Toscano winced. She fumbled for the button to tilt the upper end of the bed up and used the support to sit up. She really wanted to feel some guilt, but none came. She relished what she had done. She would do it again. And again.
Given the chance, she wouldn’t hesitate even for a second. Her life was a small price to pay to neutralise a psychopath who had thousands of Leeches on his conscience. She had owed it to all of them to make sure Wagner died as violent a death as possible.
‘I mean it, Major. You no longer have the luxury to think about your own personal needs in moments like that. It is your responsibility to use your life, and your career, to achieve as much as possible. And it is the last time I will tolerate such behaviour from you. One more stunt like that and you are out of my team. I cannot afford you setting such an example to others. Have I made myself sufficiently clear?’
Toscano held his eyes for a heartbeat, and then she nodded.
Maybe the colonel is right. Maybe I did it for myself, for Molina, not on behalf of the Leeches Wagner murdered.
She had no doubt that the consequences of her disobedience were yet to come, but that wasn’t really what made her cave in. She respected Colonel Larsen too much to want to disappoint him like that again. Killing Wagner herself had been important, but there were things that meant even more to her.
‘On a personal note, however, I have to admit that I would have loved to be the one who smashed his skull in,’ he added more warmly, grabbing her hand more firmly and squeezing reassuringly.
‘Next time… your turn…’
Larsen laughed. As much as he hated to admit it, part of him really was glad Wagner had died a violent death. If he was ever found, his body properly examined, it would serve as an object lesson. A warning to every Elite feeling confident in abusing their powers—no one, absolutely no one, was safe from retribution. The subjugated will rise, and when they do, there will be no stopping them.
‘You really are lucky that Sergeant Kaal’s war experience didn’t go rusty. He genuinely did use nano-glue to stop the bleeding. And then he mixed up some nano-cocktail on the fly that to my knowledge doesn’t come from any nano-medicine textbook. It put your body in some form of suspended animation. The doctors were worried about brain damage from blood loss and insufficient oxygenation of your brain, but it looks like your body is just as stubborn as you. You’ll be fine.
‘Though it will be a while… The drugtox wreaked havoc on your body to a new level. The doctors are worried about side effects killing your weakened body if you go cold turkey, so they are weaning you off slowly. I’ve been told it’s likely to get rather unpleasant when the painkillers wear off. And, of course, you’ll feel all over the place emotionally.’
Toscano made a face. Was the anger she already felt a sign of that?
‘You’re also staying in hospital under observation for a whole week, and that is not negotiable. It took the Medibot over forty-five hours to patch you up under careful supervision from the doctors and to restore your blood supply.’
Toscano’s eyes rounded. She had spent long stretches in nano-comas, but couldn’t quite remember the last time her body had been so shot to pieces it took nearly two days for a Medibot to fix her up. Not exactly the record she wanted to set.
‘You will also be working through your memories of the last few weeks with a mind healer. So will I, by the way, so don’t think you’ve drawn the short straw. One session a day while you’re in hospital and then three times a week at the healer’s discretion. Limited duty until the healer decides you’re ready to go back full-time. No complaints.’
‘Yes, Colonel.’ Toscano nodded obediently. Frankly, she could use some help. And rest. Plenty of it.
She took a moment to move her body around, checking out how it felt. There were still some awkward sensations here and there, but for the most part it was her old body. She reached for the glass of water and sipped in silence for a moment, putting her thoughts into some sort of cohesive order.
‘Did you recover the missing part of the recording of my interrogation?’
‘No, there is nothing to be recovered. The cams stopped recording—looking at the time stamps, just over six minutes are missing. Why do you keep asking about it?’
‘Nothing, sir, just curious,’ Toscano said. No recording of Megan’s death. Larsen still had no idea.
Without a knock, the door opened and Eloise walked in. No, she didn’t walk in—she glided in, in a wheelchair.
‘What? Why?’ Toscano asked, instantly forgetting her own problems.
‘Temporary,’ Eloise replied, directing the electric chair to Toscano’s bed using a little joystick in her right hand. The door closed silently behind her.
‘Eloise here got a not-so-little jolt from Olympus’ security system.’
‘It wasn’t a jolt.’ The Elite woman rolled her eyes. ‘More like cumulative damage from dozens of inconsequential surges.’
‘Doesn’t seem inconsequential if three days later you’re still in a wheelchair,’ Toscano commented. Then her eyes narrowed and she looked at Larsen. ‘Why are you all right, sir?’
‘Because this utterly crazy and reckless woman connected us differently.’ He glowered at Eloise. ‘Whatever the system threw at us went through her first. What was left, hardly anything, gave me nothing more than
