Chapter 20: Iteration

  “I guess I’m a little confused,” said Olivia, staring at the spread of cards on the table. “Is the ace good or bad?”

  “Depends on what you’re playin’. Different games of poker got different rules. Right now, best card,” replied Ben. With Miya and Chris gone, Rob asleep, and Amanda buried deep in some project of hers, they needed some way to keep themselves entertained. He paused dealing cards as he said the middle sentence, a wide grin growing on his face.

  “What?” asked Olivia, wary. I’ve seen that smile before.

  “Don’t worry ‘bout it. You’ll see.” He dealt three cards, face up. “So you got your two cards, an’ I got my two cards. Both of us can use those cards on the table.”

  “OK.” Olivia held up the two face down cards she’d been given to check them again. Those are the same faces!

  “Got a good hand, don’t you?” asked Ben, ignoring the snore from Rob across the room.

  Olivia blinked. “How did you know?” He can’t see them, can he?

  “You got excited, started swishin’ your tail around when you read your hand and looked at the flop,” said Ben, gesturing to the floor behind her where, indeed, her tail dragged back and forth along the ground.

  “Oh,” laughed Olivia even as she covered her mouth in embarrassment, making sure to wrap her tail around the leg of her chair.

  With a chuckle, Ben said, “We’ll get to bluffin’ and bettin’ later. Speakin’ of which,we’d bet right here, then the turn.” He flipped another card. “Another bet, then the river.” He flipped a fifth card. “This is the last bet.

  “Why are they called that? Like, flop and river?”

  “I dunno,” said Ben with a shrug. “Tradition. Now, you think you got a good hand? This is important. Once we’re bettin’ you gotta think about your own hand an’ the other guy’s. It’s half numbers, half people. With that tail movin’, I think you got a good hand. Now, since we ain’t bettin’ an’ I’m focused on explainin’ shit, I don’t expect you to really know what I got. Somethin’ to keep in mind.”

  They kept flipping cards, Ben explaining more and more rules until they bet with little bits of candy. He’s always tapping his fingers, but he gets a little faster when he has good cards. Or does he just think they’re good cards? There’s so much going on. It’s just seven cards! Olivia found herself leaning forward, pressing herself into the back of her reversed chair with every hand.

  Eventually, she heard a familiar car pull into the parking lot of their scrapyard turned hideout. Miya came in with a somewhat swollen, crooked, and reddened nose. What happened?

  “Olivia,” said Ben, muscles tense and poised to jump out of his seat. “What’cha hissin’ for?”

  She blinked. “What?”

  “You’re hissin’. Why?”

  “Oh, sorry. Um, someone messed up Miya’s nose. That’s not good, right?”

  Ben shrugged, relaxing at the sight of a calm Chris walking in behind her with a milkshake in hand. “We’ll see.”

  What? How could that be good? Maybe there’s something I’m missing. Neither of them is in a rush. Miya gave them both a wave as she approached. “We’re back,” she called out, her voice lacking its usual force. “And none the wiser.”

  “What happened?” asked Olivia, resisting the urge to spring from her chair and wrap Miya in a hug. She’s always so touchy.

  “Huh?”

  “Your nose.”

  “Fuck, I thought I fixed and cleaned that. Just a family argument, nothing more,” said Miya with a grimace as Chris sat down to take off his boots. She took a seat opposite Olivia, casting a quizzical look at the cards.

  “But who would-”

  Miya cut her off. “Olivia, please drop it.”

  “Sorry,” said Olivia. Stupid. I said something stupid, didn’t I?

  Chris met Olivia’s eyes. He silently mouthed “Later,” and sat down beside her. Olivia bit her tongue as Ben opened another bag of candy. Family is supposed to take care of each other, right? “What’s this?” asked Chris.

  “Teachin’ ‘liv’ how to play poker,” replied Ben, poking Miya in the cheek with the last word.

  Miya blinked in utter confusion, frozen halfway through batting his hand aside and her expression mirroring Olivia’s own. She turned to him and asked, “What was that for?”

  “It’s just poker,” he said, poking her in the forehead.

  “Oh,” she said with a roll of her eyes, even if she couldn’t stop a laugh from escaping her lips. Chris groaned. I still don’t get it.

  “What’s everyone laughin’ ‘bout?” asked Rob, already up from his cot and pulling a tank-top over his head.

  “Welcome back to the livin’,” said Ben.

  “Thanks.” Rob sauntered over to the table. “Playin’ cards?”

  “Yep, want me to deal you in?” replied his brother.

  “No thanks, I got armor to forge. Most of the good salvage here is long gone or corroded, but I found some good buried stuff that don’t look like much to the average tweaker or whoever.”

