"Ah ha, well, the problem with the upward spiral?"

He fixes me with one his Meaningful Looks. I wait.

"You know how there's no upward equivalent of 'hitting rock bottom'?"

"Yeah?"

"Survivor bias."

I think about this.

"'Escape velocity.'"

He finger guns the drop ceiling. "Bingo."

Walks over to the tank, unclacks the latch.

"And that's where you come in. 'Should you choose to accept it.'"

"'The Secretary will disavow.'"

He shrugs, miming contrition.

The tiles are cold under my feet.

---

[Asset has been reassigned to unit WITCH HOUSE pending reassessment. All measures necessary to prevent crossthread reoccurrence are authorized.]

"I understand."

[RECEIPT CONFIRMED]

---

Echoey in here. Check my taps again.

"ORCA you are go for insertion."

"Confirm."

The rotors hum, standing waves tickle my skjn at me meniscuss

Spoinnning up now cycle clir circle circulor rotax rotax

"CLEAR"

...
..
.
###########

---

the orca, breaching

a retrieval.
the black bag.

"Hear that, AWOL? ORCA's on you. Can't have you cloggin up our tank. Need a full rack for what's coming."

"Cut it."

"Manual says right here: Professionalism is for volunteers, SIR."

"Dispatch, cut his mic."

all right let's keep this laminar

---

once there was a boy
who fell in love with the sky

one day
he slipped out of his weight boots
kicked through a skylight
and up up up

once there was a boy
who fell into the sky