Vice-president Ivanova and Carolina were up in the tower, along with Ivanova's guards.

  “Captain Cofey, Doing better I hope?” Ivanova asked.

  “I believe so. The doctor believes he can get something from the pharmacy that will help me.” I replied. I was feeling... Pensive, about talking to her, after our first encounter.

  She nodded. “I believe we have a plan. I have a platoon of HJDF that arrived stripping out data cable to make a long enough cable to reach your ship, we'll send some runners to connect it up, then you can link to your ship from here and do what you need to do.” Ivanova continued, showing me why Hwang was... concerned about her leadership, and cementing in my mind that she definitely wanted to keep me under her thumb. My eyes drifted in the background to the Deaconess.

  I shook my head. “I need to be on my ship, my suit just does not have enough power and it is damaged. I need to be in the helm to do what I need to do to your planetwide network. I'll cook myself if I try something that big from this suit.”I replied, half lying. I probably could relay everything from here to the ship, but everything would still have to go through me to keep my ship from being infected, and I had more concerns than the heat spikes I had been experiencing... like being surrounded by a bunch of guys with guns who may or may not consider me an abomination.

  “Can you even walk in your condition?” Ivanova asked.

  “I can walk.” making my voice firm.

  She gave me a look.

  “I'm going to send you an escort to make sure you get to your ship safely.” Ivanova stated, making it sound like an order.

  I looked over to Megan who was still standing beside me, supporting me.

  “What about Megan here?” Megan had seemed like a straight shooter so far. I wouldn't go s far as to say I trusted her, but better her than an unknown.

  She gave a glance over at Megan and nodded.

  “Get three more together and you'll be his escort.” Ivanova ordered, and Megan saluted her, then went back down the stairs, presumably to find three more people.

  I moved over to the chair I had been using before and sat down, letting out a sigh of relief while Ivanova stared at me.

  “So, do you have any high priority government networks I should aim on getting online? Like maybe your own counter-intrusion branch or... something?” I asked. Ivanova obviously either wanted something from me or wanted me to do something in particular, or both...

  “We have a ministry of cyber security... They are supposed to prevent tragedies like this but they obviously weren't up to the task.” Ivanova stated acidly. I wouldn't want to be one of the guys in this Ministry once she got back to their equivilant of the white house.

  “If the virus is following the same patterns it was with the robots it will have locked that area of your network out, identifying it as a threat. If I can access and unblock it, you should be able to clear your own network, and I can get on my way.” I said. I was anxious to be gone, this planet kindof sucked.

  “You aren't going to stay and clear everything?” Ivanova asked incredulously, and a little accusingly, which I did not appreciate.

  “I believe I said before but no, only the critical parts of your network infrastructure.” I repeated. Not my monkey's, not my circus. Most of the goodwill I had been filled with when I came down had long since evaporated.

  She gave me a look.

  “Very well.” She said, ominously, before going down the stairs with her chief bodyguard.

  I waved Carolina over.

  “So I am pretty sure she is going to try to stab us in the back.” I whispered so quietly my voice was more a sigh than anything, aware that most of the president's bodyguard was still in the room with us.

  “I've been getting that feeling ever since she came in here. Question is, how do they plan to do it.” Carolina repeated in the same low tone, mouth right next to my ear, which tickled... I needed to shave,.

  “The current plan is for them to send four soldiers with us to make sure we make it to the ship alive.” I replied, my gaze scanning the room. The bodyguards were all looking out the windows, except for the lead bodyguard, who was staring right at us. The Deaconess was looking at me but I deliberately looked away from her. I really didn't want any more uncomfortable conversations with her about... anything really.

  “Mmm... enough to make sure we get there, not so many that we get spooked.” Carolina replied.

  “Yeah she's good at this.” I said, acknowledging that Ivanova had really put us in a bit of a bind. I could protest the guards at all, but there was no way to do that without appearing suspicious, and she hadn't given me so many I could use the security of the airport as a whole to get her to send fewer.

  I hated playing these games.

  “How are we going to deal with this?” Carolina asked.

