Cath

The Cradle

After the meeting, they had a polite wrapping up and goodbye outside in the courtyard garden, by the cars. They all congratulated Freyr on her promotion again, then the Director-General requested Under-Secretary Sequeira and Masgard Xandrus ride with him. Freyr thought the man was struggling to hide his apoplexy, although that may have just been because one of the spotlights in each of his eyes momentarily blinked red. It happened so fast, as they were shaking hands, and the Director-General didn’t acknowledge Freyr’s concerned look, choosing instead to quickly retire to his flyer. But she definitely saw something lurking underneath his calm exterior.

Once they’d gone, Freyr, Dr Uchida and Dr Kamau went for lunch together, closely guarded by plain clothes police officers. This lunch eventually turned into dinner and drinks, with the two esteemed scientists catching her up on everything that had happened during her absence from duty.

Apparently, things had changed dramatically from that fateful night when Freyr’s husband and daughter were taken. A lot of the civil servants in senior Cradle management positions had been replaced by shadowy, highly knowledgeable individuals. Uchida and Kamau suspected these people reported into even more unknown quantities like the Director-General.

This new management cadre was arguably far more capable in affairs of the Cradle than the previous elected representatives; they quickly and efficiently put the Cradle apparatus on a new path. One that focused less on expanding the Cradle’s usable territory and much more on trying to understand and dampen it’s capabilities. Kamau and Uchida suspected this group had the tacit support of the administration outside of the Cradle, as massively increased emergency budgets got signed off with practically no fanfare.

Freyr finally gave her statement on the events in Boycott Park to the police upon returning to her apartment. She started back at work the next day, logging into the Cradle from the comfort of her constantly guarded living room. She found out on her first day back that all private sector Cradle leases and contracts were now being bought out. All non-essential access had been revoked. Freyr also received a new and improved NDA to sign, making all new information about the Cradle classified top secret.

Freyr quickly confirmed her suspicions that the Cradle Research & Development division was in disarray. Giving a collection of brilliant but entrenched scientists a massive budget and lots of ambitious young graduates, and then changing the division’s entire mission statement within a few months was always going to be a tough ask. Karos had made a start, but he’d always been something of a traditionalist. So Freyr’s first major challenge was getting the team ready for anything.

She had her work cut out. A few weeks after the incident at the testing facility, the Border began encroaching on colonised territory in a few hot spots. Terraformers with upgraded gear successfully reversed the advance. Until a few weeks after that, when the Border began shifting again, all across the frontier. All manner of creatures ventured from beyond the opaque bulwark, wreaking havoc upon squads of Terraformers and CraSec guards. Strange power surges hit the occupied zone every week, momentarily changing the pearl white facades of the administration’s new fortress cities into…something else. A twisted labyrinth of organic matter, like some sick perversion of the structures that had stood in their place just moments before.

A few months passed. Freyr found herself practically living in the Cradle, working day and night to roll back the advance. She’d almost forgotten about the meeting at the Rothian Embassy in the maelstrom of other meetings and planning sessions. That is, until she got a message from Masgard Xandrus, her public liaison and legal representation. It said the Outremer administration had made a good deal with the Rothians. They had a working partnership, and an expedition to Rothia was being made ready to leave tomorrow. Freyr was to lead it, leaving both her deputies, Dr Uchida and Dr Kamau (she hadn’t been able to choose between them), to hold the fort.

The Cradle

“Hmm. No, no that won’t do at all.” The Director-General smiled. The blue points of light in his eyes all cycled one position anti-clockwise. “Some of my counterparts might ask for access to your antimatter infrastructure, or something like that, in return. But I know you won’t entertain that possibility, because your technology means to you what the Cradle means to me. I was negotiating with an open mind, but it seems you aren’t ready to be serious with us. For that reason, this meeting is over. Come on, everyone.” The Director-General stood up, expertly scooping his jacket off the back of his chair and putting it back on.

The Under-Secretary, who had sat slightly open-mouthed as the Director-General played a weak hand with magnetic energy, decided to throw his weight behind the maneuver. As he stood up with the rest of the human delegation, he addressed the Ambassador directly. “Thank you for your time, Ambassador Taranik. Would you please inform the Zuraxi’Synkuur corporation to expect a full audit of its operations, in line with the Outremer Espionage Act, and to update its clients? We’ll need to ask all employees and consultants to provide a complete previous employment history. If you have any questions, please just let my office know."

