Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Chapter 17: passing blame

Vertov called Lully into his office the moment he got to work. Lully panicked for a moment thinking that he had done something wrong, but it turned out to be much more serious than that.

"Victoria was killed last night," Vertov said. "With a gun. I know you've gone through every line of every single queue, and I know you didn't print it.  But where could this gun have come from if not from here?"

Lully gaped at his boss for a moment before collecting his wits about him.

"There's a couple printers outside of our bay," he stammered. "But odds are, that gun has been here since Landing Day.  They didn't melt them..."

The last two words came out much softer when Charles entered the room. He would have been the person responsible for melting the guns back into their plastic. Lully wanted to believe there were no more firearms on the base, but last night had proved that believe to be little more than a daydream. His madre had warned they were not to be trusted. It seemed that she was right.

"What is going on?" Charles said, as if he was in charge.

Lully bristled instinctively, but said nothing.

"Victoria was shot and killed last night and we're trying to figure out how," Vertov answered, not repeating what Lully had suggested.

"Well, Lully here is the gatekeeper for all of printing, why don't you asked him?"

"I am," Vertov answered in a tone that was both mild and frightening. "But since we have no blueprint for any guns in our possession the question seems a little naïve."

"What are you imply?" Charles growled.

"Why would I need to imply anything?" Vertov countered. "We have no evidence. We have one bullet, no gun and a dead member of our base. No printer here created a weapon of that sort. It stands to reason that it had already existed."

Lully wished he were no longer here. He had hypothesized that Vertov and Charles didn't get along, but had never seen them interact which such hostility. He wondered if that was the real reason he got so many community service hours, but now was definitely not the time to ask.

"We melted the guns from Landing Day," Charles said adamantly.

"How many guns?" Vertov inquired. "Did you count?"

Charles didn't say anything, but seemed to slowly realize what Vertov was implying

"Do you know how many you printed? I do."

Vertov cracked his neck and gestured to the seat next to Lully. Lully definitely did not want to be seated next to Charles, but he didn't have much of a choice. Vertov only knew because Lully had continued hunting through the queues, finding discrepancies both benign and alarming. They had printed more than four guns. Charles had to know, because he had to have been the one to do it.

"There are still guns on this base," Vertov stated flatly. "You knew this. You're responsible for them being there. Why shouldn't I turn you over to Dashiell and make it your fault that Victoria was shot."

"I didn't shoot my friend," Charles snapped.

"You printed the bullets she was shot with. You didn't melt the guns. I would say you venting did. Sit down."

Charles did so with a thump. Vertov didn't yell. He spoke in a low voice that made Lully sit up straighter.

"Lully and I have been combing through ever single article that every printer has made since we landed here," Vertov said. "We're still not done. We do know you printed ten handguns. We do know O'Keefe had one in his possession before you landed. We don't know if there are anymore. I don't care what the specifics are; I don't even want to know about it. Get the guns off this base. This is your fault."

"I don't know who killed Victoria and they clearly have a weapon," Charles retorted.

"Did they need one?" Vertov countered. "Or could they have shot her with her own weapon?"

That made Charles pause. He didn't have an answer. Lully wished he could excuse himself from the room; this was beyond uncomfortable. He wanted to message Esperanza, let her know about the situation. She would be worried about him, not that there was anything to do about it. This hadn't been a moment of impulse, like when Lully had been shot, or a massacre like Landing Day. Someone had planned for this moment and used the earthstorm as cover. It was clever and frightening.

"I have a congress meeting in ten minutes and I will probably be there all day. Lully, I'm putting you in charge of getting any queues finished and the printers sent home. We need to be ready in case we have to do round the clock repairs. Charles, if I were you, I would have a chat with anyone you know with a weapon and perhaps quietly melt them. We could use the plastic. Most importantly, you two need to stop fighting on the floor."

Vertov glared at both Lully and Charles.

"I've put up with it, and Lully is practically working for free nowadays, and it's over. I'm removing the rest of Lully's community service from his record and we're starting fresh today. Kiss, make up, whatever you need to do. We have more important things to worry about. I'm tired of the killing."

He stood up from his chair and left his office with Lully and Charles still seated there. Charles scoffed at Lully and left as well without speaking to Lully. Lully didn't mind; he didn't really want to talk to Charles anyway. Esperanza would be ecstatic about the community service, and Lully could admit it would be nice to have lunch breaks again.

He sent her a short message and headed out onto the floor, scanning his holo-rib for what they lacked on their docket. There wasn't much. Emerson was good at keeping the printers busy. The others were standing around idly and Lully began dismissing them. He wondered how many people knew about Victoria.

"Lully! Back on the floor with a holo-rib in your hand," Emerson laughed. "These are the printers if you recall."

"Merci, Emerson," Lully said dryly. "Are you done with research's beakers? We could start sending people with deliveries. If we have the option to leave, we should take, right?"

"Michelle can get the beakers," Emerson agreed. "Vertov said he's going to a congress meeting? Didn't they have one like, two days ago?"

"They did," Lully agreed. "Come on, I want to get out of here by lunch."

Emerson sighed dramatically. "Fine."

___
The aftermath continues. Lully isn't very prepared for the Charles/Vertov spat.
I decided on a double update after all. Thanks for reading!