Chapter 100 | Progress In The Case

Chapter 100: Chapter 100 | Progress In The Case

Tuesday.

Carson knocked at six-oh-one.

Kai opened the door. Carson was in civilian clothes — no hero gear, no official anything. Dark jacket. The kind of clothes that said I’m not here as anything.

He stepped in.

He looked around the apartment the way he had looked around it on Thursday. Careful inventory. Then he stopped looking and sat at the table when Kai gestured.

"She’s already been up," he said. Not a question.

"Since five," Kai said.

"The form."

"Yes."

Carson looked at the second bedroom doorway.

"I could feel the air pressure shift from the hallway," he said.

Kai looked at him.

Carson said: "Wind-type adjacent. My Gift registers pressure changes." He looked at the doorway. "She’s running it at a level the Vanguard assessment never showed."

Kai said nothing.

Carson looked at the table.

"Right," he said.

==

Shira came out at six-forty.

She looked at Carson sitting at her table and processed this without showing what she processed.

"You’re early," she said.

"Six-oh-one," he said.

"I said don’t knock before six."

"You said the form runs at five-fourteen." He looked at the table. "I waited until it stopped."

Shira looked at him.

She positioned herself at the table.

She said nothing about the form.

Carson said nothing about the form.

Kai brought the bowls.

===

Mira came out at seven.

She stopped in the hallway when she saw Carson.

Her board appeared.

You actually came.

"You actually invited me," Carson said.

She looked at the wall near his shoulder.

She went to her chair.

She sat.

She looked at her bowl.

Did you find the building all right, the board appeared.

"Medical district, corner unit," Carson said. "Not hard."

Most people get the entrance wrong.

"I went around the block once," he said. "Found it."

Once, the board said.

"Yes."

She ate.

Kai ate.

Carson ate.

He looked at his bowl after the first spoonful. He looked at it with the focused expression of someone running a calculation.

He said nothing.

He ate.

Halfway through Mira’s board appeared.

It’s the same herb base, it said. As the noodle shop on the east commercial block.

Carson looked at the board.

"Green awning," he said.

Yes.

"I know that place," he said. "Been going there since I got my C-rank license." He ate. "Didn’t know that’s what was in this."

Kai didn’t know either, the board said. He’d been making it for fifty Chapters before we found out.

Carson looked at Kai.

Kai looked at his bowl.

"Fifty what," Carson said.

"A while," Kai said.

Carson ate.

He looked at Shira.

Shira was looking at her bowl with the expression that came when she had decided to find something unremarkable and was almost succeeding.

Her ears had the color.

Carson looked back at his bowl.

He was wise enough not to say anything.

==

After breakfast Carson pushed his bowl back and put his hands flat on the table.

"The hearing," he said.

Shira looked up.

"Formal criminal hearing," he said. "The prosecution committee confirmed the date. Three weeks."

"Denko told me," Shira said.

"He told me you’ll both be giving testimony," Carson said. "I’m there as witness liaison. I’ll be in the room." He looked at the table. "I wanted to tell you that directly rather than through Denko."

Shira looked at him.

"The patriarch," she said.

"His legal team confirmed they’ll attend," Carson said. "Him personally — unknown." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

"He won’t come," Shira said. "I told Kai this when the hearing was first confirmed. He knows what is in that room."

"Agreed," Carson said.

Mira’s board appeared.

His absence goes in the official record.

"Yes," Carson said.

Good.

He looked at the board.

"The board testimony," he said. "The clerk reads each line verbatim into the record. I’ve worked with this committee before. The clerk is thorough. Every word you write will be in the official transcript."

Mira held the board.

She looked at the wall near his shoulder.

She wrote: I know. Denko briefed us. The committee already rejected a challenge to board testimony under the accessibility provision.

"The Renmei legal team filed that challenge before the hearing was even scheduled," Carson said. "The committee chair rejected it in a single sentence."

What sentence, the board said.

Carson said: "Quote: The committee does not recognise literacy as a prerequisite for testimony."

Mira held the board.

She lowered it.

She looked at the table.

She picked up the marker.

She wrote one word and held it up.

Good.

She lowered it.

She ate the last of her bowl.

====

At eight-thirty Carson stood to leave.

He shook Kai’s hand. He looked at Shira.

"Three weeks," he said.

"Three weeks," she said.

He nodded. He moved toward the door.

Mira’s board appeared.

Did you eat enough.

He stopped.

He turned.

He looked at the board.

"Yes," he said.

The second blend needs a shorter steep, the board said. Kai fixed it last week but he’s been overshooting it again this morning.

Kai looked at the board.

Carson looked at the board.

He looked at Kai.

Kai said nothing.

Carson said: "It tasted fine to me."

It was a minute over, the board said. You’ll notice it on the second cup.

"I didn’t have a second cup," Carson said.

The board appeared.

Next Tuesday, it said. Pay attention.

Carson looked at the board.

He looked at Shira.

Shira was looking at the window.

The corner of her mouth was doing the thing.

He looked at Mira.

Mira was looking at the wall near his shoulder. Deeply, peacefully looking at the wall near his shoulder. The board face-down in her lap.

"Next Tuesday," Carson said.

He left.

===

Kai closed the door.

He looked at the table.

He looked at Mira.

"The steep," he said.

She picked up the board.

One minute over, it said. You did it Thursday too.

"You didn’t say anything Thursday."

Carson wasn’t here Thursday.

He looked at the board.

She ate a final spoonful of nothing — the bowl had been empty for ten minutes.

She put the spoon down.

She went to her room.