Swan Song (Book Three of the Icarus Trilogy) (15 page)

“You don’t know me, love.  Not yet,” he said, the smile still absent from his face.  This caused Cassandra to lean forward and cross her arms over her knees, determined to end his hostility.

“You’d be surprised, Eddie.  You might not know me, but you’re an open book.  And honestly,” she said as she leaned back and laid her cream-colored arms fall against the armrest, “I wouldn’t be against learning more.  But you gotta be honest with me, Norris.”  Edward looked up at the pretty woman in his armchair and sighed.  It had been some time since someone had wanted him to be honest; it had been a long time since someone cared what he had to say.

“It was me.”

“I knew it,” Cassandra said with a wicked smile, but Norris motioned for her to halt her celebration.

“Look, I didn’t really mean for that second one, I just got caught up in the moment.  That TV wanker deserved the bullet, but Masters was begging for one.  I couldn’t bear to see that black dome of hair get away.  Not after what he said about Ryan, about all the rest of the Crows,” Norris said, his mind falling back to those angry days when he had heard the evangelist saying he was glad that most of the slave soldiers were dead. 

The self-righteous man had even brought up Cortes and Warner, specifically.  The two of them had been killers in the real world; they had deserved to die even before the uprising.  But that wasn’t how Norris remembered Cortes.  Warner was a bit of a monster, but Cortes was the sweetest, little, penitent idealist that Edward had ever met.  For Masters to say what he had said....

“I don’t blame you at all, Eddie.  I fully endorse it, even if his followers will claim he’s just another sacrifice in a holy war.  The man didn’t deserve to live,” Cassandra said with a soft voice.  Norris turned to her with tears in his eyes, tears he didn’t notice.  The woman walked over to the couch and sat next to the red-haired killer, setting her soft hand on his knee.  Edward looked down at the hand, some part of his mind screaming that it was inappropriate, but he did nothing to remove it.

“But Eddie,” she said, causing Norris to look into her golden eyes.  It was almost impossible to look away.  “You can’t do anything that reckless.  You almost got caught.  The news is talking about a red-haired sniper who killed two innocent, upstanding members of the community.  I’m pretty sure that no one had caught wind of your appearance before.  Eddie, you can’t do this again,” she said, pursing her lips at the end of the statement.  Norris turned away and looked at the coffee table before nodding and breathing out deeply.

“I know, I know.  I won’t, I’ll just stick to the assignments,” he started, but he felt the woman squeeze his leg and looked back to her golden eyes.

“I wasn’t saying that.  I think you could do a lot of good outside of shooting the people that the EFI tells you to,” she said, but that only confused the Englishman.

“But....”

“I’m saying you need
help
,” she emphasized with a smile.  Norris furrowed his brow at that and then realized what the woman was suggesting.

“Cass,” he started, but she brought her finger to his lips and laughed.

“Look, Eddie, you need a spotter and you need someone to tell you when to stop, that’s all.  I can help you with that.  It’ll be just like the regular assignments, except
we
get to make the call.  You just need some guidance, that’s all,” she said before lowering her finger and giving Edward a pleasant grin.  Norris could see this woman being very dangerous.

“Cass, I don’t know....” Norris started, but she just laid back against the side of the sofa and shook her head.

“Yeah, you do, Eddie.  I could see that smile on your face when you first walked in.  This is what you’re meant to do.  I’m just here to help you,” she said, smiling with her whole face.  Edward thought about it for a moment, realizing that the woman might
actually
have a point when she said that she already knew him.  The jester smiled and looked into the woman’s golden eyes.

“Well, alright then.  But first things first, girlie.  I’m not gonna be partnered up with someone and not know their name.  Time for you to be honest,” he said, trying to exert some will over the woman beside him.  She just laughed and shook her head before looking back at him.

“Always have been,
Teucer
.  Name’s Cassandra Rhodes,” she said with a wicked grin.  Norris looked at her warily before crossing his legs and backing up against the other end of the sofa.

“That’s your real name?  What’s your tag?” he asked, wondering if he had just forgotten it when they had first started to work together.

“Same thing, actually.  When he found out I was going to be your spotter, Goldstein couldn’t help himself.  He said it was too appropriate,” she said with a smile.  Norris shook his head at that.

“Bloody hell, Atlas and Goldstein love their hidden meanings,” he said before looking back at the woman across from him.  She was curled up into herself, holding her knees to her chest, and suddenly the Englishman felt guilty.  It had only been half a day since he had been told he wasn’t a father and now he was colluding with a strange woman. 

It only took a small amount of effort on Edward’s part in order to ignore it.

-

Elizabeth couldn’t see like this, but for some reason it was difficult for her to finish pulling the shirt past her head.  She just looked at the colorful fabric millimeters away from her face and sighed.  Liz didn’t have to do this; she could pull the shirt back over her head and plunge back into the comfort of her sheets and blankets.  Then she remembered how Charlotte used to smile, push Elizabeth’s nose out of her textbooks and take her to the market.  Liz breathed out in her resolve and finished pulling the shirt past her head.  She looked at her reflection and made an audible noise at her surprise.  Elizabeth looked like she could actually be presentable.

The young girl walked to the stairs, reminding herself not to shuffle her feet on the carpet, and grabbed the railing.  There was no static shock, which gave Elizabeth a small sense of satisfaction.  She walked down the rest of the stairs and sat down at the bottom, taking her time putting on her sneakers.  The young, black-haired woman was not going to be stopped today; she would try to find a life of her own.  When she was done with the shoelaces, the young woman reached into her pocket and brought out an elastic hair-tie, which she stretched out to make room for her ponytail.