Freyr got up hesitantly from her chair. ”What is happening?” She sent to Masgard. ”I’ll explain later.” He sent back, putting his jacket back on. He came over, smiling encouragingly, and put a hand on her back to softly guide her toward the door along with Dr Uchida and Dr Kamau.

The Cradle

The Director-General chuckled as the Ambassador defended her charge, rubbing his clearly shaven chin on a knuckle. “Sure thing.” He winked an augmented eye at Vreta. “I’m sure your man has updated you on what happened last night, so I won’t go into all the details. But I sent a team back to the compound after those things had cleared out. They discovered the creature Vreta was chatting with had been using a Rothian testing backdoor to manipulate a long-range comms array here on Babylon. It was trying to ping something using a very precise set of coordinates. And do you know where those coordinates led us?” The Director-General took another sip of water.

This was the part that truly excited Freyr. She simply had to find out what the creatures from the Cradle wanted so much. She jumped in almost without realising it. “Somewhere on Rothia.”

“Exactly right, Dr Lang!” The Director-General grinned, clapping his hands loudly together and slapping them back down onto the table. “Somewhere on Rothia. And I'm willing to bet my ridiculous government paycheck that you can’t detect it on your own. Otherwise, you would’ve found it already. So, I am proposing a joint expedition to Rothia, to figure out whatever that creature was trying to communicate with. With the galaxy’s most informed Cradle experts…” The Director motioned to Freyr and her deputies stood behind her “at the helm, i’m certain we’ll be able to track it down. In exchange for your full support on this expedition, and dropping all charges against Five Nine Five, we will share the knowledge of whatever we find with you. You can’t say fairer than that.”

The Cradle

Freyr could scarcely hide her surprise. She sent a message to Masgard; “Five Nine Five...was that the agent who rescued me?” She got a simple confirmation from Masgard in return. Now she was really confused. She’d understood the meeting to be about discussing events in the Cradle, not negotiating the release of prisoners.

As soon as it became clear they were about to watch a video, Masgard covertly sent a message to Freyr. “Do not watch the video. It could be doctored to influence your own memories, as a key witness. Please turn your screen off.” Although she was curious to see what happened, that warning plus the indication that it’d be gory were enough to convince Freyr. She turned off her display as soon as she was able. Osman turned hers off soon after, obviously not prepared to experience more random, wanton violence. The Director, the Under Secretary and Masgard all watched the video in silence. Their expressions were hard to read, although Freyr did note that the lawyer’s complexion went significantly paler through the course of the clip.

Freyr began to get very uncomfortable. Even without the screen, Freyr couldn’t help but think back to the raw terror of their escape, nausea creeping up from her stomach to her throat. Although she supposed this was inevitable, as the other topic, their escape from the Cradle, was equally traumatic. She poured herself a cup of water from a jug on the table and took a drink to calm her nerves.

After the video finished, the diamond-scaled Rothian unfurled a litany of accusations against the blonde haired lady who’d escorted her to safety. It was a little difficult to understand without seeing the clip, but Freyr pieced together that the Rothians were accusing the agent of trying to kill Vreta. It had struck Freyr as odd that they hadn’t tried to come after the two of them, but she’d put that down to the fact that it was pitch black in the park that night.

The three men in the centre of the Human side listened intently to everything the Counselor had to say. Then they turned to each other in turn, communicating via implant for almost a minute. Freyr watched the Under-Secretary’s fist clench underneath the table. Eventually, they all turned back to look at the Rothians and Masgard replied. “We can’t comment on these accusations until we have time to consult internally, and speak with the agent in question. Perhaps we can pack away that detour for now and stick to the main object of the meeting.” Masgard directed that last part, and the pointed urgency in his voice as he said it, at the Director General. The man with the blue eyes sat motionless at the table, his arms crossed. Freyr could tell he was disappointed at the position he’d been put in.

“You know, we’ve long suspected the Skinner’s Guild of infiltrating the Cradle. They come from old money, and their influence stretches far beyond car bombs and pirate broadcasts. My inquisitors tell me more of their operatives could have been among the team at the compound yesterday. They would have noted your stellar performance, Vreta’Sori. Appearing from thin air to ‘inspect’ an empty facility, only to valiantly fight off those creatures and live to tell your superiors of the experience.” The Director General leaned forward at this point, hands clasped on the table in front of him, his head ever so slightly tilted as he looked at Vreta.

