Winterbay

by J. Barton Mitchell

  A man sat casually in a similar chair, and the sight of him almost made Mira forget the deadly drop. He was definitely older than twenty. Much older. He had thick, swept-back hair, laced with streaks of gray, and his features held the marks of age: wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, ridges on the forehead, fine lines everywhere else. She guessed he must be something like fifty.

  The man was Heedless, obviously—one of the rare, lucky few who were somehow immune to the call of the Tone. He sat in his chair, staring out over the field of twinkling lights and towering collections of scrap wood and sheet metal of the floating city.

  “I like coming up here, just watching all of it,” the man continued. “Reminds me what we can do, when we’re inspired by the right things. A decade ago, if you’d told people that a world of children would build the things it has, they’d have said you were crazy. Yet here we are. The power of faith.”

  “Yeah,” Mira replied, eyes back on the drop in front of her. “It’s downright inspiring. How about pulling me back? You made your point.”

  “Have I?” The man finally turned to look at Mira. His eyes were cold and blue and completely, enviously clear of the Tone. “Armitage is my name. But Reiko tells me you already know that.”

  Mira craned her neck to look back at the Asian girl holding her over the void and staring at her dispassionately. So that was her name.

  “Purveryor of information, huh?” Mira asked.

  Reiko shrugged. “Told you not to trust me.”

  Mira saw Armitage nod out of the corner of her eye, and Reiko stepped back, letting the chair loose. The moment she did, Mira pushed back away from the edge and exhaled a sigh of relief.

  Reiko turned and left, disappearing through a door to the roof stairwell. Armitage stood and moved toward Mira. She was away from the edge, but she was still tied to the chair, still captive.

  “Listen,” Mira started. “I think our negotiation has gotten off on the wrong foot.”

  “A negotiation?” Armitage asked with amusement. “Is that what this is?” He grabbed the back of her chair and spun it around. Strings of bright, colorful Christmas lights hung between poles on either side of the snowy roof. There was a large brass telescope at the opposite end and a table and chairs nearby. On the table, Mira saw something—and when she did, everything stopped.

  It was a stack of posters, a hundred of them. Images of a person—one from the side, one from the front— printed in red ink. They were drawings, but they were well done. Anyone who compared them to Mira would have no trouble seeing the resemblance.

  Wanted ALIVE: Mira Toombs, Freebooter

  —

  For Crimes Against MIDNIGHT CITY

  and the Gray Devils Faction

  At the bottom of the poster, the reward was stipulated in the usual way: a choice of a substantial amount of Points, or a list of trade items that added up to one hell of a price. Mira’s heart sank into her stomach. With a grimace, she looked up at Armitage.

  He studied her sympathetically. “Negotiation’s always better when everyone’s cards are on the table. Don’t you think?”

  Mira didn’t say anything, because there wasn’t anything to say. This Armitage knew who she was. He had her, and they both knew it.

  Armitage nodded to the posters as he took a seat at the other end of the table. “Not sure how they got here so quick, but I wouldn’t put it past Midnight City to have Portals linking to Winterbay. Fortunately, they came to me first. Just like everything does.”

  Mira just stared back at him. “What do you want?”

  “The real question is, what do you want?” He studied her with a slow, detached look, then held up the patch Mira had been showing around the trade district. “Reiko gave me this, showed me what you’re looking for. A trade like this one, I don’t think I have to tell you, would require some hefty recompense.”

  “Such as?”

  Armitage leaned back and put his boots up casually on the table. “Tell me, Mira Toombs … what do you know about the Machine?”

  Mira’s eyes thinned. That’s what this was about? “Winterbay legend, isn’t it? A big room full of booby traps, protects something valuable, but no one knows what, because no one who goes in ever comes out.” Mira frowned as she heard her own words. They sounded silly, even for a place like this one. “Sounds more like an urban legend to me than anything.”

