The Law and the Codas

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The Med Bay is a fully outfitted medical facility, occupying an entire wing of the Capitol building. Masters had led us down several winding corridors and two separate lifts before we'd arrived at the frosted glass doors, proclaiming, in neon red, the beginning of the Medical Bay.

At his prompting, which involves a seven-digit pin and retinal scan, they slide open, welcoming us into a room that reminded me all too well of my time back at the Facility. The walls were that same sterile white

"Ah, just like home," I mutter the words to a disinterested Jonathan and oblivious Mars. Masters must not have heard me or doesn't much care as he directs us toward a row of cushioned chairs.

A woman sits behind the desk, despite there being an automated kiosk in the lobby for fast and impersonal service. She's a large woman, a creature carved from a tree trunk, with thick limbs and bark-like skin. We've been seated here for five minutes now and she's only glanced at us once, over the tops of her half-moon glasses, to sneer and give us a disapproving nod.

Masters stands guard in the corner, though what he's really doing is flipping through some kind of virtual catalog.

Making sure he's engrossed in Net surfing and the clerk is too busy fussing with her nails, I start to slide the pill bottle out of my pocket.

Marava, who sits straight as a board, messing with her own set of talons, quirks an eyebrow.

I shake my head and take the bottle out enough for her to see it.

"Drugs?" she mouths.

This is enough to capture Jonathan's attention. "What are you--"

After a few seconds, the woman returns to her important task of tapping her nails on her desk, while a holo-player flits between Council-sanctioned images of the nation's two-hundred Aviaries. Masters don't bother to look up from the catalog. I take the opportunity to disguise the popping of the bottle top off with another cough and pour several small, orange pills into my palm.

"What are those for?"

Leaning over, I say, "David gave them to me. They're to help me stay awake."

"And why--"

Marava kicks at Jonathan's heel which is enough to get him to shut up. I shift in my seat, trying to look as natural as possible while bridging the gap between us.

"Guards will be accompanying us outside." Jonathan shrugs as if this were common knowledge. Which it was, but wasn't really the point. I continue, "They weren't given any orders to make sure we saw outside."

Marava's eyebrows arch. Somehow, I could always count on her seeing the big picture. "So they'll kill us?" Blunt as always.

I nod. "That's what I've gathered." I eye Masters. "He can't wait to unload on me."

"Didn't you spit on him?" Marava asks.

"On his shoes," I correct. "Though I should have aimed higher."

Marava nods. "You always aim for one-hundred."

"Here," I whisper, moving my hand over my lap to deposit a few pills in hers. "If they sedate us, or god forbid, put us under, these should counteract the drug."

She quirks her eyebrow. "You got a fork stuffed in those jeans, too?"

I shake my head. "Afraid not."

Marava gathers up the pills and as she's slipping them into her pocket, she eyes her nails. "Guess I'll have to do what I'm best at."

"Yell at them until their brains liquefy and leak out their ears?"