Daughter of Mars #77 | (Breaking Eggs Part 1)
The “Bacon-mageddon” sandwich exceeded her expectations in both size and quality. Over an inch of egg separated the buns, infused with a liberal helping of bacon cubes. Risa opted for cheese as the only adjustment, and nursed a large, black coffee now that her stomach refused to accommodate any more solids.
She leaned back in the seat, watching the endless procession of shoppers and commuters moving past the entrance. One in every five stopped in, most buying only coffee. Hunger had gotten the better of her brain; she frowned at the third of a sandwich remaining. Ugh. I should’ve stopped halfway instead of trying to finish it. Not moving at all seemed like the best course of action for a while.
A soft beep played in her head, followed by a holo panel drawn upon her electronic retinas. She stared at text only she could see, which announced an incoming vid from Garrison. The words “missed: 11” hovered under the window, adding guilt to her urge to ignore him yet again.
Damn. “I’m here.”
The grizzled face of her adoptive father filled in the plain, blue panel. More silver than she’d remembered had infiltrated the brown stubble on his cheeks. Since she’d left for Arden, he seemed to have aged a decade. In the span of four seconds, elation, worry, rage, and sympathy flashed through his eyes.
“Risa…”
“Sorry I’ve been off the grid for a few days. I had some technical difficulties.”
A woman in full MDF armor walked out of the crowd, turned her featureless red facemask in Risa’s direction for a moment, and approached the counter. Her helmet emitted a hiss as the front half swung forward enough to remove. Aurelia had her hair clipped up, and appeared sweaty and uncomfortable. She tucked the helmet under her left arm while talking to Jimmy.
“Technical…” Garrison put a hand to his forehead for a few seconds. “Dammit, Risa, we all thought you’d bagged it in Arden. Osebi went out there determined to find your body.”
“Sorry. I should’ve checked in, but I haven’t been in a good place. Pavo…” The corners of her eyes burned. She couldn’t bring herself to even think the word ‘dead’ to her implanted phone.
“Is this seat taken?” Aurelia fell into the facing bench seat before getting an answer. “You look like you’ve had a rough night.”
“We heard about Pavo,” said Garrison. He leaned to his side and grunted.
Kree stuck her head into the comm panel from the bottom, seated in Garrison’s lap. “Risa! You’re not dead!” The girl burst into tears, but kept smiling. “I tol’ you!” She turned to Garrison, thrusting a tiny finger into the screen. “She’s too good! No one can beat her.”
“Hey, you okay?” asked Aurelia. She eyed the trail of wet creeping down Risa’s cheek, and offered a napkin. “I want to get these bastards as much as you do.”
“I still don’t believe it.” Risa stared into her coffee, and continued speaking in her head. “Hey kiddo. I’ll be back soon.”
“Refill?” asked the waiter, gesturing at Risa’s cup. He set a forearm-sized burrito in front of Aurelia.
Risa slid the cup over. “Yeah.”
“What are you doing now?” asked Garrison, struggling to contain a flailing child.
Aurelia gathered her breakfast in two hands; the scent of jalapeños and salsa wafted over. “I haven’t found a goddamn thing except assholes leaving binders and bras all over my desk and locker. Like I need a reminder I fucked up.”
“So what did you think?” The waiter winked at Kirsten while pouring coffee.
“I’m not an angel”―Risa forced a pleasant smile through her blackening mood―“but it was amazing.” A brief urge to take another bite made her grab her protesting belly. “Can I get a box?”
“When are you coming home?” yelled Kree.
Aurelia took a big bite of her breakfast burrito. The waiter excused himself as a pair of men in suits walked in. The taller patron rushed in and sat facing the entrance, while his associate hesitated by the other bench as if afraid to touch it.
“Very soon, kiddo. As soon as I finish up a few things,” said Risa. “No, it doesn’t involve hurting anyone.” An instantaneous thought opened a command menu along the top of her vision. The focus of her gaze darted among options, selecting a link to file storage on her NetMini. That file, the video from Pavo’s helmet, appeared to sail across the room and plunge into the word ‘Contacts’, which expanded to a scrolling list of names. She dropped it on Aurelia’s. Seconds later, a chirp emanated from the woman’s belt. “I haven’t found much either. A friend sent me that file. It… uhm…”
“Oh, shit.” Aurelia put her food down before she dropped it. “Bad news? Is that why you’re crying?”
“I’m worried about you, Risa,” said Garrison. He clamped both arms around Kree to contain her after she picked up a hand grenade from his desk. “What the hell happened out there?”
“Yeah it’s bad. He’s… uhm.” Risa twisted the coffee cup counterclockwise with a series of measured hand movements.
“No!” Aurelia screamed, pounding her fist into the table. “Someone’s going to burn for this. Every last motherfucking one of them.”
