by J P Carver
“Check Annie again. They’re already in the tunnel.” Comm chatter reached me, the military jargon terrifying. Ziller’s encryption wasn’t as good as I had hoped. “You better hop off, if they catch you—”
“I’m staying on the line, girl. Until the end.”
“Sadist.” I smiled weakly as I brought my knees up and rested my arms on top.
The bridge that Merigold had given me pressed against my thigh. I pulled it from my pocket and turned it over in my hands. It could be a mental escape. Cowardly, but I feared pain as much as anyone else. I could deal with it, but it was always best avoided.
CES would not treat me nicely when they figured out I was the girl who’d scrubbed their buddies. I shuddered at the thought of what they would do, and the bridge could spare me from some of that, at least until they did enough damage to bring me out.
The bridge slipped into the slot on the back of my neck and turned my world white once again. The room built itself up in front of me in the form of blocks until everything was just as it had been before. I looked around as I ran my hand along the soft fabric of my shirt.
The guy from before stood at the windows, staring out into the white setting sun. Gray shadows bled from the stark buildings and striped the room. He didn’t notice me until I took a few steps toward the couch. He turned, a smirk riding a different set of lips than before. He looked very different, more like a normal guy. Something tugged at the back of my mind, something familiar, but I pushed it aside.
“You’re back?” he asked.
“For now.” I fell onto the square couch and stared at the ceiling of hanging glass sculptures.
“Something is wrong.”
“Very astute of you. Just let me be by myself, all right?” I tried not to think about what my body was doing, probably slumped in the corner. If I was lucky, they might just pass over me, thinking I was dead. I closed my eyes and chuckled.
“Why are you here?” He sat down on the edge of the couch.
I turned a glare to him.
“You aren’t hurt, at least no worse than you were earlier, and those injuries have been tended to. So, why are you—Oh.”
“Yeah. ‘Oh.’ We’re both about to die, so let me die in peace.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Read my mind, and you’ll see you’re full of it.”
He shook his head and moved to be inches from me. He smelled of peaches and wet grass.
It reminded me somewhat of my dad. I pushed those memories away.
“CES, right? I could get you out.”
I sat up. “How?”
“You have to trust me, though, and you have to stay here… No matter what happens.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
He took my hands into his and squeezed.
“Let go—”
“Ragan, do you want me to get you to safety? All you have to do is say yes.”
“Again, how?” I stood from the couch.
He released my hands. “Let me worry about that. Say yes, please. What do you have to lose?”
I sighed and looked about the room and then back to him. I wanted to smack the cocksure expression off his face. “Fine.”
“Good,” he said, excited. He got up from the couch and picked up a jacket that had appeared on the egg-shaped chair. “Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“What are you going to do?”
He opened a door in the kitchen and grinned. “I’m going to do as I promised.”
The door snapped shut behind him and then melted into the wall.
I sat back on the couch and watched the white sun dip below the reflective plane of blue that passed for the ocean. Had I added another mistake to my pile? Just how could a bridge program save me from CES troopers?
Sharp pain shot up from the base of my neck and into my brain. I may have screamed. My entire body shivered, every muscle quivering. I felt tears streaming down my cheeks.
Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the pain vanished.
I was a sobbing mess on the couch. Phantom pain still lingered, and I was left wondering if I had just died.
Four
Virtual Body
I stared out the windows through blurry eyes. I’d cried so much that my eyes burned and ached. I couldn’t figure out what could cause such pain in a bridge. If I’d died, I would have disappeared, gone in a wisp of data.
Outside, the sun began to rise again, throwing the same stencil-like shadows across the room. Day and night felt the same here and came whenever it liked, as if time had no meaning.
Had it been hours or days since he left? Maybe it was only minutes. Had he been captured by CES? Was my body in a cell? Not knowing drove me crazy.
Anger welling up, I stood and began to pace the room, fighting to think straight. I screamed a little, pulling at my hair.
Where the hell was he?
“I’m here, Miss Eisen. Calm yourself.” He came through the door as if returning from work at the end of the day. His jacket lay draped across his arm, and keys rattled as he dropped them on the counter. Why would he have keys? “There are doors between here and there that the keys help open. Sorry I took so long. Things didn’t go as planned right off the bat, but I did as I promised.”
“I’m still alive, then?” I asked and rubbed the back of my neck again. The phantom pain still throbbed.
“You are, and not much worse for wear. I cannot say the same about the CES troopers who stood in my way, but they live.”
“How—how did you manage that?”
He shrugged and dropped his jacket to the square couch. “It’s what I do. I take the mundane and do it in a stellar fashion, as my creator intended. This wasn’t so mundane, so I relished it a bit.”
“Where did you leave me?”
“A mile from the sewer you were in. Can’t say I enjoyed my first smell being that of sewage, but beggars can’t be choosers. You’re safe, though, resting in the crook of an underpass.” He sat down on the couch and hunched forward.
“Just… What are you?” I stood and backed away. “Program or not, there’s no way you should have been able to get out of that.”
