The Body Market

by Donna Freitas

  I tried to speak but my voice was muffled.

  “Sorry,” he said, and put me down again, all the while eyeing Kit, and not in a friendly way. “You brought back a friend,” he said.

  I wasn’t sure what Kit and I were at this point, but it had never quite felt like friendship. “Adam, this is Kit,” I said. “He was born in this world. He’s . . . kind of like a Single here, actually.”

  Adam’s face changed at this, immediately growing less suspicious. “Hello,” he said, and extended his hand.

  Kit took it. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Skylar,” Parvda said, finally reaching us.

  I carefully stepped onto the ice and we hugged. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you back,” she whispered into my ear. Then, “Who’s the boy?”

  Her tone was curious, and maybe a little hopeful. Parvda was the only person with whom I’d openly discussed my feelings for Rain, and how much his betrayal had hurt me.

  “I’ll tell you later,” I whispered back. “I promise.”

  “I’m holding you to that,” she said, and let me go.

  I saw Rain over Parvda’s shoulder. He was walking toward us across the ice. I heard Parvda introduce herself to Kit behind me, and an exchange of hellos, but they seemed to occur far off in the distance. I waited for the usual feelings that Rain provoked to come over me, the flutter in my stomach, the static that seemed to rush across my skin, but instead I felt . . . nothing. I almost wanted to pat myself down, to make sure I was still in my real body, so accustomed had I become to the way Rain seemed to send my heart tumbling off a cliff every time I saw him.

  Rain stopped a few feet away.

  “Skylar is back,” Adam said to him, full of enthusiasm.

  “Hi,” Rain said to me softly.

  I reached up to my neck to retuck the end of Kit’s scarf. It had started to come loose, and I suddenly wanted to feel it tight against my skin. “Hello, Rain.”

  Neither one of us moved to hug the other. We stared at each other awkwardly over the ice. A crowd gathered behind Rain a short distance away, Lacy front and center, her hair a soft red flame amid the rest of the seventeens. We might not be in the App World, but the talent Lacy transferred from there to here seemed to involve claiming everyone’s attention without having to make even the smallest effort.

  Kit stepped forward. “I know you,” he said to Rain.

  Rain regarded him. “And I know you,” he replied. Then he turned to me. “Skylar, he’s a bounty hunter. You’ve brought a bounty hunter to the mansion.”

  The other seventeens erupted into chatter at this, and Lacy smirked.

  I hadn’t expected Rain and Kit to know each other, hadn’t thought much about whether bringing Kit here would be a problem, or even cause a scandal. “His name is Kit.” I glanced at Kit, but his eyes were locked on Rain. “He’s my . . . he’s a friend. We got caught in the storm together and . . . we helped each other survive it.” None of this was a lie, but it omitted so much of the truth that it came close.

  Rain was shaking his head. “Did Kit”—he said the name with disgust—“tell you how he works for your sister?”

  “I don’t work for anyone but myself,” Kit snapped.

  I swallowed, remembering to breathe. “I know what he does, Rain, and yes, I know that he’s traded before with my sister. He told me everything,” I added, shushing the part of me that wanted to say things like unlike you, who left out the most important things until it was too late.

  Rain winced, as though he could hear my thoughts. “He can’t stay.”

  Kit’s hands were balled into fists. “You can speak to me directly. I’m right in front of your face. And don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on staying. I only came to deliver Skylar.”

  “Kit—” I started, but he was already turning to leave.

  Then he halted in front of me, his face inches away. “I’ll see you again,” he said in a low voice. “At some point.” His words became vapor in the cold, puffs of white that faded into nothing.

  My lungs seemed unable to pump air. “Our deal,” I whispered. “I didn’t forget. I would never back out. I made you a promise.”

  His face changed, his eyes growing sad. “Yes. Our deal.”

  I blinked. He was so close. “You don’t have to go,” I said. “I’ll talk to him.”

  “No. I do have to. I’ll see you,” he said, and started off, brushing past me on his way to the crush of bare-limbed trees and the path that led to the parking lot and his bike.

