Acoutsina/Nakatomi/Girders/Bentham
Hwa’s days began to follow a certain pattern.
At 04:30, she woke up, drank a bottle of water with vinegar, and ran for an hour. Some of the time, Síofra came with. Otherwise, she ran the Demasduwit Causeway, circled Tower Two, then ran up the Sinclair and back down again toward the school. He ran the Fitzgerald to the Sinclair, and at the end of the run they met up. They had eggs in avocado and he asked her about what was going on in the city—whether he should tweak the register of the train’s announcement voice, or if the streetlights should change temperature from warm gold to cold white as the night wore on, or whether they needed more sniffers in public places. After what had happened to Calliope, he was supposed to be getting more suicide prevention measures installed. She showed him how to skip stones through the gaps in the existing motion detection. He did not ask how she knew where they were.
At 06:15, she arrived at school and visited the weight room. Weights didn’t take long.
By 07:00, she was showered and changed into her uniform and scoping the school. She did a full perimeter check, and she and Prefect ran over whatever the NASS system told them was important: assemblies, games, deliveries, other changes to everyday routine.
From 08:00 to 16:00 she had classes with Joel. On Mondays, Joel had science club with Mr. Branch until 17:30. On Fridays, his father sent a special jitney to pick him up, and they did father-and-son stuff for the evening.
Weekends the family had other security in the form of skullcaps, but there was a standing invitation to Sunday dinner. It was useful for copying Joel’s homework. And for reading the room. Anyway, it wasn’t like she had anywhere else to go. Usually Síofra was there, too.
From 16:00 to 18:00 weekday afternoons, Hwa had Joel to train. She wanted him in the morning, originally, but it was a no-go. Joel’s implants had a persnickety update schedule—they had to talk to servers all over the world, and he was simply not good to go until later.
After 18:00, she could go home. At home, she still had Prefect. And in between its other tasks, while running at very, very low background usage levels, the kind that wouldn’t trigger any kind of suspicion, Prefect had put together everything she needed to know. First, she’d run facial identification.
“This woman appears a great deal,” Prefect had said, the first time she showed it a picture of Calliope. “She’s also deceased.”
“I want to put together a timeline of her death.”
Prefect had paused for a moment. For a moment she thought it didn’t understand her command. Then it said: “No one in your position has ever asked me to perform that task.”
“No one who’s not a cop, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“That mean you can’t do it?”
“Not at all. But it will force me to engage in some adaptive learning. Please be patient with me.”
“Sure.”
“And, I will need you to sign a waiver clarifying your understanding that my powers of observation can in certain circumstances extend to the extrajudicial, and that your use of my interface does not indemnify Lynch Ltd. or make them liable to any and all resulting legal actions pursuant to your investigation.”
Hwa frowned. “Eh?”
“If you use me to look at information that should in theory be covered by a warrant, and you are caught doing so, you will not hold the company responsible.”
“Oh.” Hwa looked at Calliope’s face smiling at her from the display unit. “Where’s the dotted line?”
And so they began.
This was how Calliope spent her last day:
Calliope found a recipe for dark chocolate pudding.
Calliope watched almost an entire series of This Old Temple.
Calliope read up on all the cast members of This Old Temple.
Calliope checked the dates on all the items in her fridge that might allow her to make dark chocolate pudding.
Calliope read up on food poisoning.
Calliope went down a rabbit hole of intestinal distress.
Calliope did nothing for over an hour. Probably, she slept.
Calliope received a message.
Calliope looked up some coordinates.
Calliope left the apartment.
Calliope started walking on the causeway.
Calliope disappeared.
Calliope’s body surfaced on the water a day later.
“Show me those coordinates,” Hwa said.