15. H-Hour
Roku stopped at a pay phone north of the river, calling the number she had for the Hatchette cleaners. This time, she didn't wait around for the paramedics or the evidence technicians. She drove back to St. Juliet's and slipped through a back door into the dormitories. She collapsed, still fully clothed, into her bunk and fell rapidly asleep.
She expected, the next day, for Lt. Zee to call or visit, for the debrief; but the day passed like any other. There was nothing on the vidcast news about the fire or the gun battle, nothing in the reactive papers, but that was to be expected. The Commissariat wouldn't want to panic the public. But Roku still expected a debrief; if nothing else, a pat on the back and an acknowledgement of a job well done. But no call came, Lt. Zee's VTOL never showed up over the sports fields beside the school. Roku kept filing her reports daily and perusing whatever leads she could muster on more Dick activity, but no more orders came down from Command.
In fact, it wasn't until the news broke that First Commissar Es had died, that Roku heard from Lt. Zee.
It was three weeks after Roku's battle at Moll Flanders. The solemn face of the news anchor on channel 132 had broken in to the regularly scheduled program, informing the world that First Commissar Es had passed away, peacefully, in her sleep. Roku had been in the dorms when she first heard the news -- the girls gathered around the vidscreen. The news seemed to hit everyone but Roku very hard. Many girls broke down into tears. Perhaps because Roku was aware of Lady Es' true age, the news didn't hit her quite as severely, but she had to remind herself that most of the public thought of Lady Es as a young woman. Still, it was tragic news. The mother of the Great Society had died. Who would replace her? Who could possible ever fill the shoes of Lady Es?
