[ CW ] ReNov1 Janny Thunder Meets `` The Doctor ''

Sanchez was waiting for him back at the hab unit. As soon as the old man came into sight JT ’ s hangover began in earnest. Worse yet that mangy dog of his wouldn ’ t be far behind. 
 
 “ I wasn ’ t expecting any guests. ” 
 
 “ You wouldn ’ t have answered if I called. ” 
 
 “ I wouldn ’ t have. ” 
 
 JT swiped his hand to unlock the hab unit. He stared at the old man level in the eye. Sanchez was old but not in the proper way—he stood tall, had smooth skin, most of his hair and a well kempt white beard—the only way you could tell he was old was by the whiteness of his hair and the smell of old people that even he couldn ’ t shake. The man reeked of history. They watched each other silent for longer than was normal and JT excused his presence with a shrug of his shoulders. 
 
 “ Don ’ t have much for you, ” he said as he walked in without waiting for the old man. The click of uncut claws confirmed the presence of his dog Fe. 
 
 “ S ’ ok, brought my own, ” Sanchez held up a bottle wrapped in brown paper, “ Love what you ’ ve done with the place. ” 
 
 JT looked at the overturned food plate and tin cup that sat below a cracked window. 
 
 “ Left a bad taste in my mouth, ” he scooped up what remained of the porridge and put it on the floor for Fe, who licked it up happily. 
 
 “ Happen much? ” 
 
 “ Only every time an old memory comes up. Speaking of, as I recall, last time you were here I told you if you ever came back again I ’ d gut you, ” JT said pointedly as he took the knife from his jacket and stuck it into the table top. 
 
 Sanchez picked up the tin cup from the window and sat across from JT. He unwrapped the bottle from his paper and poured a cup. 
 
 “ Heard you turned down the Fireball Run. ” 
 
 JT took the bottle from his hands. Alcohol scorched his throat in one long pull. 
 
 “ Maybe I did. Don ’ t see how that ’ s any business of yours. ” 
 
 The old man cocked an eyebrow and took a swig from the cup. He grimaced and sighed as he struggled to stomach the gin. 
 
 “ It ’ s everyone ’ s business. There ’ re no secrets in the age of Unity. ” 
 
 JT took another pull from the bottle. Sanchez lit a cigarette and threw the pack towards his runner. After all that ’ s what he was, in spite of all the bitterness, all the regret. He and Kato were the star runners of Sanchito's crew, and even if they didn ’ t talk much that was immutable fact. Sanchez was the link between runners below and their mysterious masters above and there was no making a living without him. JT } { _|\|d4|2 took a cigarette for himself and put it behind his ear and pocketed the pack. 
 
 “ What do you want? ” 
 
 “ I ’ m just sitting here with a friend who ’ s depressed and drunk. ” 
 
 “ What do you want, Sanchez? You come here to force me to take the run? Brooklyn ’ s good. She ’ ll roast just fine. ” 
 
 “ I ’ m not here to force anything. ” 
 
 “ Bullshit, ” JT said. The old man just leaned back and puffed on his cigarette. JT gripped the bottle tight in his hands. 
 
 “ Brooklyn ’ s not as good as you. ” 
 
 “ Tell her that. ” 
 
 “ The run is possible. ” 
 
 “ I don ’ t believe you. ” 
 
 “ I have a way through. ” 
 
 “ You have a way through? ” JT shot out of his chair. He almost threw the bottle but took a long swill of the rotgut instead, “ Is that what you had for Kato? Or was spreading his ashes through an eruption of smog part of your great master plan, old man? Or are you suggesting I maintain a sub minute mile over thirty kilometers, not counting the sorters on both sides and the patrol drones? There ’ s no way through. There wasn ’ t a year ago and there sure as hell not today. ” 
 
 “ Sit down, ” Sanchez said calmly and in spite of himself JT } { _|\|d4|2 did as he was told. He frowned petulantly. 
 
 “ There ’ s a maintenance shaft. There has to be a way for human techs to get through the Fireball without getting fried. ” 
 
 “ It ’ s a myth. ” 
 
 “ It ’ s not a myth. There ’ s always a back door. So it is below as it is above, ” the old man replied with his spiritual bullshit, “ We merely need to find the key that unlocks the door for us. Together we can do that. ” 
 
 “ Together? Who said anything about together? ” 
 
 “ You did when you spent my money. ” 
 
 “ That was Hawk ’ s money. ” 
 
 “ That was my money that Hawk sent you. ” 
 
 JT pulled the cigarette from his ear and lit it. He squinted at the old man, as if a look through narrowed eyes might make him clearer. Both hazy versions of Sanchez remained inscrutable. One long drag pulled the smoke into his lungs where it burned like the furnace of his anger. After a near minute he blew it out in Sanchez ’ s face. 
 
