Chapter 84: After The Fight
The building took stock of itself the way it always did after something hard, quietly and in pieces, people finding their corners and their people and processing the day in whatever way worked for them.
Michael felt it moving through the floors as he came up from the clinic, the particular texture of a building full of people who had been through something and were still here and were working out what to do with that. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t celebration. It was something quieter and more durable than either of those things.
He found Cole in the courtyard.
Cole was standing over the third variant’s body near the building entrance, looking at it with the systematic attention he gave everything, and he looked up when Michael came through.
"The withdrawal," Cole said.
"Thirteen southeast," Michael said. "One variant northeast, holding position in the outer blocks. It didn’t approach with the others."
Cole looked at him. "It watched."
"Yes," Michael said.
Cole looked at the variant body at his feet. "The three that approached today," he said. "Were those all three of the northeastern variants."
"I’ve been asking myself the same question," Michael said. "The pulse shows the northeastern positions clear. But the one moving away is a variant signature and it’s moving further out, not withdrawing to the same positions they held."
"A fourth," Cole said.
"Maybe," Michael said. "Or one of the three held back during the approach and is now repositioning." He paused. "Either way something is in the northeast with information about today’s engagement."
Cole looked at the variant body and then at the wall and then at Michael. "The satellite outpost," he said.
"Tonight," Michael said. "I need your group on materials support."
"You have it," Cole said without hesitation. He looked at the courtyard, the abandoned east face materials still stacked against the wall where the operation had stopped at the alert. "The seventh panel."
"Reseated," Michael said. "Twelve bolts. It’ll hold."
Cole looked at him. "From the exterior side," he said.
"It was the fastest way," Michael said.
Cole held his gaze for a moment with the steady dark eyes and said nothing which from Cole meant he had an opinion and had decided the moment for stating it had passed.
"The variant in the courtyard," Michael said. "Rens."
"I know," Cole said. "I’ll tell him." He paused. "He already knows. He was on the platform."
Michael nodded and Cole went back inside and Michael stood in the courtyard alone for a moment and looked at the east face where the seventh panel sat reseated and bolted and holding and thought about the gap and what had come through it and what had been required to close it and then he went upstairs because there were nineteen people in his building and most of them had just been through their first real contact and he needed to know how all of them were.
---
The sixth floor hallway had the particular energy of people who had been in separate positions during the contact and had come back together in the aftermath and were still running on the edge of what the contact had required.
Damon was in the hallway outside his apartment with his chain in his hands and the focused look of someone whose body had been ready for something that hadn’t required him directly and hadn’t fully come down from that yet. He looked at Michael when he came up the stairs.
"The blast wall channel," Damon said. "Seven of them."
"Seven," Michael confirmed.
Damon looked at the chain. "We heard it from the north blast wall position," he said. "The impacts. The axe work." He paused. "We held position because the briefing said hold position unless signaled." He looked at Michael. "It was the right call."
"Yes," Michael said.
"Didn’t feel right," Damon said. "Standing there while something was happening on the other side."
"I know," Michael said. "But the north position needed to hold in case the gap breach was a draw for the main approach."
Damon looked at him. "Was it."
"I don’t know," Michael said honestly. "The Aberrant group had enough cognitive function to use a feint. I wasn’t willing to assume the gap was the only breach attempt."
Damon thought about that and then nodded slowly. "Right call," he said again. Then: "Sera’s shoulder."
"Dr. Kang has it," Michael said. "Partial tear. Six weeks full recovery."
Damon looked at his chain. "She held the gap alone for four contacts," he said. It wasn’t admiration exactly, more like a statement of fact that had weight in it.
"Yes," Michael said.
"That’s significant," Damon said.
"Yes," Michael said.
Damon nodded and went back into his apartment and Michael went down the hallway.
---
Shin was in the barracks sitting on her bunk with Rei beside her and both of them were quiet in the particular way of people who had been in position through a contact and were now processing the being in position part.
Shin looked up when he came in. Her eyes went to his wrapped forearm first and then to his face.
"The gap," she said.
"Closed," he said.
She looked at him for a moment. "We heard the panel come down from the third floor barrier position," she said. "The sound came through the building structure." She paused. "It was loud."
"Yes," he said.
"We held position," she said.
"I know," he said. "You did the right thing."
She looked at her hands. "It was hard," she said simply. Just that, without any more around it, because Shin said the real thing in the minimum words required.
He looked at her. "I know," he said.
Rei was looking at the floor and he looked at her and she looked up and her eyes were steady and clear and had the particular quality of someone who had been in position through something and had held the position and was still holding it in a different way now.
"The secondary barrier," he said to her. "The east junction. Did anything reach it."
"No," she said. "We heard movement on the floor below for a while and then it stopped." She paused. "I didn’t move from the position."
"Good," he said.
She looked at him. "I wanted to," she said. "Move. Go check." She paused. "I didn’t."
"I know," he said. "That was the right call."
She held his gaze for a moment and then nodded and looked back at the floor and he thought about what Shin had said about Rei needing somewhere safe before she could figure out what she wanted to say and thought that Rei had found the other thing too, what she wanted to do, and that the two things together made a person who was going to be important to this building in ways that weren’t fully visible yet.
He left them and went to find Maya.
---
