{"id":486,"date":"2024-07-02T18:47:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T22:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/?p=486"},"modified":"2025-01-28T23:44:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T04:44:05","slug":"identity-theft-chapter-43","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/identity-theft-chapter-43\/","title":{"rendered":"The Changeling Game, Chapter 43"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\ntt {\nfont: .857em menlo, monaco, consolas, monospace;\nmargin: auto;\n}\nh2 {\ntext-align: center;\n}\nh2.chapterhead {\nmargin-bottom: 2em;\ntext-align: center;\n}\n  .nowrap {\n    text-indent: 0;\n    display: inline-block;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p><b>Title:<\/b> The Changeling Game <small>(Formerly <i>Identity Theft<\/i>)<\/small><br \/>\n<b>Author:<\/b> Ardath Rekha<br \/>\n<b>Chapter:<\/b> 43\/?<br \/>\n<b>Fandom:<\/b> TCOR AU<br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> M<br \/>\n<b>Warnings:<\/b> Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language, violence<br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Gen<br \/>\n<b>Pairing:<\/b> None<br \/>\n<b>Summary:<\/b> Knowledge is power. Some knowledge comes at a terrible price.<br \/>\n<b>Disclaimer:<\/b> The characters and events of <i>Pitch Black,<\/i> <i>The Chronicles of Riddick,<\/i> and <i>The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury<\/i> are not mine, but belong to Universal Studios.  I just <i>wish<\/i> I were in charge of their fates.  No money is being made off of this.  I\u2019m writing strictly for love of the story.<br \/>\n<b>Feedback:<\/b> Absolutely, the more the better!  Shred me, whip me, beat me, make me feel grammatical! I post \u201crough,\u201d so I can always use the help. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='6aac2b96cf0114079694094' value='6aac2b96cf0114079694094'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6aac2b96cf0114079694094' value='Long post is long. Click to read the story.'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6aac2b96cf0114079694094' value='Hide the story again.'><button id='bg-showmore-action-6aac2b96cf0114079694094' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-green-button  '   style=\" color:#D9ECFB;\">Long post is long. Click to read the story.<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-6aac2b96cf0114079694094' ><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"chapterhead\">43.<br \/>\n<u>What Cannot Be Unlearned<\/u><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The silence grew more and more painful as the moment dragged on. Takama\u2019s words hung over everyone. Jack, standing in two thresholds at once, could barely breathe.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Oh fuck, Jack,<\/i> she heard in her head. Kyra wasn\u2019t any happier about this than she was.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNo,\u201d Ewan finally said, looking from one face to another. \u201c<i>No.<\/i> Don\u2019t even start <i>thinking<\/i> about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe may have to\u2014\u201d Safiyya began.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat the hell are you planning on <i>doing,<\/i> exactly?\u201d he demanded. \u201cCasting a circle of salt around them? Trapping them in a bottle or a lamp? Locking them in a tower above Elsewhere\u2019s high tide line? Do you think they will <i>ever<\/i> believe you\u2019re on their side again\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe <i>are<\/i> on their side\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNot if you start thinking of imprisoning them! Tislilel hasn\u2019t even confided her <i>real name<\/i> to us yet and you would completely shatter her trust\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe just want to keep them safe,\u201d his mother protested.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDon\u2019t make me remind you of what happened the last time someone tried to keep her <i>safely<\/i> locked up,\u201d Ewan told her, his voice shaking a little. \u201cLook at her arms if you\u2019ve forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack glanced down at her wrists. She\u2019d honestly begun to forget the scars were there, markings of a suicide attempt that now seemed to have happened eons ago to another girl. She\u2019d have to figure out what to do about them when she was heading home. There would be a lot of questions waiting for her on the other end of her journey, and that could be an especially difficult one to answer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat would you suggest we do instead? Let them run wild?\u201d For whatever reason, Safiyya seemed to be the most upset.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Her first-born son\u2019s been dead for less than two weeks,<\/i> Jack reminded herself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>She can\u2019t replace him with us, even if we were staying,<\/i> Kyra countered in her head.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhy do you believe she\u2019s running wild?\u201d Ewan asked his mother. \u201cA child prodigy may still be a child, but she\u2019s also still a <i>prodigy<\/i> and if we stop respecting that\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI just want to know where she <i>is!\u201d<\/i> Safiyya\u2019s voice was breaking.