Elizabeth pulled the rest of her hair behind her ears and checked herself in the mirror.  As she did, she remembered how she used to go out into the world during her small stay in college academia.  Elizabeth had put more effort in today than she had during most of those morning classes; it was quite the improvement.

The young woman walked through the doorway into the kitchen and looked for something to eat other than the rabbit food.  She found a cereal bar and sighed; it was the only real edible thing for breakfast in the house.  Elizabeth tore open the packaging, started to munch on the granola and felt grateful that it was artificially-sweetened.  She was through with the bland tribute to her sister.  The young girl turned her attention to the table and was greeted by a novel sight.  While her mother was in the same seat as always with the book turned to the same page, Elizabeth noticed that her father was not sitting opposite Mrs. Kane.

“Uh, where’s Dad?” she asked in her confusion.  The older woman looked up from her book and stammered a bit before she closed the paperback, setting her finger inside to mark her place.

“I’m .... not sure.  He came back late last night and he left pretty early.  I .... well, I didn’t think to ask,” Deborah said, not comprehending how she could have let her husband leave without wondering where he was going.  The older woman just shook her head and sighed before turning to her young daughter.  “Well, look at you.  Where are the pjs?” she asked, a slight, forced smile creasing her face.

“I’m actually going to leave the house today, mom,” she said, putting on a mock air of importance.  She would have liked to think it was entirely a joke, but Elizabeth knew that the act actually held a small bit of merit to her.

“Why?  Do you need something?” Mrs. Kane asked, thinking that she had done something wrong.  Elizabeth shook her head and laughed a bit, uneasy at the question.  She didn’t want her mother to worry and blurted out a reason.

“Some groceries, for one.  Dad was right; life’s too short for the rabbit food.  And I’ve never really been a fan of these,” she said as she raised the cereal bar in her hand.  Elizabeth forced her lips into a smile and then briskly walked over to her mother before giving her a kiss on the forehead.  “I’ll be back in a bit,” she said before turning towards the entrance.

“Oh.... ok, Liz.  Uh, get some .... some fresh vegetables while you’re out.  We can cook something nice tonight,” Deborah said to her daughter’s back, already lowering her head down to the book in her hands.  Elizabeth didn’t bother to look back at her mother, knowing that the older woman was really just filling the space with the placeholder words.

“Yeah, ok, mom.  I’ll see you later,” Elizabeth said as she opened the front door and closed it behind her, coughing as she was met with the not-so-fresh air.  The young woman had no real intention of buying any groceries for dinner; it would likely be takeout tonight, as well.  Her mother had made a habit out of promising a return to normalcy, but never quite getting there.  If she felt like it, Liz might make the effort on her way back, but she wouldn’t make a point of it.

Elizabeth Kane almost put her hands in her pockets, but reminded herself that was what the old Liz would have done.  This new Liz wasn’t going to shrink away from the world or isolate herself with music or textbooks.  The young woman continued down Lavender Street towards Babylon Tower, knowing that all of the entertaining places would be closer to the tower.  Elizabeth just knew that she had to get out of her house; she was dying inside there.

Just two blocks away from her home the residential area ended, leaving Elizabeth surrounded by the bells and whistles of the commercial district.  The city planners had decided to make concentric rings out of the two zoning areas, layering them so that the denizens of Babylon would not have to go very far for entertainment.  That was the point of Babylon; entertainment and joy right at their fingertips.  Babylon was the new garden of technology and hedonism; twenty-six petals of higher living.

As Elizabeth walked through the commercial district, she found that entertainment and joy were very distant prospects.  She looked through the glass pane of a nearby bar and found that most of the men and women were drinking alone, looking into their pint glasses but clearly focusing on something much further away.  Elizabeth turned from the sad, living art piece that was the dive bar and instead focused on the road ahead of her.

What she saw made the young woman feel better.  A young couple was walking towards her, arm in arm.  As they passed each other, Elizabeth gave them a warm smile, but they couldn’t stop looking at each other long enough to notice her.  The young woman didn’t mind; she was glad that kind of happiness existed, especially considering what she had just seen.

Elizabeth continued on towards the end of the commercial district and saw a kitschy little shop to her right.  The young woman looked up and saw the sign, one she had seen many times before.

“What time forgot....” she said under her breath as the words brought back the memories.  She smiled as she remembered the good, old days she had spend with Charlotte, looking at things too ridiculous to actually purchase.  Only once had her older sister allowed her to buy something, a trinket that she had lost a long time ago.

Elizabeth walked into the shop and nodded at the older woman with graying hair standing behind the counter.  The woman was missing a couple teeth but otherwise looked like quite the grand lady.  Elizabeth and her sister had never made fun of the gaudy woman inside the shop, but they had spent a few afternoons remarking on the woman’s sense of fashion.  Now the older woman was wearing a gown of green and gold, something so monstrously ugly that it brought a smile to Elizabeth’s face.  Charlotte had told her once that the woman had gone insane after her wealthy husband had died and that they couldn’t make too much fun at her expense. 

The young woman decided she would never make fun of the woman again, now that she knew what loss truly meant.  Elizabeth Kane turned her attention away from the old woman and started to wander around the shop.  She had intended to find something nice, something that meant she was truly care-free, but it was still as corny and ridiculous as she remembered.  Elizabeth was about to leave the shop when she noticed a bronze frame made up of seashells and sand dollars.  What drew Elizabeth’s attention was the picture it held of two girls laughing and playing in a field.

“You like the ocean, dear?” the raspy voice came from behind the counter.  Liz looked up in shock and found the kind face of the gaudy woman looking at her with a wide smile.  The gap between her teeth was still there, but it didn’t really bother Liz this time around.