New York_A Bridge & Sword Prequel

by JC Andrijeski

  The bouncer turned to him, nodding. “NYPD and SCARB are pretty tight here, since we have our own branch of the World Court in the UN Building. They share all that shit.”

  Jon frowned, giving me a look.

  Looking back at the bouncer, who was looking at my midriff again, which showed under the lacy top I wore, I pretended not to notice when I spoke.

  “So I can draw here?” I said.

  When Jon cleared his throat, I ignored him, looking only at the bouncer.

  “Even if the drawing’s not strictly… SCARB-friendly?” I added.

  I was going on a hunch, based on his extensive knowledge of surveillance placement.

  The bouncer chuckled, confirming my suspicions.

  “You going to draw a picture of me, honey?” he said, smiling.

  I smiled back. “Just someone I saw today,” I said, more or less truthfully. “Someone whose face I wanted to remember––”

  “Allie,” Jon said, warning.

  The bouncer only chuckled.

  “You go ahead and draw whoever you like,” he said, weaving his fingers together. “We’re not exactly fans of SCARB down here. And frankly, they’ve got their hands full with all the illegal trade going on in this city as it is. Not to mention all the terrorist bullshit that’s been happening over the past year. I don’t think they’re going to pinch some cute human chica, just because she likes to draw pictures a little too close to the mark.”

  He gave me a mock offended look.

  “…Although I’m a little hurt you’re not drawing me, honey.”

  Smiling back, I ignored Jon’s foot when he kicked me under the table.

  Then the sound guy asked Cass what we’d been doing all day.

  Thank goodness, she told him in detail, and everyone turned to listen to her as she started to talk. Relieved to have all eyes off me, I grabbed a black pen with a sharp tip, and bent over a blank sheet in my drawing pad, starting to sketch with light strokes.

  That’s pretty much all I did while Jon and Cass ate and talked and laughed with the others.

  A few times, I showed Jon half-completed sketches of Ponytail and his two friends. Although he frowned a bit as he looked at them, he nodded when I asked him if they looked like the men he’d seen that day.

  “Eerily so,” he said, frowning harder at my third try. “Jesus, Al. How the hell did you get so much detail from that short encounter?”

  I shrugged. I’d always had a good memory when it came to drawing faces.

  “I saw him at the airport, too,” I reminded him.

  “Well, it’s good enough to be really fucking illegal,” Jon said, swallowing a mouthful of beer. “Especially if those guys really were SCARB agents. You shouldn’t be doing that in here.” Frowning, he added, “Your friend, ‘Simon,’ made it pretty clear you shouldn’t be doing it at all.”

  Cass bent over Jon’s lap, looking at the drawings, too. Like my brother, she shook her head, her eyes showing amazement.

  “Jesus, Al. Spot on. That’s creepy as hell.” She pointed at the Russian guy’s neck. “I remember that tattoo. I swear, that’s absolutely perfect.”

  But Jon wasn’t done.

  “So you’re not going to listen to your pal, ‘Simon,’ then?” Jon said, frowning when I started sketching the body of Ponytail to go with his face. “I mean, he did save your life. Twice. Don’t you think maybe he has your best interests at heart? Or are you just drawing these for your scrapbook?”

  “I don’t know,” I said truthfully. Frowning, I gave him a bare glance. “Do you think Hesh or one of the guys at the lab could send a scanned drawing anonymously?”

  Jon exhaled, shaking his head. “I’m more worried about you sneaking those things through customs.”

  I waved that off. “That’s no biggie. I’ll just carry them on me.”

  Jon grunted, giving me a disbelieving look. “Jesus.”

  Pretending not to hear the horror in his voice, I bent back over the pad.

  Possession of accurate, realtime images of currently-alive humans was a felony World Court offense, and forbidden for anyone apart from law enforcement and racial regulation. It was even more illegal to send such images electronically, much less post them on the feeds.

  That included photo-realistic drawings.

  The realtime image ban was part of the Human Protection Act.

  Seers could use accurate images or audio recordings to track people, apparently, so everyone on the feeds used avatars and voice modulators unless they were criminals––or seers.

