Lunch Hour

“So, I see you managed to paint that thing on,” Danz said, gesturing towards her collar. “You should have let me know if you needed help with it, ‘cause—”

The girl glowered, then stalked past him, hitching the duffel bag higher on her shoulder. She slapped at the “down” button along the bank of elevators.

“So now where?” she asked, after a stretch of silence.

The lieutenant shrugged. “Well, we’re pretty much on shore leave until Command shows up.”

“We’re in Arizona. There is no shore.”

“R&R, then. You do know how to do that, don’t you? They give you time to just… do your own thing at the Institute?”

Kailey chewed at her bottom lip. When was the last time she’d had time to herself? Besides sleeping, she couldn’t remember very much time of her own. Breakfast, she supposed, though most days Jordan took her to the Institute’s cafeteria, and she mingled with patients from the hospital and recovery wards. There weren’t any patients her age, though, and between not being able to relate to their experiences and the various government gag orders, it didn’t leave her with much to talk about.

The one thing she wanted to do, they never seemed to have time for: motion control libraries needed indexing; they needed another round of trials in the dojo to gather more data; her systems showed abnormal stressor signals, and she needed the day to cool down….

She sighed.

Danz’s hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her reverie.

“First order of business,” he said, guiding her into the elevator, “is to grab something to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.”

Kailey’s stomach let out a low grumble, as if on cue.

* * * * *

They cruised part of the way across town, in a hunt for restaurants that met at least some of Kailey’s dietary needs. Two restaurant strips and several shopping districts later, Danz pulled the black SUV into a mall parking lot, shaking his head as he killed the ignition.

“Why didn’t you think to use the satellite link to the GPS before?”

Kailey shrugged. “I just now thought of it. So sue me. Let’s go. Guenevere is griping that I’m past my lunch time.” She held up a hand. It shook noticeably.

Danz frowned at it. “You… shouldn’t do that, should you?”

“I’m always a little bit shaky after dialysis. But,” she sighed, leaning back in the seat, “it hasn’t been this bad since they first activated the nano network. I’m really having to think to get things moving.” She popped open the door, sliding out, and her legs buckled as they hit the pavement.

Guenevere, diagnostics, she thought as she pushed her way upright.

** Increased lactic acids impeding fine control threads. Potassium deficiency degrading neuronano interface. Effective clock speeds reduced 45 percent due to excess Nanoattenuation calls. **

Report findings to Guild.

** Action already completed. **

ETA on reroute compensation?

** Ticket is known and in development. No ETA at this time **

Kailey sighed. Activate suit embedded compensation network.

** Biologicals prohibit gel-suit self-activation. Override required. **

She gritted her teeth.

“Hey, you don’t look so good, Hot Cakes.”

“I’m lagging big time,” Kailey said. “I need your override.”

Danz stood up straighter, staring down at her, frowning.

“I know, it’s classified. I’ll turn off direct audio and you can whisper it in my ear, straight to Guenevere. Just say ‘full encrypt’ and give your override, and then say ‘done’ when you’re finished.”

The lieutenant blinked. “That has to be the darnedest thing I’ve ever heard of,” he said, shaking his head.

“The Wizard does it a lot during tuning sessions. Bypasses my brain completely, and goes right to the chips. Just.. Tap my shoulder when you’re done so I can turn my ears back on.”

“So that’s how you survive the briefing sessions,” Danz said with a grin.

Kailey smiled back, thought a few commands, and the world around her went silent.

She saw Danz’ lips moving, felt his breath against her ear when he moved out of her line of sight. She suppressed a shiver as her hair tickled her neck. She felt his words, in her ear, pressing against her eardrum, but there was no sound, not even the quiet murmur of her blood circulating.

A tingling shock washed over her, and her heartbeat jumped for a couple beats.

Danz’s hand touched her shoulder.

“— Saw you give a little jump there. I guess the suit is up and running.” His voice sounded somehow louder after the silence, the echoes of it in the parking garage standing out.

Kailey held up her hand. It gave the slightest of tremors. She pushed herself away from the side of the SUV, and her steps weren’t as sluggish.

“A lot better. Not perfect, but it’ll do. Thank you,” she said.

Danz shrugged. “The faster you walk, the faster I get to eat.”

They made their way across the elevated breezeway, into the mall.

Kailey got a steak fajita salad, and then ordered a protein shake from another establishment. A couple weight-lifter types in line behind her stared open-mouthed as she left with her order. She ignored them, making her way over to the table where Danz sat. It was on the far side of the court, facing the stairs and escalators.

“No, this doesn’t look the least bit suspicious, sitting over here away from all the other people,” Kailey said.

“Clear lines of sight to exit routes. Clear lines of fire in case of trouble. Or do you want me and the bad guys trading fire in the middle of all these people?”

Kailey stabbed at the salad. “What happened to R&R? Aren’t we off the clock?”

“Eternal vigilance,” Danz said. He peeled at the grease-soaked paper-wrapped bundle before him. Once he’d crinkled aside some of the wrapping, Kailey saw several oozing layers of meat and cheeses. And bacon.

Guenevere cross-referenced the Burger Barn to Kailey’s caloric and nutritional scheme. Everything on that menu lit up bright red. Even so, Kailey felt her mouth water.

The lieutenant looked down at the burger, then at her salad.

“Burger Barn,” he said, nodding in the general direction.

“I know,” Kailey said. “Diet,” she said at his lingering look at her salad. “Gotta watch the girlish figure.”

Danz snorted a laugh as he bit into the burger. The top of the bun shone with grease or butter in the fluorescent lighting.

“Should’ve got one. Surely one won’t kill you?”

“That thing has nearly two days’ worth of fats and would be 90 percent of my calories for the day. Not enough protein in that equation.” She sounded almost wistful.

The man blinked. “Don’t tell me you actually read all those nutrition facts.”

Kailey nodded, sucking down more of the shake.

“That’s not vanilla, is it?”

She shook her head, cheeks puckered. She swallowed, and opened her mouth to explain, but Danz put a hand up.

“No, it’s probably something all vitamin-and-supplement-laced that I want nothing to do with.”

They finished lunch in relative silence, and then Kailey dug into the duffel that she’d taken with her when they left the hospital.

In addition a spare flight suit, and the gloves and helmet mounting-rig for the gel-suit, it held a large, snap-topped pill organizer. She fished it from the bag, popping open various cubbies, and extracting one or two pills of various sizes. She didn’t stop until she had enough to cover the surface of her cupped hand.

She began taking them in twos and threes, sucking them down with her shake.

“Couldn’t you just take a multivatamin?” Danz asked.

Kailey gave him a long, level look, then popped the last two pills.

The lieutenant stood up, taking her tray. “Well, since we don’t have anything better to do, we might as well take in the sights.”

He stashed the trays on top of one of the spots atop the trash bins, then fished his wallet from his back pocket. He slipped a black card from one of the slots, and held it out to Kailey.

“R&R,” he said. “Don’t worry about the limit, the government’s picking up the tab on it. Just don’t buy out any of the stores.”

Kailey stared, openmouthed.

“Go on,” he said. “It won’t bite.”

Kailey took it, digging out her ID wallet out of the duffel. She slipped the card in behind her UNJPTF ID card.

“Why are you…”

Danz shrugged. “You’re a girl. If you’re even still remotely like the rest of your kind, I know how much they like to shop. And I get the feeling they don’t let you do much of that at the Institute. You’ve got my cell number if you need anything. Now go have some fun. That’s an order.”

“Aren’t you coming with me?”

Danz started walking away. “Definitely not. Then I’d have to carry the bags.”