Pandion (Genera #1)

Chapter 13

K agesawa had managed to somehow limp in and out of the lift and through the corridor without dripping blood anywhere or bumping into anyone. He had a nasty-looking cut on his forearm from when they’d caught him in the server room. It bled more than a paper cut and maybe needed some stitches, but he wasn’t about to bleed to death.

Besides the cut, he was a little scuffed and bruised from taking a tumble on his way out, but at least he was out, and he’d fixed the problem he’d meant to fix. All he needed now was something to numb the pain to help him sleep. He’d worry about the rest of it later.

The apartment was empty. He didn’t dare to stop dampening to check where Satoru was.

It wasn’t polite to spring an injury on someone without a heads up, but, truth be told, Kagesawa was more concerned about having to face the repercussions of keeping Satoru out of it. He was at the brink of his limit of how long he could continuously dampen, but he figured he would stretch it as far as it went, be cowardly for a moment and enjoy the last calm before the storm.

It was a short respite. Mere minutes after his arrival, Kagesawa heard the front door open and close. He took a deep breath. Right. Time to deal with this so he could get some much needed sleep.

“Kagesawa!” It was Takazaki? Satoru was there behind him, but Takazaki had leapt past him. “You’re bleeding? Where? Is it bad?” Takazaki was quite brisk with his check. Kagesawa had to push him back.

“It’s not serious. Just a cut.” He’d been so close to not getting caught, too. The cut was but another reminder of his chronic carelessness.

“It looks bad. Harumine,” Takazaki turned around, “go get Katō-san. She’s a doctor.”

“I’m not sure wound care is her field of expertise.” Kagesawa let go of the link, grateful to not have to dampen it any longer.

Satoru screamed.

Kagesawa jolted and scrambled to dampen the link again. Satoru was left gasping for breath in shock. Visibly confused and alarmed, Takazaki seemed unsure who to tend to.

“Shh— fffff—! That hurt like a mm—!” Satoru shook his arm. “I’ll go get Katō-san!”

“Wait!” Shit. Too late. He was already out the door. Kagesawa was lousy at projecting to begin with and doing it while dead-tired and dampening seemed like too much of a gamble. He’d have to try to last until Satoru got back. “This damn link.”

“Where were you?” Takazaki asked.

“I had some unfinished business—” Before he could finish, Takazaki gasped.

“Ah shit, don’t tell me you’re the motherfucking ‘Pandion’! The Osprey port extension, why didn’t I see it before? I’m an idiot!” His expression grew dark.

“You know about birds?”

“You could have gotten yourself killed!” Takazaki grabbed Kagesawa by the collar and shook him. Kagesawa was too tired to do anything about it.

“How, why…?”

“You’re such a gaping asshole! Why did you insist on dealing with that alone? It was our fuck up! We had people ready to assist!”

“Slow down. Who are you, how do you know this?” His eyes saw Takazaki, but the words coming from his mouth were someone else’s. There was something strangely familiar about them.

“Never mind that. You’re sure you’re OK? Can you keep dampening?”

“The goddamn link keeps ramping up the feedback somehow. The pain is really not that bad. But,” Kagesawa heaved an extraordinarily heavy sigh. “I am tired .”

“Well, you’re going to have to hold on for Harumine’s sake.” Takazaki let him go and started pacing around the room. “I’m not in the mood for an all-evening scream fest.”

“All right, fine. I’m done with this anyway,” Kagesawa decided. There were probably dozens of better ways of dealing with this, but he was tired and fed up with himself and knew one that was sure to do the trick. It wasn’t even difficult.

He felt for the port at the back of his head, grabbed a firm hold of the dial edge, twisted and yanked it off. It was at that moment that Satoru returned with Katō-san.

When Harumine entered the apartment, there was an ominous snap that resonated faintly through his whole body. The following silence was worse than dampening. He shivered. Tsuyoshi? What happened? He ran into the living room. Kagesawa turned to look at him, face blank. Harumine could read nothing. It was like watching a complete stranger.

“What did you do?” There was something bloody in Kagesawa’s hands. “What the hell did you do?!” Harumine shrieked, teetering right at the edge of panic.

“I thought I’d retire,” Kagesawa said.

“You piece of shit, no! No!” Harumine could not put into words how this felt. He shouldn’t have had to.

“I thought you wouldn’t mind. You’re free to go. You can all go home now. I’m fine. I’ll sleep it off…” Kagesawa leaned back where he sat.

Katō-san, who was thankfully not squeamish, took steps to verify Kagesawa’s assessment. He was, after all, bleeding from several sources now. Harumine knew the port area was protected by a membrane socket so that the insides of his skull weren’t exposed, but by yanking it out without seeing what he was doing, he’d torn his scalp.

“I can suppress the bleeding and clean him up,” she said. It was a relief but not much of a comfort. “He needs to get the port reconnected as soon as possible if he wants the organism to survive.”

“Can it be done?” Takazaki voiced his concern.

