CHAPTER 18
POINTS OF VIEW
"Not you! Why you! Hell no!".
"What's the matter, man? Weren't you lonely in here?".
"I fucking love loneliness! I grew up alone!".
"Damn, I can see that man, you're so obnoxious! But good old Mouse here will cheer you up!".
"Oh no you won’t! Guard! What's he doing here!", I yelled to the cop who was turning the key.
"Shut up Lester! They just moved him, it's none of your business", the man replied carelessly and left.
"Wait! I want to be put in solitary confinement! Wait! Hey! You’re an asshole! I’ll kill you, you fucking dick! Hey! I’m menacing a guard! Come back and hit me! Fuck, shit! Do you hear the insults motherfucker? Hey!", I tried to provoke him in order to get transferred.
"Ah it's no use, he's not in charge man", the sticky dude told me throwing his stuff on my bunk.
"No way you rat! I’m the one sleeping there".
"Sorry man, but I have claustrophobia, I can't sleep on the floor".
"You will soon sleep six feet under if you don't move right now," I threatened him. I didn't really want to kill him, but I had moved the bed so that from lying down I could see the sky at night. It was one of the few pleasant moments I still had left.
"Okay man, I get the picture", he said and threw his bag on the bed downstairs. "So now what do we do?".
"Now my professor is coming, and for the next four hours you keep quiet. Read a book, I have a couple on the table. That sucks, and I haven't washed for five days, too".
"Because you don't work man. Here we only wash every four days, so you'll have to do it today. If you work instead even every two if not once a day if the bosses up there like you".
"What a miserable life".
"Well, it has its positives. Washing daily ruins your skin, you know… and… bathrooms are not really the safest place to be".
"I think I have a vague idea why".
"Yeah, you’re a smart, man!".
He opened the bag and took out a couple of small plastic packets: one had a white powder in it and another had round red tablets little bigger than two grains of rice put together. He noticed that I was looking at him suspiciously and was not slow to give me a couple of explanations. "It's my business," he exclaimed. "Powdered sugar and vitamin C candy."
"What? That's what you call that stuff?", I asked in amazement.
"Of course", he said. "What should I call it? After all, that's what it is".
"Do you trade sweets?".
"No, I deal treats as if they were drugs".
"What?", I asked with an amused smile.
"Sure! One of the guards brings them to me for pennies, then I resell them by passing them off as drugs to the newcomers".
"And how come you are still alive?".
"Not to everyone. To the most stupid and desperate ones or the ones that seem harmless to me," he explained.
The first day we had seen each other, he had offered me that very stuff. As he bagged around the cell various small packages, I thought about whether I looked stupid, desperate, or harmless.
"Besides, being with Briac's group offers good protection. If I screw over a couple of losers who just arrived, those guys could never get close to me. Then if they were to search the cells, they would find candy smuggling", he laughed.
Another guard again appeared at my cell and tapping with the peacekeeper on the bars several times called us to attention. My teacher had arrived, we followed the procedure to let him in, and then, as Mouse perched with his legs dangling over my bed and I sat on the one below, I spent four long hours listening to him clear his throat every four words, while with my thoughts I was somewhere else whenever I didn't have to do something active. After returning from lunch in my cell, a guard came to pick me up. We went down one floor and I was finally taken to the showers.
I was so happy about it, I could finally get rid of the smell of sweat that had not given me a break for days. Before the bathrooms was a sort of locker room, there was no one there and perhaps lady luck had decided to smile to me by assigning me a fortuitous solo shift.
I undressed and after walking naked a few meters greedily took possession of a bar of soap and threw myself under the hot water.
It was a huge room covered with white tiles with about twenty phones hanging from the ceiling and as many drains opening on the floor. The cop had given me a quarter of an hour and I wanted to enjoy it all. There was total silence around me; I let the lukewarm water purify me by running it freely all over my body. I closed my eyes.
I wanted the noise the jets made as they fell to the ground to remind me of the splashing of the waterfalls on that nameless island. Confined in that hell, I thought of the trees, the clear sea, the fire around which we gathered in the evening. To the bright stars that lit up the night. To the clear, warm sand on which Deena and I had sat watching the clouds.
Her words came back to me. They seemed silly to me at the time because I didn't really understand that she too was living in her own little hell in Paris. "Yeah Deena", I said in a whisper to myself. "It wasn't that bad".
Voices approached cacklingly bursting into the locker room. I suddenly widened my eyes.
I wasn't alone in that place at all; the others had only arrived after me. Maybe I shouldn't have lingered. I began rubbing my soap energetically and straining my ears trying to listen to what they were saying. They approached and made their entrance into the room.
I stiffened as I heard their footsteps approaching but made an effort to relax my face and look indifferent. It was wise, however, not to linger there any longer. I kept my gaze fixed on the wall in front of me, listening intently to everything from the various cackles to the faucets opening letting water leak from other phones. A couple of guys stood one to my right and one to my left but no one seemed to care about me. Maybe I was nervous about nothing. Not everyone at the end of the day was like that guy, that Soap that had been giving me trouble. I drew an invisible sigh of relief. By now I was done, and after a few moments I would finally be gone. I closed the knob, with a quick gesture threw my hair back, and prepared to leave. A hand slapped my butt.