  I thought that this was it, that I’d seen the last of Kit’s face after seeing nearly only his face for so many days. My heart constricted, watching him go, but then he stopped and turned around.

  “Skylar, I almost forgot,” he said.

  I went to him, thinking he was going to ask for his scarf. There was a crowd watching from behind me, and I knew Rain was witnessing my every movement. My hand went to the fabric encircling my neck, ready to unravel it.

  But Kit unzipped his bag and was digging around inside of it.

  He pulled out a small jar. Shades of blue and green glass gleamed from inside of it, caught in the glare of the sun.

  He held it out. “I thought you might want to have this. To remember . . .”

  I took it from him. The glass was cold in my bare hands. By the time I found it in me to say something, Kit had already disappeared beyond the trees.

  PART TWO

  15

  Skylar

  regret

  THE GYM WAS empty, so that’s where I went.

  I chose a knife from the selection on the table by the target. I stared at it in my hand. The blade was short and silver and glinted in the overhead light. It was so different from the kitchen knife I’d used on Kit during my dream, the one that had cut across the stars inked onto his shoulder, the wound from it oddly the turning point in how we regarded each other.

  Kit.

  In my other hand I held the jar of glass he’d given me.

  I set it down on the table. I touched the scarf that was still around my neck.

  Then I hurled the knife at the target.

  Just before it hit, Emory Specter’s face flashed before me, the knife landing in the exact spot that was right between his eyes. The image faded. He was the reason we were all in this mess. He was behind the closing of the border between worlds and the removal of the bodies from the plugs. Well, Emory Specter and my sister.

  Was it possible I was related to him?

  Could he really be my father?

  I went to retrieve the knife.

  “You haven’t lost your skill.”

  I stopped midstride.

  Rain was standing there, watching me from the doorway. “It’s been months since I’ve seen you pick up a knife. Since I’ve seen you step foot in this place.” His tone was hesitant, but hopeful.

  I didn’t move. I stood halfway between a table full of knives and the one that stuck out from the target. Bull’s-eye. For a second I wondered why I’d come back to Briarwood. I’d felt so different at Kit’s cottage, like the old Skylar, the one with ideals and hope and energy, who’d woken up again to possibility, to a future worth living.

  Now, being here, I was exhausted all over again.

  I sat down suddenly, in the same spot where I’d been standing, between the jar of sea glass and the blade I’d thrown, and placed my head in my hands.

  Footsteps came my way.

  Rain sat down across from me. I could see his feet and his knees. The way the bottoms of his boots were caked with snow.

  His head dipped low, trying to meet my eyes. “Skylar, talk to me.”

  “I shouldn’t have returned,” I whispered. “This was a mistake.”

  “Skylar,” Rain said again. “We should talk about . . . what happened when you were away.” He paused a moment. “And your new friend.”

  I looked up. Stared past Rain to the blue of the wall behind him. “I don’t know who I am anymore. Or what I want.”
I let my gaze slide back to him. “But I know I’m not ready to talk about this last week. Not yet. I need time to think about it myself.”

  His brow furrowed. “The storm has made all of us pensive, I guess.”

  My eyebrows arched. I wondered what Rain meant by this, but I was too tired to ask. I got up, leaving Rain sitting there by himself on the floor. I went to retrieve the knife from the target and I could feel his eyes following me, watching as I pulled it out carefully. Then I held the blade in my hand, studying it. “I don’t want this anymore.” Saying these words made me realize I meant them.

  Rain stood. “What? Target practice?”

  “No,” I said, slowly, thinking through what I hoped to articulate, not sure what it was, exactly. Only that something was churning inside of me that needed out. “The violence. The rebellion. I don’t want any part of it. I want to find another way of doing this. Of dealing with my sister. My family.” These last words came out a whisper.

  Rain’s lips parted, but he didn’t say anything.

  I went to the table and set the knife down, trading it for the jar. The second my hand was around the glass I felt relief. Like I was holding on to something real, something that was more mine than anything I had at Briarwood. Or that could be mine if I let it.

  When I turned to leave, Rain was right there, close enough to touch, and I started.

