by Kelli Kimble
I stood up and studied the hall. The lighting at the end of the hall suggested an out-of-sight window or door. I went down the hall and found the back door, with stairs leading down to a park-like setting behind the building. I went out and sat on a bench. I was still too early to meet the cleaning lady, and I didn’t want to sit out on the street, where the girl would have surely realized she’d lost me by now.
Someone had hung some clothing out to dry on their balcony, and I mentally pulled it towards me. They floated to the ground. One item was a silken scarf, with beautiful roses painted on it. There was also a bright pink shirt to match. I tied the scarf around my head to camouflage my hair and put the shirt on over my experimental training shirt. I felt like a giant pink flower — but it wasn’t what the girl would be looking for.
It was nearly time to meet the cleaning woman, so I moved behind the buildings, parallel to the street, until I came to the building across from the town hall. There was a bakery in the building, so I went in and stood in line, pretending to study the contents of the display case but really keeping an eye out for the cleaning woman.
I caught sight of her just as I got to the front of the line. “So sorry,” I said. “I just remembered I have some at home already.” I shrugged and gave a sheepish grin, while backing out of the store.
The clerk was already moving on to the next person.
I ran across the street and intercepted the cleaning woman. She was walking by City Hall at a fast clip. I walked beside her. “You came,” I said.
“Yes. Well. I can’t bring you home. You could put my family in danger.”
“I have abilities,” I said. “No harm will come to anyone.” I put a steadying hand on her arm. “I promise.”
“You must think I’m an old fool,” she said. She patted my hand. “I know you can’t make that promise.”
“People will die,” I said.
“Yes,” she said. She turned a corner so quickly that I tripped over my feet trying to keep up. “People will die whether I help you or not.”
“If that’s true, then what do you have to fear?”
She looked at me. Her eyes were watery and faded. Sad. “That’s why I’m bringing you home.”
I relaxed. She was going to help me. For now.
◆◆◆
Her apartment was small and cramped. It had one bedroom, with a cot large enough for one person, and the living space had only a table and chairs, and one solitary reclining chair near the window. A stack of books sat on a tiny side table next to the chair.
There were pictures on the wall, and I studied them. They showed two children: a boy and a girl, in various stages of youth. The girl had long, thick braids flying around her in every photo. The boy was gawky and had a space between his two front teeth in younger photos. As he aged, he became handsome.
“Ingrid,” I said, looking around. “You live here alone?”
“Yes, now I do,” she said.
“But . . . then who would you be protecting by not bringing me here?”
“They don’t have to be here for you to be a danger to them.”
I nodded, though I didn’t understand what she meant.
She bustled around, getting something for dinner. “Would you like something to eat? Some stew?”
I was starving, having skipped all my meals that day, but it was clear Ingrid needed every morsel of food that came her way. “I’m fine, thank you,” I said.
But she still brought two bowls of stew to the table. “Sit. Eat.”
Obediently, I sat and ate what she’d presented. It was much better than anything else I’d had to eat at the headquarters. “This is delicious,” I said.
She smiled. “Now, what is it you need my help with?”
I set down my spoon. “I need to stop them. They’re changing the weather again. I have friends and family out there, outside the city. They’ll die soon, if I don’t turn it off.”
Her face clouded over. “I don’t know anything about the machine. I know there is one. I know it caused immense damage hundreds of years ago, but that’s it. I don’t know how I could be of any help to you.” She picked up her bowl and took it to the sink.
“It’s just … there’s nobody I can trust,” I said.
A niggling feeling told me I was being foolish to trust even her, but she’d already warned me off. Besides, she had a low-paying job and could speak with a normal voice; it was likely her children — or grandchildren? — didn’t have a chip. She knew what it was to be without power.
She returned to the table, took my empty bowl, and washed it in the sink. “I’ll do whatever I can to help, if you think I can. I don’t want anybody to get hurt.”
“I know where the computer that controls the weather change is, but I can’t shut it down without both Thanos and Eneece. The shutdown is linked to their palmprints.”
With the dishes done, and the kitchen tidied, she returned to sit across from me. “That certainly sounds like it will be a challenge. The two of them fight like cats and dogs.”
“I was hoping you’d have an idea where Thanos is.”
“He’s at headquarters. Like you.”
“But he’s never in the dormitory or at meals. Today, I checked rooms they haven’t shown me, and he wasn’t in any of them, either.”
“I’ve seen him. Him and his father.”
So, Orthos was in on it. I’d have to be careful.
I thought back to when I’d ditched the girl following me. I’d made a mistake coming here. Now, I understood what Ingrid had meant about it being dangerous for her family; if they found out I was here with her, and she was telling me things, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, or the people she cared about.
“I’ve got to go,” I said.
She put a hand out to stop me. “You be careful.”
“Thanks, Ingrid. I will.”
I left her apartment building and wandered out to the street. I didn’t see anyone I recognized; neither the girl from earlier, nor anyone else I’d seen around headquarters. I needed a place to hide, while I figured out what to do.
I turned towards my old neighborhood and began walking in that direction. I was only a few blocks from my old street when it occurred to me that even if Thanos wasn’t at the house, it would still be watched.
