The Evaporation of Sofi Snow

by Mary Weber

  He looked at Sofi. She did that?

  She smirked and shrugged. “Your chip unscrambled enough coding for me to hack a breach through and run tech interference. At least while in this room. For the moment we can only access limited help from your and my data streams. But it’s something.”

  “Um, you’re a genius. And I mean that.”

  “I know,” she said dryly.

  Vicero’s holohead turned to Miguel. “Looks like your girl here needs some translating and decoding help, yeah?” She suddenly frowned and looked behind Miguel. He turned to see Claudius pulling off his cloak and stretching out across the low couch in his chest-revealing red suit.

  “He looks like a hairy cat,” Vic said with a not-altogether-unpleasant look on her face.

  “Oh. Is that you, Vicero?” Claudius said. “Didn’t even see you. And I believe the word you’re looking for is cougar, my love.”

  She rolled one of her eyes while the other stayed staring at him. Miguel coughed on a laugh, then glanced away when she glared at him.

  “So . . . info? What precise programs does your girl over there need?” Vic tipped her head at Sofi while still trying to see Claudius. She finally gave up and pretended to pop a wad of bubble gum.

  “The FanFight BN6, YX9, and Earth’s 360 modular of Delon,” Sofi answered for him.

  Vic pretended to make notes. “Got it, got it, got it. Any preference of order? Cuz I’m gonna send those over in a few.”

  “Nope.” Sofi glanced at Heller, but Heller was just staring at Vic.

  “She’s kind of awesome,” he cooed after a moment. Then peered at Sofi. “I want one.”

  One of Vic’s blue eyes widened to half her face. “Excuse me? I’m not a ‘one’ to want. I’m a highly functioning AI and—”

  “Whoa, buddy. Hands off the hardware,” Claudius said from the couch. To which Vicero’s holohead blushed electric hot purple.

  “Both of you, basta.” Miguel just shook his head. Then sighed. “Anything else, Vic? What about the rest of the reports you were working on? You said you finished with Corp 24’s kid.”

  “Oh. Right. Yeah, yeah, man—he’s clean. Poor family. Poor background. Poor kid with an above-average IQ who got roped into something bigger than he knew, through the offer of power and money.” She tapped her finger as she talked, as if to say, “Same ol’ story.”

  Heller shifted in his seat.

  “But Corp 24’s not your bomber as far as my numbers read.”

  Sofi peeked over at Heller with a sly grin.

  “Did you track down who hired him?”

  “It was an off-air account,” Sofi interrupted. Vic swerved toward her and nodded. “She’s right. Meaning it was likely a Corp rather than an individual. However,” she prattled on, “I can tell you that the replacement FanFight players for Sunday’s game aren’t rigged. They’re all the original backups. So in that way, man, things seem to be shifting back to normal.”

  Sofi and Heller both scoffed.

  “Oh, also!” Vicero popped her fake gum. “Miguel, you just made the cover of Skin-Kiss mag-stars. And guess who’s sharing it with you?” She held up the gossip mag. “You know that chick you did the photo shoot with who tried to suck your face off?”

  Miguel heard Sofi’s grunt of disgust. “Excuse me. I’ve started the programs and loaded my own little mix of a virus. I think I’ll turn in.” She strode to her room and slammed her hand on the wall to slide the door shut.

  Vic raised a brow and turned back to Miguel and Heller as Claudius whistled from the couch.

  Miguel scowled. “¿Qué? Did I do something? Should I go after her?”

  “Dude, just leave her alone,” Heller growled. “Keep your eyes on the new girls, like from your skin-mag.”

  Miguel pressed his lips together and assessed him. Then nodded. “Duly noted.”

  33

  SOFI

  SHILO.

  Sofi could hear him talking. He was weeping and calling out for her . . .

  She couldn’t put her finger on the words, but whatever was wrong was only getting worse.

  He was frightened out of his wits. She could see it in his eyes.

