Angreius, 10th day of the Summer Cros, 3367
Dalek Madrew was back in his cell. Lariv Jinla had not visited him in three days and he had been discharged from the infirmary in the morning. Of course, he was immobilized the entire time. Dalek still felt sore and tired. Fatalism worked on him.
He caught himself thinking about the lamp in the shower room again.
The door to his cell opened and he shuddered inwardly. Now what? Lariv Jinla bowed into his line of sight with a smile on her face, as if she came to visit her best friend.
"How are we feeling today?" Lariv asked.
"Like crap since you came in."
Chuckling mildly, Lariv unfolded her chair and sat down by Dalek's bed.
"I owe you an update on those three names I threw at you. Remember them?"
"You'll electrocute me again if I don't?"
"Let me say that I'd like to verify whether your brain still works properly."
"Give someone power and she becomes an asshole."
Lariv laughed out loud. "That's a good one. May I quote you in one of my books?"
"Fuck you, Doc."
"The names, Dalek, do you remember them?"
"Kania Lurdh, Sirid Unnal and how could I ever forget him again, Timon Feihn."
"Wow, again and again you prove to be a tough little bastard, Dalek Madrew. You're right. All three of them are or were members of the RSW. Until one of them proved to be a traitor. It wasn't your classmate Feihn, but the other guy, Sirid Unnal."
"Aha, and why are you telling me this?"
"I thought you'd like to know that your friend Timon wasn't the one."
"Timon wasn't my friend. I didn't even fucking remember him."
"Do you remember him now?"
"Not really. We were kids. I vaguely remember that I didn't like him, because he was sucking up to the teachers to get good grades."
"Is that so? There's another name now. Unfortunately only half a name and a false one at that I suppose. Ever heard of someone named Nal?"
"Nal? You got nothing more?"
"Unfortunately not."
"Doesn't ring a bell. You want to torture me again with electroshocks to verify?"
"No, not this time. This Nal seems to be the leader of an operative cell whose member Sirid Unnal was. Since you went to school with Timon and not Sirid, I'm not expecting miracles here."
"How merciful."
"Jokes aside. The RSW is very worried. There was this incident around Ganes Trufft, of course that was FTS as well, and now another team around this Nal and Sirid Unnal has surfaced. Unfortunately, neither of the latter are in RSW custody, though they're rendered more or less inoperative. Sirid Unnal has so far managed to evade capture but at least he's now unable to complete his task on the Gen. But, you know, the RSW is wondering just how many more FTS cells there are.
"Between you and me, I think the RSW has finally snapped and reached the state of paranoia. They now suspect every person working for the Gen and the OT to be a traitor. Therefore, they called me in to conduct psychological tests on all OT and Gen employees. That means I'll have to leave Angreius for a while and move to the horrible heat and humidity of Hagesh."
During Lariv's speech Dalek gradually felt a lump rising in his throat. The way she talked meant something bad.
"Why are you telling me this, Doc?"
"Don't you already know?"
"My time's up, you'll kill me."
All mockery left Lariv's voice. "I'm afraid so, yes."
Dalek felt cold suddenly. "What happened to, 'you'll get out of here in a year, Dalek?'"
"A Dr. Hinsis will fill in for me during my absence. He has looked through the prisoners' files already, found yours and asked me why the hell I haven't had you terminated yet. He doesn't see the need for a long-term study of the immobilizer's effects. My hands are tied, I'm sorry."
"Fuck you."
"I'm really sorry, Dalek. I hope you know that I meant it. I wouldn't have had to come here and tell you personally. I just could've ordered the guards to bring you to the death room just like that." Lariv snapped her fingers.
"You expect me to thank you, or what?"
Despite being immobilized, Dalek was shivering, his muscles quivered. He gave up trying to control his voice.
"No, I don't. I just wanted you to know that I meant it. I wanted to let you go after the Gen left. You can thank Sirid and his buddy Nal for your death. Without them, RSW headquarters wouldn't have called me to Hagesh to test all their Gen and OT personnel and Dr. Hinsis wouldn't come to replace me."
"When?" Dalek whispered.
"Tomorrow," Lariv said. "I'll leave tonight."
"Fuck you, Doc. Fuck you, mean bitch."
CHAPTER 13
THEY LET KANIA out of custody after two days, but suspended her from working on the Gen. They said that the suspension was only temporary. She didn't believe them but was too exhausted to protest.
Against her will she found it quite sweet that Timon waited for her next to an e-car in front of the RSW's Hagesh headquarters.
