《Project Resolution URI》60 – Recovery (part II)
Advertisement
In a lonely corridor of a clinic, arms crossed, Malin waited for the paramedics to finish tending to his partner.
She went around in circles with a shudder in her stomach and a thousand worries prowling her head like flies over a corpse: The Satellites, the summons, and Uri’s condition. The poor guy had courageously endured such trashing, but to see him in those conditions…
Did the fear of what the Satellites might worry her so much it had sensitized her more than it should? Or was it the memory of Juzo, which was still too present? Seeing Uri in those conditions was like seeing Juzo and…
The paramedics left the room, and behind them, a doctor with abundant black hair and gray mustaches, very thin and with baggy scrubs, came out. The man presented himself as the doctor in charge of the night shift.
“Your…” he said and stopped, not knowing what relationship she had with the wounded. Malin didn’t clarify it. “Well, I must tell you, he was very lucky. Some people are hospitalized due to a beating like that, while he isn’t only conscious, he even had the luxury of rejecting the wheelchair we offered him.
“The patient can walk, although I would recommend him a few days of rest. If he faints or vomits, please visit a hospital immediately. Don’t let him stop taking the antibiotics I prescribed, one every twelve hours, during…” While talking, the doctor was nodding without taking off his eyes from Malin’s, as if he were asking her if she got what he was saying or not, perhaps because he noted she was kind of absent. “…Cooling patches and chamomile tea could help the swelling,” he said in a moment. Malin did hear that part and would remember it later. “Do you understand, miss?”
Malin nodded, and the doctor stepped away so she could enter the room to see the patient.
In the small white room, the smell of disinfectant was more penetrating than in the corridor, so much so it almost made her sneeze.
Sitting on the gurney, Uri finished zipping off his battered tracksuit jacket. He moved his arms gently, his muscles ached as if he had soaked them in acid. He had a mark under his left eye that had quickly taken a violet hue, and a pink one on his right cheekbone, which was partially covered with a patch. Another patch was covering the already stitched-up cut on his forehead. The punches in the ribs, hips, and legs were now covered by the clothes and they weren’t visible to the unaided eye, but there they were, and they hurt.
Fortunately, and to his surprise, Uri had received no serious injuries or fractures whatsoever.
“When will the bruises on my face wear off?” had been his first question to the doctor. He’d just come out of something that could have cost him his physical integrity permanently, and his greatest fear was the bruises on his face? Really?
“About fifteen to twenty days from now,” the mustached doctor had responded, showing him an X-ray of his skull. “It helped you not to have received cuts in your facial bones. The only thing damaged was your skin and a thin layer of muscle. The truth is you’ve been a very lucky dude. If I were you, I’d stay away from parks at night.”
But Uri was too sore to be grateful to have come out with only scratches. He had a constant ringing in his ears and slight dizziness that prompted him to close his eyes and lie down right there. Meanwhile, his mind went from Kitten to the mysterious men in gray, and from them to the message that the millionaire playboy Lisandro Carinae had texted him shortly before the attack—the message that implied that he and Malin shared a relationship—and then returned to the pain that gritted him.
Advertisement
Hell! He couldn’t think straight when even breathing caused horrible pains under his ribs.
And his face… It was a mess! And his smile, spoiled! He had several loose teeth and couldn’t stop touching them with the tip of his tongue. The subtle swing he perceived in the canine tooth and on the front one was horrible. He had to go to the dentist as soon as possible.
That freaking giant did screw it up! He wished he’d killed him. Those kinds of monsters should be rotting in hell to learn that hurting someone like him was a capital sin.
Malin came in and they both shared a long look.
“Mah mouth’s-numb-cause-da-medicadion,” he said. His voice was a babbling full of Z’s and no R’s. He could barely open his mouth without his jaw hurting, or without the cuts on his lips reopening. Either way, he tried a smile to break his own nervousness. Malin didn’t respond, she was very serious and a kind of pale. “Whoz-wehe-those guys in-ghay? Whad-says-da-note they-gave you? Is id-a thicked? Must be serious if you-hade-da gdim face.”
“Now I understand how Juzo felt when I went on and on talking,” Malin said and handed him the letter.
It was a subpoena. What the agent had overwritten with his pen was the date and time the meeting would take place.
Proxima City. October, 11 of the current year.
Dear Miss Malin Marie Viveka
Dear Mister Uri O22
We approach you to officially send a mandatory appearance to our offices, located in the Orbit II tower (intersection of the sixth and ninth avenue of this city) on October 15 at 0800 hours. Please announce yourselves at our front desk.
Cordially, T.H., district chief.
As Uri read it, Malin got close to him and personally observed the conditions he was in. One thing was what the doctor said, and another thing was the verdict of a soldier who had seen hundreds of wounded during her short but intense military career. Just because she didn’t wear a uniform—and not have worn one for years—it didn’t mean she’d lost her experience.
