Chapter 80: License Trap

Bekka dropped her credential onto the chairman’s desk and kept her hand beside it as pressure reached her teeth.

"You can speak without doing that to everyone in the room."

The hum from his chair eased while the clerk beside the archive terminal lifted her hands toward the keys.

"The board spent this morning watching your van intercept a hospice convoy, and the director wants an execution warrant."

"He wired his son into a weapon, and we brought the boy somewhere he could receive treatment."

"The public saw an executive heir taken from medical transport by a man with no registration."

He slid a document case across the desk, stopping it beside her credential while she kept her hands still.

"I’m offering a license under your operational command, with protection from the warrant for your partner and your district."

Hancock lifted his cup from beside the wall, looking at the case before taking a drink and lowering it again.

"Ask what the sponsors get before you touch the pen."

"They get someone they can support without defending an outlaw at every board meeting."

"And a face on the drink cans, until his body gives out and they replace the picture."

The liaison opened the case and turned the folder toward her partner, keeping the pen on the chairman’s side.

"Show me the terms that protect him when he refuses an assignment."

Leo moved beside her chair and read the deployment clause, holding the page down when wind stirred its corner.

’Command authority, access to my body, and rights over every ability tied to a bond.’

"This lets the board examine the people connected to my powers whenever it wants a review."

"Any licensed fighter submits to assessment, and unusual abilities require safeguards before deployment."

"The people in those links haven’t applied for your license."

He turned to the publicity clause while his partner pushed the pen farther away from the folder on the desk.

"And this puts them in your advertising if you decide their faces help sell it."

The chairman folded his hands over his chair’s controls, waiting until the clerk finished entering the exchange before answering.

"Without a compromise, the council can designate the canals an insurrection zone and authorize bombardment before sunset."

"Then put the people making that threat on the record too."

"You’re being offered a way to prevent it."

"I’m being told to hand you another person to keep you from firing on families."

The marshal shifted beside the door, touching the communicator inside his sleeve while the liaison turned back toward the clerk.

"Keep recording, including the threat and the clause he just read."

Her partner rested his hand against the back of her chair, watching her credential move under the draft from her wrist.

’If I cut the folder apart, the people behind those shelters still pay for it.’

"What happens when he gets hurt badly enough that the sponsors don’t want the association with him?"

"Our compensation process exists to address injuries sustained in service."

"My father worked the freight yards for thirty years before an explosion destroyed his health, and your process sent us a ribbon."

She pushed her credential toward the clerk, turning it until the identification number faced the terminal beside the desk.

"His medical pension was denied within two days, and the file number’s attached to that credential."

The clerk stopped typing and looked toward the chairman before reaching for the badge, keeping her other hand over the keyboard.

"Do you want that entered as a personal grievance?"

"Enter it as evidence, and open the decision where everyone can read who signed it."

Kingsley turned toward the terminal, and the file appeared above his desk while the clerk began reading its fields.

"Compensation denied, liability disputed, and the appeal period expired."

"The appeal expired while we were trying to get the hospital to release the records you demanded."

The liaison kept her eyes on the file while her partner took his hand away from the sword at his side.

"I won’t put him through the process that left my father paying for the injury your people praised him for surviving."

"Your objection is recorded, but refusing the license won’t remove the council’s guns."

"Then offer protection that doesn’t require his body, his relationships, and his face as payment."

Her partner turned the folder back toward the chairman, leaving the clauses exposed instead of shutting them inside the case.

"You don’t have to put your standing behind every fight I pick."

"I’m picking this one, and you can stop speaking as if I wandered in after you."

From beside the wall, the paragon set his cup down and pointed toward the deployment clause without approaching the desk.

"That wording lets them send him against whoever embarrasses the council next week."

"The council has oversight responsibilities that don’t disappear when an applicant dislikes the terms."

"He hasn’t applied, and you’ve spent half the meeting threatening his neighborhood for refusing."

The chairman closed the document case while leaving the folder on the desk, moving the pen away from its signature line.

"Then state terms I can take to the council before the marshals receive their orders."

"I won’t wear the badge, and I won’t hunt political enemies to pay for a ceasefire."

"The boy’s treatment still has to be addressed before anyone can consider a stay."

"Elias stays in the ward, and he doesn’t go back into that chair as part of a bargain."

The marshal stepped away from the door, looking toward the clerk as if expecting her to record an admission.

"You’re acknowledging that you intend to withhold the director’s son."

"I’m saying he receives care without supplying power to an orbital weapon."

The liaison laid her palm over the folder before the marshal could reach the desk, holding his attention away from her partner.

"The doctor has him isolated in a shielded ward, and you can put the treatment arrangement into the record."

"Certified hospital arrays can provide stabilization your district may not have."

"Then send medical requirements through me instead of sending people to put him back on a transport."

The clerk resumed typing while the chairman looked between the liaison and her partner, keeping the case shut beside his hand.

"You’re asking for recognition without registration, and my council will call that surrender."

"Call it a stay under emergency tribunal powers, limited to the orbital deadline."

Her partner pointed to the district boundary on the map behind the desk, following the river with his finger.

"No hostile incursions across that line, and she remains your liaison for anything involving the ward or the district."

"A stay doesn’t settle the accusations against you."

"Then leave them unsettled while we keep the ship from killing everyone beneath it."

The chairman signaled the clerk, who replaced the license on her screen with a document carrying the tribunal heading.

She read the duration aloud before printing it, waiting for the liaison to check the boundary and liaison clauses.

"Thirty-four hours, with the stay ending when the orbital countdown expires."

"Add that the Association halts hostile incursions, including teams acting through its council channels."

The clerk entered the provision and printed again, handing the sheet across while the marshal watched from beside the door.

She signed beneath the terms and took her copy, leaving her partner’s signature space empty as he stepped away from the desk.

"You’re leaving that unsigned?"

"You have her channel, and that’s the arrangement we just made."

The chairman lowered his hand toward the chair’s controls, ending the pressure against their teeth as the door unlocked behind them.

"Use the time, because I can’t promise what survives this agreement when the countdown reaches zero."

Bekka tucked the stay inside her coat and stepped into the corridor, checking that her partner had cleared the doorway.

"Rhee, keep your people behind the river line on that document."

"Enjoy the pardon while it lasts, slum rat."

He ignored the marshal and followed her toward the stairs, waiting until they passed the checkpoint before opening his communicator.

"We’ve got thirty-four hours to get the district ready."

"We’ve got paper with my name on it, and some of them will cross the river just to spite the signature."

Camera drones turned toward them as they entered the concourse, drawing reporters against the perimeter beside the transit doors.

"Keep walking, unless you want to explain the small print into every microphone here."

"I’ll let them film your pen while we get back to the clinic."

Behind the departing pair, Rhee opened a channel inside his sleeve and waited for the council commanders to answer.

"The chairman granted a stay, and their transport’s heading for the river."

He watched the liaison pass through the transit doors before moving beyond the nearest camera and lowering his voice.

"Put the secondary strike battalion on the crossing before they reach it, and kill the Ghost today."