At first I was shocked, then I felt humiliated and then furious. I heard laughter coming from behind me from more than one person.
I clenched both hands into fists, smashing the bar of soap I was holding in my right hand. I turned and menacingly squared off with the guy standing behind me. He was holding one hand on his hip, while the other was engaged in work that clearly hinted at his intentions.
Two other guys stood one to his right and one to his left. The rest of the inmates continued to wash up while pretending not to do anything. "You're one of Briac's gang, aren't ya? You're the one who beat up Macho in the cafeteria".
"You really can't manage not to give each other fucking nicknames in this place?", I replied, flaunting confidence. I was naked and scared but still knew how to hide my weaknesses.
"You're the same guy who castrated Soapy. But here you are, unarmed… and you are going to be a lady, soon. Aren’t ya happy?".
"Come closer, and today you will be the one to change sex, be sure". I was about to start crying. What could I do but defend myself as best I could? How many were there? I had counted six, maybe seven. The others had left the room. I couldn't run away or call for help.
"Don't worry kiddo. You'll enjoy it. It hurts a little at first, but you'll see that you'll get the hang of it as soon as your ass figures out how to suck cock", said a voice from among the pile.
I couldn't let them win. I was desperate. I was furious. I wanted to take them all out. I could take them all out. All I needed was just to surrender. Surrender to the evil in me. "So that's what you want, isn't it?", I growled. "You want me to become this. I'm sorry Deena".
"What the fuck are you talking about?", laughed one of them.
"Is he praying?", mocked another. “The Gods won’t save your asshole, kid”.
My mind allowed itself to be filled with anger at its purest state. I began to breathe heay, curving my back, clenching my fists. I gritted my teeth as things blurred and moved more slowly. My arms, chest, legs and chest began to swell and I felt wet hair stand up from the roots.
I looked up first fixedly at the ground then without moving my head I stared at the man who had touched me. He was no longer horny now but fear had taken over him, just as it had taken over his companions. Ironically, exposure to Hicks's serum often caused me to have copious erections. One of them lunged at me and punched me in the eye. He hurt his hand, while I did not move an inch.
"What… what the fuck are you?", panted the guy who had touched me. The predatory instinct triggered in me the moment I saw him flinch.
I hurled myself furiously and totally possessed with rage at him and with a kick to the neck threw him to the ground about three meters away. In that state, I could move much faster than a normal human being. Before the others could react, I had already broken one man's jaw with a hook and broken another man's neck with a kick. I struck again and again, until six men lay on the ground, some lifeless. Then with a trip I stopped the one who was really to blame for that massacre and who got up and tried to flee.
I grabbed him, bringing him to me as if he had been filled with air and not with flesh and bones, and after grabbing him by the neck I lifted him off the ground, strangling him. As I stared into his eyes I screamed wrapped in total unconsciousness. "Do you see what you have done to me?! Do you see what you made me do?! Do you see that?! DO YOU!".
He could not answer me, by now only gasps and small guttural sounds were coming from his lips. I screamed one last time, then hurled him high behind me. By accident, he ended up impaled by a shower hose so violent was the throw. He slammed against the wall, then the hose bent from the weight, leaving him to fall to the floor in a pool of blood.
I admired the corpse filled with a joy and satisfaction alien to me, savage and inhuman. I lifted my chin without looking away, panting. I bowed my head suddenly, deflated, and after a couple of minutes I was back to my usual build. My head hung heavy I was in control of myself again. I was still panting, as after a long cross-country run. I was sweaty and bloody, so trying not to look at what I had just done I washed again taking maybe about forty seconds.
I returned to the deserted locker room and dressed in the new overalls they had given me before taking me to the showers, left the towel with which I had dried myself in the basket provided, and went out. Outside there were four guards intent on giggling. One of them saw me and with pats on the chest warned a couple of the others, until all four of them took to staring at me shocked. I approached with an enormous urge to kill those sellouts. I took the hand of one of them and opened it, then poured some fragments into it and closed it again; last I turned to the one who had brought me there.
"I'm done", I said carelessly.
"O-Okay", he replied incredulously. "Let's go back to the cell, c-come on".
As my janitor and I entered the elevator, I caught a glimpse of how all three remaining guards took to staring at the hand inside which I had poured a memento of that day. The cop opened his hand and shuddered as he saw that it was bloodstained teeth. The three stared into each other's eyes then rushed inside the showers, as the elevator doors closed.
*
"Make yourself pretty Lester, you have visitors", a guard announced to me. It had now been two weeks since my arrival there, and before then no one had come to see me. Not that I was counting on it, although the last few days spent at the academy had filled my heart with false hope.
"Did you see Daith, Mommy came to bring you oranges", Mouse said to me sarcastically.
"I doubt it's her", I replied indifferently and turned off. I approached the bars as the guard opened the door.
