Code Lyoko: Revolutions and Evolutions

Chapter 86

his chapter came after a prayer, some research, and a lot of hard work. I appreciate all of you who have been along for the ride this long. I welcome all of the new people who have joined us, and I hope you enjoy yourselves. I thank God for his help in this chapter, and even I was pleasantly surprised with the results. So I hope you all enjoy it, and I see you next chapter.

Pagliacci-11

At North-Gate headquarters, Yolanda entered the team's canteen, and seeing one of the homeland papers on the table, she sat down with her coffee and began to read. The paper detailed the Ministerial Resurgence in the face of the phantoms of the old resistance.

She chuckled to herself as she thought, "Give it to Milly. Ever since Terry gave her life again, she's just as fiery as ever."

Yolanda reached into her breast-pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes. Lighting one, she felt more significant ease. Smoking was hardly her thing, only in times of great stress or to just punctuate her morning. The latter was the occasion for her light-up this time. The morning was unfortunately cold due to rain moving in overnight.

As she smoked, she heard footsteps approaching. She turned her head to see who was coming through the side door and saw Milly herself come through.

"Amelia, how are you, little lady?" Yolanda asked after a cheery puff.

"I'm okay," the young woman replied, "considering the rain and I'm out of it, for now, I'm not bad, Doc." She took off her slicker, and seeing Yolanda reading the paper, she said, "Ah, one of the hot-cakes, huh?" pointing to the article.

"Indeed, one of your hot-cakes. I'm glad that you're back in the gig back at home. But my question is this, how are you getting news from back home? I thought the wall went up."

"The wall may have gone up," Milly turned on the tap to fill a kettle, "but the news is mandatory under the Ministry. We report from the front and the capital. Even if an op is compromised on some level, we must report." She put the kettle on the burner and lit the gas, "Oh, by the way, Terry's staying here with us. Boss vetted him, and Mr. Clay signed off on it. It looks like you'll be getting your wish after all."

Yolanda looked at the red-hed, "What mean you by this?"

"I mean that Maria will be out of your hair. Boss and Clay figured she'd seen enough of war, but so great is Terry's commitment to Boss's Pops that he wouldn't leave our mission and, from what I heard, practically begged to stay on."

Yolanda nodded, "It's not what I would have wanted or what I wished for. But it'll do, I suppose. He's a good soldier, and he's Boss's moral ballast. If we lost him, I fear the Butcher of Kalsinovo would return, and none of us what that."

"Crivens, no," Milly replied as she took a small pastry from the confectionary case nearby. She sat down across from Yolanda.

Yolanda read the paper in silence, and then seeing an article, she said, "I see Boss's overhaul of judicial protocol went through with the ministry. I'm sure Grizzly approved."

"Oh yeah," Milly replied after she'd wiped her mouth, "Grizzly was all for the judicial overhaul. It's a damned good thing too. I guarantee you many would feel safer in the jury box, and even the judge would feel safer considering the massacre that Genovese carried out before we all came here."

"I remember. A massacre on the courthouse steps. Killing all the jury and the judge who'd been ushed out the back. It was a clean hit, for damn sure."

"Yeah. Unfortunately, Boss hasn't exactly addressed the issue of capital punishment. Under her sister's older regime, she can't have prisoners standing idle, even if found guilty."