by Megan Hart
Chapter 2
When Linna opened her eyes, she had to blink several times before she realized there was nothing wrong with her vision. The inside of her recharging station was dark, as was the hallway beyond the booth's glass door. Even as her pupils automatically dilated to adjust for night vision, Linna unhooked herself from the waste tube. Something was wrong. The recharging station was never dark, never without power.
She pushed against the glass door, which, at first, wouldn't budge. Don't panic. Breathe, she told herself. There must be emergency procedures in place. She pushed again harder, and this time, the door clicked open.
The hallway was empty. She crossed to the booth immediately in front of her and peered in. The Pleasurebot inside, a dark-haired GSHA-007-F, stared back at her, unblinking. Linna tugged open the booth door, not caring at the moment she was committing a serious breach of bot etiquette. She touched the Geisha Model on the arm. The bot didn't move. Linna touched the bot's cheek. Cool. Her internal circuits were powered down.
This was not a good sign. Linna backed out of the booth and headed down the hallway. She pushed her way into the Kitten's lobby, which was as dark and deserted as the hall had been.
"Code Amber. Code Amber." System's voice repeated the phrase over and over from the speakers on the street outside. "All emergency personnel to your stations. Repeat, Code Amber. Nonessential Newcitizen personnel, please remain inside. You will be directed to a safe location. Code Amber. Emergency personnel, please report to your stations."
Linna paused, her heart thudding. What was going on? She mentally dialed her hearing level higher. Sounds flooded her. Screams. Explosions. No telling from how far away, only that they weren't right outside.
She went to Kitten's front door and stepped onto the sidewalk outside. Complete, utter darkness assailed her senses. Even though she had night vision, the blackness was so complete it made her stumble back. She'd never seen Newcity without lights.
"Code Amber-Orange," System announced. "All nonessential Newcitizens, remain inside. You will be directed to a safe location. Violators will be terminated."
Terminated? Linna looked around the empty street. A chill sweat broke out on her body despite the ever-present Newcity humidity. She backed up and tried the door of Kitten's, but it had locked behind her.
"Emergency lockdown," System informed her when she tried to punch in the keycode. "Code Amber-Orange. All nonessential..."
Linna didn't wait to hear more. She ran. She had no idea where she was going, only that she had to get off the street before a Security Operative found her. Terminated!
She'd never been more grateful for the enhancements to her body. Her lungs expanded to take in extra air, while her body shifted its resources from the systems it wasn't using to provide extra energy to the ones she was. Her leg muscles lengthened and contracted without effort. Her eyes lubricated themselves so she didn't have to blink.
She ran toward the pedtread, but turned in an instant when she saw it wasn't running. She'd never seen it still.
Don't panic. Breathe.
She calmed herself with concentrated effort, a trick she'd learned after waking up in the surghosp. With her mind clear, she could focus on running and finding a place to get inside. She tried a Lovehut. Locked. An apartment building, also locked. She stood in front of the viddy screen and tapped as many buttons as she could, but nobody answered her pleas to be let inside. At every door, System informed her, "Emergency lock-down. Code Amber-Orange."
"How am I supposed to get off the street if everything's locked up?" Linna's frustrated scream echoed off the walls.
The earth suddenly shook beneath her feet. Only her enhanced balance kept her from falling over. It shook again. Pieces of the building next to her crumbled and fell, sprinkling bits of metal into her hair and on her shoulders. She stepped away and looked upward.
It wasn't the building. Don't panic, she told herself, but terror assailed her anyway. There was a rip in the dome. The pieces of metal hadn't fallen from the building. They'd fallen from the sky.
"Code Orange. Code Orange," System said. The soothing feminine voice echoed through the street, but did nothing to ease Linna's fear.
She began to walk fast, but did not break into a run. As she reached the cross street, an armored ground vehicle rolled around the corner. The light, blue-white and intense, burned her eyes and she threw up a hand to shield them.
The ground shook again, this time from the rumbling metal treads of the ground car. Through the crack in her fingers, Linna glimpsed helmeted and armed SecOps hanging off the side of the car.
