MF1.0 - 58 - Angel

‘Crying on the floor Stef,’ she said to herself. ‘Yeah, that’s mature.’ She stared at the ceramic corpse of her only treasured toy. ‘Fscking madmen, that’s what they are.’

A hand reached down and pulled the doll from her hands. ‘You’re very lucky, you know.’ Alexandria, as perfect as they day she’d been bought, was handed back to her.

‘Getting my entire life spilled out onto the floor is lucky? How long have you been standing there?’

 Ryan proffered a hand. ‘Not long.’

She stood and indicated vaguely to the mess. ‘Why would they do this?’

‘You were at the mansion with the other hackers, and you haven’t made your presence known on the net since I…’

‘Yeah, yeah.’

‘Therefore, it is their assumption that you are dead. They’re honouring you.’

She grabbed a lost t-shirt and wiped her face with it, then laughed in his face. ‘Honour?’ She tossed the t-shirt aside and stepped over the couch. ‘This is honouring me?’

‘If I had shot you, any of those times, you’d be dead.’

‘Wow, thanks, I didn’t know that. Dead, by gunshot, that’s such a fscking revelation!’ She pushed the doll at him. ‘Hold her for a minute,’ she said as she walked away from him. She punched the bedroom door as she walked in, and kicked away the clothes from in front of her wardrobe.

‘I did have a point,’ he said as he stepped over the piles of clothes. ‘My point was…why are you hiding in a closet?’

She pulled shoes off pegs on the sidewall and climbed up onto them and used the shelf to help balance herself. ‘Not hiding, checking something.’

‘Yes. Well. In any case, we would have come here, a clean-up crew would have taken possession of your computers and peripherals, and we would have looked for any connection between you and the Solstice.’

She punched at the roof of the closest until one of the panels came loose. Dropping the panel to the floor, she pulled a large biscuit tin out and jumped back down. She leant against the side of the bed and peeked into the tin. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

He handed the doll back to her, and she quietly placed the items on the desk. ‘I guess I must seem pretty pathetic right now.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘You should simply be thankful that they were gone when you got here. If they’d still been here, you’d very likely be dead.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Does the entire world have a “shoot first” policy?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘The difference is, we take responsibility for what we do, the Solstice don’t. We take care of the bodies, the evidence, we arrange for widow’s pensions or placement for orphaned children – so they as they don’t follow in the deceased’s footsteps.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘At least some of that is as much to protect you as it is them.’ She looked around at the nearly empty desk. ‘So Bart and Sophia are just casualties of war?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘If you are referring the your missing computers, yes. They will…’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She held up her hand. ‘No, don’t tell me, if I’m not going to get them back, I’d rather not know what they’re going to do to them.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘We don’t mount rescue operations for computers…’ he trailed off.

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">He didn’t need to say it. ‘Or recruits.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Or recruits.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She yanked on the upturned bed and sat on the corner of the mattress. ‘So if I get snatched, policy dictates you let them take me?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘As soon as pass into a blackout zone it’s out of our hands.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Then I guess I’ll try and not get snatched.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘That is…always the best course of action.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘So basically, I’ve signed up for a life where I can be thinking about cookies one minute, and dead the next.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘You always have the option to leave. However, that’s always done best sooner rather than later, less chance of the Solstice recognising you. If you’ve ever been affiliated with us, you’ll receive the same treatment as a current recruit.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Wonderful…’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Recruit-’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘That’s not my name.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘No, but it is your title.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She looked away from him. ‘Everything that’s happened to me is because of you, you can at least call me by my name. I couldn’t really remember you, but I…’ she looked away, pushed Alexandria off the tin and slowly opened it. She pulled out a book and flipped it to the back page. ‘But I didn’t forget about you either.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Stef….’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She held up the book, on the inside of the back cover was a blue crayon stick-figure, a small brown stick figure and a little red circle. ‘So sue me, I’m not an artist.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">He took the book and stared at it. ‘I assume…I’m the blue one?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She reached over and closed the book. ‘I thought you were an angel.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Technically, I am.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She stared at him, an eloquent inquiry formed, but it somehow failed to translate when she opened her mouth to speak. ‘Buh-what?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Only technically, we were created by the gods. Though,’ he said as he inspected the cover, ‘we have neither robes nor wings.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She stared at her feet. ‘You’re not going to shoot me?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Are you going to give me a reason to do so?’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">‘Maybe.’

<p style="color:rgb(189,190,190);font-family:Verdana,'CenturyGothic',Tahoma,sans-serif;line-height:normal;">She hugged him.