Tempered

by Britt Ringel

  Reynolds sighed. “This isn’t Shantytown’s first riot, Kat. Some of the survivors will come back over the week and pay what they can afford. Sometimes even relatives of those that didn’t make it pay a bit.” She methodically cleaned under her fingernails, scrubbing her hands with a practiced exactness, the ritual of a surgeon. “I’ll go to Waytown Standard, hat in my hand. Old friends will help.”

  The reference to the doctor’s past brought a question to the forefront of Kat’s thoughts. It seemed the right time to ask. “Why did you lose your citizenship?”

  Reynolds stopped washing and stared into her bucket. Drops from her hands fell into the rose-colored water, rippling the surface. “Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman, bond or free,” she recited from rote.

  “What’s that?”

  “The answer to your question.” Saying nothing further, the doctor retreated to the back room.

  Chapter 16

  The mag-rail raced east, away from Waytown. It pierced an ominous darkness despite sunrise thirty minutes earlier. Grey clouds, concealing the sun, stretched across the sky to meet even more menacing clouds over the desiccated land to the west.

  “Did you hear about the riot?” Reneta squealed in excitement next to Kat. She didn’t wait for an answer. “I was with some friends right at the market gate when it started!” She gripped Kat’s forearm and squeezed. The young woman’s eyes bulged as she bounced in her seat. “Some guy got caught trying to smuggle in an entire sheet of Elation. The guards went to grab him but he wasn’t having any of it and he must’ve been backed up by a gang.” She pointed down the aisle, toward the passenger car’s front door, several meters away. “This huge fight erupts ten meters in front of me and—”

  “Elation?” Kat asked.

  Reneta’s monologue stopped in midsentence and her expression twisted. “It’s a drug.” She made another gesture, this one as if frosting a cake. “They squeeze it onto a sheet of paper and it dries into little drops. You let them dissolve in your mouth.” She grabbed Kat’s arm again. “Five meters away! First, it started with just punches but then knives came out and more and more people dove into the fight. It just exploded into this big thing.” She looked past Kat, at the landscape beyond the window. “My friends and I ran like the wind after that. Next thing I know… Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop!”

  Kat also surveyed the dim flatland racing outside her window. All of yesterday had gratefully melted into a similar blur.

  After waiting through Kat’s solemn reflection for close to a minute, Reneta switched gears. She poked Kat in the shoulder. “Hey, would you want to meet up this Friday at The Lucky Gun?”

  “Uh,” Kat temporized. She turned and saw Reneta’s hopeful expression. “I think I might have a date but let’s meet up for at least a little while before it, okay?” She needed to make friends and the spirited laborer was certainly outgoing.

  “Awesome!” Reneta enthused with an enormous smile. “We can work out the details later this week.” Her eyes caught upon Kat’s red pendant. “Oh my God! That’s beautiful!” The women lurched to the left as the mag-rail started its arcing turn into the foothills. The momentum shift caused Reneta to groan dramatically. “I hate Mondays.”

  Reneta switched topics four more times in the final six minutes of the ride. The pair debarked with the rest of the dayshift into thick, muggy air. Despite the relatively low temperature, the unusually high humidity made Kat’s skin feel clammy. Reneta gave a final, friendly wave and trotted off toward the other laborers in her mining team. Kat watched the woman bounce away. Did I ever have that much zeal? she wondered.

  She entered the office trailer and greeted Lacy from the door. After briefly exchanging pleasantries, the night receptionist pushed out of the office, anxious to get home before the storm hit. Kat stepped into the bathroom to check her appearance a final time. She smelled faintly of soap and her clean hair cascaded in waves around her face. Her red pendant struck a gorgeous contrast between her white shirt and bronze skin. She ran her fingers lightly through her hair, smoothing the minor tangles caused by the gusting breeze outside. She exited the bathroom satisfied with her look.

  Employees filtered into the office. Most greeted her with a silent nod or wave. A few said hello as they passed. Only Dakota actually stopped at the counter to make small talk, noticing Kat’s pendant and complimenting the shade. Tabitha’s entrance was nothing more than a silent inspection as she breezed past.

