Megalodon City, Tundra, Standard year 404
“So Robert knows.” Alanna said. The president had left a short while before and she was walking alongside Tony towards his car. Tony knew the way to the spaceport much better than she did. And they were departing, immediately.
“Hmm.” Tony said, appearing to be lost in thought.
“What are you thinking about?” Alanna asked.
“Growth hormones.”
“Huh?”
“I was thinking about growth hormone malfunctions. The head of the planetary shields project has one, right? I heard that somewhere.”
“Did you hear it from him?” Alanna asked.
“Heard it somewhere.” Tony said vaguely. “Never met the guy.”
Alanna breathed a quiet sigh of relief. “That’s nice.” She said out loud.
“Growth hormone issues lead to gigantism.” Tony said. He may not have completed his medical degree, but his years in med school came in useful once in a while.
“So?”
“So you had a giant dead body strapped to the roof of my best friend’s car.” Tony said somewhat tensely. “How tall is this Grant guy, would you say?”
“I’m not sure he has a growth hormone malfunction.” Alanna muttered.
“Way to prioritize, Summers. How tall?”
“About… eight feet, give or take.” Alanna admitted reluctantly. It wasn’t as if she could lie. Tony would figure out the truth soon enough.
“That’s about the height of the dead body.” Tony said, glancing at Alanna out of the corner of his eye before refocusing on the road.
“There is no dead body.” Alanna said firmly.
“Really.”
“Yeah, really.”
“And what were you transporting then?”
“I… it’s classified.” Alanna said insistently.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“Right. Great. That’s just great.” Tony turned sharply to pull into the parking garage of his building. “That’s just goddamn freaking terrific. I’ll go get my stuff.” He said, slamming the car door behind him.
Alanna chewed on her lower lip as she waited. In retrospect, carrying a Grant sized body on the roof of the car was not a good look. But it wasn’t as if she had a lot of options.
---
“Just to be clear” Tony said, tossing his bag in the back of the car and sliding back into the drivers’ seat, “I’m not your commanding officer for this mission.”
“What?” Alanna asked blankly.
“You heard the president. You’re the mission commander. All you, Summers.”
“Um. Ok.”
They drove in silence for a few minutes.
“Because” Tony continued, seeing as there was no chance he was actually going to let it go “because you have a not so great track record with your leaders, Alanna. They keep dying. You ever notice that?”
“I… no. What?”
“Captain Mace?”
“Ok yeah he died.” Alanna admitted, in reference to her commanding officer on D12.
“And not of natural causes.” Tony pointed out.
“Ok yes, not of natural causes.” Alanna admitted.
“And then there was Captain Bernard Bernhard.”
“You met him!”
“Fair enough, look, I’m not saying the guy didn’t have it coming.” Tony admitted. “I see that. I’m guessing serving in the Sarayan navy was no picnic. But then you went and chopped the guy’s head off.”
“You chopped his head off!” Alanna turned towards him in complete outrage. “That was literally you! How are you accusing me of being the psycho here?”
“Oh… so many reasons.” Tony muttered. “Starting with the fact that it was your idea.”
“I said, let’s put his head on a pike. Like haha. Like haha, Tony. I didn’t mean it literally. You took it literally. You’re the one who got the bone saw. Don’t blame me.”
“Uhuh. And Grant?”
“Grant is fine. I like Grant.”
“And you like me, right? Just remember, I’ll be the only one there with any medical training.”
“I’ll be sure to remember that.” Alanna said through clenched teeth.
Tony drove on in silence for a bit. “So your sister, right? The one in prison.”
“Yes.” Alanna said with some trepidation.
“What’s she in prison for, exactly?”
Alanna looked away, staring out the window at the roof of the ice tunnel and the cars zooming around them.
“Alanna?” Tony said sharply. “What’s she in for?”
“Murder.” Alanna admitted reluctantly.
“Who’d she kill?”
“Well…”
“Well what?”
“I think they had it coming.” Alanna said somewhat defensively.
“They?”
“That came out badly.”
“How many?”
“Look….”
“How many?”
“It was a lot.” Alanna admitted.
“A lot. You have got to be shitting me. Is it three? Because three is a lot for murder, Alanna. Is it more than three?”
“Can we change the subject?”
“No.”
“It’s more than three.”
“Uhuh.”
“It’s the people who came after the orphans. Are these the people you’re going to sympathize with?”
“How many people though?”
“Moving on.”
“All right. How about this: were you really going to pull your gun out on the president?”
“Yes.” Alanna said without hesitation. “If it helped James, yes.”
“Well at least you love him. You know the way James played this with you, hard to know for sure.” Tony shook his head. “It wasn’t going to help James.”
“I guess not.” Alanna admitted. “I’m not… I don’t really understand families.”
“Jim loves his son. And you need to work on not being a psycho.”
“So do you.” Alanna said, crossing her arms.
Should have done this earlier instead of months after the chapter was posted, but oh well. POLL: who is the psycho inside the car??