  Lying there on a med cot while the Delonese scanned his body. Looking for blood type or organs or stem cells or—what?—she didn’t know. She just knew Shilo’s heartbeat was growing louder and louder—hammering in her ears, in her teeth, in the dirt beneath his back. The Delonese dirt that was as shallow and fake as their songs of unity and community, while the floor and glass ceilings surrounding her brother bled.

  The medics around him were talking now. Their robotic voices blending as her brother’s heartbeat pumped down into the bowels of their planet—feeding their roots and trees and becoming the very essence of life to them.

  The very breath of life.

  The beginning of life.

  The machine he was hooked up to suddenly beep, beep, beeped, and his heartbeat abruptly stopped.

  Sofi woke up screaming. She screamed at this place. At the Delonese who had her—or Shilo—she couldn’t tell who was who anymore. She just knew something was wrong here, so very wrong, but no one could see it—why couldn’t they sense it? They needed to leave before it was too late. She and the kids needed to escape.

  She kicked off her med sheets and bucked against the straps as panic tore through her spine. Miguel’s scent filled her head. His fingers clutched her hand. Calming her, quieting her. The bed sagged as he dropped down and sat beside her.

  But Shilo just kept screaming. Or she kept screaming. Whoever it is, someone bloody make them stop screaming.

  Miguel told her to breathe but she didn’t know how, and it wouldn’t make Shilo’s heart beat again. He leaned over and slipped off her headphones and flipped on music from his handheld. And remained with her in this daft Delonese bedroom until, eventually, the screams faded to weeping and the imaginary med sheets and straps dissipated.

  “For these bones are made of beauty and blood, fashioned in a hard-fought, hard-won war,” Miguel’s music sang.

  Sofi had no idea how long she sat like that. Tucked up beside this boy she despised more than anyone other than her mother while his music overwhelmed her senses and set them all right again. This man who’d used her and hurt her and probably would again, and yet who stayed, soothing her hair and not saying a word.

  “Leaving shadows of our former selves and former loves . . .”

  Until sooner or later she looked up through the darkness and realized that whatever she was, whatever this was, whatever life she had that was barely her own because it was mostly CEO Inola–owned—she didn’t know how to do this.

  To breathe. To be near him after getting broken so badly by him. When all she wanted was to care for her brother because that was all she had left to care about in this world. “Miguel,” she whispered through the dim.

  “Hmm?”

  “Could you please leave?”

  Hesitation. “You sure?”

  “Positive.”

  A longer hesitation. And this time when he spoke, his voice was thick. “Absolutely. Good night, Sofi.”

  He left his music playing. “But what if just for tonight we forget the brutal and be true to ourselves? Souls sharing skin and something bigger in this moment?” the song continued as he silently slipped out and shut the door behind him. Without saying another word.

  She pulled her knees up to her chest and fell back asleep, safely away from the person who had been her first innocent love.

  34

  MIGUEL

  MIGUEL SAT OUTSIDE SOFI’S DOOR FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT, staring over the moonlit ice-world.

  He curled and uncurled his fingers. Having held her hand like that—listening to her breathing and her heart beat, beat, beating in panic inches from his own . . .

  He inhaled and accidentally pulled in another lungful of her smell that still clung to his shirt. And allowed it to make him perfectly aware of the fact that he was in the midst of watching hi
s entire world awaken and detonate and implode.

  As if he didn’t even know qué diablos he was fully doing anymore.

  He just knew there was no turning back from here, from tonight, from the girl he’d spent the last year and a half trying desperately to forget while trying in every way to earn her approval at some soul level. And from the one chance of doing what he, Claudius, Danya, and Alis had worked too long and hard for to walk away from now.

  He sighed and pressed his ear against the cool metal in case she woke screaming again. And drifted into a restless sleep.

  Until his alarm went off.

  At 8:01, he slipped in and grabbed his handheld from her bed, then shut the door behind him.

  At 8:28, he and Claudius left the main room.

