The Ragdoll Sequence Box set

by J P Carver

  “Wha—what?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow and felt my chest tighten. “Do not—do not tell me you three placed bets. I will delete your entire collection of comic books from the 1970s if you tell me you did.”

  The glee disappeared and a look of horror crossed her face. “Wha--? Nooo, we didn’t—we wouldn’t.” When I continued to glare she sighed. “It was Merigold’s idea.”

  “I can’t believe you guys. When did this happen?”

  “Beginning of September, I think? When Plot was coming into chats more and more.”

  “And you bet we’d get together?”

  “I—uh—yeah. I thought you two would be good together and… the pot is over a hundred credits, Raggy.”

  I shook my head and made my way to her. I bent so I could look her in the eye, but she looked everywhere but at me. “You will not tell anyone, not until I give you the okay.”

  “Why not? If you’re together then that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

  I ignored her and continued. “Second, we’re splitting the pot and finally, you’re not to give us any grief.”

  “Raggy… Raggy, that’s not fair! Merigold and Ziller and… and everyone else is going to. Why can’t I?” she pleaded, her bottom lip pushed out. She had the puppy-dog look in full effect.

  “Because you’re supposed to be my best friend and instead you made bets on my love life.” I pushed my finger against her shoulder a few times as I spoke.

  “Okay, how about this, I give you the entire pot and I can tease you guys?”

  I gave her an incredulous look. “You’d give up fifty credits just to tease us?”

  She nodded a few times and clasped her hands together. “It’d be totally worth it.”

  “Christ, there is something wrong with all of you. Fine, but give us a few days to get things figured out, okay?”

  She threw her hand out. “Deal!”

  I took it reluctantly and sighed. “Why are you here so early?”

  “Nope, you first. I want details. What happened between you two last night?”

  “I didn’t ask about and Winter.”

  “I didn’t suddenly have a change of heart.”

  I crossed my arms. “It wasn’t really sudden.”

  “Okay, maybe not heart, but a change in desire?”

  “God, you make it sound so… I told you, we just kissed. We talked and kissed because I ain’t gonna be that great of a partner with this still healing.” I lifted my shirt to show the still discolored line of skin from where they had cut me open and she flinched. “So, get your mind out of the gutter.”

  “But you wanted to, right?”

  “Shut. Up.”

  She laughed. “Okay, okay, fine. We’ll come back to that. As to why I’m here, I got a lead on where the drug is coming from.”

  “Where?” I asked and tried to hide my surprise.

  “Well, it’s from Rentena—”

  “Which we already know.”

  “Don’t interrupt or the teasing starts now,” she said and glared. I nodded. “Your old flame is telling the truth, someone hacked his account.”

  “Like guess password or broke into the system and took control of his account?”

  “Guessed password, but it’s deeper than that. Jankiee gave me the account info you used last time and I’ve been sitting on the server watching login attempts to his account. They’re bouncing their connection all over the place so I don’t have an exact location, but a general idea.”

  “Where?”

  “East side of the city, lower condemned zone it looks like,” she said and stood. She pulled out an omni-pad from her bag and faced it toward me. A map of the city showed on the screen with a little golden dot in a place that looked familiar. “Fairly close to your crash spot.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Could just be another bounce, but it goes dark after this. I have Jankiee digging into the logs when he’s got the time. Right now, this is the best we got.”

  I took the omni from her and zoomed in. I felt a slight twinge of surprise and tapped on the map to get a street view of the area. “Why does this look so familiar?” I said and zoomed on the building. An old restaurant made up the bottom half of the brick building and the top was just boarded-up windows. “I’ve been here before.”

  “When?” Nina came to stand beside me.

  I shook my head. “I—wait… Kay?”

  “Who?”

  I typed on the omni, doing a search. “Kay, she was my old dealer. We used to meet in the restaurant, but that was four or five years ago, before they condemned most of the block. That’s too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?”

  Nina shrugged. “Is it? You sure she’s still alive?”

