Page 68 of Jump or Fall
All ok. Meet in Tower at 12.
It was 11:30. At least they had thirty more minutes to themselves.
He sighed. “I suppose we should put some clothes on.”
“I prefer you this way,” she said with a coy smile.
He smirked and playfully tossed her clothes at her.
As she dressed, something clicked in her memory. “I need to see your suit. Your augmented strength wasn’t working.”
“What kind of tools do you need?”
“Some varying-sized screwdrivers and a soldering gun, probably. But I have to see what’s wrong with it.”
He pulled a box from under the bed, revealing a trove of tools.
“You are a busy man.”
“Show me how you troubleshoot this,” he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. The casual intimacy made heat rise in her face all over again.
She gathered the suit pieces. First, she checked the power source at the hip—it wasn’t at full charge, meaning it had been using power at some point.
Trailing a finger along the spine of the chestplate, she said, “This connects to other areas like a nervous system. And like a spine, if the connection is damaged, it can result in loss of functionality. The Araflex layer connects the parts together and provides power to the other pieces.The helmet has its own power source, but you lost comms when it broke.”
She tapped various points, watching as dull light responded beneath the surface. When she reached the upper back, the lights stopped around a crack in the plates. She grabbed the helmet and tapped it—nothing.
“The helmet is a goner and this,” she gestured to the chestplate, “is the suit equivalent of a broken neck. Do you have rubber gloves?”
He handed her a pair. The gloves would protect her from getting shocked if a charge was being held somewhere. She took a small screwdriver and disconnected the outer shell, revealing a frayed wire likely damaged by the impact.
In his impressive collection of wires, he found one that would work. Together, they soldered it into place.
After reattaching the shell, she said, “You should try it on. It isn’t a permanent fix with that weak point, but it should be okay for now.”
The suit powered on, and he promptly used his augmented strength to bend the metal chair leg in half.
Mara laughed. “Good work.”
A knock sounded at the door. Gordon checked the peephole. “It’s them.”
Kimmie entered first, scanning the room before her eyes landed on the chair.
“What the hell happened here?”
Gordon straightened it back out and gestured to the broken helmet. “Suit broke when I got slammed by a door. Mara just fixed it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Okay. Well, anyway, we may be fucked.”
“What happened?” Gordon asked.
Silva answered, “Millon just messaged me. We have to deploy the synth-minds to all units. Tomorrow.”
Kimmie wrung her hands. “My boss is freaked out about the mech being taken down so easily, and I think the Silvers are getting wind of something.”
Mara sank onto the bed, head in hands. “Shit.”
Silva singled her out. “Mara, I think you should get home and check your messages.”
