August

June 10: Saturday

"Something's going on with the carriers." Aaron Soyinka kicked off his formal shoes, opened his suit jacket, and lifted his feet onto the coffee table in Harley's office. He folded his large hands behind his head. "I don't know what. But Sheridan is...disturbed."
Harley Witterbaum, also still wearing his suit from the church service that morning, glanced up at his friend, then went back to stacking the files on his desk.
"Oh?"
Aaron Soyinka had never been a stupid man. He knew evasion when he saw it.
"Yes. Has James mentioned anything? Are they fighting? Is it something either of them have done or said?"
Harley bit his lip, pretending to think hard.
"Nope. Nothing that I'm aware of. Can you hand me that box?"
Aaron raised an eyebrow, but took his feet down from the ottoman and leaned forward to retrieve a box with his left hand.
"Ah. Perhaps it's something else, then."
Harley shrugged and frowned, poring over the contents of an old spiral notebook.
"It's probably nothing, Soy. What do they have to worry about - they're carriers! Remember? No work, no responsibilities, no problems. They're probably just bored. They want some attention and they've hatched some silly little plot to get it. Just ignore them both, and it'll go away."
Aaron Soyinka studied his friend's face closely. In the fifteen years that they'd been friends, he'd never known Harley Witterbaum to lie to him. Of course, this was the first time they'd shared a continent, let alone a house. Secrets could build up when one lived in close quarters, he supposed. But was it real, the perceived circumvention? Or was it an extension of the juju-man paranoia that Sheridan had been spouting of late? Soyinka decided he would let it pass for now - better to be rational, and Harley had done nothing wrong.
"Ah." Aaron murmured, "Perhaps you speak the truth."
Harley frowned up at him over another notebook.
"Perhaps? Of course I do." he grinned at Soyinka. "No one knows James better than me."

~:~

Phidias met Mahir and Tyson for lunch in the upper level dining room that overlooked the valley. They seated themselves around one of the smaller tables, nearer to the balcony edge, where a slight breeze seemed to be passing in.
"As much of a breeze as we'll get around here in this season, anyway." Tyson observed, sipping at his glass of lemon water. Phidias, drinking the same, nodded, then addressed Mahir.
"Where's Ghali today?"
Mahir made a vague gesture with one hand and sipped his wine.
"Town. He wanted to go. It's been a week, and his father said fine, so off he went. Anders went with him."
"Alone?" Tyson asked in surprise, and Mahir laughed.
"Ha! No. They have an escort." he threw an apologetic glance at Phidias. "Anders is a perfect gentleman, I'm sure, but I trust him with Ghali as much as I trust a lamb with a wolf."
Phidias chuckled a little, feeling calm and finding the breeze relaxing.
"It's alright; I understand. I'm sure I'll feel the same way about Caddy."
Mahir sipped his wine.
"You mean you don't already?"
Phidias shrugged.
"Well, he's only 14, so I have a little while."
Mahir mulled this over.
"Yes, yes, of course. But, still. It's something to think about now."
Phidias frowned and swallowed his bite of fish.
"What makes you say so?"
Tyson glanced between the two. Mahir smiled indulgently and tilted his head.
"Well, Phidias..."
Phidias glared up at him, sourness overtaking his meal.
"What?"
"This is the desert."

~:~

Aaron Soyinka read over the file in front of him with an even amalgamation of horror and hurt.


CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY.

Federal Record of Arrest and Prosecution in the Allied North American Nations

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Name: James Milton Witterbaum (last known)

Identification#: ZK23432P13E3I

Aliases: James Andrew Milton, James Eliot Milton, James Arbor Milton, James Milton

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Charge # LST/K4379L1 Rape, First Degree Lutherville, Southwestern Territory GUILTY

Charge # BNC/T1347K14.1 Rape, Second Degree Boston, Northeastern Counties GUILTY

Charge # BNC/T1347K14.2 Rape, Second Degree Boston, Northeastern Counties GUILTY

Charge # BNC/T1347K14.3 Rape, Statutory Boston, Northeastern Counties DISMISSED

Charge # ANS/L347P1.1 Sexual Assault, Third Degree Anselm, Northern States GUILTY OF A LESSER OFFENSE

