Chapter 140 : Vera

Chapter 140: Chapter 140 : Vera

Carson called on Wednesday morning.

Kai was at the table with the second site reclassification documentation when his phone lit up. He answered on the second ring.

"She agreed," Carson said. "Vera Holt. She will meet us tomorrow. Her apartment. Two in the afternoon."

Kai set the pen down.

"Tomorrow," he said.

"She said she will talk to Shira," Carson said. "She did not say she will talk to anyone else."

Kai looked at the hallway. Shira’s door was open. She was in the second bedroom running the form. He could hear the signal through the wall, clean and steady, thirty-six past the cutoff.

"Does she know about Mira," Kai asked.

"I told her," Carson said. "She said the frequency analyst can come. She said she does not want to meet anyone from the hero authority."

"Understood," Kai said.

"Kai," Carson said. "She has not left her apartment in four years. Not since she sealed her records. The fact that she is letting us in at all—"

"I know," Kai said.

He hung up.

---

He waited until the form stopped.

Shira came out of the second bedroom at ten. She positioned herself at the table and looked at the documentation spread in front of him. She looked at his face.

"You talked to Carson," she said.

"Yes," he said.

She looked at the documentation.

"Vera Holt," she said.

"Yes."

She picked up her cup. She drank. She set it down.

"When," she said.

"Tomorrow. Two in the afternoon."

She looked at the table.

"She wants to see me," she said.

"Yes."

She looked at the table.

"She knows I am in a wheelchair," she said.

"Carson told her."

She looked at the table.

She said: "She is a wind-type."

"Yes."

She looked at the table.

She said: "Like me."

Kai looked at her.

She looked at the table.

She said nothing else for a long time.

---

Mira came out at eleven.

She walked to the table. Twenty steps. She sat. She set the board face-up.

It said: Vera Holt.

"Yes," Kai said.

She held the board.

She wrote: Tomorrow.

"Yes."

She wrote: She was eight years ago. The first permanent impairment case.

"Yes."

She held the board.

She wrote: She lost full Gift function. She was a wind-type. She left the system two years after.

"Yes."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: I read her injury documentation. Denko sent it. The frequency progression was at eight-twenty-two hertz when she went in.

Kai looked at the board.

"The node was already strong enough eight years ago to cause full severance," he said.

Mira wrote: Yes.

She set the board face-down.

She looked at the wall near his shoulder.

She said: "I want to show her what the node was doing."

Out loud.

She said: "I want her to know it was not her Gift failing."

Kai looked at her.

She looked at the wall.

She said: "It was the frequency overwhelming a correctly functioning Gift."

She picked up the board.

She wrote: I have her injury documentation. I mapped the frequency progression from the damage records. I can show her.

Kai looked at the board.

"Does she want to see it," he asked.

Mira held the board.

She wrote: I do not know. But I want to be ready.

---

Thursday came cold.

The cab ride was quiet. Shira sat at the window. Mira had the RF-7 case and the board. Kai sat between them.

Vera Holt’s apartment was in the western district. A small building with a garden courtyard. The kind of place that had been nice thirty years ago and had not been updated since.

Carson was waiting at the entrance.

He looked at all three of them.

"She is inside," he said. "She asked me to wait here. She wants to meet you alone."

He looked at Shira.

"Are you ready," he asked.

Shira looked at the door.

She said: "Yes."

---

The apartment was small.

One bedroom. One bathroom. A kitchen and a living room that were the same room. The furniture was old but clean. The curtains were drawn.

Vera Holt was in a chair by the window.

She was forty-three. Dark hair streaked with grey. A face that had been handsome once and was still striking in a severe way. She wore a simple sweater and loose trousers. Her hands rested on the armrests of the chair.

She looked at Shira.

She looked at the wheelchair.

She said: "You are Shira Voss."

"Yes," Shira said.

Vera looked at Mira.

She looked at the RF-7.

She looked at the board.

She said: "You are the frequency analyst."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: Yes.

Vera looked at Kai.

She said: "You are the one who filed."

"Yes," Kai said.

Vera looked at all three of them.

She said: "Sit down."

---

They sat.

Mira found a chair. Kai sat on the couch. Shira positioned her wheelchair near the table.

Vera looked at Shira.

She said: "I was at Vanguard two years before you. Wind-type. B-rank when I left. I cleared the fifth site in my fourth year of active status. It was classified B-rank then. I went in with a formation of four. I was the only one who came out with permanent damage."