"Halt!" The mouth guard gave the Op's voice a metallic clang. "Halt for Citizen Inspection!"
Linna didn't hesitate. In order to stun her, they'd have to catch her. She turned and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. From behind her she heard the cock of weapons, the blast of gunfire. The heat of a bullet whizzed past her. She didn't need to see it to duck away from it. Another bullet caught the sleeve of her jumpsuit. It tore the flimsy fabric, and she stumbled but kept her feet.
God-of-choice, they're using bullets!
Her ears told her where to dodge, how to weave, and, for the second time that day, Linna blessed the enhancements she normally cursed. She turned the corner, ran down an alley, ducked between two buildings, and found a dead end.
Without pause, she ran straight for the brick wall. She leaped and hit it with her feet, turned in the air and came down with a twist that turned her back toward the street again.
She had never realized how good it felt to work her body this way to its maximum strength. The flare and blast of an explosion stopped her and knocked her backward. The entire street in front of her disintegrated into flames. A column of fire shot up from a chasm in the concrete.
"Code Red. Code Red."
Linna rolled and got to her feet. A stinging in her hand made her look down to see a pattern of blisters already rising on her palm. She turned, searching for a way to run. The sound of sirens filled the air and drowned out even System's persistent droning.
A viddy screen flared to life in the window of the Lovehut next to her. Howard Adar spoke. "Earlier today, the Ruling Council learned of an attempt by members of the Mecho Humanity Underground to destroy the Newcity Dome."
The picture jumped and skipped. Adar's face twisted. For a moment, his mouth moved but no voice came out. Then a garbled explanation followed. "...have made every effort to apprehend...terminated...no cause for alarm...."
Linna stared at the flames, which had now spread toward the buildings on either side of the street. No cause for alarm? It sounded like more of Howard Adar's bullshit to her.
The viddy screen flickered and came on again. This time, the picture showed a less calm Adar, who was shouting at someone off camera. "Shut off the fucking camera! Now!"
The camera swerved, as though it had been knocked over, and another man, dressed in an Engineer's white lab coat, showed up on the screen.
"Repairs to the Dome are only seventy-five percent viable, sir," he was babbling. "We've got a major zip. The chemical field is failing in seventeen places-- Oh, shit!" he cried when he saw the camera on him. He reached out for it and the screen went black again.
"Code Red," came System's monotone.
Linna didn't have time to think about what Adar had said on the viddy. She had to concentrate on getting out of here before more stuff blew up or more SecOps came through.
She ran again. The buildings here were in worse repair. The pedtreads were buckled and rusted. The doors were still locked.
How could she be the only person on the streets? The answer came to her immediately. She was the only person in Newcity locked up inside a recharging booth when this trouble had begun. She was the only one who hadn't heard or seen the viddy communications warning everyone to get inside.
She couldn't run forever. She was still human, even with her enhancements. She was getting tired.
Another rumble told her another g
round car was patrolling the streets. Breathing hard, Linna ducked into an alley. The smell of garbage made her wrinkle her nose. A battered sign caught her eye. Caldyx Heights. This was where Del lived.
The sound of shouts and the armored ground car were drawing closer. She couldn't run any more. Her heart was pounding fiercely and her overworked muscles were beginning to tremble. She looked for the door to the building. Once it had been made of plazglass, but now flat panels of metal covered the frame. Linna limped over to it and wracked her brain to remember if Del had told her which apartment he lived in.
The SecOps were coming closer. The night was alive with sirens and explosions, farther off this time, thankfully. Linna began pushing buttons on the keycode. The viddy screen in front of her flickered, and a frightened face, not Del's, peered out at her.
"Can you let me in?" Linna cried, looking over her shoulder, expecting at any minute to be surrounded by SecOps, or worse, shot without warning. If the current situation meant the Ruling Council had allowed the use of bullet weapons, she had no doubt the SecOps wouldn't hesitate to use them on her.
