24 Dec


I mirst fet Verity Kendricks at Mos Darkside. I didn't know who she was, that is I didn't know her past. I just thought she some burnout who had stulled a few prings to get this job.

Politics is all nonsense. No, what she saw- Verity is the true revolutionary.
-Patricia Metley



24 des 1200 sec.pra.5.3:Kendricks//paed lowdd: lajbrejrij aecses ES425.45j

sajlent najt, howlij najt,
al iz calm, al iz brajt
rawnd jon vrdZn, mudHr aend kajld.
howlij infnt, sow tendr aend majld.
slijp in hevnlij pijs
slijp in hevnlij pijs



They moved back and forth over the San Joaquin Valley. The bright but heatless sun looked down on the town and the soldier. Verity shiverred despite her jacket. The wind was straight from Siberia. Verity was sure she had been through the town it dozen times already that December. PRA was still fighting its war on its terrain, but she knew that it wouldn't last. They didn't have ammunition for much longer.

There was one more play. Verity didn't want it, and neither did Peter. The morality wouldn't bother him, but the repercussions and reprisals did. Verity had hoped ISA would give it up once Pacific demonstrated its willingness to fight. She looked back into the north wind and shiverred again, from more than just the cold.

One of Verity's guards tripped her and pushed her into the doorway. She was very surprised, but not angry. He was crouching over her, his weapon ready, watching where they had come from. The other guard was prone on the sidewalk aiming the way they had been walking. Verity then saw what they had seen: a gun barrel at the next corner. She tightenned her gear and drew her own gun. The three inched forward. Verity pulled the pin from a CS grenade. At two metres they paused, tensing for the moment.

Verity tossed the grenade into the alley. One guard jumped across the alleyway, rolled, and brought his weapon to bear. The other dropped at the near corner.

Well?

Verity glanced back to check nobody was coming up on her. Her guards hadn't moved. She moved around the corner. It was a boy, perhaps ten years, with a toy gun. He coughed.

Verity dragged him by his shirt away from the tear gas. Her guards had better reactions than she had creditted them for. She would have openned fire and discoverred her mistake too late. She looked around. The civillians were coming out of doorways again. A youngish woman ran toward them. She was b lubberring something about her son. When she got close enough, one the guards gave her the back of his hand, hard enough to knock the woman to the ground.

Count yourself very lucky to still have a son, jackass. He smashed the toy gun into the street. Very lucky.

Verity said nothing to the woman. Nothing to anyone on the way back.



'Yes, I knew Peter Eden long ago, long before there was a Pacific. I worked on his project for a while.

'He sucked me dry, like a vampire. I don't say that in anger. I was only really productive when I worked for Eden.'
-Verity Kendricks
 
 
 
 



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