Shira looked at her.

She said: "The node was at eight-twenty-two."

Vera looked at her.

"You know the frequency," she said.

"Kai told me," Shira said. "Mira calculated it from your injury records."

Vera looked at Mira.

She said: "You calculated it."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: Yes. The injury documentation had the Gift pathway severance profile. The profile frequency matched the node development rate. I worked it backward.

Vera looked at the board.

She said: "You worked it backward."

Mira wrote: Yes.

Vera looked at the board.

She was quiet for a moment.

Then she said: "I stopped believing anyone would listen. After the second filing was returned. I stopped. I sealed my records. I have not spoken to anyone from the hero system in four years."

She looked at Shira.

She said: "You were not on the hero system when I was active. You were at Vanguard. I read about you. The canyon. The forty-one minutes. I read about it after the verdict."

Shira looked at her.

Vera said: "I thought it was another case like mine. Another suppressed dungeon. Another hero who would be forgotten."

She looked at the table.

She said: "But you were not forgotten."

---

Shira looked at her.

She said: "I was forgotten for three years."

Vera looked at her.

"Three years," she said.

"Three years," Shira said. "I sat in a wheelchair in a small apartment with a physio sheet I could not use. I ran the form every morning because there was nothing else to do. I did not think anyone would ever correct the record."

Vera looked at her.

She said: "What changed."

Shira looked at the table.

She said: "He knocked on the door."

She looked at Kai.

Vera looked at Kai.

She said: "You married them."

"Yes," Kai said.

Vera said: "The contract. The arrangement. The three families."

"Two," Kai said. "Two families. Two wives."

Vera looked at Shira.

She looked at Mira.

She said: "Two."

Shira said: "Two."

Vera looked at the table.

She said: "I read about the arrangement. Before the verdict. It was in the news. The bastard son of the Renmei family married to two crippled heroines. I thought it was a joke. Another humiliation. Another way for the system to bury us."

She looked at Kai.

She said: "I was wrong."

---

Mira’s board appeared.

She held it up.

It said: I have your injury documentation. The frequency progression. I mapped it. I can show you what the node was doing when you went in.

Vera looked at the board.

She said: "I have my own documentation. I kept everything."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: I know. Dana Holt kept everything too. So did the old woman at the market. So did Dorothy Callahan’s husband.

Vera looked at the board.

She said: "You know the old woman at the market."

Mira wrote: She gave us the node herb. Her husband filed four complaints. He kept the herb for thirty-one years.

Vera looked at the table.

She said: "I know her. I went to her shop once. After I left the system. She did not recognize me."

Mira wrote: She will now.

Vera looked at the board.

She picked up her cup.

She drank.

She set it down.

She said: "Show me the frequency progression."

---

Mira opened the RF-7 case.

She took out the documentation. Four pages. The injury records from eight years ago. The frequency mapping she had calculated. The node development projection.

She set them on the table.

Vera leaned forward.

She looked at the pages.

She read the first page.

She read it again.

She looked at Mira.

She said: "This is my Gift pathway severance profile."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: Yes. From the medical records Denko pulled.

Vera looked at the second page.

She read it.

She read it again.

She said: "This is the frequency progression. The node was at eight-twenty-two when I went in. The severance profile matches."

Mira wrote: Yes.

Vera looked at the third page.

She read it.

She read it again.

She said: "This is the projection. The node was developing toward eight-forty. It was already strong enough eight years ago to cause full severance in a correctly functioning Gift."

Mira wrote: Yes.

Vera looked at the fourth page.

She read it.

She read it again.

She set it down.

She looked at the table.

She said nothing for a long time.

---

Shira said: "Your Gift did not fail."

Vera looked at her.

Shira said: "The node overwhelmed it. A correctly functioning wind-type Gift at B-rank. The frequency was too high. The node was too developed. You went in on a B-rank classification and the dungeon was already an SSS-rank site."

Vera looked at her.

She said: "The Foundation knew."

Shira said: "They ran six internal assessments over nine years. The first one was one year before you went in. They already knew the node was there. They already knew the frequency."

Vera looked at the table.

She said: "They let me go in."

Shira said: "Yes."

Vera looked at the table.

She said: "They let me go in and they knew what would happen."

Shira said: "Yes."

Vera looked at the table.

She picked up the fourth page.

She held it.

She said: "The node is still there."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: Yes. It is developing. It is at eight-nineteen now in the second site. It was at eight-thirty-one in the fifth site. The fifth site is the one you went into.

