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31. Naifu – Minder

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Thoughts rattled through Naifu's brain like loose change. She marched ahead of her partner for the day, distracted until he called for her wait. His voice rocketed her back into the present moment. She stood, abashed, while he caught up.

"You have somewhere urgent to be?" he wheezed.

"Not really, but it sounds like you have an urgent appointment at the gym for stamina training."

"Don't remind me. Ugh." He pulled a face. He was a new recruit from another department whom Tseng had brought across to pad out their ranks. Technically he was still on probation. There weren't enough Turks for a single person to take on his training, so he was being passed around to observe and learn what it took to be a Turk. "I always thought administration was about paperwork. I'm good at paperwork. I can sit and do paperwork for hours. And the added bonus is that paperwork doesn't try to shoot you."

"Hours? Really? I heard you always finished in five minutes and spent the rest of your time firing paperclips off rubber bands at the back of your supervisor's head."

He looked guilty, though a hint of pride glinted underneath, like gold fragments in a pan of mud. "Not all the time. Sometimes I frisbeed CD-ROMs or made origami birds. Once I spent an entire afternoon drawing on a spare set of floor plans, redesigning Shinra Tower so there weren't so many hare-brained fire hazards littering the place. Then I turned that into an origami bird. I mean, who was really going to listen to a cubicle monkey like me on a fire marshal matter? Especially since I was supposed to be doing tax returns at the time. That bird really flew, especially when a gust of wind from the open window got hold of it. Went out the window to freedom and everything."

"That birdie was you?" Naifu was impressed. She had seen it on Tseng's desk and made out enough words to wonder why he was keeping paper wildlife where nothing but coffee usually trod. It must have come to him after its bid for freedom from Eber's office.

Eber's mouth down-turned as he considered his own words. "It's a wonder I kept my job as long as I did, actually. I'm truly at a loss why your boss picked my name for his recruitment initiative."

"Tseng has method to his madness; he just doesn't always share it with the rest of us. Something in you simply screamed 'Turk' at him when he looked at your file." Or your origami bird. Naifu resisted the urge to tap her foot. "Are you done collapsing your lung now? Time's wasting."

"Where are we going?"

"To see Don Corneo."

Briefly, she explained the situation between Shinra and Corneo. Eber nodded in all the right places, using the opportunity to regain his breath. Soon they were off again. Naifu tried to keep pace with him, but as her thoughts skittered away, so did her feet. She pulled ahead without realising.

It felt weird, being out in the field without Rod. She hadn't realised how much she'd miss the big idiot until he wasn't there. Eber was a good guy, but she didn't get the same sense of reassurance with him at her back.

Despite what she'd said, she wondered whether this time Tseng had messed up. Had replenishing their ranks overtaken good sense when he decided on this new Turk? Eber had no talents that she could see. He was charming and clever, but so were politicians, and she trusted them as far as she could sneeze them. Rod was no politician, nor would he ever stoop to making paper birds to cure boredom. Eber and he were as different as chalk and cheese, and while she wasn't yet ready to write Eber off, right now all Naifu wanted was to be with Rod so she could play bodyguard some more.

She was worried about Alejandro and the Rage Riders. Rod refused to talk about it, but she knew the incident with Carlito had stayed with him. Turks weren't supposed to cling or linger over any death. Rod was a good Turk; nearly the best. He was probably beating himself up threefold: once for welching on his old crew, once for caring that deaths had occurred because of their vendetta, and once more for caring that he cared.

Idiot, she thought, and then wondered where she came on the scale of idiocy for feeling guilty that she couldn't take his guilt away.

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