Dislocation

Chapter 870: Dislocation

In the final email, Hesta saw Ava use a string of exclamation marks for the first time. Ava hurled a barrage of questions at Office Number Five, demanding to know why they were so passive and timid, so resistant to change that they refused to take responsibility for even the slightest risk. This was not the AHgAs she knew. She demanded an in-person discussion with Office Number Five.

"...Right now, I question every order issued by your Office Number Five. You have completely betrayed AHgAs's guiding principles. The Quicksilver Needles were never meant to protect the private interests of a select few. We fought precisely so that the civilization behind us would not be harassed! Yet when I returned to the Habitable Zone, I found it as isolated and backward as the wasteland once was—less free than the wasteland, even. Could I possibly stand by and pretend nothing had happened? If that were the case, why did you wedge me into District 3's political situation? This is when I am at my weakest and most in need of help. So I ask: who will stand with me? Who will stand with me!?"

Hesta could almost imagine Ava's tone, and a surge of indescribable excitement rose within her.

She did not know how the matter had ultimately turned out, but judging from what she had seen and heard at Ava's residence last year, Ava must have found some way to balance her own ideals against Office Number Five's constraints.

Late at night, Hesta could not help getting up and pacing around her room. She took deep breaths again and again, trying to calm herself, but a voice burst forth from the depths of her heart like lava breaking through a volcano.

I will stand with you, Ava.

*From