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack winced at the desperate pain in her voice and stepped back out of their line of sight, isomorphing into U1 before re-entering the dining room doorway. \u201cRight here,\u201d she said. She\u2019d gone for her calmest tone, but it sounded more <i>depressed<\/i> than calm.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Four alarmed faces stared at her; General Toal\u2019s expression remained deadpan. She could see, in Ewan\u2019s face in particular, the knowledge that she had probably heard everything.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe Quintessa Corporation envoy fired Toombs and Logan after the scuffle at the garden,\u201d she told them, her voice still heavier than she\u2019d planned, before any of them could get over their shock and start in on her. That dual revelation seemed to shock them all speechless anew. \u201cThey\u2019re planning on leaving Tangiers Prime. Back during the overnoon sleep period, I sent out a fake vid that makes it look like Kyra and I are on Shakti Four with Riddick, and they\u2019ve fallen for it, so that\u2019s where they\u2019re planning to go now. Before they were fired, Logan was reviewing recordings of all outgoing calls made by morgue employees before the <i>Matador<\/i> bodies disappeared. I spent the last five hours hiding the evidence that Usadden called Ewan and took a call from him a few hours later.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She kept her words calm, informative, trying to use the debriefing style that both Ewan and his older brother had sometimes used. Silence greeted her. Almost everyone looked stricken; General Toal\u2019s face remained inscrutable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIf anyone ever asks,\u201d she said, turning to Ewan and meeting his gaze, \u201c<i>you<\/i> called Usadden that morning-day, not the other way around, and only once. You wanted him to settle a bet you had with Didier over how and when rigor mortis sets in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Ewan blinked, his eyes widening slightly. The call <i>had<\/i> been in Tamazight, but her translator program had helped her wade through it. Still, she could see him wondering how much of the language she\u2019d picked up.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack shrugged at him. \u201cIt was the only other recording I could find that was short enough and didn\u2019t reference times or events that could get flagged. I hope all of you <i>agreed<\/i> to your service provider recording your calls, because it looks like they have recordings of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cTizzy\u2026\u201d Cedric began softly.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She couldn\u2019t let him continue. She didn\u2019t dare. Part of her desperately wanted to apologize to them, beg their forgiveness, let them take control of the moment and all the moments to come, but she couldn\u2019t. In only a few more days, she had to leave, and if she let them tie her to them\u2014and it would be <i>so easy<\/i> to\u2014she might never go. This was, probably, as good a moment as she would ever get to sever that forming knot before it could tighten into something inescapable.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI didn\u2019t want to commit any class-one felony cybercrimes using your network address or geolocation,\u201d she told all five of them instead, \u201cso I went back to the apartment. It\u2019s paid through the end of the month, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Takama closed her eyes and nodded, sighing. Jack had the odd feeling that General Toal was struggling to hide a smile.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI also learned, from shadowing Toombs, that the real name of the man I killed\u2014\u201d she faltered for a second as Safiyya flinched \u201c\u2014is Pritchard. They worked together sometimes. He was borrowing Toombs\u2019 Master Key when he broke into our apartment, and I guess Toombs was holding onto <i>his<\/i> \u2018Cam-Jam\u2019 as collateral. I looked it up. It\u2019s merc slang for a long-range <i>camera jammer.<\/i> I think Pritchard may have been the person who brought the bomb into the spaceport, but I won\u2019t know for sure until I crack open his Merc Network account and take a look. So I\u2019m gonna go do that, and then I\u2019m gonna go to bed. Good night.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She\u2019d kept her voice calm, almost flat, through the whole speech. She\u2019d tried not to let any of the hurt show, the sadness, the growing awareness that the harder they tried to hold onto her, the more she\u2019d want to run. She <i>hoped<\/i> none of that had managed to come through, but her voice had felt so <i>heavy<\/i> the whole time.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Before they could say anything, she turned and started across the courtyard.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cTislilel,\u201d Ewan called after her, \u201chave you eaten anything?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She turned around again. He was standing in the doorway, poised to follow her. She could feel him struggling not to, struggling not to say dozens of things that could never be undone if he gave them voice. She shook her head at him, realizing for the first time that she hadn\u2019t eaten since before they had all left for the officers\u2019 reception and she had followed behind them as a phantom.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cTafrara and I will bring something up to you,\u201d He managed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThank you.