Chapter 41 - Status Report

"Control," the distorted voice said.

"Knight," Mariah answered.

"Status report," Control requested coldly.

"Oh, I'm fine thanks," Mariah said glibly. "Classes are going really well and, hey, School Spirit day was off the hook!"

"Status report," Control repeated.

"Has anyone ever told you that you need to lighten up? Take some joy in life?" Mariah asked. 

Control was silent.

"Right, status report," Mariah chuckled. "I was right, Marco is not only taking bets on college footie, he's also fixing matches. I don't know details yet... I'm pretty sure it's tied up with the campus prostitution ring but they're still keeping me out of that."

"Mostly, he's got me running the 'store' right now," she continued. "We're running low on inventory, so he's told Carla to get more. I'll try to get details on that, so we can warn the trucking company."

"Negative," Control said tersely. "Stay on mission."

"Are you not listening to me?" Mariah snapped. "They're going to send Carla out to hijack a truck! I've told you what she's like. Someone could get hurt."

"Stay on mission."

"Madonna santa! If we're not going to try to stop any of this, what is the point?!" Mariah ranted. "Why am I doing this, risking this, if you're not going to do anything with the information I give you?"

"Ms. H is back," Mariah sighed before Control could respond to her rant.

"Are you secure?"

"I... She was... friendly... but I feel like she's keeping me at arms length," Mariah replied. "I don't know if she's still 'giving me space' or what. Merda, she can look straight into my heart but I don't know enough about her to get a good read on her."

"Can you maintain?"

"Yeah," Mariah took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm good. I'm solid."

"Confirmed, Knight. Stay on mission. Make contact by secondary number if you are not secure," Control disconnected the call.

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"So now I need to take the truck hijacking," Mariah concluded filling Miranda in on her call with Control. "Marco won't argue. He knows I can do it clean."

"Are you going to tell Control?" Miranda asked, already knowing the answer.

"You know what they'd say - Stay On Mission," Mariah mimicked Control's distorted voice, "but I can't risk Carla messing up some poor trucker."

"You know," Mariah continued, "she's a classic case... an abuse victim becoming an abuser, violently lashing out in a misplaced attempted to assert control over her world."

Miranda gave her a Look.

"Madonna santa, don't say it," Mariah said. "I know. She's me or what I would have been if I'd stayed on that road... but I didn't. So I'm not the one who might put extra holes in some trucker in an expression of my own inner suffering."

"No, and you wouldn't have, either," Miranda said. "You would have done something risky and inherently self-destructive in an expression of your self-loathing."

"What, are you reading my textbooks now?" Mariah laughed.

"Well, it's not like I'm going to read mine," Miranda rolled her eyes. "I mean, seriously, I've had Vivaldi down since I was ten."

"You're amazing," Mariah smiled.

"It's just practice," Miranda sighed. "I've been playing violin since I was big enough to hold one. You're the amazing one."

"I'm not," Mariah started.

"You're going against Control, digging yourself in deeper with the Altos and generally putting yourself in harm's way to protect some random trucker," Miranda pointed out.

"That's just doing what needs to be done," Mariah insisted. "You think I shouldn't?"

"I think you're amazing," Miranda said.

"Just doing what needs to be done," Mariah repeated. "You'd do it... but, hey, don't get any ideas! I sleep at night because I know you're not part of this. You and Aadi and Genie... you're not any part of this Alto business."

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"Hi there," the young man gave Genie his most charming smile. "I'm looking for Mariah. Name's Johnny. They call me Johnny Pretty."