“Too friendly. He’ll want to be buddies with everyone.”
“Good. I’m supervising the search and seizure on your house. We’ll take care of Wonder this evening, and then, Mister Hendrix, if we can set you up—”
“I have a key,” he said, flushing furiously. “I’ll go over tomorrow morning and move Wonder here, or you can bring him here tonight—”
“We’ll bring him here tonight, then. It won’t be late.”
The care they were taking of Wonder made it all real, somehow. Leslie wiped her face angrily as the tears poured down, but they pushed her hands down to cuff them behind her.
James tried once more. “Can’t you say what this is about?”
“Specific orders not to. The order is direct from Heather O’Grainne.”
Leslie’s blood froze. Her eyes met James’s, and he looked as stunned as she felt. Before either of them could speak again, she was dragged out the door, not roughly, but with no possibility of resistance.
The guard held up the lantern just long enough for her to see that her room had a pitcher of water, a cup, a squat toilet, a cot, and a blanket, but no window. He left her in total darkness, sitting on the cot, crying. She had no idea how long it was before she felt for the cup and pitcher and found her way under the blanket, or how long she lay there, willing herself to sleep, and failing.
ABOUT THE SAME TIME. PUEBLO, COLORADO. 8 PM MST. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2025.
When Arnie walked into his home, Aaron was apparently asleep in his bed. Arnie grabbed a heavy paperweight, but before he was in reach, Aaron sat up. “Well, you are very fortunate that I am here to save you.”
Arnie kept his grip on the paperweight. Aaron rose from the bed, reached out, and took it from him. “Now then. Your information was invaluable. If you hadn’t kept digging until the pattern of dummy missions became clear, we might not have realized how important it would be to leave young Roger Jackson entirely alone. But you’ve done such an excellent job—such a very excellent job. Without your having realized that you had been excluded from the dispatching of Mister Samson on that dummy mission, those eager lads from Castle Earthstone might not have known to look for him and intercept him.”
Dan. Steve, and now Dan. Arnie’s knives flew from their sheathes in a cross-draw; Aaron, laughing, fell back on the bed, letting the blades whistle over his head, and kicked Arnie with both feet, full in the chest. He was flung backward, but he braced himself on the wall—
“Knives down. Knives down. Think about your position. You are already in very, very far with me. Think about what you did to Steve Ecco. As far as we know Samson is alive and will come back. Think of what he’ll say when he knows that it was you who betrayed your friend… think of what Allie will say when you are once again the sort of chump who throws away opportunities…”
Arnie thought for a long breath that he might continue the attack, press home his knives, shut Aaron up forever.
Aaron did not move, but he said, “Doctor Yang, you are about to become truly doctus, sir, you are indeed, because one of those questions that you have been trying to ask, and I have always evaded, is about to be answered. You are going to learn how Daybreak migrates from mind to mind, and reinforces itself, without the aid of those little plaztatic computer gizmos that some people seem to miss so very much. All your questions, about to be answered. Now put those silly knives away, you don’t want to miss this, it’s why you started to talk to me in the first place.”
I might need to boil the sheets. They stank, there were stains, and Arnie felt, more than he could see by lamplight, little things jumping from them. He had dragged them off the bed and stuffed them into a canvas duffle, and was trying to think what he’d tell the nice lady that did the wash when she came around. Could’ve been worse, he could’ve taken all his clothes off, his skin has to be even worse than his rags. Jesus, plenty of hot water in the tank from the solar collector; he could have taken a bath, even rinsed out his clothes, he didn’t even want to be clean.
I’m getting a bath as soon as I have clean sheets on the bed to fall into. And I don’t know how I’ll ever get rid of all the bugs that came off that…
It should have been funny. He’d been about to think lousy bastard when he realized how accurate it was.
He felt under his mattress, found his notebooks, heard the little whispers in his mind urge him to tear them up, give them to Aaron, throw them away, and had a thought; he pulled the current one out and scrawled down the page,
The Deeper It Goes The Less Daybreak Can Do To It.
The more it is part of you
the more it’s who you think you are
the more it’s you
the less Daybreak can change it,
the less it bends to follow Daybreak
the less Daybreak pwns it
I am a scientist, I record things I record things I record things Daybreak
can’t stop that because it’s deep it’s deep that I record things I record
things I record things There’s something Daybreak can’t do it can’t stop
me can’t stop me can’t stop can’t stop I record things I record things. I
am I am
I am a fucking bag of shit
I don’t matter
we don’t matter
FUCK PEOPLE
That last consumed the bottom half of the page in a huge child’s scrawl. He forced his hands to close the notebook and rammed it back into its hiding place.
He had just made his last neat hospital corner and was really looking forward to that shower when there was a knock at the door. He froze only for an instant; it wouldn’t be Aaron. He wouldn’t knock. He set the pen and ink in their standard spot on his desk.
At the door, two militiamen waited for him. Oh, God, I’m busted. My notebooks—
“Doctor Yang? Heather O’Grainne asked us to come and bring you. It’s urgent. I’m to take you to her right away. She said to bring a blank notepad. Her orders are that I’m not to answer any questions.”
He didn’t seem to be a prisoner, but then what was he?
In Heather’s office, he found her head down on the desk, as if she had been praying or crying. But she sat up, ran a hand across her face, thanked the militiamen, and waited for the door to close and their footsteps to go away.
“Arnie,” she said, “in a way, this is good news. We’ve got a captured Daybreaker who was in deep cover for you to interrogate. You need to start tonight, while the shock of arrest is still fresh.” He had a tenth of a second to hope it was Aaron, but Heather went on talking; Arnie missed most of it, in his horror at realizing why Aaron had been so suddenly informative, earlier tonight.
ABOUT THE SAME TIME. PUEBLO, COLORADO. 10:15 PM MST. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2025.
Leslie was trying to talk to herself. Got to face things. I don’t know why I’m accused, but I’m accused of…
There was a glow on the floor, coming from beneath the door. It opened.
She felt better seeing that it was Arnie Yang—pleasant, sensible, dorkish, slightly sad Arnie, who you could always have a beer with, always so desperate for human company; not exactly her friend, but she trusted his honesty, and she couldn’t imagine him treating her, or anyone, harshly.