Charge # ANS/L347P1.2 Assault With A Deadly Weapon Anselm, Northern States GUILTY

Charge # ANS/L347P1.3 Assault On Military Personnel Anselm, Northern States GUILTY

Charge #CEC7/A42C13.1 Sexual Assault, First Degree, With Chemical Coercion Woodmire Carrier Education Center (#7), Southeastern Counties GUILTY

Charge #CEC7/A42C13.2 Sexual Assault, First Degree, With Chemical Coercion Woodmire Carrier Education Center (#7), Southeastern Counties GUILTY

Charge #CEC7/A42C13.3 Sexual Assault, First Degree, With Chemical Coercion Woodmire Carrier Education Center (#7), Southeastern Counties DISMISSED

Charge #CEC7/D75E51.1 Sexual Assault, First Degree, With Chemical Coercion Woodmire Carrier Education Center (#7), Southeastern Counties DISMISSED

Charge #CEC7/D75E51.2 Sexual Assault, First Degree Woodmire Carrier Education Center (#7), Southeastern Counties GUILTY OF LESSER OFFENSE

Charge #CEC7/K91B3.1 Rape, Second Degree Woodmire Carrier Education Center (#7), Southeastern Counties GUILTY

Charge #CEC7/K91B3.2 Assault and Battery Woodmire Carrier Education Center (#7), Southeastern Counties GUILTY


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Aaron Soyinka stared at the sheet in his hand. It was impossible. It was sick. The yellow paper shivered in its possessor's hand, fluttering the words back and forth before his eyes. Rape. Assault. Coercion.
James.
"Aaron?"
Soyinka startled back into the present, to the short-backed chair across the desk from Mac Scarborough.

The young officer was frowning.
"Now, you know I'm not supposed to give this to you, don't you, A?"
Soyinka smiled a shaky smile.
"I know."
"You know that technically, this doesn't even exist."
Soyinka nodded.
"I'm aware of the record purge policy for well-behaved carriers." Soyinka looked the sheet over again. "Although he doesn't look so well-behaved to me."
Mac shook his head.
"Not to me either. Or to those poor fucks he raped." Soyinka looked down the sheet again. Mac Scarborough steepled his fingers and kept talking. "I remember this guy; met him in the early days. With the men, he always seemed real sweet, always friendly. Never gave attitude, never talked back. But this shit...I mean, want to blame it on his folks, really - they got caught up with one of those freak cult groups - Dothan, I think it was - "
Soyinka looked surprised.
"He was in a cult?"
Mac scoffed.
"Yeah, and a real fucked up one at that. They got some kind of sex ceremony they do in place of marriage. They all do it - the men, the carriers, even sometimes the kids if they think they're old enough. They strip naked, get all painted up like damn savages, drink a little magic mixture, and supposedly it gives 'em visions. They get all high, go primal, fuck, maybe bust some shit up, and then wake up the next morning like nothing ever happened." Mac indicated the rap sheet in Soyinka's hands. "Your friend Jamie there went through the ceremony once, too. Or he sort of did."
Mac paused and thumbed through some more pages in the folder. Finally coming to the sheet he wanted, he retrieved it and dropped the write-up on the desk in front of Soyinka.
"He was 15, fell in love with some carrier kid in the compound. They wanted the ceremony. The parents said no, so they decided to do it on their own." Mac paused for a moment. "The other kid didn't survive."
Soyinka was silent, processing. Mac went on.
"Anyway, that's what fucked this James kid up, I think. Maybe it was bad drugs or he was already screwed up in the head, or he was too young or what - I don't know. But ever since then, the man has been insatiable."
Mac leaned forward, across the table.
"You know you're holding the short list, right?"
Soyinka swallowed.
"Harley must not know this."
"Who's Harley?"
"James' husband. He must not know. He must... he must not know or he'd never have put Sheridan at risk. He would have taken precautions - "
Mac narrowed his dark green eyes at his friend.
"How do you know he didn't, A?"

~:~