  And at 8:32, Alis and Danya joined them at the door of the Delonese council chambers located in the innermost section of the compound. They looked at each other.

  Danya shot Miguel a questioning glance over Alis’s and Claudius’s heads, to which he tipped his chin.

  “May peace be with us then.” Danya took a breath and released it softly. They turned, and Miguel slid his hand over the door. And led them in to face possibly the last main meeting he would ever have with the Delonese.

  The chambers were similar to Delon’s other fancy rooms. Dome-shaped, windowed ceiling and circular glass sides. But where the artisan room of last night had balconies, this one had stadium seating stacked with sterile, white cushy chairs set on staircasing white floors, all encircling a podium floating in the middle of the three-story space.

  “The security chip?” Danya said in Miguel’s ear.

  He gave a slight nod and kept his eyes in front of them as they were led to their assigned seats just as the Delonese house chairman took his place at the podium.

  “Will they be able to do it?”

  Miguel leaned over and, without looking at her, whispered, “If they can’t, then no one else can either. In which case, we’ll all be in deep crud, or they’ll cover it enough for us to fight another day. But I believe they’ll know by the end of today.”

  In his peripheral he caught her acceptance of this. “We’re scheduled to leave tomorrow evening.”

  He didn’t reply. He was fully aware of the time frame. Instead, he checked his handscreen and set it to mute in case Vic decided to make an appearance. In which case he wouldn’t need to wait on Sofi and Heller. They’d all be compromised on the spot.

  “Distinguished guests and eminent friends, welcome,” the chairman said.

  “We welcome you,” the room chanted back. “In unity, community, and necessity.”

  The chairman bowed as the two hundred council members fell silent. “We have with us today Earth Ambassadors Claudius and Alis, and Ambassadors Danya and Miguel. It is their request to discuss their discoveries regarding the tragedy that took place during the FanFight Games this week, to which a number of us were witness. It is also their desire to ask our assistance in the matter. Will we hear them?”

  “We will hear them,” the room chanted in unison. “Welcome, Earth comrades.”

  “Also”—the chairman bored his gaze into Miguel’s skull—“on a delicate matter. Ambassador Miguel has issued his deep apologies for his intrusion of bringing two unsanctioned humans. His doing so was under duress and with the firm assurance they will be of assistance should we choose to aid Earth in their investigation. It is my recommendation we use them as such. With that stated, I now extend the floor to them so we may hear what they have to say. Will we hear them?”

  “We will hear them,” the assembly chanted again.

  Miguel held his breath until the chairman finished and Alis got up to speak. If they’d uncovered any tech breach from his room or Sofi thus far, it would’ve been addressed in that speech. He exhaled and proceeded to focus his body language on the Icelandic ambassador.

  “We are welcomed,” Alis said with a tip of her bald head. “And as such, it is my honor to provide you a detailed display of what Earth’s Corps are currently looking at.” With the tap of her finger on the handscreen she’d set in front of her, a hologram appeared in the room’s center, taking up fifty feet of space as it spread out into a giant port-screen.

  “As you can see, the Corps have each invested heavily into Earth’s FanFights.” A vid flashed on the screen to show a brief history of the Games. “Not just for the sake of citizen entertainment, but for something far greater.” She paused for effect. “For unity, community, and technological advancement.”

  Oh, well done. Even Miguel had to smile at her smooth use of their own credo as a hook.

  “For unity, we promote fair competition and contribution in equal ownership among the Corporations. For community, we offer a unified engagement and entertainment on equal ground together—for the Corps, but even more so for the members of humanity who access the Fights via teles. And technological advancement by using these Games to fine-tune the tech and med resources we have developed, heavily due to your people’s generosity. And for that, we thank you.”

  The crowd bowed in unison, signaling their approval of her recognition.

  With that, Alis took the opportunity just earned to fill the room in on the pics and details of the explosion—most of which they were quite aware, but even Miguel knew no one appreciated fluid, informed facts as much as the Delonese.