  Kat assumed that no news from Tabitha was good news and resumed her work. In an office email, she discovered that she now had the extra duty to maintain the Waytown portion of the Porter Mining Enterprises website. The email offered links to online education courses and provided a password for access. The entry-level course on website maintenance filled the first several hours of the day. Kat dove into the instruction with delight, happy for the distraction, and hungrily consumed the material. She had a clear aptitude for computer work but the quizzes at the end of each section caused her irrational anxiety. She took each test with a sense of unease but despite her worries she aced each one. Armed with the new knowledge, Kat poked at her screen, shifting designs on a sample page with her fledgling skills. She was focused on verifying the links on the page when Tabitha cleared her throat loudly behind her.

  “Wake up, Kat,” Tabitha barked while snapping her fingers.

  “I wasn’t asleep.”

  Tabitha’s heels clicked lightly as she sauntered around the counter to face her. Blue eyes shifted to the pendant at Kat’s neck and a cynical smirk appeared. “Did you find a rock in the trash this weekend?” She leaned over the counter, inadvertently giving Kat a glimpse of generous cleavage. “I’d have thought you would’ve tried to clean it up before wearing it.” She snickered lightly.

  “Please don’t hurt me.” Kat heard the words clearly in her mind. She felt her stomach twist into knots as the trailer’s walls seemed to press inward on her very thoughts. “I…” she spluttered.

  Tabitha straightened up and continued her assault. “Still, for a Trodden, I guess that bauble might pass for high class jewelry.” She paused and then took tentative sniffs of the air. Her hand clasped over her heart. “You actually reek a little less today.”

  “I’m here to help you, Cat.” Kat couldn’t shake the words from her head and she searched the room with wild eyes. The humid air had grown ten times thicker, a soup almost impossible to breathe.

  Tabitha stared at Kat and her blonde brow knitted together. Her voice shifted from poison to concern. “Kat, are you all right? You look awful… er.”

  Kat’s body trembled and her chest felt tight. “I don’t know…” She clutched the edge of the counter for support.

  The trailer door opened and the suffocating aura burst like a bubble. The feelings of dread, anticipation and fear turned off like a switch. Kat gasped in relief, finally able to draw breath.

  A woman stood at the door. “Please don’t hurt me.” Her calm voice was a soothing balm. It nestled Kat, murmuring away any remaining concern. With empty hands raised in front of her body, the brunette walked timidly, cautiously into the trailer. Ice blue eyes, wide with fear, contrasted sharply with long, dark auburn hair. It was straight, flowing like water to her shoulders. Her expression hinted at a seasoned maturity, even as wrinkles around her eyes and mouth offered clearer signals of her age. She spoke comfortingly again. “Cat, I want to help you. I want to help everyone, actually.” Her eyes darted to Tabitha before returning to Kat. “We need to go. Now.”

  Kat felt her brow furrow and her cheeks flush. She rose, her hands curling into fists.

  The woman faltered at the simple movements, reflexively backing toward the door. Her hands pressed outward in obvious panic. “Don’t! Please.”

  Tabitha looked between the pair. “What the hell is going on?” She placed her hands on her hips and stared at the newcomer
.

  “Who are you?” Kat asked.

  “Wait. You don’t remember me? How can that be? I felt your pushes…” Confusion and fear burrowed deep creases into the mature woman’s forehead. “Cat, I didn’t tell them. You know I wouldn’t. Please don’t hurt me. Don’t… hate me.” She pursed her lips before taking a deep breath, steeling her nerves. “My name is Alex Laney but you know me better as Tess.”

  “Tess?” Kat felt her jaw drop.

  Tabitha shifted her weight and folded her arms across her chest. “Ms. Laney, are you suggesting that Miss Smith has been violent before?” She shook her head and muttered, “Typical Trodden trash.” She reached over the counter for the comm console.

  “Stop her!” Tess called out frantically.

  Kat placed her hand over the comm controls and looked at Tabitha. “Wait.”

  “Why should I? Maybe you can bewitch most men but I see you for exactly what you are. Corporate security will clear this mess up.” Tabitha’s eyes dropped and remained insistently on Kat’s hand. She waited half a beat before threatening, “Do I need to call Mr. Vincent out here?”

