by Tash McAdam
“Yeah, looks good.” Serena stops looking around the shadowy room and grins back at him. “Smart move, thanks. We thought we’d have to base in the townships, but this’ll work much better, long’s no one comes looking to move in.”
She absently runs her fingers down the frame on a dark workstation. The room is long and thin, with workstations on both sides, and full of large shelves that run the length of the place. Good for hiding behind if anyone comes poking around, she thinks. Maybe this used to be a gamer cafe, or something. There’s a door leading to another dark room, and some stairs that disappear through a cut out in the low ceiling. More hiding spots. She grins at Leaf, appreciative that he’s found a spot they can use.
He nods at her, like he’s agreeing that he’s done a good job. “Nah, luv. They have to list it on the street census if there’s to be a new business, or what-have-ya. Don’t turn lights on at night or nothin’ stupid like that, though.”
She shoots him a withering look that he merely grins cheekily in response to, and then realizes that Abial’s already setting up the datapad for long comms, checking in with the base. Leaving her to it, Serena has a little poke around, discovering that the door leads to a small kitchen with its own exit – great if they have to leave in a hurry. Loping up the stairs, she discovers a good-sized attic still packed with boxes. It has windows at both ends that could also be used as emergency exits if necessary. She pads back down, undoing the City hairstyle, which is starting to itch behind her ears.
“This is great, Leaf. Thanks. So, whaddya know about all the new soldiers coming off the tube? Are they coming from other Cities as well? Where’re they heading?” She wants to ask who he is, how he knows Kion, and what he’s planning on helping them with, but there are more pressing issues at hand. If someone’s on the run right now, they don’t have a lot of time for chatting. It’s enough that he’s here; she can quash her curiosity for now.
“My baby bro’s been stalking their captain for me. They’ve been jumpin’ all over, settin’ up raids, flattenin’ anyone who gets in the way. But they ain’t found whatever they’re lookin’ for yet. I tell ya, I ain’t never seen a hive so worked up. And I nick stuff from them all the time, so I should know!”
You nick stuff from them? How do you get away with that? She tilts her head, and for the first time since leaving ARC base, spreads her Talent out a little, trying to touch his mind. He grins at her, seeming to know what she’s doing, and she sighs.
“Total Blank, eh?” That explains it. She can’t sense his thoughts even a little; he’s impenetrable, invisible to her mental probes. If he weren’t Talented, she would be able to read every last part of his current thoughts and feelings. If he were deliberately shielding, she might only get a fleeting impression, but she’d be able to sense at least an awareness of his presence. But Leaf may as well not be standing in front of her at all. To her power, it’s like he doesn’t exist. A gap where there should be a person. Unreadable, unknowable.
He smirks, slanted eyes crinkling up behind his now disheveled fringe. “That’s why I’m useful!”
He’s right; Blanks – those immune to psionic interference – make great spies. Without physically seeing them, there’s no way of knowing where they are or where they’ve been. And because they’re impossible to actually track, the Institute makes a point of searching for them, hunting them down by getting Readers to scan and find ‘empty’ places – places where there should be a person’s thoughts and feelings. Blanks are noticeable as a bubble in the miasma of emotions that is the slums. And as soon as a Blank is found, they’re killed. A Blank could never be used, because they can’t be read, so the Institute would never be able to trust them. Serena would wager they’re immune to mind wipes as well, but she has no idea if that is actually true.
Leaf must be pretty damn good if he can steal things from right under the Institute’s nose, as a Blank. But hasn’t she just seen him take on two totally different personas so well that she couldn’t even pinpoint all the things that had changed? Body posture, facial tension, expressions, even the way he looks around now is edgier, less refined. No wonder he’s a talented thief. A Blank with great acting skills is pretty much perfect for a criminal career.
She blows air out through her nose, impressed despite herself, and leans her hip against a convenient table. Well, I hope you’re willing to put those skills to use for us. We’d stand a better chance with anyone who knows the area, so someone with your talents would be a gift from Google.
“So, are you just setting us up with our digs, or are you sticking around to help us out?” The question isn’t a challenge. The mission brief they received merely said that one of Kion’s contacts would pick them up and help them find their feet. Serena fully expected that Leaf would leave them to it, sooner or later, but he doesn’t seem to be in a hurry. At the workstation, Abial is typing away rapidly – chatting to base, no doubt. Serena continues to ignore her, more concerned with Leaf for the moment than what base has to say.