Malin touched him here and there, opened his eyes, and looked at them carefully. To her surprise, he endured the discomfort without a single groan. The Uri who a few hours ago had left the apartment to go to the gym and the Uri she was in front of now were two different people… almost.
“Ocdobed 15? A liddle impaziend, don’-you dhink?”
“Consider yourself lucky,” she said. “When it comes to Satellites, few have the luxury of an extension date.”
She finished inspecting her partner and gave him air so he could stand up. Uri looked better than she would have imagined.
“I’ve waited for them since we first crossed the dimensional Geyser with Juzo,” she continued, tucking her hair behind her ear. “What surprises me is that they’ve taken so long to say hello.”
“Whad do-dey-do?”
“They are with the Satellite Agency, a secret international investigation agency with their eyes fixed on everything that comes out of my country,” Malin said.
Uri understood what that meant, and the dizziness that haunted him disappeared in a heartbeat.
“Whad comes out? Things like…?”
“Things like Juzo, me, Broga, Kitten and so many others,” Malin finished. “I assume they’re conducting an investigation into what happened that Friday night, and they want us to fill in the blanks.” She helped him to his feet. “Let’s go home. I’ll tell you the rest on the way.”
Advertisement
They walked slowly down the uncrowded corridor of the clinic to the exit. That night, there apparently hadn’t been any accidents or emergencies in that sector of the city; the only one really hurt had been Uri.
“Don’t forget chamomile tea,” reminded them of the mustached doctor with the baggy scrubs, sitting with a colleague beside the door, waiting for the next patient to come. “It’ll help reduce the swelling.”
They got to the street, and Malin looked for a taxi.
“We are in an era where science has given people the power to throw energy grenades through their hands,” she whispered to Uri, smiling, “and there’re still people who recommend chamomile tea for a swollen face.”
Uri nodded.
She looked at him.
“You’ll try it, won’t you?” she said, and Uri nodded again. “Anything to erase those horrible marks from your beautiful face as soon as possible, right?”
Midnight had fallen, and a cool wind ran between the buildings.
Uri moved his eyes—the only part of his body that didn’t feel numb—looking for men who wore gray suits and dark glasses, who might look familiar, but saw only a few people walking down the street, but no one with those characteristics. The only one in a suit was a fat man who looked more like an office worker than an agent.
Malin also observed the few passers-by, and then gazed up, looking around as if waiting to find someone peeking out a window or watching them from a nearby rooftop. Satellites could be anywhere. They could be right under their noses without them noticing.
“I know you think that unusual things never happen here; attacks with energy grenades and other things like the ones you’ve experienced in recent weeks,” Malin said. “I have news for you, they do happen, you just don’t see them because these people make sure you don’t. Just as they’ve taken Kitten away, they’ve taken many others.”
To Uri, the idea of an intelligence agency was not abstract at all. It was such a huge idea to digest so quickly, that was all, besides what it meant to be involved in the investigation into the murder of his brother. However, there were more urgent issues to attend to for the time being; like the pain he had just discovered by putting his ass in the taxi seat, for example.
“High Neighborhood, avenue ten and twenty-eight, please,” Malin said.
The taxi moved forward, and the orange lights of the streets painted its silhouette.
“There’s another problem,” she added.
Uri didn’t want to know anything about problems. He had no choice but to hear, though.
“You see, the Satellites don’t sympathize with the Imperial Army, no one in the world does,” she said; “that’s why they tend to turn a blind eye to the people who escape from the Markabian territory and settle elsewhere, all right; as long as they keep a low profile. The problem is that, if for some reason it is not convenient for them to have undocumented fugitives swarming foreign territory, they can deport them. And you know that Juzo and I have come clandestinely, using private military equipment. If the Satellites see me as a threat, they’ll hand me over to the Army, and there…” Malin made a motion as if hanging by the rope.
Uri had a lump in his throat.
“Ade you-goind-do-be depodted?”
Malin shrugged.
“I don’t know. If they had wanted to, they’d have done it by now, but—”
“Hey, they don’d-think I’m Juzo Romita, and I jusd changed-mah name to Uri O22 to throw them off, do they?”
“They know perfectly well who is who, and I bet every strand of my hair they’re aware of the circumstances in which Juzo died,” Malin said, and saw in Uri that gesture that was beginning to be familiar to her; that gesture that asked to be told everything, but not everything, because everything frightened him. She was about to say nothing, but she decided not to. Uri needed to know whether he wanted it or not. “The Satellites know where you live, where you work; they know everything about everyone. Through them, our informant located your whereabouts.”