  “Oh, no,” Armitage replied. “The Machine is very, very real, I’m afraid. It was built years ago by the Quorum, right after the surface level of Winterbay. Giant room, run by a combination of gears and hydraulics so complicated it’s almost a work of art. All designed for just one thing: to kill anyone who goes inside.” Armitage’s gazed shifted past Mira. He had a habit of not quite looking at you when he spoke, Mira noted, as if there were always something a little more interesting just behind you. “But for what? What could the Id have been so desperate to guard?”

  “How the hell should I know? Building cities in the middle of lakes isn’t exactly the sanest thing you could do, is it? Place like this, seems like you ought to expect a few eccentricities.” Mira had had enough. Wherever this was going, she wanted it over with. “Look, you’re a talker, you like to show off, I get it, but if those posters are here it’s a safe bet the bounty hunters are, too. So can we just cut to the part where you tell me what you want?”

  Armitage’s eyes slowly refocused back on her. “What I ‘want’ is for you do something no one ever has. I want you to beat the Machine.”

  Mira was silent a moment. Then she laughed out loud. “I’m no safecracker. You need a thief, not a Freebooter.”

  “That’s the first thing you’ve said tonight that’s wrong. Plenty of thieves have tried to beat the Machine. Good ones, too. They’re all dead now.”

  “You’re not doing a great job selling this to me.”

  Armitage lifted his feet off the table and leaned forward. “Think on this: Doesn’t the punishment for Freebooters in Winterbay seem a bit … extreme to you?” He meant the death sentence, of course.

  “Like I said,” Mira replied. “Floating city on a lake. Eccentricities. And they hate artifacts here.”

  “But artifacts are already banned,” Armitage countered. “No one sells or trades them—the punishment’s death for that, too—so why not let Freebooters into the city? Why try so hard to scare them away from even coming inside?”

  “I feel a theory coming,” Mira said.

  Armitage smiled. “I believe the real reason Freebooters aren’t allowed in Winterbay … is because only a Freebooter can beat the Machine.”

  The idea was simple enough, but its implications made Mira pause. She thought about it, but it didn’t add up. “Without their artifacts, a Freebooter’s just like anyone else.”

  “You know that isn’t the case. Even without artifacts, a good Freebooter’s still got instincts. They can survive the Strange Lands, a place where you either think on your feet or you die. Someone like that seems a pretty good bet to beat the Machine to me. Especially if they had artifacts.”

  At that last part, Mira’s gaze hardened. She could sense in his tone a hidden meaning. “You have artifacts,” she said. “In Winterbay.”

  Armitage’s gaze shifted, staring past her again. “I’ve been waiting for this a long, long time, Mira. A skilled Freebooter with the right reasons to risk coming here, the kind of problems she’d do anything to solve.”

  Mira shook her head. “Yeah, but that’s the thing. If this Machine’s as dangerous as everyone says, the risk isn’t worth it. I can find what I need somewhere else.”

  The door opened again and Reiko returned, carrying a big black metallic case with two handles and a colorful symbol on top that Mira couldn’t make out. Looking at it, she saw something she’d missed before. Something she never expected.

  On each of the three middle fingers of her left hand, Reiko wore a ring. Each was made of what looked like smooth crystal … and each glowed in a different, bright color, as if they were imb
ued with some kind of energy: red, blue, and green. It was all Mira could do to contain her shock. She knew what those rings were, had seen ones like them a few times, but she had no idea what it meant for them to be here right now.

  “It’s true, I suppose,” Armitage said as the girl put the case on the table. “Little legwork, a few weeks, a month, you could find what you need. But … what if I could give you something better?”

  “Better?” Mira asked skeptically.

  “What you want is too valuable to find in a city shop or stall, but you know that. You’re here because you need someone to point you in the right direction,” he said. “You need an X on a treasure map, isn’t that so?” It was, but Mira stayed silent. “Well, Mira, what’s the one thing better than a treasure map?”

  The answer was obvious, she knew. There was only thing more valuable than a treasure map: the treasure itself.

  Reiko gently turned the case over. On the front was a round symbol, divided into six yellow and black triangles pointing at a black circle in the center. Just like Mira’s patch.

  She felt her heart beat in her chest but, even so, refused to let herself believe so quickly. “There’s no way you have it in there.”