  “Rob, before you run off,” called out Chris, holding up a hand. “Amanda, can you come here? Amanda!”

  Amanda pulled off her headphones as Chris shouted. He waved her over. The two techies gave each other wary looks as they sat at opposite sides of the table. Oh no, are they going to start provoking each other?

  Chris looked both of them in the eye before saying, “We’ve left that stupid tracker in Olivia for far too long. You two, with Miya, figure out how to get that out of her. We can’t hope that Overlord won’t care about us, if he was willing to blow the long term cover of his guy in Houston over her. I’m shocked we made it a month.”

  Olivia shrank in her chair as the others looked at her for a moment while Chris spoke. Sorry, she thought. I shouldn’t have fought that robot on my own like that. If we get it out, I won’t be a burden. Well, more of one.

  “She’s got a fuckin’ what in her now?” asked Rob, leaning forward and cocking his head to the side in disbelief.

  “We told you Overlord was trackin’ her,” said Ben.

  “I thought metaphorically! I didn’t think he literally knew where she was all the time. Well fuck, let’s get goin’.” Olivia perked up at his enthusiasm. The worry at the back of her mind, the knowledge of the risk, lightened at the thought of finally getting rid of the tracker. “Can we hack it out?” asked Rob.

  “With it right next to her brainstem?” asked Amanda with poorly suppressed scorn.

  Rob’s ever present smile wavered, a small sigh escaping from him. “Cool, never mind. Miya, you taken a look at it with magic-y shit?” he asked.

  “Yeah. It’s encased iron, there’s not much I can do to it. I can tell you where it is by magical absence, that’s about it.”

  “Well Miya had Overlord shit in her, right? How’d we deal with that?”

  “We fried it,” answered Miya.

  “Again, this is right next to Olivia’s brainstem,” snapped Amanda.

  “Just gettin’ caught up to speed. Maybe we don’t kill it. Sheathe it?” asked Rob. “Make the signal go nowhere?”

  “I thought about that,” said Amanda, pulling up a basic drawing on her laptop. “Based on the power and wavelength of the signal the sheathe would have to be too thick, it’d be a block sticking out of her skin at the base of her skull. I’m not a doctor but I think us jury-rigging that would go ugly fast.” Oh, I don’t think I like that.

  They gave Miya a look. “I’m also not a surgeon. How big is it?” Amanda pointed to one of the measures along an edge. “Oh fuck no. Magic doesn't like metal very much already. I have no idea how I’d keep something that size intact and infection free.”

  “OK, let’s call that a last resort,” said Amanda, closing down her drawing.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Hold up, what’s stoppin’ the signal from just goin’ through her neckbone an’ throat. Can’t cover the whole thing with where it is.”

  “OK, not a resort at all,” grumbled Amanda. “What a waste of time.”

  “Well hang on, the right answer ain’t just gonna appear to us on a silver fuckin’ platter,” pointed out Rob. “Gotta think everyin’ through.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” Olivia sighed. We were doing so well. With pursed lips, Amanda swallowed whatever else it was she was about to snap at Rob at the sound.

  Rob, however, didn’t get the message. “Don’t gotta get all bitchy about it.”

  “Rob,” said Chris, raising an eyebrow.

  The two locked eyes for a moment, as Olivia kept an eye on a sour faced Amanda. “Sorry,” managed Rob. Ben opened his mouth to say something, until Olivia’s gaze snapped to him. Don’t you dare. “Can I see what you used on Miya? Could we improve that?”

  “Sure, I have the plans for it. I left the actual thing back in Westward,” replied Amanda as she turned her attention to her laptop. The two techies examined the glorified probe for a moment.

  “Why is it so bulky?” asked Rob.

  “Because that’s the best I could do. I have to make sure the current doesn't run through something important in the nervous system. It’s even worse for Olivia.”

  “Cuz brainstem, yeah. We can thin that way the fuck up if you’re worried about strength. What’s it made of?”

  Olivia felt her eyes glaze over as the techies pored over the plans, all previous hostility between the two forgotten for the moment as they tore into the problem. Chris, Miya, and Ben seemed to feel the same level of boredom, if the phones coming out were any indication. Minutes stretched on as Olivia paced, stretching her legs and wings. She even pulled out her own old brick of a flip phone, taking care to press the buttons with the rounded backs of her claws, rather than scratching any more of its surface.

  “Well,” muttered Rob as he gestured to the drawing. “If we replace that, we’ve got a good place for the zap to go that ain’t brain, if we get it close enough.”