"How did you know when they'd release me?" she asked him after a round of greetings and a hug.
"I simply asked."
Tired, Kania nodded. "Did they interrogate you as well?"
"Sure they did."
"Are you suspended too?"
"No, and I'll see to it that they'll revoke your suspension quickly."
She shook her head. "How do you want to get them to do that?"
"I might have a way. Come, let me take you home. I bet your apartment needs a bit of a cleanup. I don't want you to face that mess alone."
"You don't have to do this, Timon."
"But I want to, come on." He nodded at the car. She sighed and got in.
It felt so weird to ride home to an apartment without Sirid. Many of his things would still be there. What was she supposed to do with them?
"Did they catch Sirid?" she asked while the e-car rode them through the quivering heat of Hagesh.
"Not that I know of. But of course they're not telling me everything."
"I don't know if I want to live in that apartment anymore."
"I can imagine. You can stay at my place if you like."
"Well, I at least have to go back and clean up."
"Sure. I'll help you with that."
"Thank you. Did they interrogate Rilad too?"
"Yes, but they let him go, they have no hacking evidence they can nail him for. Rilad highly enjoyed the whole show. He's like a little kid, totally high on adventure."
"That's ridiculous."
"Yes, but it also makes him kind of lovable."
Kania nodded, for a moment feeling even too tired to speak.
✜✜✜
They had turned the apartment inside out. All furniture was toppled. The contents of all boards lay on the floor. In the living room the hiding place for the communicator lay open, empty of course, since Sirid took the small machine with him. They had thrown the mattress off the bed in the bedroom and her clothes lay mingled with Sirid's on the floor.
Timon's jaw hung open while they wandered through the apartment. Kania was fighting tears.
They returned to the living room where she went to her knees to collect postcard sets and souvenirs from the places she visited with Sirid. Tiny dolls from Palgreia, stuffed toy animals from Kurie's Atsh, a postcard set from the waterfall of Hilard in Kurie, whose poster hung crookedly over the sofa.
It was too much. She started to cry. Timon sat down next to her onto the floor and rubbed her back.
"I'm sorry," she sobbed.
"It's all right." He kept on rubbing her back.
She allowed herself to cry for a moment, then, she drew in air, straightened her back, and put the postcards back onto the floor.
"I can't do this today. I'm dead tired. I'll pack up a few clothes and spend the night in a hotel."
"You can stay at my place."
"That's very kind of you, Timon, but I'd like to be alone now."
"Understood. My shift on the Gen starts tomorrow, though. If we don't clean up now, I won't be able to help you with that."
"That's okay."
"I'll ask Rilad to help you."
"I... that's not necessary."
"Give him a chance, he's a nice guy, let him help you."
"Maybe..."
He squeezed her shoulder.
She got up and returned into the bedroom. He watched her getting out her suitcase and fishing her clothes from the pile on the floor. Biting her lower lip, she threw Sirid's clothes into a corner. He only packed his private clothes and left most of his RSW uniforms behind. But it looked like he had taken one or two sets with him, the bastard, to hide behind them as long as he was on Aranian soil.
"Fucking traitor," she whispered.
"What?"
"Sirid... he was a fucking traitor."
"Yes, he was."
Kania kicked one of his uniforms away.
✜✜✜
The next morning, his bag packed for six days on the Gen at his side, Timon Feihn sat in Liffa Pentrus's office. She faced him from behind her desk and looked far from pleased.
"I'm sure that you checked who I am after I warned you about Sirid Unnal for the first time, didn't you, Madam Executive Officer?"
"Yes, I did."
"Why didn't you stumble over the maiden name of my mother?"
"It's not a rare name, Timon."
"It's not the most common name either."
"What are you getting at?" she asked, so tense he thought her hair would rise on her head.
"I usually don't go bragging with my relationship to the RSW's president, and I think everybody who needs to know does know that I earned my slot on the Gen for my own achievements and not because of my uncle. However, in this case I'm determined to play the uncle card, Madam Executive Officer. Kania Lurdh is innocent. She knew nothing of Sirid Unnal's double life. I want her suspension to be lifted and I want her to get a slot on the Gen. She deserves it. If I have to, I'll ask my uncle personally to support me in this matter, which I'm sure he'll gladly do. I wouldn't like to have to point out to my uncle that Madam Executive Officer chose to ignore my warnings about Sirid Unnal."
Liffa Pentrus gave him a monstrous frown. "I got the message, nephew of Soinat Alander."
"Great, then I'll go to the OT now and up to the Gen to start my shift, Madam Executive Officer."
