Chapter 11

  “Why is she so upset?” I ask. The three of them all look at each other in silence, maintaining their secrets.

  “We already explained it all kid, she needs a bit of time, she has a lot she needs to get straight in her head.” Frankie says.

  “My suit has been acting different, it's like it's communicating, or trying to.” I say as my suit has a very slight ripple, back and forth like a a tide coming and going.

  “We've, um, adjusted things to prep for the next phase, if the Collective is agreeable.” Lenny says.

  “Ok, what do you mean 'adjusted things'? You also indicated you had drugged me when I thought I was having some sort of mental break. I'm kind of getting tired of feeling like a lab rat, care to explain things in more detail?” I say, the rippling of my suit intensifies, I can actually feel it move on my skin instead of being a part of me.

  “Goliath, you need to stay calm.” Jodi says as she puts her hand on my shoulder. Her touch sets off a ripple in the suit like a huge boulder dropping into a pond. “Sorry, that has the opposite effect now. Please understand, the three of use have worked 24/7 for the last 3 years to monitor and keep things in check. We didn't know what to do, you were having trouble processing Stinger leaving and we couldn't risk you snapping out of things with an angry burst of emotion.”

  “The suit needs to adjust to things as well. You both feed off each others emotions and thoughts, mostly emotions though.” Lenny says.

  I had never thought about it, the suit. My feelings for it are of concern, I don't want it as part of me, but I want it to be happy. I can't help but see the parallel with how I feel about Jodi. It's odd, she was the one on assignment, yet I feel a sense of guilt about the last three years with her. My suit is rippling chaotically.

  “Whatever you're thinking about you need to stop.” Frankie says. “We really need Maria to get her head straight fast.”

  “Frick Frankie, I'm sorry for thinking. You guys dump all this on us, the only person I trust tells me to stay away and runs off because of what you told her and you say don't think.” My suits rippling is becoming quite chaotic.

  Frankie opens a drawer, taking out a foot long length of wood and a small knife. “Here, carve something.”

  “What are you talking about?” I ask.

  “Think of something to carve and focus on that instead of all that is going on. You will fuck things up if you and Carl separate too much now. That's his name.”

  I guess Carl and I are carving. What the hell do I carve? The piece of wood is pretty light weight, it's a tight grain. The knife has an almost cylinder handle with a half cycle blade, the blade looks very old but it's solid. Rounding off one of the corners of the wood is easy, I proceed to round off all four, each corner strips off with a slight curl of shaving. A raven seems like a simple design. Cutting at an angle along the length the blade catches and the chunk I cut off is bigger then I figured.

  “I don't think I'm much of a wood carver Frankie.” I say.

  “Being good isn't the point.” He says.

  “What is the point then?”

  Frankie lets out a big sigh “The point is we go forward kid. You've seen the recording of when you and Maria kissed, what do you think is going on? It's pretty obvious for me and my ability to see such things is limited.”

  “Yeah, the suit is making us do things we normally wouldn't.” I say.

  “Jodi?" Frankie says, “We aren't missing something are we?”

  “No Frankie, his denial is normal human behavior. We do it to protect our feelings sometimes.” She says.

  “Can we change the topic? I'm not going to argue the point until I know I have some sort of freewill while Carl and I are joined.” Carl seems on edge but calm. In a way I feel better know of his existence. In fact I feel pretty relaxed, like I did on the floor. I run my fingers over the roughly carved wood, I thing put the wood on my forearm so Carl can feel it, he seems to like it. Things are great. I look over at Jodi, she glances away to Lenny.

  Wait. Things aren't right. I randomly feel too good. Frantically I look back at Jodi. “What's going on?”

  “Just relax big guy.” She says in a calming tone, but Frankie and Lenny are hovering about.

  As they whisper amongst themselves I make out three words Lenny says, “...make it richer...”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “How?” I ask. Jodi gives it up with her eyes; she looks at my left arm, right at the device placed there from the first day, the device with precepts, the device we use to cloak. I grasp my fingers around it and start to pull.

  “No! Stop!” She says. All three of them rush over.

  “Please kid, if you remove it the rest of the Collective will be notified. We're all at risk if you do that.” Frankie says.

  “No more drugging! Or whatever the frick you're doing to me. What are you doing?” I say.

  “We're regulating your emotions. Please understand; with the genome infusion and the suit you're quite powerful, this scares a lot of people. The additional training Stinger was given from Underwood is really frightening a lot of people, we did not see that coming. News has spread world wide. This is why we think there is a chance the Collective will agree to the suit removal.”

  “I need to get some fresh air, I won't be going anywhere, I'm just checking on Edgar.” I say as I walk out. They let me go without argument. Stepping outside there is a loud crack of thunder and lightning, I feel a few substantial sized drops of water fall on my head that escalates into a heavy driving rain by the time I make it to the other building.