Vera looked at the board.

She said: "The fifth site."

Mira wrote: Yes.

Vera looked at the board.

She said: "The node is higher now than when I went in."

Mira wrote: Yes.

Vera looked at the board.

She set the page down.

She said: "It is going to keep developing."

Mira wrote: Yes.

Vera looked at the table.

She said: "Until what."

Mira held the board.

She looked at the wall near Vera’s shoulder.

She wrote: Until it reaches eight-forty.

Vera looked at the board.

She said: "What happens at eight-forty."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: We do not know. The Foundation has been suppressing it for thirty-one years. The source node is further back than any of the sites. When the surveys confirm the perimeter we will find it.

Vera looked at the board.

She looked at the table.

She said: "You are going to find it."

Mira wrote: Yes.

Vera looked at the table.

She said: "I want to help."

---

Shira looked at her.

She said: "You sealed your records."

Vera looked at her.

She said: "I sealed my records because nobody would listen. You are listening."

Shira looked at her.

She said: "You do not have to."

Vera looked at her.

She said: "I know."

She looked at the table.

She said: "I have been sitting in this apartment for four years waiting for someone to knock on the door. I did not think anyone would."

She looked at Kai.

She said: "You knocked."

---

Kai looked at her.

He said: "I did not know you existed when I knocked on their door."

Vera looked at him.

She said: "That does not matter."

She looked at the table.

She said: "You knocked. Someone finally knocked."

She picked up her cup.

She drank.

She set it down.

She said: "I will give a statement. For when the source investigation opens. I will tell them what the Foundation did. What they knew. What they let happen."

Shira said: "You do not have to."

Vera looked at her.

She said: "I know."

She looked at the table.

She said: "I want to."

---

Mira’s board appeared.

It said: I want to show you something.

Vera looked at the board.

She said: "What."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: The herb. The old woman gave us. The node herb. It grows near frequency deposits. Your Gift was wind-type. The node herb is wind-type adjacent. It might—

She stopped.

She erased it.

She wrote again.

It said: It might help.

Vera looked at the board.

She said: "My Gift is severed."

Mira wrote: I know. But the herb grows near the node. It has the frequency. It might—

She stopped again.

She set the board down.

She looked at the wall near Vera’s shoulder.

She said: "I do not know if it will help."

Vera looked at her.

She said: "You are the frequency analyst."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: Yes.

Vera said: "You think it might help."

Mira wrote: I think it is worth trying.

Vera looked at the table.

She said: "I have not felt my Gift in eight years."

Mira wrote: I know.

Vera looked at the table.

She said: "I do not remember what it feels like."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: I know.

Vera looked at her.

She said: "Bring it."

---

They stayed until four.

Vera asked questions. About the investigation. About the surveys. About the source node. About the Foundation.

Mira answered through the board. Shira answered directly. Kai filled in the gaps.

By the end, Vera had the four pages of frequency documentation on her lap and a notebook open beside her within notes she had written in a steady hand.

She looked at Shira.

She said: "You ran the form every morning."

Shira said: "Yes."

Vera said: "For three years."

Shira said: "Yes."

Vera said: "I stopped running the form after I left the system. I thought it was pointless."

Shira looked at her.

She said: "It is not pointless."

Vera looked at her.

She said: "I know that now."

---

They left at four-fifteen.

Carson was still at the entrance.

He looked at them.

He said: "She talked."

Shira said: "She talked."

Carson looked at the door.

He said: "She has not talked to anyone in four years."

Shira looked at the door.

She said: "She talked."

---

The cab ride home was quiet.

Shira sat at the window. Mira had the board face-down. Kai sat between them.

Halfway home, Shira said: "She stopped running the form."

Kai looked at her.

She looked at the window.

She said: "After she left the system. She stopped."

She looked at the window.

She said: "I did not stop."

She looked at the window.

She said: "I could have stopped. I thought about it. Many times."

She looked at the window.

She said: "I did not."

Kai looked at her.

She looked at the window.

She said: "I do not know why."

---

Mira’s board appeared.

She held it up.

It said: Because you knew someone would knock eventually.

Shira looked at the board.

She looked at the window.

She said: "No."

Mira held the board.

She wrote: Then why.

Shira looked at the window.

She said: "Because I was angry."

She looked at the window.

She said: "I was angry and I was not going to let them win by stopping."

She looked at the window.

She said: "That is why."