I freeze when I get to the bottom. Tonick has his back to me, and he’s sleeping naked again. I’ve seen his tattoos often enough, but I didn’t know they extended all the way down to the backs of his knees. The ink hugs his hips, drawing me in like runway lights. Then I want to know if it circles him completely, and I’m just high enough to check.
Things could have been different for us. I don’t know how many times I’ve fantasized about skin-to-skin with Tonick. I don’t want this distance he keeps between us. For him, Jin is strictly prohibited, but Teq is welcome anytime. Do his tattoos go all the way around?
I scrub my eyes with my hand. I’m having trouble remembering the things I need to get off my chest.
I’m here to tell him everything I decided while I tore through Bostgo. I’ll say all the things that I thought of while I glowed from the Happy Sticks on the junked-out couch by the barrel fire.
I squint. There’s something on his back, at the base of his neck. I ease closer, reaching out to touch his skin. The mark is leathery under my fingers. I scowl.
It’s an imprint. Just like hers.
That logo. It looks like he’s been lying on that plate I found on his floor.
I hiss at the thought. He goes shirtless all the time. That was never there before.
Dammit.
My mouth twists. Where did he go?
Did they catch him, too? How did he make it back?
The caught don’t come back. Everybody knows that.
Then I see her hair spilling across his pillow, her hand...on his...tattoos that reach all the way around the front of him. I can’t unsee it, but now I don’t want to know.
My stomach churns.
I trip as I scramble up the stairs. I can hear Tonick’s words. They’ll be coming after you next. Maybe she’s a part of their plan. And then I hear the old man’s words, too. Tonick has plans. Tonick knows things.
I throw the necklace to the floor beside his bed, and its absence hurts me. I scowl. But no more than I’m already hurt. I’m such a fool. They’re working together. The old man, too. It’s all too convenient.
What are they playing at? As I pass by, I swipe a bag from beneath the bar and hurry to my room. He’s marked like she is, branded by GenCor, property of the enemy. What did Tonick get sucked into? I can’t ignore it. I might wind up like Teq.
Somehow I have to figure out what’s going on. Maybe the old guy knows. Maybe he’ll tell me.
It’s reckless—stupid, even—but I can’t wait here a minute longer.
Chapter Eight
LOCUS: ALTER EARTH
UnderCity
Bostgo Sector
Cheers
Date: 12 Pentian
Time: 0200
MY WHOLE BODY SEIZES. I’m thrust into startled consciousness, my pulse stampeding in my eardrums. I twist to try to get a look at the stairway. I can’t see anybody. I was sure somebody was in here.
I sit up. “Did you hear something?”
“Mmm,” Wiskee moans, but doesn’t say anything else. She’s sleeping again.
Dammit.
I was dreaming about Teq, expecting to wake up to Teq, but this isn’t Teq. Or Jin. The lines of her body curve the same way Teq’s do, only she’s a bit taller than both of them.
Though, Wiskee’s hair is the same color, the same length. The pale skin on her side is perfect. The label is still there but contorted and twisted by the increased-rate nanoinjection. There’s still a bit of torn skin, and blood seeps from the gash. The blood surprises me. She’s a Pink. I frown. She should be all healed up.
I rub the back of my neck, and my hands graze something on my back. Scowling, I finger the leathery spot gently. What is it?
I ease my arm out from beneath the woman and stand up beside the bed. I study the sheet-wrapped bedmate, and the back of my head starts throbbing. The music is too much, too loud now, so I shut it off, but my toe catches on something.
A silver necklace glitters in the dim light. This isn’t right. I gave the necklace back to the guy, didn’t I? There’s no smell of death rot. Nothing.
I scan the room. He couldn’t have been down here. I scoop the bauble from the dirty floor, rolling it across my palm.
When I woke up on the pavement, I ran down to the Mag Mile and gave it back to him. Told him to give it to Jin himself. I remember that. Pain snakes through my brain.
Don’t I remember that?