  “Hey Edgar.” I say. He tilts his head and lets out of a questioning warble. Greedy little guys, he's wondering about food already.

  “How's it going Dan?” I ask.

  “Good. This is a pretty good setup. What's Raven doing?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She's been in this shop for the last 20 minutes pacing back and forth.”

  Looking over his shoulder I see Maria on the screen, pacing back and forth in the shopfront where we kissed, where I lost my brother. But he's not my brother, he's Carl's brother. Why does it feel so real though, like he is my brother? Watching her pace she seems so confused. My gut says I need to go to her, I don't know what else to do. I put my combat goggles on and radio her.

  “Maria, are you there?” I call. I see her pause her steps, then she continues pacing. She definitely heard. “I'm coming to you.” Heading out of the building the repressive, driving, cold autumn rain bites into my face and hands, I run but at half the speed and twice the effort. There is a blinking light on channel two, maybe she wants to talk private.

  I switch to channel 2.

  -Hello?- I say.

  -Where hell are you going?- Frankie says.

  -I'm going to her.- I say.

  -You can't do that kid.-

  -Stop me.- I say.

  Mid stride Carl freezes, my suit is like concrete, I just topple over, my face crashes into the ground, I can feel the sting of the rain slam into my scratched up face, the taste of blood in my mouth. My face tingles as the scratches and scrapes heal. -Let me fricken move!-

  -You can't see her until she agrees to things.- Frankie says.

  Trying to move accomplishes nothing. I need to see her. Wait, my leg just moved a bit. Carl. Carl if you're in my head I need to see Maria, wake up, we need to go. If you wake up you'll see Gail.

  As if a switch if flipped I can move. I start jogging again, throwing my body into the driving rain.

  -Dammit kid, what the hell did you do?- Frankie says. I leave the comm channel.

  I have no idea what all this means, I'm even beginning to question reality itself. All I know is I need to see Maria.

  I make it to the dentist office. Looking in through the broken windows of the storefront she stops and looks back at me, we both walk to either side of the half wall a couple feet apart, she's on the inside of the shop, I'm on the outside, the driving into me still.

  “They said we can't talk until I've decided.” She says with a worried far off look. “And I can't discuss it with you Stanley.” Standing just inside some of the rain reaches her face, water streaming down her face; at least I think it's all water.

  My suit reaches out, tendrils gently drift towards Maria. Maria suit spins, has a chaotic pattern, it starts to pulsate.

  “Maria, they won't hurt us. Give in to what she wants, we can't fight the suits. Just trust me, let her be.” I say.

  Maria looks hesitant, she takes a deep breath and relaxes. Her suit has a couple of tendrils drift out towards me, our tendrils intertwine like two sources of smoke, gently barely touching.

  “It's beautiful.” Maria says.

  “Yeah. I understand now; we can't just get rid of them and throw them away. They need to exist together some how. But we need to be free as well.” I say. “I don't know what was presented to you, but we're a team. I'm not going anywhere.”

  She lets a curt breath out of her nose, the tendrils of her suit recoil as she does so.

  “Right, well it's decided then, teammate. I need to confirm things with them so we can move a head.” She says.

  “Are you mad?” I ask her.

  “What reason do I have to be mad?” She says, her mood does not match her words, she's clearly not happy about something.

  “Well I don't know, that's why I'm asking.”

  “We can talk about it some other time, teammate.” She says as she steps out of the shop over the glass, I instinctively reach out to help as she steps over the of rubble; she stumbles, I grab her forearm. My hand goes through her suit, my arm grasping her flesh. We look at each, shocked, fascinated. She slides her hand up my forearm as I move my hand over hers, both of us hypnotized by it all, the suits parting way for our hands. It's been three years since anything other then my suit has touched my arm, I forgot how the suit is numbing, the feel of Maria running her hand along my arm is mesmerizing. A crash of thunder rings out, as if woken from a trance we jerk our hands back to ourselves.

  “The, um, suits kind of have a mind of their own.” She says.

  “Yeah, I'm glad, we had the talk about them compelling us.” I say.

  “And that it's the suits.” She says.

  “Yes.” I say.

  “Now that that's settled again lets head back.” She says.

  “Right.” I say.

  “Yes.” She says.

  “Sooo, here we go.” I say.

  We both take off, running towards the HQ, the pressing rain is a good distraction. We get about a block before Frankie pulls up in his cab, we get in the back.

  “Thanks for the pickup Frankie.” I say.

  He just grunts.

  “Frankie, I'm ready. When we get back lets get started.” Maria says. She nervously looks over at me then looks away.

  I don't like it. The one person I trust and they have each of us keeping a secret from the other. My secret doesn't seem, well, like a secret, just something neither of us are dealing with right now. When Carl, goes, where ever he's going Maria and I'll likely feel different about things, there is no point in overthinking that.

  “Ok kids, Lenny is setting up the meet. We kind of assumed you were on board Maria.”