Obsolution ✔

Chapter 14.3

In the morning, Damon checked the composite network on his desktop interface. He was half-hoping he would be able to unilaterally access it. The entire database and all its specs had been wiped. The only thing to come up on the screen was a banner reading:

WE APOLOGIZE, BUT THE COMPOSITE GRID HAS BEEN COMPROMISED AND WILL NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE FOR PUBLIC USE. HAVE A BLESSED DAY.

"I fucking hate this country!" Damon threw miscellaneous tech equipment against the wall. It smashed gloriously into pieces.

The cacophony brought Jenn, Ty, and Helia into the room.

Helia wandered around the floor. She was hardly permitted inside her uncle's room, and she was happy for the chance to explore the new space. Wires and shiny lights under his desk invited her touch.

"Why are you yelling, Damon?" Jenn kept one eye on her daughter, and one eye on her brother-in-law.

"Nothing. He's fine." Ty answered too quickly.

"What's going on with you two?" Spaces of silence. "What did the Agents say yesterday?" Her last question was directed at Ty, who remained evasive.

The three adults argued. Two of the three mixed their arguments with lies.

Helia played under Damon's desk, in awe of all the wonders she found. Tucked in the corner was a small black duffel bag with a note folded on top of it. Helia grabbed the note and threw it into the air, trying to make it fly. The note fluttered to the floor, with neither of the adults noticing.

Helia picked up the note and threw it over and over, just to watch it glide to the floor.

Jenn gave Helia the parent-once-over glance, which lasted seconds to make sure the child was in the vicinity and had no sharp objects in hand. Since Helia was amusing herself with a harmless piece of paper, Jenn pulled her concentration back into the debate.

They were talking about everything they had neglected the night before. It had all been too new to discuss details, or that was how Ty viewed it. Jenn was impatient to know what had been kept from her, and both men were less than willing to give over the answers. Mostly, they threw out scenarios without background information and Jenn was at a loss to place them where she could understand them.

Damon advocated flight, while Ty wanted to remain in Atlanta. For Jenn, the men weren't making sense. She had only gotten back, so why did they have to leave?

Damon told her life would be better for them somewhere else. When she pressed for a specific locale and why, Ty shut the conversation with the declaration of his unemployment. Pen had texted him a termination notice in the a.m.

"What are we going to do?" She played with her curls.

Damon stared at her, appalled and facsinated. Once, he had made fun of (old) Jenn's habit of curling her through her fingers, and she had defended herself, saying it'd been a habit since childhood.

On and on, (new) Jenn let each curl slip and wrap around her finger.

****

Everything was a mess, and Jenn wanted to fix it. She could remember a time when she hadn't cared for the details of life, hadn't cared at all, but she cared now. Letting events just happen wasn't going to placate her anymore. She wanted to do things.

Ty sat down on the bed, his face in a daze. "I don't know what we're going to do."

Something in his words opened up a floodgate. Instantly, he was crying so hard Jenn was worried.

She put her arms around him.

"I'm sorry." He sobbed.

Ty was sorry; he was sorry he had lost his job, and sorry he had let everything spiral out of control, but he wasn't sorry for keeping her in the dark. Jenn lost in the dark waiting to be led, it was as natural as breathing.