As I study the star, a dull ache throbs in the back of my head. Perhaps I dreamed the whole thing when I was stuck in that tube. Strawberries. The scented taste of coconut-strawberries makes my mouth water, even now. Jimmy Buffet and a beach somewhere...I couldn’t have been lucid the whole time, but that...
I turn around to study the slender back of the woman in my bed.
She’s here. I’m here.
The star sparkles against the dark of my hand. Maybe I never gave it back. I frowned. It’s here, too. Maybe I never gave it back to the man with the rotting face.
I drag my hand over my skull.
My brain feels like it’s going. This place is getting to me. Drugged-up dreams are so real. As soon as Wiskee gets on her way, I’ll take Jin to meet him. Then let him give it to her. She wants to know where she came from, why she’s here.
He can tell her how she’s different...
The star-shaped pendant glints, throwing shapes across the room. I close my hand.
“Stars lead the way to a brave new day.” The inscription is meant for Jin, but now I can’t remember why. I lay it on the mattress beside Wiskee.
Jin always says stars are lucky in the UnderCity.
I pull my pants on. After, I push the speakers back beneath the bed, hoping the jostling will wake the stranger so I won’t have to. She keeps on sleeping.
I settle on the floor with my back against the bed. I don’t get how I let this happen with a new Pink I don’t know. Trusting too easy gets you killed in the UnderCity.
No, Jin is going to kill me in the morning.
Worse than that.
Jin will never forgive me for Wiskee.
GenCor Invisi-Communique
***Begin***
RE: Additional Subjects
Programming successful. Decoy dispatched.
Scheduled @ 12 Pentian, 0800.
***End***
Chapter Nine
LOCUS: ALTER EARTH
UnderCity
Bostgo Sector
Mag Mile
Date: 12 Pentian
Time: 0800
A BLINDING FLASH SURROUNDS me, and then it’s gone.
I’m numb in the middle, and my limbs are weak. “Dyad? Dyad? What happened? Did I hit an electric mine?”
I’m slumped over Dyad’s screen, and my words slur in a time delay. I thought all the elec-mines had been cleared years ago. Carefully I straighten, barely able to keep my balance. I blink rapidly, trying to clear the murk. Dyad must have put down the kickstand. Otherwise, I’d be laid out on the pavement.
Dyad’s mouth is moving on the screen, but the sound is low. “Jin,” Dyad says. “Can you hear me, Jin?”
I gasp. I’m hemorrhaging red all over her. “I hear you,” I rasp. I’d been riding through the billowing haze for an hour, trying to find a place to rest.
“You’ve been shot. I can’t tell how bad it is. You’ve got to go back.” Her voice isn’t frantic, but her avatar is. “It’s a through-and-through but doesn’t look like an energy pistol.”
My stomach churns. I think I’m nauseous, but it’s like I’m three steps away from what’s happening, disconnected from the weight of it. I reach for the burning sensation in my shoulder. My hand comes away red.
“I’m not going back to Tonick. I don’t live with him anymore. I can’t. Not while she’s there.”
“You’re foolish, Jin. If you stay out here like this, GenCor will finish you.”
“GenCor wouldn’t shoot me. They want me whole. They’ve taken all the others alive. They wouldn’t ruin their chances by ripping me apa
rt piece by piece. You know that. More tests. Whatever weird Franken-Pink they’re trying to re-create in their labs.”
“You overreacted,” Dyad presses. “You know he’ll call me when he realizes you’re gone, and I’ll let him talk to you.”
I know what she’s trying to do. She’s trying to reason with me, to get me back home so Tonick can stitch me up, but my brain’s a mush of confusion. She wants me to go willingly so I don’t climb off the seat and stroll away to die in a gutter somewhere in the UnderCity.
“I won’t,” I whisper. So dizzy. Is it the blood loss?
On the interface, Dyad wrings her hands and shakes her head. I brought her with me, but she’s trying to convince me that Tonick is the answer. I’m arguing with my motorcycle and an upset stomach.
Wiskee will probably still be naked in his bed. I don’t say it out loud.
Dyad purses her lips and crosses her arms. “I am sensing abnormalities in your bioreadings.”
“Don’t take me home.”