I was escorted three floors down and then taken into the custody of another guy in uniform. We walked down several corridors in silence and eventually I arrived in a bare, cubic little room where I was locked inside, alone. I would have expected to end up gassed in there but it was just a waiting room of sorts. Another door opened sliding and disappearing inside the wall in front of me and I was beckoned out. I was for the first time in the visiting room. Separated from visitors by bulletproof glass walls, inmates and their interlocutors spoke to each other via telephones, sitting in front of a long counter. A guard told me the number of the station followed by an "I'm watching you", then nudged me in the direction I was to go.
I read the numbers written on the floor, found mine, and sat down without even looking at who had come to see me. I took the handset and placed it to my ear.
"They must have made a mistake, I had asked for a jail leftover named Lester, code name Devil", my interlocutor greeted me in a cheerful voice.
"This is Balls Shredder instead", I replied to Matt with little enthusiasm.
"Excuse me?", he asked puzzled. "B-Balls… what? Did I get that right?".
"Forget about it".
"It's been six weeks since you left. Gods, look what they've done to you", he said to me with a worried air.
I watched him carefully. Not a bit had old Matt changed. He was in his academy uniform, and the shoulders of his raincoat were damp. "Is it raining?", I asked.
"It's snowing and bitterly cold," he said. "But don't you have windows in your cell?".
"You can't tell if it's raining or snowing. You can only see clouds and today they didn't let us out".
"Because it snows", he explained. We remained silent for a while. We were strangely short of topics. Our worlds seemed so far apart, despite the fact that relatively so little time had passed. "It's funny, I have so many things to say and here we are silent".
"Why don't you speak then?" I asked coldly.
"Your Deena's magic has worn off, uh? Don't go back to what you were before, please!".
"Nothing will ever be the same again Matt. Why are you here?".
It was a bitter smile that marked his face. He spoke again, "To tell you that Sophia says hello and sends you a kiss and a letter also, which will be given to you in your cell. And then because... well I have a business deal going on, a big thing and you have to perk up your ears and intuition."
"Go on".
"Well, it looks like your stay here is going to undergo... how should I say... some changes in terms of duration". Matt knew that the phones were tapped and that he had to be careful.
We stared into each other's eyes and our glances sometimes said more than many words.
"But the sentence was issued by all the deans. Only the Grand Master could...".
"This is officially true. However, I have the support of some influential people who could intercede on your behalf".
"Really. Why this newfound interest in me?".
"John is tearing Humanity apart. Your presence is needed, someone has finally realized it".
"He’s kicking our ass so bad?". Matt raised his eyebrows and nodded slightly. "Tell Sophia I thank her for the thought and tell her I'll see her again soon, right?".
"Very soon," he replied.
I smiled at the thought, then hurried to greet him, as I caught a glimpse of the guard coming to solicit us. "I've been a bad influence on you", I said finally in a good mood.
"True, true. See you soon Little D", he greeted me by bringing two fingers to his forehead.
"Take care", I said.
The audio was cut off before I could finish the sentence. The cop stood behind me and with a couple of taps of the peacekeeper off signaled to me that it was time to leave. Matt had left and I turned to the guard. "Touch me again and I'll rip your heart out", I growled, staring him straight in the eye with my face two inches from his.
The guard stepped back; my fame had now spread everywhere. He gave a polite nod and let me precede him to turn back
As always there was Mouse hustling behind some envelopes. As soon as he saw the cop accompanying me, he kicked the stuff behind his back and flashed a silly smile. The guard shook his head as he looked up after staring slightly distressed. He opened the lock, pushed me in and closed it again, then disappeared.
"So how was Mommy?", he asked, resuming his tinkering with his sweet powders.
"Listen asshole!", I attacked him, "My mother disappeared when my father died a decade ago... will you stop calling her out or do I have to shove all that sugar up your...".
"Okay, okay! Wasn't mom... A girlfriend?".
"No, an old friend. One of the few".
"Sure, with that temper you have. You're grumpy man, you're grumpy, oh yeah", he told me with a certain rhythm, as if he was singing.
"Are you... sure it's sugar?", I asked.
"This? Oh no man, of course not. This is tough stuff, genuine stuff. It costs 50 credits a gram you know? I use it for personal use, but if you want to favor...".
"No thanks, I'm not interested", I said, distancing myself.
"You are rude man", he said. He was out of his mind. "Rude? Not rude! You're an… an asshole... Hahahaha, haaaaa. Yeah, yeah, yeah... yeah, a big shtupid... yeah ... asshole".
After an hour or so Mouse fell asleep in bed. Instead, a guard peeped in front of the cell while I was reading a school book, calling me by my last name and saying the word "mail".
He threw the envelope to the ground and with a kick sent it inside the cell, then disappeared. I stared at the envelope in disbelief, then eagerly threw myself to pick it up and climbed into my bed.
The SAIs of the inmates were not only incapacitated to perform any function, thus resulting in being practically switched off. It was the first time in my life that I had a real paper letter in my hands.
I gently opened the white wrapper, then slowly pulling out the sheet of handwritten paper I began to read it. It was written in cursive and in clean, elegant characters. Knowing her, perhaps she had written it several times until the result satisfied her.