  “Gotta be, she was smart, stayed away from the harder stuff cause she could make more selling it. I can’t boot my neural, otherwise I’d check for her number.” I frowned and thought for a moment. Behind me the rustle of covers announced that Marcus had just woke up.

  “Doll, what’s—aw, shit,” he said, and I turned to see his eyes wide and staring at Nina.

  “Morning, lover boy,” I said and his eyes darted to me, still large and worried.

  “And you did it in your old bed, too,” Nina said with a disapproving look.

  “What—I—why are you in here?”

  “We’re caught, Marcus. We might as well fess up,” I said, trying my hardest to keep a straight face.

  “To—to what? We didn’t do anything. You told her we didn’t do anything, didn’t you?”

  “Oh man, this is gonna be so much fun,” Nina said and gave Marcus a devilish smile. I smacked the back of her head gently.

  “Remember what I said?”

  “Yeah, but you started it,” she said and rubbed at her head.

  “I’m allowed to.” I made my way over to Marcus and sat down beside him. “Take it easy, guy, she knows nothing happened. She also brought me some info.” I handed over the omni-pad and he rubbed an eye as he read.

  “This is where the cracker is breaking in from?” He looked up to both of us.

  “Looks like. Raggy thinks her old dealer might know something about it.”

  “Your old dealer?” He turned to me, eyes narrowed.

  “You knew I was hooked on Pazz before Crow made me kick it. Don’t act like you didn’t,” I said and had a flashback to the argument I had years before with Chris. “Believe me, I’m done with drugs after this week.”

  “What makes you think it’s your dealer?”

  “I don’t think it’s her doing it, but that used to be our meet up, so it’s strange that it would end there, isn’t it? Maybe she still uses it as a meetup and who ever is selling this crap is using the network to access Rentena's servers.”

  He handed the omni back and got up. “Well, I can go look. You have her contact info?”

  “You aren’t going by yourself.”

  “I can take Crow,” he said and Nina took a step back. “What?”

  “I got plans already.”

  “More important than finding out who did this to Doll?”

  “Look, I’ve been searching this thing for three days. I haven’t seen Winter the entire time, and he’s only got half day of classes today.”

  “But—” Marcus started.

  "It’s not a problem, Marcus," I said and then pointed at Nina. "Make sure you tell him I said hello, all right?" I said, and she grinned.

  “He’s been worried so he’ll be glad to know you’re up and about. He’s gonna love hearing about you two.”

  “Crow…”

  “I can’t keep secrets from him… he’ll know something is up as soon as I see him and he knows how to make me talk,” she said as her ears turned red. “But he won’t tell anyone else, promise.”

  “Okay. Fine. Get ready, Marcus, everyone is gonna know by the end of the day at this rate.” I stood and handed the Omni back to Nina who stowed it in her bag.

  “Oh joy,” Marcus said as he dug through his drawers
for clothes.

  “Why don’t you two go? Get some alone time,” Nina said.

  “She’s still not a hundred percent,” Marcus said as he put a belt on and then picked up his bag from beside the bed. I felt some annoyance at being dismissed by him.

  “I can do it, give me some time to get ready. Is Chris still around?” I asked and Nina shook her head. “All right, I’ll get his info from Merigold, she’s still here, isn’t she?”

  “Still passed out on the couch last I saw. Your dad must be thrilled about that,” she said to Marcus.

  “Ah, he’s already pissed about everything, I doubt he even has the strength to care. Plus, mom is away on some trip so he probably enjoys having people around, especially Merigold as they knew each other when my dad was still working.”

  “Better than throwing us all out. Thanks, Crow, you came through again.” I pulled her into a tight hug that she returned.

  “Of course, it’s us again the world, remember?” she said, and I froze a little at the memory of the dream. “Let me know if you need anything else. And you,” she said and pulled away to look at Marcus. “You make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid or reckless, you hear?”

  “Roger, lil Crow,” he said with a quick salute.

