARs aren’t out to kill us. I have hope.”
“Good. Me too.”
Giles suddenly became awkward. He fiddled with his glasses, then took them off to clean them. Molly braced herself. “Err, I was thinking, maybe you’d like to go and grab a mocha and talk some more.”
Molly ran a hand through her hair, pulling it off her face again. She glanced at the floor. “Oh I would, but erm, I have to go to see someone with Sean.”
As if on cue Sean Royale came striding through the double doors ahead of them. “You ready?” he grunted.
She nodded, glancing back at Giles with a sympathetic look in her eye. “Rain check?”
“Yeah… Absolutely. Sure.” Giles placed his glasses back on his face, squinting at Sean as if trying to deduce some clue as to what was going on.
Sean, noticing Giles’s reaction, shot him his best dirty grin and slung his arm around Molly’s shoulder as they headed on down the corridor without him.
Giles’s face dropped as he watched them leave.
Molly didn’t let Sean leave his arm there though. Instead she sidestepped him as they were walking and slapped his arm off her as if she was swatting a fly.
Giles ran a hand over the lower half of his face, as if trying to wipe the anxiety away. It had been a tense few months, by anyone’s standards.
Just then, Molly turned and waved. “I’ll give you a call later,” she told him. “I need your opinion on a statement I want to make.”
Giles put his hand up and returned the wave awkwardly. “Yeah sure, any time. I’ll be up late.”
He was almost sure he saw Molly smile as she disappeared out of the door.
Bone head, he cursed at himself. Could you be any more of a doofus?
* * *
“I wish you wouldn’t do that.” Molly scowled at Sean.
“Do what?” He wore his best innocent expression. The one he reserved for lying to the team when he was pranking someone.
“You know what. Winding Giles up like that.”
“I never even talked to the guy!”
She narrowed her eyes at him as they hopped into the waiting pod down the side of the building. “You know exactly what you were doing, and it’s not okay.”
Sean surreptitiously rolled his eyes as she turned around to put her belt on.
“All right,” he sighed. “It’s just that it’s so easy to wind him up. It’s too tempting. Like bubble wrap just sitting there, waiting to be popped!”
Molly poked at the holoconsole on the pod. “Okay, whatever. Let’s get this over with. I got real work to do.”
“What and keeping Ekks from taking over the planet isn’t in your top priorities?”
“You know what I mean.”
The pod lifted up and disappeared into the stratosphere before Sean could even think of a clever comeback.
Outside the Senate House, Spire, Estaria
Work had become a shit show.
Senator Vero Romero hurried out to his car in the underground carport, weary from another day of arguing with people who were just too spineless to listen. He just wanted to go home, put some music on, open a bottle of wine, order a pizza and forget all about it… until at least tomorrow morning.
He got in and put the key into the ignition and turned it. The engine purred like a kitten just like it usually did.
He pulled out of the building’s carport and moved gently into traffic.
It wasn’t until he got to cruising height that he heard a clunk. It was quiet—quiet enough that he had to turn off the holocast he had been listening to. He had definitely heard something. The clunking continued and was consistent, as if a pebble had become lodged in the undercarriage.
His first thought was to damn the dealership; the car was still reasonably new. His next thought was to try to put it out of his mind. His commute wasn’t especially long and he could worry about his car making a strange sound once he was home and had a drink in his hand.
He had just started to relax his shoulders a little when the dashboard’s landing advisory light popped on. The rhythmic clunking got slightly louder. With an aggrieved sigh, he pulled off at the nearest exit to find a spot to pull over.
He didn’t notice when the clunking noise actually stopped, but only because that was the same moment that his engine abruptly shut off and his car suddenly plummeted to the ground like a potted plant.
He stomped on the gas, yanked on the emergency brake, twisted the key, all to no avail. The engine refused to reengage and the hovering systems didn’t take over.
It felt like the car fell for an eternity, everything happening in slow motion. He felt as though he could see every fleck of dust in the air and every atom in the middle. But really, it was only a few seconds before his car met the ground. He lifted his hands to brace himself, just as the airbags went off on either side of him.
