PART III Chapter 29

NEW YORK CITY

Tuesday 05h00 EST

The Chief had recalled her. Aborted the mission. A week of furlough, he said — he needed her at a hundred percent. He pulled her out. To her credit, Pritchard had done very well — if not least by being the single survivor of Operation Hideout’s multitude of forays. Field operations for Hideout Phase II were put on ice until they could review the data Riley and O’Brien had gathered. Their recon information had been a breakthrough — with it, the project was now had direction. They would focus on subterranean gas emission scans to triangulate likely areas of habitation, then send teams out for further recon. Kiera would cover for her. And where the creatures kept their leftovers, their lairs couldn’t be too far away. Then Special Forces would be deployed in full for Phase III — destroy. There were leads to follow, but Riley was no longer part of it.

Meanwhile, there were developments at the Raven Rock Mountain Complex to deal with — Riley’s monster and a number of advanced Alphas had escaped. There was so much still to do. But Riley was being sent home.

She simmered with restlessness and cursed the dead arm wound carefully into a sling and her broken ribs. Well, at least her arm wasn’t really dead. With the new DNA patches, it would heal nicely. But it would take twenty-four hours for her arm to heal, forty-eight hours for her ribs to be at a hundred percent, and five days to fully patch her concussion. The doctors had patched up her bruised face as well as they could, but her right eye was still marked by a dark ring. Pritchard only drew a couple of strange glances as she snaked her way through the bustle of Times Square towards the M&M Tube Node, her small travel pack bouncing around awkwardly, her case swinging from her good hand. Not many people were injured by anything these days.

Finally making into the less busy Node, she stood aside and recalled the events of the day before. A few people milled about, waiting for the morning Tube shuttle to load. Pritchard thought of O’Brien, and was overcome with sadness. And Gordon… he had been the last in his family. A beeping shook her out of her reverie, and she fell in step with the orderly line filing into the shuttle.

Her seat was by the left-hand-side window towards the front of the car. As she struggled to get into it, someone spoke behind her.

“Can I help you with that?” Pritchard turned and nodded briefly, setting down her case in her seat and hefting her pack over. She stood back and let the man ease her pack into the holding bin, then squeezed into her seat. Riley Pritchard was somewhat uncomfortable, unused to needing help, but wasn’t too proud to accept aid when she did need it.

The man who had given her a hand stowed his own travel pack and settled himself down in the aisle seat next to her. Pritchard winced, ribs grating when she turned.

“Thanks,” Riley said, smiling gratefully, laying her case on top of her lap.

“You’re welcome,” he responded with a friendly grin. He looked at her strangely, then glanced at her bad arm, and finally looked away politely. Pritchard was grateful for not having to deal with intrusion for the ride home. Soft chatter arose in the cabin as the Tube slid into motion. Riley sat in her own world, thoughts about the week that had just passed tumbling through the mist in her head.

He was on the Tube! For the first time in his life, Josh Orsini was leaving New York. As the shuttle angled downward through the heart of Times Square, he gasped inwardly, taking in the panorama ahead of him through the clear dome over his head. The sun was rising over a sky dotted with clouds, casting the heavens in rose and gold. Directly ahead of him, past the Plain, was the view he never really paid attention to — the Downtown SafeZone lined with tall fingers of sleek buildings. He had always been sitting in or driving away from it. To his left lapped the East River, and to his right, the Hudson. He couldn’t wait to see what lay between this and DC.

His shoulder tingled as the shuttle exited the perimeter of the SZ. It leveled off twenty feet off the ground and ran parallel to the main north-south road. Glancing to his left towards the water, he tried not to notice his odd seat-mate. But he failed. Her arm was in a sling and she had a black eye. This was something you didn’t see very often. It was impolite to stare, however, so he forced himself to return his attention to the majesty of the Atlantic Ocean that emerged. He had seen glimpses of it in holofilms, but nothing like the vast stretch of water that spread out towards the horizon in front of his eyes. It was going to be a relatively short ride through Pennsylvania and Baltimore — he had to make it count. Fumbling through his pack, he found his system cube and held it up to take in images of the view. He would have enough time to look over his material over lunch.

Thinking about gamma rays, mutated creatures, monsters and bodies had taken its toll. Riley made her mind focus on the blue sky above and the land around her. She wouldn’t be able to chase creatures and monsters for a week, anyway.

“Sorry, what was that?” Riley asked politely. She couldn’t tell whether her seatmate’s mumbling was directed to her, but didn’t want to be rude. Upon making her query, Riley realized that the brown-haired man had not been addressing her. But it was too late. Monologue interrupted, the startled man turned away from the window of the shuttle and looked at the agent.

“Oh. Oh, I apologize. I was just marveling at how this thing works — the Tube generates its own energy. You see…” He trailed off. “Sorry. I’m geeking out.”

“No problem,” Riley said, flashing him a tired smile. Her curiosity was piqued. She had spent a lot of time thinking about a lot of things, but never about how the Tube was powered. “What do you mean, it generates its own energy?”