\u201d She wanted to say so much more to him. <i>Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for defending me. Thank you for protecting me from myself on the beach of Elsewhere\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u2026I love you\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">If she said another word, she\u2019d unravel everything. Instead, she turned away and headed into the opposite side of the <i>ait Meziane<\/i> house.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>If they did lock us up,<\/i> she found herself thinking, <i>How would we get out? Our room is on the third floor. Unless we floated out of the house during high tide, we can\u2019t pass through the walls without falling through the floor.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Could<\/i> they?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She hadn\u2019t been able to follow Logan into the courthouse, and had missed the beginning of her argument with Toombs, because the courthouse steps hadn\u2019t existed in Elsewhere. But was there any way to be more selective? To let some of U1\u2019s solid surfaces prevail while others were excluded?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She was still on the ground level, Elsewhere\u2019s sands beneath her feet on the other side of the threshold, she thought as she reached the staircase up to the second story. If she wanted to test her idea, this was the best place to try. She isomorphed over, keeping U1 visible as a shadowy overlay, and contemplated the lowest stairstep.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I am in Elsewhere, completely in Elsewhere\u2026 the objects of U1 are not with me. I can pass through them, but\u2026 the surfaces of U1 will elevate me\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her foot dropped through the top of the first step when she tried to put her weight on it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Fuck.<\/i> She sighed and concentrated harder. <i>I didn\u2019t learn to isomorph the first time I tried to, either\u2026<\/i> This was too important to give up yet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She repeated her mantra, focusing on the idea that the solid surfaces of U1, the floors and stairs, should support her weight even when her body was all the way in Elsewhere\u2026 when she <i>wanted<\/i> them to. That the step, although it didn\u2019t exist in Elsewhere, could still override the laws of gravity of that other \u2019verse, at least where she was concerned\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She tried stepping onto it again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It held her weight.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Carefully, one step after another, she began to climb the staircase, barely daring to breathe.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cTizzy?\u201d Cedric\u2019s voice called from behind her. She stopped, heart lurching, and turned to look at him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Was she actually in U1? Could he see her on the stairs? Was that why the steps were holding her up?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">But Cedric was looking around, walking toward the staircase but not focusing on her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIs she upstairs already?\u201d Safiyya asked, entering the room with General Toal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLooks like,\u201d Cedric told her. He took his wife\u2019s arm as she started toward the stairs herself. \u201cYou need to let Ewan and Tafrara handle this. After everything she may have heard you and Takama saying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBut\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe\u2019ll only make things worse right now. Let them talk to her first, m\u2019love?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI recommend this as well,\u201d General Toal agreed. \u201cTonight was, unfortunately, not handled well. Especially now that we know where she was, and what she was doing for your family\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Safiyya looked like she wanted to argue with him, but then she sighed and nodded, her face crumpling. Cedric drew her into a hug. Their grief was too painful for Jack to look at long.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She turned and finished climbing the steps. They hadn\u2019t known she was there; what she had tried was <i>working.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Kyra, can you feel what I\u2019m doing?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Yeah. Good thought. You\u2019ll need to teach me how. Now get up here.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra pulled her into a hug the moment she entered their room. They stood still, embracing fiercely, for a long moment, only finally letting go when Sebby climbed onto both of them to get their attention.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe can\u2019t stay much longer,\u201d her sister whispered, sadness in her face. \u201cI love them and I know you do, too\u2026 but they don\u2019t get how much danger they\u2019re putting themselves in, trying to look out for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYeah,\u201d Jack sighed, wishing there was some argument that could be mustered against that, but knowing there wasn\u2019t. \u201cDid you find anything?