Memetic Drift - J.N. Chaney Page 0,13
and chirped, “You two are cute! What can I get for you?”
“You hear that, Tycho?” asked Raven. “You’re cute now.”
“I’m pretty sure she was talking about you. I’ll have a whiskey neat, please.”
“Tycho, this is a cocktail bar. Not a gang dive in Sif. You have to order a cocktail.”
“I’m sure they have cocktails where the main ingredient is whiskey. Right?”
“Sure,” said the waitress. “I can get you a Casablanca Sunset.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Raven held up two fingers in a V-shape. “Make it two.”
“You got it. I’ll be right back with those.”
The waitress went off to fetch our drinks, and Raven cocked her head at me. “Why do you do that?”
“Why do I do what?”
“Pretend you’re dumb.”
“I don’t know. I guess it’s about fitting in. Or feeling like I don’t fit in.”
“You mean this place, because it’s a fancy cocktail bar? Or in Section 9?”
I was starting to get the impression that Raven hadn’t just asked me out for drinks because she wanted to spend a night out with me.
“I meant the bar, but we can talk about Section 9 if you really want to.”
She grinned. “So you figured me out. Let’s wait for our drinks first. I don’t think there’s much point in talking about anything until we’re slightly lit.”
“Agreed. I’ll just stare at you awkwardly until we’re both quite tipsy, and then we can talk about work.”
“You’re such a weirdo, Tycho.”
The waitress came back and handed me a glass of something roughly the color of whiskey, but with swirls of red in it.
Raven held her glass up. “Cheers!”
We clinked glasses, then Raven took a long swallow. “Ah, that’s much better!”
I sipped my drink, then decided I liked the flavor enough to take a swallow myself. Whatever was in it, the drink was strong. I felt it immediately in my head, like I was almost flying.
“Holy shit.”
“I know, right? That’s what they’re known for here. So, I’ll just say it plainly, Tycho. They sent you to Mars for a reason. It wasn’t just to question Geoffrey Rosenstein.”
“I see.” I had another careful sip, not sure how I was expected to respond.
“You’re not at all curious?”
“Of course I’m curious.”
“Don’t get tense on me, we’re out here to relax tonight. You and I are going to have plenty of drinks, and maybe even dance a little, but we have to talk about this first. The more easy you are about it, the quicker that will be.”
“I’m fine, Raven, really. If you have something to tell me, you can go ahead and tell me.”
She leaned forward and looked into my eyes, long enough that I wanted to say something to break the silence. She must have found the words she was looking for, or maybe the confidence in that I was really as calm as I’d said.
She continued, “After the last trip to Mars—the big one, I mean—the Operator was questioning Andrea’s recommendation to bring you into the family.”
Raven hadn’t been with us for that particular mission, which was probably why Andrea had picked her to break this news to me. She was the only member of the team who didn’t have any personal reason to question my actions on Mars.
“That doesn’t surprise me. I got involved in a street fight. Something that didn’t have anything to do with our mission.”
“I know all about it, Tycho. You can tell me the whole story if you want to, but that’s not the reason I’m bringing it up.”
“Well, what is?”
My Casablanca Sunset was already half gone. How had that happened?
“I wanted you to know that Andrea stood up to the old man on your behalf. She gave him pushback, and that’s not an easy thing to do.”
“No, I don’t imagine it would be.”
The Operator was the man in charge of Section 9—the whole organization, not just our team. I had only met him once, traveling to the fringe of the system to do it. As far I knew, he lived on Sedna, a tiny planetoid so far out it goes around the sun once every 11,400 years. The Operator was like that—distant, anonymous, barely present in day to day life, but always on the periphery.
“Do you get what I’m saying here, Tycho?”
Raven was peering at me while sipping her drink. From the look on her face, she was wondering whether I was too stupid to pick up on her implications, or too drunk, or just not paying attention.
“Spell it out for me, Raven. Let’s just say I’m too drunk to follow you.”
She laughed a