by E J Frost
have lasted her until now—”
“She double-dipped and was up all night
twitching. She was waiting for you to bring
her down. She needed you and you left with
him—”
“Okay, okay, how long has she been
gone?” She clutches her free hand to her
head. Over the faded bruise on her
cheekbone. Her head’s probably started
throbbing again. I’m tempted to pull the
bangle away from her, shut off the call and
leave her brother to his own devices. But her
expression keeps me still. Until I’m sure
what it is, I don’t know what will help.
“No one’s seen her since noon.”
“Weren’t you watching her?”
“I’m not her fucking keeper!”
“Goddamn it, Ape! Meet me in Eddle.
Bring five grand. Tell Gig to bring the
skimmer. She may not be able to walk.”
“What’re you going to do?”
“What do you think?” She snarls into the
screen. “I’m going to buy her back.”
She taps the screen off. Stands for a
moment, swaying on her feet, her hand
clutched to her face.
“Kez—” I begin.
“Did you take off my vcom?”
I debate lying to her. The viewie could
have fallen off when I was putting her to bed.
“Kez—”
“Did you?!” She flares at me. Teeth and
claws and fur standing on end.
“Yeah.”
She goes so pale I think she might faint. I
put a hand out to catch her. She recoils. A
tear slips down her cheek. “I need my
backpack,” she whispers.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
“My friend, my best friend is in trouble
because I didn’t bring her her meds. Because
I was here, with you, fucking when she was
hurting!” Her voice rises until she’s yelling.
“I need my goddamn backpack!”
“I’ll get it,” I say dully. I should have
known it was too good to last. Beauty never
does. I turn on my heel and head towards the
front hall where I dimly remember dropping
her backpack after carrying her in from the
taxi.
She’s pulled on her clothes by the time I
return. She’s stamping her foot into her boot
and talking into her viewie. Her voice is low
and urgent. “Sky, I just need to know where
she is. She’s not answering her com. Is she
there?”
A male voice answers her. “Like I’d
fuckin’ tell you.”
“The Hex will kill the baby, Skylar.
Please, I’ve got her Naltrex. Just tell me
where she is and I’ll bring it to her.”
I drop the backpack next to her. She nods
but doesn’t take her eyes off the screen.
“I told you, she doesn’t want to see you.
She’s fine now and she’s gonna stay fine fine
fine and all mine.”
“So she’s there with you?”
“I’m not tellin’ you, you fuckin’ lesbo
bitch. She’s told me all about you. How you
brush her hair when she’s twitchin’. I know
you’re just trying to get in her pants, ain’t you
gay-girl?”
“That’s right, Skylar. I just wanted to get
with her. But you win, she’s back with you,
right?”
“Straight up, bitch.”
“And she’s going to stay with you at your
place.” It’s not a question. She’s turned it
around so he’ll confirm her statement. Clever
kitten.
“That’s right, that’s right, that’s righty-
right-right. Me and Nevie and the baby.
We’ll be one happy family and you’ll have
no one, you lesbo bitch!”
Kez smiles into the Hexer’s snarling face.
“Thanks, Sky, that’s all I needed to know.”
She taps the screen and snatches up her
backpack. “I have to go,” she says to me.
I nod. I’ve caught enough of the
conversation to understand the crux of what’s
happened. “Kez—”
She shakes her head. Doesn’t meet my
eyes as she stamps on the other boot. On her
wrist, the touchscreen flares. She glances at
it. “My taxi’s here. Where’s the door?”
I beckon her with two fingers. Lead her
through the house to the front door. All the
while debating what to say to her. At the
front door I pause, my hand on the control
panel. “Kez—”
She winces. “I have to go.”
I tap the panel. Stand aside as the door
cycles. Watch her walk out my door. She
doesn’t look at me. Doesn’t say good-bye. I
tap the panel again to activate the gates.
Glance at the monitor beside the door to
make sure she gets into the taxi waiting
beyond the outer gate. As she climbs into the
taxi, she looks back at the house. The vid’s
resolution isn’t good enough to show me her
expression. She shakes her head, closes the
door, and the taxi hums away.
I stand with my forehead against the door,
staring at the blank monitor. I’ve let her go.
Let her slip through my fingers. In one
moment, doing the wrong thing for the right
reasons, I’ve lost her. Just like I lost Marin.
Why doesn’t the beauty in my life ever
last?
Chapter 10
Four minutes, thirty-nine seconds later,
I’m racing through my outer gate. Opening up
the trike’s engine. Cranking the neg cells
towards their redline. The late afternoon
streets are quiet. Too late for the lunch
crowd, too early for rush-hour. At the end of
the street, I corner hard on the trike’s big
front wheel, and turn north to follow the
river.
