Week 4: A Visit to Old Seoul Hospital

The hospital stood a little apart from the open city around it, the old building mixing with new wings. The building was guarded, but easy enough for a dedicated agent to slip through, unless they were on the approved list of visitors. Most of the team, considering most of them eat there most days of the week, were listed.

Keng was recovering in the ICU, a fortified part of a new building, in a small room all to himself. Mrs. Keng sat by the bed, exhausted, tendrils of her salt and pepper bun dropping in front of her face. There was a window, letting in the cloudy but bright mid-day light. The one piece of non-medical furniture, aside from Mrs. Keng's chair, was a small sideboard. A large bouquet of synthetic orange flowers sat in a vase by the window, filling the room with a soft foral scent that mixed with the harsh chemical cleaners.

The bed that contained Keng was white and plastic, with a thin membrane that surrounded him like a transparent coffin. The air being pumped into his bed was filtered, cleaned, sterilized. Several bags of thick dark green goo clung to the side of the bed, leading to Keng's broken body. He looked like half a man--less, given that he was missing both arms, and that surgery had not been able to save his left leg. Burns and wounds covered his skin, including his face, neck, and chest. No more than an inch of new pink flesh was already growing over the tortured burned flaps of skin. Sosie always thought the worst was his missing eyelid, how he seemed to be staring. Even in his drug-induced coma, he still grimaced in pain. It made the eye single staring eye worse.

Agents don't bleed, but Keng did, and heavily into the bandages that swaddled his frame. Even over the chemical smell, over the flowers, there was still a slight tinge of burned hair and meat. His nose was missing, though the gaping hole was only visible from a dramatic angle. New graphs of skin were being placed on the worst parts of his chest and face, though the tattered ends of his arms were merely gently wrapped in gauze and Mediseal. Sosie explained to Mrs. Keng the UIG were cloning him new limbs and there was no need to heal the stumps; they would be cleaned when his arms were affixed anew. For now, at least, they were mostly hidden by his bandages. His chest moved up and down in ragged, shuddering breaths, the hole in his nose moving the bandage across it up and down. Even from inside his bed, the wet noises from the beck of his throat were just audible.

It was days before his wounds would be healed enough to wake him, and he would be moved outside of the healing bed to a normal one. It was good, Sosie thought; no one needed to see their body like this. And there was no telling how his brain would have faired after such an injury.

"I brought you a Nutribar. They fill your stomach like rocks, though they taste slightly better." Sosie handed it over with a smile. "Some of more of my team might show up today, to wish Keng their best." Sosie wandered to the end of the bed, and looked at the screen which displayed his chart.

Han Ji popped his head around the curtain. Inwardly, he winced, this was the first time he'd seen the results of the explosion. I'm going to get those Chak tou gai, if it's the last thing I do he murmured, just loud enough that it wouldn't be transmitted via his smeaker.
"Hey, is it all right to visit? I can come back later if now is a bad time." He asked, politely.

Sosie looked up from the screen with a thoughtful expression. "Han. No, you're not interrupting. Come in. His vitals look good. He's definitely getting stronger." She tried to smile, but Keng's health was obviously not as good as she tried to make it out to be. Not even the UIG surgeon could save his leg, and there was no telling how well his mind would hold up. "I'm very impressed with how strong his heart is. I'm sure he'll be fine, just fine."

Sosie strode across the bed, and gave Mrs. Keng a pat on the shoulder. "Is anyone else with you, Han?"

Han smiled. "I'm glad." He shook his head, "No, I was on my own. I ran into Darya, she said she would hopefully visit later, but she doesn't seem to like hospitals much, so I don't know how long for." Reaching into his bag, he produced a small gift basket of candies, treats and a real orange. "I brought you these, I know hospitals can be a bit grim sometimes, so I thought you might want something to enjoy while you recuperate."

I didn't bring anything, sorry.
I-If there is anything I could do?