I turned away and headed instead towards the slums. Thanos and Orthos acted as if the people living in the slums weren’t even human. They’d never think to look for me there.
When I got near the slums, I hid amongst some old, broken appliances and projected my mental self to scout for a place to sleep. It was starting to get dark. Already, people were clustered around several barrels, lit with smoky fires. The weather change hadn’t impacted the city much, but even a few degrees was a lot to people without access to real shelter.
I moved among the rickety, thrown-together structures. Most were made from old metal or cardboard — a few were nothing more than a blanket, thrown over a string and suspended between two poles — but they were all occupied.
I was beginning to think I’d made a mistake, when I encountered a woman who was ill, alone in the shelter she’d made from the siding of a house. She was huddled beneath a clump of dirty blankets. Her cheeks were sallow, and her eyes were yellow.
Hoping the owner would forgive me, I used my abilities to grab a chunk of bread, and a mug of thin-looking soup. I took them to the woman and spoon-fed them to her. She didn’t protest, but she wasn’t turning cartwheels, either. When the food was gone, I watched as she slid into a fitful sleep.
I snapped back into my body and then, under the cover of the dark sky, I made my way to her shelter.
She didn’t move when I entered, and I sat down beside her. I took a shaky breath, and then imagined scanning her body. Her liver was a problem; it was scarred and not functioning. I concentrated my thoughts on turning it a nice, healthy, deep red and wiping away the damage.
After a time, I couldn’t find anything else that seemed wrong, so I
curled into a ball near her and went to sleep myself.
When I awoke in the morning, she was staring at me. “Am I dead yet?” she asked.
“No. Do you feel better? I fed you a curing broth last night.”
“I do feel better.” She sat up and smacked her lips together. “‘s a miracle. I could use a drink.”
So, that was it. She was an alcoholic.
“I need your help,” I said. “Do you live here by yourself?”
She laughed. Her voice didn’t sound as unused as most did. “Why? You want to rent a room?”
My cheeks heated. “I just wondered if I could sleep here. At night. I’ll get my own bedding; you don’t have to give me anything.”
She stopped laughing and turned her head so that she was looking at me with only her right eye. “It’ll cost ya.”
“How much?” I didn’t have anything to give her, but I’d figure something out. If nothing else, I could probably steal.
“Meals,” she said out loud. She turned her head and looked at me with her other eye. “I want three squares a day, and drinks. Good ones. None of that cheap, rotgut shit.”
“All right,” I said.
“It’s breakfast time.”
I nodded and left the shelter. It was a long way to get to any affluent neighborhoods from there, but it would have to be done.
◆◆◆
That night, I started scouting for Thanos. I would have to find him by sight — he was veiling his essence from me again — but Ingrid had said she’d seen him in headquarters, so I if waited there in the right place, I would eventually come across him. I went back to headquarters and hid in a broom closet. I would project myself to find him, so I could avoid being caught if he noticed me. The weather change room seemed the best place to wait. An attendant was there, going over the numbers, just like before. I sat in the corner and watched. Nobody else came or went until around midnight, when someone came to switch places with the guy at the desk.
The new person wasn’t a particularly good worker. He’d brought a small gamebot –something I’d never seen up close – in his pocket. He pushed the computer on the desk aside and set it up. A holographic image projected above it, and he was soon lost in playing.
I decided to surprise him. I snapped back into my body and crept from the closet. Though it took a lot of effort, I was able to create an image of Eneece over myself and enter the weather room. “Hey,” I barked into his brain. “What are you doing?”
The guy jumped. “Um, just taking a break, Eneece.” He slammed a palm over the gamebot to turn it off, and then he jammed it back into his pocket.
I narrowed my eyes. “I’ll give you a break. Get out.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said. He scrabbled around the desk and practically ran from the room.
Alone, I let the image of Eneece drop, and I opened the console door. The controls looked as they had before. I turned the key above one of the palm-prints, and then, imagining I was Thanos, I pressed my right palm to it.
A mechanical voice echoed into my head: “Electronic signature accepted.”
Holy crap.
I projected myself as Eneece. I glanced over at my body, still maintaining the image of Thanos with my hand against the console. I reached up to turn the key, but my hand waved through it, instead of grasping it. My ability wasn’t strong enough to give both images physical mass. Frustrated, I snapped back into my body and yanked my hand from the device. I turned and thrust my fingers through my hair, just as the door opened.
“Thanos, what are you doing?” Eneece poked her head in. She gave me an expectant look.
Right, I’d imagined myself to be Thanos. “Um, just testing the machine. You know. In case we need to shut it off.”
She laughed. “You know, you can’t do that by yourself.” In an insane stroke of luck, she approached and turned the key on the other pad. “Ready?” She hovered her palm over her device.
I nodded, and we pressed our palms into place.
The voice again said, “Electronic signature accepted.” Then, it was followed by: “Override procedure accessed. Do you wish to override the system?”
“Yes,” I said. I had to broadcast it, because I wasn’t sure how to talk directly to the computer alone.
