《Ghosts Within》Chapter 35: A Different Kind of Freedom

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There were plenty of places on Earth like New Madison. Greed was a universal solvent, dissolving what little bit of decency managed to calcify. Though there wasn’t anyplace else in the Federation where you could get a slice of apple pie with real, honest-to-God cheese on it, it wasn’t worth dying over. Good riddance.

Eleanor ended up spending her retainer a few dozen times over but she had been worth every credit. Judge bought her argument, and he was a free man, standing on the steps of New Madison’s jail. He wouldn’t miss this view. He smoked the last of Tyreese’s overpriced cigarettes and waited for Josie.

She didn’t make him wait long, whipping a new speeder around and popping open the door. Remy did a double take when he saw her.

“Whoa!” Her head was bald and he had to shuffle a small stack of wigs from the passenger seat in order to sit down. Josie blushed.

“Last gift from Fernando, I guess. Doc said I was ’irresponsibly close to death.’” She had the cutest laugh. It was the most refreshing sound in the world. How had he never noticed it before?

“Sounds exactly what a robot would say. I think you look great.” He kissed her and let her know that he meant it. Josie pulled back and pointed at the wigs.

“Figured we could pick one out depending on our mood for the day. What are you feeling?”

The wigs looked nice, real human hair or a close enough replication to make no difference. She had a black one a bit shorter than she’d worn her hair before, a shoulder length blond bob, and a brunette one with long straight hair. Mercifully, she didn’t have any red wigs. He didn’t think it was an oversight.

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“Let’s go without today. I’m feeling the new look.”

Josie wiped the corner of her eye and brought their speeder around back to their apartment. She’d managed to move over just about everything of importance from O’Malley Pawn during his stay at New Madison’s finest and only penitentiary and had even sold the business itself. Even after his legal fees, they’d be doing well enough. Well enough to start over, at least.

Turns out, Josie’d already bought tickets when she found out he was going to be released. In three days, they’d hop on a shuttle and land in Couver, far away on the coast. It’d been years since he’d seen a real ocean, green though it was.

For those three days, Remy relaxed for the first time in what felt like his entire life. They drank from dirty glasses at the School House and slipped some credits to Luis for being a friend. As much a friend as Remy had anyway. Jack didn’t fucking count. They brought flowers to the Regency for Franklin and Remy murmured the best apology he could think of. He didn’t have a great one but he’d hoped he could understand.

Josie pulled him away from the Regency and into the farmer’s market set up in the plaza. They pecked at spicy breads and bought fresh cheese and savored each bite, knowing that Couver’s cheese would taste like plastic, assuming they knew how to replicate anything beyond the basics. God, he’d miss the cheese.

That night they ate noodles and watched some pre-Revolution Holos from the floor since she’d sold all their furniture too. Josie fell asleep on his shoulder and Remy couldn’t bear to wake her. They woke up with the holos still playing, their noodles assaulted by flies, and his arm thoroughly asleep. He threw on his hat over his wild hair and dragged Josie to the greasy spoon down the street for pancakes and brown-sludge coffee.

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When it finally came time to leave New Madison, Remy had his fill of the sights and was packed up with a day to spare. There wasn’t much to take. A few changes of clothes, whatever Vascs he had left, a gun, and his hat. It rained on the coast. He’d need the hat.

They reached the shuttle station on New Madison’s south side with a few hours to spare. Customs and security took longer for celebrity murderers, even if that murderer’s charges had been dismissed. In either case, an Redcap customs agent welcomed them aboard with a sneer and hoisted their luggage far too roughly into the bay below.

He didn’t care. They were free. Remy shut their cabin’s door and closed his eyes. His fingers found Josie’s on her lap next to him and he smiled. Going through hell was one thing but, unless you stopped there, it couldn’t catch up.

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