Mrs Keng nodded to the gathered agents from her seat beside the bed. It looked as if she had been by her husband's side since the attack, sleeping in the uncomfortable chair that was barely fit for sitting in in the first place. Her eyes and cheeks showed how much she had been crying over the last couple of days; medical technology is amazing, and Keng was lucky to be alive, but seeing a loved one in such a state is always traumatizing.
She stood up and bowed to Pinkie, seemingly answering the agent's question, and then excused herself from the room to try and get some sleep. She felt safer knowing that at least some of the agents in Seoul were looking out for her husband.

We brought this on him. I know you have both done much more for him and his lively hood than I have. This can't end with the E.I. agents. The UIG are right, if agents want to fight, people shouldn't have to be caught in the middle of it. *walks over to Keng and checks his condition with what little she knows of medicine*

I've seen people, my people, messed up by their own plasma weapons that weren't as bad as this. They didn't last half as long after mind. There isn't a place on this planet that is not a war zone. There is a UIG ranger and us here. We tried to do more than survive and this man and his family suffered for it. If he threatened us in any way I wouldn't hesitate to incinerate him *this was very much aimed at her fellow agents* But he won't go one week for the rest of his life without dreaming of a rocket crashing towards him, and in those dreams it'll be me there instead of Ida, and Keng will take the Rocket...

We have a license to arrest criminals, I suggest we use it. The message can't just be don't fuck with Oracle. They have to know they that they can't just walk in and take what they want, hurting people to get it or because they can. The CCZ isn't enough. I can't ask this of you, and I can't do it on my own. *Pinkie looks at Sosie softly, then at Hann her expression set in stone*
Not here, never again.
*It was a statment but it asked for a commitment and Pinkie waited*

Darya stood in front of the hospital building, looking up at it. It wasn't quite like the ones she was used to, used to sitting in chairs catching some sleep in, used to crying in, but it was still similar enough to make her not like it.

She guessed that Keng's wife (She never did find out her name...she made a note to do that soon) would be sitting up next to him. She could even guess the posture: leaned forward, hunched over, as close as she dared be, elbows on knees, hands covering face. She'd stayed like that enough.

Another image came into her head unbidden, that of a crying loved one (she couldn't make out the features) leaning forward, hunched up, over a guard in an EI uniform, wounded by `unknown assailants`. Justifications about it just being a job rose and then stopped. She turned on her heel and walked back down the street, pulling out her PDA and bringing her shopping list on screen. She'd come back later she said. She'd come back later.

Sosie frowned a little as Mrs. Keng left the room, watching her stumble dazedly out into the hall. "Poor thing. She's exhausted."

--And then Pinkie talked, talked more than Sosie had ever heard. She listened, carefully, tracing her fingers on the plastic top of Keng's bed. "I have no interest in this happening, either. To anyone. I have a sister who isn't totally augmented, and she'd bleed too, though I do my best.."

Sosie shook her head, her mohawk standing up more firmly than it had a few days before. "As someone who spent twenty two years of her life as a criminal, I can tell you there is a difference between crime and this. I am fine with arresting people, but how do they stay in prison? How do they keep their lost rank? How do they not just pay a fine and be on the street? What you're asking, Pinkie, is to start a.. a.. law enforcement group." Sosie raised her hands from the bed in bafflement. "It's too big a job for US. It's too big a job for the UIG!"

And then her eyes fell back down to the bed. A thin line of bloody droll was leaking from the red chapped ring that was once Keng's mouth. "You know.. They have no idea if he'll be all there when the bring him out from the coma. There wasn't that much swelling in the brain after the first few hours, but who knows how much damage was done. And the blow when he fell.." Sosie turned to face Pinkie, her jaw set. "But you're right. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. As I learned, when you have a complicated and seemingly impossible task in front of you, you should start small." Sosie sighed, looking wistful for a second. "I always started with the bones of the hand.." She glanced from Pinkie to Han, suddenly aware of what she was saying. "So we start small."

"I joined Oracle because I could no longer tolerate the vile excesses my previous employers committed. I joined because I believe in something pure, and I have to believe that if I'm ever going to get the world and the life I truly want, I have to be a person who deserves that world. I have to make that world." Han took a shallow breath. "So we start small."