  “Stay cool till we get up to the bridge, they are going to want me to get as much done on my own before they have to force me to continue, I'll come up with something to get you out of there and check on something for me, then I'll try to get the other soldiers they send to do patrols so there are as few in the bridge as possible when I make my move.” I said.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “How will you deal with the ones in the bridge? Once you are connected to the ship you won't be able to do anything, and if you send me off someplace else...” Carolina continued, concerned.

  “I will try my best to get them all off the ship... but it's going to be tight. I'll have to figure something out... act like we were talking about your treatment.” I said as I noticed one of the bodyguards moving closer, the older one.

  “My treatments?” Carolina replied, bewildered by the sudden topic shift.

  “Yeah, the doctor is going to find some medicine for the both of us, hopefully it will clear up the cancer we detected in you without issue.” I replied, trying to make it seem natural.

  She nodded catching on as the bodyguard stopped far too close to us.

  “What about you?” She asked.

  “He's getting me some meds that I need to take before I disconnect.” I said.

  “Wait, you can't move when you are connected to your ship. How are you going to take them.” Carolina said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Well... I was hoping I could rely on you for that, send you a message and you shoot me up with them before I come out.” I asked, hoping she wouldn't be mad.

  She gave me a face.

  “I'm not a nurse Brayden.” Carolina said, crossing her arms.

  “Yeah, but you're all I have.” Ooof, that came out a little more heartfelt than I intended.

  She looked stunned by my words, which was a little more than I had been aiming for. I was going for witty rejoinder not heartfelt confession.

  I cleared my throat, eyes going to the bodyguard staring at us with a smirk on his face.

  “Do you need something soldier?” I asked him cooly.

  “Just coming by to check on you, the Ma'am told us your safety is second in importance to her, so we need to make sure you are kept safe.”

  “Well... go keep me safe over there.” I nodded to the door.

  He walked away slowly.

  I turned back to Carolina.

  “Guess now we wait.” I said.

  ***********************************************************************************

  It was some time before the Vice-President came back up, though Doctor Smith did arrive with two shopping bags full of medicine.

  He walked right up to us and and began explaining.

  “These are for you, Captain Cofey.” Dr. Smith said, handing me a bag.

  “I have included several syringes but you will need more, and I have written down your prescription and put it in the bag. You will have to experiment with dosages of the emergency vasodilator and clot busting medicine to get them right. You will also need to begin taking lower strength vasodilators regularly, there are several pain medications that do so as part of their analgesic effect so I have included all I can find here.”The doctor said, pulling out and showing me at least a dozen different medications.

  He sighed.

  “I know that you cannot stay and that you have important things to do out there Captain Cofey, but you really need to be in a medical facility, or at least under the permanent care of a doctor on board your ship.” Doctor Smith said.

  He turned to look at Carolina.

  “And you young lady, I have heard you have had some cancer issues. Without performing an in depth examination I was not able to determine exactly what kind of cancer you have my abilities are limited. I have three front line medications used to treat malignant tumors...” Doctor Smith began.

  He paused and looked at her.

  “They are unpleasant to take, I warn you.” He finished.

  Carolina nodded, looking crestfallen.

  Dr. Smith looked around. Nothing appeared to be pressing at the moment... though through the windows I could see little dots in the sky in the distance, circling.

  “We actually have a moment, and I have a medical scanner... Do you mind if I take a look at you?” Doctor Smith said.

  She nodded, and I moved to get up and giver her the chair.

  She pointed at me. “Keep your butt in that chair Brayden.” She said without looking at me.

  I complied.

  Dr. Smith smirked, and attached his medical device to Carolina's head, before taking out another series of... electrodes? And extending them down her neck to her collarbone.

  He spent some time examining her, during which I watched out the window. There were no more impacts from airships, cars, or whatever nearby, but I saw several more black dots joining the circling dots in the distance. Once got closer and I could see it was some kind of helicoptor, and one buzzed the tower and it appeared to be some kind of aircar.

  “Now how do we keep those from raining on our heads while we make a run for it.” I said, mostly to myself.

  I had an idea.

  “Hey, do you guys have any pictures on the walls?” I asked the room.