“They’re looking for a way to destabilise this administration. They hate our society’s integration with the Cradle, but they also hate AI and augmentations of all kinds. Something the Rothian civilisation has in abundance. So when they find what any experienced eye could guess is a recently activated Rothian spy operating in the Cradle, they see the endgame. A machine intelligence with practically limitless power, in the hands of one of Outremer’s most powerful allies. However, they also see an opportunity. A chance to turn Outremer and Rothia against each other.” The Director General took a drink of water at this point. The room was utterly silent until he spoke again.

“By trying to assassinate the agent in charge of gaining intelligence on the Cradle, and making it look like the efforts of the Outremer administration, they’ve killed two birds with one stone. Destroying Outremer/Rothia relations, therefore hampering Rothian chances at technological advancement, and putting the Outremer administration into an embarrassing situation which it may never recover from.” The man looked at all of the Rothians in turn.

“But, I’m not willing to let that happen. I’m going to propose we begin a new era of collaboration between Outremer and Rothia on matters of the Cradle, starting right now. One in which we help each other, and prosper together. That's the reason we're all here today. All you have to do to get started, is release Agent Five Nine Five. What do you say?”

The Cradle

Freyr studied each of the imposing set of Rothians in turn. It fascinated her how diverse the colouring and patterns were among the physiologically similar aliens. She knew most of these mature aliens had likely hand-picked their colour scheme, but she wondered if their colour and pattern choices somehow denoted societal or gender clues. Freyr spotted Vreta by his yellow stripes, on the end of the row; she gave him a polite smile and a nod.

She was no expert on body language, but Freyr detected a distinctly frigid vibe from the Rothians after a couple of seconds, which she could see her colleagues picking up on as well. There were some half-hearted verbal greetings while everyone got seated. Masgard, Blue Eye Guy had quickly occupied the middle three seats, and Osman had taken the one opposite Vreta, so Freyr moved to the other end and sat opposite the Rothian with a bright, floral scale pattern. Dr Uchida and Dr Kamau followed her and stood protectively behind Freyr’s chair.

Once everyone was settled, the Under-Secretary began speaking. “First of all, I'd like to thank you for seeing us at such short notice. As you know, I wouldn’t have asked for such urgency if it wasn’t important. I’ll let the Director General explain the situation.” Sequeira turned to the man with the augmented eyes, as did pretty much everyone else in the room. Freyr caught Masgard’s eye and could see he was about as shocked as her to learn the man’s actual title. Director General of what, though?

“Thank you, João. Before I begin though, I would like to ask the Rothian ambassador to drop the charges arrayed against one of my officers, designation Five Nine Five. They were acting autonomously to save the life of our new head of Cradle research from domestic terrorists. It’s extremely regrettable one of your own got injured. It’s nice to see you on the mend by the way, Vreta’Sori.” The Director smiled warmly at Vreta. I'm told we've apprehended all of the Skinners responsible for this attack. We would be happy to question them in co-ordination with Rothian elements, as a gesture of goodwill?”

The Cradle

Masgard ushered her up one more floor to the roof pad. Four of the police officers guarding the hallway peeled off to escort them. Before they exited out onto the exposed top of the building, Masgard handed her a thin headband. “It’s a scrambler, to hide your identity from the media.” he explained. “Wait, the media are outside?” Freyr asked dumbly. “Yeah, they’ve waited outside your block all night to catch a glimpse.” Freyr took the headband and slipped it on. A field encapsulated her head and neck, before becoming invisible again. “Nice. Now remember, this doesn’t mask your voice. So if you want to say something just open a comm-link with me, Ok?” Masgard grinned, then motioned for the police to lead them out onto the roof.

It was a cold but sunny day in Babylon. Looking out over the parapet, Freyr could see a thin sheet of frost clinging to blades of grass in Boycott Park, far below. One large crime scene tent had been erected on the path a couple of hundred metres away from her front door, and another in the cobbled market area behind.

Freyr heard a low buzzing noise growing louder and looked back out across the rooftop to find half a dozen media drones hovering above their heads. As she watched, one of the drones came down to eye level and trained it’s primary lens squarely on her. To them, Freyr’s facial features would’ve been obscured by a constantly evolving pixel pattern. That didn’t deter them though, and more of the drones fell to eye level, taking in her clothes and personal effects to gain clues as to her identity. Robotic voices began emanating from them as the police tried to shoo them away.