  She nodded and turned to me. “Same goes for you, keep yourself on this side of the death line, okay?”

  “Death line?”

  “You know what I mean.” She swatted my shoulder and left.

  I turned to Marcus as I looked down at myself. I was wearing his old clothes, a t-shirt that was too big and a pair of running shorts that had seen better days. “You got any clothes I can borrow? Like really old stuff?”

  “I think my sister is keeping some of her clothes here still.”

  “You have a sister?” I said as he passed me to go into the hall.

  “Yeah, she’s a few years older and works up north for some government project so she's not here much. Why?”

  “Just, there’s a lot I don’t know about you.” It was a jolt to think about. This was someone who had put his life on the line to save mine, that put up with my shit when he didn’t have to, and yet I knew little about who he was outside of a computer.

  “You know everything about me that matters. Same as I know about you.” He pushed open a door and flipped on the light as the shades were drawn.

  “I guess,” I said as I took in the room. The walls were wallpapered in a soft blue that looked like a clear sky. The large four poster bed dominated the room, topped with a red cover and a pile of pillows. Two of the walls were taken up with book shelves filled with large books in languages I didn’t understand.

  “Does it really bother you?”

  “No,” I said as I followed him to the closet. He slid the doors open to show a bunch of different shirts and pants hanging on a metal pole. “Dating is about getting know each other, right? Plus, we’ve already gone through the saving people from certain death part of the process.”

  “What kind of dating did you do?” Marcus asked. “Is that something you did a lot before? Cause if so, I don’t know if I can keep up.”

  “I’m just kidding,” I said as I paged through the clothes. “You sure your sister won’t mind?”

  “Oh, she’ll mind, I just don’t care. She won’t be home until Christmas so that’s future Marcus’s problem if she finds out.”

  “You’re going to be future Marcus, you idiot. Besides, that’s less than a month away.”

  “It’s like two weeks, and something else is a week from now.”

  I paused and looked back. “What?”

  “Your birthday is the sixteenth, right?”

  “How—Crow.”

  He grinned. “Yup, she’s already planning a party.”

  “Let’s get through this week and see if I’m still around for it, huh?”

  “You’ll be fine. Just pick out whatever.”

  I found a white t-shirt and a red sweater that fit pretty well. I pulled down a pair of khaki pants that were folded on the top shelf and tried them on. Her hips were a bit wider than mine, but a belt handled that and I rolled the bottoms enough to keep from walking on them. A pair of boots sat in the back of closet and Marcus brought me a pair of his socks, which were far too big, but worked.

  “So?” I asked and looked at myself in the mirror in the corner.

  “The fact that I’ve seen my sister wear that exact outfit makes it very hard to say it looks amazing on you. But it does, you look awesome.”

  “Suck up,” I said and kissed him quickly before flicking his nose and leaving the room.

  Merigold laid passed out on the couch. Nina stood at one end of it and seemed to be trying to turn the woman off the front of the couch, but wasn’t have much luck. She looked hopefully at me. “She won’t wake up.”

  “Is she still breathing?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  I went behind Merigold and bent down to her ear. “Merigold… you awake?” She mumbled a response, but didn’t open her eyes. I motioned to Marcus and Nina to stand beside me. I put my hands on Merigold’s shoulders and the other two took a part. On my nod we all shoved.

  Merigold tumbled from the couch and landed with a thud. She bolted upright and looked around to find the three of us grinning at her. “Oh, very funny, you little shits. Nearly pissed myself.”

  “Payback is a bitch,” I said, and she glared at me while straightening her shirt. “Besides, I need to talk to you.”

  “Your arm okay?”

  I glanced at Marcus. “Yeah, it’s doing fine. I need info.”

  “About?” She looked me up and down as if she suspected something and my skin tingled. There wasn’t anyway she could have a clue about Marcus and I, but my gut said she knew something was going on. “You sure you're okay?”

