"Yes, sir!" they snapped out.
I still thought it was a hallucination, a very complicated one, until I felt Marlon's hand being ripped from mine. "Wait," I managed to make my mouth say.
"S'right, Jakey," Marlon slurred. "I...nap..." He was almost passed out and the guard moved him to a wheelchair. They rolled him away. I stood holding the doorway of the X3 and watched them until they were too far for me to see.
I felt Christophe's hands on me. He was pushing, poking, checking me over. "Dear god, Jake! What in the hell were you thinking?" He grabbed my face and looked into my eyes. "Can you understand me?"
I nodded as best as I could with his hands on me. He looked worried, not angry. He turned and snapped. I was in a wheelchair in seconds. "Leave us," he commanded his guards.
"But sir..."
"Leave!" he bellowed. He didn't lose his cool. He was Christophe, after all. But he was on the edge, I could feel it. He took off in the opposite direction, steering us towards an elevator. He pushed me in and instead of using the number pad, he slipped his pass key into the reader and then pressed a red button. We started down. He didn't say anything. I couldn't think of anything to say. After an eternity, the elevator slowed and stopped and the door opened into a squeaky white hall. A hospital. They are the same, no matter where you go. His shoes squealed as we walked down the corridor. He stopped at the doors and ran his pass key through. The doors swung open and immediately two guards were there. They looked at him, then down at me, then stepped away.
He pushed me into the next hallway. On one side was a wall of windows, on the other rows of stations and equipment. He wheeled me past the first window and then turned me suddenly to face the next.
"She hasn't woken since we found her. It's impossible to say how long she was...trapped. We know they shut theirs down after she jumped. We just don't know the math we need to determine how long that would have been. We've got her vitals. She's alive. But..." He cleared his throat and tried to sound angry. "I shouldn't let you see her, you know. Reginald demanded that I lock you right up with Marlon, and I can't say I completely disagree with him. After what you pulled..." He stopped speaking. He took a deep, calming breath. "There's time for that later. And I'm here, not Reginald. It's my call. And I'm sure it's the right one. You may go to her, Jacob," he added softly.
I pushed up from my wheelchair and leaned against the glass. Ashnahta. So small in the big bed. So pale. So foreign and out of place and...
She was here.
I lurched forward and fumbled for the doorknob. Christophe reached around and opened it for me, then stepped back. I stumbled, but not as much as I should have. I had a focus. I had her. I pulled a chair and almost fell into it beside her bed. And then I did what I wanted to do for years. I took her hand in mine. Not in a suit. Not covered in protective layers. I took her soft hand in mine. She had a pulse. I could feel it strong, even though she looked so weak. I almost cried. I almost laughed. I was so overwhelmed and relieved and scared and worried and ridiculously happy all at once that all I could do was sit there and stare and hope against hope that it wasn't still part of the delirium, that I wasn't just imagining the moment to get through the trip.
It wasn't until much later, after I had my own IV of fluids and my own stats analyzed, after the floor beneath me started to actually feel like it was beneath me and not miles away that I truly believed it was all happening. It was real. I had her. My friend.
Chapter 16
Sometime in the night, I felt someone put a pillow under my head and a blanket over me. I woke just enough to mumble a thanks and tighten my grip on her hand. I assume it was Christophe. The Bradley bot wouldn't even think to be that considerate. I slept soundly until much later, when the fluids did what fluids will do and I woke up having to pee. I stood and stretched out the kinks, then found a bathroom across the hall. I felt worlds better, even though my image in the mirror was shockingly horrid. I ran cold water over my face and that helped.
I went back out and the Bradley bot was in the hallway. "I'm glad you are awake. Christophe said you were not to be disturbed even though it was far past test times. In the future, please see to it that you wake and sleep following the schedule. Otherwise you throw my entire staff off." In the room, they were doing things. Nursing things, perhaps. Testing things, for certain.
"Just wait, Jake. They are helping her." I turned around to see Christophe sitting at one of the stations. He was tapping on a terminal. He looked up after a minute. "You look much better."
I felt suddenly...caught, I suppose. Shy. A kid waiting for punishment. I expected reckoning, just not so soon. It took all I had to take the seat he offered. I sat on the edge. I wasn't going to run, but I suppose some instincts just take over.
Christophe sat back. The lights were dimmed in the room to allow it to feel like night time. I wondered if the other glassed in rooms contained other patients. "I am not going to pretend to need an explanation," he began. "Nor am I going to ask you how you discovered. I will assume you snooped and that way Ralph has not betrayed his loyalties to StarTech."
"I did snoop," I said quickly. "Ralph had nothing at all to do with it."
"I figured as much. There is a certain level of panic you cannot fake. I will also chalk up Mr. Bert Collins' involvement as a desperate act of coercion."
"It was," I insisted again, starting to feel the potential implications of what I did. "I promised he wouldn't lose his job."
"That was a foolish promise you have no wait of keeping."
"But..."
"No. He's fired. However, he can keep the credits he won in the...lottery, was it?" I felt my face turn red. We didn't get away with a single aspect of our plan. Not a one. "It's more than he'd make through retirement with us. I do not believe he'll be too upset with the news." He sat back and tapped his finger on the desk. "Now. About young Mr. Donnely."
"It was completely my fault."
He gave a little laugh. "Oh, now don't think I don't know that. However, he was involved. Knowingly, willingly. Do you know the levels of hacking he had to do to pull this off? No, I don't think you do. He broke just about every law on the books concerning electronic transmissions, not to mention finances, espionage..." I swallowed hard. I hadn't thought about that. Hell, I didn't know anything about these laws. But Marlon did. He had to. And yet, he did it anyway. "He's no longer a child, Jake. We extended his contract to allow him the same indentured status simply because we know how much his sister means to him. It's the only noble thing he's ever done, and frankly, I bet will ever do. To us, he's still a child because we've extended him a certain courtesy. I have no plans to change that status. We will prosecute him as a minor. But if we can't keep this secret, keep it to ourselves somehow, then it very well may be out of our hands."
I tried to swallow again and found it impossible. "Will he go to prison?"
He didn't insult me by lying. "Maybe. Probably, if they ever find out." He let me squirm for another minute before he added, "I said if. I do not want you think you can keep doing things like this, but I also cannot let you continue to think the worst for your friend."
"He's not my friend."
Christophe almost smiled. "Then your conspirator. He'll be punished here then released. The process should take several months."
"And Lynette?"
"Jacob, do I seem the type to punish others for the foolish acts of their family members? Hm? Miss Donnely still has a great future here at StarTech, even if she did behave a little foolishly while on Earth."
They were all safe.
"That takes care of your cohorts. On to your punishment."
It didn't really matter. As long as I could stay here and be with Ashnahta and help her recover, it didn't matter at all. He'd let me stay and I knew it. Still, I needed punishing by their thinking. I knew that, too. "Go ahead."