“What is your name?”

“Where are you going?”

“Were the Skinners Guild behind this attack? Is it true you were their target?”

“Was a Rothian citizen hurt in the attack?”

“Will you give us a statement for the record?”

Masgard gently guided her across the roof and into the back of a sleek black flyer sitting on the pad. He got in after her and closed the door so the flyer could promptly take off. “Good job.” He said, strapping himself in. “The windows are completely tinted, so you can take that off if you like.” Freyr peeled the headband off and secured her own seatbelt. “We have about twenty minutes until we’re at the embassy, so I wanted to run a spot of admin past you…” Masgard handed Freyr a holo-pad. “This is your new contract and pay grade as head of division, all standard stuff. Please sign here aaand... here to confirm the promotion.

“This is an obscene pay rise. Karos and I did similar jobs; I know for a fact he didn’t make this much.”

“He didn’t. But unfortunately, Dr Childermass is gone now and we need you to transform the division from the ground up. I hope this raise goes some way to remedying that fact.”

“It doesn’t, but okay.” Freyr signed on the dotted lines projected into the air above the holo-pad.

“Next, your team. There have been quite a few changes in your absence.” A tiled wall of people’s names, faces and roles appeared on the flyer’s dividing wall. Some of them, Freyr recognised immediately. Many of them were brand new to her. “Wow, the team has grown a lot.” Masgard nodded. “After the first incident, the one involving you and your family...there was a bit of a hiring spree. The administration felt quite strongly that more investment was needed to understand and control the Cradle’s...emergent behaviours.” Freyr was already going into a few of the new arrivals’ biographies, noting their skill sets and prior experience. A lot were inexperienced, straight from university.

“Do you have a new deputy head of division in mind?” Masgard asked after a minute or so. Freyr pulled two pictures out of the wall and brought them to the fore. “Doctors Kamau and Uchida; they’ve both been in the department longer than I. Please contact them and ask each for a status report to bring me up to date. I’ll choose a deputy later.” Masgard smiled broadly. “Astute choices! I think I can do you one better than a status report…” Freyr looked at him, confused, but didn’t have the energy to question the lawyer any more.

The rest of the flight passed in a flash. Freyr immersed herself in as many members of the team as she could, learning about their lines of inquiry and experiments. As Karos had mentioned back in the Cradle, a lot of the new recruits’ research was focussed on new terraforming capabilities and weapons systems. But Freyr could already see a lack of work to actually understand the Cradle from a biological point of view. She made a mental note to correct that balance.

She felt the flyer descending, and looked out of the window. They were right in the centre of Babylon, dropping into a square just off Outremer Avenue, Babylon’s primary artery. Freyr spotted a pretty, old building below, with a tasteful garden outside. There were other similar flyers outside, and a few people milling around. “It may be wise to put the headband back on, until we’re inside. Just in case the drones followed us here.” Masgard urged. Freyr sighed, but obliged.

As soon as they landed, four police officers jogged over and opened both passenger doors for her and Masgard to get out. They were escorted quickly to the grand front doors of the establishment, where Rothian guards escorted them to a reception area. Freyr gladly took her muffler headband off again. A gaggle of people were at one end of the finely furnished room, and as they moved closer she realised she knew most of them.

First to notice them was Major Osman, who came over and shook Freyr’s hand vigorously. “I’m glad to see you made it out alive, Doctor.” She said solemnly. Freyr thought perhaps Osman was still a bit annoyed at her for rushing in and forcing her to take on the creature alone. “I’m glad to see you as well. I’m sorry for endangering your life like that, in the Cradle I mean.” Osman nodded, and smiled. “Thank you. I’d have loved it if i hadn’t been so terrified.” She bowed slightly to Masgard before stepping aside to let the next person come forward.

Freyr’s stomach clenched when she saw that it was the man with the curious eye augmentations behind Osman. He gave her a wry smile and spoke cheerfully. “Good morning , Dr Lang! How are you holding up? Has Mr Xandrus been keeping things off your plate?” Freyr nodded awkwardly. She had not expected to see him here. Somehow, she’d imagined him being a full time resident of the Cradle. The man wore the same anonymous black uniform as before, and kept his hands firmly clasped behind his back. That is, until gestured to one side. “Please allow me to introduce Under-Secretary of the Outremer Diplomatic Service, João Sequeira.” Freyr shook the finely dressed man’s well tanned hand. “Pleased to meet you, Dr Lang. I’ve heard a lot about you!” He boomed.