Hesitating, the man spoke again. It was as if he didn’t want to cross a line. But excitement overcame him and he started speaking rapidly. “It’s a maglev mechanism — magnetic levitation — that propels the car forward at high speeds on a magnetic field. It needs protection, though, and that requires a lot of energy. Think of it as a ‘SafeTunnel’ surrounded by a forcefield like the ones around SafeZones. The tube casing ‘recycles’ the energy the shuttle generates through forward movement at high speeds, and this is what maintains the forcefield that keeps the Tube safe.” The man paused and looked at her as if trying to gauge her reaction. “Sorry. I’m really excited. It’s my first time on the Tube.”

Riley laughed softly despite herself. She had spent so much time crossing the country on the Tube and taking in the bounty of nature that didn’t realize that she had taken the technology itself for granted. “Don’t worry about it. I never thought about why we’d never been attacked on a Tube before.” Riley looked around the cabin. They were speeding through New Jersey. “It really is something, isn’t it?”

“It is that. So you’ve been on the Tube a lot?” His voice was a pleasant baritone rumble.

“Yes,” Riley responded. “Probably far too much,” she added.

“Really? For work or pleasure?”

“Work.” Pritchard realized too late that she had inadvertently invited the man into a conversation. She didn’t usually speak to strangers, but Jake did say she should get out more. It would be a short ride, anyway. Lowering her guard to the minimum required, she plunged into the mission of being somewhat sociable.

Josh was on a high. No one but the folks on his old team had been interested in his crazy techno-babble. He’d been warned over and over again to refrain from geeking out. The countryside sped past, but Josh would enjoy the scenery on the way back. It wasn’t often that anyone took any interest in what was really on his mind outside of work; he would take this.

“…and the forcefields interact with the subcutaneous chips. So encoding the chips means deciding which person-linked neutrinos get to pass through the forcefield or not,” he finished.

“And the chip needs to be connected to a pumping human heart and match the person’s DNA,” the svelte blonde next to him added.

Josh nodded. “Otherwise, the ‘non-allowed’ neutrinos interact with the person’s physiology and — BLAM. The entity blows up.” He couldn’t tell if the woman was making fun of him or was actually engaged in the conversation. A mysterious smile never left her face, and she always looked very amused. He realized that he had been going on and on. Before he could do so, she asked him a question first.

“So what do you do? How do you know so much about chips and forcefields and people bits?”

Josh laughed. “I was trained as a physics engineer, and worked at SolarScope R&D for a few years. I worked on these chips,” he said, patting his right deltoid to demonstrate, “and the SafeZone forcefields!”

The woman gave a light laugh and shifted to face him at a better angle. She was visibly in pain as she did so. Josh held out his hands helplessly, but she waved him away with a small gasp. “Don’t worry about me. Flesh wound. But wait — wow — you helped build this thing that keeps millions and millions of people safe around the world. That’s impressive.”

“Thanks,” Josh said with a shy smile. “I never thought of it that way… It does kill people, though,” he observed, frowning. His seatmate cocked her head to the side, as if to consider this new angle. Unbidden, a pang of guilt shot through Josh as he remembered his mission for the coming week. He ignored it and focused on the conversation at hand, cutting in curiously. “What about you, what do you do? What brings you to DC?”

“I live there. I do research,” she said vaguely.

“What kind of research?”

“Hopology.”

Josh blinked at her response.

“Sorry — I study human combat behavior.”

A wave of confusion and wonder washed over Josh. The conversation was making this woman even more mysterious than she first was.

A microexpression of puzzlement rippled across the man’s expressive face. Riley was thoroughly enjoying her first proper social encounter. Her conversation partner’s exuberance was refreshing; she didn’t know too many people outside of her team who were that passionate about something. The man glanced at her broken arm and back to her face.

Riley laughed and addressed the issue head-on. “Yeah, I try to experience some first hand, too. I was in New York for a convention. Things got a little out of hand.”

The man laughed. Her response seemed to sort a few things out for him, and she would leave it at that. Before she knew it, a disembodied voice announced their approach into DC. Time went by quickly.

Riley continued before he could ask any more questions. “I try to take some unconventional angles on my research. For instance, I look at historical artifacts and records, and try to trace human combat behavior over time — individually and in groups.” Suddenly remembering something, her face brightened. “In fact, I have some research material to go pick up at the Adams-Dupont cluster of bunkers. A cousin of mine on the West coast sent it over ages ago.” Pritchard was surprised at how much she was sharing with this stranger. She didn’t even know his name. But her instinct told her she could trust him. And as soon as they both stepped out of the shuttle, they would probably never see each other again anyway.

She proved herself wrong in the next second when her mouth asked, “Would you like to come with?”

The man replied immediately with sparkling eyes. “Sure! I can help you with your bag, and carrying packages, and — just in case you eventually need to — lug around two jugs of sweetwater.”

