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Mysterious Case
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Well? Have you heard anything?” Forty-Five whispered to me.
I shook my head, shoveling my breakfast in as fast as I could. Scavenging today… and Forty was already cracking the whip.
“Nothing,” I said. “If he was sentenced, they didn’t say anything to us about it.”
Forty-Five nodded with a frown. “Odd… usually if they execute someone, they make it pretty public.”
We finished eating and headed for the door to meet Forty. I was stopped there by General Case himself. “Beta Forty-Two… come with me. There’s something I need to discuss with you.”
I nodded, avoiding looking at anyone on the squad. If they were going to pull off our little sh
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Forty stood in the corridor, getting a report from the rest of the squad. “Is Forty-Five okay?” I asked as I hurried to join them.She shot me a scathing look. “He just got his ass dragged off to the infirmary, what do you think? We’ll do without him today. Everyone get upstairs right now, the last one up gets extra springs tonight.”I was stunned… then I figured it out. She was acting harshly again, but only to a point. I was pretty sure she would follow through on her threat of sprints, even with me. I bolted up the stairs, arriving only a second ahead of Forty-Four, who gave me a dirty look when Forty pronounced his sentence of extra sprints.I shrugged and grinned. “You snooze, you lose, man,” I muttered to him, forgetting how sharp Forty’s hea
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We both managed to scrape together a respectable number of items before heading back into the Underground. We were exhausted and overheated, but I was at least hopeful. I had a decent shortlist of ideas as to what the tablet passcode might be, but there was no way I was going to attempt to get into it until I was alone.After dinner, as promised- or threatened, really- Forty put us through sprints until we were ready to puke. Fortunately, she let us go after that, telling us that we needed to get some rest. “Everyone meets in the dining hall at oh-six-hundred for instructions on the raid,” she told us. “At this point, we still don’t have the final plan… Command is still waiting for some last-second data before settling on a strategy. Last I heard, the general idea is that we keep the guards at the entrance busy while another team actually goes into the building.”
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Forty said nothing for the longest time, just staring at the floor in shock. I decided to prod a little. “I assume that’s not what you want?”She shivered. “No, of course not!” she said, hugging me tightly. “I’d never wish death on the world, how could you even think that? But… to know that someone is trying to fix things… this means everything to me! I swear I won’t betray you, just… who are you? I mean really… are you a part of the government?”“No. I’m not. The government… they’ve gotten a little too used to being in power, and they’re not my allies. Or yours. I’m part of something else… something no one knows about, and hopefully never will.”“But… why?” she asked
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Bright and early- about an hour before we were usually yanked out of bed, Forty came to my room and unceremoniously flopped on my bed, startling me out of a sound sleep. “Hey… wake up,” she said, her voice sounding cross.I rolled over and looked up at her. “Oh… hi. Did they tell you the plan?”She sighed. “The plan… it’s what we thought. Grandpa hoped you would be able to activate your tablet so we could just waltz in there, massacre the guards, and waltz back out with everything they’ve got. Obviously, that’s not going to happen now, and he’s pretty pissed. He told me that if I survive this raid without taking an injury, I can keep my rank. If I’m injured, he’ll bounce me back to Delta foot soldier.”“If you die, obv
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Forty was like a statue, just staring. I suppose she thought that she was going to die where she stood. I knew better… he wouldn’t kill us yet. Not until he’d gotten the code from me, and he would likely use her to force me to reveal it.“Now… you seem like a smart young man, so let’s cut to the chase before your team ends up getting minced out there. Give me the tablet, and the code, and I’ll let you go.”“Right,” I drawled. “The second I give you anything, you’ll kill me. And your granddaughter, for good measure, I’m sure.”I saw a flinch in the guards, but not the old man. It was interesting. “She told you, I’m sure.”“Yes.”
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When Captain Case took me to my guest quarters, the first thing I did was to throw my clothes into a cleaner. Case had suggested just tossing them, and I told her that she was welcome to let Lauren burn my Beta team shirt, but the pants had a special purpose. I didn't want to leave them behind. The next thing I did was to step into the shower and scrub myself about a dozen times. I didn't think the stench of the sewer pipe would ever come off, but eventually, it did.Once I was as clean as I could reasonably expect, I sat on my bed and checked my messages. Captain Case came in, looking unsurprised at the sight of the tablet, though she did shoot me a grin. "That little toy could get you into a lot of trouble if you aren't careful," she murmured."Hence the reason I'm keeping the pants," I admitted. "Hidden pockets."
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