 “ Let ’ s get something straight, old man. I ’ ll do runs for you. I ’ ll pass your little messages so you and the other gray beards can play at revolution. And I ’ ll take your money when you give it. But I ’ m not your soldier. Not your kamikaze. Not your friend. We ’ re not in this ‘ together. ’ We have a business relationship so long as it is profitable to us both. 
 
 “ I don ’ t profit by my own death. I certainly didn ’ t by my brother ’ s last time you tried something this stupid. So you can take your ‘ together ’ and shove it up your ass. If you want your money back, you can take it out of my next run. But I am done with this talk of back doors and the Fireball Run. I ’ m out. You have someone else. Let her do it. ” 
 
 He tried to muster up defiance when he drank the last of the liquor but it probably came off as something else. Who cared, though? 
 
 “ You know what the difference is between you and Kato? Kato believed in things. He was willing to take risks in order to help people. I wonder what you care about enough for that. If you care about anything. ” 
 
 JT flung the bottle above the man ’ s head and it shattered in a thousand pieces against the wall behind him. Fe yelped at the start. Sanchez didn ’ t flinch. 
 
 “ Difference? The difference between me and my brother is that I am here breathing and he is nothing but a streak of acid rain on some old concrete. You know what ’ s left of him? A box. A fucking tin with a Missing Person ’ s report, a couple hundred photos, and some old albums I can ’ t listen to anymore. I sleep next to it at night, ” he said, jerking his thumb to the powder blue tin at his bedside, “ So that when I wake up every day I can *see* the difference between me and him. He was slow, he took jobs because they felt right, and the stupidest thing he did in his brief and dumb life was caught up in the stupid shit you *care* about. ” 
 
 JT was on the ground before he understood what happened. Old as Sanchez was he still had a solid swing. The fist came up like a third hand and caught JT right on the mouth. Fe was going wild now, barking crazy as he skittered back from the table. JT } { _|\|d4|2 tasted the iron of blood on his lip while the broken cigarette smoldered next to his ear. 
 
 “ Look around you, Thunder. What do you see? A world you can ’ t control and you can ’ t be a part of. XS controls everything—who gets jobs, who gets paid, who eats and who dies. You can not make anything, you can not say anything, you can not have anything that they do not own. After tens of thousands of years of free humanity we are now told that your life is not yours but merely a license which they grant you so long as they see fit for you to possess it. Kato understood that. He understood that the price of freedom was heavy but that it was worth bearing because the risk, the sacrifice of one in the name of the many is the sacred duty of those who can. Call me whatever you want. Spit on me, throw bottles at me, resent me but don ’ t you dare call him stupid. Your brother was anything but, and you ’ d do well to learn that. 
 
 “ I ’ ll be back tomorrow morning once you ’ re sober and can see straight. We ’ re going to practice the run. Till then I hope you take a long and good look at what ’ s inside you. Been a long time since you had the guts to be anything but miserable. I wonder if there ’ s anything left. ” 
 
 Sanchez picked up the empty plate and put it in the sink with the cup he ’ d been drinking from. Calling Fe to his side he turned to leave. 
 
 “ There ’ s a drone. ” 
 
 “ What? ” 
 
 “ A new drone. Prototype. Called a hell something. Must be twice the size of the other patrol wings and they put it specifically on the Fireball Run. It ’ s already got me marked. Even if it was possible to do the furnace, I ’ d never make it that far. ” 
 
 Sanchez pursed his lips and looked at the star runner who still lay prone on the ground. 
 
 “ Don ’ t worry about any drones. I will take care of them. Worst comes to worst, just take that, ” he pointed at the quilt on the bed, “ And be ready to run. ” 
 
 “ A blanket? You want me to take a blanket on the Fireball Run? ” 
 
 “ The sillitoe pattern will confuse the visual apertures, giving it the sensory input equivalent to blank space. With that on it will be as if you ’ re not even really there. ” 
 
 JT } { _|\|d4|2 was stunned. 
 
 “ So you ’ re saying every time a big scary drone comes by I should hide under a blanket? ” 
 
 “ You ’ ve been hiding from yourself behind every bottle you could find for the past four years. What ’ s a few minutes under a blanket every now and then when you ’ re in trouble? See you tomorrow, Thunder. ” 
 
 With that the old man and Fe were gone. JT } { _|\|d4|2 stayed on the floor to consider what just happened. He didn ’ t get very far before he fell asleep. 
 
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