Eneece turned her head, her eyes sharp. “What are you doing?” she asked out loud.
“I . . .” But words eluded me. What could I say to convince her?
She blinked, and then I felt her invading my head.
I pushed her out. “If I wanted you in there, I’d let you sense me,” I said. I hoped he hid from her, the same way he’d made a habit of hiding from me.
Her lip curled, revealing her teeth.
“Override processing,” the computer said.
She snapped her head back around to look at the console. “Help me turn it back on,” she said. She hovered her palm over the device.
I crossed my arms. “I’ve been thinking,” I said. “I don’t think I get enough out of our deal. I want more.”
She gave a snort of laughter. “You are some piece of work, you know that? What more could you possibly want?”
“All of it,” I said.
Her face turned pink, and her lips pressed into a thin line. “You’ll have full control of the city and the experimental program, and you get to keep the girl. What else is there?”
Keep the girl?
I took a deep breath. What else could I have? “I want you to beg,” I finally said.
She put her hands on her hips and stared at me. “I won’t beg,” she said.
I shrugged my shoulders and stuffed my hands in my pockets. “Fine, but I won’t turn it back on.”
“Then, I expect you to honor the deal. I did everything you asked.” She didn’t wait for me to respond. She started towards the door. It swung open before she reached it, and my stomach nearly jumped out of my mouth.
Thanos.
Eneece started, turned to look at me, and then back at him. I didn’t stop to think. I put my hand on the console, and I thought of lightning. A puff of air expelled from the electronics in a wave. Ozone singed my nose.
Without warning, I was flying. I thumped shoulder-first into the wall next to the door and crumpled to the floor.
“You.” Thanos stood over me, his hands clenching and unclenching. “You left today. You aren’t supposed to be here.” He turned on Eneece. “How did she even know about this room?” He grabbed her by her upper arm and shook her.
Her head snapped back and forth. She gasped and brought her other hand to her mouth, then pulled it away bloody. She’d bit her tongue. “I didn’t do anything,” she said. She made a strange keening before she continued. “I never brought her in here. I did everything you asked.”
He pushed her against the wall. His face was so tense that he was baring his teeth, like a dog defending a garbage pile. “If you’d done everything you were supposed to do, the weather machine wouldn’t be fried right now.”
“It’s not her fault,” I said, finding my voice.
Eneece looked at me, like she’d forgotten I was there.
Thanos released her arm and gave her a final shove away from the wall, before turning to me. “Oh, it’s not, is it? Then, whose fault is it?”
“Yours. Your plan was terrible. Like I couldn’t tell right from the start you hated me?” I scrambled to a sit and used my legs to back away from him, until I met the wall. I used it as leverage to start standing, since my legs were shaking.
He kicked out his leg, sweeping mine out from under me.
My back slid down the wall, and my butt connected with the cement floor, hard. I grimaced.
“You’re pathetic,” he said. “You’re weak, easy to manipulate, naïve, and not even much to look at.”
“Then, why do you want to keep me?” I asked, jutting out my chin.
His face turned red, and he hauled back a leg to kick me again, but this time, I imagined a hard blow to the knee of his supporting leg. His knee dou
bled backwards, and he yelped out in pain before he hit the floor.
Eneece jumped between us. “Leave him alone,” she said.
Before I could ask why she would defend someone who was blackmailing her, Thanos reared up from the floor and pushed her out of the way. He stood on both legs firmly; he must’ve healed the one I’d broken. Somehow, he was still getting stronger. “You’re going to be sorry for that,” he said.
The forcefield bubble appeared around me. It lifted me from the floor and hovered to the ceiling. I scrambled around, trying to stand up, but then he started to shrink it. I pushed with all the force I could muster — both physically and mentally — but the walls kept confining me to a smaller and smaller space. My arm got trapped in an awkward position, and I felt the strain on the bones of my forearm as they were further restricted.
I screamed as they snapped like twigs.
I looked down at Thanos, as if I were in a dream. I felt outside of my body; maybe I was.
As suddenly as the bubble had appeared, it disappeared. I dropped, almost hitting the floor. I managed to catch myself just in time. I cradled my dangling arm like a baby.
He came at me, his face contorted into a snarl. He postured over me, forcing me to lean backwards. “That’s just the beginning of your punishment. Nobody treats me like that. Nobody.”
A tendril of anger unfurled deep in my gut.
“Least of all, an idiot like you,” he continued. “You think you’re so hot, just because you were the first to have a real breakthrough? You think you’re the best this place ever had to offer? Think again.” He jerked his thumb at his chest. “I’m the best this place ever had to offer. Me.”
“Yeah?” I argued. “But I’m not from this place. I never even set foot in this building before she brought me here, and I don’t think I have to remind you what happened to the place that made me. I’ll do the same here, if I have to.”
“You couldn’t if you tried,” he snorted. “You just don’t get it. I’m better than you. I’m smarter, faster, bigger, stronger, and . . .” He lifted his leg and pointed at his knee. “. . .more resilient. You’re nothing but a desperate kid without a chip. Scraping for scraps, just like your stupid parents.”
