Page 32 of Pandion

“Kagesawa!” It was Takazaki? Satoru was there behind him, but Takazaki had leapt past him. “You’re bleeding? Where? Is it bad?” Takazaki was quite brisk with his check. Kagesawa had to push him back.

“It’s not serious. Just a cut.” He’d been so close to not getting caught, too. The cut was but another reminder of his chronic carelessness.

“It looks bad. Harumine,” Takazaki turned around, “go get Kato-san. She’s a doctor.”

“I’m not sure wound care is her field of expertise.” Kagesawa let go of the link, grateful to not have to dampen it any longer.

Satoru screamed.

Kagesawa jolted and scrambled to dampen the link again. Satoru was left gasping for breath in shock. Visibly confused and alarmed, Takazaki seemed unsure who to tend to.

“Shh— fffff—! That hurt like a mm—!” Satoru shook his arm. “I’ll go get Kato-san!”

“Wait!” Shit. Too late. He was already out the door. Kagesawa was lousy at projecting to begin with and doing it while dead-tired and dampening seemed like too much of a gamble. He’d have to try to last until Satoru got back. “This damn link.”

“Where were you?” Takazaki asked.

“I had some unfinished business—” Before he could finish, Takazaki gasped.

“Ah shit, don’t tell me you’re the motherfucking ‘Pandion’! The Osprey port extension, why didn’t I see it before? I’m an idiot!” His expression grew dark.

“You know about birds?”

“You could have gotten yourself killed!” Takazaki grabbed Kagesawa by the collar and shook him. Kagesawa was too tired to do anything about it.

“How, why…?”

“You’re such a gaping asshole! Why did you insist on dealing with that alone? It was our fuck up! We had people ready to assist!”

“Slow down. Who are you, how do you know this?” His eyes saw Takazaki, but the words coming from his mouth were someone else’s. There was something strangely familiar about them.

“Never mind that. You’re sure you’re OK? Can you keep dampening?”

“The goddamn link keeps ramping up the feedback somehow. The pain is really not that bad. But,” Kagesawa heaved an extraordinarily heavy sigh. “I amtired.”

“Well, you’re going to have to hold on for Harumine’s sake.” Takazaki let him go and started pacing around the room. “I’m not in the mood for an all-evening scream fest.”

“All right, fine. I’m done with this anyway,” Kagesawa decided. There were probably dozens of better ways of dealing with this,but he was tired and fed up with himself and knew one that was sure to do the trick. It wasn’t even difficult.

He felt for the port at the back of his head, grabbed a firm hold of the dial edge, twisted and yanked it off. It was at that moment that Satoru returned with Kato-san.

When Harumine entered the apartment, there was an ominous snap that resonated faintly through his whole body. The following silence was worse than dampening. He shivered.Tsuyoshi?What happened?He ran into the living room. Kagesawa turned to look at him, face blank. Harumine could read nothing. It was like watching a complete stranger.

“What did you do?” There was something bloody in Kagesawa’s hands. “What the hell did you do?!” Harumine shrieked, teetering right at the edge of panic.

“I thought I’d retire,” Kagesawa said.

“You piece of shit, no! No!” Harumine could not put into words how this felt. He shouldn’t have had to.

“I thought you wouldn’t mind. You’re free to go. You can all go home now. I’m fine. I’ll sleep it off…” Kagesawa leaned back where he sat.

Kato-san, who was thankfully not squeamish, took steps to verify Kagesawa’s assessment. He was, after all, bleeding from several sources now. Harumine knew the port area was protected by a membrane socket so that the insides of his skullweren’t exposed, but by yanking it out without seeing what he was doing, he’d torn his scalp.

“I can suppress the bleeding and clean him up,” she said. It was a relief but not much of a comfort. “He needs to get the port reconnected as soon as possible if he wants the organism to survive.”

“Can it be done?” Takazaki voiced his concern.

“Probably not. The connection was already poor. It was going to give out sooner or later. It doesn’t matter,” Kagesawa said.

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