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cGot a few possibilities,\u201d Kyra said with a wry grin. \u201cCan you help me write the cover letters? You\u2019re pretty good at that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">They were finishing the first cover letter when Tafrara and Ewan knocked on the door. Kyra closed down the tablet and put it away while Jack walked over to let them in.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">True to Ewan\u2019s word, they had brought up food. The moment its aroma hit Jack\u2019s nose, she realized how ravenous she was. \u201cThank you. <i>So<\/i> much. Do you two want to come in?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">They did, but the next few minutes were a little awkward. Jack tried to concentrate on stuffing her face, especially any time the urge to apologize surfaced again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I\u2019m going my own way in just a few days more,<\/i> she reminded herself. <i>They\u2019d better get used to it now. <b>I\u2019d<\/b> better get used to it now.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra, however, needed firmer answers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLook,\u201d she said, her eyes moving between Ewan and Tafrara. \u201cWe love all of you, we really do, but I gotta know if someone\u2019s about to start locking us in here or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Ewan winced, looking ashamed, even though he was the one who had argued vehemently against it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOur parents are very sorry,\u201d Tafrara began.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSorry they considered it, or sorry we overheard them considering it?\u201d Kyra asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cA bit of both,\u201d Ewan muttered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Tafrara shot him a <i>look<\/i>. \u201cIt\u2019s just\u2026 neither of you should be on your own, not at your ages,\u201d she told them. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t <i>have<\/i> to take care of yourselves so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra looked over at Jack. <i>Don\u2019t rise to that,<\/i> she sent through the air before turning to look at Tafrara again. \u201cYou know neither of us chose to be in these situations, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBut that just makes it more important for you to have someone\u2014\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMaking the few choices we have left <i>for<\/i> us?\u201d Kyra tilted her head, still keeping her eyes locked with Tafrara\u2019s. \u201cYou know my story, right? You know what started the whole damned stand-off in the first place?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Ewan and Tafrara both shook their heads.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe New Christy Elders wouldn\u2019t let girls learn math. Or science. Or social sciences. Or anything much except how to be good little wives and brood mares. You know who figured that out and raised a stink?\u201d When they didn\u2019t answer, she continued. \u201cAmnesty Interplanetary, that\u2019s who. And a bunch of shitstains who hated us already took it up as a <i>cause.<\/i> \u2018Save the girls of New Christy.\u2019 As if they actually gave a fuck. You know how many of those girls died after Red Roger and his men stormed the place to supposedly <i>rescue<\/i> us?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAll but three,\u201d Ewan whispered. \u201cAnd you were one of those three.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnd trust me, you don\u2019t want to know what they did before killing most of \u2019em. You don\u2019t even want to <i>imagine.<\/i>\u201d Kyra stood up, stalking the room with restless energy. Jack could feel her wishing for something, some<i>one<\/i>, to pummel until the pain went away again. \u201cSo yeah, I know your parents <i>mean well\u2026<\/i> but people meaning well already cost me my whole family, my friends, my freedom, my <i>virginity\u2026<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Brother and sister both winced.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra stopped near the balcony doors and turned back to face the room. \u201cNobody\u2026 <i>nobody<\/i> makes my choices for me. Not ever again. I appreciate everything you guys have done for me, are trying to <i>do<\/i> for me, but that\u2019s my line in the sand. I\u2019m not gonna be anybody\u2019s daughter. It\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was, Jack realized, the last word on the subject. Neither Tafrara nor Ewan asked about her own reasoning or plans; Kyra had shut the whole conversation down too thoroughly. Her sister had done that on purpose, so that Jack wouldn\u2019t tell them where she had been trying to go, or where she was going back to, or even just that she already <i>had<\/i> a family that was awaiting her return. The known quantity of Kyra\u2019s history had been used to obscure the hidden story of \u201cJack B. Badd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>No wonder she\u2019s not impressed by Amnesty Interplanetary\u2019s attempts to defend her now,<\/i> Jack thought. <i>They accidentally set all of it in motion, and even if they try to atone now\u2014<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe are so sorry, Dihya,\u201d Ewan said. His voice was subdued.