Tomorrow and Tomorrow

Chapter 31: politics

  Cameron had to grip the couch to keep from falling over. She couldn't tell if she felt relief or fear. Alcott looked down at the gun in her hand.

"How many more are there?" she asked.

"Three," Cameron managed after swallowing once. "Plus Lincoln's. Where did you go a gun?

"From O'Keefe's body," Alcott replied shortly.

"Oh."

Cameron's legs trembled and she stared at Lincoln's corpse bleeding on her floor, wondering what would remove bloodstains.

"This was what is going to happen," Alcott said, snapping her out of her daze. "I'm calling Esperanza and check on Harper. You're going to call Julius and Dashiell and bring them here."

"Harper?" Cameron managed, daring to hope. "He's alive?"

"For now," Alcott replied. "He called me; that's how I knew to come here. I'm not normally prowling the hallways in the dead of night."

"Where is he now?"

"Lully and Esperanza took him to medical, they will do what they can. We have more pressing matters to attend to."

Cameron wanted to protest, but wasn't in a position to refute Alcott who looked quite fierce in her stance by the door, holding a gun in one hand.

"What do I tell them?" Cameron questioned, pulling out her holo-rib to call Dashiell.

Alcott shook her head. "I don't care. The truth? You're going to have to come up with a venting good reason for there to be dead bodies littered around the base. You've also had a gun since Landing Day, you are also part of the problem."

"Why Julius?" Cameron asked.

"Because if Victoria had a gun, and Charles had a gun, and Lincoln had a gun, then the odds are not overwhelming for him being with as well."

Cameron just nodded, choking back the tears that threatened to start falling again.

"Cameron, call Dashiell," Alcott said sternly.

She managed to start the call. When the captain answered, she explained the briefest details haltingly, asking him to come over. Once he promised to do so, she disconnected. Cameron's hands were shaking as she tried to call Julius. Harper was alive. Harper was alive. She kept repeating that to herself as she tried to find some calmness that she could mask her fear with. It was no good; she was too overwhelmed with emotions.

Cameron had never felt so out of control before. Her hands didn't seem to belong to her for as little as they cooperated. Julius's voice startled her.

"Cameron? Esperanza called a while ago; Harper had been shot?"

"Can you come down to my berth and meet with Dashiell?" Cameron said instead of answering his question. "It's important."

"I would imagine so at this hour," he replied. "Be there soon."

Cameron sighed, sitting on the couch. She had a dead body in her living room. She had Harper's blood on her hands, under her nails.

Alcott tied her dark braids out of her face. "Do you know what you're going to say?"

"If I say the truth then Harper..." she didn't continue. "O'Keefe wanted to take the fall. He's dead, I might let him."

Seeds of a plan started to form and Cameron straightened. "We had a gun from Landing Day, Harper stole it from Lincoln. That's true. O'Keefe took that gun and shot both Victoria and Charles. That's also true. He was going to shoot Julius, and we realized something was wrong and we caught him, but Lincoln killed O'Keefe and shot Harper. He brought me back because O'Keefe was storing the guns here knowing someone would eventually search his own berth."