“And finally, I believe you already know these two very well.” Blue Eye Guy turned and gestured two tall figures forward. Freyr recognised them immediately; she’d just been considering both of them to be her division deputy. “Yuma! Wallace!” Freyr found herself really happy to see them, and was glad at least one of them looked as happy as she felt. Yuma laughed in her familiar, musical voice and rushed over to embrace Freyr. “It’s so good to see you both!” Freyr gushed over Yuma’s shoulder. Wallace Kamau came a little closer and waved woodenly, a half smile on his face.

“I’m sorry to cut this short, but I believe the Rothian delegation is waiting for us in the next room. Shall we begin?” The Under-Secretary asked loudly. “Please João, lead the way.” Blue Eye Guy beamed, ushering the diplomat forward with both arms. At that point, Freyr felt a comm-link open between her and the mysterious man. He glanced at her. “Let Mr Xandrus & I cover the politics, ok? Lets see their terms before we give anything away.” He sent. Freyr set her jaw and didn’t reply, falling in behind him as they all filed into the meeting room.

The Cradle

Freyr thought back to her discussion with the Rothian, Vreta, idly massaging her arm. He’d said the creature with David’s face had talked about ‘finding toys’ just after using that communications array. With this new information, she concluded it was highly likely ‘toys’ was a way for an immature construct to assign value to something it didn’t have Human words for yet. The question was, who’s vocabulary did it pluck this word from? Freyr couldn’t help but think it was her daughter, Amy’s, lexicon. The evidence so far pointed to them being alive in some form in the Cradle. She just had to find them.

“In fact, there’s a meeting this morning with the Rothians. We’re going to look for permission to open an investigation on the coordinates we pulled from the arrays. Blue Eye Guy has requested your attendance, as the Cradle Research Division’s new head.” Freyr sharply looked up from staring into her tea. “That’s Karos’ job.” She snapped. Masgard regarded her sympathetically for a moment. “Dr Lang, Dr Childermass died in the Cradle... I’m told you were very close...I’m sorry.” The medication hadn’t kicked in yet, and Freyr could feel anger and grief bubbling up to the surface. She felt her grip tighten on her drink. “He’s been gone less than a day, and already they’ve made me head of department?” Masgard nodded. “The guy moves quickly, I must admit. He said it’d be good for you to link up with your team to-”

Freyr crushed her takeaway cup between her fingers, sloshing hot tea all over the breakfast bar. “THEY’RE ALL FUCKING DEAD! And now you look at me like I know how to fix this!” She exploded, standing up and glaring at Masgard with tears suddenly streaming down her face. The lawyer awkwardly grabbed up his cup and the bag of pastries to prevent them from getting wet. Freyr hissed as the pain from her burned hand kicked in. She rushed to the sink and held it under cold water. The sensation triggered memories of the energy burn she’d sustained to the same arm in the Cradle. “Freyr…” Masgard soothed, coming around to the sink. “I’ve read your file. You are the brightest mind in your field. No one else has your combination of specialised education, knowledge of the Cradle, and first-hand experience of what it’s capable of now. If anyone can figure out how to fix this, it’s you!”

Freyr pushed past him, heading into the bedroom and slamming the door. Masgard stood outside, trying to listen to what was going on inside. “With the amount of infrastructure that relies on the Cradle, i don’t need to tell you what is at stake if it gets any worse.” Eventually, Freyr emerged from her bedroom, jumper on. “Come on. Let’s go to the meeting.” She sighed, motioning with her head to the door, hands in pockets. Masgard grinned. “Now that is the spirit!”

Song Reference time

HAI, my name is Ronnie; I'm an addict!

The Cradle

Chapter 2 - Perfidious Dark

She was back in the Cradle. Everything around her was wrapped in night, a perfidious dark, crisscrossed with purple skeins on the walls, ceiling and floor. She looked down at her hands; they were covered in black, bristling algae. It crept up her body, toothy shoots wrapping around her neck. She opened her mouth to scream, and algae sprouted from in there too, curling around her lips and blocking her nose.