  By the time I was halfway through drawing the body of the red-haired guy, and the long metal pole he’d carried in his hand, Cass started ordering shots.

  She ordered them for me, too––probably to chill me out.

  I’d downed two shots of tequila by the time I started sketching the face of the seer I’d run into on the street. By the time I finished two drafts of her face, I’d done four shots, and a margarita sat on the scuffed table by my elbow.

  I was putting the finishing touches on a third version of her, and the one that looked the most accurate to me, when I realized I had to go to the bathroom and stood up.

  I nearly fell.

  That’s when I remembered I hadn’t eaten.

  Grabbing the back of the booth, I swayed on my feet, and heard laughter from Cass, the sound guy, and his two female friends. For the first time, I noticed the bouncer had left the booth, probably to go to work.

  While I stood there, looking around, I also realized the club had started to fill with people.

  They must have opened the front doors.

  Jon closed my pad while I stood there, presumably to keep anyone from seeing what I’d been doing. When I looked down at him, he scowled.

  “Jesus, Al,” he said. “Did you eat anything at all? I don’t remember you having anything other than a smoothie since that breakfast you barely touched.”

  I fought to remember.

  It hit me in the same set of seconds that I was drunk.

  Not quite black out and throw up drunk––but definitely way past comfortably buzzed.

  “Order me something,” I told him. “Food, I mean. I’ll eat it when I get back.”

  I felt over the faux-leather pants I wore, struck suddenly by the fact that my bare belly showed under the lace top, all the way down to the low-cut pants. I almost never wore outfits this clubby and revealing, but Cass talked me into dressing more “fun,” as she put it.

  She’d even lent me a cropped faux-leather jacket of hers, to go with the lace top.

  I frowned, remembering that I’d been thinking about that groupie hanging all over Jaden while I’d been picking out clothes.

  Frowning harder, I realized I’d forgotten what I was looking for and glanced at Jon.

  “Forget about the money, Al,” he said, rolling his eyes. “This place doesn’t take old currency anyway, only barcode scans. Just come straight back here, okay? I’ll get you food. And coffee.”

  Nodding, I used the back of the booth to get my balance right on the high-heeled boots I wore, then began crossing the floor of the club, only weaving a little as I walked through the growing crowd of people. After orienting myself on the semi-packed dance floor, I shifted direction slightly, aiming my feet for the bathrooms the bouncer pointed out earlier.

  I was a little baffled at how I’d gotten so drunk.

  I was still trying to remember how many drinks I’d had, when Cass appeared at my arm, gripping my elbow.

  “Screw Jon,” she said, grinning at me. “You haven’t gotten wasted with me in ages. We’re going to have fun tonight, all right? And screw Jaden, too. We’ll dance and drink more and ignore all the dumb guys.”

  I laughed, and suddenly, her words made a lot of sense.

  Definitely a lot more sense than everything I’d been trying to think about.

  SCARB agents. Terrorist attacks.

  A pushy, anti-social guy telling me who I could and couldn’t have sex with.
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  That seer getting kicked on the pavement.

  Remembering her face, I winced, and Cass gripped me tighter.

  “Hey,” she said. Again, her best-friend-since-grammar-school thing seemed to work in reading my thoughts. “I know that thing with the seer this morning upset you. We’ll deal with it, okay? Screw that Simon guy. He was like… a dick. We’ll find some way to help her. Okay?” She shook my arm. “And don’t worry about those assholes on the street, either. You’ll never see them again. Just this one night, stop worrying. Okay?”

  I nodded. “Okay.”

  Somehow, hearing it from Cass caused something in my shoulders to relax.

  She was right.

  I was worrying about things I couldn’t do anything about right now.

  We’d find some way to help that seer. We wouldn’t be like the rest of those people, and just stand around and let someone get beaten and kidnapped off the street.

  That pain that had been sitting somewhere in my chest since that morning loosened, just the tiniest bit. Enough that I took a deep breath. Some part of me so badly wanted to believe it would all turn out okay. I remembered the wide eyes of the seer, the pain in her face when the guy with the beard was kicking her, over and over again.