Riley laughed in spite of herself. She hadn’t thought of how she was going to take all of her things back to hers. The Tube slowed and slid to a stop.

“Can we exchange comm coordinates?” the brown-haired man suddenly asked.

Riley-on-forced-furlough found herself wordlessly nodding yes to giving a nameless stranger her comm information.

“Great! Sorry — just let me — I’ll –” he said, awkwardly reaching over to wave his ring in front of her limp right hand. Both rings gave a beep of acceptance. He leaned back and stood as people began to file out of the car. “Okay. All set?”

Pritchard nodded again and began to feel a little anxious. The injured agent pushed rising thoughts of rampaging monsters out of her mind. Kiera was covering for her on monster duty. Although Jake was probably on another case, she would keep him on comm standby in the event of an emergency. The team would notify her if anything big came up.

So Riley readjusted her rationalization. She was on furlough for a week; this handsome stranger was in town for meetings for a week. She might as well try to enjoy a few days as a hopologist instead of moping about her apartment feeling useless and disempowered. But not to get comforts where she could — she was being social. Jake would be proud.

“Oh, by the way, I’m Josh,” the man said as he whisked their bags over his two lean shoulders and held an olive-skinned hand out. “Sorry… right.” Riley held her left hand out and grasped his outstretched one in an awkward handshake.

Years of dealing with a vast spectrum of situations and people — and creatures — had honed her instinct to a razor-sharp point. It was rarely wrong; the consequences of error was death. “My name is Riley,” Pritchard said, laughing inwardly, wincing as her muscles contracted over her tender ribs. Riley Pritchard, hopologist extraordinaire.

WASHINGTON, DC

06h20

Josh was giddy — probably from the DC heat — as he stepped out of the building and followed a willowy Riley out onto a grassy patch at the foot of the Washington Monument Main Node. It was just before First Light. He tried not to trip as he craned his neck to look towards the top of the short obelisk, which was marked by an orange pinpoint of light. It wasn’t nearly as tall as the buildings back home, but looked far more majestic as a single tower piercing the sky. He turned to marvel at the design of the small functional SafeZone surrounding the monument, then checked himself. For a split second, he thought he had lost Riley — but her blonde head bobbed slowly just ahead of him. He weaved his way through the crowd to catch up.

Suddenly, he remembered — he had a briefing with Elaine over comms in fifteen minutes. Thoughts of his impending pitch flooded his mind, and his gut twisted with anxiety. He felt ill just thinking about it. But he knew the sick script by heart. That afternoon, he would fill in the technical details with the people at Falls Church. He could rehearse over dinner.

Josh needed this morning. If he was going to do what he needed to do in a few days, he needed to be himself, if only for a few more hours. He was in Washington, DC! With a local. An intelligent, fascinating local who smelled good. Who probably needed to eat. Yes. He would definitely take the next few hours for himself.

“Riley,” he called out. The blonde stopped and turned.

“What’s up, tourist? Picture time?”

“Ha! Yes, in a moment. I just need to send a few messages — could you please give me a minute?”

“Sure,” Riley answered, ushering them to the side of the pathway, then set her case down and sat on it. Josh stood to her left and glanced down at the top of her head. She probably needed a rest after wrestling through the crowd. Orsini activated his ring and set it to written message.

Hey Elaine! I’m here, he motioned. It’s amazing. I can’t believe I’m in DC!

Josh, hi! Great! I’m glad Blake let you go first light so you can at least be there… But you’re early for our briefing. Josh read Elaine’s response on his palm.

Yeah — El, about that — can we reschedule to tonight? I’m only here for a few days and this is the only morning I’ve got to look around. You know how much energy tomorrow’s going to take out of me. I want to try and recharge before my three o’clock at HQ.

With all due respect, Sir — you need to know this stuff inside-out… A lot is riding on your performance. Are you sure?

Josh grimaced. He hated it when Elaine called him that. And didn’t need to be reminded about the show. Tomorrow was just the warm-up, and this was a marathon, not a sprint. Orsini already felt like his soul was on the market.

Yeah, El — I’m sure.

Fine… Can you do eight?

That’s perfect. Look, I gotta run — I just met the oddest person. I’ll tell you all about her later.

Hey — watch out who you talk to!

Don’t worry — she’s a researcher. Seems really nice.

Those are the ones that kill you when you’re not looking.

Elaine…

Sorry. Just worried about you. Okay, that’s great. I can’t wait. Talk to you later.

Josh switched his link off and tapped his guide on her good shoulder and reaching into his pocket for his system cube. “Excuse me, miss. I’m new to DC. Could you please take a photo of me in front of this here monument?”

Riley flashed him a smile and got to her feet. She took the cube from his hand. “In exchange for a jug of sweetwater, I would happily oblige.”

The tall man laughed, feeling a great weight being lifted off of his shoulders. Josh felt free. Maybe he could pretend for a few hours that this was real life. Maybe he could pretend that the woman standing in front of him was a real friend. Maybe, for a few hours, he could really pretend that he lived in a normal world.