Dear Daith
How are you doing? I hope you will tell Matt about yourself when you see each other so I can hear from you! I wish I could have talked to you in person and said a proper goodbye before I saw you disappear in that rain. What you are experiencing is unfair but believe me, your courage has inspired many to fight harder and harder against this new enemy!
When I saw you return to the academy so changed and serene, I thought that maybe you and I could start again. That maybe I would finally have a chance with you.
But I was wrong; I realized that your heart is not with me, but far away.
I was writing a song yesterday and as usual you came to my mind. Because you are always in my thoughts and even though you are in a cell now, I feel you close. Think I kept the empty bottle of disinfectant from when I treated you after the fight with Dunn. I'm silly, am I? I shouldn't do that, but it's hard to give up. But all that aside, I know you are innocent and you are a true hero. You are my hero Daith and I won’t forget that you saved my life.
We were summoned almost all of us to go and fight against the Flying Fortress. To think that you faced it all by yourself is amazing! It looks like it's going to be a mess, so I want to be able to greet you properly. I hope we will see each other again soon.
I love you, even though it is hard to be around you. I hope to finish my song by the time we see each other again so you can hear it. I miss you. Try to get out of that bad place in one piece, there is a great need for good soldiers here. You'll be glad I didn't bore you with a lot of talk. I've come to the point, the way you like it.
Just remember this: I will always be by your side if you want me, at least as a friend, although I would like you all to myself.
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8xGarb6NSP
With all the love I have
Sophia
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYD9DBSGJH8
212Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnuCMvq3lW2
I threw myself on the pillow, looking at the cloudy sky throw the bars. I smiled for no apparent reason. At that moment I was isolated inside a gray concrete hell, but out there, there was still someone who thought of me and loved me.
I had forgotten what it meant to be happy. To not be completely alone. I felt like a human again and not a doomed man.
After a while I was summoned by the office that was in charge of assigning inmates to various projects. As prophesied by Briac, I was asked to collaborate in repainting a masonry section of the outer perimeter of the prison. I gladly accepted. I would work eight hours a day along with nineteen other inmates, including Briac and others from my group. The idea cheered me up, I would have guardian angels with me, and I would feel less lonely. Mouse did not offer interesting conversation starters even though he was a pedantic fellow and being locked up in there had made him repetitive.
The first day of work was fun. We got up as usual and after breakfast we were escorted outside. I had not seen the horizon line for a good three weeks and it was a real surprise. I felt like a child leaving home for the first time and realizing how big the world is.
All I could see was ice and snow all around me with the exception of the prison and the buildings sticking out of the walls. We had not been given any kind of heavy clothing, and I noticed that the suit was made of a material similar to my old cadet coat, which insulated well from the outside environment. We set to work and the first day was almost entirely devoted to transporting equipment outside. We then split into two teams, one on the ground and one, mine, working on ladders several meters above the ground. The funny thing was that you had to heat the paint because it was freezing in the cans and through some blow dryers you had to artificially dry it as soon as it was laid down, because otherwise it would freeze on the wall without adhering.
I noticed that ours was the finishing touch to a job done recently, a major renovation of the concrete wall.
"Hey Briac", I asked. "This jail doesn't look old to me. What happened to this wall?".
"Interesting story, kid", he smiled, handing me a bucket of paint. "You haven't heard anything out there?".
"About what?".
"Of the Messiah", he replied.
"About the Messiah?".
"Yeah, the Messiah. Or at least they called him that", he went on, enjoying his cryptic being.
"And who was him?".
"A tall, well-built guy with red hair and a look that scared the shit out of you... they called him that because he was a talker who liked to preach and people listened to him more than willingly. Most of all he would say the plague and the horns of Humanity. You don't really have a tough audience in here if you put it in those terms".
"And what does that have to do with a collapsed wall? Did he destroy it with chatters?".
"So... about a year and a half ago, yeah... here comes this guy, a badass killer! Kind of like you, as soon as he got here, he buried a couple of thugs right away. He started recruiting former officers and took them away a short time later".
"What do you mean by took them away?".
"Here's explaining the repair you're painting".
"He blew up... the prison? And did he take dozens of inmates with him?", I asked incredulously.
"They must have censored the news. Anyway, that guy turned up his heels with fifty and I mean fifty inmates. Several guards died. I thought something that big was not concealable, but...".
"A red-haired man... able to do such a thing. So that's where the officers in black came from", I thought aloud.
"Do you know anything about it?", asked Briac with inexplicable curiosity.
"No, nothing", I lied. The prison fence was mostly made of wire mesh. However, the weakest part was also the most heavily guarded. Blowing up the only walled section was the solution no one ever expected and also the most spectacular. Typical Sean’s doing.
"Some transferred prisoners said ours was not the only one", Briac continued. "Who knows how many he did besides ours. An incredible story".
"Yeah", I nodded, opening the lid of the bucket with a screwdriver and uncovering paint frozen from the cold. "Really amazing".