  “Skylar,” he said, and this time my name had more of an edge to it. His eyes went to the jar of glass, then flickered back to my face. “Before you make any rash decisions, there’s something you need to see.”

  The heavy vault door sighed open.

  I hesitated to enter. The first time Rain brought me to the weapons room, I’d imagined encountering a place full of guns and bombs and other sorts of ammunition, and was surprised to find a collection of the devices people used to harness the old kind of technology instead, some of them so small you could hold them in your hand.

  Rain beckoned. “Come on.”

  My feet were like sandbags, heavy and resistant, but I took a step inside. I saw the now familiar screens mounted on the walls and stacked on tables and chairs. They were big and small and medium and every size in between. My hand tightened around the cool glass jar. Way in the back of the room I saw Zeera.

  She turned around and smiled. “Hi, Skylar. It’s good to see you again.”

  I thought of all the things I wanted to tell her. And ask. I walked up to her. “You and I should talk.” I glanced over at Rain. “Maybe we can go somewhere afterward?”

  Zeera’s eyes were curious. “Sure. Whenever you want.”

  I clasped my hand in hers and squeezed. “It’s important.”

  She swallowed. Then she nodded and looked away. Let go of my hand. I wondered if she knew instinctively that it was about Sylvia.

  Rain pointed at two large screens on the wall. “This is what you needed to see.”

  Two of the monitors were lit up. One of them showed an empty room. There was a couch and a rug and a coffee table. The corner of a chair. The screen kept flickering. The second monitor seemed to look out onto a wall. A wrinkled wall, but still a wall.

  I looked at Rain. “I don’t get it. What’s so important?”

  “Just wait,” he said and nodded up at the screens. “Keep watching.”

  “I finally hacked into the Wi-Fi in the city,” Zeera explained. “The New Capitalists turned the grid on, but so far I’ve only gotten through into these two feeds. If I can just get into the server, we’ll be able to connect everywhere we go.” She pointed to a table full of tiny flat screens. “Everyone will be able to communicate using these. From, like, opposite sides of the city. From anywhere, really.”

  Lacy appeared in the doorway, her face rosy from the cold outside. She had a pair of ice skates knotted over her shoulder, one white bladed boot hanging down her front and the other down her back. Her eyes were bright and alive, and they were trained on Rain. “I knew I’d find you here.” She beamed at him.

  He turned to her. “Hi, Lace,” he said, sounding sheepish.

  She swept into the room and parked herself next to Rain like I wasn’t there. Like an Invisible App had erased me from view. “Come back outside and play with us,” she said.

  Then she grabbed his hand, got on her toes, and gave him a kiss.

  On the mouth.

  Rain glanced at me right afterward.

  And Zeera eyed me sideways.

  I tried to act like I hadn’t just seen what I’d seen.

  A lot can happen in a week, I remembered thinking. A lot could change.

  Apparently, not just with me. Quite a bit had happened here, too.

  Lacy turned my way. “Hi, Skylar.” She waggled her fingers at me. Her nails sparkled as usual. “Welcome back.”

  I blinked at her. “Thanks.”

  Everyone fell silent.

  Now Rain wouldn’t look at me and neither would Zeera.

  “Okay!” Lacy said with a loud laugh that made everyone flinch. “Awkward much?” When no one responded, she spoke again. “Well, I’m heading back outside to the party. I hope to see you all there soon.” She got on her toes to give Rain another kiss. “Bye, darling,” she said, and disappeared into the hallway.

  I tried to decide how I felt, but couldn’t.

  Lacy was right. This was awkward.

  I wanted to say something to Rain, tell him that it was fine if he was with Lacy, that I didn’t care, but I wasn’t sure if this was true. What I wouldn’t give to be in the App World, where I could download something that would help me find the perfect response, or whisk me away to some other place, or suck the awkward from the room until we were all giggling uncontrollably. Then, luckily, I was saved by Real World events.

  “There,” Zeera said excitedly, pointing upward.

  Rain was pointing now too. “Skylar. Look.”