Ida trudged through the corridors of the hospital, deep in thought now that she didn't have moving or setting up security to distract her. Being in a situation where rockets were being fired at you was supposed to be fun, but instead people - innocent people - had their lives ruined by no fault of their own. This wasn't how things should work, this wasn't right. When she reached the door to Keng's room, she paused as the feelings of guilt caught up to her and was about to turn around when she heard a familiar voice inside. "So we start small."

She slowly pushed open the door and walked into the room - and into the middle of a conversation, apparently. Looking over towards Keng resting - or as close to it as he could be - Ida winced. She'd seen terrible injuries like this before - some of which she'd inflicted herself, on people she'd claimed to be working with - but she'd always thought "It's just work, why the hell should I care about them?" Now though, someone with no connection to anything had nearly died for no reason.

Ida turned to her three colleagues. "What are you starting small with?"

*The slight smile on Pinkie's lips vanished as Ida entered* The reclamation area? And the areas around our homes and businesses? *only turning back to face the others indicated the question*

You're right Sosie, crime is means of surviving. But we don't tolerate agent bullshit. Long term, I don't know, but I do know there is one person dedicated to making the UIG's shortlist shorter. And I won't stand by should gang warfare spill out into open warfare. Or for riots. Thats not about the oppression people are under, thats about taking what you can get, when you can get away with it.

*Pinkie looks at Keng and her face becomes completley unreadable* It's not hard to see, when you look at Keng, why there is a UIG, is it? ...What good's an honest soldier if he can be ordered to act like a terrorist.
*Pinkie looked to her fellow agents, each in turn*
I know you know, but going in for this is going in for the long haul.

Sosie smirked a little, and turned to Ida. Her eyes were bright. "We're going to create a.. a police force that protects the unaugmented, and do the UIG's job for them. This doesn't stand."

She rapped her fingers lightly on the plastic top of Keng's bed again. "We're going to stop agents from taking what they want in the name of business. I think we going to try to take on corporations, too. Eventually. It's a surely suicidal task."

Her hair bobbed only slightly as she nodded at Pinkie. "So we start small, and stay in it for the long haul."

"Wow, that's a pretty big plan. Certainly not a safe way to live, but one hell of a goal." Ida's spirits began to rise a little as her hand unconsciously drifted towards the gun that wasn't on her. "I'm in, whatever it takes."

Han smiled sadly. "I'm no stranger to suicidal causes in the name of what you believe in. I believe the traditional adage is 'You have my shotgun'"

*Piercing was the only way to describe the gaze Pinkie gave to Hann, before nodding*
...So where do we start and how do we want t-

*Pinkie's head snapped over to Keng, who had shivered, and realised where they were*
Perhaps here isn't the best place to plan this. Thank you for what you said. It's enough.

*Pinkie held the other agents gazes, each in turn*
Do you know how long he has untill, untill he's better?

Sosie turned the screen on the edge of the bed, so it faced Pinkie. She dragged her finger with familiarity over the panels, and indicated a few charted patterns. "The head doctor says he plans to wake him up in a week. I agree with his prognosis. Medpacks work on us because of our augmented ICE systems, as you know, but they are doing slow and steady work on his internal systems. Once the healing is finished, the UIG can work on the more aggressive process of healing his cosmetic injuries, and repairing his nose, lips, face.. Everything else."

The cyberneticists' tapping fingers brought up a new window, and pointed to a few more blinking charts. "His limbs are being cloned, but they won't be ready for another month, and in all honesty, he'll need to stay here until then. Plenty of time to get the noodle bar finished, and for the tender new organs to heal. After there, he might go home, but he'll need some follow up treatments and physical therapy, though the cloned limbs will be his and strong, so he won't need too much."

"The short answer is, he'll be awake in a week, with as of now unknowable brain damage, and whole in a month. If he has brain damage.. There are techniques. But that's a conversation for next week."