  I looked up, not realizing that I had turned to face the floor as my fingers played with a fold in the sweater. “Me? Yeah, great. Brilliant as you’d say.”

  “Uh-huh… so?”

  “So?” I asked and Marcus nudged me with his elbow. “Oh, right, do you have Chris’s contact info?”

  “Looking for another go with the boy?” she said with a smirk.

  “God no, but he might have the contact info for an old dealer of mine,” I said.

  “Think you’ve had enough of drugs for a lif—”

  “I’m not looking to score more drugs, come on. Does no one trust me anymore?”

  Merigold crossed her arms and continued to appraise me. “Maybe if you didn’t give off the air that you’re up to something I would trust you more.”

  “Me? You’re the one that’s always scheming—”

  “Raggy, the info?” Nina said, and I saw her trade a look with Marcus. They were all ganging up on me.

  “Fine. Do you have Chris’s info or not?”

  “I do. He gave me his personal link in case something happened to you. I’ll send it to Plot.”

  “Send it to Crow’s omni, I’ll use that to make the call,” I said. Annoyed, Nina handed over her omni. “It will only be a few minutes and then you can go have your love day with Winter.”

  “You would know all bout those,” she said under her breath so Merigold couldn’t hear but it put my heart into a quickening beat. I sent her a nasty look before turning on the omni.

  The number showed up on the screen and I went to the kitchen. Marcus and Nina moved to follow, but I stopped and shook my head. “Let me handle this alone, all right?”

  Neither of them looked happy with being shut out, but I didn’t want them hovering over my shoulder or making remarks to Chris. They were both still angry with him since he found me in Rentena, and their anger wasn’t unfounded. I still had my doubts about him, but the Chris I knew only wanted to help people, he could have never done anything like what happened in that room. People changed, though.

  The omni rang twice before his face appeared on the screen. His clothes were wrinkled and his beard had come in more. His eyebrows raised until they
were under his disheveled hair and then his lips curved into a wide smile. “Didn’t think I’d hear from you so soon. How are you?”

  I sat at the table and lifted a shoulder. “Fine, all things considers.”

  “Good, I was thinking of stopping by today to check up on you.”

  “Won’t your wife be annoyed by that?”

  The smile on his face faltered. “You’re a friend. Kale understands that.”

  “Oh, I’m sure she’s completely okay with you coming to see me,” I said, remembering the woman I had met on the dance floor. She seemed the jealous type from the few minutes I spent around her.

  “She doesn’t control what I can and can’t do, Ragan.”

  “Doesn’t she? You don’t look like you’ve been sleeping well.”

  “Busy time at Rentena right now. Your friends leaked that Rentena made the drug, so it’s all hands on deck as they try to get ahead of the PR backlash.” He sighed. “I’ve been in so many interviews.

  “At least they aren’t all by Merigold.”

  He nodded and leaned back in his chair. “That’s the only good thing.”

  We fell into silence, him watching and waiting. “Good,” I said. I licked my lips and swallowed dryly. “There’s a reason I’m calling. Do… do you remember Kay?”

  "You’re kidding, Ragan," he said, a familiar disapproving look appearing. "You almost died and—"

  “I’ve been clean for two and half years, why the hell does everyone think I’m jonesing to get back on that death train?”

  “Then what do you need Kay’s number for?”

  “A friend of mind found something that linked back to Kay’s old haunts. I wanted to see if she knew anything.”

  He sat up and tapped on his phone. “I don’t even know if I still have it, Ragan.” He paused and sighed. “Found it. Sending it over now.”

  “Awesome, thanks.”

  “Just promise me you’ll stay safe? I won’t be around to rescue you next time.”

  “Don't worry, I'll be careful. I’ll have my friends with me,” I said and by the look on his face he seemed to the hint. I wasn’t his concern anymore and while I was grateful for his help, Marcus and the others were right behind him. A minute wouldn’t have made a different and they wouldn’t have been arguing while I was dying. That still annoyed me, but I pushed it down and dialed Kay’s number.