Episode 4 - Cold Fusion

  Chapter 26 - Test Run

  “That battery’s bunk,” quips Junk, “It’s leakin’ acid.”

  I look at him, then turn the battery pack on my desk with the tips of my pliers, and grimace at the haze of white crystals beginning to propagate from a gap in the casing. “Fuck! Another? Do you even buy anything new?”

  “New’stuff for thems with money,” replies Junk. His Gypaetus hops with a squawk onto its stand in the corner of the lab and greedily clicks its beak in anticipation.

  “And Aquila hasn’t got plenty of money?” I lift the battery by the plastic tote handle and drop it into the recycling tub by his symbiont's perch. “Here have fun.” I’ve barely turned my back before liquid lead is boiling through the gaps in the plastic as his Gypaetus begins to croon to the elements within.

  “Being tight with money’s how you keep the money, not that you’d ever know. Miss shiny boots.”

  “Yeah yeah,” I mutter back, tossing a handful of plastic scraps from my project across my desk into another parts tub.

  “Conference room, we’ve got work,” says Adrian’s voice suddenly in my ear. I almost knock over the soldering job I’ve been hunched over. I’ll never get used to his voice in my ear like that. The Vespa on my ear seems to buzz with its own vague annoyance at me. I’ve wondered if it’s the same one who comes to greet me everyday?

  “Now?” I reply aloud.

  “Yes, now.”

  Pooka yawns, his purple tongue rolling backwards in his mouth as his jaws open and lips draw back to reveal a horrifying number of pointed teeth. His ears flatten against his skull, then pop upwards as his teeth snap shut again and he stretches his front legs in a forward bow like a felid.

  “I’ve got work, don’t touch my stuff,” I call over my shoulder as I quickly put my tools back in their carefully labeled places on the workbench.

  “Sound’sa’bout right,” grunts Junk.

  Adrian and Shion are already waiting when I let myself in and I draw out a chair to sit next to Shion who has her hair tied up in a black bun stuck with extraordinarily extravagant hair-sticks. One is gold, with a train of small red beads that gleam under the artificial lights. The other is a brushed brass, with intricate, coiling designs on the head. Given I blew one paycheck on a pair of boots I wonder where she gets the currency for the way she dresses?

  “Just the two of us?” I ask as I sit next to her, leaning forward to look at the tablet she’s already reading from.

  She turns her head to blow a white breath out away from me, then pushes the tablet towards me, her vape-stick tucked between two crossed fingers. “Nope, we’re waiting on one more.”

  The map on the tablet’s screen catches my attention, and I spot Catakalan labelled. “We’re going back to Catakalan?” It’s been almost two months since I came through there on my arrival to Aquila.

  “Yes, if you can wait a few more minutes our third is on his way down from the gym now,” replies Adrian.

  I zoom out on the map with two fingers. “Is there a scale?”

  Shion leans over and taps an icon in the corner to bring up a menu and turns on the map key, then leans back into her chair and folds one leg over the other.

  I zoom out further and rotate the map, estimating the distance between Apex and Catakalan. It’s almost 8,000 kilometers. And Cooperative City was several more hours by train still. So let's say I’m working with 10,000 kilometers as a conservative upper limit? I thought it was far, but maybe not quite that far. I resist the temptation to bring the Cooperative City into view on the map and file the number away for later.

  The door clicks again and Everett enters, a white towel draped around his shoulders and his black tank soaked with spots of sweat. “You seriously can’t wait for me to have a shower?” His braid hangs over one shoulder with wisps of hair trailing free. It’s the first time I've seen him in almost two weeks, despite how friendly he’d been after the Plowshares contract he’d transitioned into giving me the cold shoulder shortly after catching me at the salvo store, and most of my ‘missions’ since had been tech support to Operational Control rather than field operations.

  “We’re all here waiting just for you my Prince,” quips Shion. “You wanna sit?”

  His baggy shorts bunch around his waist as he pulls one chair over and props one foot up on it, resting against the wall. “Nah, I’ll get sweat on the leather and stink this place up.”

  Shion barks an amused cackle. “The sweat of young men keeps us all youthful,” she purrs, sucking in a draught from her vape-stick.

  Adrian clears his throat. “Can we start? There is a lot of reading material for this one, you’ll need most of the next few days to prepare. We got the official go ahead just now from Regina so I’m giving you as much time to prepare as I can by calling this ASAP.”

  Shion leans on her hand, fingernails painted today in deep maroon. “I’m all ears darling.”

  Adrian places three data sticks on the table, Shion leaning over to meet him and pass them around. I get my tablet out to plug it in. Several files open and I start scrolling through the names of the files as Adrian begins speaking.

  “Operation Code: Erratic Possibility. You’ll be returning to Diabardi Minerals, this time to the port itself. Under disguise as one of Aquila’s alters, you’ll be entering as contracted inspectors conducting a third-party safety audit-”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Alters?” I interrupt.

  “Yes, Aquila is fronted by several legitimate operations, mostly audit, inspection and certification companies. Generally they all operate independently, but occasionally we have use for their identities and uniforms,” explains Adrian.

  “Why have I never heard of this till now?”

  “There’s a lot at Aquila you’ll never hear of,” replies Shion, giving me a grin.