He heard glass shattering as one of the windows exploded with the impact, and he heard a thick, soggy crunch. With some distant, foggy awareness, he supposed that was probably part of him. Slump
ed over his steering wheel, he tried to muster up the energy to sit up, to check the damage, to see if anything was broken. But it was like the air around him had turned into sand, holding him down so he could hardly even lift one of his hands. His ribs felt tight, but nothing hurt just then.
Without being able to pry himself away from the steering wheel, mostly he could see the edge of the airbag and a lot of red. But that didn’t make sense. His car was black. The interior was leather. It took a moment before his thoughts churned enough for him to realize he was probably bleeding. He made another attempt at sitting up.
It felt like he weighed a ton, and he gave up.
A crowd was beginning to gather around his car. He could barely hear them over the sound of his ears ringing. The words he could actually make out sounded distant and tinny, like they were echoing through a tunnel. He let the threads of conversation escape his grasp; he couldn’t bring himself to care what anyone was saying at that point. The sound of approaching sirens was a bit more distracting anyway.
Everything was going gray and hazy at the edges. The world crept back into place when an EMT started talking to him. He blinked at her, uncomprehending. He let the world fade out into white noise again once she started sorting through his wallet when it became clear he wouldn’t be answering any of her questions.
Everything became very clear once again as he was being removed from the wreckage of his car. In that moment, the pain finally made itself known. He passed out somewhere between his car and the stretcher, and he had no memory of being loaded into the ambulance. The drive passed in a haze of disjointed sound and flashes of light, and soon enough even those faded away to darkness and silence.
Even then, the pain wasn’t quite gone. But it relented, just a little.
He wasn’t aware of the tube down his throat or the preparations for surgery.
The next thing he became conscious of was a beeping.
He didn’t realize that it was much later. Nor was he aware of the oxygen mask on his face, or the private room his hospital bed was wheeled into.
Out in the hallway, a nurse made a few notations on his patient chart before turning to speak with the pair of police officers that waited nearby.
“An accident,” one officer decided afterwards, already sounding as if he was bored with the entire situation. “An engine that needed some maintenance. We’re done here.”
And Vero remained blissfully unaware of that, as well.
Ekks’s Office, Senate House, Spire, Estaria
Molly strode through the doors of the Senate House. Casually she headed straight to the receptionist’s station. She placed her arms on the counter.
“Greetings of the day to you.” She sounded almost as if she were bored. “I have a meeting with Commander Ekks.”
The receptionist glanced down at her holoscreen and punched in some keys. “I’m sorry I don’t—”
Molly stopped her mid-sentence. Quietly she shifted her energy, implementing some of what Arlene had been teaching her over the years. By now she had this particular maneuver down pat. She held the gaze of the receptionist as the mood around the reception desk seemed to change. “I’m sure you’ll see that I have a standing meeting with him this time every morning. Our badges are in your top right-hand drawer.”
The receptionist, a little dazed, nodded obediently. She reached her hand down to her drawer without even looking and fished out the two badges, placing them on the counter top.
Without even checking her holoscreen again, she waved Molly through.
Molly grabbed their badges, handed Sean’s to him, and walked straight through security as if she belonged there.
Sean jogged a couple of paces to catch up to her. “This never gets old,” he gruffed under his breath, just loud enough for her to hear.
“Well, at least that’s the case for one of us.” She sighed, without even looking back at him, or slowing her pace.
“Oh come on,” he protested, speaking a little louder now they were deeper into the building and away from any security personnel. “Don’t tell me this doesn’t even give you a little bit of a kick… knowing you can do this?”
Molly glanced at him sideways as they crossed the enormous foyer of the Senate House and started jogging up the staircase to the main office building. “Are you kidding me? You were the one that was so against me having this ability. It’s dangerous yadda yadda. Keep her away from the Federation yadda yadda. Any of that sound familiar?”
She shot him a steely look.
“Well maybe it’s growing on me,” he muttered sheepishly. “And as long as you’re not using it on me, I am kind of okay with it.”
Molly rolled her eyes at his hypocrisy.
Molly?
Oz? What’s up?
I’ve intercepted a report on the police scanner. It looks like Senator Romero has been taken into hospital following a car accident.
You’re kidding? What happened?
It’s hard to say at this point, but it’s looking likely that it was a hit rather than an accident.