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra managed a curt nod. \u201cNot like any of you were in on it. It\u2019s just\u2026 too late for me to go back. You know, the most fucked up part of all of it was I <i>wanted<\/i> someone to rescue me back then. I wanted a different life than I\u2019d gotten. I wanted to do the things they said were <i>boy<\/i> things. I wanted <i>out<\/i> of the enclave. Did I ever get my fucking <i>wish\u2026<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>You didn\u2019t make any of that happen,<\/i> Jack told her. <i>None of it was your fault.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra looked her way, a pained smirk appearing on her face. <i>Survivor\u2019s guilt, right? Just another thing we have in common\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe\u2019ll explain to our parents,\u201d Tafrara said in a voice that was every bit as cowed as Ewan\u2019s. \u201cI think\u2026 they miss getting to <i>be<\/i> parents\u2026 once Zdan went off to University, they haven\u2019t quite known what to do with themselves since. I think, when they saw these two <i>orphans<\/i> wander into the Rif\u2014not just our parents but Takama and Brahim, too\u2014they were all hoping\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cTo rescue us,\u201d Jack finished for her. \u201cOnly the things they wanted to rescue us from\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Mercenaries? Monsters? Death and destruction? Mayhem? Being, essentially, child soldiers on a shadowed battlefield where most of the villains posed as white-hats? The loss of innocence?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201c\u2026already ate us,\u201d Kyra finished when she couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Ewan closed his eyes, swallowing. When he reopened them, and they met Jack\u2019s, the sorrow and regret in them speared through her. She couldn\u2019t look away\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra cleared her throat sharply.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe should go,\u201d Tafrara said, nudging her brother to break the dangerous spell that had begun to build. \u201cWe\u2019ll let you two rest. In the morning, we have something special planned,\u201d she continued as she ushered Ewan out of the room. \u201cWe saw you watching us spar, and even though your stitches won\u2019t let you do that yet, there are exercises that are safe for you to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Ewan allowed himself to be pushed out of the room, not looking back.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe\u2019ll show you tomorrow. Good night, girls,\u201d Tafrara said, and closed their door.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra stared after them for a moment and then started to snicker. \u201cDamn. You two can\u2019t even <i>look<\/i> at each other without sparks the size of <i>Sebby<\/i> flying. Now we know how to end any awkward conversation around here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cJeez, yeah,\u201d Jack grumbled. \u201cWith even <i>more<\/i> awkwardness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWell, he\u2019s only here for two more Tangiers days,\u201d Kyra said, and then winced as pain sliced through Jack at the thought. \u201cSorry. I wasn\u2019t thinking. But even if you were eighteen right now, we\u2019d still have to leave, you know. So it\u2019s better that there\u2019s this \u2026barrier\u2026 anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI guess so,\u201d Jack said, pulling the new tablet out of her bag. \u201cI\u2019m gonna move my stuff off that tablet so it\u2019s all yours. I\u2019ve got instructions on how to use ghost codes and how to make fake IDs on there. You get to keep those. But that way you don\u2019t have to worry about me seeing your plans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnd you don\u2019t have to worry about me seeing yours,\u201d Kyra nodded. \u201cI know you don\u2019t like it, but\u2026 everybody thinks they\u2019re brave and stoic enough to make it through being interrogated, but most people turn out not to be. We can\u2019t spill what we don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack nodded, reminded of Pritchard again. He hadn\u2019t seemed to <i>care<\/i> that she didn\u2019t know where Riddick was. She was pretty sure he\u2019d begun really looking forward to hurting her because he\u2019d realized she wouldn\u2019t have any bargaining chips to use to make him stop. There\u2019d been something deeply sick in his head.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYeah, that guy was a fucking creep,\u201d Kyra agreed. \u201cI felt it, too. A little too literally. Son of a bitch got a <i>hard-on<\/i> when he stabbed me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cEww. I didn\u2019t see that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI felt it. Went away fast after Sebby stung him, though. You\u2019d better not feel even a little regret about finishing him off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u201cDon\u2019t you cry for Johns. Don\u2019t you dare,\u201d<\/i> a voice rumbled, in response, out of memory. Even though it was entirely inside her head, her sister heard it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhen\u2019d <i>that<\/i> happen?\u201d Kyra asked, tilting her head quizzically.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDamn, I still have a lot to tell you about the eclipse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack talked while she ported her data over to the new tablet, careful not to describe in too much detail just what had happened to Hassan, focusing instead on the discovery that light wasn\u2019t merely painful but injurious to the crash planet\u2019s native life, burning away the skin of the one Johns shot and killed. All they needed, they\u2019d realized, was enough light, and they could make their way back to the mining settlement and the skiff.