11

If you've been waiting for this one in real time, apologies, I wasn't expecting to run into writer's block so hard immediately after leaving you with a cliffhanger. Once I got past that however, I ended up realising I had enough to cover with this release to really be 2 chapters, so hopefully the double release makes up for things a little.

Like last time, this one has a lot of that self-indulgent plot stuff real writers seem fond of.

Relevant Cast List:

Team Knight

- Ethan Knight: A junior producer at the North England Broadcast Corporation and member of Project Upstart

- Nia Clarke-Mills: VP of Marketing at Averna Pharma, responsible for the PR of the Gemivax rollout

- Evie Kimura: Civil servant from the Department for Culture Media and Sport, permanently attached to support the NEBC and Project Upstart

- Farah Hassan: Former England Women's cricketer turned media personality, headhunted to be the face of Gemivax for Project Upstart

- Jessica (Jess) McNamara: An online artist and designer hired to help produce graphics and animations

- Alex McNamara: a programmer and coder who was falsely matched with Team Barclay and paired with Ethan following an adverse reaction

Team Barclay

- Rhys Barclay: A former editor of a tabloid paper brought on to Project Upstart despite his dubious personality

- Dr Eleanor (Nell) Armstrong: A public health doctor working as a consultant with the NEBC, now assisting Project Upstart with the Gemivax rollout

Team Kaminski

- Lukas Kaminski: Head producer with the NEBC following a career broadcasting football. Ethan's most direct superior.

- Laura Cooper: Another civil servant from the DCMS, in charge of government liaison and oversight at Taymont Hall

Unaffiliated

- Aoife Ryan: the long suffering and increasingly burnt out head broadcast/studio engineer for the NEBC

Chapter 10 - 25th October 2020

"Anas, what the fuck are you doing!"

A woman's voice shouted from somewhere very nearby, fraught and demanding, but Aoife couldn't see where from. Instead, from where she lay, wet in the mud, her attention was very much on the dulled metal of the shotgun barrels pointed down towards her. The firearm was a dated, functional thing at best, the sort that she could only imagine must have sat half-used in a farmer's shed for years, but the middle eastern looking man holding it certainly didn't seem like the sort to spend much time in the country shooting at pheasants. The thin coat, high street gloves and dirt smeared jeans he wore definitely didn't scream that he was someone in his element. Nor did the inexpert way he cradled the gun with one hand as he attempted to readjust a poorly fitting dust mask around his dark face. No, instead the tall awkwardness screamed that he was someone who felt very out of his depth, and Aoife couldn't tell if that made him more or less dangerous.

"You get your kicks from roughing up girls half your size, that it Big Man?"

The reaction to the indignity of finding herself on the ground came out of Aoife like a reflex. She was pretty sure antagonising him wasn't the smartest thing in the world, but her mouth worked before her brain could; as if it was doing its best, along with the glare on her face, to keep her from noticing how fucking scared she was.

The man, who she presumed was called Anas, looked back over his shoulder, nerves obvious as he protested to his companion. His voice surprised Aoife with how young it was, laced with a posh southern accent that suggested whatever his roots were he was at least 2nd or 3rd generation. "'If you think she's going to leave, sort her out,' you said."

"I didn't mean like that!"

"What was I meant to think that you meant?!"

Although the gun remained pointed far too much in her direction for even Aoife to feel bold or stupid enough to try something, the man was distracted for long enough for her to push herself up onto her elbows and reorient herself. Making her way over from behind the same crest of rocks that Anas must have emerged from, was a woman not much taller than herself, although she was clearly more at home out here than either Aoife or her assailant. Her coat and boots actually appeared suitable for the hillside for a start, the sort of thing she could imagine belonging on a farm, and she half expected a sheep dog to appear alongside the woman. Unlike Anas however, she was mask free, with a drawn-up scarf the only attempt at covering a young face that was all tired angles and sallow lines.

Aoife's beanie had fallen away as she'd gone to ground, leaving the frayed ends of her hair to spill loose about her face, while her own Palisade issued respirator had been pushed down slightly towards her chin. Fresh, hillside air tickled at her nose through the broken seal, and although for a moment her instinct was to grab her hat before anything else, feeling naked without it, she had enough presence of mind to attempt to fix the askew mask first. As she sat up to do so however, the other woman picked up her pace, closing the distance to them while shouting at Anas.