  “Cat, we need to go,” Tess urged. “They don’t know I’m visiting you but the Society does know you’re here.”

  Alarm spiked through Kat. “They’re coming here? Now?”

  “I’m leading the disposal team due to arrive in less than an hour.”

  Tabitha grunted. “I’ve had enough of this.” She threw Kat a look that could’ve peeled paint. “Move your damned hand, guttertrash.”

  Kat glanced at Tabitha but directed her question to Tess. “What about her?”

  The woman near the door grimaced. “She’s obviously frightened, angry. It doesn’t take a telepath to know she’s going to call corp-sec the instant we leave. She just needs time so we can explain things to her, help her understand.”

  Kat appraised Tabitha coolly. She could easily overpower the woman but there had to be a less violent way. “Tess, do you have a weapon?”

  “N-no, I didn’t want a weapon. I don’t like them and frankly I was… afraid to bring one. Afraid you’d take it from me and shoot me with it.” She looked back to the door and implored, “We’re running out of time.”

  In a flash, Kat’s hand traveled from the comm unit to Tabitha’s delicate neck. She pulled firmly until Tabitha almost tumbled over the counter. Kat tried not to revel in finally giving the woman her due. Tabitha’s pupils dilated in true fear, her eyes misting over immediately. The woman’s lower lip began to quiver.

  “Tabitha, the two of us are leaving work early today,” Kat stated simply. “You can come quietly and without injury… or not.” She tightened her grip around the woman’s throat. Kat silently counted four defensive moves a victim could use to break her stranglehold but doubted Tabitha knew any of them. After days of abuse, she took shameful pleasure in her threat and allowed herself an evil smile. I won’t actually harm her but she doesn’t have to know that.

  “Don’t hurt me,” Tabitha peeped. She kept her eyes averted and leaned as far back as she could.

  Kat circled the counter and pulled Tabitha to the door. At the threshold, she wrapped her arm around the blonde’s shoulders as if they were old friends. She whispered into her left ear, “I’ll snap your neck if you call out. Just come with us, don’t cause trouble and I’ll let you go safe and unharmed. I promise.”

  The threesome marched across the black earth, around the office trailer and toward the makeshift parking lot filled with aircars. The roars of a working coal mine would have concealed any call from Tabitha but the woman remained silent. A damp wind kicked up black dust around them and thunder rumbled in the distance. Above, the sky was green and black.

  “I have a rental.” Tess fished out a black fob and waved it toward the lot. An aircar chirped before its gull wing doors opened.

  “Where are we going?” Kat asked. She slowed her pace. “How do I know you’re not taking me right to them?”

  “Who’s them?” Tabitha questioned nervously but wilted under the twin stares of her kidnappers. “Never mind. Please, just let me go. I’ll lock myself in my office and stay there the whole afternoon.”

  Tess shook her head regretfully at Kat.

  They continued toward the vehicle until Kat came to a complete stop at the open door. “Tess, I want an answer. How do I know you aren’t taking me straight to the Pelletier’s Society?”

  Tess stood by the driver’s door and looked across the car. “If I was loyal to them, why would I have come here alone? I’ve hidden your tracks as best I could but they’ll find you now with or without my help. They knew you’d fled to Waytown after the massacre in the Mura Convention Center but now they know your alias, Kat Smith.” She looked skyward as more thunder cavalcaded overhead. “Why did you let a hospital examine your scorch? Why’d you let them forward those records to Northport? Arrogance? Some sort of challenge? Well, they’re taking you up on it.”

  “Dammit,” Kat cursed quietly. She shoved Tabitha forward and into the aircar. The woman tumbled into the cramped back seat and Kat quickly hopped into the passenger seat. Staring back at her captive, she heard the doors close around her.

  The vehicle’s turbines wound up slowly. As Tess waited for the RPMs to increase, she side-eyed Kat. Her words were barely louder than a murmur. “We need more time. We can still work together, maybe convince the others.”

  Kat looked at her directly. The woman’s face seemed familiar, her name unmistakably was, but she couldn’t draw tangible recollections from the black soup of her memories. “Convince who about what?”