On the second day, around mid-morning, we spotted a transport struggling to approach the penitentiary. It was a civilian vehicle and did not appear to be assigned to transport prisoners. We thought about the change of personnel at the facility, but it was to our surprise that little visitors got off the vehicle. I was the first to realize it: they were none other than cadets from some academy, probably in their first year. They were dressed in their winter uniform, a long, thick, white coat with fur around the hood. They could not have been more than ten years old. They walked neatly and precisely following their officer's instructions and in an extraordinarily orderly manner for children.
"Yo Balls Shredder, get back to work!", a guard yelled at me. I had stopped and stared at the visitors, and the cop had rightly missed no opportunity to be a blowhard. I resumed my brushing, continuing to stare at the children. I saw myself again, in my little brown coat at age nine rehearsing for the cadet parades in town. The more time passed in there, the more distant that world seemed to me. Yet I didn't know whether to regret it or not.
After lunch break, we went back to work: we had moved only six meters in length from where we had started. I was transferred to the ground crew, which was the one that proceeded the slowest, although they could move more freely. It was repetitive work; soak lay and dry, and so on for another three hours. Every now and then maybe someone would bring up a song or a joke of the most absurd kind, but I had learned to laugh at even the silliest things. It was after a thunderous group laugh that I heard a hubbub behind us approaching. I turned and saw again the cadet group approaching. It must have been a rather dull educational trip for them.
The officer leading them, a captain, had them line up in two neat rows and began to discuss the importance and professionalism required to do the job of a prison guard. What the children were being told was a kind of politically correct truth, a far cry from what I had seen. Some looked full of admiration at the cops guarding us armed with rifles, while others were intent on giggling, perhaps because of Big Hand's arm.
"Very well", continued the captain at the end of his explanation, "dismissed. You have a five-minute break, then we will leave for the city".
The children were quick to scatter. Some took to snowballing, others went to talk, like their officer, to some cops glad to be praised. Briac and I exchanged a few looks of understanding that ended in us shaking our heads in resignation. Firmness, seriousness, exemplary conduct, devotion, compassion for those who did wrong. I knew a very different picture from the one that had just been painted to the cadets, so perfect. I had seen corruption, cruelty, coldness and not firmness or compassion toward us.
An all-white little boy in his nice little uniform approached our group watching us paint in curiosity. I smiled and addressed him.
"Hello cadet. Tell me what academy are you from? I hadn’t seen your coat before", I asked cordially.
"Shut up. Don't speak to me, scum", he replied dryly and coldly. He cast a few more glances around, then bored turned on his heels and went back to his companions. That answer had frozen me and I stood petrified observing nothingness. He had called me scum. I could not help but mirror myself in that face, in that uniform I did not know, in those words. I, too, had called people scum in the past. Was this then what they had made me into? Was this what cadets were? Was this how Humanity worked?
"Lester, move those hands! I want to see that block snow-white by six o'clock today, got it? Or you'll be here all-night painting!", one of the many guards yelled at me.
I didn’t turn around but I could imagine his smirk as he gave me the dry order in front of the cadets. On the other hand, I distinctly heard the children's giggles. A part of me had suddenly broke.
*
In there I had learned to sleep with one eye. I heard six small objects falling on a solid surface that could have been the hallway floor.
Some metal screeched slightly, then I heard the sound of something touching the ground, something soft and light. Two small, nimble feet furrowed the floor of the arm and then ran swiftly toward my cell.
I distinctly heard the sound of iron hinges screeching sharply. I opened my eyes wide. With my right hand I grasped the blade I held under my pillow. My heart was pounding. I gritted my teeth and jumped off the bed very quickly, surprising the intruder, totally unprepared for such a reaction.
"Great!", I shouted in the stranger's direction, putting the craft knife on full display. "I'll give you back to Diaz in small pieces you son of a bitch!".
That figure in response brought both hands to his mouth and raising his index fingers took to blowing, making the sound of a balloon slowly deflating. She did not look dangerous by the look of it. She was dressed in white, small, slender and graceful. "Damn it Daith, do you want to give us away?" hissed a female voice.
"Fuck! What-what's going on man?", asked Mouse stunned by the startled awakening. The little intruder fired a dart at my cellmate, who two seconds later went back to sleep splattered on the mattress.
I dropped the knife to the floor and ran to hug my savior. She did not seem at all displeased at first, although later she was the one who wanted to pull away. "I have never been so happy to see you", I confided in her.
"Wow D, this is the best of welcomes you have given me!", she exclaimed under her breath.
"But what are you doing here? Weren't you on the frontline?", I asked, lowering my tone. "This is the frontline! Now we have to leave right away", Sophia explained to me. She energetically took me by the hand and dragged me in a mad dash down the arm corridor, passed the guard on duty fainted on the floor, and stopped running in front of the elevator doors. She pressed the button and waited for the cab to arrive. Everyone seemed asleep; it seemed strange to me that no one had noticed anything. I heard a whistle coming from Sophia's helmet.
"Do you coordinate with whistles?", I asked. "Don't you have net superiority?".
"Are you kidding? We don't even have extraction if anything goes wr...".
"... got it", I interrupted her.
The elevator had arrived and flooded the hallway with light for a moment. We quickly entered and began the descent.
"Give me a gun, I'll give you a hand. I hope you know how to at least deactivate my bracelet", I said, showing her the annoying little object I kept on my wrist.
