Shutdown

by Heather Anastasiu

  I stopped several feet away and put my hands on my hips with an exaggerated look of disgust on my face. I stood a full ten seconds, making sure the people around me could see me watching them. Nihem was an infamous philanderer, this was all well within character.

  I went forward and knocked the cake out of his hand. “You bastard. The least you can do is try to hide your affairs.”

  Max smiled at the woman he was talking to before leisurely looking my way. “Usually you’re too bubbled to notice, darling.”

  “You know I hate it when you call me that,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Oh, are we talking about the things we hate now?” The smile was still on his face. “My list is oh so long. Starting with the fact that you’re in love with another man.”

  People all around had stopped to stare at us. They did love a good piece of gossip. I hoped we were performing to their standards.

  I tipped my head to the side and laughed in Max’s face. “He’s more of a man than you’ll ever be. You’re just a bad imitation,” I couldn’t help adding, “A copy who could never live up.”

  His smile was gone now. “You never gave me a chance. Besides, there was a while there when I lived up just fine.” He leered at me. “I didn’t hear any complaints.”

  My face heated up. “Only because I was looking at you but imagining him.”

  He pulled back. “I should have known from the start you’d break my heart. You always were a cold-hearted bitch.”

  My hand flew to slap his face, but he caught my arm midswing. I glared at him, letting the hatred pour off me. I didn’t have to fake it.

  “If I divorce you, you’ll lose everything,” I said, getting back on script. “My father will make sure you end up with nothing.” I spit the last word.

  He only looked momentarily daunted, but then smiled. “Your father was glad to get rid of you. He’s happy I have to deal with you now so he doesn’t have to bother.”

  I glanced around at all the people watching now and tried to look embarrassed, even hurt. I glared back at my pretend husband. Then I let out an angry huff and stalked out of the room toward the door my target had left through. It was the perfect excuse to make a believable exit.

  Once I was out, I hurried down the hallway toward Warnost’s room, trying to let go of my anger at Max so I could focus. I hoped our little charade hadn’t lasted too long and I’d catch Warnost before he disappeared behind the locked door of his bedroom suite. But as I approached, the door sealed shut behind him. I put my ear against the chrome door. If I buzzed, I could still slip inside after he opened the door and stun him. But then I heard two voices inside and swore silently. There was someone else there. I couldn’t use the stunner on both of them at the same time.

  “Shunt,” I swore under my breath. I stood one second longer, frustrated at how close I was to getting the key drive. But it was too risky if I tried it now. I finally pulled away from the door. I was so frustrated I wanted to kick something. Or punch a certain doped-up socialite for getting in my way.

  I headed down the hallway to my own suite. We hadn’t intended on going to the preparty before the fight tomorrow, but now we’d have to so we’d have another chance to snatch his key. I didn’t like cutting it that close, but there was no other choice. I flopped on the bed in our suite and let out a long breath. Imitating Darl was exhausting, and my feet were screaming from the too-tight shoes I’d been wearing all night. I took a long bath, as if I could wipe all traces of her off me.

  I dressed and came back into the main suite. Cream-colored silks and other manufactured gauzy fabrics were draped all over the room. They cascaded from a bar along the top of the bed and were bunched along the sides of the windows. I backed away from the window on instinct. We kept the heavy drapes always drawn so no one could peek in, but I was still glad it was nighttime. Even though I could control my allergies now, the outdoors still unnerved me.

  I curled up on the plush couch to study the detailed schematics of Central City’s layout some more. Tomorrow we’d need to be perfect, especially now that we’d have to work in time to get the second key drive too.

  Max came in a couple hours later. He tossed his shoes away and sat heavily on the bed. I looked at him and saw Max’s own face again, but I turned away anyway. Max was no more welcome a sight than Nihem.

  “I couldn’t make the switch,” I said. “That ridiculous woman kept clawing my arm, and by the time I got away from her, he was gone. We’ll have to get it tomorrow.”

  Max nodded. “Okay.”

  “Any problems with yours?”

  “Nope. She was more than willing to go somewhere to be alone with me. But nothing happened,” he added quickly.

  I frowned. “You didn’t get the drive?”

  “No, I got the drive.” He reached in his pocket and produced the tiny device. My breath caught. As disgusting as Max was, what he held in his hand made it all start to feel real. We were one step closer.

  “Good performance tonight, by the way,” he said.

  “Wish I could have thrown something at your head, but I didn’t want to blow our cover if I accidentally knocked you out.”

  He laughed. “Oh, Zoe, I’ve missed you.”

  I turned back to him, barely holding my temper. “And I can hardly stand the sight of you. I’m going to sleep.” I pulled out the collapsible med container from underneath the bed where we stored it. The seven-foot box was made of cloudy plastic panels that sealed together seamlessly. I couldn’t control my allergy in my sleep, and this was the safest option. Max moved to help me pull it out, but after a hard glare from me, he backed away with his hands up.

  His face was solemn. “Someday, Zoe, you’ll see. I’m different now.”

  I didn’t respond. Instead, I touched the button and watched the pleated collapsed side panels of the box slide up with a small whirring sound.