  Internally, Miguel used the opportunity to settle in for a study of the Delonese’s reactions, just as he’d done in Earth’s Corp meeting hall. The main difference being difficulty regarding the Delonese’s clear eyes and lack of emotion.

  It’d be a definite problem if he hadn’t been around them enough by now to know they gave physical clues. At a far lesser level, but they were there. In the lips. In the twitch of a finger. In the way their tan skin sallowed or reddened depending on the underlying stressor.

  And from what he could tell, at least half the council members were currently scratching their fingers.

  35

  SOFI

  SOFI GOT UP. SHOWERED. DRESSED. AND WALKED OUT INTO THE wide-windowed shared room overlooking the barrack buildings. She made tea and sipped it while studying those buildings. What types of Delonese lived in them? Families? Individuals? Military? She tried to calculate the number of Delonese she’d seen last night with how much housing and storage and work rooms they’d need once you included children and babies.

  She frowned.

  Even with how few visitors there’d been, and even if she was only seeing half the capital, it wasn’t nearly big enough.

  Sofi pressed her fingers harder against her mug—warming them to the point they burned—and allowed her scattered, uneasy thoughts to percolate until they took on shape and form and claimed definition enough to place her finger on. With that, she strode over, set down her drink, and scanned the comp she’d left running all night.

  “I could seriously go for a Rush right now.” Heller stumbled out of the far bedroom.

  “Isn’t that the truth,” Sofi answered.

  “Did the AI chick get those programs loaded?” He rubbed his messy head as he shuffled over.

  She nodded. “The virus is still assimilating. But no blaring sirens going off so far—hopefully it stays that way.” When Miguel had handed her the security chip last night, she’d been uneasy, but clearly it’d been from someone in Delon’s security force. Thank heck. “Let’s take a look.” She tapped the running code and layered it over the Delonese planet holo they’d accessed last night. The image popped up in large 3-D form—but rather than scrolling symbols across it this time, the program began to assimilate them into the topographical information they stood for.

  Heller whistled.

  The next moment the floating globe became a full, clear picture, as if a puzzle had finished coming together to reveal a perfect 360-degree photograph of the ice-planet.

  She handed Heller her tea and bent down to study it. Tilting her head, she reached out and slowly began to virtually spin the holo.

>   “What the—?” Heller almost spit out his gulp of her tea. He set down the cup and peered over it with the same expression Sofi was feeling. “This can’t be accurate.”

  He turned to her screen and typed while she kept examining.

  One minute.

  Two minutes.

  Sofi glanced over to see what was taking him so long. “It’s an updated program—so it shouldn’t need refreshing. You should have the images live.”

  “That’s the problem.” He leaned back and stared at her. “Apparently this is the live image of the planet.”

  Sofi’s gaze widened as she swung it back to the planet. “No way.” She shook her head. “There’s no way. Where are all the cities? Where’s the housing and buildings and the planet’s populations?”

  He didn’t answer.

  He didn’t need to.

  They both were looking at the same thing.

  Aside from the tiny “capital city” they were currently standing in, the planet swirling in front of them was a beautiful blank patchwork of forests and frozen lakes and foothills. Breathtaking in its purity, but that was just it. The thing was pure. Clean. Empty of any other cities or farms or houses or factories.

  In other words . . .

  Outside of this capital, there was nothing else.

  She dropped her hand and turned back to the comp beside Heller. The screen blipped as she set a search filter on the security program.

  Heller cleared his throat. “Uh, what are you doing?”

  “Finding a scan for life-forms in their security database.” She glanced at him. “They’ve gotta have it running constantly anyway. I’m actually surprised Earth doesn’t use one.”

  He shook his head. “Too many life-forms. Unless we had a version that could distinguish between species like that Altered tester thing. Speaking of which . . .” He turned around and flipped on the tele to the pre-Game commentaries. They appeared to be showing behind the scenes at the Colinade and the rebuilt areas. Sofi paused. The place looked perfectly new. It gave her an empty feeling in her gut.