A/N: Thanks to everyone who has voted and added this story to their reading lists, but hasn't left a comment. Normally I would have gotten around to thanking you all one by one but there have been so many of you and I have been bogged down by finals, so I thank each and every one of you. There are cookies and refreshments over there and without any further ado, ch3.1
“Vicki, I promise, this bridge is completely safe,” I said motioning to the mass of piping and metal side panels beneath my feet. I stood half away across it over a ten foot drop down into an alleyway. Vicki stood on the butcher’s roof, made of mostly the same materials, eyeing the bridge suspiciously. The sensor lights mounted on the bridges railings cast us in a gentle glow.
“That doesn’t look safe,” Vicki said.
“I built it myself,” I told her. “I walk across it every day, it’s perfectly safe.” To prove a point, I jumped on it. The entire structure rattled and shook but stayed in place.
Vicki took a step back. “That doesn’t make me feel any better about it. In fact, it makes me feel worse.”
I ran over and grabbed her hand, pulling her out onto the bridge. She struggled against me until I had her half way across. I released the pitiful grip I had on her wrist. She stumbled back a few steps, her arms pin wheeling as she regained her balance. “Come on, Vicki, it’s holding both of us.”
She looked up at me as she found her footing and scowled. “Why couldn’t you just live on one of the lower levels of the slum?” she asked.
“I wanted to stay dry,” I shrugged. “Come on, you’re already halfway across.”
“I actually think I’m closer to the butcher’s shop,” Vicki said looking back.
I let my shoulders slump and frowned. “Vicki, come on, there’s a ladder to the ground on the other side of my house. You can use that when you leave.”
“Wait, there’s a ladder!” Vicki called.
“Yeah,” I muttered. I motioned back to my home. “Are you coming or am I going alone?”
Vicki ran over to me and grabbed my arm. “I’m not losing you again,” she said. “Come on, I want to see what you’ve done since we last saw each other.”
I smiled and led her to my house. I pushed the door open and motioned her inside. “Make yourself at home,” I said.
Vicki entered the home and I closed the door behind me. I made a quick hand motion that should have tripped the lights but nothing happened. “It is rather dark in here, Tawny,” she said.
“Yeah, I know, stupid lights aren’t working again,” I muttered.
Vicki wrapped her arms around my neck and touched her forehead to my temple. “What kind of hacker can’t work her own lights?” she whispered in my ear.
“They were working this morning,” I responded. I made the hand signal again and the lights sputtered to life, gently illuminating the inside of the makeshift metal shack I called my home. The interior didn’t hold much, two rooms, a bed room and then everything else. A rather decrepit looking couch leaned up against the wall across from a pitiful excuse for a kitchen. That consisted of a rather archaic looking camping stove sitting on a metal counter and a few shelves welded to the walls holding my meager amount of food. Situated between the kitchen and couch was a makeshift table sat atop a gaudy rug. It had seemed like a good decoration at the time.
Vicki walked over to the couch and sat down on it. I checked my shelves as I watched her out of the corner of my eye. “Can I get you anything?” I asked.
“What do you have to drink?” Vicki asked.
“Uh…” I looked back to my shelves and spotted two bottles of water sitting next to a box of crackers. “I have water,” I said.
“That works,” Vicki smiled.
I grabbed the bottles and joined her on the couch. She took one of the bottles and looked around. “Do you have a computer?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said. I waved my hand over the table and the keyboard and holoscreen illuminated. The screen frizzed for a second, going fuzzy before returning to normal. “It’s not much, but I can do a few side jobs for extra cash. Mostly fake papers for Tzi families, but that’s about it. I don’t have a backdoor into the military servers, so I have to give the files to someone else to upload. So not many can afford my prices.”
“If you had a backdoor, what could you do?” Vicki asked.
“More than what you are asking of me,” I said. I motioned again and my computer shut down. I clenched my fists to hide my shaking hands.
Vicki put her hand over mine. “Don’t worry, we won’t force you to do much right now. This is just a small hole in the software’s security for the drones; it’ll cut down on Alliance deaths,” she said. “They’ll get here faster, then we’ll be free.”
I felt her press the flash drive to my palm and wrap my fingers around it. Her touch was gentle, never forcing my fingers to do anything, just guiding them into a grasp. My jaw began to quiver and my chest constricted. My breaths came short and gasping. Small sobs hitched my breaths and tears wet my cheeks.
“Why are you crying?” Vicki asked. Her voice was soft, like a whisper. Her hand touched my cheek, brushing the tears away.
My lips opened and closed by I couldn’t force them to make words. Just a bunch of half formed I’s came out. “I, you, he, you were just gone,” I sobbed.
Vicki smiled softly and touched her forehead to mine. “I didn’t want to leave, but we got an assignment. I’m sorry, I would have told you but Captain Otto forbade me from speaking with you on assignment and then when we returned, you weren’t at the hospital anymore. I checked your room, you weren’t there.”
“When did you come back?” I asked. I sniffled and rubbed my nose.
“It was November tenth, we just got back from the front lines and received a leave,” Vicki said. “I came to visit you but your room was empty and all of the things you accumulated in your stay were gone.”
