An Eighty Percent Solution (CorpGov) (51 page)

After sixteen hours this session, Tony formed a system that made the chore of tending Suet somewhat mindless
.
Soak the washrag in ice water and mop her brow and hair
.
Repeat three times
.
Soak again and wipe down her entire body
:
her face
,
each tentacle
(
taking care around the glucose
/
saline IV
),
each leg
,
and
her
torso
.
Rinse the washrag and do the groin
.
Rinse again before each armpit
.
Finally
,
take the other iced washcloth and run it over her cracked lips, making sure to squeeze a little moisture into her mouth
.

Repeat
.
Once every tenth repetition
he’d
loosen one of her restraints and wipe under there as well
.
Tuan, the second
bodyguard provided to him by Sonya
,
proved useful here by holding that limb down until Tony retightened it
.
This seemed to be the bodyguards’ sole usefulness
.
One would relieve the other every twelve hours
.
They never spoke except in whispers to one another.

At one point
Tony asked to try
the tub
,
but
the pair of them
couldn’t control her enough to keep her from hurting herself or
them
, so she remained in bed, a prisoner of her own failing body and some
low
-
tech
bondage
.

Most of the time Tony thought of his promise
s
to Sonya
.
Of course she could be wrong
.
She may not die, he thought optimistically
.
A little voice in his head warned him he might as well wish for the moon to be green cheese
.

He couldn’t break out of the circularity of his thoughts, matching the repetitions of his bedside ministrations
.
“How can I possibly keep this promise
?
There are too many unknowns
.
How many would live through this thing?” he said, pointing at his friend bathed in her own sweat
.
“How many of those would feel that being shot is too good for me
?
How does one go about starting a guerilla organization from scratch
?”

Four repetitions later Tony finally kicked his mind
.
“Break it down, Nil.
The best choice would be for me to take over the current organization
.
Our action group is being decimated
,
but the support organizations will remain intact
.
To do this I would have to, at minimum, prove I had no knowledge or complicity in this
.
As Linc would say, ‘I smell a lot of footwork.’”

The nurse
, Susan,
came in to check the IV and to take vitals
.
She shook her head at what she got from the body beneath her
.

“Thank you for letting me help
,
”
Tony offered, just glad to talk to someone who’d talk back.

“I feel kinda silly just sitting here when
you’re the one
doing all the work
,
”
she replied.

“Oh, I doubt she even knows I’m here
.”

“Not true
.
Her reactions and restlessness are far worse when you aren’t here.”

“Really
?
I guess I’ll have to take your word for it
.
It does make me feel better
.”
Tony paused
.
“Does she have any chance
?”

Susan lowered her head and turned away.

* * *
 

“But why should we even vote
?
How can he lead us when
he’s
the source of
the disease?” asked Andrea, the spokesperson
.
The small congregation sprawled uncomfortably on the floor while the cats imperiously controlled the couch
.
T
he Pomeranian yipped at
anyone other than Sonya speaking or anyone with the temerity to move more than an eyelash
—
that is to say, almost
constantly
.
The
Chihuahua
walked amongst the four visitors looking for attention
.
Frances
pet
ted
it
absently
.
Only Christine seemed more interested in the
animals
than the conversation.

Sonya heard sound come out of her throat as a croak rather than words
.
She soothed her broken voice with a careful sip of water
.
It burned like alcohol on an open
can
k
e
r
sore as it went down
.

“If I could, I would
insist
.
He did nothing wrong
.”
Sonya forced herself
through
each painful word
.
So many things going wrong with her body all at once
.
Not much more time
to put things right
.

“We don’t know that and can’t prove that,”
Jackson
interjected.

“Look, I know I can’t force you to do anything after I die, so doing anything other than trying to persuade you would be foolish
.
It would be equally foolish to let you destroy our team.”

“We aren’t trying to do that.”

“Whether
you’re
trying or not,
that’ll
be the end result
.
You will drive out Tony
.
Those who believe
you’re
acting hastily and without proof will rally to him
.
He won’t have enough to create decisive actions
,
and
you’ll
be left with the empty shell that was the GAM
.”

“But we can’t vote him to the leadership
,”
Andrea said, crossing her arms and scowling
.
“
He could be working for them
.
Hell, we
know
he worked for them, wittingly or not
.
I don’t know which is worse
.
”

Sonya knew better than to reach out to Andrea, the most stubborn
and set in her hatred of Tony
.
Once her mind formed on a course
,
nothing could get it off except a very painful lesson
.
But the others…
i
f she might sway even one
, it was worth the effort
.
Sonya took another swig of liquid fire.

“I don’t think
we’ll
solve this here
.
The proper place is to debate it and vote.”

“We
have
been debating
,
but we
—
”

“No, Andrea,”
Frances
interjected, calmly but firmly
.
“We haven’t been debating
,
but rather heterodyning off one another’s fears
.
Sonya
’
s right in her form
.
I’m not sure if
she’s
right about Tony.”

“
Thank you
,
Frances
.
I won’t live to know if I’m right or not, but I believe it here,” she said, thumping her chest
.
Mistake
.
S
he knew at once as the coughing began
.
Despite the body-doubling whoops, she caught the horror in
Jackson
’s eyes
.

“Afraid?” she choked out as soon as she could manage.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve been having muscle aches and really bad headaches that over
-
the
-
counter meds do nothing for.”

“I sympathize
.
Talk to Linc
.
He may be able to help you with the pain and the fear
.
To my surprise
,
our friendly bartender is quite knowledgeable in many of the religious areas
—
an oddity considering his previous line of work
.
I’ve already made my peace with this life
.
You might want to investigate yours
.”

Jackson
looked possibly even more frightened that he did before
.
The drain on Sonya left her unable to comfort him
any further
.

“I’m sorry
,” she went on, “
but I’m going to have to ask you all to leave
. First, though,
let me give you just one more thought.
”

“What’s that
?”

“
How often have I been wrong
…
?”

* * *
 

A line of corpie couples stretched back and forth through a velvet rope maze, waiting for the venue to open
.
Their outfits
would’ve
gotten them arrested in most restaurants or
on
public transportation, but here at ground level in the club district the
ir sensuality and erotic nature
fit in with the rest of the
ir kind
.

Tony focused on one couple, trying to remember life in those confines
.
The man
dressed only in maroon see-through tights and
a
purple dinner jacket
.
His companion
wore nothing but a pair of iridescent panties, matching heels and a
30
centimeter diamond chain dangling from each of her
oversized
nipples
that swayed and bobbed
with the tiniest of her movements
.

Tony listened in but couldn’t make heads nor tails of their conversation
.
Somewhere over the last
few
weeks
,
he
’d
lost the ability to speak and communicate with corpies
.
He couldn’t decide if he should be happy or sad
.
Before he could
make up his mind
,
the reason for his visit
exited the door.

The
massive arms reflected the glaring light of the dying rose solido high overhead
.
As
his usual practice, the
doorman
-
cum
-
bouncer
looked over the crowd to get an idea of the patrons before he invited any in
.
As usual
he’d
ban
any
troublemakers before they nerfed
the guests’ evening of fun and the club’s profits
.
 

“Hello, Mr. Tony,” Jock said
without turning
as Tony walked up behind him
.

“How do you do that?”

“Do what, sir?”

“
I believe
it’s
called situational awareness
.
You knew I was coming up behind you even though
your attention is focused on the crowd
.
”

“
I always could
.
Wouldn’t be good at my job if I
couldn’t
.
Ca
nya
, take over for me, I’m going to break for just a few
before we open
.”