“Your body is very flexible, Miss Eisen, and your stature makes you easy to underestimate. I used that to my advantage: a poor, lost girl in the sewers. They weren’t ready for the fight, and then I found the exit that your friend Ziller had provided and took that.”
“But my I-Dent was wiped.”
He nodded, that smug smile back on his lips. “True, but scans take time. A minute is more than enough to play someone a tune that is hard to dismiss. I don’t know why you’re so skeptical of me. I’ve done nothing more than promised. Doesn’t that create some trust?”
I sneered and shook my head. There was something about him that I couldn’t place, a feeling that kept knocking on the back of my mind. “So I can go back, right?”
“Are you in a hurry?”
“I have a friend waiting for me. How much time has passed out there?” I looked out the window and then remembered it was meaningless.
He made a show of checking his wrist, though there was no watch. He just kept rising on my asshole meter. “Oh, about thirty minutes or so.”
“Shit. Okay, I need to go.” I started for the door but stopped at the counter and faced him. “Thanks. I mean it.”
“It’s been my pleasure, but I do have a favor of my own to ask.”
“What’s that?” I crossed my arms, not sure what to expect.
“Come visit me. It gets lonely in a bridge, and you’re excellent company when you want to be.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Please do. You may find that my friendship could be worthwhile.” He smiled.
I tensed, pulled the door open, and stepped into the light on the other side.
Cars passed by in thundering echoes as I opened my eyes. The road was about fifteen yards away, the blinding car lights reflecting on the wet street.
Rain was pouring down and created waterfalls on either side of the underpass.
I looked to my knees and held my hands in front of them, flexed my fingers. They were fine, only a bit achy, and a few of my knuckles were bleeding. I moved every part, each producing its own new hurt, but everything worked, so I couldn’t be too angry.
My neural was up, but there were no outside bands to connect to. That didn’t worry me much—they would go down a lot during heavy CES movement, and with the night I was having, there was more than enough CES activity to send everyone to shelter.
I stood and let out a breath. I watched it fog up into the concrete as I removed the bridge.
I’d been saved by a computer program.
I was sure there were stranger things that could have happened, but I had trouble coming up with any. I rolled the bridge against my palm, imagining his world spinning around and him bouncing off the walls, as if he was some genie in a bottle.
Nina still waited. I pocketed the bridge and ducked under the waterfall and out onto the gravel hill. I slid down to the sidewalk and tried to get my bearings.
The world still moved on. I stood for a moment, staring at the office buildings across from me. For a moment, I would have given almost anything to just be a wage slave working under those lights.
But then, I’d seen what that life could come to, and its end wasn’t much better than the one I faced.
I picked my way through the surveillance-infested city for another half-mile to reach Nina. There were a few close calls, but the rain made it easier to blend in as long as I bypassed most of the well-lit sections. Fifteen minutes later, I stood in front of the husk of a brick building that towered over cloned suburbs in the reclaimed industrial park.
Blue streetlights on the sidewalk threw the shadow of a chain-link fence across the building’s face. The roof had half collapsed on one side, and it looked as though the other would soon follow. It was a death trap, which probably was why Nina liked it. She always liked the ruins, as long as she could steer clear of the spiders.
I slipped into someone’s yard to get out of the light. A dog started to bark and howl as I struggled over the fence and landed with a thud on the asphalt on the other side.
I checked the time. Five minutes late. I ducked into the building through a crumbling wall.
Part of me hoped she had actually listened and took off. I wasn’t sure if I’d be annoyed or happy if she’d stayed.
The moment she appeared from behind a stack of pallets, I nearly cried out in happiness, and we ran to each other.
“Holy shit! Raggy!” she yelled, her voice echoing in the abandoned building.
I grinned as she hugged me.
“I didn’t think I’d see you again. When I saw the troopers dropping, I was sure you were dead. How the hell did you get out of there?”
“It’s a long story—a real long one that I just ain’t in the mood to tell right now.” I smoothed her blue hair, enjoying the feeling of something real. It wasn’t a dream that I escaped. “All that matters is we’re both safe and alive. You hear from Ziller?”
She stood back and wiped tears from red-rimmed eyes. “He said he lost contact with you and that I needed to get out. I couldn’t, though. I just knew you’d be okay.”
“You shouldn’t have stayed, but I’m glad you did. So, where’s this Safety at?”
“It’s here. Well, not here-here, but in this building. Follow me.”
“Sure this place won’t fall on me before the week is out?”
“I’ve used this place for years, since it was classified as a landmark, and it hasn’t even budged. Well, save for the roof. That came down about a month ago.” She sidestepped a large hole that the rain had filled. “But the manager area is still in pretty good shape. I got a stash up there, bunk and clothes and other stuff. It isn’t as good as your place, but it’s pretty nice.”
“Yeah, until it too caves in.” I gave a small laugh. “Thanks, Crow.”
“Please. This doesn’t even come close to covering all the stuff you’ve done for me. Just… try not to eat all my snacks.”
