Week 9 – UDC 7

Enemy

Listening to Chip Chaykin try to talk his way out of being arrested by taking another person hostage and threatening her life, Diana was more than fed up. No, she was livid. How could he treat life like it was something to buy and sell, to trade as if it meant nothing unless it gained him something? And how could that woman, no matter how greedy or self-absorbed, have let him into her inner circle?

None of it made any sense. None at all, and she couldn't do anything from here, like this, to help the situation, or Alex diffuse it before someone else died over nothing.

Attack

"You worm! You insect!" It happened so suddenly that Robo wasn't quite sure how it happened, but he knew why as he watched Chaykin get hit in the rear end with an energy bolt and was sent flying into the grass on the side of the street.

As the man lay there prone, and three more energy bolts rained down around him, Rochelle Carney's voice sounded from behind Robo: "Did he forget to pay his electric bill?"

It was absurd, but if the explanation fit and he wasn't forced to make up a story… "Something like that."

Negotiate

"So," Diana said as they sat down to a virtual dinner of fish and chips. "What is the occasion of your visit?"

The Chairman took a deep breath, glanced around at the swirling colors of cyberspace. "Did there have to be a reason, Diana?"

"No, but there usually is," she told him with a smile. "Negotiations break down over some deal?"

"No. I just… wanted to thank you."

"Thank me?"

"The termination program?"

Understanding dawned in her eyes. "Oh. No need. Alex already thanked me."

"But I can't talk to anyone else about it."

"Ah." And so, they talked for a while about nightmarish incidents…

Truce

The streets had been strangely tranquil ever since the end of the city-wide police strike, as if the citizens had had enough of lawlessness to last them awhile and were now just thankful for peace and quiet again. It wouldn't last, of course. Sooner or later, something would spark into chaos again, but for just this moment it didn't matter. In two weeks, not a single officer had been killed in the line of duty.

No one thought to ask the why or the how of that one, either. It was a welcome respite.

Friend

They'd been married for two weeks when he finally thought to ask her something ridiculous. "Has your hair always been curly?"

Diana turned and looked at him with translucent blue eyes. "Huh?"

"Every time I see you, it's always curly."

She blinked, astonished and reached up to feel for a moment. "Oh! Oh. No. It was straight… as a board. I don't know why..."

Charlie smiled. "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry for asking the question, Charlie. I just… wow."

"I like it."

She chuckled. "I'm glad you do."