Uri felt relief. He wouldn’t be confused with his twin and deported by mistake. Before Malin had spoken, he’d seen in her a gesture that he began to know; a gesture announcing that whatever she was about to tell him would have a terrible impact on him. But, contrary to what the girl thought, the fact that there were people aware of his life did not make him feel threatened at all. After all, every time he used his credit card, or every time he contacted the telephone company to request whatever, what he did in a way, was to announce his movements to anyone who had access to the networks of corporations and city banks. Not to mention, of course, that he was the purchasing manager of one of the biggest companies in the country. God, he’d even appeared on the cover of Loud magazine! If there was an intelligence agency that didn’t know who Uri O22 was, they had to quit their job and pursue something else.
All right, now that he thought it out, he’d been a fool for thinking he could be mistaken for Juzo.
The taxi got into a not-so-busy tunnel, and the orange-toned lighting changed to a blue one. The driver was quiet. Was he listening to their conversation? Probably. Did they care? No.
“Malin, I wandda azk you zomezhing. If everydhing goes well with da-Sadellites, I wandda you to-train me.”
The girl nodded with a smile.
“Following a lead on an obituary,” she said, “and wasting my entire day in a bus, touring this damn city in search of a damn warehouse, slapped my spirit as an intelligence soldier, maybe forever. I’m much more tempted by working as a drill instructor now.”
No more beatings, Uri thought and felt a lump in his throat once again. His pride had gone to the trash, but he was ready to pull it back out.
No more beatings. It was a promise.
Advertisement
- In Serial525 Chapters
Netherworld Investigator
Beneath the peaceful façade of the modern world, an undercurrent of shocking crimes roils in the underbelly of society. Follow Song Yang, the last Traditional Coroner of China, as he navigates through this underworld of violence and debauchery, and uses seemingly common everyday objects like an umbrella, squid ink, and magnets to hunt down serial killers, sexual predators, real-life vampires, necrophiles, and others who prey upon the innocents and hide behind the fog of supernatural mystery. There is no mystery too enigmatic for Song Yang to solve, and there is no depth too deep for him to venture into to uncover the truth!
8 317 - In Serial11 Chapters
Red Smile
Never was he more sure of himself than when he slipped his knife across his own throat. When he woke up in a room full of other people who arrived by similar means he was less sure. It wasn't until the wizard floated into the room that he knew he'd made a terrible mistake.
8 178 - In Serial28 Chapters
World Revisit
Having no collection of her past, a confused young girl ends up in world unknown to her. A world with the nature as their source of life and magic, but at the same time also the cause of their despair and sorrow. The world seems to be facing a dangerous calamity. Being treated as an intruder, she will have to gain the trust of the people around her and find a way to live through this mess. With not much hope left, what can be done to prevent it? Nobody knows for sure, but a battle of life and death is bound to come. NOTE: Consider this story as the first version. I want to keep working on it so that the story can actually finish at one point for future development. I want to eventually make it a webtoon comic, but the story still needs to be written and the art still needs be improved. So I'll keep writing for now, but expect the final result to be much better than the story now. Until then, I hope we can have a great time together with this writing experiment. Thanks!
8 183 - In Serial37 Chapters
Lilliana Swan
So we have all read the book and watched the movies. My name is Lilliana. I created the Cold ones. Aro, Cauis, and Marcus are not the oldest. I have died many times but am always reborn, same face, same soul, same name. With all the memories of my past. I'm never gone for long, as soon as I die I'm born again. This time around I was born to a husband and wife of Charlie and Renee Swan, and I was the twin to Isabella Swan aka Bella. And this is the story of how I played a role in her life and the Cullen's.
8 392 - In Serial40 Chapters
The Demon and the Beast
As darkness descends upon the little town of Wadena, so does a hungry Demon looking for its next prey... Andrew Cross is one of the many police officers trying to catch the creature terrorizing his town. He has always led a simple life of trying to do what was expected of him and not wavering from the path that was set for him. But after he comes face to face with the Demon his life is forever changed. The line between good and bad suddenly becomes less clear and he is forced to rethink his morals and everything he has been taught. He is suddenly forced to figure out what he wants and who he wants to be. Will he find the Demon again? And will he still be himself when he does? This is M/M fantasy! There is only one sex scene though and the romance part is only a side thing. It is heavily story focused.
8 137 - In Serial80 Chapters
Rebirth in a corrupt world
Growing up the MC lived his life with hate and vengeance as his reason for living.After having his family fall apart from continuous misfortune, he was left alone and angry at a young age.When everything came to an end he was left wishing he had the one thing he lost a long time ago. Now he has a chance to fulfill this dream, but the world he is in now is fill with even more corruption and suffering than his last one. His task is set and his objectives are clear.All he needs to do now is grow strong enough to fulfill them.this fiction is 18+ and not meant for people unwilling to read about gore, things to do with rape, sex, or anything in that area. The first few chapters is to help understand the MC and the world he is entering. There will be a character page to keep track of everyone and a stats page to know how everything works for the MC. They will be updated throughout the story.
8 126