She crosses her arms. “You’re bleeding all over me. I have no choice. You need meds.”
“Tonick is a traitor. He’s sleeping with the enemy. He sold out Teq.”
“You don’t know that. You’re not talking any sense.” One corner of Dyad’s mouth turns down. “You’re hurt he picked somebody else again.”
When did she get to be such a know-it-all?
“That isn’t the half of it,” I say. “There’s more than just that.”
“Teq wouldn’t want you to bleed to death on the streets out of some kind of loyalty,” she counters. “Tonick needs to get you well. That’s all she would care about, Jin.”
“It’s not that.”
“Yes, it is.”
She’s right. Of course she is. She’s too smart for her own wheels, but she doesn’t need to know that. I don’t care if I’m being ridiculous.
I cough. I throw my leg over to climb off, but the movement shifts my center of gravity, and it’s too much for my compromised equilibrium. “Leave me alone, Dyad.”
“At least go back and scream at him a little. Then pack some food and let him stitch you up. He owes it to you,” she adds.
I shake my head. “You figure out how to fix it on your own.”
On the screen, she’s searching through shelving, wearing a white coat. “I’m going to inject you with the only thing I have. It’s only meant to be a stopgap measure. You need a series of nanos.”
“No.” There’s got to be a doc in the Bostgo. I engage the accelerator.
The bike doesn’t move. “Did you know that I can override your instructions?” Dyad crosses her arms. “You can thank Teq for that. Tonick didn’t want to give me the option to override you, but Teq convinced him.”
This is infuriating. My best friends have all died or turned on me. I glare at Dyad.
She’s got long double braids now. It’s hard to be mad at this flower child version.
My shoulders droop. “What happens if I go back?”
She beams at me. “I’ll never mention it again. And you might not die.” She throws my vitals up on the screen.
She’s right. I need medical help. “I want your word, Dyad.” Leave it to Tonick to gift me with an argumentative smart AI bike.
“Done.”
“Say it.”
“I give my word,” she says easily. A needle stabs my thigh, and then flames burst from the back end of the bike as the world fades away.
I’m barely conscious when Dyad drops me on the curb outside Tonick’s. I roll off the bike onto the sidewalk; I have butterflies and stampeding buffaloes in my stomach. I don’t know if it’s the prospect of seeing Wiskee and Tonick or the blood loss.
Dyad’s injection is wearing off. I’m going to pass out again. I’m sure Tonick didn’t even know I was gone. He would have contacted me through Dyad’s interface if he’d noticed. He’s probably still sleeping off the Wiskee raunch.
I glance up and down the street. The back of my neck tingles. I take two breaths close together. There’s a hint of smoke in the air. Biting my lip, I hold my breath to listen, studying the shadows before I ease closer.
At Tonick’s, I crouch behind the low wall and peer inside. It looks like last time. I can see my footprints from yesterday. The congealed blood has turned from red to black. I can’t tell if the secret door is still open. Nothing’s disturbed.
“Jin,” Tonick moans, low and long. My stomach rolls and my whole body shakes. He’s in pain. He can’t possibly know I’m out here. How long has he been calling me?
I pull myself over the partition and fall to the floor inside. I drag myself across the floor and around the counter, leaving a trail through the dust. The bleeding has stopped, but I’m still dizzy. The hidden door is wide open. “Tonick?”
“Jin, is that you?” he calls up. And then his face appears at the bottom of the stairs. He’s covered in blood and cradling his arm. Three gashes cross the top of his forearm, streaking his sable skin. There’s a silver glint to the wounds. At least he’s treated them. A metallic smell wafts upward. Crimson spatter stripes his arm and the metal stairway.
“What happened?” I can’t pass out. I can’t pass out.
“It’s Wiskee.” His face contorts and then smooths—like a twitch he can’t control.
I swallow. Dread curdles my stomach. Now Wiskee is dead, too. “Is that your blood?”
“I don’t know,” he says, staring up at me. “My head is killing me. I can’t think over the noise in my brain. Come down. Help me.”