  “It’s a start,” conceded Amanda. “We’ll need to test to make sure we didn’t make a fancy useless circuit instead.”

  “Ben!” shouted Rob, breaking the stupor over the rest of them. “Get me two tanks of propane and an’ what is that?” Rob leaned in to examine Amanda’s device for a moment. “An’ some copper wire.”

  “Make that wire ten gauge solid, not stranded,” added Amanda. “We can thin it out later.” See? You guys can work together.

  ***

  At some point Olivia lost track of where Rob and Amanda went with their speculations and ideas. With a solid grasp of the problem, their stream of questions to her petered off, even as both began twisting and shaping metal into prototypes. Even Miya broke off with nothing else to contribute and the techies too lost in quick jargon and checking over each others’ shoulders to notice or care. The rest of the group drifted off to sleep, leaving the two to their work.

  Ben, at least, woke up early to grab everyone breakfast. The scent of sugar and cinnamon roused Olivia soon after he walked in. She found both Rob and Amanda working in separate corners through the night, no longer speaking. Great. Did Rob say something? Or was it Amanda? The sound of movement slowly roused the others.

  “Good morning, Chris,” said Olivia.

  “Good morning,” he replied. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and took in the spread. “What’s for breakfast?”

  “A cinnamon donut!”

  With a solemn nod, Chris replied, “Classic.”

  “But look,” she exclaimed, holding out the half eaten donut with both hands for him to behold. “They put on the cinnamon dust, and then they put glaze on over it so all the cinnamon stays!”

  “The breakfast of champions.”

  Olivia’s beaming smile was only broken for a moment by her shoving the entire rest of the donut in her mouth. Chris grabbed his own maple and bacon donut and eyed the techies.

  “Have you talked to them this morning? Are they still playing nice?”

  Olivia shook her head. Oh thank god, it’s not just me who noticed. Though I guess it’s pretty obvious. “No, I haven’t.”

  Chris cast a look at a newly awakened Miya, glaring at Ben with murder in her eyes as he tried to poke her in the face again. “Maybe you and I can check on them.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Olivia.

  “Just see how they’re doing, if there’s anything anyone can do to help. You know, if there's any problems with their project.”

  “Oh, help, I can do that.” Olivia stood and headed towards Rob, the nearest. Better than just sitting there, bored. And I don’t think I’ve talked to him much before. He showed up and we got kidnapped by an alien thing like the next day. And then I got stuck in a lab.

  Chris nodded. “Alright, I’ll check on Amanda.”

  With her mission clear in her mind Olivia headed over to Rob’s desk, where he hunched over a shiny bit of metal stretched long and thin. The smell of steel and grease filled the air as she drew closer. He placed a small steel block over the piece, then tapped the block several times with a small hammer. Despite the chaos of his workspace, she noticed a small blade, barely the size of her finger, set aside and untouched by the clutter. The grey thing stood on a small stand, keeping its edge from coming into contact with anything.

  “Hello,” said Olivia once he finished.

  “Yo,” he said, voice distant. Metal rattled against the desktop as he tossed the block to the side.

  She grabbed the second chair by his desk to keep from looming over him. “How’s it going?”

  “First prototype had some issues. Ironed those out. Heh, ironed. On version three now. We gotta make this thing way more specific for your bit, her old zapper thing was just some cobbled together thing she did on the fly.”

  “Is everything OK?” asked Olivia, looking pointedly between him and a distant Amanda. You two were so chatty earlier.

  He grinned. “She’s smart as fuck but I don’t think she likes me too much.”

  Olivia raised an eyebrow. People take other people seriously when they do this, right? I’ve seen that before. “Is that all?”

  “I might have tried a joke about makin’ Ben pick up some powdered water at the store, but she just looked at me like I was an idiot.”

  “I don’t get it,” confessed Olivia. How does that even work?

  “God damn it, not you too,” he grumbled, hammer dangling from his hand as he leaned his elbow on the desk.. “I'm gonna get her to laugh, god damn it.”

  “Is that all?” Olivia pressed further. Is this rude? One bad joke doesn’t mean you stop talking to each other.

  “I tried a couple other jokes an’ puns but she just got mad. Then I made a couple more, and she got madder.” Olivia raised an eyebrow as he seemed to finish. “An’ then I made a couple more an’ she got real mad cuz I wasn’t gettin’ anythin’ done. An’ then I made a couple more.”

  “OK,” said Olivia, the picture becoming clear to her. Why can’t we all just be friends?

  “It was three in the morning, we were workin’ through the night on this.”

  “And thank you so much. I think it might be good if you and Amanda got along though, you know?”

