The Militia formed a passage for Sabine and her detail. I rushed after her, trying to keep up with her long strides. The other Commissars and her aides continued their slow walk.
"Sabine!" I said, raising my voice above the sound of the masses. She didn't stop for me. Undaunted, she strode forward. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean any of this!"
"Do not shout my given name, Miss Ackebrueck," Sabine said, finally turning to me. She reached her car, and the aide walked past us.
"Wait–"
"I will not. I take you wanted to say: Wait, I will take responsibility and do better?" Her aide opened the door, and she went inside leaving me behind stammering. "Nevy, take Miss Ackebrueck along and illuminate her on the matter of responsibility."
"You entrust a beauty like that to me? I always knew you wanted to see a flower in each of my hands," said one of the two men wearing a Greatcoat just like Sabine's.
The door went shut, and there she was, driving off without me…
"Why did I have to mess everything up?"
A hand laid itself on my shoulder and gently squeezed it. "Cheer up. At least she is not making you call her Commissar Calaid."
"Commissar Calaid?" I echoed.
"Commissar Calaid," he said once more, shoving me forward. "We have places to be, and that's not here. So let's grab a bite and coffee while we're at it." One step after the other, I was taken again to places I barely knew.
"And what if I don't want to?" I asked, my voice fading.
He stopped pushing me and walked past me, looking over his shoulder, he said. "Like the Directorate, I won't force you. But let me take us out of here first." He took me by the hand and navigated us through the masses after enlisting a squad of Militias to wedge our way through it.
The Militia valiantly put themselves between us and the tidal stream of bodies. My shoulder got pumped more than once, but Nevy didn't let go of my hand. With a yank, he pulled me out of the stream of people, and the militia, who had gotten lost in it, fought their way out shortly after us.
"I thank you," Commissar Nevy said, looking at the Militia Squad. "Lady," he nodded to the only woman in their squad. "Gentleman," he turned around and strode off. After I realized he didn't hold me by the hand anymore, I rushed after him.
"Hey, wait! What are we even going to do?"
"We will grab some coffee and barge right into they're turf. They definitely have something to hide and someone for me to shoot."
"Shoot!" My blood ran cold through my veins.
"You can't tell me that, with their wide arsenal of professionals and charismatic speakers, they would just take some wobbling lobbyist who refuses arrest, uses his springs to jump over Sabine's detail, and then escapes when the militia tries to stop him. Especially when tranquilizers bounced off him like he was a tank in his own right." Nevy slammed his fist into his palm and grind both against each other.
"Commissar?" I asked, my voice sounding pathetically unsure.
"Don't worry, just call me Jay, and we won't have to shoot anyone," he said, giving me a wry smile. "Unless I see a pool table or bingo over which they're discussing and analyzing today's events."
"Hopefully," I added.
We walked only two more streets before he opened the door to a café. "Let's make it quick. If you want to walk somewhere without getting stopped, you need a warm beverage and purpose."
"How is that going to help?"
"People, even if they don't know it, want to let you pass and reach your destination before it runs cold," Jay said.
"Not because you're a Commissar?"
"That might tip the scales in such measurements of weight," he said. He looked over to a desk where, only now, a waiter had started to clean up three cups. "Incompetence is almost as bad as lacking a sense of duty," he muttered.
"Jay?"
"I'm sorry, I can't stand it when people act so irresponsibly."
"You don't strike me as the most responsible person either." I looked down and noticed that my arms were crossed in front of my chest. I unfolded them and slowly put my hands into my jacket pockets.
"How come?" he said in an exaggerated tone. "Come on! You can't say what I'm doing is not as important as the other duties a Commissar could attend to."
"Yo—you joke and buy coffee instead of rushing to the Technocrats!"
"True, I can't deny that. You'll get to know when we get there. I didn't expect to have a companion along for the ride, but here we are. You must have kicked off something big if Commissar Calaid sent you along with me."
"What do you mean?"
"With what I do, you won't make any friends, regardless of how much time you spend among the people." The barista appeared from the staff room. "No matter how close you get or what you do, they'll just eye you."
He didn't offer any more words after that. We waited for our coffees and left after leaving a tip. "Do you intend to tell me what we're going to do?" We left the café with our beverages in hand.
"Right, right, right," he said, pointing his finger upward. "Miss—"
"Ackebrueck. Sina Ackebrueck," I volunteered.
"Okay, Sina," he emphasized the 'a' in my name. "If the Directorate is a body, then I'm its immune system. I go to places where infections could be, and I kick some rocks loose so the body stays healthy. But no one is going to appreciate you when you're snooping around their turf, even when they know the only place they're safe is their apartment—and especially their bedroom."
"Why exactly the bedroom?" I asked, exasperated.
"Sometimes a whole new world opens up to you, and you don't know how to handle the knowledge or turn your back on it." With long strides, Jay took off, making me fall further and further behind while I struggled to keep the coffee in my cup.
Despite Jay's vainglorious efforts, long strides, and me. Panting, we arrived at one of the many facilities the Technocrats use.
"Battle buddies," I said, taking short steps behind the Commissar.
"Techguards," he confirmed. There was a squad of them. All of them stood at attention by the door.
"Haven't seen you in a while, sir. How come you're not lonely for once?" the leader of them said, opening the door for us. His voice came out with a weird tone, projected from some kind of built-in speaker.
Confused, I looked at Jay, but he kept walking forward, facing them. "Can't help it. Every once in a while, I even need companionship."
"And I thought your ego was enough to break three people out of solitary confinement," the battle buddy joked.
We walked past them. The door fell shut without making a sound, and we found ourselves in the clinical, sterile hallways of the Technocrat facility, stripped of color except for gray, white, or black.
"Jay?"
"Hmmm?"
"I was always told to call the Techguards 'battle buddies,' but why?"
"All of them come with a shield generator and exoskeleton. The Marines love them. Ambushes and defenses are half as bad if you've got one with you who can soak up all the abuse prepared defenses can throw your way. In short, you call them 'battle buddies' because, in the thick of it, they pull you out. Alive."
"Good…" I glanced around at the various closed doors we walked past and the intersections in the hallway. "You know where we need to go?"
"Of course I know my way around. They don't offer a tour guide, but it's the Directorate that owns the facility. They have to regularly give us a handout for their layout." Jay opened his trench coat and offered me a tablet. I looked at the building displayed and the various named rooms and sections.
"!" I bumped into Jay, who stooped. Out of an intersection moved a woman I hadn't seen in years.
"Well, if it isn't one of the Technocrats' pet geniuses," Jay said mockingly.