Chapter 82 | Filing

Chapter 82: Chapter 82 | Filing

Filing day.

Kai was in the kitchen at seven making the specialty rotation when Shira came out already dressed.

Jacket on. Bag on her lap. She positioned herself at the table and looked at her bowl.

"What time," she said.

"Nine," Kai said. "Both filings simultaneously."

She picked up her spoon.

Mira came out four minutes later. Found her chair. Board up before she sat.

Did you eat.

"I’m eating now," Kai said.

You haven’t touched your bowl.

He picked up his spoon.

She put the board down and ate.

==========

At eight-fifty Denko called.

"Everything’s ready," Denko said. "Han Dori confirmed. The portal opens at nine."

"Good," Kai said.

"The Renmei family filed a counter-injunction at eight this morning."

Kai was quiet.

"Civil matter only," Denko said. "Doesn’t touch the criminal complaint. If anything it helps us goes on the record as interference."

"They tried to block it," Kai said.

"And now that’s part of the case," Denko said.

Kai looked at the window.

"Nine o’clock," he said.

"Nine o’clock," Denko confirmed.

He hung up.

Mira’s board appeared over the table.

The counter-injunction.

"They filed it this morning," Kai said. "It won’t affect the criminal complaint. Denko says it helps us."

She held the board.

She wrote: Of course they did.

She put it down and finished her rice.

Shira said, to her bowl: "They’re frightened."

"Yes," Kai said.

"Good," she said.

========

Eight fifty-eight.

Kai sat at the kitchen table with the laptop open. The hero authority portal. Testimony documentation loaded. Provisional license number in the submission field.

Shira had wheeled herself to the kitchen doorway.

She did not come in. She just looked at the screen.

Mira stood behind her in the hallway. Board in her hand. Not writing anything.

The clock moved.

Eight fifty-nine.

Nobody said anything.

Nine o’clock.

Kai submitted.

The confirmation number came back in four seconds.

He texted it to Denko and Han Dori.

Denko replied in six seconds: Criminal complaint submitted.

Han Dori replied in eight: Unsealing application submitted. Counter-injunction attached as exhibit. They helped us.

Kai looked at the screen.

Done.

He looked up.

Shira had wheeled herself into the kitchen without him noticing. She was looking at the confirmation number on the screen.

She was quiet for a long moment.

Then she said: "Forty-one minutes."

Not to him. To the screen. To the confirmation sitting in the hero authority system with her name on it as primary witness.

"On the record," Kai said.

"On the record," she said.

She stayed there for another moment.

Her right hand on the armrest.

The index finger pressing down once.

Held.

Then she wheeled herself back to the window.

Mira’s board appeared in front of Kai’s laptop.

It’s done.

"Yes," he said.

She held the board.

She wrote: The man on the expedition. Acoustic-type. He’ll be named.

"Yes," Kai said.

She lowered the board.

She went to her room.

A minute later the RF-7 started through her door. Not the practice session. Something different — the frequency held sustained and still, like she was just letting it run.

He sat at the table and listened to it.

==

Denko called at nine forty-five.

"Both filings acknowledged," Denko said. He sounded like someone who hadn’t slept and was extremely happy about it. "The licensing board received a copy of the criminal complaint automatically. They’ve suspended the petition to review your provisional license pending investigation."

"It’s gone," Kai said.

"Gone," Denko said.

A pause.

"Carson Webb held a briefing this morning," Denko said. "Before we even filed. He named the canyon record. Said forty-three minutes is wrong and he knows because he was there. It’s already on three hero news sites."

Kai looked at the wall.

"She should know," Denko said.

"I’ll tell her," Kai said.

He hung up.

He went to the living room.

Shira was at the window. She had been there since nine.

"Carson Webb held a press briefing this morning," Kai said. "He named the canyon record. Said forty-three is wrong. Said he was there."

Shira looked at the street.

"Three sites already," Kai said.

She was quiet.

"By tonight," she said.

"More," he said.

She looked at the street for a long time.

Then she said: "The woman in the secondary team. Wind-type. One year out of Vanguard."

"She’ll be named in the investigation," Kai said.

"I know," she said. "I wanted to say it out loud."

He looked at her.

She looked at the street.

He went to make tea.

He was almost at the kitchen when she said it.

"Kai."

He stopped.

He turned.

She was still looking at the street. Not at him.

"What you said yesterday," she said. "At lunch."

He waited.

"I meant what I said," she said. "When the filing was done."

She still hadn’t turned around.

Her ears had gone the color they had gone at the lunch table.

"I heard you," he said.

She was quiet.

"Good," she said.

She looked at the street.

He stood in the doorway for a moment.

Then he went and made the tea.

His hands were very steady.

His chest was doing something he was not going to examine until later.

He made three cups.

—

Lunch.

All three of them at the table.

Halfway through Mira set her spoon down.

She reached for the board.

She pushed it to the center of the table.

Carson Webb is going to cause problems.

Shira looked at the board.

"What kind of problems," she said.

The good kind, Mira wrote. People are going to start asking questions the Renmei family cannot answer.

Shira looked at her bowl.

The corner of her mouth moved.

"Yes," she said. "They are."

Mira took the board back.

She ate.

Then the board came up one more time.

She held it toward Kai.

It said: The note.

He looked at the board.

She was not looking at him. Looking at the space near his shoulder.

Four words, she wrote. Did you mean them.

He looked at the board.

"Yes," he said.

She held the board.

She lowered it.

She ate the rest of her rice.

Her ears were slightly pink.

She did not reach for the marker again for the rest of the meal.

Shira had been watching this exchange from behind her bowl.

She said nothing.

But she ate the last of her rice with the expression of someone who had decided something.

Kai looked at his bowl.

He ate.