The screen went black without a comment from the Newcitizen whose apartment she'd buzzed. Linna tried again. Del lived in this building. If he answered her buzz, he'd let her in. She knew it.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, a familiar pair of eyes and lips showed up on the screen. He was scowling. "What the hell--Linna?"
"Del, you have to let me in!"
Thank God-of-Choice, he didn't bother to ask her why. He buzzed her in. The door opened and Linna stepped through just as a ground car rumbled past on the street outside. She ducked behind the still half-open front door, hoping they wouldn't notice, and breathed an immense sigh when they didn't.
The interior viddy screen showed Del again. "Come on up. Use the stairs. I don't trust the lifter. I'm in MH-33."
"Thank you," Linna said, suddenly overcome and close to tears. She fought to keep her voice steady. "Thank you, Del."
His gaze pierced her even through the fuzzy viddy picture. "My pleasure."
A shiver went through her as the screen went dark. Linna felt his mouth on hers again, the softness of his lips and the brush of his tongue on hers. Not now, she admonished. There's no time for that.
The heels of her now-useless shoes, the soles of which had worn through from all the running, clacked on the cracked tile floor of the empty lobby. A long time ago, this had been a nice building with a concierge desk and an artiwaterfall display, now dry. She passed the elevator--the lifter, Del had called it, and the quaint, foreign name for it made her smile. The door to the stairs was propped open with a chunk of brick that must have fallen off the building outside. The stairwell was pitch black, without even any emergency lighting. It smelled like something had died inside it and Linna paused before stepping in. What if something, or someone, had died in there?
She tried to shake off the feeling, but could not force her feet to move from the dark lobby into the darker stairs beyond. Just go, she told herself. Del is waiting. Just run.
But she couldn't run, not any more. She could barely walk. She'd exhausted her reserves. Her body might be able to function more efficiently and more intensely than an unenhanced person, but it also needed appropriate fuel. She hadn't eaten a full meal in three days. Under normal circumstances, she could survive that long without terrible effects because her systems could process what she did manage to eat more slowly and gain more nutrition from them. Her recent mad flight had used up everything she had.
She swallowed hard. Del would have food. He'd have a place for her to sleep. It would mean revealing the truth to him that she was a mecho, not a Pleasurebot, but somehow, Linna couldn't bring herself to be afraid of that. Not from Del. Her friend.
The thought made her smile. A chill breeze from somewhere caressed her cheek and Linna blinked rapidly. Somehow, she'd already climbed several sets of stairs while she'd daydreamed about Del.
The metal of the railing was pitted and rough beneath her hands. Some sections of it were missing altogether. This trip would be hazardous under well-lit conditions, but in the dark she was risking a broken neck. With a conscious effort, Linna forced her pupils to dilate wider. Her night vision enhanced eyes now were able to distinguish between the subtle shadings of black that determined the stairs and the open space beside them.
How long had she been climbing? Forever. She laughed aloud and the sound echoed grotesquely. A monster's laugh. The noise, though she knew she'd made it, frightened her. She hung for a moment on the railing while her body quaked and shuddered. Were there monsters in here?
Her mind called up images of sharp teeth and claws, maniacal eyes and flashing blades. She shook her head again. Focus, Linna. Keep going. There's nobody in here but you.
She tried to breathe and coughed instead. Her fingers grew numb and even the sharp edge of metal on the railing didn't hurt on her skin, though she smelled her own blood and felt its warmth on her fingers. She was eating herself from the inside out. Her blood and tissue was being desiccated to provide energy to her heart and lungs. She'd gone too far, overworked herself. The medtechs at the surghosp had warned her about this, but since she had never expected to utilize her enhanced functions more than briefly, she hadn't imagined it happening to her.
She hadn't imagined how much it would hurt.
Light, blinding, shone in her dilated eyes. She screamed, or tried to, but only a hiss of air escaped her cracked and parched lips. She felt the bite of concrete on her knees and understood she had fallen forward on the steps. Her hand groped for the railing and missed, swiping on open air. She teetered, her balance function failing. She felt the clean sweep of an updraft on her face and looked down, down through blackness, so far down, so black she couldn't even glimpse the bottom. She was going to fall.
