Page 17 of Defiance
“Sorry, we didn’t mean to bother you,” the woman said.
“Don’t be daft,” I said, pointing to her cello with a smile. “That was you? You’re brilliant! Brought tears to me eyes, hearing music like that again.”
Miss Liu ducked her head with a warm glow. “Thank you. Aelia helped me piece it together. It’s not quite the same, but we’re making progress.”
“She’s teaching me to play for para,” Aelia said proudly, popping out from behind her. The girl was a venandi with tall, elegant spires developing above her plum-colored forehead. “So he’llhrumagain.”
“Well, I’m sure your da is already proud of how hard you’re working,” I told her.
Jharim and Miss Liu shared a look, and she ushered Aelia back behind her again. “He is. I just wanted to say that we’re done for the night. I thought Mr Fareshi would be here.”
“I will lock up,” Jharim assured her. She bowed again, pushing on Aelia’s head to also remind her to bow, then shuffled them both out the side door once more.
I creased my brow in confusion. “Who’s her father?” I wondered. “Vindilus is the only venandi in the colony, isn’t he?”
Jharim listened to them retreat, talking and laughing quietly. Only when their voices had receded did he respond as if I hadn’t asked. “Agent Gaul has excellent instincts. I am pleasantly surprised.”
Heat crept up my cheeks. “For choosing smelly humans, yes indeed.”
Jharim withdrew the aero-syringe from the chamber in his forearm. “Your enthusiasm makes people feel comfortable, and they tell you things they should not.”
I looked after Miss Liu and Aelia with a stitch in my brow, wondering what he meant, but he continued on.
“In the event of your abduction, Chairman Ferulis has authorized me to share a sample of my own bionic systems with you. It is called a parumauxi swarm.” He tapped the glass so that the fluid tapped back. “Though what I’m giving you won’t be near enough to call a swarm. Perhaps a party. A squad? I leave the designation up to you. If anyone somehow discovers them, however, they are from Roz-02.”
I creased my brow, watching the globule sway in its vacuous aero-syringe.
“What does it do?” I murmured as if I were in a library, afraid that speaking too loud might break through the privacy perimeter.
“Many things,” the bog said fondly. “Record sensory data, supplement the immune system, and participate in cell regeneration. Most importantly, they’re untraceable. Their code is too old for modern scanners. One might call them ancient technology now.” He picked up the tube and popped the cap off the aerosolized grate. “May I?”
I bit the inside of my lower lip in thought. Part of me squirmed as the droplets broke apart and reformed. The parumauxi looked alive. Like a flock of starlings moving as a single mass, even though when I looked closely, I could tell each one was smaller than a grain of black sand.
“Alright,” I decided, stashing my fingers beneath my thighs to keep me from backing out.
“It will tickle.” Jharim pressed the aero-syringe against the divot behind my collarbone. I expected him to distract me like a phlebotomist drawing blood, but he simply pressed down on the release and broke the vacuum seal. A great puff of air, a hiss, and then tingles that fizzled through my flesh and disappeared. Heheld still like no breathing creature could, then nodded his head once. “It is complete.”
“What do I do with them?” I asked, brushing my fingers over my collarbone.
“Nothing,” he said, pushing away from the table. “They will keep your bionics private and gather more complete evidence, should the opportunity arise. You may see or feel them if they congregate for such a task or choose to send me a signal. Think of them as your own privacy perimeter and a passive failsafe in the event that Agent Gaul is incapacitated.”
Failsafe, evidence, agent…The reminder of how dangerous my little research-and-revel mission was made my stomach lurch anxiously. I cleared my throat seriously and stood up, wiping my hands on my trousers again out of nervous habit. “Understood. Craic to meet you, Jharim, but I should get going.”
“To Agent Gaul, correct?”
Agent Gaul, Agent Gaul, Agent Gaul.There it was again. The inescapable absurdity. My guts tied themselves in knots. To me, he was just a date. Harmless. Had to be. Nothing special or noteworthy here except for the lingering guilt of a liberated woman with an Irish Catholic upbringing.
“Novak,” I managed, my voice a little too high to be casual.
“Mind his tail for him,” Jharim told me. “He will forget, and it is important.”
What the ever-loving wisened old wizard shit?
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to take his words seriously. Jharim was no Gandalf the Grey, but maybe calling him a wizard in our new normal wasn’t entirely wrong either. He certainly had an eerie sense of charisma for a sapient machine.
“I’ll mind his tail,” I promised, my brow creasing. “And I won’t tell anyone about the swarm.”
Jharim gave me one last nod, and I went barreling down the footpath towards my flat to shower and pack a midnight picnic.
