Chapter Three – Can Juno Come Play?

Chapter Three – Can Juno Come Play?

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***

Delilah and I continued to plot and scheme and drink coffee for a while. The overall plan was pretty simple; if we couldn’t get good information from outside of Quebec, then we probably had to go there in person. That kinda sucked, but it wasn’t too hard to imagine popping over and checking things out.

Delilah was of the opinion that we ought to only head over to Quebec once we were ready.

“I mean, sure, but also, it’s only an hour or so away. We can fly there and back in no time, especially with your Fury,” I said. “Why go through all of the trouble of doing a ton of prep-work when we don’t know if we’ll need it.”

“Because it’s better to be prepared than not?” she asked. “Obviously. If we arrive there and discover that the situation is bad enough that we have to stay then what are we supposed to do? And what if we arrive and discover that we need certain gear? Or that we’ve shown up and need reinforcements?”

“Yeah, but if we show up quickly, then we’re less likely to need those reinforcements, right?” I asked. “Reinforcements are for when the shit’s hit the fan. For all we know, it’s still airborne.”

“A true poet,” Delilah said. “What does Lucy see in you?”

“Nice butt?”

She shook her head slowly. “Nevermind. My point is, when we get to Quebec, we might want to arrive and immediately set up a base camp of some sort. Even if we only encounter friendlies. And doing that would require, naturally, that we have a place set up already.”

I grunted, but she might have been right. “What sort of place?”

“I’d suggest a hotel, at the very least.”

I leaned back in the stool I’d taken over, thinking on it. A hotel would be nice. Complimentary breakfasts were cool, and I figured most higher-end hotels would be cool with having a few samurai around, but…

“What about something less commercial?” I asked.

“Like?” She asked. “Do you plan on camping in a field?”

“That’s an idea,” I said.

“Really, Catherine?”

“Not an actual field,” I said. “The army has to have some sort of setup near Quebec, right? If Deus Ex is asking for help, then that means that there has to be something going on with the Antithesis, and that means the army.”

“That… is reasonable,” Delilah said. She shifted back, leaning against her counter. “There is likely to be some sort of base in the area, either within the city or near it. Atyacus, can you look that up for us, please?”

It took me a moment to recall that Delilah’s AI was called Atyacus. She didn’t call out to them… him? Very often. I think I talked to Myalis a lot more. Then again, I wasn’t privy to their chats, so for all I knew, Atyacus wouldn’t shut up in Delilah’s ear.

“I see,” Delilah said. She blinked at me, and my augs pinged as I received something.

I opened the file without doing a scan or anything. It was a report from the Royal Army of Canada, with force dispositions and locations. “The wall?” I asked.

“Looks like that’s their main housing unit for troops, which I suppose makes sense. There is a headquarters built into the wall. There should be a barrack there, and a motorpool and the usual facilities to take care of things. VTOL deployment space, drone repair facilities, armouries, cafeterias… I suppose everything else that goes with a city’s garrison.”

“I’ll contact someone. Crap, I’m bad at names, but I know a few people in the army, they might not mind hosting us for a bit. Might not be as comfortable as a hotel.”

“No, but the site security will likely be better.”

I imagined that the bigger, better hotels might dispute that. Celebrities and the one-percenters wouldn’t settle for a few bored twenty-somethings with ARs keeping them safe. But yeah, the army would keep most of the media at bay.

“Lemme give… shit, what was his name? That Lieutenant Colonel guy… tall, dark hair. Looks like he enjoyed filing his taxes.”

“Juno?” Delilah asked. “Why not the Brigadier General? I can’t imagine that you don’t know how ranks work, but the general outranks the colonel.”

“Sure, but I barely interacted with the general, and he seemed like a hardass, besides. I don’t think he liked me. I don’t think Juno loved me either, but we got results and I bet those looked good on his record or whatever.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Delilah stared for a moment, then shook her head. “The worse part of all of this, is that after spending enough time with you, I’m actually starting to understand some of your underlying logic. You’re basically saying that since Juno has more potential to climb the ranks and is more flexible within his rank, he’s more valuable to you?”

“Not in as many–or as pretty–words but yeah.” Mostly it was because the general scared me a bit and I thought that Juno was someone I could lead around by the nose if it came to it, but that was also, probably, one of the reasons. “Myalis, think you can find me Juno’s number?”

Sure. Here.