Relativity

by R S Penney

  Carefully, she reached into her purse and swiped her thumb across the screen of her cell phone. Tapping a little green icon with a microphone activated the voice recorder. If this got serious, she wanted to be able to corroborate her story.

  She wasn't afraid to start an open confrontation – there were times when you had to draw a line in the sand – but if circumstances forced her down that road, she wanted to be sure she had all the information first. Let an idiot talk long enough, and he almost always gave you something to exploit.

  Mr. Simmons growled like a hungry wolf. “Amanda, you're here to babysit,” he insisted. “Look after the kids. And as for you, boy, I strongly suggest that you leave this park now.”

  Well, that didn't take long.

  “It's a public park,” Melissa said. “He has every right to be here.”

  Red-cheeked and fuming, Simmons glared at her. “And who might you be?” he asked, creases forming in his forehead. “This might be a public park, but the police are just itching for a reason to put that kid in handcuffs.”

  “So you're saying the police carry out vendettas.”

  “I said nothing of the-”

  Melissa closed her eyes, bowing her head to the man. The heat in her face was hard to ignore. “I wonder what kind of media attention that would draw,” she went on. “Public servants accused of prioritizing petty grudges over the law.”

  The man recoiled as if she had suddenly become a hissing snake, his nostrils flaring with every breath. Clearly he hadn't been prepared for any kind of civilized debate. “I am not here to argue with a-

  Melissa cut him off by opening her purse and revealing the phone nestled safely atop her things, quietly recording this entire conversation. Mr. Simmons took a step back, his eyes widening when he saw it. “Care to have your views exposed on social media?” Melissa asked. “I know plenty of people who would love to retweet it.”

  The man growled, spinning around and stalking away through the grass. He paused a few paces from them. “Amanda,” he said without turning. “You're to finish babysitting, and the instant you're done, you're to return home immediately.”

  Once he was gone, Melissa let out a deep breath. The few seconds of joy she felt at her “victory” quickly turned to pain when she realized that Amanda would bear the brunt of this man's anger. This was why it was always best to think before you acted; however, a Keeper couldn't just let injustice go unanswered.

  When she looked to her two new friends, she realized that her fears were valid. Kevin and Amanda both looked crestfallen, and Melissa had a painful realization that she had a privilege they lacked. When this was over, she could go home to her comfortable house and loving family; Kevin and Amanda would have to live with the consequences of what happened here for years to come. There had to be something she could do.

  “I have got an idea,” Melissa said.

  “What's that?” Amanda murmured.

  “I'm gonna teach you two everything I've learned in the last little while.”

  There was a small coffee shop not far from Jack's apartment building: a cute little place with blue tiles on the floor and lamps that hung over the counter, casting light on a display case full of cakes. At this time of evening, the place was busy with over a dozen people scattered throughout the room at small tables.

  He found Anna sitting on a stool with her back to the door, hunched over and likely staring into a cup of tea. She liked peppermint tea when she was feeling stressed out and tired, and today would be one of those days.

  Jack closed his eyes, breathing deeply through his nose. Time to be a good friend, he thought, nodding to himself. Which means keeping your observations about Justice Keeper politics to yourself.

  He marched across the room.

  Setting his elbows on the counter, Jack laced his fingers and rested his chin on top of them. “So,” he said. “Is this a good time to talk about my unfinished graphic novel?”

  Anna smiled, a faint curling of her lips. “I think you came to the wrong place,” she said, rubbing her eyes with the back of her fist. “This counter is reserved for people who want to engage in silent moping.”

  Jack hopped onto the stool next to her.

  He sat with hands on the countertop, staring into his own lap. “Oh, really? So you mean this isn't the place where aspiring artists go to meet gorgeous young women who will see the creative genius lurking beneath their brooding exterior?”

  Anna covered her face with one hand, rubbing her nose with her palm. “No, you're misreading the tropes,” she said. “You see, the brooding artist is supposed to fall for the quirky girl with an unshakable sense of wonder at everything around her. All you'll find here is one pissed off cop who's been suspended from active duty.”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “Don't you know?”

  Jack turned his face up to the ceiling, blinking slowly to make his point. “I do,” he said with a slight rasp in his voice. “But I think I'd like to hear you tell the story anyway. Sometimes it helps to say these things out loud.”

  A heavy sigh exploded from her, and she leaned over with her arms folded on the counter. “The whole time I was there,” Anna began, “it was a constant battle just to make those idiots listen to me.

  “They get spooked, and the only thing they can think to do is shoot whatever it is that frightened them. It didn't even occur to me that Kevin's skin would be a factor in this. Not until Harry showed up. And it's just…You should have seen them, Jack. It's like they were looking for an excuse to use deadly force.”

  She went on, relaying the details of the event, her attempts to bring Kevin safely up to Station Twelve, the constant interference by a masked woman with a symbiont – Jack still shivered every time he considered the prospect of another Pennfield on the loose – and the local cops who offered no help at all. All the while, he just listened, occasionally resting a comforting hand on her back. It was what she needed from him.

  Anna scrunched up her face as if she smelled something horrible. “And you wanna know the worst part?” She leaned over the counter and buried her face in her folded arms. “By the time it came down to it, I think a part of me wanted to hurt them.

