The next morning, I bump into Cor in the hallway, far earlier than I normally expect to see her up. She’s got Mr. Fuzzy with her, and they’re headed toward the elevator. “Hey, wait up,” I call after her. I’d be happy to go outside for a bit, myself. Data Haven isn’t as bad as the Morgan dome, but there’s still something just a little off about the filtered air down here.
Cor stops when she hears me. “Oh, hey, Mariah! Mr. Fuzzy came back—wait, sorry, did you bring Mr. Fuzzy back?”
I smile and nod. When I get closer, I hold out my right hand, and Mr. Fuzzy comes over to lick it. I scratch his head, and Cor starts advising me on just where he likes that, but she cuts herself off when she sees that I already know. “Mr. Fuzzy and I go way back,” I tell her with a grin.
Cor throws her arms around me in an enthusiastic hug. I gasp and stagger back a little, wincing. Startled, Cor lets go of me, glancing down at my chest. My left arm is hidden in its sling there under my poncho. She had no idea about my injuries until she embraced me. “Oh my gosh, Mariah. What happened?!” she asks. Her concern then rapidly turns vengeful, and all sunniness flees her disposition. “Who did this to you?”
The transition is so sudden it’s almost comical. “There’s no person for you to settle your rancor on,” I tell her with a self-deprecating chuckle to diffuse her rage. “This was done by a siege worm. And I can tell you, I am definitely not going to start a vendetta against them. I am, in fact, going to stay as far away from them as possible. I apologize for laughing at your stories about how dangerous they are.”
“I can’t believe you’re still alive,” Cor marvels.
“Well, that’s thanks to Cleve.”
“And all it did was break your arm?”
“Well, and my face.” That’s concealed by this morning’s application of makeup, though. That fact that Cor didn’t notice means I must have done the job well. “You can’t see the bruises, but I can still feel them. The left side’s pretty tender,” I admit.
“So how did you find Mr. Fuzzy?”
“Um…” If there really is a Morgan collaborator here in Data Haven, I don’t want them overhearing what I have to say. “I’ll tell you all about it on our walk outside,” I say, nodding towards the elevator.
“Uh, sure, okay. Yeah!”
Once we’re away from Data Haven, strolling through the low-growth areas above it, I tell Cor that Cleve found an abandoned warehouse with a pen of captive wolf beetles. Not wanting to upset her, I leave out the evidence of abuse we found. Cleve still has a couple of those stun rods—unless craws walked off with them on our trip back. “Cleve found them and set them loose,” I tell Cor. “I found a ledger that was pretty incriminating of Morgan in that whole scheme.”
“I knew it. I knew it!” Cor shouts. “All right, so we’ve got to blow this wide open…”
“I gave it to Morris,” I tell her, and she settles down a bit, complimenting me on the good idea. “He thought he might be able to work with it to damage Morgan’s reputation.”
“I mean, it’s a start…” Cor murmurs.
“You didn’t tell me Morris was so charming,” I tell Cor.
“Huh? Wait, how did you find Morris?”
“Quite nice, actually. He’s very stylish.”
Cor thinks for a moment, perhaps remembering her last meeting with him. “I suppose so. I mean, he’s got that hat… I guess he is a little better dressed than most people there.”
I wonder if she knows he’s Fritz the tailor. How siloed does he keep his two occupations? I realize that I misinterpreted her earlier question, but I’m not going to give it a proper answer now because of that possibility. “He was happy to have corroboration of what you had told him regarding… the whole… illicit activities.” I stumble over my words a bit. It’s so nice to see Cor relaxed and happy, tossing a makeshift ball to Mr. Fuzzy as we walk and talk. I don’t want her to get all fired up and vengeful again. “Hopefully that will be one more nail in Morgan’s coffin.”
“Yeah, that’s right!” Cor mutters. Then she releases a deep breath and turns to look directly at me. “Thank you so much, Mariah. I think I didn’t even realize how lost I was without Mr. Fuzzy. He’s like the last family I have.” She presses her lips, holding herself together, but a few tears roll down her cheeks. I wrap my right arm around her, and she gently embraces me back. “If there’s anything you need,” she says with a sniffle, “just let me know. I’ll do what I can.”
“I’m glad to see you so happy,” I tell her. “It was worth facing down a siege worm for this.”
“You faced down a siege worm to rescue Mr. Fuzzy?! I thought you said he was in an abandoned warehouse.”
“Yeah, well, he also got loose when we were outside the dome.”
“Oh, yeah, he does that sometimes.” Cor shakes her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you fought a siege worm to save Mr. Fuzzy.”
“It was a pretty one-sided fight,” I admit. “So, tell me, I’ve been away for a week. What have you heard? Ration thieves? Morgan moles?”
Cor continues playing fetch with Mr. Fuzzy while updating me on the rumor mill. She’s definitely noticed that they’ve been giving out less food at meal times. Cor suspects the two rumors are related and that someone is preparing an expedition to depart Data Haven. “Someone has already accused me of being the Morgan collaborator,” Cor tells me, cracking her knuckles. I notice that one of the hands is bruised there. “Uh, yeah, me and Astrid do not get along.”
“Astrid accused you?”
“Yeah, but whatever, she can do her own thing,” Cor replies. She’s not bent up about it, which is a relief to see. I’m going to be dealing with Astrid myself soon, so I get what material on her I can from Cor. Self-confident and not easily pushed around, that’s what Cor tells me. That does not bode well for persuading her.