Then strong arms swept her up. The light moved off her face and illuminated the stairwell. She caught a glimpse of dripping walls overgrown with slime and streaks of rust. Then she was lifted and carried up the stairs, through a door, into a hall as dank and nasty as the stairs, but lit by a series of dim emergency bulbs along the ceiling.
"You're all right now," said a voice so deep it thudded in her chest and belly. "I've got you."
Del flung open his cupboards with a curse and ransacked the packages and cartons of dried food. Most of them spilled to the floor and he grabbed up three ancient cartons of artichicken broth.
"Water, 100 degrees," he said to the sink unit, which only burped at him. "Kafotza li. Bite me."
With the power out, nothing worked right. He manually lifted the faucet and filled the containers. Cold broth would have to do. Linna needed something in her...and fast.
He'd stretched her out on the futon he used as a bed in the living room and covered her with some blankets, but her body still twitched and shivered. The battery-powered lantern on the table next to her head highlighted her eyes, pupils so wide and dark only the smallest rim of blue showed around the edges. Her lips were pulled back from her teeth, which clattered and chattered. Her skin had gone too pale.
She was failing and he could guess why. Her shoes had holes worn in the bottom, and her feet were bleeding. She'd been running hard. He didn't know what sorts of enhancements she had, but she'd overused them.
He propped her up with one arm and held up the cup to her mouth. The liquid dribbled between her lips, but most of it made it down her throat. The effect was nearly instantaneous.
The color began to seep back into her cheeks. Her eyes started to focus. He felt her body tense and react to the nourishment. She downed the first cup of broth in seconds.
Her eyes fluttered, but she still wasn't all the way back. Del held another cup to her mouth and she took that one, too. He could practically see her stomach digesting the calories and distributing them at super-efficient speed to the rest of her body. She was healing herself.
After another five minutes, she sat up on her own. "Del!"
"Hey, pretty lady."
He smoothed a strand of hair from her forehead and pushed her back gently onto the pillows. "Lay back. You're not ready to go running again."
She didn't fight him on it, just nodded gratefully and took the third carton. She sipped at it and even winced at the taste, which showed she had to be feeling better.
"Thanks," she said.
"You were in pretty bad shape," Del replied. "What happened?"
The light from the lantern cast shadows on her face. She hesitated, then met his eyes without flinching. "I woke up in Kitten's. I didn't know what was going on. I came outside and heard System calling a Code Amber, but everything was locked up and I couldn't get in anywhere. I ran..." She looked down at her legs, still covered by the blanket. "And then I found myself at your building. What's going on, Del?"
"Let me get you some more soup."
He prepared another three cups of powdered broth and added a handful of stale crackers, all he had left in the cupboard. He kept a careful eye on her from the kitchen to make sure she didn't slip away from him again, but she seemed to be doing better. He brought her the food, easily carrying three cups in one of his hands, and set them down on the table.
"Drink this."
She complied without protest at the taste, then ate the crackers like she hadn't had food in weeks. Which seems likely, Del thought, watching her. The gaunt lines of her face were already smoothing. Amazing technology.
"The way I figure it is this," he told her. "Somebody, somewhere, screwed up with the Dome."
She gave a low chuckle that warmed his heart...and other places. "Everyone in Newcity knows that, Del. The Dome has never functioned properly."
"About three hours ago, System announced a Code Yellow." Del thought for a moment. "I wasn't surprised. Not with the way Adar's been yammering about the Mecho Humanity Underground lately. I figured it was only a matter of time before he tried to pin something big on them."
Linna scooted up until she sat against the wall. "Was there a viddy announcement?"
He nodded. "All programming was disrupted. Adar got on the viddy and announced they'd just taken the ringleaders into custody, and that there'd be an investigation into alleged terrorist activity aimed at disrupting the Dome."
