Chapter 103 | The Hearing II

Chapter 103: Chapter 103 | The Hearing II

The room was quiet.

The chair said: "Thank you. The committee notes the testimony." She looked at the Renmei legal team with the expression of someone who had already decided something. "Objections."

One counsel stood. "The committee should note that testimony given through a written board cannot be considered equivalent to verbal testimony under—"

The chair said: "Under the Accessible Testimony Provision 14-B, written board testimony read into the record by a certified clerk carries full evidentiary weight equivalent to verbal testimony. This provision was referenced in the original filing. The committee is aware of it." She looked at him. "The committee rejected this exact challenge three weeks ago when your team filed it as a pre-session motion. The answer has not changed."

A pause.

"Sit down," she said.

He sat.

Shira looked at the wall.

The corner of her mouth moved.

=====

The node documentation went in as supporting exhibit at ten-forty.

The chair read the summary into the record. Eight-forty hertz. Second-generation deposit. Confirmed by investigation team. Pre-existing before the expedition. Consistent with the Gift assessment documentation submitted by Mira Elys six months prior to the canyon incident.

The Renmei legal team did not object.

The chair noted this.

She noted that the patriarch’s absence had been logged in the pre-session record. She noted that his legal team had attended in his place. She noted that this was within procedural rights and would be reflected accurately in the transcript.

She said: "The committee will proceed to deliberation. The prosecution timeline remains as filed. The formal verdict will be issued within the standard review period." She looked at both wives. "The committee thanks both witnesses for their testimony."

She closed the session.

====

The lobby.

Denko shook Kai’s hand. He looked at both wives with the expression of a man who had just watched something he had spent a long time building hold its weight.

"I’ll send the session transcript as soon as it’s certified," he said. "Within forty-eight hours."

"Thank you," Kai said.

Denko nodded at Shira. At Mira. He picked up his documentation case and left.

Carson appeared from the lift.

He stopped beside them.

He looked at Shira.

"Forty-one minutes," he said. "On the record. In the room."

"Yes," she said.

He nodded.

He was going to say something else. He did not say it.

He looked at Mira.

Mira’s board appeared.

The clerk was good.

"Yes," Carson said. "He’s done it before."

He didn’t rush.

"No," Carson said. "He understood what he was reading."

She held the board.

Good, it said.

She lowered it.

Carson looked at Kai.

"Tuesday," he said.

"Tuesday," Kai said.

He left.

=====

They were in the lobby waiting for the cab when it happened.

There was a vending machine.

It was a standard hero authority vending machine — snacks, drinks, the usual — positioned near the lift entrance. It had been there long enough to have scratches on the coin slot and a faded label on the C7 button.

Mira stopped next to it.

She looked at it.

She looked at Kai.

The board appeared.

C7.

Kai looked at the machine.

C7 was a green tea drink in a can. Standard issue, the kind every vending machine in every hero authority building in the country carried.

He looked at Mira.

"We just finished a two-hour criminal hearing," he said.

C7, the board said.

He looked at the machine.

He looked at Shira.

Shira looked at the ceiling in the way that was not looking at the ceiling.

He put coins in the machine.

He pressed C7.

The machine took the coins.

It made the sound machines make.

Then it stopped.

Nothing came out.

Kai looked at the machine.

He pressed C7 again.

Nothing.

Mira’s board appeared.

It took your money.

"I can see that," Kai said.

The C7 slot is empty.

He looked at the slot. The little spiral inside it had turned but there was nothing there to push out.

You paid for nothing, the board said.

"Thank you," Kai said.

He looked at the machine.

He looked at the coin return.

He pressed the coin return.

Nothing.

He pressed it again.

Nothing.

The coin return is also broken, the board said.

Shira said, to the wall: "Walk away."

"That was three hundred coins," Kai said.

"Walk away," Shira said.

It’s three hundred coins, the board said. You have eleven point four trillion.

Kai looked at the board.

He looked at the machine.

He looked at the coin return one more time.

He walked away.

Mira’s board appeared as they went through the entrance doors.

It said: You pressed C7 twice.

"I know," Kai said.

And the coin return four times.

"Three times," he said.

Four, the board said. I counted.

He looked at the board.

She lowered it.

She was looking at the wall near his shoulder.

Deeply, peacefully looking at the wall near his shoulder.

Shira said, to the pavement: "Four times."

Kai looked at the pavement.

He looked at the sky.

The cab pulled up.

======

In the cab Kai said: "Both of you."

Nobody responded.

Shira was looking out the window with the expression of someone watching the scenery.

Mira was looking at the board in her lap.

He looked at both of them.

The cab moved.

At the first traffic light Mira’s board appeared.

It said: C7 at the committee building. You’ll remember it.

He looked at the board.

She lowered it.

He looked out the window.

He thought: she’s right. I will.

He did not say this.

====

Home.

The apartment was exactly what they had left it. Same table. Same window. Same second bedroom with the east light.

Shira went to the window. Not the form — just the window. Looking at the medical district in the afternoon.

Mira set the RF-7 case down. She sat at the table.

She had the board.

She wrote slowly.

She held it up toward the window. Toward Shira’s back.

It said: We were in that building.

Shira did not turn.

"Yes," she said.

Both of us. Together.

"Yes," she said.

First time since they struck us from the register.

Shira looked at the window.

The medical district went about its afternoon business. Cabs. Foot traffic. The particular light that came through at this angle in October.

"Yes," she said.

We walked out, the board said.

Shira looked at the window.

She was quiet for a moment.

"Yes," she said. "We walked out."

Mira lowered the board.

She set it face-down on the table.

She looked at her hands.

Kai stood at the kitchen doorway.

He did not say anything.

Neither did they.

The apartment held the three of them and the afternoon light and the sound of the medical district outside and what had happened in the committee room and what had come back and what could never be taken back again.

Kai stood at the doorway.

He stood there until Shira turned from the window.

She looked at the table.

She looked at Mira.

Mira looked at her.

Shira said: "Tuesday Carson is coming."

"Yes," Kai said.

"Tell him the second blend is fixed," she said.

Mira’s board appeared.

It’s not fixed, it said. He was still over yesterday.

Shira looked at the board.

She looked at Kai.

"Fix the steep," she said.

She went to run the form.

Mira lowered the board.

She looked at the table.

The corner of her mouth moved.