Eddle’s not far, maybe fifteen minutes
upriver. But Kez has a good head-start on
me. Once she reaches her destination,
disappears inside the huge, ancient set of
habitables that are the Eddle Housing Block,
I may not be able to track her. I keep the
throttle open, feel the wind pick up as I reach
the open soyufields of Blyss District. The
wind stings my bare chest. Flaps my jacket
around my waist. I’m not dressed for the
trike, but I couldn’t take the time to pull on
my riding gear, not if I wanted to catch Kez. I
just grabbed my boots and helmet. And a few
blades. Never leave home without them.
The empty streets and the trike’s smooth
acceleration give me time to think. Too much
time. I don’t want to think through what I’ve
done. The decisions that led to her walking
out, and to me chasing after her. I should be
able to let her go. I was ready to on the
Marie. Nothing’s changed since then. And
she might come back on her own once she’s
taken care of her business. Make herself
mine again.
But Marin’s ghost is fucking with me.
Sp
itting the image of her battered face, the
light fading from those beautiful eyes, in
front of me again and again. Reminding me of
the promise I’ve made to her so many times
as I’ve woken, sweating and reaching for
her. Not to let her go.
I lean into the wind and push the trike
faster upriver.
I catch Kez’s taxi as it turns off the H-K
Main Line. Follow it down the access ramp
and into the long shadows cast by the towers
of the Eddle Housing Block: four huge
fingers of permacrete and plaz, planted into
the fertile soil of Kuseros by the drop ship
that established the Colony. Eddle was
designed to house ten thousand colonists in
sterile, insulated comfort until the planet’s
terraforming was complete. A hundred years
on and it’s a decaying relic. Broken plaz
domes glint in the afternoon sunlight. Debris
swirls along the empty streets. Soot streaks
the permacrete towers from fires deliberate
and accidental. Here and there, an intact unit
provides shelter for squatters.
Only the very tough, or very desperate,
live in Eddle now.
The taxi turns and pulls up in front of
Housing Block Two. A skimmer is already
parked there. A man leans against the
skimmer, two fingers pressing the prong of
an eskey close to his mouth. He must be
using the skimmer as shielding, since most
eskeys won’t work with the Twins up. His
eyes are shaded by the bill of a cap, but he
still squints into the afternoon sunlight as he
watches me pull up behind the taxi. He gives
me a tentative wave. I nod to him as I power
down the trike’s neg cells and lean back into
the seat as the floating back end settles onto
the pavement. I swing off the trike, cross the
distance to the taxi in two strides, and pull
open the door. Extend my hand to its
occupant.
Kez looks up at me. It’s not the taxi’s dim
interior that makes her pupils dilate. She
slides out of the taxi one long leg at a time.
Takes my hand as she stands. She slings her
backpack over her shoulder and looks up at
me. Her eyes linger on my bare chest on the
way up.
I hold her eyes for a long moment. Let her
see my anger and disappointment at the way
she walked out. My remorse for taking off
her viewie.
“I’d have come back,” she says, her
voice nearly lost in the wind that roars
between the housing blocks. “I’d have bought
noodles and been knocking on your gate
before dark.” She looks down at her boots.
Shrugs. “I’ve got no pride.”
“Me, neither.” I run the backs of my
fingers down her cheek. Tip her chin up so I
can look down into those wide kitten eyes.
“I’d have let you in.”
That gets me a smile, although not her full
mischievous grin. She reaches toward me,
for a moment I think she might hug me, show
me that all’s forgiven, but she stops herself
and puts her hand on my chest. “I’ve got to
help Nevie. But, later?”
I nod. I can be patient. “Tell me the
play.”
“Get Nev out of here as fast as we can.
Skylar’s probably dosed her full of Hex. Hex
can go either way. It can put her on cloud
nine, or it can make her violent. Him, too.
His mother may be around. She’s worse than
he is.” She sweeps her dreads to one side.
Turns her neck so I can see a thin scar that
disappears into her hair. “She did that with a
broken bottle. She looks like a nice little old
lady but she’s a complete psycho.”
“Complete psycho,” echoes the man who
waved at me. He’s drawn close as Kez has
been speaking. Kez holds out a hand to him
and he knocks his knuckles against hers.
“Gig, this is Snow,” she says.
He nods shyly at me and I reassess. His
height fooled me, but he’s still a kid. Late
teens, all Adam’s apple, elbows and knees.