  “Why’s that?” Armitage asked. “It’s something tangible, isn’t it? Something anyone can pick up and take, if they can find it. And it’s … priceless, really. Like lots of things now, it’s even more valuable since the Assembly showed up. Because of where it gets you. Because of the Strange Lands. Why wouldn’t I have something like that, a man in my position?”

  “Because … it’d just be too easy.” Mira forced her lustful gaze away from the case. “And easy has not been my style lately.”

  “Ah. Well. Then I wouldn’t worry.” Armitage snapped up two metallic clips on the case and opened it. “Earning it’s gonna be anything but easy.”

  It was automatic, irresistible. Mira looked inside the case as the lid flipped down … and she forgot to breathe.

  Sitting there, wrapped in black foam, were two glass cylinders filled with some kind of clear liquid. In the center of each floated a brownish sliver of color, still and unmoving.

  Plutonium.

  It was something Mira would have spent months to find, something she would have risked her life for. It was what she needed, maybe the only thing that could let her fix the mess she’d made in Midnight City. Because it was priceless, like Armitage had said. Because of a place called the Severed Tower. A place you could only reach if you had a radioactive substance to use as a key. If you made it there, survived the impossible … anything you wanted could be yours.

  Her entire plan rested on what was in that case, and there it was, right then, sitting in front of her. Mira couldn’t take her eyes off it.

  “I’m not the vindictive sort, Mira,” Armitage said. He knew he had her, even without the wanted posters. “It’s bad for business. You tell me no, you say you wanna walk away, I’ll let you. But,” he said, fingers tapping one of the cylinders, “do this for me, beat the Machine … and you get what you need right now. No waiting, no searching, your journey’s over before it even begins.”

  Mira stared at the plutonium, thoughts swirling in her head. Then Reiko closed the case, sealing it away. She looked up at Armitage. There was still one thing that didn’t add up. “What’s so special about this Machine? What’s it guarding that makes it worth all this?”

  “That’s my end, Mira. Not yours. But, hopefully, you and I will both find out the answer to that very soon.” Another smile grew on his face, and there was a hint of cheerfulness in his voice. “God, I love deals like this. Deals that just … make themselves.”

  He was right, of course. This deal did make itself. For once, something had gone Mira’s way. Face certain death a month from now, or face certain death right now and get it over with. It was simple math as far as she was concerned. “I’ll need a day, a full day, twenty-four hours with whatever artifacts you’ve got,” she said. “If this Machine’s that dangerous, I won’t have time to build combinations on the fly, I’ll need them ready to go.”

  “I expected as much. But I have a condition of my own. Reiko goes with you.”

  Mira didn’t even bother to look at the girl, just shook her head. “I work better alone. And a babysitter will just get in the way.”

  “I should have been more clear. Reiko isn’t a babysitter, Reiko’s crucial. The Machine needs two people to disarm it, or so it’s said. Besides…” He glanced up at the intense girl beside him. “I think you’ll find her skills more than useful.”

  Mira looked at the rings on the girl’s left hand. “I have no doubt.”

  Armitage nodded to Reiko and she moved around behind Mira, one of her knives flashing out from the sheaths over the Bowie shirt. It gleamed bright silver.

  “Then we have a deal?” Armitage asked. “Partners and confidants?”

  Mira wasn’t entirely convinced Armitage was someone she could trust, but what choice did she really have? He had her posters, he knew who she was—and there was the plutonium, right there in front of her. It was worth the risk, Mira decided. It was worth anything.

  “Partners,” Mira replied.

  Reiko stared down at Mira, a glint of malice in what was left of her blackened eyes … then the knife flashed and Mira’s bonds were cut. It took skill, a cut like that; the speed, the accuracy. It was meant as a demonstration, and it made its point. Mira returned the girl’s look as solidly as she could. “Thanks,” she said.

  “Don’t mention it,” Reiko replied in a voice like ice.

  Memories

  Mira followed after Reiko, winding past the flashing televisions and arcade games, through the wooden pathways bathed in neon, beyond the trade district, and as they passed all of it Mira’s eyes inevitably drifted to the glowing rings on Reiko’s fingers. It was still hard to fathom.

