Opus Veda

Andrez's section dispersed into realms invisible to Kasia. She stayed with Esmé in the safe house - a sparse place with new but cheap furniture. She saw no personal items. Everything was clean.

Two futons lay in the bedroom, divided by a thin gap. Kasia arrayed her meagre possessions on one; her clothes, a coat, some cash, one knife.

Esmé was staring at her, holding a pile of sheets. Kasia was in the way. She started panicking.

"Don't worry! I just need to make the beds!" Esmé nudged her aside, "won't it be nice to sleep on one for a change?"

"All that time you were undercover… you were so natural. How did you cope?"

"We take our cover stories close to reality. I was a sex worker. I made a bit online but I was happiest when I made clients feel better.

So… I decided to become a nurse! I put my money on a degree, got a placement at a hospital…"

Esmé lay on her bed, resting her head in her hands, blowing through her lips.

"It was so bad. NHS had already been sold off, the good staff had gone abroad. Anyone left was a psycho abuser, a pointless admin guy, or a rare idealist. You know that conspiracy about England depopulating? How they say hundreds of thousands died out? It's millions. Most of it happened on a ward. If you ever leave the city, you'll see a wasteland."

Kasia lay down, mimicking Esmé.

"Is that's why you joined these guys?"

Esmé faced her.

"Bad things happened to me. I ended up a patient myself, locked in psychiatric against my will. My debt grew... The things I had to do to staff to get bathroom access, to get food… They said a whore like me should be used to it.

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One day, they found the ward manager dead from an overdose. Chloroquine. Not something you'd find on a psychiatric ward. No one knew where he got it, nor how he got that many pills up his nose quickly enough.

Then someone hacked the system. Every patient record vanished, including our debts. Staff received messages. Whatever those messages said, they ran for it. A doctor I once worked with - one of the idealists - walked off the ward with me in his arms."

Kasia chuckled at the ceiling, "you had something to offer him."

"I had nothing to offer him. He never even mentioned it…" Esmé swung off the futon, "I asked to join."

She made for the main room. Kasia saw something unfamiliar in her eyes, betraying her warm smile.

Malice.

"The other staff eventually overdosed too."

Kasia follower her to the L-shaped main room. The kitchenette had a rice cooker and stove, plus a wine Kasia wasn't going to try pronouncing. Four chairs surrounded a green felt table; one she knew as mahjong table. A TV hung from the corner above; under that, a plastic fern someone had bothered to dust.

In the L's prong a sofa and an armchair flanked an empty bookshelf. Kasia imagined the armchair being where Andrez sat.

And she imagined the dining room - where she had joined Opus Veda - was forbidden to pass.

Esmé opened the kitchen cupboards and pointed out a stack of tinned foods. Kasia picked the easiest thing to cook - instant chow mein - not wanting to burden her teammate. Esmé emptied two tins into a wok.

"Just so you know, this house is bugged. Everything we say and do is recorded. How would you say in Brixton… be'ave yourself lav."

"Don't worry. I'll 'be'ave meself'," Kasia set the table, pushing the mahjong tiles neatly aside, "can I ask when we, I dunno how you would say it… when we next work?"

"Contracts and placements? One involves fighting, the other spying. The next gig's a way off. We'll train tomorrow with two of the boys from our section. We might even spar, Kasia..."

"If you think you can manage it…"

She risked a pursed smile as Esmé brought the food. Kasia picked at it with her chopsticks, jarred by how normal the evening was. Esmé flicked the TV on and played a shorts reel, pointing some out to Kasia, otherwise leaving her be.

Slowly, without Kasia realising, Esmé grounded her into recovery.

They washed and went to bed. Esmé drifted off in seconds, as soft and peaceful and nice as ever. Kasia listened to her breathing, and felt trusted.

She discovered her exhaustion. The futon blossomed around her. She floated into a slumber.