Light brown hair sticks out from under his
cap and around the cups he wears over his
ears. They’re connected to the prong near his
mouth and a visor that he has flipped back
over the brim of his cap. Not an eskey; a
hyper-rig. He wears the power cells around
his waist like a belt and they drag his pants
down on his skinny hips. He hitches at them
self-consciously before holding his hand out
to me. His palm glitters faintly with
embedded circuitry. Part of the hyper-rig.
I give his hand a shake. Firm but not
crushing. His rig looks expensive. No reason
to fuck it up.
“Mister Snow, nice to meet you,” he
says. Shy and polite. None of Kez’s
confidence or her brother’s arrogance. “I’ve
been scanning their unit,” he tells Kez.
“Signal going in but nothing coming out. No
calls since we got here. I’ve tried Skylar a
couple of times. He’s not answering.”
“Anything from Nev?” Kez asks.
Gig shakes his head. “Her com’s been
turned off all day.”
Kez hunches one shoulder, a sign, I’ve
come to realize, that’s she’s steeling herself
against something bad. “When was her last
dose?”
“This morning. Right after you, uh—” His
brown eyes flick to me. “Left. It didn’t help.”
“One dose wouldn’t.” Kez sighs. “Right.
Let’s do this. Did you bring the money?”
Gig holds out yet another black nylar bag.
They seem to have an endless supply. I take
it from him. Sling the bag’s strap over my
head and settle the bag on my back so I have
both hands free.
“Is Ape coming?” Kez asks Gig. The boy
glances at the skimmer. The privacy shield is
down. There’s nothing to see in the windows
but the reflections of clouds. He shrugs.
“It’s like that, huh?” Kez rolls her eyes.
“Great. Well, tell him to have the thermo
ready. Once I dose her, she’ll get cold fast.”
“And a zap bag.” Gig’s thin mouth turns
down at the edges.
“Yeah, and that.” Kez scratches at her
dreadlocks, which are probably itchy since
she didn’t get a shower. She hitches her
backpack up on her shoulder. “Snow?”
“Right behind you.”
Kez nods and starts into the housing
block. The entrance airlock looks like it has
withstood multiple assaults. Two of the
airlock panes have been bent back over
themselves, like faded flower petals. The
others are jammed open. Kez ducks nimbly
through them. I follow her, admiring both her
flexibility and her ass.
The habitable’s vestibule once held a
fountain. Only a dry bed and some e
xposed
pipes remain. The permacrete walls rise two
stories above the fountain, but narrow to a
claustrophobic archway on the far side,
leading deeper into the habitable. The wind
that roars outside whistles here. It blows
around the tattered strips of plaz that hang in
the archway with an off-key rattle.
Kez ducks through the hanging plaz,
passes a lift shaft that stands open and empty,
and starts up a flight of stairs. “Third floor,”
she says to me.
“Which unit?”
“Three-thirteen.”
“Anyone else live here?”
“Yes. Watch out.”
I do, but I don’t see anything as we climb
the stairs. On the second floor landing,
there’s a transparent plaz table and chair.
Both are scarred nearly opaque. I get the
feeling that if we were here at another time,
they might be occupied, and we might have
to offer something in order to pass. But for
now the stairwell is empty except for the
afternoon light and the gusting wind.
On the third floor, Kez turns into a
darkened hallway, turns again. The
permacrete walls here have been stripped of
whatever decorative covering they once had
and are stained a dull green. There’s a
heavy, smoky smell in the air.
“Quaak,” Kez says, glancing over her
shoulder at me.
“Quack, quack,” I respond, wondering
what code we’re speaking.
“No, quaakal. It’s a mild hallucinogen.
Dulls the senses.”
I nod. I’ve heard of quaakal. It’s an
extremely cheap street drug. Best enjoyed
when left to smoke over an open flame.
There’s a primitive appeal to that, but I rely
on my senses too much to fuck with them.
“How long until we’re affected?”
“Maybe five minutes. God, that’s cheap
shit. It should smell sweet.”
“All the more reason to make this quick.”
Kez nods and continues down the hall.
We pass several doorways, most with the
doors kicked through. One that still has its
door intact is framed by the blinking red and
blue lights that the natives hang out at
Helasfest, the annual celebration of the
Colony’s founding. Helasfast is in Kuseros’s
autumn, nearly five months ago, or five
months from now, whichever way you want
to look at it. Either way, someone doesn’t
know what fucking time of year it is.
Probably because of all the green shit in the
air.
Kez stops in front of the next doorway,
which also has the door still attached. The