“The tenth of November?” I repeated. “They didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me?” Vicki asked.
“I had my surgery on the tenth of November and then I was moved to the physical rehabilitation wing,” I muttered. “The nurses didn’t tell you?”
Vicki looked down and folded her hands in her lap. “No, they didn’t,” she whispered. “I thought, I don’t know what I thought. You were gone and Otto told me you were probably dead. He was looking forward to seeing you too.”
I smiled weakly and wiped the tears away before she could see them. Change the subject before you start to cry more. “So, just install it on all of the drones I work on?” I asked.
Vicki nodded. “Yeah, just install it. We’ll give the access codes to the alliance hackers next time we send a courier their way. It will bury rather nicely and hide, a tiny little crack waiting to be exploited.”
I felt a yawn coming up and I looked at the clock. “I gotta get to bed,” I said. “If I fall asleep at work, the commandant will have my head.”
“Okay. Nick and Kai will want me back tonight. They don’t like it if I stay out too late.” Vicki and I stood up at the same time. She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed tight. “You’ll do great, I know you will.”
As she turned to leave, I grabbed her wrist. She stopped and looked back.
“Will, will you stay?” I asked. “At least until I fall asleep. I just got you back and you’re already leaving.”
“Of course I’ll stay,” Vicki said.
***
I put the flash drive Vicki gave me in the same drawer as the rest of my software update flash drives. If anyone suspected me of tampering, they would have to find the drive and good luck. That drawer was just a giant pile of drives thrown in haphazardly. How I would find it again would be a small miracle. I logged into my station and the schematics came up once more. I looked to the ‘bot and affixed my spark mask to my face.
“Wow, getting to work early?” Carly asked.
I turned to see her at her station dropping two tablets into a glass of water. I could see the tension in her forehead and she appeared to be squinting.
“How much did you have to drink last night?” I asked.
“Shut up,” she said. She downed the contents of the glass, her nose crinkling up.
Allen started to laugh. “Yeah, Kitty, you should have told Carly to watch how much she drank.”
“The only thing I regret is that I didn’t take that sucker for a lieutenant home with me,” Carly said.
“Sergeant Jameson?” a voice spoke up.
I turned to see the commandant’s errand boy standing at the edge of my station. The scrawny lieutenant looked uncomfortable in his immaculate officer’s uniform. We all wore mechanic’s uniforms, black cargo pants and shirt of varying sleeve length. But all of the commandant’s assistants had to wear the officer’s uniform, which meant when the hanger got warm and sticky, like it was, they got uncomfortable.
“Yes, sir?” I asked.
“Follow me,” he said and turned on heel.
Fear surged into my chest as I started after him. Do they know about the flash drive? No, they couldn’t know. I just added it to the drawer, they couldn’t know about it. No, this could just be an inspection, Carly’s had like four of them this year alone, it had to be coming eventually. That had to be what this was.
“Did you hear? There a dead head in the commandant’s office,” I heard someone say.
Dead Heads? My head swiveled to try to find the source of the voice but I couldn’t tell. Dead Heads were here? They ran the work camps, were Special Forces and investigated traitors, resistance members and any suspected members of a persecuted group, called Ferals. So, me and Vicki. The only reason for Dead Heads to be here was…they knew. They found out somehow. How did they find out? They couldn’t have. They just couldn’t. My lungs stopped working for a moment and my hands started to shake. I shoved them into my pockets to shield them from the lieutenant’s view.
“Oh my god, it’s Tawny. John, Tawny’s the traitor,” another voice said.
“Damn, it can’t be, Tawny’s always been really nice. Remember last month when my wife got sick? She came over and helped out with the kids. It’s hard to believe she’s the traitor,” a third voice, I assume John, said.
I struggled to control my breathing as we ascended the stairs to the commandant’s office. My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest as my mind went a million miles an hour. My jaw began to quiver as he knocked.
“Enter,” the commandant called.
The lieutenant opened the door.
“Sergeant, come in here. Lieutenant, you’re dismissed, close the door,” the commandant said before the man could enter.
“Yes, sir,” the lieutenant said and closed the door.
I complied with the commandant’s instruction. My heart jumped into my throat. A man sat on the corner of the desk wearing the ink black uniform of the Dead Heads. The feared insignia of a skull set on a lightning bolt on his sleeve and a variety of pins and slides on his breast. A marksman pin sat next to his Dead Head pin that signified him as one of the investigative teams. His pale blue eyes looked over me like a steak at the meat counter.
“Sergeant Jameson!” the commandant snapped.
I broke my staring at the dead head and saw the commandant sitting behind the desk. He motioned to the chair in front of the desk. “Remove your spark mask and have a seat.”
I reached up to loosen the straps on my mask, my hands shaking like leaves during a storm. The dead head’s eyes watched my hands as they fumbled with the straps. It took a several times to get it right and then I lowered myself into the seat.
“Sergeant, this is Captain Becker,” the commandant said.
“Hello, sir,” I dipped my head. My voice stuttered, betraying my fear.
"You’re scared,” Captain Becker said. “There are only a few reasons for people to be scared. One, they’re a coward; two, they think they’ve done something wrong; three, they have done something wrong. So, which one are you?”