"Now she's on the ground don't just let her sit up," the woman said, her own voice carrying a demanding Yorkshire twang.

He looked back at her, spreading his arms slightly in consternation. He was also younger than Aoife realised at first, still somewhere in his twenties and it was evident he had no small amount of agitation for the situation he found himself in. And as he spoke that anxiety swelled up, argumentative. If this was something they'd planned for he was doing a terrible job. "Why do you think I know what it is I'm expected to be doing? It's not as if I've done this before."

There wasn't an immediate answer however, as the other woman ignored him for a moment. Instead, she opted to cover the final few steps towards Aoife, and harshly shoved the Scottish girl back flat into the mud with a boot on her shoulder.

"Hey! Get the fuck off me you fucking head case!" Again, the words spilled out of Aoife long before her head had a chance to decide if they were a good idea or not. "I don't know what your problem is."

The other woman glared at her from beneath a tangle of long blonde hair, daring her to keep talking, then looked at Anas and realised whatever confused decisiveness had led to him charging Aoife had stalled entirely. His feet were beyond cold and his body language screamed equivocation while the shotgun fell lower, losing intent as he spoke. "At least let her fix her mask."

"You're joking right," came the curt reply.

"I don't know?" The Arabic man responded, "I told you this was a terrible idea."

"Well, you're also the one who said that the world wasn't leaving us with good ones." Her tone was harsh, as if she felt Anas needed to grow some backbone but at the same time wasn't surprised to find that he wasn't. Her attention caught the indecision with which he held the shotgun, and with an exasperated noise, reached to take it from him even as she moved him aside brusquely with her shoulder. Somewhere, at the back of her mind, Aoife found herself with an unwanted twinge of sympathy for Anas as he shifted uncomfortably in the face of his more overbearing friend. He felt more awkward with every moment, with too many soft edges for this sort of hard-faced work.

If she'd let that thin crack of understanding remain for more than a moment she might have wondered just what path led someone like him to being here like this. But with the woman now standing over her, framed by steel grey sky and with her silhouette made broader and more imposing by the thick coat she was wearing, the feeling didn't last long enough. Instead, Aoife reached out and clung to the petulant anger that was the only thing keeping her own nerves from leaving her to sink into the mud.

"You're taking that out of context," he mumbled, half apologetically.

"And you're forgetting what they're all doing down there." There was a tip of the woman's head back down the hill in the direction of the Hall, small in the near distance. But her hands remained fixed on the gun, held towards Aoife with all the purpose Anas had lacked. "If you want answers from them, they aren't just going to give them to you."

Anas turned to glance back towards Taymont as the wind picked up, pulling green strands of Aoife's hair across her face. The pause was long enough for the engineer to realise just how cold she was starting to get and she found herself pushed to speak again, almost reasoning that no matter how much it annoyed the other woman it was better than freezing to death in a puddle.

"Look, I don't want to interrupt whatever this is between you two but I'd quite like to get up off the fucking ground now, if it's fine with you."

"You really need to stop talking unless you're being spoken to." The woman was impassive, before jabbing the end of the shotgun into the bottom of Aoife's ribs. "Give me your ID."

Aoife found herself glaring back rather than moving, only for the words to be repeated slower and more firmly, as if she was too stupid to have understood the first time.

"Give me your ID."

Carefully, the green haired engineer reached into her jeans pocket, reaching for the NEBC lanyard she'd stopped actually wearing weeks ago, after anyone had stopped caring enough to check. Reluctantly, she offered it upwards with an outstretched hand, only for the petty side of her nature to win out as the other woman's fingertips brushed the plastic. With a defiant flick of her wrist, Aoife tossed the badge aside, throwing it several feet away to land with a soft slap in the mud. Pointless, yes. Stupid, very. But even so, seeing the displeased exasperation creeping out from behind the woman's pulled up scarf made her feel just a little better. The world was leaving her needing small victories, no matter how childish they were, even before she'd been waylaid.

"Oops."