“Probably not. The connection was already poor. It was going to give out sooner or later. It doesn’t matter,” Kagesawa said.

“Shut up! I’m taking you to the doctor right now.” Harumine glanced at the clock and corrected, “First thing tomorrow.”

He would have done so immediately had the local empath specialist’s office been open at this hour. The organism had better hang on until then, or else…!

After a whole host of tests and waiting through most of the morning, Kagesawa finally got to see the doctor.

“The good news is the physical injuries are minor. The rest is due to the sleep deprivation exacerbating your DEFD.”

“My what?”

“DEFD. Didn’t you have this assessed when you obtained your licence?”

“No?”

“Odd. Well, the port connection with this organism is beyond repair, and I’m pretty sure you’re ineligible for organism replacement with such severe DEFD.”

“You keep saying that, but I don’t know what that is.”

“Developmental Executive Function Disorder. Predominantly the AME type that affects your attention, motivation and emotional regulation, moderate severity. Your organism may cause slight discomfort as it deteriorates and disintegrates now that it’s no longer connected to a port. The symptoms can take a couple of weeks to resolve, in some rare cases a month or two. Here’s a prescription for an antiemetic and a data chip for mental health services, should you need them. With your history, I suggest you make use of it.” The doctor handed Kagesawa the data chip, processed the prescription and updated his medical records. “Was there something else?”

“No, I guess not. Thanks.” Kagesawa popped the chip into his palm reader and skimmed it through as he exited the office. He retained nothing from the skimming.

Satoru was still waiting for him in the waiting room. This seemed peculiar considering he’d probably been informed of the situation in that review appointment of his. Kagesawa didn’t know the exact details of their discussion, but he’d had a few leads and poked about to fill in the blanks. It should have been enough for Satoru to tap out.

Did he think he had something more to gain from this? His record would be wiped clean, so there should’ve been no reason to hang around anymore. With the link severed for good, any interest in Kagesawa’s dealings should have effectively vanished. After all, what could he do without an organism? He’d hoped this was enough for the EA to leave him alone.

“What did the doctor say?” Satoru stood up at the sight of Kagesawa sauntering back into the waiting room.

“It’s beyond repair. Report back to the EA, and they’ll arrange an expedited removal and a new link for you.”

“What? Just like that? When will they replace your organism? I can wait.”

One had to admire Satoru’s dedication. Whatever they’d offered him as compensation must have been quite something. Maybe if Kagesawa had strung the EA along a bit longer, Satoru could have received what he was after. He’d be out of this contract with no delay, though, and that had to count for something. He’d be able to get on with his career like he was supposed to.

“No, that’s off the table as well,” Kagesawa said.

“What, why? They can’t or they won’t? Is it because they’ve already done it once? Can’t we pay for it?”

“You can stop acting like you care. It’s OK. I’ll be fine. You’ll be fine.”

“What are you saying? Why’s it off the table? Don’t you want to—?”

“You can see for yourself.” Kagesawa tossed him the data chip. “I’m damaged goods. A poor investment. It’s probably for the best.” He only wished he’d found out about it sooner, so he could have adjusted his expectations for himself. And, had he been rejected from empath training in the first place, it would have saved a lot of people from a lot of grief.

Satoru skimmed the data.

“They won’t help you because of this? But you were doing a good job!”

“Frankly, I’m relieved. I knew there was something fundamentally wrong with me.” He’d figured he was an incompetent loser, and now he knew why.

“This can’t be right,” Satoru said under his breath.

“You’re free to stay at my place until you find your own. I think I’ll go somewhere else for a while. Maybe take a vacation until this wound heals.” There were some things he needed to figure out, and a change of scenery might help with that. Satoru was staring at him. “What?”

“Are you being serious right now?”

“Yes. Did I forget something?”

“You’re not going to try to dispute it or fight for it at all?”

“Why? The margin of error is negligible. It’s been added to my record. There’s nothing I can do.”

“Didn’t you say you had a friend who could fudge the scores? Can’t they do something about this too? There has to be something.”

“Let it go. It’s over. I took it off for a reason.” Kagesawa had no interest in continuing the conversation, so he ignored whatever else Satoru tried to say and made his way out of the building. He was done.

Harumine followed Kagesawa to the apartment in a state of confused disbelief. There had to be some way to fix this, but Kagesawa started packing his things, refusing to listen.

“Where will you go?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ll figure it out.” A curt reply but a reply nonetheless.

“At least tell me what happened! I thought we were going to figure this out together!” Harumine grabbed Kagesawa’s wrist.

“You’re really that determined to squeeze something out of me to give to the EA?”

The acrid statement brought chills down Harumine’s spine. Kagesawa glared at him and shook his hand loose.

“You’ll be fine. They’ll be satisfied with me out of the picture. You can stay here for as long as you’d like while I’m gone. I won’t bother you. I wish you all the best, but you need to leave me the hell alone and move on. Goodbye.” Kagesawa gathered his bags and headed for the door.

Harumine was too much in shock to do anything but watch him go.