Both suits gawked at her. The hesitant one took his seat as if lowering his weight onto a sponge full of hungry viruses.
“Guess we forgot the extra jalapeños.” The waiter chuckled.
Risa blinked at the outburst of anger, though her mind-voice remained calm. “They had a backup. Some kind of missile strike hit the dome from the outside. I didn’t have a good view of much more than the guy kicking my ass as everything collapsed on top of us.” She reached across the table and clasped Aurelia’s shaking hand. “I’m going to find them, and when I do, they won’t know what hit them.”
Aurelia lifted her NetMini from her belt. “No. They have to know why.”
“Plug in, please.” Risa glanced to the side. “I don’t want to see or hear it again.”
Garrison’s face lost most of its color. “You had contact with them? Were you identified? Goddammit, Risa. If they’d have gotten a hold of you, who knows what kind of story they’d have made up.”
“Okay.” Aurelia took a small wire from her belt and connected the palmtop device to an M3 port on the back of her neck.
“It’s okay. The operator is dead.” Raziel killed him. She narrowed her eyes, targeting a blank spot on the wall so no one thought she intended the ‘drop dead’ glare for them. Angel or not, she loathed having to be ‘saved.’ “I shouldn’t go into detail on an insecure comm.”
A strangled growl came from Aurelia. Though her eyes focused on images fed to her brain on a wire, her expression fell halfway between wanting to sob and scream in rage. Kree’s face grew as the child leaned close to the terminal. The video feed froze for a half-second as Risa captured a still image of the child and sent it to Aurelia’s ‘mini.
“Are you coming home yet?” Kree tilted her head to the right and widened her eyes.
“I won’t be long.”
Aurelia unplugged the wire and fired a scowl into the rear corridor, startling a heavyset man on his way out of the bathroom. “Something doesn’t seem right about this. Pavo’s running down the middle of the street like a dumb teenager in a horror vid. He makes no attempt to duck for cover or force a hand-to-hand fight.”
The waiter stopped by to drop off a take-out box. He smiled at Aurelia. “Anything else, Officer?”
“No thanks,” said Aurelia. She finished off her food in four savage bites, as if blaming it for what happened to Pavo.
“Raziel said he’s gone somewhere he can’t see.” Risa’s throat tightened. “Can angels see into Hell?”
“Uhh…” Aurelia’s glare softened. “I have no idea. You believe in that stuff? Religion died out centuries ago. Most people say it was all a dog and pony show to control people, and now they don’t need it. The government doesn’t bother with subtle anymore.”
Risa picked at the edge of her plate, and decided to busy herself loading the 1/3 Bacon-mageddon sandwich into the box. To the outside world, she seemed to be lost in a despondent stare. “I gotta go. I’ll be back at the safehouse in an hour or four.”
Garrison’s head shake morphed into a nod. “Alright, but I hope you have one hell of a story for us. Maris is losing his mind.”
“You know what I think of him.” Risa flicked a few stray bits of meat into the box and closed it, before lifting her gaze to Aurelia. “I don’t see how it could be fake. That video wasn’t planted. A deck jockey I know got it for me. Said it was under some high security, government grade. I appreciate your hope, but if someone was going to fake it, they wouldn’t bury the file that deep.”
“Who’s this kid?” Aurelia’s olive cheeks darkened. “She’s adorable.”
“Her name is Kree. I found her homeless and wandering. I think someone killed her mother, probably right in front of her. Can you check the system to see if she’s got any family left?” Risa tapped her fingers on the cheap plastic table. “I’m in a killing mood lately, so if you find out who did it, I’ll deal with them too.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think of him,” said Garrison. “Maris is the leader of the Front. You don’t have to like him, but you should respect him. You may not believe me, but he was actually worried about you.”
“I bet he was horrified at the thought of losing his secret weapon.” Risa grumbled.
“What?” asked Aurelia.
“Maybe, maybe not.” Garrison moved Kree to the side and set her on her feet. “Either way, you should check in as soon as possible.”
A gleeful cry of “Speeeeware!” came over the vid call, and faded into the distance amid the squeaking of small boots.
“What secret weapon?” Aurelia frowned. “You’re on a call, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” Risa held up a hand while thinking to Garrison. “Okay, okay… I’ll be there soon. Let me go.”
“Keep yourself safe.” He stared at her for a long few seconds, as if he couldn’t bring himself to end the call.
Why is he looking at me like that? The weight of guilt made the contents of her stomach more painful. “I’m sorry for not calling you sooner. I’ll be okay.”
He exhaled, nodded once, and reached off screen to end the connection.
Related posts:
Daughter of Mars #76 | A Plea in Darkness part 2Daughter of Mars #75 | (A Plea In Darkness part 1)Daughter of Mars #74 (Blind Wish part 4)
