Season 03 - Episode 08

‘within she dismisses’

Ste is fast asleep, sitting at his new desk in his new office, report in hand, chin on chest, snoring lightly. Syl sits opposite him, watching him, irritated. It's her desk and her office too now, ever since GovCo relocated all corporate servants to more secure locations in the first week of the war.

Their new office is half the size of their previous, made even smaller by the clunky metal plating, clumsily fitted to the walls, floor and ceiling. Cramped in with her boss, with no space to think or breath, Syl is finding it hard.

In particular, she's finding it much harder to dig into the things that have been bothering her, things she's not supposed to be working on. As annoying as Ste's snoring might be, it does at least afford her the opportunity to work openly for a while.

For the last hour or so she's been reviewing the most recent resource reports and trying to reconcile them against her own observations. As ever, the reports are green across the board.

GovCo's vast industrial sector, buried deep in the guts of The Levels, is spewing out food, weapons and ammunition non-stop, twenty-four hours a day. Their population continues to grow, despite the war and the pool of appropriately aged, conscriptable citizens is healthier than ever.

Why then, when she looks at reports from EnFo commanders on the front line, does she find nothing but desperate requests for more bodies and bullets? Why are there food riots and a growing black market?

None of it makes sense and so for now, she gives up in frustration, turning her attention instead to the memory of the video she received just before the war began. She thinks about it more and more these days, a hot little itch in the back of her mind.

Before she knows it, she's standing and squeezing past the furniture to leave the office. She distracts herself as she hurries towards the detention centre, refusing to acknowledge that she doesn't know what she's going to do when she gets there. She passes through checkpoint after checkpoint, tapping her foot impatiently as EnFo after EnFo checks her credentials.

Eventually, she arrives, standing before the bars of the cell, looking at the brittle stick figure sleeping on the low bed within. She dismisses the EnFo on duty, waving away his complaints, then bites her lip and waits. Iz's sleeping face is bruised, the bandage on her cut down hand now filthy. Syl grimaces at the sight of her then calls gently until she comes round.

“Oh,” says Iz, unimpressed after blinking awake and sitting up. “It's you.”

“That's right,” Syl says, then feels stupid and more uncertain than ever.

Iz stands from her bed and stretches then folds her arms and gives Syl a hard stare.

“I know you're innocent!” Syl blurts out then. “I saw the video, I mean.. I saw another video, a different one, the real one.”

“Ok,” says Iz flatly, still staring, expressionless.

“I want to help you,” Syl gabbles on breathless.

“So release the video,” says Iz with a shrug.

“I deleted it,” says Syl, a rush of heat scalding her cheeks. “I was frightened”

Iz lets out a little hiss of disgust and shakes her head.

“I'm sorry!” Syl cries. “What can I do? How can I help you?”

Iz narrows her eyes and approaches the bars, looking Syl up and down.

“That,” she says eventually, pointing to Syl's throat.

Syl's hand automatically rises, fondling the ornate crystal hanging from a slender chain.

“But this was my mother's,” she says. “It's all I have left of her.”

Iz shrugs again and says nothing.

“But it's of no value to you!” Syl complains. “I came here because I want to help you.”

“No you don't,” sneers Iz. “You want to buy a clean conscience. Well that's the price.”

“This is ridiculous!” snaps Syl. “You're just being spiteful.”

Iz just shrugs again and glares at her. For several seconds they stare at one another until eventually, Syl drops her gaze to the floor.

“Fine,” she says, reaching up to remove the necklace.

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