  “To teach them a harsh lesson, to make them realize what happens when you rely on violence to solve your problems. So, there's my secret, Jack. In the end, I'm no better than any of those men. I'm just as bad, and that's why I deserve whatever I get.”

  Jack couldn't help himself.

  He grinned into his own lap, a slight warmth in his cheeks. “You think I'm gonna judge you?” he asked, shaking his head. “We all feel the urge to do violence – that's only human – but I don't know anyone who does a better job of showing restraint.

  “Your reverence for life is nothing short of miraculous. Anna, you are the bravest, kindest, most resourceful person that I have ever met. I've never told you this before, but you're my hero.”

  When she looked up, her face was flushed, and she was crying, tears glistening on her cheeks. “You don't really mean that.”

  “If necessary, I will start singing 'Wind Beneath My Wings.' ”

  “You dork.”

  “Just for that, I'm gonna throw in 'From a Distance.' ”

  A brief moment of silence was broken when she suddenly took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “How do you do it?” Anna whispered. “How do you make everything better with just a few words?”

  She was watching with a smile on her face, a light in those big blue eyes. Dear god, she was so beautiful! Right then, he wanted nothing more than to slip his arm around her, press his lips to hers and-

  Jesus Christ, what was he thinking? Anna was his best friend, and she had a partner, and she would never forgive him if he ever broke that trust. On top of that, he was seeing someone else! No, no, no, this had to stop. He was not going to let these feelings of his ruin a wonderful friendship. For some reason, he felt an echo of his own disappointment. Summer disapproved of his refusal to indulge th
ose emotions? She of all people should have understood why honouring his commitments mattered. Jack would have to talk it over with her later.

  Gently, he pulled his hand away.

  Anna looked crestfallen, her bright smile fading to a frown that she smothered so quickly you might have thought you'd imagined it. “Thank you,” she said softly. “You're really good at figuring out exactly what I need to hear.”

  “Did you talk about it with Brad?”

  Anna hunched up her shoulders in a shrug, a gesture that made her chagrin evident. “I don't know how to talk about it with Bradley,” she answered. “He keeps asking about things I can't tell him.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like what we talk about at our weekly meetings,” she snapped. “It's not like I can tell him about the Key or what might happen if Slade finds it.”

  Ah. Jack had to admit, he had never considered that angle. Dating Gabi meant that he could share just about anything that happened to him throughout his day – she was in on all the big secrets – but for Anna…Well, it must be like walking a tightrope. Keep too much back, and your partner would start to feel shut out. Share something classified, and you risked your career.

  So it all came down to the person then. Was Brad the type of guy who could handle that kind of information? Jack didn't know him well, but he seemed pretty solid. “Mind a piece of advice?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Tell him,” he said with a curt nod. “Tell him everything. I know it's against the rules, but…your soul mate is the person you trust with anything.”

  “I guess you're right.”

  “Besides,” Jack went on. “If you can't hold on to this guy, I might just have to pick him up. He sounds dreamy!”

  Anna giggled, covering her mouth with one hand as she trembled on her stool. “I didn't know you were interested in men.”

  “I can learn!”

  She touched his shoulder. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime.”

  They sat together for a few minutes, enjoying a comfortable silence before they got up and made their way back to their building. Anna had big day tomorrow, and Jack, Jack had to find the murderer who had wounded his father, captured his symbiont and killed a whole bunch of CSIS officers right in front of his eyes. The glorious life of a Keeper, he thought. I should have gone into Nascar. It's way safer.

  Chapter 20

  They used a small conference room for Anna's tribunal hearing, a box-like room with gray walls and a long table where three senior officers sat side by side. Glin Karon was on the left. Today, he wore a black coat with silver trim on the cuff of each sleeve and silver flowers on the lapels.

  Next to him, Tiassa Navram sat prim and proper in a sleeveless blouse. Anna had never met her before, but the woman was absolutely stunning with long blonde hair and blue eyes that belonged on a hawk.

  The third was a woman named Kaydie Cadanzar. Tall and slender, she had a stern face with an olive complexion and dark hair that fell to the small of her back. The few rumors that Anna had heard about her suggested that she was the kind of supervisor who expected strict adherence to policy.

  Anna sat at a smaller table across from them, hunched over with her elbows on its surface and her forehead pressed to laced fingers. Don't lose your temper, she chastised herself for the fourteenth time.

  Next to her, Harry sat with hands in his lap, dressed in a gray suit with a red tie that stood in contrast to his lily-white shirt. The look of concern on his face said that he wanted to be here even less than she did.

  Jena was on his other side, slouched down with arms folded and staring up at the ceiling. Her contempt for all of this was obvious. Anna didn't blame her. It was good to know that someone believed in her!

  This was an internal matter – a review of Anna's decisions to see if disciplinary action was necessary – and since no criminal charges had been filed, Anna had no right to an attorney right now. Still, she felt a little sick to her stomach, and Seth was so tense she could feel it despite his efforts to hide those emotions. Nassai believed on commonality. Individuality was something of a foreign concept to them. As such, if Anna's actions were deemed incorrect, then in Seth's eyes, they might become incorrect, and thus he would be complicit for his part in them.