  I went to the bathroom and opened the small cylinder bottle I’d brought from my bag, shaking out two little blue pills. I filled the cup of water and downed them. I still Linked myself voluntarily every night when I went to sleep to keep from accidentally unleashing my powers from a troubling dream. The Link kept me from going into REM sleep cycles. But still, in spite of the fact that it calmed all thought and emotion, I’d been having trouble falling asleep lately. I didn’t know if it was because my thoughts were too tumultuous from all the stress I was under as the ranking officer at the Foundation, or if my power was again expanding in unexpected ways. I shuddered at the possibility of the latter. When I talked to the doc about the insomnia, she said not to worry and gave me the sedative to take on nights I couldn’t sleep.

  Just in case it had something to do with my power expanding again, I’d started spending more and more hours each day outside, using my telek to keep myself from going into an allergy attack. It was the best way I’d found to use up my excess power, and I had needed to learn control for long periods of time so I could come on this mission.

  I lay down in the box, pulled the lid on over me, and latched it tight. The air-filtration system came to life with another click, followed by the familiar suctioning noise as the container flushed all the tainted air and contaminants out, replacing them with fresh air from the self-replicating oxygen system. I breathed out in relief. For the first time all day, I didn’t have to control my mast cells. I slumped with the relief of it.

  One more day. I could hold it all together for one more day.

  Chapter 3

  I WOKE THE NEXT MORNING and stepped out of my sleep chamber. I rubbed my eyes blearily and sat up. I looked around for Max.

  But he wasn’t there.

  I cursed loudly, then jumped out of the med box. I checked the bathroom, but he wasn’t there either. I pulled the kill switch out of my pocket. After everything he’d done, we’d been fools to ever trust him.

  But right as I was about to push the button that would trigger the chip to release a deathly electric charge throughout his brain, a small projection
screen popped up on the bed, probably activated by a motion sensor.

  Max’s face and upper torso filled the screen. He raised his hands. “Zoe, wait a second before you push the kill switch, just hear me out.” It was a prerecorded video, but he’d known this would be my first response when I discovered his absence.

  “I’m going out this morning to try to track down the second target to get the other pendant key. I overheard some of the other men talking to him about a casual meeting for morning coffee, and knew I could sneak in better if I went by myself.

  “I’ll follow him and try to catch him alone. I’ll be back by ten o’clock, so I’m begging you not to push the kill switch till then.” The projected image zoomed in on his face, probably because he’d leaned into the capture camera. “Please Zoe, I’m putting my life in your hands.” The projection cube went off.

  I stared for a second, fury boiling up inside of me. Did he think I was stupid enough to believe him for a second? Volunteering for this mission must have only been a ploy to gain his freedom from imprisonment at the Foundation. What better place to disappear than in Central City with a ready-made identity all in place?

  But he had to have known we weren’t idle in our threats to trigger the kill switch if he ran. And there was his son. Would he abandon him so easily? Then again, I wasn’t sure he’d ever really loved Molla. Spending time with her and their son could just be part of his cover to get us to trust him again.

  I looked at the clock. It was nine thirty. I didn’t usually sleep this late. Had he switched the pills I’d taken last night to give me an extra-heavy dose of sedative? I wouldn’t put it past him. Early morning sun had been filtering in behind him in the video, so he couldn’t have been gone for more than three hours already.

  But Max was crafty, and there was no telling what he could have already accomplished in three hours. He could have arranged with a doctor in the city to try to get the kill switch chip out of his head. Any tampering was supposed to trigger it, but if he’d found a surgeon who was careful enough …

  My hand tightened around the kill switch trigger. I took a deep breath and lifted my thumb over the red button. But then, just as I was about to push the trigger, I realized something: if I killed Max now, my own cover would be blown. I might be able to make it out of the city—I could call on my power easily these days, and I’d been constantly increasing my stamina and control. Heavy locked doors posed no problem for me. I was confident I could take down a squadron of Regulators too without much trouble. But still, even if I could get myself out of the city, I would have failed to accomplish what I’d come here for. It would be difficult to ever get another chance like this, especially if they realized we’d already infiltrated once.

  My eyes shot back to the clock. It was only twenty-five more minutes to wait. If Max wasn’t back by then, I’d have no choice but to try to escape. I couldn’t pull off the plan without the second pendant key; there was no way I’d be able to get into the central Link coding station without it. Not to mention that walking around with the face of the most notorious fugitive in the country would get me caught within minutes of anyone recognizing me. If there was even the slightest chance that Max was telling the truth—and that’s all it was, slight—then I had to wait for him. I hated him even more for putting me in this position.

  I gritted my teeth and got dressed, then sat down on the bed with the kill switch in my hand. I pulled at the fringe on the edge of the pillowcase and watched the clock. The minutes inched by at an infuriatingly slow pace. I’d have sworn minutes never took this long before. Finally it was nine fifty. Then, what felt like an hour later, nine fifty-five.

  At nine fifty-nine, a moment before the clock clicked to ten, the door to our suite opened. No one appeared to be there, but reaching out with my telek, I could feel the shape of Max’s body. I leapt off the bed as he closed the door behind him and reappeared.

