Fabienne Gschwind - The Fallen Heroine

Finally, after checking everything, Tamara finished the mission and we ate at the first bistro we came to. Emily and Gabin helped themselves to the mussels, while I didn't venture back to seafood just yet. I went for a portion of fries that appeared to have come from a kid's plate.

Afterwards, Tartelette ordered a driver to pick us up.

In the afternoon we finished the aborted underwater exercise and ended the day with chocolate ice cream. We sat in an ice cream parlor on the boardwalk, where Thibault joined us. He was pale and I could see extra tubes running fluids disappearing under his uniform. In fact, you could barely see anything of Thibault except his arms. His legs were encased in the exoskeleton, his torso had been fixed with screws to keep from caving in, and metal brackets also wound along his head. His neck muscles were no longer strong enough to hold his head. It was the first time I saw him outside the barracks. After a few minutes, he stood up as well.

"I have to go. I'm not viable without all the medical junk."

I had been in the control room once, along with Thibault. He was hooked up to a complicated med kit. As far as I knew, he had only an hour of free time because all of his organs were shattered, with only one lung still functioning. The heart had been replaced by a pump.

For a few minutes we watched in silence as Thibault struggled to make his way. "Guys just be careful when you see a repro elephant," Tartelette said shaking her head. She spooned out and then looked at me:

"Kid, you have your day off tomorrow, right?" she inquired of me.

"Yeah, but I'm staying around here. Just doing housekeeping and the usual."

I didn't want to admit that I had no money left at all, so I couldn't do anything. Not even a bus trip to Île de Ré or around the area was still in the cards. Because I had already spent my first salary, which had arrived this morning, completely. But for a good cause: I had ordered the household robot for my mother. But at least the hazard pay should come soon.

Tartelette gave us the training schedule for the next few days and then said, beaming with joy, "Then I'll see you tomorrow. I have an appointment with a colleague to taste the new cognacs. But I have to do some paperwork and my exercises first."

I also said goodbye shortly after and made a small detour to the barracks. There I was going to pick up my secondary combat gear and bring it home.

I walked by Tartelette's office and heard voices. So loud that I couldn't miss them for the life of me.

"And there's another damn complaint against you on my desk." It was the police commander. "This time for physical threats and insults."

"Well, I insult and threaten people every day. Who do you want it to be this time?" It was Tartelette.

"At that inauguration party, and it was the count-mayor's niece whom you allegedly grabbed by the collar and called her ..."

" ... a stupid cow," Tartelette completed the facts.

"She is the niece of Count de Dorville."

"Give the Count my warmest regards, and tell him that next time I'll take more time with a nuclear ultimatum, and to be on the safe side, maybe I'll have the area bombed to make sure ... where is his house?"

I couldn't help it and still wanted to at least hear the answer from the police chief.

"Tamara watch what you're doing. You have a terrible habit of messing with people more powerful than you. Someday I'll be standing here with a warrant for your arrest."

Tartelette laughed, "And anyway three days later there's a repro disaster somewhere, I get pardoned and taken out of jail. We've had all that.”

I had to grin, yes Tamara really was invulnerable.

I lay down in the muscle stimulation machine for another half hour. Tartelette had bought us these sinfully expensive machines with her new elite unit budget. Now I remember: Actually, we were supposed to get new work contracts, too…

I slept a little longer than usual this Monday and dozed for another 30 minutes in the stimulation machine. Fortunately, Gabin had advised me to take very light dream inhibitors, so that I would not dream of being torn to pieces by repro every night, or see again and again the mutilated corpses of those who had been killed. After two night nightmares I took the pills in the evening. Compared to all the drugs I had taken during the operations after the Auvergne mission, it was a piece of cake.

For lack of other options, I drank only water for breakfast and ate an energy bar from my combat gear. Afterwards I got dressed and felt quite strange without the special underwear. Since we wore the battle gear almost all the time lately, both for training and for missions, I was in the armor along with this underwear virtually non-stop.

It was high summer, so I eventually got into some shorts, light sneakers, and a shirt. In the basement was the bike of my previous tenant. It had apparently served at Tartelette before me. I was reluctant to use the bike because the image surfaced in my mind of how a new apprentice would just take over my stuff when I died. Whoa, I put that thought out of my mind.

Finally, I did get on the ancient, rusty bicycle and rode to the supermarket. Enviously, I watched the other road users with their PVs. PVs -- personal vehicles -- are a modern version of the old-fashioned Segways. So, I'd already like to buy one of these, which have a chair and even a canopy. Well, I had to be patient and wait for a few months' pay.

Barely ten minutes later I was at the supermarket and parked my bike.

It was the same supermarket where we had done that stupid blackbird. It seemed like a lifetime ago, but after doing some quick arithmetic, I realized it was only four weeks. It felt like four years. Anyway. Grinning, I still saw a few bullet holes, but otherwise the broken shelf had been replaced. My shopping cart followed on my heels. A glance at my NFC account, which I accessed via forearm computer, showed that I was now truly out of money. Standing in front of the bakery shelf, I counted off the old-fashioned coins I found in my pocket. It should still be enough for a cheap baguette. Snivelling, I thought about how today was going to be a sad, hungry day. I thought that I should just go to the barracks to get some drinking food and some energy bars from our camp. I'm sure Tartelette wouldn't mind. I could a at least fifteen minutes of strength training, then I would have earned it all well.

That's when the little radio on my forearm computer cracked.

"Leave your shopping, our Decacopter is on its way to the supermarket and will pick you up there. The Bordeaux ReS unit called hysterically for help ten minutes ago. And ReS headquarters orders us to fly over and check it out immediately."

I thought it was nifty when the decacopter touched down in the briskly evacuated outdoor parking lot and a bunch of curious people watched me dash over to the Marine decacopter.

The others were all already seated in the small interior. Thibault occupied the two seats next to the pilot. The others were all wearing fancy new black and green camouflage combat armor. And Tartelette held mine out to me, including the special underwear.

"But still white, I'm afraid; we look like ballerinas." Gabin hated the tight-fitting white underwear, and the commander pulled one over his head.

"I love ballet. Don't you say anything against ballerinas again!"

There was no way to stand up fully in the Decacopter, so I ducked into the clothes.

Tartelette had also changed the color. Until now, the suits had been blue because we were getting them from the Marines. But now they were dark green with black armor plates. This was more appropriate, of course, because we were often out in nature.

Tartelette immediately enumerated the advantages and additional armor and weapons.