“No promises. I’m starving.” I followed her up the set of steel stairs. Their clang echoed throughout the building, making even the thunder rumbling outside seem quiet.
We stopped at a large steel door that led into an outcrop in the back wall of the building. Windows lined the three sides, a perch to oversee the entire floor of the building. Not a bad place to hide, even if the room stood out. Nina produced a small keychip and inserted it into a slot on the frame of the door. A chorus of locks thudded free, and she pushed the door open. The inside looked smaller than its outside, though it looked complete.
I turned in place, trying to figure out what was off. “Thought you said you had a bunk here.”
“I do. Like I said, I used this place a lot, which means I needed some kind of security.” She went to one of the rusted lockers against the back wall and lifted a combination lock. She undid it and pulled open the left door. She slid in and disappeared.
“Really? A secret doorway?” I asked in disbelief.
“Hey, it worked for Batman,” she called from the other side. “You coming or what?”
I followed her to find a spacious room. The windows had been replaced, allowing the faded blue light in from the outside. Posters, mostly of ancient superheroes and movies, lined the walls. Vid disks and data-chips littered the floor. On the left side of the room, in the corner, was a metal frame with a mattress on it and green covers. Opposite that, a computer station threw a pale blue glow onto the walls.
I turned and found what I assumed was the kitchen and bathroom for the place. They were separated by an accordion wall, its track so mangled it only extended a few feet. At least I wouldn’t have to find a public bathroom.
“Don’t the windows give you away?” I turned to find Nina picking up a pile of reproduced comic books.
She placed them beside the large vid screen in front of the bed. “Nah, they’re one-way. A buddy of mine works for a glass factory. It was, at the time, the best stuff you could get. He hooked me up for wiping some information about his sister from the net.”
“Nice. You been living here?”
“No. What makes you ask that?” She went over to the bed and smoothed out the covers. She seemed nervous, having me here.
“Crow, it’s cool. It’s a pretty sweet setup.”
“Yeah, it is, but I ain’t been living here for a couple of months. I found another place to crash.”
“Oh? Who might they be?”
“What?” She took a step back and hit the chair at the computer.
“You’re crashing with someone. Who’s the lucky peep?” I smiled at the blush that crept up her cheeks.
“Another friend of mine.”
“D’aww, li’l Crow is growing up.”
She glared at me as she finished fixing the chair and came over to me by the door. “Shut up,” she said, and she threw a vid-chip at me.
“He a good guy? I think I should vet him. Don’t you?”
“You’re not my mother.” She pouted and shoved her hands into her pockets while not meeting my eyes. “But if you wanna meet him, I wouldn’t really mind.”
“Probably for the best, as it’ll be easier to have a face to look for if he ever does anything to hurt you.” I ruffled her hair. She smacked my hand away. “I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks.” She paused and stepped away from me, looking about the room. “I figured you’d like it here more than at one of the normal Safetys. At least you got running water and all that jazz.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt your precious comics or any of that stuff.”
“I’m your contact for the outside while you’re under, so it would probably be best not to piss me off.”
“Don’t get all power-trippy on me, alright?” I looked around the room, felt my stomach growl. “You said you had food here?”
“Fridge is under the sink. I’ll bring so
me real meals tomorrow. Are you okay here, Raggy?”
I went to the fridge, took a beer, and popped the top off. I took a ration bar from the door and tore off the wrapper, bit in. “As all right as I can be. Don’t know how else to say it.”
“Okay, then I’m gonna head out. Winter has been beeping me since I got here—”
“Winter? Is that his name?”
“…Yeah. If I don’t answer him soon, he’s gonna come looking and probably get himself into trouble. Plus, I need a shower.” She paused as I took another swig of beer, eyeing me. “Try to stay out of CES’s sight for the rest of the night.”
“I’ll work on it.” I went to the computer setup and looked down at the screens while drumming my fingers on the glass bottle. “Can I use this?”
“Sure, but you gotta use the Omni. The comp’s set to use a neural for connection, and since you’re zipped, it won’t recognize yours.”
“Right. Probably best I don’t use my own stuff for a bit anyway. Thanks.”
“We’ll get this sorted, no worries. Get some sleep.”
“Maybe. I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”
She nodded, hugged me, and then left through the small door, locking it behind her.
My shower was washing myself with a rag and water from the sink as best I could. After most of the gunk was gone, I dressed in some of Crow’s old clothes, which were so small they were almost skimpy. Still, they were better than the disgusting leftovers I had been wearing, even if she’d give me an earful over it.
I sat down at the computer console, dug the Omni out of my bag, and plugged it in. The system connected, and the outer bands were finally back online. The main page assaulted me with images and words about the night I had.
CES had issued numerous reports since my time in the building, both about their search for me and about the dead guy I found in his office. The image from one of the cameras that I missed somewhere was plastered across all the bands. I didn’t even look at the comments section. Just thinking about what they had to say made me sick.