  The aircar lifted off and a stiff wind buffeted it immediately. Tess’ mouth opened but then closed. Finally, she answered, “There are others who want what you wanted, Cat. You’re not the first psi-positive to run.” She grappled with the controls, forcing the aircar skyward. “You’re just the first one who made it so far and for so long.” She leveled the vehicle off at three hundred meters. Any higher and she’d be flying by instruments inside dangerous clouds. Turbulence still gripped the aircar, rocking it in every direction.

  Kat’s right hand grabbed for the support bar married to the dashboard. No one had buckled up. She reached with her free hand across the cabin toward Tess.

  The telepath flinched away. “What—”

  “I just want to see, to verify.”

  Understanding passed between them and Tess nodded. Kat reached out again and took a gentle hold at the bottom of the woman’s long-sleeved shirt. It was the color of dry sand. She pulled the soft synthetic fabric and raised it above her hip. A faint but distinct subdermal wafer glowed under the skin: TESS-6.

  Rain suddenly pelted the windshield, loud enough to make Kat wonder if it was hail. The noise subsided as quickly as it started when the vehicle flew out of the virga. “So, you’re in the Society but not loyal to it. Why help me? Why now?”

  Tess’ lips pressed into a firm line as she considered her answer. “Opportunity, mostly. I’ve helped you as much as I could but I’m not an operative, Cat. I work in support, in Talent Management. I don’t get off campus often and when I do, I usually have chaperones following me everywhere.” The aircar hit a downburst and lost meters of altitude. Tess growled and brought the car back up. “Besides, the others said I shouldn’t trust you… that we couldn’t trust you. And I couldn’t convince them otherwise without exposing what you truly were, what you are. To them you’re Pre-Cat, for God’s sake! They were certain your disappearance was a counter-intelligence operation to root them out as traitors. They only started considering other alternatives after you killed Peecho and Lolz.”

  “I… Lolz said I killed two doctors the night I escaped. That wasn’t enough to convince you?”

  Tess turned to look directly into Kat’s eyes. Her blue stare spoke a truth to Kat’s soul. There was comfort in those eyes but something more. Something that scared Kat: Hope. “I always believed in you. I watched you grow up. You never had a cold heart no matter what they may hav
e forced you to believe.” She returned her attention to the aircar’s instruments. “But the rest insisted the doctors were only pawns and if anyone was willing to coldly sacrifice a couple pawns to root out traitors, it would be Pre-Cat.”

  Kat shivered at the statement, unwilling to acknowledge what Tess was implying. She became desperate to change the subject. “How did you break away today without being followed?”

  “I’m leading a D-team.” Tess laughed without mirth. “They put me, of all people, in charge of one since I’m one of the few telepaths left. You’ve shaken the Society to its core. They’re frantic to recover you and it’s all hands on deck right now. They deployed every remaining telepath to pinpoint your location.” Tess risked another glance away from the windshield. “With Peecho and Lolz gone, it’s only me, Em, and Teg left.” Her head turned further to the back seat. Tabitha wisely sat in silence, mouth agape. “I sent my team to different parts of Shantytown this morning. We know about your tenement. We know everywhere Kat Smith has paid credits for anything. I told my team that I wanted to check your regular haunts first, to make sure you hadn’t skipped work like you did on Friday. I told them we couldn’t afford to blow our element of surprise.”

  Waytown grew closer. Tess throttled back the turbines and began a descent. As the aircar lost speed, the buffeting from the fierce wind grew worse. Torrential rain obscured The Blight west of Waytown. Soon, the storm would devour the settlement. “I sent my team members to surveil places I knew you wouldn’t be. Then, I flew out to the mine to warn you. I have to be back at the TriLink Auditorium before they return or they’ll know something’s up. Agents aren’t psi-positive like operatives but they’re certainly not idiots.” The craft slowed further as it broke inside the city limits. “Where’s your safe house?”

  Kat shook her head.

  “Dammit.” Tess released the controls and the vehicle automatically went into a hover. She turned toward Kat as the aircar whined loudly to stay aloft. “Cat, I know you still have your abilities. I know the scorch didn’t work. You can stop pretending.”