Nemesis

XXXIV - Drones

Nemesis

Chapter XXXIV — Drones

[King Princess — Crowbar]

[02 December 2023]

[Laurent Residence]

[07:38]

Miranda was up far earlier than she would have liked, but she had no control over the matter. All that was in her mind was that euphoric moment that she had shared with Kane at the event. For that short moment, Miranda felt all of her problems melt away into oblivion and she felt happy again. For the first time in eight years. However, in all of this she had still managed to make a mess of things. Her shame had gotten the best of her and she had anxiously shut her car door and drove off following the kiss — an action that she could not regret more than she did now.

Miranda's past kept her locked in shackles of shame, pumping the belief that she could never be loved or accepted and that drove her to run away. Those shackles had been broken for that brief moment when she threw caution to the wind, but had returned to an even stronger state when her mind sobered up. Miranda traced the grooves of her imperfect skin across her forearms, shuddering at how different it felt from the skin of others. The wounds had somewhat healed since the incident, but the damage to the mind still felt like a fresh wound. The shame, the flashbacks to the wasteland, the moment she was informed that her family was gone.

Miranda had done her best to recover since then. She had discovered

methods to offset her cancer's symptoms, repaired her vision, but that could not bring her family back. That could not heal the wounds. Yet, with Kane, Miranda could feel them close and the void in her heart fill. However, Miranda still managed to ruin it because she was scared of opening up. But what harm would it do now? It was the least that she could do after all that Kane had done.

Miranda's musings were interrupted by her doorbell ringing and she raised an eyebrow in confusion, curious as to who her guest could be. She stood up from her seat in the kitchen and walked to the door, where she grabbed a jacket from the coat hanger that she put on before she opened the door. On her porch was Lwazi, who held up a piece of paper — the paper that Amari had recovered from Dain's office. "What the fuck is this?" He asked in a demanding tone and Miranda scoffed at the captain's mannerisms. "Hello to you too, Captain." She said, offering a fake smile.

Lwazi groaned in annoyance. "I don't have time for this shit, what the fuck is this bug thing?" Lwazi inquired once more and Miranda sighed as she laid eyes on the paper. She could recall sending a similar design to Dain a while back, but how had Lwazi come into possession of it? "It's a drone design, and how'd you get your hands on that?" Miranda asked. "It doesn't matter, and when did your company start making drones?" Lwazi fired back with his own inquiry and Miranda was visibly growing annoyed with the captain.

"It does fucking matter because the only people with those designs are the people working on the project. So, where did you get it?" Miranda asked, aggression seeping into her words, but Lwazi was not intimidated. "I'm the one asking the questions here, Miranda." Lwazi stated and Miranda sighed, relenting to the officer's rule. "We started around a month ago, with Kane, Tatiana and Dain involved." Miranda said, albeit with a slight bit of hostility. Lwazi nodded, noting two other names that he was sure to question in the near future. "Why exactly would you need drones, and why the hell did you and Dain keep so much information from me?" Lwazi further inquired and Miranda was a bit staggered by the question.

"They were made for the war to gather information from enemy camps, and if I remember correctly, Dain and I didn't keep anything from you. We were completely transparent from the start." Miranda said, but Lwazi could see through the veil of lies that she had put up. "I got a flash drive with all the information that was on Dain's computer and it tells me how you found out that the nigga that killed him also killed Ashton, and that it wasn't a heart attack. Why did I have to hear about that from the damn president and the videos about?" Lwazi fired back. Miranda was not prepared for another bombshell of information that the captain had brought. How had he found out about all of that information? At that moment, it clicked.