A Companion's Journey

Chapter 6 - New Information

The next day was a typical Monday morning. Rachel hurried off to work and left Karson to his own routine. The two messaged back and forth on one of her breaks and had their online chat during lunch. For the most part, the day was uneventful. Karson managed to go through all his accumulated email and scanned a large portion of the threads on the forums resulting from the news story.

At 4:58 the phone rang and Karson picked up when he saw it was Rachel calling. She did not even wait for him to speak.

"Karson! Quick, turn on CNN. They're about to broadcast a public statement from the New York police chief regarding the murder story. Every TV in the office is turned on."

Karson rushed to pull up the channel.

"Watching it now."

"Okay, I gotta go! I love you!"

"I love you too," Karson replied.

He hung up the phone just as the police chief took the podium, and listened intently.

"At this time I would like to give a prepared statement regarding the incident that occurred recently. We will not be taking any questions at this time.

"On Saturday morning approximately 10:30am, the individual Christopher Larson was shot and killed after an attempted assault on Beverly Augustus. It has been determined that Larson followed Augustus and her Companion into a parking garage. Larson confronted Augustus with a gun intending to rob her. Augustus fled when her Companion, Jefferson, entered into a struggle with Larson.

"The assailant temporarily subdued Jefferson and chased Augustus, and wounded her with a gunshot to the leg from a second handgun. According to Augustus' statement, Larson was intent on killing her. From details corroborated from the victims' statements, Larson was shot from behind when Augustus' Companion saw that she was in mortal danger.

"The Companion expended all remaining rounds from Larson's dropped gun, killing him at the scene. Beverly Augustus is in stable condition at a local hospital and is under guard for her safety. Her Companion Jefferson was taken into protective custody to await trial."

The police chief paused briefly to pull out another document and the press erupted into a chorus of shouts and questions. The chief held up his hand to quell the outburst.

"Quiet please! Again, I will not be taking questions at this time. However, I have a prepared statement from Beverly Augustus that she requested be read on her behalf.

'I want to go on record and say that Jefferson acted swiftly and bravely without regard to his own safety. If he had not been with me, I know I would not be alive this day. Jefferson acted in self-defense and I support him in his actions. I only ask that he be judged in that context, as any one of us would be if we were put in the same shoes.'

The police chief cleared his throat before continuing.

"This concludes our press conference, thank you for your patience. We will disclose more information when it becomes available."

The crowd erupted once again as the chief left the podium, and the news caster cut back in as the live feed ended.

"New details involving the shooting of an attacker by a Companion. If you are just tuning in, once again the Companion Jefferson of Beverly Augustus is being held in custody from the incident on Saturday-"

Karson turned the TV off and sat on the couch in silence as he let the new information soak in. The news was not quite as dire as he feared, but he also knew that the outcome of the trial would set the precedence for every other Companion. He would have to keep a sharp eye out for any new information from Congress or the Corporation.