  “You’re White Helix,” Mira stated.

  Reiko’s voice was laced with contempt. “Not exactly hiding it, am I?”

  True enough. Which raised an interesting point. “I wouldn’t think antimatter rings would be very popular here.”

  “Well, they’re not strictly artifacts, are they? Besides…” Reiko looked back at Mira. “No one’s stupid enough to try and take ’em away.”

  Mira believed her. The White Helix was a cult, for lack of a better description. No one knew much about them; they kept to themselves, deep back in the far reaches of the Strange Lands. What everyone did know was that they were incredibly dangerous. They were well trained in fighting, and the rings they wore were made from the crystalline remnants of Antimatter Lightning strikes. Touching them together with their fingers, in various combinations, allowed them to do amazing things: leap incredibly high, flip through the air, accelerate their movements, all by somehow manipulating gravity, inertia, or momentum.

  Mira had only seen them a few times, but watching them move had always been amazing. Beautiful, even. As far as Mira knew, the group never left the Strange Lands. It made Reiko’s presence here even more mysterious. “I didn’t think ‘unjoining’ the White Helix was an option.”

  “It isn’t,” Reiko answered. “They’re a private bunch, I’m sure you know. They expect their secrets to die with their members. Sano-kai is the White Helix name for abandoning your oaths. They hunt you down for it, kill you when they find you.”

  “But you abandoned the oaths.”

  “Nah,” Reiko shook her head. “Way I see it, I never really took them. There’s a difference.”

  “Fingers crossed behind your back?”

  “Something like that.”

  “What about the White Helix?” Mira asked. “Did they buy that distinction?”

  “They came looking, if that’s what you’re asking.” Mira heard a smile in Reiko’s voice. “But the ones that did didn’t go back home. Winterbay is no more friendly to White Helix than it is to Freebooters, and Armitage is a bad man to cross.”

  Mira’s eyes narrowed curiously. “Did Armitag
e … make you go to the White Helix?” It wasn’t a bad idea, Mira thought to herself. Having your own personal White Helix henchman would be very valuable. Still, given that most didn’t survive the journey or the training to become one, it was a particularly brutal thing to force a child to do.

  “Make me?” The tone of contempt was back in Reiko’s voice. “When I first came here, I was twelve years old. My brother, Jason, he was eighteen. First month we slept in the streets, over in the lower residential ward. One day I woke up and Jason was gone. Just like that. I looked everywhere, asked everyone, but he’d vanished. He had debts, big bad ones to big bad people, and I found out what happened to him after the scumbags he owed money to grabbed me. He’d hopped a Landship to Currency, they said, told them they could have me as payment, use me however they needed until they felt the debt was paid. They made it clear it would be a hell of a long time before that happened.”

  Mira could hear Reiko slowly becoming emotional, but it wasn’t with sadness or regret or fear; there were no tears, Mira was sure. Instead, there was a growing rage. Mira could understand. Reiko had been abandoned by someone close to her. Betrayals like that left scars, deep ones. Instinctively, Mira’s thoughts turned back to the person she’d left at Midnight City, presumably trapped in a Gray Devils cell. She wondered if Ben felt the same way now as Reiko did then.

  “One day they used me as a messenger to Armitage,” Reiko continued as they pushed through the streets. “Had me bring him his cut of their trade action. It was weird, seeing him. A full-grown man, his face aged and lined, just sitting there, head buried in some ledger. I’d tried to escape the night before, for the fifth time, so I was pretty banged up. When I came in, he looked up, glanced me over, then looked right back down without saying anything. I set his cut on his desk and started backing out, but he stopped me, asked about my bruises, asked if they hurt. It was funny. Wasn’t until right then I realized I’d stopped noticing the pain. It didn’t have the same effect it used to. I’m still not sure why really, but I told him that. Armitage looked back up and studied me again, and then he wrote something on a piece of paper, gave me back the cut I’d brought him, and told me to give it and the note to the ones who’d sent me. An hour later … I was eating a meal, a real meal, back in that office with him.”