MISSING

"Well, I'm off to work now."

"See you there, love."

"Dr. Cable?"

Min jumped a little in her desk-chair at the sound of her name. Someone was at the door to her office.

She quickly silenced the conversation she was listening to, and closed out of the window on her wallscreen. "Come in," she said, hoping she didn't look too visibly flustered. The office door slid open.

"I have the latest data reports, Doctor," said the Special who entered.

"Thank you," she replied, and quickly transferred the file from his work tablet to her own. She cursorily scrolled through what he had given her: the most recent statistics on the Special operation, which had been performed a great many times in the last couple of months.

Minerva looked up from the screen. The Special was still standing awkwardly in front of her desk. "You can leave now," she said, giving him a look.

"Yes, yes, of course, Doctor!" he said quickly, and hurried out. The office door slid shut behind him.

Minerva didn't want anybody to know that she constantly spied on Maddy and Az, of course. Special Circumstances was technically allowed to listen in on whatever they wanted to; such was the business. Minerva wasn't even sure why she did it, even. Did she like nasty, empty feeling that it gave her? Was she that much of a masochist? Possibly. She had been an athlete, after all.

A lot of important things had happened of late. Special Circumstances was now a legitimate and powerful organization, with a growing army of members. Anyone who worked for it was carefully observed and selected, based on natural resistance to the pretty operation. The surgery technique had been perfected. Not that there was anything wrong with Min herself. It was just that the operation became easier and easier each time she did it.

Max had been changed, of course, and now lived in an apartment in HQ close to Min's, along with her husband. (All of the younger, single Specials were confined to simpler barracks in the outlying buildings.) It didn't take much convincing from Min for Max to beg to become Special. Once she heard how wonderfully clear and beautiful every single second was, she was practically begging for Minerva to give her the operation. Max was known by her comrades as Subcommander Feaster now, the only position that was lower than Minerva herself.

Most of the new Specials were chosen from the latest batch of older new pretties, who were beginning to study careers. Luckily, most of them were too young to remember Minerva's days of fame.

That was another important thing that she had done: Min had gone into the city interface and blocked any information on her previous life from her fellow Specials. Perhaps if they searched hard enough, they would find some scraps of information, but it would be quite difficult. All of the newsfeed clips chronicling her soccer victories and defeats, as well as her highly publicized breakdown, and even the Morphological Congress, had been made practically untraceable. With some regret, Min had also officially resigned from the Pretty Committee. Minerva knew she could never completely delete that old life, and all of the joys and pains that went with it, but that was what she wanted to do. If she were to lead these people, they must see no sign of her faults and weaknesses. In fact, only Max and a few of her closer friends even knew her first name, and only Max called her by it, although never in the presence of their underlings. She was Dr. Cable now, and that was it. A few of the older officers and subcommanders might remember the name and draw some connections, but if they had any speculations, they didn't dare voice them.

Max sat down next to Minerva on the edge of the bed in Min's apartment. It was the end of the day, and both were trying to come as close as they possibly could to relaxation. Max sighed and put her arm around Min. "Do you ever miss it? Being pretty, I mean?" Max asked her.

"No, of course not," she snorted. "What a preposterous idea, Max. Why, do you?"

"No," Max said tiredly. "But…sometimes, I miss your blue eyes." She looked off, lost in thought.

Minerva looked away from her. "I don't," she said tersely.

One Max had left, Minerva turned on her wallscreen, opened up the city interface's exclusive listening-in channel, and keyed in the address of Maddy and Az's house. The conversation that it was picking up from that dwelling immediately caused Min to sit up straight, all senses on the alert. Maddy's voice came first, sounding quite concerned:

"Wow, Az. I've never noticed anything like them before. What do you think they could possibly be?"

The sound of Az inhaling slowly could be heard. "I have no idea, Maddy…wait, I remember something!" His voice took on a more urgent tone. "Do you remember Minerva Cable?"

"Of course I do. How could I possibly forget her?" Min could practically hear the eye-roll in Maddy's words. "I wonder what she's been up to lately…looks like she finally got that wacked idea of hers seen to completion."

"True, but that's not important now," Az said hurriedly. "What I remember is this…Well, one night, we were doing our independent research, and she was acting really strange, as she usually did." Another nasty-feeling pang went through Min as he said this. "But there was one thing she said…oh, how could I have forgotten! She said…that she thought the operation did something to people's brains."

There was a pause. "And you believe her, Az?" Maddy said derisively.

"Well…we can't be certain, but she was pretty damn smart, even if she was insane." Why were they speaking about her in the past tense, as if she didn't even exist anymore? Minerva tried to not let her annoyances cloud her concentration as she continued listening.

Maddy and Az continued to chatter excitedly: the thrill of scientific discovery, the verge of a breakthrough. Min herself knew the feeling well, by now.

"Well, what do you know, Maddy?" Az said eventually. "She was right. This is definitely caused by the operation." The fear and dread in his voice was evident.

Min continued listening to them a while more. It wasn't too long before they finally made the critical connection between the negatives: the citizen's jobs.

Az and Maddy knew the secret of the operation now. This could not continue.

Minerva picked up her tablet and immediately sent a high-alert voice-ping to her most trusted colleagues. It looked like Special Circumstances had finally gotten its first business.

Minerva and her subcommanders sat around the conference table in the briefing room, along with the officers that had been selected for this small mission. "You understand your task?" she concluded. "Tomorrow morning, at 0500 hours, you are to land at the residence of Az and Maddy. No violence please; just intimidate them. Say whatever you want, really. Just be sure to give them this ultimatum: Stop all research on the matter entirely, or they will have their medical licenses taken away. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Doctor," came the murmured responses. The meeting broke up.

Minerva leaned back in her desk-chair, scrolling through all her pings. She hadn't checked up on Maddy and Az in about two weeks. As Special Circumstances continued in its evolution, her volume of work had finally piled up, leaving no time for such pursuits. Suddenly, her office made the special sound that alerted her to someone at the door of her office.

"Come in," she said.

"Doctor! We just received an emergency ping from the wardens," the very agitated Special relayed breathlessly.

"So? What is it?" she snapped.

"It's…it's…" the Special stammered. "It's Maddy and Az! They're…missing, gone, whatever. But it appears they've run away!"

Minerva inhaled sharply and jumped to her feet in about a split-second. She clenched her fists, the lethal fingernails digging into her palms, the delicately interwoven nerves there screaming out in pain. She did her best to set her face in an expressionless mask. She wouldn't scream, she wouldn't…

"Doctor?" the Special asked nervously, looking at her sideways. "Are you quite alright?"