“Mummy?” A small, thin voice called from the dark. She looked up, unable to breathe but still searching for her daughter. The algae crawled past her eyelids and wriggled under her eyes. She couldn’t blink. “Freyr, where are you?” A man’s voice called, far away. She called back with every fibre of her being, but could only manage a muffled hum, deep within her throat. Something in the darkness chuckled.

A pale human face, one she remembered, but with black eyes and a gaping black hole for a mouth, appeared from the dark in front of her. “I can seeeee youuuu.” It sang, it’s voice wet and somehow dead. She screamed anew. The face flew toward her, on the end of a giant insect creature. It’s mouth grew wider and long, sharp teeth appeared that filled her vision as the algae covered her eyes-

Freyr thrashed around, screaming into her pillow until she was finally awake and her covers lay on the floor. She heard clattering and looked around just as Masgard, the lawyer from yesterday, and four guards with guns burst into her bedroom. “Dr Lang!” Masgard shouted, then he surveyed the look on Freyr’s face and the abandoned covers and realised what had happened. “Bad dream?” He asked. Freyr nodded, grabbing the covers back up to drape them over herself. “Clear.” Officers began calling from all corners of the apartment, including in the bedroom. “Ok, everyone out please! I need to talk to my client. I’ll let you get dressed, Dr Lang. Sorry for the disturbance; we thought someone was trying to kill you.” Masgard grinned sheepishly.

Once everyone had left her bedroom, Freyr quickly changed from her night clothes into some sturdy, comfortable trousers, her work boots & gloves, and a black tank top. She rejoined the living room, where Masgard was waiting with two takeaway cups and a large paper bag. “I brought some pastries and something hot to drink.” Freyr was actually starving after only eating a small part of her dinner, so thanked him and tucked in. “So, i have news from the Cradle.” Masgard began after they’d each eaten a pastry. He sat across the breakfast bar from her, his hands clasped around his cup of tea. Freyr looked up. “What’s that?” She said after politely swallowing what was in her mouth at the time.

“This is classified top secret. You Know Who-...” Masgard tapped just below his right eye, taking Freyr instantly back to the mysterious man with the augmented eyes. “...-wanted to bring you back into the Cradle personally to hear this, but i persuaded him you needed a little time away from that place.” Freyr smiled gratefully. “Thank you, i appreciate that. After last night i…definitely need some time to decompress.” She grabbed the canister of pills that were still sitting on the counter, and took one with her tea.

“So...” Masgard leaned forward, drawing Freyr in with him. “They sent a team back beyond the Border last night, to investigate the equipment that abomination with the human face was playing with. They found some advanced Rothian-tech communications array, with an activity log. It seems the creature used a testing backdoor to commandeer several comms arrays here, in real-world Babylon. It sent several encrypted bursts to coordinates on the surface of Rothia, the Rothians’ homeworld.” Freyr couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Are you telling me that thing was trying to talk to someone, light years away?” Masgard shrugged. “I’m not an expert, but those are the facts so far, yes.” Freyr took a big sip of her tea, deep in thought.

The Cradle

“Sure. I’d like that.” Freyr nodded. Masgard ushered the Rothians from the room and turned in the hallway, his voice calm and level. “I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow. Well done today.” Her new lawyer flashed a roguish smile before finally leaving and shutting the door. Freyr breathed a sigh of relief. She was almost alone, apart from the police officer still monitoring the windows.

Unwilling to fully settle down until all this business with the shield generators was resolved, Freyr poured another glass of wine and watched the news. Reports and footage of Boycott park were on all the local channels; Freyr hardly recognised the place with hordes of law enforcement personnel and journalists swarming everywhere.

Before long, a couple of Rothian technicians came by to install the shield, carrying the compact device between them. They put it by the windows and fiddled with it for a while, the police officer watching them closely. Eventually, the device began emitting a soft whirring noise and the Rothians stood up, seemingly satisfied. One of them then came over and offered her a personal shield belt, like the one Vreta was wearing. They showed Freyr how to wear it and activate the device. It was much lighter than Freyr was expecting.

She thanked both of them, and the police officer who’d been guarding the apartment, for taking such good care of her. She was beginning to feel more than slightly awkward at all the effort that’d been expended just for her protection. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.” The police officer smiled, just before closing the apartment door and leaving Freyr with her thoughts.

After finishing her glass of wine, Freyr just about managed to get into bed, belt and all, before her exhaustion overcame her and she fell into a deep, partly medicated sleep.