by M. Van
“Your friend’s scan doesn’t work very well,” I said to distract myself from the discomforting feeling that lingered in my stomach. “I’m very much armed.”
“It wasn’t a weapons scan,” she replied over the hum of the magnetic lift, “and these guys aren’t my friends, not exactly.”
“So…there is a chance of being taken by thugs or rebels,” I said as I watched the walls rise.
Saera frowned, pursed her lips, and said, “Could be possible…but I doubt it.”
“That’s comforting,” I replied. She grinned as the lift started to slow and then nodded toward the exit that seemed to rise from the ground as the lift ground to a halt.
Saera had to shield her eyes from the light falling on us, but I was still wearing the glasses she had given me. The shades would also have protected me from looking overly amazed if my mouth hadn’t fallen open.
The lift opened to a giant cavern, although the word didn’t do justice to the structure. A dome, carved out of the stone, not unlike the dome protecting the city, housed over a round platform in the middle.
From where we stood, a stone bridge led across a ditch wide enough that it couldn’t be jumped and deep enough that I couldn’t see the bottom. Three more bridges connected with the platform on opposite sides, but they didn’t seem to lead to other lifts.
Instead, they lead to entryways that were round and at least twenty feet in diameter. It wasn’t hard to figure out their purpose once I saw a Hymag parked at the edge of the platform, although it stood at a strange angle toward any of the exits. The transport was bigger than the ones that they used up top, and I was sure there would be some sort of trick to get the thing out of here. How else would they have gotten it inside?
A rush of cold air touched the skin on my face, and a shiver ran down my spine that reverberated through my entire body.
“You’ll get used to the cold again,” Saera said before she abruptly placed a hand over her mouth, stopping herself from saying anything else. I closed my eyes and braced myself for another jolt of pain. When it didn’t come, I cocked my head to a side and shrugged—nothing happened. As if to be sure, Saera waited for another beat and then said, “Shutting up now.”
I grinned and noticed a man standing at the other end of the bridge.
“Is he waiting for us?” I asked. Saera glanced at the man and let out a sigh.
“Yep,” she said as she grabbed my arm and pulled me along with her, “let’s get this over with.”
The man stood tall, shoulders straight and hands folded behind his back as if he stood in a military lineup, but even though everything about him screamed authority, he looked relaxed. His clothes were a formfitting black, accentuated by the many weapons strapped to his sides. As we drew closer, I noticed that he had some gray streaks peeking through at the temples of his dark, neatly trimmed hair. His facial hair looked like an abandoned goatee with a touch of gray.
My boots clomped on the stone bridge as we walked across. It was hard to keep my attention on the man waiting for us. Besides the fact that I had never seen a structure this impressive underground—at least not that I remembered—a lot was happening behind him.
It reminded me of the control rooms back at Tenebrae ED where all the feeds strung across the city converged into the central mainframe. Every image collected on the streets and inside official buildings found their way across the feed into that database where they were tagged, analyzed, and filed. It also included all the data collected by enforcer headgear.
Like the control room, massive screens hung in a circle and hovered over dozens of workstations. Several people dressed in black sat at tables, tapping virtual keys or flipping switches. The men and women working the stations looked young but capable, as if they had worked those stations their whole lives. They appeared almost soldier-like in their efficiency, but I didn’t think they were. To me, his operation resembled more of an enforcer or law enforcement operation, although I hadn’t seen anyone that fitted that description either.
Dark eyes peered up at us as we descended the final steps off the bridge. Creases sat around those eyes, and although it seemed as if this man hadn’t laughed a day in his life, he looked handsome in a rugged kind of way. Moving closer, I snuck a peek at my hand as I felt the urge to compare. The man’s skin was darker, definitely darker than Saera’s, but not nearly as dark as mine.
Perhaps it had something to do with not wearing the heads-up, but it felt strange to come face to face with all these different faces without the green backdrop of what the device usually strapped to my head provided. Then again, how many faces would have been left behind after having my mind wiped clear of any memories every day? Standing level with him, I had to look up to face him.
His gaze flicked over me, but otherwise, his expression stayed impassive. Then he turned to Saera, and his expression became somewhat friendlier. As if I wasn’t even there, he said, “The doctor is waiting.”
Without waiting for a reply, he turned and gestured for us to follow him. Questioningly, I turned to Saera, but she shook her head. My heart raced as if I had run five blocks chasing some criminal. I noticed my hands were trembling, and I balled them into a fist. These sensations running through my body were new as far as I knew, and I didn’t like them. I had never felt like this without physical exertion, and even then, I had barely noticed them. It reminded me of the body wedged under my boot before I’d pulled the trigger, and it occurred to me what this thing wreaking havoc inside me might have been. Could this be what fear felt like?
Our not-so-talkative companion stopped at a workstation and spoke to one of the younger men dressed in black. Then he pointed at us. I couldn’t hear what was said, but the young man nodded his understanding before he left his station.
“This way,” our guide said, and to me, it seemed like a signal to stop.
“No,” I said. Saera looked at me with raised eyebrows. Whatever-his-name-was just cocked his head and folded his hands behind his back. I realized that this could be the same man who had dropped that five credits at my side.
