Kane nodded, intoning, ‘”A Magistrate is virtuous in the performance of his duty.”‘
Grant grunted. ‘”You find out, and one night you’ll have a termination warrant served on you.'”
“What?”
“That’s what Reeth said to us, remember? My philosophy is simplewhat Salvo doesn’t know won’t hurt us .”
Smiling bleakly, Kane asked, “So you’re beginning to think there was something a little plastic about last night’s op?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think, doesn’t matter what you think.” Grant pinged a fingernail against the empty bottle. “Tell me the truth. Why’d you knock this off in one sitting?”
Kane dry-scrubbed his hair with his hands. “Do you think I’m going soft?”
“Not physically. Emotionally is another matter. You’re breaking old, ingrained habits and acting out of character. That can be deadly.”
Kane eyed the big man and chose his words with care. “Our whole lives don’t have be part of a predetermined pattern, you know.”
“I don’t follow.”
“You can think, can’t you, even if it doesn’t matter?”
“Think about what?”
“About that Gateway, for instance, or whatever Reeth showed us. That matters.”
Grant shook his head vigorously. “That’s where you’re mistaken. Even it was one of those things, so the fuck what? It’s not within our parameters of duty. Now, get up and let’s go. Drop that disk in a trash hatch on the way. Follow the two F’s.”
Kane slowly arose. “Right. ‘File and forget.'”
With Grant’s help, he managed to put on his boots, Sin Eater and coat without fainting, but he still felt extremely unwell.
It was the time for many duties to begin, and the promenade was thronged with movement, with people heading to their duty stations in the Administrative Monolith. Even though they were of the Cobaltville elite, the people were subdued, many of them wearing self-conscious expressions of carefully calculated neutrality. Necessarily so, since frank self-expression could catch a Magistrate’s attention, and that could lead to any number of unpleasant consequences.
Though he looked for her, Kane didn’t see Brigid Baptiste.
The only trash hatch they saw was being serviced by a sullen-faced outlander girl, hardly more than twelve years old, so Kane kept the disk in his coat pocket and he and Grant took the elevator to C Level. Despite the fact that time was growing short, Kane stopped off in the dayroom to wolf down a few sesame-seed biscuits and swig a cup of sub. That made him feel more as if he’d achieved near-human status again.
They walked into the briefing room to find Salvo already standing at the lectern. He was reading shift assignments in a droning monotone. Two dozen Magistrates sat on the rows of hard benches, listening with impassive faces.
Salvo glanced up when Kane and Grant dropped onto one of the benches, but since he didn’t pause or even raise an eyebrow, Kane figured he hadn’t reached his or Grant’s orders for the day.
“Banyon and Colemund, Intel section, collating Outlands reports. Leduc, Jessup and Kovacs, agricultural-section security. Orris, Fielding and Newson, manufacturing-section security. Boon, Grant and Kane, PPP duty.”
Salvo continued to read off the duty roster, but neither Kane nor Grant heard him. They were too occupied with exchanging surprised glances, then shifting their stares to Salvo. PPP dutyPedestrian Pit Patrolwas a first-year-Mag assignment. All newly badged enforcers were required to patrol the Pits as part of their first-year duties. Generally the patrol consisted of nothing more than checking ID chips, making sure they were ville approved and not bogus.
Pit dwellers were stopped at random, ordered to present their left forearms for inspection and a hand scanner would react positively if the subcutaneous chip was legit.
PPP duty was supervised by one senior Magistrate, never a pair of them. Pits could be dangerous places, especially for rookie enforcers with no real combat experience, but there hadn’t been a major outbreak of anti-Mag violence in the Cobaltville Pit in a generation. Even the latest in a long line of self-proclaimed Pit bosses, a border runner named Guana Teague, kept an exceptionally low profile. And though it was true Boon had been recently awarded his badge, and therefore was required to take patrol, assigning two veteran Mags to nursemaid him seemed ridiculous and a waste of resources.