"Cute, where did you get that?", she asked wryly.
"It's an exclusive gift for the hotel guests", I replied, astonished at such superficiality. "So?".
"I don't know what to do about it, but at the next checkpoint you will find who will. As for your first request, I am unarmed".
"What?".
"Of course, we all are".
"Too bad. I would have gladly taken out a couple of cops".
She looked at me confused. "D, can you hear yourself?".
It was actually not a sentence that could be expected of me, at least before I was put in that place. "Things here are not what they seem," I said.
The elevator doors opened. I heard another whistle coming from Sophia's side. We took a few steps into the darkness of a floor I had never seen before. Then we heard a hissing sound similar to a call. Sophia took me by the hand and pulled me into a dark corner. She could see smoothly in the darkness like a cat through the visor she wore, while it took me longer to notice a half-hidden, half-open door. A white glove poked out of the doorway and beckoned us to enter. I crossed the threshold first, then Sophia behind me closed it again. Someone turned on the light and I was dazzled for a moment.
"Sit down Lester, we have only few seconds", a soldier inside what appeared to be a laundry depot told me.
"Who are you?", I asked rubbing my eyes. I could not recognize him; they all had their faces covered by white balaclavas.
"Later handsome. Come on sit down quickly so we can take off that pretty bracelet", he answered.
"We have three minutes before anyone can notice the light we turned on, so quick", Sophia said.
The guy who was fiddling with my wrist looked at his, where there was a watch. "First, the AIQ. So, let's plug it in and", he said, inserting a connector into the device I had inserted under my ear, "like magic, zap, done". He pulled the inhibitor out of my neck and my SAI rebooted instantly. The world became covered in writing and directions again, and I felt disoriented for a moment.
"A hundred gigs of updates?", I complained.
"No network D!", warned Sophia. I understood what she meant and immediately excluded myself from Starlink by staying offline. I was eager to hear from the outside world but would have to wait.
The other cadet meanwhile had disassembled the cuff cover. "Let's see... yes here then, there is the electric motor here... and here we have the position sensor... fuck".
"Fuck? What is fuck?", I asked worriedly. If I was right, those were all cadets, so not exactly full-fledged professionals, and anything could be expected. “What’s fuck?”.
"It's just… I don't… I don't know how… how the hell do I get it off?", he asked. "SAI doesn't process tampering, it can't it's illegal!".
"What?", snapped Sophia. "You volunteered for this part!".
"Easy Seven! Don't shout or we'll get caught!”.
“Try bypassing the position sensor", suggested Sophia aka Seven. "But didn't you have the patterns saved in memory?".
"Please stop!", I interjected. "Just a mistake and the device will go full hand chopping! Let’s think about this!".
"I see the patterns in my head but the SAI is stuck. It can't give me the answer I'm asking for, do you understand? Tampering with government technology is a crime, I have to think for myself! So... we have to modify the sensor without excluding it. I’ll need your help Seven".
She was still holding my hand, standing still for a moment, probably consulting her AI and the schematics of the device in her mind. "Yes," she said after reflecting. "I can do it but I need time. I’ll warn the others that there will be a delay. Turn off the light, we will use the flashlight".
"Roger that," the other one replied, and darkness returned to surround us as she broadcast shortwave whistles. After partially lifting the white balaclava he was wearing, shoved the lit flashlight into his mouth. "Sho, honlhy huay is ho hodihai he henhor", he said with his mouth full. "Han hery hill"
"What did he say?", I asked.
"He has to modify the sensor, so he has to open and sabotage the resistor inside. Don't move D, don't even breathe”. She took my other hand and squeezed it, trying with one arm to hold me as still as possible, supporting my back as if I were about to fall unconscious at any moment.
"So long, piano career", I sighed sarcastically.
"There is always the harmonica", she replied wryly.
"Hut uph!", interjected the insecure cadet with the flashlight in his mouth in annoyance. With a small screwdriver and a tiny tool he opened the metal that protected the sensor inside the bracelet and approaching observed the mechanism. He looked doubtful, then touched the copper resistor of the position sensor for the first time. It was a moment; after a few tenths of a second the electric motor activated and the bracelet, which before I could drag almost to the middle of my forearm tightened very quickly adhering to my wrist, began to tighten emitting a noise similar to that of an electric razor.
"Oh fuck!", he railed under his breath, spitting out the flashlight.
"No!", horrified Sophia.
I stifled a pained scream as the sound of the bracelet was also joined by a disgusting crunch. Removing the AIQ allowed me to finally access the advanced functions of the prosthesis, and turning off the pain receptors spared me the torment. I snapped to my feet as the other soldier shushing everyone grabbed me tightly and plugged my mouth to contain my screams. Finally, inevitably, one last horrifying crunch was heard and my hand came off.
I slumped to the ground shocked and trembling, supported by all two cadets.
"You son of a bitch!", I cursed under my breath at the guy who had failed. "I fucking hate you!".
"Quick, we have to stop the bleeding or he’s going to get killed!", ordered him ignoring my swearing. Sophia held me up in shock.