Hang on… Wasn’t he one of the guys who was criticizing Ekks’s moves in the media?
I believe he was.
Something else we’ll have to talk to him about…
Sean glanced at Molly, clearly waiting for her witty come back. He noticed her facial expression had shifted to one of concentration. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I just have a few more questions for Ekks, that’s all.”
They arrived at his office and walked straight in past the assistant’s desk, which was partially blocking their path. Ekks’s assistant got up from her console and started to protest. “You can’t go in there…”
Molly shifted her energy and silenced her without having to say anything. Knocking, they entered without waiting to be invited.
“Ekks,” Molly greeted him dryly. “I’d say good to see you again, but this is never my favorite part of the day.”
Ekks glanced up from his holo, bamboozled and simultaneously dismayed. After a second to recognize what was happening, he sprang to his feet. “What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. “Patricia! Patricia!” he shouted for his assistant.
Molly pushed her will. “Hey Ekks, it’s me, relax.” Straightaway his demeanor shifted and he quieted down.
“Sit down,” she told him. ‘’It’s time for our talk.”
Obediently he sat down again while Molly and Sean stood in front of his desk, looking down at him.
“So, how’s the bylaw coming?” she asked.
“Still on hold,” he grumbled. “Seems you make a convincing argument. Haven’t been able to figure out how you convinced me… or how I didn’t see those other options in the past… but still. It’s on hold and I haven’t changed my mind since last time we spoke.” He looked resentful for a moment, before the creases on his forehead suddenly relaxed and smoothed out.
“That doesn’t mean that I like what you’re doing. But you were right about it being bad for me politically,” he confessed.
“So the liquid democracy seats are safe still?” she confirmed.
He nodded, the tension in the rest of his face evaporating too. “Yep. Safe and legal. The bylaw confining candidates to only vote within party lines would have been unconstitutional anyway.”
“Good… I’m glad that you see that now.”
Sean shifted his weight, watching Molly one moment and the changing reactions of Ekks the next. He shook his head in amazement. “Looks like it’s still working,” he added softly.
Molly nodded, her attention still on Ekks. “I’ve just had word that something’s happened to your adversary: Romero,” she ventured, changing the subject.
Ekks barely paused. “An unfortunate accident.”
“So you’ve heard about it already?”
“I hear about everything that is relevant around here. Is that why you’re here?”
“No, I’m here just to make su
re that we still have an understanding. So what can you tell me about Romero’s accident?”
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head, eyes wide as innocently as he could manage. “I don’t know anything about it.” For a moment he looked more like a person than a Commander. Molly wasn’t sure if it was his earnestness, or a sign of weakness.
She narrowed her eyes, deciding to dig deeper. “I must say, him being out of action for the Senate’s final vote will be quite convenient for you.”
“What are you implying?”
“I’m not implying anything.” She rocked slightly onto her toes. “Got to say though, it helps your cause… not having that kind of resistance in the House.”
“Well, this is true,” he confessed, strangely innocently. “But I had nothing to do with what happened to him.”
Sean glanced at her sideways and leaned closer to Molly. In a low voice he whispered: “Do you think he is able to keep a secret from you?”
Molly shrugged. “I’m not sure. Changing someone’s mind is different from trying to get them to tell the truth.”
“Unless you want to convince them that they need to tell you the truth.”
Molly smirked. “Ahhh...”
* * *
Ten minutes later Molly and Sean exited the commander’s office.
“I hope it holds,” Molly muttered.
“It should do. It’s worked all this time.” Sean did a quick calculation in his head. “About sixty-two days.”
Molly shrugged. “Under normal circumstances I’d like to test how long until it starts wearing off. But in this instance we can’t risk it.”
Looks like we missed someone.
What do you mean?
Sounds like someone is calling security over the internal network.
“Shit! Sean, we gotta move.” She picked up the pace as they hurried out of the Senate building.
Sean glanced down at his bloody knuckles and wiped them surreptitiously on his atmos pants.
“You hurt?” she asked as they hurried down the stairs to the foyer.
“No, it’s not my blood.”
Suddenly an alarm went off.
Sean grinned. “Clearly you’re getting complacent.” He chuckled as they hurried out past a bewildered-looking receptionist and back out onto the street.
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 230