“I want to know what’s going on here and what’s with the doctor,” I demanded.
“Please, Ma…” Saera started to say but stopped herself.
“I get it,” I said, starting to get annoyed, which to me felt like another new emotion I didn’t like. “You can’t talk about the past because it’ll fry my brain, but could someone please tell me what is going on right now!”
They both looked at me as if I were speaking in a different language. Well, Saera did. The man just looked impassive.
“I don’t even know this guy’s name,” I said, pointing at the man but looking at Saera. “For that matter, I don’t even know you except for what you have told me.”
“But you did come,” Saera said, “and that’s because something inside told you to trust me.” Saera’s gaze held a hopefulness that balanced on the edge of desperation.
I opened my mouth to reply when our silent friend spoke up.
“Harp,” he said.
I had just enough time to look at him before a jab of pain erupted inside my skull and ran down my spine. Falling to my knees, I grabbed my head and groaned in agony. Saera grabbed my arm and knelt beside me.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said. Her voice barely reached me, but I noticed the man had stepped closer. I tried to focus on my breathing as he too knelt by my side. As the pain faded, I released my head and looked up to stare into the man’s dark gaze.
“I hope knowing my name was worth it,” he said as he placed a hand on his knee. His words sent another jolt of pain down my neck but nothing near what I had felt before.
“We have two problems,” he said, speaking in a low, hoarse voice. In it, I recognized the voice from the hallway before that green mist scanned us. “One, memories trigger a relapse in your frontal lobe and cause the sensation you just felt.”
“Sensation,” I said, irked.
“Then there is problem num
ber two, which we can’t address until we solve number one,” he said near my ear. “Now, if you’ll oblige us with your cooperation, then we’ll be able to enlighten you.”
I sensed a degree of spite in his voice, but considering the throbbing in my head, I decided to leave it for what it was.
Harp grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to my feet. Saera rose along with me but avoided my gaze.
“Now, please, if you would be kind enough to follow me,” Harp said.
Chapter six
Reece
I watched as the crowd went wild after Billy Tender slammed his opponent’s fist into the table, nearly creating a crack in the piece of furniture. Unlike the name might have suggested, there was nothing tender about the man otherwise known as Rockslide. He was at least six foot three, all muscle, and with a bald head that seemed to have been carved out of granite. Rockslide sneered as he raised a fist in the air and called out for his next opponent, or should I say, victim.
That seemed to trigger an idea in my head, and I grinned as I glanced down at the short, stocky man standing in front of me. Riffy clapped his hands and seemed to enjoy the night’s entertainment. The Bolder bar was one of the few places in the city where simple folk like my friends and I could enjoy the finer things in life, like arm wrestling.
Sure, this place, filled with mostly drunk and half-drunk miners and power plant workers, would probably not be suitable for everyone, but it felt like home to us.
I grabbed Riffy, who stood with his back to me, by the shoulders and bent to shout into his ear.
“Dude, you could totally take him down,” I said, holding back a grin. Riffy turned and looked up to face me. His grayish eyes had gone wide and stared at me in shock. Along with his chubby cheeks, it made his baby face look even more adorable.
Keeping my face straight, I smacked his shoulder in encouragement. “You got this.” His eyes went even wider than I would have thought possible as I started to raise my hand to signal Rockslide that I had found him another competitor. Riffy grabbed my arm and pulled it down.
“Are you insane?” he exclaimed.
I took a quick head count and noticed that most of the sturdier-looking men had retreated to their tables or hung around the bar, keeping their heads down. Rockslide had noticed the same as his eyes roamed across the cavern, daring anyone to meet his gaze. I nodded and faced Riffy.
“Look at him,” I said, turning Riffy around to face Rockslide. The big man sitting at the flat slab of stone that substituted for a table started to gulp something down and then slammed the cup on the table. “He’s been doing that all night; the guy is wasted. He is just prey, waiting for you.”
“I don’t know, Reece,” Riffy started to protest, and his shoulders tensed. This time I grabbed both his shoulders and shook him slightly from behind.
“You are Riffy Adall, fearless warrior and a force to be reckoned with,” I said. “This guy is no match for you.”
“Yeah,” he replied. His voice was filled with hesitation, but I could sense his confidence building.
Luckily, his back was facing me, because I couldn’t hold a straight face. I grinned as I leaned in and said, “You’ve got this, big man.”
“Yeah,” Riffy said again, but this time his words were fueled with confidence. “I can do this.”
“You can do this,” I added for good measure.
“Yeah,” Riffy shouted. It seemed the stupidity of what he was about to do had reduced his vocabulary, but it didn’t stop him from clapping his hands and stepping out of the circle surrounding the spectacle. With firm strides, Riffy made his way to the table. As he walked, he shrugged off his jacket and tossed it in the chair across from Rockslide.
The bald giant’s head perked up, and he eyed Riffy as he stood before him, arms crossed in a shirt that was way too tight and accented my best bud’s oversized belly. At that point, I kind of lost it and started laughing as I glanced down to my left.