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Except that Johns wanted to stay put. The argument had gotten ugly. Imam, still seeming so wise and judicious to her, had said that the orrery back in the settlement indicated that the darkness might last a long time, days or even weeks, subtly siding with Fry. Paris, aside from volunteering his alcohol stash for burning and pointing out that the sand cat wouldn\u2019t run at night\u2014an assumption Jack still had <i>issues<\/i> with\u2014refused to choose a side. But then when Johns and Fry started getting really nasty with each other, and Johns had started to make a move toward violence\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Riddick had stepped in.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Calm, silent, having said nothing at all during the debate, he still didn\u2019t speak, but he put himself between Fry and the muzzle of Johns\u2019 gun. He didn\u2019t seem to be bothered by the possibility that, if the merc pulled the trigger, he\u2019d be headless. Instead, he\u2019d gently tapped one of Johns\u2019 legs with his shiv.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">At the time, Jack had thought it was her imagination, the male voice she\u2019d heard in her head, the <i>Riddick<\/i> voice in her head murmuring <i>The abdominal aorta\u2019s a gusher, but wait \u2019til you see the femoral artery go\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cGod<i>damn<\/i>, he\u2019s a serious <i>badass,<\/i>\u201d Kyra snickered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It shouldn\u2019t have been quite so equal a standoff. Would Riddick really have had time to slice open Johns\u2019 thigh if the lawman\u2014she\u2019d still thought he <i>was<\/i> one up to that point\u2014started to pull the trigger? But she\u2019d heard another echo of Riddick\u2019s voice, along with the remembered heat of him against her back\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u2014No, not <i>her<\/i> back, but Fry\u2019s\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u2014saying \u201cthen again, I <i>am<\/i> worth twice as much <i>alive.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">And somehow she\u2019d known, suddenly, that <i>Fry<\/i> knew Johns wasn\u2019t a real cop. That he\u2019d done something so horrible that he\u2019d lost all of Fry\u2019s respect in the process. Something that, when Fry had realized it, had shifted her allegiance away from him and his empty representation of law and order. She had no faith in him, no belief that he could or would help any of them. She trusted Riddick more\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Riddick, who was calmly staring Johns down while acting as Fry\u2019s shield.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The fake cop had backed off, his smile disturbingly unhinged as he did so. Jack had been struck with terrible knowledge: this wasn\u2019t over. Whatever was going on with the three of them was going to end in blood.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHopefully his,\u201d Kyra said, powering down her tablet and setting it aside. \u201cOkay\u2026 my cover letters and credentials are sent and my brain is <i>fried\u2026<\/i> you okay if I go to sleep now?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSure,\u201d Jack said, checking over her new tablet\u2019s safeguards one more time. \u201cI\u2019m gonna see if I can get into Pritchard\u2019s account and then I\u2019ll probably do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSounds good. G\u2019night\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack spent another half hour making sure that her incursion into the Merc Network would be untraceable, before finally pulling up the login screen. Typing in Pritchard\u2019s username, she hoped that Toombs wasn\u2019t still tossing obscene password possibilities at the account and it wouldn\u2019t be locked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">A new screen appeared, inviting her to enter a password.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack closed her eyes, visualizing the piece of paper that had been tucked into Pritchard\u2019s billfold. It had looked like a random string of numbers and letters at the time; now, having seen the gross passwords that Toombs had tried, and the way he\u2019d used numbers as letter substitutions in places, the string resolved into a revolting phrase that told her far too much about what Pritchard paid brothels extra to let him do. Suddenly she regretted being eidetic; there was no way to wash that back out of her mind.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She entered the combination into the password field, feeling sullied just typing it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom: 1em\"><tt>Welcome, Duke Pritchard.<\/tt><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She was in.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The man was a packrat; that didn\u2019t surprise her. His case and correspondence files stretched back for more than two <i>decades.<\/i> He and Toombs had been messaging for the last decade, on and off, and had seemingly worked on several cases together. Only one other correspondence file was larger. She opened that file and dug in.