  “I might be sick,” I told Cass.

  I was surprised at how calm I sounded.

  “No,” she said firmly. “You are NOT going to be sick. You are going to go the bathroom, then we are going back to the booth to feed you and give you water.”

  I nodded. That sounded reasonable to me.

  “Who do you think he is?” I asked her, as we pushed through the black, swinging door of the bathroom to the far right of the stage. “The guy.” I motioned towards my eyes. “You know.”

  She laughed. “Your white knight? Simon?”

  “Yes.” I lifted up a hand, denoting his height. “That guy. With the pretty eyes.”

  “No idea, Al,” she said, laughing as she shook her head. “But you’ve definitely got a crush. Is it those ‘pretty’ eyes? Or was it his exceptional conversational skills?”

  I shook my head, frowning. “No. No crush.”

  She laughed. “You’ve got it bad, girlfriend.” When I shook my head a second time, she nudged me, her red-lipsticked lips stretching wider. “Honestly? I’m relieved. You need to be less fixated on Jaden. I wish you’d gotten that guy’s number. Hell, I wish I’d thought of it… I would have gotten his number for you.”

  I frowned at that, about to answer, but she held up a hand, her voice serious.

  “I’m not saying break up with Jaden, Al. Or cheat on him. I’m not saying that at all. But something isn’t right there. You know it, too.”

  I thought about arguing with her, but my brain wasn’t working right. In the end I only sighed, disappearing into a bathroom stall covered in spray-painted graffiti. I spoke to her through the metal wall when she entered the stall next to me.

  “I know,” I said.

  “I know you know,” Cass said from the other side, banging around inside the small space. “You knew something was up before I did. But you’re totally in denial. You’re hoping it’s just going to… I don’t know… go away or something. Like Jaden’s going to reward you for giving him a free pass on his bullshit.”

  I heard her peeing on the other side of the wall and I frowned.

  Pushing it from my mind a few seconds later, I focused on getting out of my pants well enough to pee, too. When I’d finished with that, I focused on getting my pants back on.

  When I finally got out of the stall, Cass was already bent towards the mirror over the sink, fixing her make-up. She wore a micro-mini-dress, bright red, which stood out sharply against the straight black sheen of her hair and her pale skin. She applied more red lipstick as I watched, smoothing her hair.

  “Is Jaden even here yet?” she asked, using the edge of one finger to straighten the line of her lipstick. “I haven’t seen him.”

  I shrugged. “No idea. I didn’t even realize they’d started letting people in.”

  Cass laughed, blotting her lips on a paper towel.

  “Wow,” she said. “Maybe Jon’s right. We need to get some food in you so you can keep drinking.” She grinned at me. “Maybe you should come dance with me for a while. Hold off on any more shots until you’ve sweated some of that out of you.”

  Turning, she looked me over critically, hands on her hips.

  “You look hot as hell, girl,” she said approvingly. “If Jaden ignores you tonight, I say we go bar hopping after this, ditch that loser totally.” She winked at me. “Maybe we’ll go back to that seer club. See if Jewel wants to hang out.”

  I laughed, rolling my eyes. “I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?”

  “I still can’t believe that Simon guy told you not to sleep with her. What was that about, do you think? Something to do with the Mythers?” She grinned wider. “Or sheer male jealousy? It was pretty fucking weird, whatever it was.”

  I grunted, shrugging as I looked in the mirror, using my fingers to arrange my hair. “Maybe he was worried we’d charge the bill to SCARB.”

  Cass smirked at me in the mirror. “I highly doubt she was going to charge you, Al.” Turning, she grinned wider. “Personally, I think you’re nuts. I would have totally gone for that, if it was me. She was super hot.”

  When I only snorted, shaking my head, her eyes went back to the mirror as she put a light line of rouge under her cheekbones. “So what do you say about clubbing? If Jaden blows us off again, are you down to go somewhere else? Jon’ll come with us.”

  I laughed. “Sure he will.”