The frustrated sigh from the other woman was audible, even though it was only a small ask for Anas to fetch it from the nearby ground and bring it to her expectantly waiting hand so she could read it. "Aoife Ryan...you don't look like much of a head engineer."

"Aye, well it's not like I was anyone's first choice." She only noticed the melancholy in her own voice after the words had already passed her lips. And for the first time since she'd noticed something was wrong up there on the hill, her thoughts failed to keep the terrible shape of what she'd learnt from the harddrive at arms length. The memory of it came at her with a jolt, and she tried to do her best to shove it away again. Luckily, she had plenty of practice at burying feelings she told herself she didn't have the luxury of being able to deal with.

Besides, if Ethan said it was going to be ok...

Fuck. Ethan. Would he worry if something happened to her up here? Would he come looking for her?

It was a couple of seconds before Aoife realised the blonde with the gun hadn't immediately replied to her, and she looked up to see genuine agitation from her for the first time. "What do you mean you're not..." Apparently she had caught some implication in what Aoife had just said that had bothered her. "Shit, they're just as desperate as the rest of us."

The rest of them? Had she thought that the NEBC was part of something that was keeping itself above what was going on with the rest of the world? That there was some greater context to all this bullshit she might be able to find here? If so, Aoife could see how knowing that they were also relying on people like her just to keep going would disarm the other woman. If you were imaging villains, it must be scary to realise they were down in the muck with you.

Anas was the next to speak, his tone sounding as if he was trying to bargain with the situation as much as he was with his companion. "This was definitely a bad idea. Maybe she's just as out of her depth as we are."

That, at least, was hard for Aoife not to see the humour in. "Mate, no-one's as out of their depth as you are."

He did his best to ignore her, but allowed a brief flicker of hurt show regardless before continuing. "Hayley, She might not even know - "

"No! It doesn't matter." The reaction from the woman Aoife finally had a name for was laced with a swell of anger, hot, wounded and emphatic. And for the first time since taking the gun, Hayley looked away from Aoife and gave a sharp gesture in the direction of the hall. "They're still lying to us down there! You

know

they're lying to us. She is still part of that. People deserve to know whatever's going on."

Aoife knew she wasn't as astute at reading people as Ethan was, but even she could pick up on the subtext to what Hayley was saying. '

I deserve to know what's going on'.

There was too much emotion sitting ragged on the surface of what she was saying to escape that some sort of pain had brought her this far. The worst part however was the unpleasant feeling that Hayley was right. Aoife knew now just how much was being kept from the public about DuoHalo and just how ruinous it was, and like it or not she had been a part of that for months. They

had

been lying to people. An unimaginably huge and cruel lie that she had no sense of what it must have been like to actually be living through.

What's the sane way to react to a conspiracy theory when those lies are real anyway?

She had always poked fun at the trope of how the bad guys in movies had minions willing to do their dirty work for them, but wondered if she'd somehow stumbled into being one in someone else's story. Standard issue, with her Palisade Services coat and boots making for a comically unflattering uniform. But then, Ethan knew; and for whatever reason she wasn't ready to accept the idea that he would allow something like that without a purpose. If he had, then the idea of him she had in her head didn't exist and the only thing keeping her going would burn away with it.

With the gun pointed with less intent as Hayley looked away, Aoife tried to sit up again as her own guilt pushed her to attempt to defuse things. "Lady, I don't know what you think I-" she started, only for the words to be replaced by a cry as Hayley returned her boot to Aoife's chest, misreading the green haired girl's intent. The gesture was even rougher than before, jarring Aoife's head back against the ground. Her vision swam, and the taste of blood filled her mouth as she bit her tongue.

"Do

not

fucking test me."

It might have been a misunderstanding brought on by Hayley's own emotions fraying, but Aoife still felt her desire to cooperate gutter away. Instead she simply locked eyes with the blonde woman, as if they were competing to be the one who was most pissed off at the world around them. It was a contest that only ended as Hayley's chest shook with a heavy rattling cough, forcing her to turn away. Anas stepped towards her with concern, but she pushed him back with her free hand.

