SiSU: - Homeland - Cory Doctorow

Homeland
was looking sick and scared. Jolu, as always, was as cool as a movie star, though I could
recognize the subtle signs around his eyes and the corners of his mouth, the vein that stood
out faintly on his forehead and the pulse thudding in his throat. But Van -- well, she looked
grimly determined, and not at all scared. “So we'd better do it, right?” she said.
Jolu nodded. “It's time, all right. I wrote a script that would nuke our chats on the darknet
site and erase all the logs and scrub our handles from the notes in the database.”
“You wrote that script, huh?” Van said.
Jolu smiled his movie star smile. “Yeah, the first night. I figured that there was a good
chance we'd have to open up the site in a hurry, so I figured what the hell, better beat the
rush. Stitch in time saves nine.”
“That's a great motto, Jolu,” Ange said. “Beats the shit out of `when in trouble or in doubt,
run in circles, scream and shout.'” I winced.
Jolu shrugged. “I don't want to get in the middle of whatever you two are into, Ange, but
you know, there's a time and place for running in circles, too. We all got our own superpowers.”
Darryl laughed nervously. “Yeah, he wouldn't be Marcus if he didn't do that scream and
shout thing, right?”
“Guys,” I said, “I'm here. I can hear you.”
“Shut up, sweetheart,” Ange said. But she leaned across the table and took my hand and
gave it a squeeze. I squeezed back and she hauled back, dragging me across the table to
her, and she grabbed my head with her other hand and gave me a ferocious kiss. “You're
an idiot,” she said, when we were done. “But you're my idiot. Don't you ever run out on
me after an argument again or I'm going to start sitting on you whenever you lose a fight
until I'm sure you won't turn rabbit.”
“Daww,” Jolu said. “Isn't young love sweet?”
“Actually,” Van said, “it is.” And Darryl got up and came around the table and wrapped her
up in his long arms and hugged her so hard I heard her ribs creak.
Kylie said, “Children, love is sweet and important indeed, but we've got a job to do. Mr
Torrez, I believe you mentioned a script you have ready to run?”
Jolu thunked at his keyboard. “Done.”
Darryl stuck his hand up. “So what I was thinking, you know, is that we should start by
getting in touch with those weirdos who'd been spying on Marcus. They sure seemed to
have a good idea about how to get people to notice what they had to say.”
I bit my tongue. If I hadn't been kidnapped by two totally evil mercenaries after my runin
with the ghosts in my machine, I think my head would have exploded in rage at the
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