Kailey paced the rooftop, circling the XG at the perimeter of its static defense field. The warning tingle of the field was constant against her left side, and provided just enough of a buzz to stir the gel-suit’s nanos into random discharges, which functioned as a makeshift massage for her shoulder.

Deliberately calling the suit to perform such a task would bring down the wrath of Dr. Carter, who already worried too much when Kailey was on assignment. The training missions had been bad enough when it was simple flight maneuvers. Dr. Carter’s unease increased when mention of combat simulation was brought up, and Kailey could just imagine how furious her doctor was at how the day’s training had turned out. It had to rank slightly below the aftermath of Red Thursday.

** Neuro-processor lag at .355 nms. Current motion halted and locked to upright gyro-stabilization. **

Kailey blinked at the network error message. She hadn’t even realized that she’d stopped walking.

Guenevere, unlock motion control, prep for sleep mode in 3 minutes.

** Sleep Mode in 2:59:57….**

Kailey retreated inside the rooftop trauma center, climbing onto the gurney by the door. She closed her eyes, and sank into sleep even before Guenevere induced the delta-wavepattern.

* * * * *

Kailey sat bolt upright with a strangled gasp. She sucked in several deep breaths, hand at her throat. It was a dream. Only a dream.

Guenevere, sitrep.

** REM cycle interrupted due to adrenal spike and respiratory distress. Brainwave force from delta-1 to beta-active state at 23:33.45.55.**

So that was what motion control thought of dreaming of being choked again.

Still clad in the gel-suit, the sweat along the rest of her body had been quickly absorbed, but her forehead was still beaded, and a drop of trickled down around her right eye. She shivered.

In the dream, she’d felt his wrist snap, felt herself kick him, over and over again, just like she had the Master Sergeant in the dojo on what came to be called Red Thursday.

Tears joined the beads of sweat creeping down her cheeks. She clenched her fists. Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

She tried to slow her breathing, tried to ease into the meditative state she’d used so often as part of her therapy. But she kept hearing the hard ‘snap’ of bones, the choking gurgle as the Master Sergeant bit down on the scream, the snarl of the man at the department store, his struggling causing Sensei to tighten her grip on his arm.

It was Sensei, she told herself. Personal contact safeguards tied to her adrenal levels and the fight or flight response. The Wizard had Seinsei keyed to act if she froze, to use as lethal force as necessary to subdue anything perceived as a threat while Panic mode was engaged.

She didn’t want to hurt the man at the store. Not like she had the Master Sergeant.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

“Everything all right, Dorothy?”

Kailey leaned back, the wall cool against the back of her sweat-damp hair.

First session will need to be extended when I get back to the Institute, she thought back to the Wizard, through the cellular link.

“Auntie Em is already coordinating with Psych-eval on that. The neural team want you in Bertha first thing. Full dialysis, total nano replenishment. Then a full scan. Motion control therapy is last priority.”

I’m going to tingle for days.

“I can ask them to pause the magnets along certain spots if you like.”

Now you’re starting to sound like Jordan, she thought.

“Whatever it takes for a smile, Dorothy.”

Tails and Tales

“Well, we dodged that bullet,” Danz said, reaching out to take the duffel bag.

Kailey glanced up at him with a dark look. “Dodge, hell. I can’t believe you shot me.”

“Still with the ‘you shot me!’?”

“Well, it hurts!”

“It should have taken your whole arm off! You’ll have some bruises and be good as new in a few days. It’s a wonder I didn’t break my hand. It feels like I hit a brick house.” He flexed his fingers, wincing. The knuckles were purpling over and looked swollen.

“Serves you right, for insinuating that I’m fat,” she muttered.

“Is it bad?” he asked.

“I’ve got it immobilized. The suit is cooling the tissue to keep the swelling down. There are some pain killers in the pill caddy if it gets too bad.”

Danz stopped, resting the bag on a bench and rummaging until he dug out the container.

She sat heavily next to the bag, grimacing slightly.