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Bingo.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She read over the most recent messages, feeling a strange tightening in her stomach as she went.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom: 1em;margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em\"><tt><b>DP:<\/b> Don\u2019t worry about it. Lay low. I\u2019ve got a line on him. We can make him take the fall for everything. Bonus: both his girls are fair game.<\/tt><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMother<i>fucker,<\/i>\u201d Jack murmured. They\u2019d been planning on shifting the blame for the spaceport explosion onto <i>Riddick?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She looked back further in the log.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom: 1em;margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em\"><tt><b>JM:<\/b> Target inaccessible. Need a two-block package. You know the kind. Can you bring it to me?<br \/>\n<b>DP:<\/b> On my way. Location?<br \/>\n<b>JM:<\/b> Concourse C4. How\u2019s that for irony?<\/tt><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>You fucking bastards.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">DP, Duke Pritchard, had brought the bomb into the spaceport. A \u201cpackage\u201d sized to take out two city blocks? Or maybe a package made out of two blocks of explosives? She wasn\u2019t sure. But JM was the man who had shadowed Tomlin in the spaceport, driving him into the pilots\u2019 lounge, and then calling for a bomb to wipe him and hundreds of others off the map.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Who was JM?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She dug around in more correspondence and case subfolders, looking for anything where the full name was spelled out. It took just ten minutes and then she hit the jackpot.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Javor Makarov. He and Pritchard had hunted together often. Their bounties, she noticed, were almost always women when they did. She realized why soon after when she found the media files Pritchard had hidden in a subfolder with the odd label \u201cBad Kitties.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">There were, she realized, multiple image collections behind the label\u2026 hideous pictures that Stacey would have loved, of Pritchard and Makarov with, when Jack opened one collection, a young woman who looked barely older than Kyra\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">There were more than two dozen different collections like that, she saw, her nausea rising. Each set featured a different woman. Or girl. Always young, one or two looking younger than <i>her<\/i>\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">There were vid files in each folder, too. She didn\u2019t even try to open any of those.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The man with Pritchard in virtually every image was recognizably the same man who had been captured, at a distance, by surveillance cameras as he set the bomb down on a bench. Makarov was the bomber. But he was <i>so much worse<\/i> than that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her hands shaking, Jack began to assemble a new file folder in Pritchard\u2019s account, copying as much damning evidence as she could stomach into one deadly, terrible dossier. She would have to send it on later, from the old apartment, just in case anyone could break through the backtrail protections that she had in place. Once the tide went back out, she would go.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">And then law enforcement would learn a whole lot more about Duke Pritchard and Javor Makarov, two monsters hiding behind fake badges\u2026 two hideous excuses of men who made William Johns look like an Eagle Scout by comparison.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She wondered just how much Toombs had really known about Pritchard\u2026 and how much Logan really knew about <i>Toombs.<\/i> Worse, she now knew exactly what would have been done to her and Kyra, only a few evening-days earlier, if the <i>Apeiros<\/i> and Sebby hadn\u2019t been helping them defend themselves.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u2026both his girls are fair game\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was too much.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack hoped none of the <i>ait Meziane<\/i> clan\u2014especially not Ewan, who had made such an effort to get her fed\u2014could hear her puking her guts out into the toilet. She hoped she\u2019d shielded Kyra from what she had learned, and it wouldn\u2019t seep into either of their dreams.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Could she ever be Audrey again with this monstrous knowledge in her head?<\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: The Changeling Game (Formerly Identity Theft) Author: Ardath Rekha Chapter: 43\/? Fandom: TCOR AU Rating: M Warnings: Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language, violence Cate","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"\u201cThe Changeling Game\u201d 43: \u201cWhat Cannot Be Unlearned\u201d","bgseo_description":"Knowledge is power. Some knowledge comes at a terrible price.","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fan-fiction","category-the-changeling-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1181,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions\/1181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}