"I don't care how bad the world is." She spoke insistently, as if she needed to prove her resolve not just to Aoife and Anas, but herself too. "I'm not just letting it end around me without a fight. There has to be some sort of meaning we can still give to things."

Again, Aoife's anger spoke for her. "Even if I did know something, which I don't, I sure as fuck wouldn't be telling some mental bitch up a hill."

"She doesn't exactly look in the mood to talk," Anas said, trying to play peacemaker.

Hayley gave another cough, less intense, but enough to spend the last of her patience. "Then we get her in the car." The statement was simple enough, but Anas immediately blanched. "Don't look at me like that. Don't pretend that you didn't know what 'finding someone to get answers from' meant."

"I didn't think we meant kidnapping her."

"No, you damn well knew that's what it might mean."

The way Anas looked away, unable to maintain his gaze towards either of them came as its own admission. For a moment, the sensation of hearing two people looming above her, talking about her impending abduction, threatened to be unreal enough to detach Aoife from her indignation. But Hayley spoke, and it was enough to ground her back in her distaste for the other woman.

"Are you going to talk?"

She knew she should. The rational part of her tried to reason that she had no reason not to, let alone when her own safety was on the line. And yet her mouth failed to move, unwilling to feel like she was yielding to the treatment she was receiving. She was too fucking tired. Had put up with too much over the last few months. She didn't care how stupid it made her. If the world was going to push her, sometimes she just needed to push back. And even if she did talk, what guarantee did she have that they were going to just let her go. They all felt far too committed to choices they'd blundered themselves into.

Hayley waited for her reply, and sighed when it failed to come. "No? I didn't think so. Get her up"

Dutifully, Anas stepped forward, stooping down to help Aoife, obviously placing himself between the stricken engineer and the barrels pointed at her. Briefly, Aoife considered taking her chance to try and make a break for it, but even her stupidity had limits, and even if Hayley's shotgun posturing was a bluff, she knew there was no way she could make it all the way back to the Hall without one of them catching up to her. Instead she simply watched him as he reached over, trying to offer her what care he could manage by adjusting her slipped respirator back around her face. Making eye contact was still more than he could muster however, even as he helped her to her feet.

"I'm sorry about this, really," Aoife heard him mumble. But the apology was clearly as much for himself as it was for her.

"Yeah. I'm sure you are."

*****

The low conversation from the McNamara sisters quietened fully in the back of the car as it pulled up the final approach towards Taymont Hall, stilled by their uncertain anticipation. Ethan had insisted on driving Nia's EV, given how exhausted she'd allowed herself to become, although any surprise at how easily she'd relented into letting him do so was short lived, as she'd quickly found herself snoozing in the passenger seat next to him. It turned out even she had her limits. What caught him more off guard however, as the ivy-covered walls crept into view, was how glad he was to be back.

It had been mid afternoon before they'd be able to return up the motorway, after waiting for Alex to wake following her imprinting. And even after she had stirred Ethan had been keen not to pressure her. It was the last thing he thought she needed after the night before, and he wanted to make sure she had as much patience as anyone could offer her. And so even with the desire to see Aoife tugging, insistent, at the back of his mind, he had given Alex and Jess some space together, lingering in the spare bedroom as the redheads talked.

Ethan had tried practising what he thought he might say to Alex, trying to pick the exact right tone of easy reassurance. Not that he was able to put the effort to use. Instead, when Alex did come to find him on her own, almost an hour later, it was fresh from the shower. The sight of her dropping her towel at the bedroom door was enough to make any sentiment he had prepared catch in his throat for long enough for the redhead to close in on him, and cut him off with a long, grateful kiss.

Her first words to him were a heartfelt, "thank you," before following them up softly as she leant against him. "I don't want to talk about it. Not right now. I just...want to feel wanted...Like I'm not just a mistake you're stuck with."

It would have been easy to promise her she wasn't. But the intent expression that looked back at him made it obvious that doing so was going to hurt her. She knew this wasn't something any of them had planned for and her trust wasn't going to be built on hollow guarantees. He couldn't be sure how Alex would fit with Nia or the others, or tell her with any certainty things would be a fairytale. This was one leap of faith that hadn't even had the pale comfort of the algorithm. But he could do what she asked.