Visisonor's blog

Chapter 3

I spent the rest of that morning in the hospital, trying to sleep on the bench in the hall.

Around noon I was able to sneak inside Villa’s room. Villa was breathing slowly, as if asleep. But I knew she was unconscious. I sat beside her and touched her hand.

I don’t remember how long I was there - perhaps I dozed off for a bit. Suddenly she stirred uneasily and started whispering something. Initially I couldn’t discern what she was saying, but after a while I made out “Don’t go” in her whisper.

- I’m here, Vee, - I said softly, suspecting she didn’t hear me. - I’m here.
- Don’t go, Vera, - she continued, a bit louder than before.

And then the nurse came in and shooed me out.

…

Back in the corridor I almost bumped - literally - into Wolf, another field agent who knew Villa longer than I did.

- How is she? - he asked right away.
- Concussion, - I replied. - They say she’ll be fine in a week or two.
- What happened?
- Trashcan.
- Damn. Are you okay? - he sounded concerned.
- Yeah, I’m fine, - I assured him, feeling a tinge of guilt.
Which was irrational, I knew: I was unharmed because I provided fire cover from the distance, and if I didn’t, Villa would not have been able to defeat the Trashcan. But still.

- She mentioned Vera in her sleep, - I added, shaking off these thoughts - Any idea who that is?
- Her sister. She was her partner before you two were assigned together.
- Where is she now? - I inquired, somewhat surprised as I never heard of her before.
- Didn’t come back from one mission.
- Oh, - I murmured absently, realizing that Villa herself was close to not coming back from today’s assignment.
Three troopers didn’t. Another one was also here, heavily wounded.

- You look tired, - he noticed.
- I am, - I admitted.

It did not register with me then, but he seemed to have wanted to ask something else or say something more. But I had to get some rest and something to eat, so I left him there, hoping the nurse will let him see Villa too.

…

I went back to my apartment, made some quick launch and tried to sleep - and yet sleep did not come. My mind kept replaying this morning’s fight back and forth, so I took an advantage of this mental recording - after all I still had paperwork to do - and turned it into the most detailed mission report I’ve ever made.

Once that was finished, I ended up staring at Villa’s profile in the military personnel database, which was not yet updated and did not reflect her injury. It didn’t take me long to find Vera’s profile as well. With my access permissions it showed me only the most basic stuff. Not even a photo - just name, rank, and KIA as a status.

Killed in action was perfectly valid status for someone who had not returned from a mission. Still, I expected - or hoped - to see missing in action instead. The KIA label was clickable, and it brought me back to the search screen. I changed status filter to MIA - I wanted to see if there were other agents missing in action.

Why did it matter? Hard to tell. I just had to know there was hope for someone to come back.

A long list of results turned up on the screen. I limited the search to agents, and here something felt off: there were only three entries, and two of them didn’t even have names. It seemed like a bug. An easily reproducible one, too. I fired up my browser’s developer’s console and looked at API requests.

This is where things were really weird. With filter set to MIA, the web application issued a request with “Undefined” status. And for KIA filter the status parameter was set to a comma-separated pair of values - MIA,KIA.

Off course I tried running it with just MIA - and found Vera among the results.

It was not just weird, it was suspicious. But apparently my sense of danger was numbed down after today’s fight and subsequent exhaustion. I outlined my findings along with reproduction steps, filed a bug report, and fell asleep immediately after.

…

It was evening when I woke up. I went outside, heading to the hospital again. But two troopers stopped me as I left.

- Agent Kate. You are coming with us, - stated one of them.
The second trooper grabbed my arm and and kneed me into abdomen.

The first one then grabbed my other arm, and together they locked my hands in handcuffs.

Next moment they pulled my gun and knife out of holsters.

Up until that day I was only vaguely aware of a certain animosity between troopers and agents. While we fought side by side, agents tended to look down on troopers as on dumb muscle, whereas troopers envied our skills and quick thinking. But it was pretty abstract for me, and experiencing it first hand was not something I expected to happen. Especially here, in safe haven.

It was too late to fight. I still could - there was a reasonably decent chance of bringing these two guys down. But it would have been a gamble, and more importantly, pointless. They wouldn’t have dared to attack me so bluntly if they hadn’t been ordered to bring me in.

And that - finding out why I’ve been arrested - was more important. I straightened up and allowed them to lead me where they intended to.