Kelle looked unimpressed as she glared up at me and then rolled her eyes. The tiny woman had silently watched my exchange with Riffy but over the years had stopped bothering to keep us from doing anything stupid.
“What?” I asked, bearing a sheepish grin. Without a reply, she shook her head and turned on her heels. As Kelle left me standing at the edge of the crowds hovering around the table, I glanced at Riffy. Sweat plastered his forehead, and as he took his seat, he looked up in search of support. I gave him my thumbs-up but then left the group of spectators and followed Kelle.
The bar wasn’t much to look at. As with a lot of buildings on the outskirts of the city, the insides were carved out of solid rock, and it had the standard round, cave-like features. But it wasn’t for lack of trying.
The owner of the bar had done his best to add a little atmosphere with some softer lighting and had dressed the walls in tapestries to lessen the depressing effect of the gray-blue stone. He also had a couple of seating areas carved out of the stone that would ensure some form of privacy for its occupants. I slipped into one of those spaces as I followed Kelle and joined her at our table.
“Come on,” I said as I made myself comfortable. “You have to admit that was funny.”
Kelle raised an eyebrow but didn’t reply. She sighed and rubbed a hand over her jet-black hair that stood about three millimeters from her skull. With her porcelain features, Kelle looked fragile at the age of twenty, but she was a force to be reckoned with. She was the silent, brooding type, and the intensity in her dark eyes could bring a man to his knees.
Behind me, I heard a high-pitched, feminine-sounding squeak, followed by a thud and a crack. I glanced out the recess and toward the table where the arm-wrestling match took place, but couldn’t see past the onlookers.
“Are you still pissed at me?” I asked as I turned back to face Kelle. Showing teeth, I poured all my charm into a smile, but it did not seem to have the desired effect on her. She gave me an annoyed look that spoke volumes. She was still very much pissed at me.
Kelle raised her hand and pointed a finger at me. Normally this would not have bothered me, but since she’d used her right hand, it made me shift uncomfortably in my seat.
It had been several years since Kelle had lost her right arm in a Hymag incident and had it replaced with a mechanical prosthesis. There was something of a cross between adorable and badass in watching this tiny woman with this robotic arm. The fact was that, with it, she could knock a person senseless without even breaking a sweat. She would probably be able to beat Rockslide if she could ever get herself to care about something that seemed a waste of time to her.
I gathered some sweat of my own under my armpits as I gazed at the metal appendix that doubled as an index finger.
“You should have told me what she was planning,” Kelle said. Her voice was calm, but the look in her eyes told me she was ready to spit fire.
“And she would have kicked my ass,” I replied in my defense.
“Would you rather I kick it?” she said.
I had trouble holding her gaze, and I felt relief as I heard another shriek coming from the other side of the bar. Kelle shifted her head to look in that direction, and I followed her gaze. Riffy was holding on longer than I would have expected.
The scene had not changed, though, and I could only see the backs of the onlookers. As I returned my attention to Kelle, she had lowered her hand and closed her eyes as if she needed to gather herself. I managed to keep my mouth shut and gave her a moment. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long.
“Have you heard anything?” Kelle asked. She looked worried behind that stoic mask she tried to hold up, but I knew better than to mention it.
“Nope,” I said and stuck two fingers up in the air. The elderly woman behind the bar nodded and then pulled a bottle from one of the shelves.
“Son of a…” Kelle muttered, swallowing the rest of the sentence. I lifted my feet and rested them on the table.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “They know what they’re doing.�
�� Kelle shook her head, and I had to admit I shared her concerns, but all we could do was wait it out.
“For a pretty boy, your mommy has taught you lousy manners,” the elderly lady who had joined us from behind the bar said as she swatted my feet from the table.
“Hey,” I replied as I gained my bearing. I glared up at the lady, ready to shoot her a sly remark. My mouth got stuck halfway. The old woman winked at me. Stunned, I closed my mouth and felt my cheeks flush. Kelle must have noticed, because she snorted something that vaguely resembled a laugh.
“Here ya go,” the woman said as she placed a bottle of mushroom ale on the table along with two glasses. “Drink up.”
I sputtered a thank-you as she winked at me again. A cold shiver ran down my spine, and I shook myself as soon as she turned her back to me.
“Now that was weird,” I said in a low voice. Kelle grinned, but soon enough her face returned to its brooding self.
As I started pouring drinks, a shrill beep sounded, and I glanced at the device strapped to my wrist. Kelle’s eyes perked up, and she eyed me expectantly as I checked the device. I wasn’t expecting any other calls, so I kind of knew beforehand that this was the message we were waiting for.
“It’s long distance,” I said, raising my butt out of my seat. “I’ll be right back.” Kelle nodded, and I caught her throwing back a shot of ale before I could make my way to the bar’s exit.
At this point, I too could use a shot to wash away the anxiety brewing in my gut. I slipped out of the bar and closed my jacket as I stepped into the street. It seemed mostly empty, but my eye caught sight of a very drunk-looking man. He wobbled across the street until he suddenly stopped.
Fortunately, I was far enough away to only hear him retch and not see the details of the vomit spewing from his mouth. His day had been either old or very young, depending on your point of view.