"Don't talk nonsense", I said, returning to stand on my own legs. I raised my mutilated arm while Sophia pointed the flashlight to illuminate it. A sigh of relief was heard emitting beyond both balaclavas. Instead of red streams of blood from the truncated arm sprouted small metal bars, splashes of oil and electrical wires leading to a dangling hand. The bracelet, now the size of a thumb ring, was still there clinging to the frame.
"Prosthetics", said her. “Sorry, I forgot about it”.
"Wrong moment to forgot about it" added the other.
"Yeah, well then you think you're heroes? Do you fucking have any idea how much it hurts?", I growled still shocked.
"Enough, we are late. I have to send the next whistle. It's time to get out and quickly", Sophia said. "Now D, follow me like a shadow, walk low and don't make a sound".
"Aye ma’am", I replied with an amused smile. It was the very first time I had ever heard Sophia give me orders. I found it incredibly funny but also I was kind of proud of her.
The inept cadet who cost me half a prosthesis went out first being very careful not to be noticed by a couple of guards who, as my rescuers had predicted, were wandering around. The original plan was formulated in such a way as to be able to avoid them but the delay inside the closet was such that we were forced to neutralize them quite abruptly. After overcoming even that obstacle, Sophia dragged me along as a good German shepherd does with his blind master. I had no idea of the path we were taking, so dark were the prison corridors at night. Suddenly, however, I was cold. At that same instant, I finally saw some light. We had arrived at a small service entrance, which opened a passageway a few meters away from the boundary wall. I noticed that there was a camera, but no one seemed to care. The lock had been cleverly picked.
"We're not going to have to climb over, are we?", I asked, looking worriedly at the high wall lined with electrified barbed wire.
"Are you kidding?", asked Sophia. "The floodlights, the control room, the generators, the security room, everything is under our control".
"How?", I asked. “You don’t have the skills for that”.
"Stop underestimate us D! While we were looking for you others were taking over piece by piece control of the prison complex. Only the Anchorage FMP is obviously not under our control."
"So, we are in fucking Alaska then. What now?".
"This way".
My feet sank into the icy white snow that covered everything both inside and outside the prison clearings. The commando had the proper equipment, while I, in the fluorescent prison uniform, had great trouble withstanding the nighttime cold and the snow that soaked my light shoes and socks, causing me to lose feeling in my toes after a few minutes of walking. Sophia saw me pale and shivering and gently told me to hang in there.
I reciprocated with a smile that I knew for sure would excite her. After a tortured ten or so steps, what I saw left me shocked, to say the least: the wall had been pickaxed open by two cadets, who had patiently and forcefully opened a passageway wide enough to allow a burly person to exit.
Crawling against the snow, so that even my underwear had not stayed dry, under the watchful gaze of the two soldiers who had our backs, we got out. Another cadet was waiting for us beyond that gap with a white jacket in his hand.
"Put it on," he said handing me the garment, "or you will freeze to death".
Matt heard the longed-for whistle escaping from his headphones. He let out a long sigh of relief, letting out a perhaps premature but much-desired triumphant smile. He sighed, releasing some of the tension along with the warm air coming from his lungs.
"Marco, start the engine, they are coming back", he said evidently addressing the van driver. He then sent a message to all cadets dispersed along the area of operations. "All teams, end of radio silence, mission accomplished, return immediately. Repeat, disengage and fall back, tonight drinks are on me".
- Bullshit, don't believe him! The loser only offers to hot girls who will then reject him -, replied Dunn's voice inside Matt's head.
- No drinks for you, Hyena -.
Two knocks against the rear door broke the silence inside the van. Matt, not at all frightened, rushed to leave his post and opened it. From his expression, I could tell he was genuinely happy to see my ugly mug again.
"Hello old man! As you see Old Matt is always here, ready to bail you out of trouble. Happy Little D?".
"Do you have any tape? My fucking saviors cost me a hand, I'd like to at least reattach it", I greeted him, showing him the stump.
"H-How did that happen?", he panicked upon seeing the dangling limb.
"Never mind. Are you going to let me in, or have you decided to hibernate me here?", I asked stymied and half-frozen. Matt hurriedly moved aside and one by one helped us aboard, closing the hatch again.
"Should we warn Luna? I don't think they have prostheses up there", Sophia said.
"I'll take care of it", Matt nodded. There was a noise and the lock behind us clicked. "Somehow they'll do it, I'm sure".
"What's up, Little D? Surprised to see me?", greeted Dunn who had just opened the hatch and was entering followed by other cadets.
"Good, you don't limp anymore", I greeted him coldly. It was a surprise. "How are you, better?".
"Big time. You owe me a favor".
"I didn't claim the prize, we're even".
"Maybe".
"Hey Daith, did you know that orange looks good on you?", taunted Matt, ending the sentence with a laugh.
"If I had known earlier, I would have had myself interned right away", I replied. "But coming to the point, what are we waiting for?".
"Four cadets are still missing", Sophia explained.
"That's right", Dunn confirmed, "and we're not leaving without them".
"Are they late?", I asked.
"Yes", replied Matt worriedly. He was returning to his station to try to contact them.