“Which number?”

“I don’t—”

“I’ve seen your definition of ‘too bad.’ That’s ‘beyond hope’ for the rest of us. Which bin?”

“Fourteen. Naproxen, 550 mg.”

“Is that the best you’ve got in here?”

“Do you really want me loopy on codeine?”

“Might be good for you to loosen up a bit,” the lieutenant muttered, shaking out two big light blue pills. He handed them to her, and popped one himself.

Kailey managed to choke them down dry.

“C’mon,” Danz said, hoisting the bag again. He held out a hand to Kailey, and she glared at it, then got slowly to her feet on her own.

After they’d walked a bit, she asked where they were supposed to be going.

“Back to the parking garage. I think it’s time we called it a day.”

Kailey grabbed his arm, and turned him around.

“Hey,” he said, “if you don’t like the idea—”

“It’s 900 steps back this way.”

* * * * *

“When were you going to mention the two men that have been following us since we left ground zero?”

Danz kept staring straight ahead, as they went up the escalator.

“Well?”

“I didn’t want to worry you,” he said.

“Says the man who hit me at close range with a plasma round.”

“The suit stopped it!”

“I’ll run into you with the SUV so you can feel what it’s like.”

The rode to the top of the escalator in silence, and Kailey glanced back over her shoulder. The two men were at the bottom, stepping on.

“So what do we do?” Kailey asked the lieutenant.

“Nothing. They’re not professionals. Very sloppy.”

“They’re not in the MIRROR database,” Kailey said. She’d had Guenevere query the global law enforcement records to try to face-match the two men.

“Think they’re—”

“No. They came up within normal parameters on thermals. They’re not hosting.”

Danz picked up the pace, and Kailey had to hop every few steps to keep up.

“Why are you hurrying? They’re probably harmless.”

“I want to get us within running distance of some Agents,” the lieutenant said.

Guenevere, ping all Agents within 500 meters.

A chime in her ear went off, and within seconds, a schematic of the shopping mall sprang up in her short term memory, speckled with glowing red dots.

“Holy cow. How many did they send?”

“All of them,” Danz said. “Asset in danger and shots fired will get that sort of response from the brass,” he said with a shrug.

“‘Asset,’” Kailey repeated, somewhat dully.

“Kailey, it’s just a word. A shorthand. It doesn’t mean—”

“I know just what it means,” Kailey said. She walked in silence the rest of the way to the SUV.

* * * * *

The two men came up to them as they were buckling up. Danz rolled down the window.

“What?” he asked.

The man on the right, medium height, dark haired, dark eyed, smiled. His teeth were very white. “I wonder if I might ask you some questions about—”

“Are you local? Or federal?”

The man blinked. “Oh,” he said, the smile still in place. “Neither, I’m—”

“We don’t need to talk to you, then,” Danz said, and started the SUV.

“We saw what you did back there. We have pictures. Video. It’s going up on the network in just a couple hours, with or without quotes from you two.”

“We have no comment.”

“Were you also involved in the fireworks outside of town this morning? We have some footage of that fancy plane you were flying. You look an awful lot like the pilot type.”

“I said we have no comment.”

“Look, I’m just trying to get to the truth here. The people—”

“The truth is,” Kailey said, leaning forward, “I’m a cybernetically enhanced test subject flying the most advanced AI fightercraft in the North American arsenal, which will be used to defend mankind against the growing threat of alien incursion.”

“Look, I write for a respectable newssheet. If you don’t have anything to say, just say so and stop wasting my time!”

Kailey smiled at the man as Danz rolled up the window and backed out. He intentionally swung the front bumper as close as he could get to the two men.

“And what would you have done if he’d believed you?” Danz asked.

Kailey smiled. “Yeah, like that was ever going to happen.”

“How long you think that story will last online?”

“An hour, two tops. If they even write it. Two Agents were closing in on them when you started backing out.”

“They don’t call it the ‘Silent War’ for nothing,” he said, and pulled into traffic.