  “If we throw a few gay bars in the mix, he will,” she said, quirking a black eyebrow. “You heard him say he and Trey are seeing other people, right? And I saw him checking guys out today. His eyes are definitely wandering.”

  I laughed, but didn’t argue with her, washing my hands in the sink.

  She was probably right about Jon. I’d seen him looking a few times that day, too.

  Anyway, we were in New York. We should all live it up a little.

  Even me.

  As we left the bathroom, Cass’s arm looped in mine, I finally saw Jaden.

  13

  BAD MOOD RISING

  JADEN STOOD NEAR one of the big bass speakers sitting on the edge of the stage, along with Hayden, Drake and Corey, three of his bandmates. I didn’t see Winters, the fifth, but they had their usual group of hangers-on, so I didn’t walk directly over there.

  I did watch, though, as Jaden talked to the sound guy again, along with the lead singer of the headlining band and their guitarist. It was a relief not to see pouty lips anywhere in sight. It had been nagging at me, the thought of her hanging on him every second I wasn’t around.

  Seeing me, Jaden’s eyes actually lit up, which made me feel a lot better.

  As I walked closer, his smile slid into a grin. I saw his eyes travel down the cropped top and faux-leather pants down to my high-heeled boots, right before he excused himself from the sound guy and started walking towards me.

  We met somewhere at the halfway point, and he gave me a kiss.

  It was a real kiss, enough of one that I clung to him briefly.

  “Damn,” he said, when he pulled away. “You look hot as fuck, Allie-girl.”

  I smiled, shoving lightly at his shoulder. “You said to dress up, right?”

  “I’m not positive this counts,” he said, grinning as he looked down at my belly. “But if you were trying to give me a hard-on, and distract me entirely from being nervous about the show… mission accomplished.”

  I shook my head, and stumbled a little, catching hold of his arm.

  His smile faltered, shifting to a faint frown.

  “Jesus. Are you drunk?” He checked his watch. “It’s not even eight o’clock.”

  I looked at my own headset timepiece, frowning faintly.

  “Did you guys just get here?” I said. “I thought you were on at eight-thirty
.”

  He exhaled, shaking his head. “You know how these things go. We were supposed to play at eight. Then the manager got here late and no one had the keys to the back room… and then they decided to add another opening band and didn’t tell us. So it’s looking more like nine-thirty or ten now.” He frowned, still looking at me. “Jesus. You’re plastered.”

  Before I could answer, Cass spoke up from next to me.

  “She didn’t eat anything,” she explained. “And we walked all day.”

  I jumped, glancing at her.

  Somehow I’d missed she was still with me.

  “Well… feed her,” Jaden said, still frowning with his lips and voice as he looked me over. “I don’t want her throwing up on the damned stage.”

  Cass gritted her teeth. “You’re a real prick, you know that? Do you have any idea what she’s been through, the past few days? Only almost dying in a bomb, and––”

  “Cassie,” I said, holding up a hand. “It’s… fine. Please. Leave it.”

  Jaden looked at me. Then, exhaling, he shook his head.

  “Sorry,” he said, his voice subdued. “Fucking everything has gone wrong today. The camera guy for that shoot was two hours late. Someone grabbed the wrong guitar cord and effects pedal from the practice space…” He snorted. “The one I have isn’t even mine.”

  He put his hands on his hips, still frowning.

  “I’m mainly worried they’re going to cut our set short because of the extra band. And I’m kind of pissed no one bothered to tell us about it until now.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, that sucks.” Hesitating, I added, “I’m sure they won’t. Cut the set.”

  He nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t really listening to me.

  “Well,” he said, hooking a thumb towards the stage. “I should probably get back.”

  I nodded again. “Okay. I’m going to go eat.”

  He snorted. A real smile crept back over his face. “Probably a good idea.”

  “Yeah. Food. Dancing. Cass has it all worked out… don’t worry.”

  “Don’t dance too hard, baby.” He wrapped an arm around my bare waist, squeezing me against him, then squeezing my rear with one hand. “And don’t pass out on me, okay? Not looking like that.”