Grunt Work

DO NOT TOUCH

'No, not that one. That's for my experiment,' Baran said, moving one tub of food from one shelf in the fridge to another. 'This one's my lunch,' she said, taking another out and placing it on the kitchen island.

'Sorry,' I said. 'They looked the same so I thought I could just eat it.'

'Oh, they are the same,' she nodded, picking up her sashimi with a fork. 'But one's safe to eat, and another, well, isn't. Have some of mine.'

'Okay!' I said, taking a fork from the cutlery tray and digging in. I groaned as I ate and had to stop myself from eating the whole thing. 'So what's this job?'

Baran frowned as she chewed. 'Tell me, why did you decide to join us?'

'Needed the money,' I shrugged.

'Me too,' she nodded. 'Well, that's not quite true.'

'How so?'

'Well,' she paused again, this time to think. I noticed the red warning label on the lid of the tub, but it was upside down so didn't try to read it. She seemed to have got lost in thought so I settled on taking a look around. There was no one else around. Why is it there's no one else around? Am I always missing them? I hoped not. I always preferred being around people. I'd only been here for a couple of days and was already beginning to feel lonely. That was the great thing about being in the army; you were never alone. Baran's lab looked big and white - very brightly white - and empty. She did have some cool gadgets though.

'What's that?' I asked, pointing to one on the closest table, that looked like a giant rubik's cube, though only with two colours - black and white. Must be a pain in the arse to solve it.

'Don't touch that,' she said immediately.

'Okay,' I went back to my food.

'Can I get a bit personal?' Baran asked.

'Sure.'

'The thing is,' she said, forking her food. 'I got into a bit of debt. I got a grant to go to Harvard, where I could study environmental science. I was going to be a climate scientist,' she smiled, but it was one of those sad smiles.

I slid my stool over next to hers and put my arm around her shoulders. 'Hey, it's okay. You'll get to be one of those some day. It's not like the climate's going anywhere.'

She laughed, though I wasn't sure why. I meant it. She seemed smart, she'll be a scientist someday. I believe in her.

'I am a climate scientist,' she corrected me. 'I completed my courses. Got my degrees in math, physics, meteorology, computing science, post graduate- nevermind. You don't need to hear all that. The important thing is, I finished college - but my grant was stopped halfway through my first year, so I had to apply for student loans. America is a weird place. It's not like my home country. You pay so much, for something that should be freely accessible, open for everyone. And when I finished, I was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. I needed a job.'

'So you applied for a job here?'

Baran snorted. 'No, I got a job working for the real bad guys. I got a job at an energy company, Pacific Gas and Electric. Paid off my debt - easily. In just a few years. I was good. I made so much money,' she put her fork down and covered her face with her hands. I gave her an extra squeaze. 'I sold my soul.'

'Nah, bro,' I said. 'Pretty sure you can't walk or talk without one of those, and you'd doing a pretty good job of both.'

She laughed again, wiping her tears away. 'It was wrong. I was helping destroy the planet that I loved. And one day, I don't even remember why, but something snapped in me. So I quit, walked away. Gave my money away to charity. I was working for a non-profit when the kaptain found me. He offered me a job and, well, here I am.'

'See? You landed on your feet!'

'Oh I did,' she agreed, 'but I was so angry for such a long time. So angry at myself. But the kaptain, he told me that I was wrong at the wrong person. Being angry at myself for being a victim of capitalism is like being angry at myself for being hit by a car, he said. Be angry at the driver. So that's what I'm doing. Being angry at the driver.'

I nodded. Seemed to make sense. I remember getting sideswiped by a tank once. I was definitely angry at the driver. On the plus side, I did get a swanky new foot out of it, so it all worked out, I reckon.

'You wanted to know what the job is?' Baran asked me suddenly. 'We're going to hit one of those energy companies where it hurts. It's not the same one I worked at, but they're all the same. We're going to send them a message. They want to make a profit off of the planet? We'll take that profit. We're going to, more or less, rob a bank. But this bank is in an offshore account on an island in the Caribbean, where they have their primary accounts set up.'

'Sounds good to me,' I said eagerly. 'Not gonna lie, I've done a bit of thievery, when I was in a rough patch. But I'm a little bit confused. It's on an island? I don't think Mr Huggles would like that. He's more of a water person. But I could give you a lift? I could be your getaway driver.'

She laughed again. 'You're so funny, Kaia. No, you're not the getaway driver. You're...let's just say you're going to play fetch.'

'Sweet! I'm sure Mr Huggles would love that.'

'I'm sure he will,' she grinned, and then reached in her pocket for her phone, which beeped loudly. She checked her screen. 'I'm sorry, I'm late for a meeting. Are you going to be okay to get back on your own?'

'Yeah, of course, no worries,' I said to her back. She was already up and halfway to the door.

I sat there for another five minutes, finishing off the food. It really was delicious, though it had a metallic taste - you know like when you bite your cheek accidentally and you taste blood. I rinsed out the tub and put it back on the shelf. As I was leaving I walked by the giant rubik's cube. It beeped at me.

I stopped and leant over to have a closer look at it. The corners were rotating on their own. That's quite handy, I could never get the corners right. But then the middle square started to flash, and a message appeared. That was weird. I thought it was just a normal rubik's cube, I didn't realise it was a message thing.

It said: boop.

I laughed, and did what had to be done.

I booped it right bac-