  “I’m tryin’. I kinda lost my temper a bit but I’m tryin’.”

  “Thank you again,” said Olivia, rising from her chair as Rob returned to his work.

  Olivia and Chris reunited for a minute. He checked with her before gathering the group for an update.

  The first thing Amanda did was call out, “Are you done?”

  Rob hurried over with several part. “Yeah, got the prongs an’ wires ready.”

  “Finally,” grumbled Amanda as she plugged a cable into a wall outlet. “OK. I made a little mockup chip for us to test. We need to test that, then if that works then we actually put the rest of the damn thing together. We’ll disinfect everything. We’ll also test the scalpel, if Olivia’s alright with a little cut on the elbow.” Olivia nodded. I trust you. “Then we’ll zap.”

  “Walk me through it,” said Chris. “What’s been done?”

  Amanda and Rob exchanged glances. Rob bowed his head to her. She took her que and said, “Once we make sure this works, the plan is to make a shallow cut with a pure iron scalpel Rob made, insert the device, and deploy these tiny little prongs. We’ve got it measured out so they’ll stop right before they hit bone. We’ll have to run a lot of power through it, but only for an instant. If my calculations are correct, the second prong will take that current, rather than it arcing through anything important in Olivia.”

  “Yeah,” added Rob. “The old one wouldn’t have been able to be this precise, too bulky. An’ too weak, with all of the magic and muscle Olivia’s got there was no way of gettin’ close enough. The scalpel was fuckin’ weird too, had to reinforce it so the iron didn’t shatter, but keep the blade, you know, actually still iron instead of steel to get through the magic stuff.”

  “So, you’ll be able to make that cut go away, right?” Olivia asked Miya.

  “Yep. I’ll barely have to do anything, with a cut that small,” said Miya, holding out her fingers to estimate the length. “You’ll probably have some scarring on the back of your neck, though.”

  “What?” asked Amanda. “I thought she healed quickly.”

  “Quicker, not better,” replied Miya. “Quick healers go through the natural process. Look at Roach. He heals pretty much everything instantly, but you can still see all those scars. If Olivia broke a bone, say her arm, and it was set wrong, her arm would heal crooked faster. Better healers aren’t faster, but they would have a straight arm bone at the end of the process.”

  Olivia’s eyebrows furrowed in concern. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it,” said Miya. “You’re nowhere near as fast as Roach.”

  “How are we going to tell if the zap was successful?” asked Chris.

  “I’m monitoring the frequency,” said Amanda, gesturing to a circular antenna set up on her desk, attached to a box with a small screen. She spun it to point at Olivia. “See that little spike on the waveform? That’s Overlord’s signal. That cuts out, we’re good to go. We’ll probably be done by the end of the day.” Chris nodded in satisfaction, though Miya and Ben suppressed groans of boredom.

  “Great job, you two,” said Chris. “Let us know if you need a hand and we can get this over the finish line.”

  “Yeah, if we can keep the stupidity to a minimum,” said Amanda, shooting a pointed look at Rob.

  “Hey, I thought ‘face for radio’ was pretty good. You work with radios all the time. Sorry, I pushed it too far. Poor taste.”

  Olivia shot a concerned look to Chris, who, if his long drawn breath and distant look at the ceiling were any indication, resigned himself to the coming argument. “There’s only so much I can do,” she heard him whisper, almost too low for even her to hear.

  Amanda, for her part, did not choose peace. With widened eyes and tight clenched jaw, she leaned forward and hissed, “And did you think that would go well? Did you think at all?”

  “Well yeah,” said Rob with a shrug. “When every time I talk you fuckin’ glare at me I start to pick up on it. I got basic pattern recognition.”

  “And you didn’t listen to it? Like the little voice in your head that used to be a conscience?”

  “Oh come on,” he replied.

  “Why are you even denying it? You used Olivia as your attack dog, you vicious sociopath. And at no point have you expressed an ounce of regret. Not an ounce of recognition.” Hey, I’m not a dog.

  “What?” asked Rob, baffled. “I just showed up an’ got kidnapped by an alien.”

  “You just wanted to run around doing vigilante bullshit, no matter who got in your way or who got hurt,” bulldozed Amanda.

  Rob threw his hands up and shouted, “I ain’t Ben!”

  Amanda flinched, the stream of her tirade broken. Her half open mouth snapped shut and the tension in her shoulders gave out. Olivia found her breath caught in her throat, watching her friends’ argument derail. Are they done?

  “Where are Ben and Miya?” asked Chris, twisting in his chair to view the rest of their hideout. Olivia and the techies followed, finding the room empty, save them.