  “Zoe, wait, I can explain—”

  His words were cut off because I’d lifted him off the ground by the throat with my telek. I slammed him against the marble wall so hard his eyes bugged out in their sockets. Then I dropped him to the ground and flipped him onto his chest. I sat on his back, binding his arms to his sides with my telek, and searched the hair at the back of his neck. I couldn’t see any incision points. I reached forward with the kill switch device, put it flush against his neck, and clicked the diagnostic option. After a few seconds it let out a small beep and flashed a message: ALL SYSTEMS CHECK.

  I got off of Max and released him from my telek hold.

  “Shunt, Zoe!” he said, massaging his throat. “I said you could trust me. Can’t you believe that a guy can change?”

  “Never,” I said, my voice full of venom. “And if you disappear like that again without talking it through with me, I won’t hesitate. I’ll trigger the kill switch first and ask questions later. Got it?”

  He stared at me, a heavy frown on his face, but he nodded. “Got it,” he said.

  “Good. So did you retrieve the secondary key?”

  He sat down heavily on the bed. “No, I couldn’t get it. He was surrounded by a crowd of people the entire time. I waited outside his bedroom in the morning, thinking I’d catch him alone that way, but his son met him right as he came out and they walked together. Then once they got to the coffee room, Warnost stayed clustered with the others.”

  He shook his head. “You’d think old men drinking coffee would have to use the facilities once in a while, but while almost all of the other men went to the bathroom at one point or other, Warnost never did. He stayed so long I had to leave before I could follow him when he left since I knew you would…,” he glared pointedly at the kill switch still in my hand, “overreact.”

  “Overreact?” My voice shot up an octave with disbelief. He had the nerve to call me overreactive after all that he’d done!

  “Look,” he held up his hand, “I don’t want to argue. We just have to figure out some other way to get that key.”

  I paced the room, glad to get my mind back onto the task at hand. “Maybe we could catch him alone after lunch?”

  Max shook his head. “The pregame shows are starting in an hour, and I heard him say he was going to meet his wife and head over to the arena as soon as he left.

  I swore under my breath.

  “But I think I may have a plan,” Max said.

  * * *

  “Shall we?” Max held out an arm several hours later, like he was escorting me back to another vapid party. I just glared at him and he dropped it with a laugh. His plan was risky, but it was the best we had if we still wanted to have a chance at getting the key drive in time.

  “Don’t worry so much.” Then he disappeared, there one moment and gone the next.

  Even though I’d seen him do it before, it was still startling every time. I projected out with my telek and could sense the outline of his body taking up space in the room. I let out a sigh of relief.

  Still, if this morning had taught me anything, it was how easy it would be for Max to disappear and leave me here. Maybe he’d tried to find a surgeon this morning but couldn’t, and that was the real reason he’d come back. Of course, if Max had just wanted to escape, he could have done so any of the countless nights I’d been sleeping in the med container and not watching him. He could have slipped out, and without his power disguising me, I’d have been found out almost instantly. A cold shiver went down my back at how much I’d already been depending on Max without thinking about it. I knew from previous experience never to underestimate him.

  I looked down at my own body and frowned.

  “You’re invisible too,” came his voice from the air, “it just never looks like it to yourself.”

  I nodded. Of course. I never looked like Darl to myself when I looked in the mirror either.

  Max pressed the door button and it slid open. He stole down the hallway in front of me. I kept my telek on alert, both so I’d know where he was, and to be aware of anything else we mig
ht pass. As we came to the central foyer that all the suites branched out from, I felt Max pull back up against the wall. I heard the voices coming toward us and imitated him, pressing my back against the wall. We might appear invisible, but we were still solid, and if someone ran into us, they’d know something was anomalous.

  After the group of people passed, we hurried quietly down the ornate marble hallways. In my head, I matched the hallway to the schematics I’d carefully memorized. Just a little farther and we’d be at the stadium.

  The main event would be starting any minute now. I heard a hive of voices buzzing ahead. We soon came to clusters of well-dressed people, faces that had become familiar in the past couple days, all talking and, of course, drinking. Checil stood talking with a woman in the corner whose eyes were also bloodshot. No doubt she was still looking for her next infusion hookup.

  Several whooping boys ran through, bumping me into an older gentleman. I immediately backed up against the wall.

  I held my breath, cursing inwardly. But the man just called after them, “Calm down. There will be enough excitement in the arena!” He must have thought it was them who’d bumped him, not me.

  I stuck tighter to Max after that. He glided with an expert lightness to his feet. I tried to mimic the way he walked, rolling heel to toe, heel to toe.

  A loud horn sounded right as Max and I had edged our way through the front of the crowd toward the narrow stadium entrance. Suddenly everyone on all sides began surging with us. I lost Max’s shape amid all the others. People pressed against my shoulders. This lobby entrance was the only one that led to the premium center stadium seats reserved for the highest tiers of society. There was no time to keep trying to find Max. Soon enough, someone would wonder why it felt like they were bumping up against a person when it looked like empty air.

  Finally the bottleneck of the entryway opened up and people fanned out into the wide aisles that surrounded the huge domed stadium on all sides. I was pushed forward and made it through the doorway just as a second horn blasted.