Tell me if you think I'm forgetting someone...
Joan
Most of the people the Machine had decided to contact about Primary Asset n°1's funeral were people he had helped, possibly people whose lives he had saved. But not all of them were.
This funeral wasn't only about a dead asset. It was about a man.
And yes, John Rykes didn't have many people who had been involved in his life left. John Reese neither. John Riley, just the same. But when you added them all together, it still became a significant enough list.
Really, it was simply about telling anyone who might care.
Some of these people didn't know much about the primary asset, but they knew the man, in a way the people he had saved didn't. None of them knew everything about his life, not even the Machine knew everything about John Rykes' life, since fragments of it had happened away from any kind of technology, and the man was just old enough that his first years weren't that much digitized. But they knew him, as a person.
Three days after Primary Asset's demise, Joan was at the encampment, as always keeping an eye on her trolley, when a youngster came around and told her that the "food truck man" was here to see her.
The homeless woman arched her eyebrows, but gestured for the kid to lead Adam Saunders here. He didn't usually come by this soon in the day...
Joan could feel that something was up. She just didn't know what, or why it involved her.
The idea that perhaps, the kid had grown bored with his charity and was here to war her crossed her mind, but she knew Adam Saunders, and it wouldn't be like him. As surprising as it was, they had become somewhat friends over the last four years. Sometimes, the kid asked her about John, if she had seen him.
Speaking of which, she hadn't seen the man in quite some time.
Adam Saunders arrived with a large cardboard box in his arms. He put it down next to her trolley, and handed her a kraft paper envelope before she could ask anything.
"For you, Joan."
There was an invitation to John's funeral in the envelope.
The homeless woman felt sad, but wasn't surprised.
"He always thought it was his job to protect everyone..."
"That he did..."
Her eyes went to the cardboard box, and Adam Saunders' followed.
"According to the intructions I received, these are floating candles, to be sold in three days at the price you chose. I'm not exactly sure what this funeral will be like, but if there's one candle for each attendee..."
A lot of people had been invited. Joan guessed it was only right, for someone whose life had been to save the world.