  Still, the symbiont had been with her long enough to know that sometimes humans did not agree on the rightness or wrongness of any given event. And that sometimes the individual was correct even when the crowd insisted otherwise.

  “I believe we can get started,” Tiassa said.

  Another table on Anna's right was occupied by three officers of the Manchester Police Department, and each man wore a dress uniform complete with a cap and jacket over his shirt and tie.

  Lieutenant Biggs stood up with a grunt, maneuvering around the side of his table to approach the three senior Keepers. “We've taken footage from the squad car's dashboard camera. That should be all that we need.”

  Glin Karon looked up with a dark scowl, staring so hard at the other man you might have thought he intended to start a fistfight right here in the conference room. “Computer, play video file Karon-2315, holographic output.”

  White light streamed up along the wall to her left, slowly resolving into the image of a car's windshield. Through the glass, Anna saw a street lined with unfinished houses, but her view was blocked by the backside of a cop who stood just in front of the car.

  His large body partially hid the other cop who had moved a few paces away from the car and now stood with his back turned, pointing a gun at Kevin.

  Something slammed into the cop nearest the camera, and when he fell back against the hood of the cruiser, Anna caught a brief glimpse of herself falling to land crouched on the black pavement.

  The other cop turned, pointing his gun.

  Anna saw her own foot come up to strike his wrist and knock the weapon out of his hand. Half a moment later, she was standing and facing the man. So that's what the back of my head looks like.

  The cop swung a nightstick at her.

  On the screen, Anna slipped past him, kicked the back of his leg and knocked him down to his knees. The camera didn't have quite the right angle to catch her elbowing the back of his head, but she remembered that moment. In the heat of battle, she had felt rage and – to her shame – a touch of satisfaction. Now…Now, all she felt was disgusted with herself.

  The cop who had landed atop the cruiser was getting to his feet, standing up on shaky legs. His partner came stumbling forward, and the two collided gracelessly, each man dropping to the pavement.

  The hologram vanished.

  “May I ask a question?” Harry said before anyone could speak.

  Tiassa nodded to him.

  Harry stood up, smoothing wrinkles from his shirt, then faced the three judges with a hard expression. The same expression you might find on a man who expected to be dodging gunfire any moment now. “Agent Lenai has already stipulated to all of this,” he said. “She has already admitted her actions and fully documented the injuries that she inflicted on Officers Crowley and Simpson. What is the point in making us watch this?”

  “The point,” Biggs said, spinning on his heel to face Harry. A nasty snarl twisted his features into something vicious. “The point is to give you a visceral understanding of the brutality she displayed.”

  Jena tossed her head back, rolling her eyes in exasperation. “Trying to pull on our heartstrings then.” She slid her chair closer to the table. “Too bad we can't have a visceral understanding of the brutality your officers displayed when they decided to employ lethal force against a helpless kid.”

  “I don't appreciate your tone.”

  “And I don't appreciate seeing one of the best officers I've ever worked with being dragged through the mud on a bullshit complaint.”

  Harry closed his eyes, breathing deeply. No doubt he was wishing that Jena might show a little more restraint. “The fact remains that Agent Lenai ordered your people to stand down,” he said.
“By refusing to do so, they've put themselves in violation of the Earth-Leyria Accord which stipulates that Justice Keepers have authority over all local law enforcement agencies.”

  “I'm aware of the-”

  “Furthermore,” Harry said, striding around the table to stand toe-to-toe with the other man. “There is grounds to claim that your people intended to use excessive force against Kevin Harmon, which means that Agent Lenai was justified in ending the threat to an innocent life.”

  Biting her lower lip, Anna winced. She buried her nose in the palm of her hand. Damn it, Harry, you just walked right into his trap! she thought. He's only going to take your logic and twist it around.

  It was a tenuous argument because it left Biggs free to claim that Anna had used excessive force in her attempt to prevent the use of excessive force. Round and round the carousel went.

  Lieutenant Biggs crossed his arms and stepped back, regarding Harry with a self-satisfied smile. “Did she have to put two of my men in the hospital?” he asked. “From what I've read, your girl has a habit of going a little too far.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  The lieutenant scowled, shaking his head in disgust. “I'm talking about over half a dozen security guards who worked at Penworth Enterprises,” he said. “On her first visit to our world, Agent Lenai did some serious damage-”

  Jena stood up with a growl, her lips peeling back to allow air to hiss through her clenched teeth. “That's enough!” she said. “The fact remains, your people were out of line. Anna did what she had to do.”

  Of course, that line of reasoning made Anna sound remarkably similar to the men who claimed that, in pointing a gun at Kevin, they were only doing what they had to do. Which might have been the lieutenant's whole purpose.

  “Perhaps,” Tiassa cut in. “A short recess is in order.”

  A domed ceiling of glass with metal grating spread out like a spiderweb allowed sunlight to fill a courtroom where wood-paneled walls were carved with delicate flowers. Three glass tables stood side by side – the outer two placed slightly askew so as to form a semicircle – and each was occupied by an arbiter in dark blue robes.