  “It’s Owen’s side of the business,” adds Everett, not looking up from his tablet as he scrolls all the mission files as well.

  “Your step-dad?”

  Everett looks up sharply, cobalt eyes narrowing with unexpected ferocity. “He’s not my step-dad.”

  Adrian dramatically clears his throat. “Please, can I continue? Questions at the end.

  “As I was saying, you’ll be entering as inspectors contracted by Diabardi's Board for the safety certification audit of the water treatment facility at the port. You will legitimately be conducting the audit, hence the study materials - we cannot compromise our alias in this operation. In addition this is still a sub-operation of a larger contract at Catakalan. Your objective will be to get Rhett close to the water treatment to release an experimental chemical, code name ‘Erratic’, into the water… you'll want to review the file called ‘Classified: Ombalantu Research Report’.”

  I open the file Adrian mentioned and begin scrolling, unable to contain the disgust in my voice, “We’re testing something on humans?”

  “Yes. Ombalantu has been developing Erratic for us specifically for this contract. This is our test run,” adds Adrian.

  I almost drop my tablet horrified. “Wait, we made this plan? Not the client?”

  “The client is paying us to bring about a desired outcome, quite an extreme one. It has taken considerable creativity to develop a plan that seemed plausible.”

  “What outcome?” I ask.

  “That’s confidential information still at this stage.”

  “Confidential?” I spit.

  Shion leans to my side and raises her eyebrows sympathetically. “Fighting like this won’t change it Squall.”

  “What if I don’t want to participate?”

  “Good,” barks Everett suddenly. “Give us a reason to write you up. I’ll add it to the list of things you’ve been stealing.”

  Shion and Adrian both pause although neither acts shocked, I push my chair out from the conference table and stand. “Stealing what exactly?”

  “I dunno, lab equipment among other things.”

  “Do you have any proof?” I demand, stepping up to him to thrust my finger confrontationally into his chest. He grabs my hand out of the air just as I dig my nail into his still wet-with-sweat pectoral, and twists my wrist sideways and over my shoulder. Pooka snarls behind me, and the temperature in the room drops to a chill, the moisture in the air condensing and sinking like a sudden fog.

  As he bends my wrist over backwards I buckle till my eyes are level with his and he draws close, eyebrows tight. The ache from his grip shoots up my arms but I refuse to give him the satisfaction of a yelp of pain.

  “I could check the cameras,” he threatens.

  “And see what?” I reply testily. “Thought you said you wouldn’t touch me?”

  “I’m not,” he replies, letting my hand go. “You tell me what I’ll see…”

  I draw back from him, shaking out my aching wrist. I really need to take Nessa up on her offer to get into the gym more.

  “Kids,” interrupts Adrian, “flirt later please.” Shion is watching with an amused grin, leaning on one hand with the artificial ember on her vape-stick glowing between her finger tips.

  I spin, my cheeks glowing bright red. “He’s the one accusing me!”

  Shion raises one hand defensively. “Let’s not get into it, come sit. We’ll put Adrian out of his misery so he can get out of here already.”

  I snap Everett another glare, nursing my wrist and slowly take my seat again. Pooka rests his chin on my knee when I sit, licking his lips. That was at least significantly more control than you showed the last time someone touched me.

  I know.

  The weight of his head is odd, not quite heavy enough based on the mass I can see with my eyes. His cold touch sends chills down my legs. I stretch a hand, fingers flinching, and scratch behind his ear. He’s soft, a little like hair and a little like running water. His mass remains firm, giving my fingers something to brush against and I scratch my nails against his skin.

  He doesn’t move, but he doesn’t lean into the touch either, like we are both uncertain about this boundary between us.

  “You’re helping,” continues Adrian, his tone increasingly exhausted. “We need someone to actually document the audit properly. Shion will be running command and point-of-contact. Conrada will be acting as her assistant. Rhett will be covert and you are both there to provide whatever back up and distraction he ends up needing. I will be the primary tactical command, but given the extended operational window I’ll be mostly absent except to relay Conrada’s voice during active operation. The audit is scheduled to occur over ten days, beginning in six. Which gives you four days to study up before your train.”

  I pop open a few of the audit tools and data entry spreadsheets. A few of the terms I don’t recognize, but the rest of it looks familiar enough.

  “What does this chemical do?” I ask.

  Shion clicks her tongue. “You really insist on being as difficult as possible to manage, don’t you Squall?”

  I give her a defiant look in return, my lips squeezed together.

  Adrian sighs. “That’s not confidential, it’s in the briefing documents. It’s a collaborative effort between us and Ombalantu, our primary contract research organization. It will strengthen the bond between a human and its symbiont.”

  Pooka lifts his head, ears twisting towards Adrian. My fingers slip through his form as he dissipates, closing on nothing but cold air and black mist.

  “And then what…?”

  “From the tests done so far, if the human host is not used to it… they go mad.”

  A feral, giddy rush of savage joy crashes against my own horror. Yes! Yes, let them scream! Let them rage!

  “And we’re going to make everyone go mad?”

  Adrian scratches at the side of his waist, “Not at the dose we’ll be using. Rest is up to you, read up. You can study on the train too. I advise you to bring your own water.”