"In that case", I said, "then let's go find them". I made to get up, when Sophia grabbed me by my healthy hand and forcefully made me sit back down.
"Put your hero complex to sleep, Little D", commented Dunn as he stood up in turn and went to open the hatch. "You’re our guest today", he said before disappearing into the darkness.
"So much effort to save you and then we let you get killed now?", chuckled Sophia, giving me some sort of explanation. I grumbled but decided now was not the time to push. Meanwhile I was out, that was enough for the moment.
"Nine and Eight, do you read me? Nine and Eight?", continued from his post Matt without getting an answer. Meanwhile, the cadets inside the van were beginning to undress by shedding their helmets and jackets. It was pleasantly warm inside the aircraft in fact, and the suits they were wearing were designed to insulate them from much lower temperatures. Advanced and expensive equipment. I wondered who was funding them.
Now that everyone had taken off their helmets, I recognized Andrea Gates, who winked amicably to greet me, saw Chris Davis who came over to shake my hand, Sophia's best friend Caryn McGhee, and Bob Roath, demolition specialist and my old partner (briefly, our cooperation was called "destructive and penalizing" by the academy leadership).
What I could not understand was why Dunn and the members of his circle, mostly in there, were helping us. Their faces were almost new to me. There were not that many of us at the academy, about five hundred cadets, yet certain people I barely remembered seeing.
Perhaps it was because I was wisely keeping away from Dunn's group.
"Are you all from Seattle?" I asked.
"Everyone", Bob replied in his raspy voice. "So how are you doing Little D? Your arm...".
"Yeah, armless again. How about you? Still in the mood for blowing things up?", I asked, shaking his hand and showing him the dangling left one. It was a rather cold and professional relationship ours, solely because of me.
Sergeant Robert Roath was a good person and an excellent cadet, although he was sometimes too emotional on the job. "Sure. For example, if I press this little button...", he said, pulling a black remote control from a pocket of his white pants.
Matt faded and sprang from his chair. "No! Not now!", he shouted.
Bob burst out laughing. "Yeah sure".
"What is it?", I asked suspiciously.
"A little goodbye present", he explained. Two knocks rumbled from the back of the van and one of Dunn's boys ran to open it. Preceded by three cadets Rayan entered panting without his helmet. Over his shoulder he carried another boy in white. His suit, however, was stained in several places red. He laid him on the floor then shouted in annoyance. "Are we still standing still? Fowler damn fool start the car!".
"Marco!" shouted Matt in turn. The aircraft driver started the engine and with a sharp jolt we began to take off. A yellow light from Matt's control panel was shimmering, arousing the young man's concern.
"Do they track us?" asked Marco at the cloche.
"They will soon inform us that we are in the military area. Ten and Twelve, why haven't you disabled the anti-aircraft?", asked Matt annoyed.
"What? Does this place have anti-aircraft?" I asked in amazement.
"Fuck, without codes what do you expect?", one of Dunn's group justified himself.
"We're running out of time", Matt continued, "Marco, crank it up and hope to get out of the LTZ in time. The shuttle meeting is in eight minutes".
"Shuttle?" I asked.
Without anyone responding to me in the meantime, the van stopped climbing vertically and rocketed off, giving everyone a tremendous jolt. It flew sometimes downhill, sometimes uphill and even I thought I heard it, once, scrape against the snow below. It was a ride that could be compared to an eight-minute marathon on the world's fastest roller coaster.
We stopped first by slowing down abruptly then violently slamming into something. Once we stopped, one of the cadets I did not know opened the rear hatch and motioned for us to get out.
I asked Matt what I should do and he only urged me to "move my butt". I got out almost last and found myself catapulted into a dark, narrow alley in a dank city, rather disoriented.
I did not think I had seen anything like this on my outward journey. There was no snow on the street and only a few traces on the sloping roofs of the dark houses all looking the same. From a myriad of fireplaces came multiple columns of grayish smoke.
The night was cold and the lights in the windows seemed like something I had never seen. Suddenly I saw that a group of cadets took off running toward the end of the alley.
I made to chase after them when Dunn grabbed me ungently by the collar ordering me to stand still in my place. "Not with them", he said well, interpreting my intentions.
"We'll wait here", Matt explained as he got out of the vehicle in turn. The driver got out of the van and took off running in the same direction where the cadets had run off earlier.
Only me, Dunn, Sophia and finally Bob and Matt were left, confabulating something.
"What on earth are we waiting for?", I asked impatiently. "I'm freezing!".
"Take it easy, they'll be here", Dunn replied half-heartedly. I stood for a while staring at the wet asphalt under my soaked feet. I was shaking like a leaf; I was frozen.
Sophia approached and took to rubbing my shoulders. She was gentle, but it didn't have much effect. I had a heavy jacket on but I was wet and that made her useless. I blew on the fingers of my hands to warm them. Looking up for a moment, I saw a blue and white aircraft quickly descending from the sky about to land in front of us.
Totally pervaded by instinct, I threw myself at Dunn, pulled his 9mm from its scabbard and pointed it at the car. "Look out, cops!" I shouted.
ns 15.158.61.23da2
