Watching Yute Read Free Page A

floor. She stared down
at it resentfully. It wasn’t kind enough to break on impact. After
a time, and a long sigh, she picked it up.
    Well… maybe Brandy would lift the block
after a while. Maybe. Aw geez, what to do? Well, she could always
snail-mail her or something. Call her mom maybe. Geez, no, that’s
creepy.
    With another deep sigh, she stowed the
terminal. She started to head out of the washroom, and caught her
reflection in a mirror.
    Well, son of a bitch. She was
crying.

    ~~~

    “ What do you mean there’s no
available manpower?!” Kirison squawked at his terminal.
    “ It means there’s no
available manpower, maybe? What part of the department being shut
down isn’t clear?” Kirison’s former supervisor, the joyless Mr.
Book was pretty clear.
    “ Well, that’s the whole
thing!” Kirison wound up his rebuttal. “We can’t just leave
projects sitting out there, we have to shut down
properly!”
    Mr. Book leaned in closer, a hint of a
smile cracking though. Maybe it was a sneer. “Kirison…. All
projects have been shut down quite nicely already. All. Official.
Projects.”
    Kirison’s face became a bit joyless as
well. “Well... Well... I still have things I need to
close.”
    Mr. Book relaxed a little and took on a
bit more of an official air. “If you’ve been doing something
illegal, after all the anti-Erebus legislation-”
    Kirison jumped, “No! Shit no! Nothing
like that! It’s perfectly harmless!”
    “ And legal?” Mr. Book was
getting closer and closer to smiling. Kirison was entertaining when
he squirmed.
    Kirison did his best to display a
proper posture and expression. “Well. No.”
    “ Kirisonnnnn……”
    “ Oh come on now! You know as
well as I do that the new laws are ignorant knee-jerk reactions.
Surely endeavors to non-weaponized applications-“
    “ Come on Kirison. I had as
much riding on this department as you,” Kirison knew that was bull,
but he didn’t interrupt. “but given all that’s happened in recent
years, this knee-jerk could have been a lot stronger.”
    “ Well fine, whatever. But
the point is, I still have a project running out there and I don’t
have the kind of expertise to extract it quietly. And if it gets
found out, and they trace it back to me and you, and everyone up
the chain…”
    “ Ah!” the joyless man
outright grinned for a moment. “You’re wrong! This project of yours
is unofficial, and has nothing to do with me. Everything I had my
hands in was one hundred percent legitimate and on the books! And
when the law came and said stop, I did! We all did! And now you
want a team from me for something you did behind our
backs?”
    “ It’s not like the project
wasn’t going to go towards the company anyway! I just-“
    Mr. Book’s face returned to its normal
joyless state. “Look, just clean it up.”
    “ I can’t, I need a
team.”
    “ It’s not like I don’t
sympathize. You’re a smart man, and a hard worker. But I don’t have
anyone to give you.” Mr. Book cocked his head slightly. “I do know
someone who might, however. People we dealt with in the early days.
Do you have a pen?”

    ~~~~~
    :::C /04
    ~~~~~

    Cassidy awoke, and the memory of Brandy
breaking up with her came slowly, but firmly. It was enough to make
her pause as she was getting out of bed. She couldn’t pause for
long; she had duty to get to. The irony of that wasn’t lost on her.
She didn’t seem to have time for her when they were a couple, so
why should she let crying over her get in the way of work now? She
certainly did enough of that yesterday.
    That realization had come to her the
night before, and it still managed to make her feel like a selfish
bitch for taking Brandy for granted. She reached for her terminal
and called Brandy again. Still blocked. It was worth a shot. Focus.
Put yourself together, and get to work.

    “ Feeling better?” McKinney
asked Cassidy wen she got to the station.
    “ What?” Cassidy forgot the
manner in which