  I followed the direction of their fingers. One of the screens had come alive. The wrinkled wall had disappeared. It was a person who’d finally moved away from the camera.

  “That’s the Body Market.” I took a step closer. I recognized the lush red carpet and the glass boxes filled with bodies that appeared to be sleeping. Keepers rushed around, polishing the glass.

  “It’s been deserted except for the Keepers since the storm,” Zeera said.

  “So it was closed,” I said.

  She nodded.

  Rain stepped closer to the screen. He glanced at Zeera. “Can you make that one section bigger—the one from before?”

  Zeera eyed him. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”

  I looked from Zeera to Rain, confused. “Who’s gone?”

  As Zeera was in the process of enlarging the corner of the monitor, the other screen suddenly came alive. A girl darted across it, then disappeared.

  I turned to Rain. “Did you see that?”

  “Yes. We’ve been watching her. We think she’s a prisoner.”

  “A prisoner?”

  Rain shifted. Dug his hands in his pockets. “Of the New Capitalists.”

  “You mean, of my sister.”

  “Yes,” Zeera confirmed.

  I gave Zeera a look of gratitude. I’d rather people be honest than try to sugarcoat everything. I didn’t see enough of the girl to get a good look at her, but I saw enough to be certain it wasn’t Inara. “Any idea why she’s a prisoner and not a part of the Body Market?” I asked carefully.

  Any idea why she’s special? went my brain. Had I been replaced? Had Jude found another girl to be her symbol? Had she moved on from Inara? My heart sank when a new thought flowed into me. Could this mean Inara had somehow been . . . sold already? I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. No. I wouldn’t allow myself to think that way.

  Zeera finished amplifying the corner of the other screen. It was focused on the face of one single body. A boy—young. Maybe twelve. Both Rain and Zeera studied the image.

  “It’s definitely not him,” Zeera said. She sounded astonished.

  Rain was noddin
g. “You’re right. He’s different.”

  Zeera zoomed out again. “What do you think it means?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” Rain said.

  “What are you guys talking about?” I asked.

  “The other day, someone else was in that same case,” Rain explained. “The same age. The boys even look sort of similar. But that boy is definitely not the one we’re seeing now.”

  “Maybe he was sold,” I said, since this seemed to be the most logical possibility.

  “I don’t think so,” Rain said. “Before, with the other boy, while we were watching . . . he . . . he seemed to just . . .” Rain trailed off, like he couldn’t get his next words out.

  “He just woke up,” Zeera finished for him. She snapped her fingers. “It was like he just . . . suddenly unplugged!”

  Static rushed across my skin. “Maybe someone in the App World was helping him.” I thought about Trader, how he’d helped Adam, Lacy, and me, and how he could move between worlds as he pleased. Something else began to tug at me, too, an idea, but one I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. It was still too unformed.

  “Skylar, what are you thinking?” Rain asked.

  There was hunger in his eyes. I paused a beat, staring back at Rain in a way that matched his intensity. I broke our stare and shrugged. “I’m not sure,” was all I said, which was the truth. Then I turned on my heel. “I’ll be in my room. I’m going to get some rest,” I called over my shoulder and walked out.

  16

  Kit

  one minor detail

  THE WIND SEEMED icier on my return trip to the cottage, my bag so much lighter without the jar of colored glass. Or maybe I just hadn’t noticed the cold with Skylar at my back, her arms wrapped around my waist as I delivered her to her friends.

  Then left her there.

  For a moment, I’d actually considered staying with her, and seeing what I could offer these people organizing against the New Capitalists, and what they could offer me.

  See where more time with Skylar might take us.

  I twisted the handlebar and the bike went faster.

  Anger choked my throat, but even the speed did nothing to tamp it down. What was wrong with me? I was letting some . . . girl mess up my life. Come between me and all my responsibilities. Which generally involved being completely irresponsible with everyone but myself and my sister. The sun burned in the sky and the glare from the snow was nearly blinding as I went into a sharp curve and pulled up alongside the water. I wasn’t far from home and I was shivering but for some reason I didn’t want to get there.