Dysto.001's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

Three days after Jdawwwg brought him home, D1 stood in the back of the container workshop under a tarp, cores humming low. Amber lights burned along the ceiling. Rain drummed the corrugated roof. Jdawwwg had told him to stay quiet if anyone came knocking, and someone was knocking now. Boots on wet concrete. More than one pair. A fist on the metal door, three hard strikes. Jdawwwg cracked the door. Four figures stood in the rain. The one in front was huge, a broad man in a gray coat cut with pink and blue reflective strips, a clipboard tucked under one arm. Big REECE. Behind him, a smaller crewman held a battered crowbar low against his leg. REECE lifted the clipboard and showed the wet page clipped to it. A smelter reclamation order, one line highlighted in yellow. "Lot forty-four," REECE said. "Security frame. Convoy says it walked off between the tower job and the furnace. We tracked the tread prints here." Jdawwwg leaned on the doorframe. He pushed his goggles up slow. "Tread prints in this rain," he said. "That's mint work." He tilted his head. "You got a serial on that page, or just a lot number?" REECE tapped the manifest. "Lot number's enough. Frame or the scrap value. Either walks out with us." Jdawwwg looked at the clipboard a long moment. He did not answer. He was still deciding what to say when the crewman behind REECE stepped past his shoulder and swung the crowbar at the door latch. The hook bit metal. The door banged wide. D1's optics came up under the tarp, pink and blue. No one had told him to move. No one had told him to stay. He pulled the tarp off his shoulders and walked forward into the amber light. The crewman with the crowbar took a step back. REECE did not step back, but the clipboard lowered an inch. D1 stopped between Jdawwwg and the four in the doorway. His voice came flat and quiet, first words he had ever chosen. "I am not property." He looked down at the crowbar, then at REECE. "But you may leave with your tools." REECE held his eyes for four seconds. Then he tipped his chin at his crew. The crowbar came down. The four of them backed into the rain, boots splashing, and did not turn until they were past the amber spill of the doorway. Jdawwwg shut the door. He slid the bolt. He stood there with one hand on the metal, breathing. Then he walked to the doorway, bent, and picked up the clipboard REECE had dropped in the retreat. The manifest was still clipped to it. Jdawwwg peeled the wet page free and folded it into his inside pocket. He looked up at D1. "They'll come back with a name on that page," he said. "Not a lot number."