Fish Swim in the Lake

Part 6.2 | Keep little company

"Do you even know what he needs?" alphaDana said, brushing Colin's stringy white hands off the drugs.

There was an empty blowtube of phionine on top of the kit. She rattled through the rest of the drugs but didn't find another dose. Then she saw a WalCo All in One skinjector on the table by the kit. Like those old ballpoint pens that could do four different colours, this skinjector had different coloured buttons for different common drugs to handle the effects of heavy gravity. She pressed green for phionine and leaned over to apply it just above Vas's collarbone.

Vas winked at her. alphaDana jerked and dropped the skinjector on the heavy golden carpet. "I, uh," she said, "would you get me another drink, Colin?"

The mentech turned away to find her glass. alphaDana bent over to pick up the skinjector and Vas whispered, "take the job."

He'd been awake the whole time; he'd heard everything.

alphaDana shot Vas's throat full of phionine and sat down on the edge of the cream linen bedspread. Colin handed her a glass piled high with vodka. "What's wrong? Couldn't you find the right drug?"

"I'm just tired, OK? I'm not used to this kind of stuff."

"You'll get used to it. Eventually it's routine. Besides, you must have had some odd assignments when you worked for the Euristocrats."

"Maybe I got fired for refusing to do anything odd."

"Oh no," the mentech said, smiling. "You forget that I am a cop. I know why you got fired."

"Yeah?" wheezed Vas Gagarin, propping himself up on his elbows. "Why?"

alphaDana shook herself off the bed. "Vas," she said. "Are you feeling better?" She slid her hands down her gauze covered sides looking for pockets to hide them in. She gave a chittery little laugh and said, "are you on expense account? I need some regular clothes."

"Go ahead," he said. "Get some spares, you might not get home for a while."

alphaDana compressed her mouth around her response and walked over to the commsole. It had a standard tourist-looking-for-local-experience package that included dozens of examples of local costume, from Senate robes and wigs down to the proper colours to wear in certain gang infested parts of old Hull. She ordered a disposable black waterproof paper jumpsuit for now, and a week's worth of assorted gang neutral downtown wear to be delivered. She focused on the clothes with a near believable intensity, trying to shut out what Colin and Vas said behind her.

"So why'd she get fired?"

"Oh, that," Colin said. "She shot her boss."

Posted by gtaylor at May 14, 2002 10:15 AM