Breed

Chapter Nineteen

Mikaela glanced at the seat across from her. Between the whirring engine of the helicopter, and their conspiratorial tones, she couldn't tell what Mahmoud and Rox were talking about, but that at least meant that they hadn't heard their discussion, either. She was glad he was having better luck with the younger girl than she had.

That thought made her frown, and she turned back towards Keen and Linc, who were sitting in the front of the helicopter, and facing forward. "Did you bring girls hoping we'd be nurturing?" she asked.

"I brought you because you were the right women for the job," Kean said with a smile. "Gender was not a factor in that selection," he glanced at Mahmoud, grinning widely at Rox. "Though I'd say it hasn't hurt, either."

Mikaela turned just enough to see what he saw. But she got caught on the sight of Mahmoud's injuries, the swelling, the cuts, and the bruises. "It's still so much bullshit," she said.

"I know," Kean said, "just, please, for Mahmoud's sake..."

"I think she's right," Linc said.

"I didn't say she wasn't, just that the boy's been through enough. The last thing he needs is to feel like he's the catalyst for yet another protest."

"So you aren't going to try to stop it?"

"Of course not. I don't know if it will help. But being the transhuman Mecca endows us with certain responsibilities. If we don't speak up about injustices perpetuated upon our own, then it gives a stamp of tacit approval. What I would say is we should be diligent, more than duly. If possible, we should have police marching with us, in solidarity, rather than standing against us in riot gear."

"Don't you think it should be up to him?" Roxy asked. "Whether or not he's kept out of people protesting his treatment?"

Mikaela's eyes narrowed; Rox's ability must have helped her and Mahmoud hear them, after all. "No," Mikaela said. "Because if we were to ask, that would be putting pressure on him to join us. There's a necessarily coercive element to asking."

"Yeah, well, then you should have spoken more quietly, because we could hear you over here. So he knows."

"And unintentional coercion to the side, I want to be there," he said. "Not just because this happened to me. But because it could happen to anyone. In my case, it was a 'bomb' I brought to school. But what about the next kid, one who the authorities decide is the bomb. Just because that kid might have control over their abilities won't stop police or administrators from being afraid of them. You fight ignorance with knowledge. And you can't do that by sitting quietly in the corner and waiting for people who are afraid of you and what you represent to acknowledge your humanity."

"I agree, with all of that," Mikaela said. "And I'd say you're wise beyond your years. But I still don't like the idea of exposing you, or any of the 'children' to harm this way. This isn't the 60s anymore. When people protested the second gulf war in Portland, they were pepper-sprayed and beaten. In liberal-ass Portland. And there was no public outcry. Instead, people were just happy not to have their commute further impacted. Violence is almost a given, here. And I don't think we can, responsibly, put either of you in that harm's way."

"It isn't up to you," Rox said.

"In a manner of speaking," Kean began, "it is. I'll be granting permission for an assemblage on the campus- to those 18 and older. She's right. We can't ask minors, regardless of their maturity, to stand against all but assured police resistance. And I suspect the first thing Bellingham's police will do is request assistance from Seattle. It will turn bloody. In a way, it needs to, on a campus, where the students are not the aggressors, but the police are.

"But that is not to say that our minor students don't have a place in our protest. While numbers at a rally are crucial, what will decide whether or not the protest gains traction is virality. In Seattle, Police took down cell coverage just before the 'riot' broke out. Phones were broken or confiscated by the dozens, and I've heard reliably that the police have requested that Seattle data uploads be restricted during the coming days. Sympathetic video will not come out about Seattle until the news has moved on from the story, which will be cemented as one of transhuman violence against human authorities.

"Our younger students can counter that. They can spread the message through social media. And students like Mahmoud can keep the police from being able to shut down our phone grid, our internet or our power. They can ensure that our message, one of solidarity and hope, can perpetuate above the noise of violence, brutality, and fascism."