“Fine,” she said feeling Tom remove her hand from his shirt. “Wherever but we need to make the call now before Hoffman does something that is going to require me to get a lawyer to defend my actions.” It was clear Vanessa was infuriated as she made a shooing motion for Tom to lead the way.

When we get there I need you to open up a comm line to Judge Wilkins, O’flannery at the fourth precinct, and Father 0’Boyle of the Immaculate Conception on tenth street not first street,” she rattled off names as she walked. “Do you need me to write this down or are you getting all this?”

Vanessa Slade. cns

Tom lead the way. It didn’t take long before they were in the corridor of a section of crew quarters.

Tom entered a door and inside was a very sparsely appointed room. An entertainment system along one wall, a rug with large pillows opposite the entertainment system, and a desk with three chairs. One on one side and two on the other.

Tom indicated a seat at the desk as he went around to the seat on the other side. With a gesture holo-panels seemed to rise form the depthless black surface of the desk as Tom dropped into his seat.

“Open channel, priority IS3.” he spoke clearly.

“Biometrics confirmed.” came a voice form nowhere, “Passphrase…”

Tom was feeling a bit dramatic and play straight to Vanessa with his reply.

“Unbearable, isn’t it? The suffering of strangers, the agony of friends. There is a secret song at the center of the world, Vanessa, and its sound is like razors through flesh.
Come, you can hear its faint echo right now. I’m here to turn up the volume. To press the stinking face of humanity into the dark blood of its own secret heart.”

Vanessa could believe that Tom was actually saying this to her until… “Passphrase verified.” replied the voice, “Parameters?”

“Judge Wilkins O’Flannery at the fourth precinct and Father 0’Boyle of the Immaculate Conception on tenth street.”

Algorithms would extrapolate the individuals they were trying to reach and the IS3 priority would bring up the Internal Security splash screen as well as playing the notification chime at a very noticeable volume.

The holo-panels that lit up for the communication showed Vanessa waiting for the connection.

• Tom, IntSec