“I can’t get down,” I sigh. Reality is slipping through the gaps in my consciousness.
“I’ll come to you.”
“Bring a medkit,” I whisper.
His boot heels ping against the metal treads and risers as the darkness overtakes me.
Chapter Ten
LOCUS: ALTER EARTH
UnderCity
Bostgo Sector
Cheers
Date: 12 Pentian
Time: 0830
JIN NEEDS ME. THAT’S all that matters. I scoop her off the floor, kiss her cheek, and stumble down the stairs. I can’t let her die, too.
But my head is killing me. It’s splitting in two. The pain blinds me, obscuring my vision with bursts of LED color so bright, I want to turn my head, squeeze my eyes shut against it.
Jin moans when I settle her gently on the bed. Her wound is already closing, a benefit of being Pink. The shifting mattress knocks the star necklace to the floor.
That other girl is on the bed, too. Wiskee. I think I killed her, but I can’t be sure. My brain isn’t functioning properly. It hurts too much.
I scoop the necklace from the floor. “This belongs to you,” I say and fasten it around Jin’s neck. Now, Jin needs the luck of stars around her neck.
I turn to the other woman beside me. Is Wiskee a traitor?
Wiskee wouldn’t take no for an answer. When I noticed it, she couldn’t explain the label on her skin. She stabbed me in the back, but it must have been just her nails on my skin. Was it?
Wiskee wouldn’t have had any reason to break me open. Would she?
We fell asleep after. Strange dreams. Weird things chasing me. My arm lost to a white-coated woman.
I want Jin. I love Jin. Jin is gone.
No, Jin is here. Why won’t my thoughts stay straight?
Teq is gone. Jin’s burnt umber skin is flushed; her breaths are shallow. I peer at the wound. No more bleeding. She won’t need the nanos. She’s healing nicely already. Teq would be proud of her.
Teq is gone, and my blood—her blood?—splatters a plastic tube.
I glance around my room. It’s dirty down here. Someone spilled red paint everywhere. The room is scented with rusted iron, but this isn’t blood. I can tell the difference between blood and paint.
Jin has been trying to decorate again. I chuckle. That’s Teq’s department. Besides, I told Jin to stay out of my room. But they want her in MidHeight. They came for her.
I clean in silence. Put things right. Straighten. Repair. Bring order to chaos.
Wiskee searched for something but couldn’t find it. Something murdered her.
I bury my face in my hands. Was it me? My mind is splitting in two. My vision fills with stars and spots.
I didn’t want Wiskee. I wanted Jin. But Wiskee wouldn’t take no for an answer, and I gave in to the onslaught of grief and confusion.
My hands tighten into fists.
I stroll to the edge of my bed and smooth her cheek with my fingers. Precious Jin. Her emerald eyes flutter open.
I yank back. She can’t see me like this. She cannot see what I’ve done.
Not until I figure it out myself.
My head is killing me, and I’m not wired to be a hero.
I lift my chin. I’ve been reprogrammed to destroy.
Chapter Eleven
LOCUS: ALTER EARTH
UnderCity
Bostgo Sector
Cheers
Date: 12 Pentian
Time: 0845
I’M WEIGHTLESS, FLOATING above MidHeight, swelling it up—living it up—in the Crest, billions of creds at my disposal. Everything shines gossamer, and smiling faces “yes ma’am” me until I’m drunk on the high of control.
Reality shimmers as the world quakes. An ache seeps through me, and then there’s a stabbing pain in my chest. Something pokes into my arm.
“Jin,” Tonick says close to my ear. It isn’t an earthquake. He’s shaking me. “Wake up.” His hands disappear from my shoulders.
I can’t quite figure out why I’m back in his room. We wouldn’t have...
I scowl. Did we? Happy Sticks do weird things to inhibition. Nothing in my brain includes the naked version of Tonick. Regret curls in my belly, and I make a fist.
Regret’s a confused asshole. That’s what. Time to get gone.
And then I realize somebody’s on the bed with me. I turn my face toward the body. “Wiskee,” I say, reaching for her. I should be livid, but I’m happy she’s all right.
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