Liffa nodded. "I suppose you want to be on the same holiday schedule as Kania?"
"That would be ideal, yes."
"She'll be suspended for a week until your return."
"Excellent, Madam Executive Officer, thank you."
Saying so, Timon got up and took his bag. Liffa remained seated.
"Oh, don't bother to show me out, Madam Executive Officer."
"Too kind of you, Timon."
Timon turned around and left, grinning to himself. He had always hated being the nephew of Soinat Alander, until today. Who'd have thought it would come in so handy.
✜✜✜
Kania wasn't sure why, but she indeed called Rilad and asked him to help her clean up her apartment after a night of weeping her eyes out in an overpriced hotel room with OT view.
The handsome nerd waited in front of her apartment door when she arrived and gave her a bear hug as if they had been friends for years.
"Kania, oh man, what a horror show. You okay?"
"Yes, thanks. Sorry for the interrogation they put you through."
"Oh, that was nothing. It was super cool in fact. Sorry. Of course not for you, but I just found it to be hilarious."
"Glad you enjoyed it."
"Sorry... really..."
"It's okay. Thanks for offering to help me to clean up the mess."
"Oh, no problem at all. I'm interested in their search technique."
"You'll be disappointed. They just threw everything onto the floor."
"Really? How gross."
She opened the door and let him in. Without waiting for her invitation, he quickly glanced into every room, including the bedroom, with shouts of "Oh fuck!", "Holy Tral!", "Bloody Inquisition!" and "Horror show!"
After that, he helped her clean up.
✜✜✜
While Rilad worked in the kitchen, Kania sat on the living room floor again, wondering what to do with all the souvenir junk. For a moment, she wanted to throw it all away, but then decided she wasn't ready for that either. Piece by piece she put the stuff back into the board.
She picked up a tiny model of the Gen and wrinkled her brows. They sold this by the thousands in the souvenir shop at the OT's base-center. Of course the OT itself was off limits, but a part of the base including an OT and Gen museum was open to the public. Maybe Sirid had taken the tour through the museum and bought the Gen model during his first year in Hagesh without her.
She examined the thing--you could even move the habitat ring. She hesitated. Something was written in tiny letters on the inside of the habitat ring. She looked closer and read "no alien life out there" and a crude face behind it that showed its tongue. What the hell was that?
"Rilad? Could you come here for a sec?"
"Sure."
Rilad's tall figure appeared in the living room door. She offered him the Gen model.
"They sell these at the OT's souvenir shop, don't they?"
Rilad took the model. "Yes, by the truck loads."
"Look at the habitat ring. There's something scribbled on the inner side. Do they sell them with such silly slogans?"
Rilad made his eyes to slots and read out loud. "No alien life out there... yuck. What the hell."
Rilad examined the model and turned it this way and that before he continued. "I'm pretty sure they don't sell them with slogans on them. Even if they did, most certainly nothing like that. No alien life out there... I mean, that sounds like an FTS thing."
Kania took it back and looked closely at the inscription again.
"I'd like to check this through a magnifying glass," she said.
"Do you have one in your mess here?"
"No. Do you have one?"
"At home, yeah."
Kania stared at the inscription a moment longer, then drew in her breath sharply.
"What?" Rilad asked.
"No alien life out there... N A L O T. Nal... and OT."
"What? Holy fuck... yeah, you're right."
He sat down onto the floor next to her and held his hand out. She gave him the model. Rilad examined it closely, pulled at it, rubbed it, tried to disassemble it, without success.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Maybe this is a message of some sort, or contains a message."
"Well, maybe Nal gave it to Sirid as a present. Some FTS joke."
"What if this is more, a bug or something?"
"Whatever it is, if it had Nal's fingerprints on it you just wiped them thoroughly."
"Ah shit!" Rilad said and put the model onto the floor as if it was a disgusting insect.
They both stared at it.
"I don't think this is a bug. The RSW took this apartment apart. They must've had scanners with them. They most certainly would've confiscated this if it were a bug."
"Speaking of bugs... are you sure they haven't left any in the apartment to spy on you?" Rilad asked.
"I'm not sure. If they did that, someone might knock at the door in a couple of minutes, or kick it in..."
Rilad nodded. "What do you want to do now?"
"I'd like to go to your place, where we examine the thing with a magnifying glass and tomorrow morning I'll hand it in to the RSW."
"Good idea. Let's finish cleaning up before we go to my place, maybe they'll come arrest us in the meantime," Rilad said, smirking at her.