After all, for all intents and purposes, they’re now on their own. Base can’t help them anymore. Leaf might, though. And they need all the help they can get.
“Well, I’ll stick aroun’, show ya where the boys’ve been, pick up stuff if ya need it. But I’m not lookin’ to get in no fights. This body were made for lovin’, not wrestlin’.” He unfurls a slow smile at her and lifts his eyebrows suggestively.
She shoots him a long, cold stare until he deflates. Seriously, kid? You have a lot to learn if you think a smile’s gonna get you in my shock suit. Besides, I bet you’d wet yourself if I offered to take you up on that.
“We’re here on business. We’ll take whatever help we can get, but keep your eyebrows and everything else to yourself. Deal?”
He snorts a laugh and hops up on a table, propping his elbows on his knees and tugging his earlobe absent-mindedly. “Alright, Tiger. Sheathe them claws. I ain’t a twist. Whaddya need?”
Abial looks up from the datapad and brushes her hair out of her eyes, the darkened room partially obscuring the details of her features. For a minute, she looks like a stranger to Serena, rather than one of the most familiar faces in her life. It’s as though something inside Abial has changed – hardened, perhaps – and the shadows are highlighting the difference. But the moment breaks when she speaks.
“We need food and water, for sure. Weapons if you can get ‘em. It’d be good to get some different clothes. We might need disguises, but that depends on what kind of plan we come up with. Come and look at this map and show us what’s been going on.”
Her tone brooks no argument, and Leaf slides off the table gracefully. He might not be a fighter, but he’s got the body and poise of a dancer, with lean muscles visible under his well-cut suit, and surprisingly solid pectorals for his slender frame.
Serena shifts position so she can see better, too. Abial clicks the projector on, and with a few gestures, has a holographic bird’s-eye view of the city floating in the air. Around Leaf’s waist. He smirks and moves a little, then points to a spot directly in front of his hips.
“Tallest buildin’ in the city.” He snickers, but Abial clears her throat, obviously not amused, and he backs up until he’s no longer surrounded by the hologram.
Serena stifles a grin, more entertained by the flirty banter when it’s not directed at her.
“Right, well. Can I mark this? Might be easier.”
Abial offers him a flat rectangular box, and he dips his index finger into it, pressing the pad firmly against the small, clear disc that sparkles there. Now, when he gestures over the map, a line will follow in the wake of his finger. He taps his finger and thumb together, obviously familiar with the device, then starts drawing yellow Xs on the map. Serena shuffles closer and looks on with interest, feeling her features settling into a focused expression, teeth worrying at her bottom lip as she concentrates.
We’re in a difficult situation, any intel we can gather now might be the difference between life
and death, she reminds herself. We need to know where they’ve been, for how long, and where they’re headed. We can’t just stumble around in the dark hoping to happen upon whatever they’re looking for. We’ve gotta figure out what they’re doing. By the time she’s ready to pay attention, Leaf’s marked crosses and an erratic red line across the map.
“Okay, so the soldiers’ve all been movin’ down this line, with for-sure incidents where I done the crosses.”
She struggles to make sense of his slang, and then laughs to herself. Why does he use that ridiculous accent when he’s clearly capable of speaking properly? The points he’s marked on the maps are probably what he mentioned earlier – the raids.
“Oh yeah, where you done them. I see,” she teases him, smiling when he shoots an unheated glare at her.
He grins back wickedly, seeming to find it funny too, then shrugs a shoulder in an eloquent lack of explanation and turns back to the map. There are now eight yellow crosses on the holograph, while the red line trails from the Wall and meanders seemingly randomly across the City. If that’s where the soldiers are focused, it seems likely they’re following someone who knows the City fairly well – someone who’s moving on a strange route to avoid the cameras. If the Institute knew exactly where they were, thanks to facial recognition, they would have been caught by now. So they’re avoiding the cameras like the plague.
Leaf flicks the drawing disc back to Abial, who catches it with telekinesis and pops it back into the case it came from while Serena draws her own conclusions. The soldiers are scrambling. That’s good for us, I guess. Although it might make them difficult to avoid.
“Have you seen or heard anything about what they’re after, what this is all for?” She peers over the map, flicking it with her finger so it spins in the air, then pinching so it zooms in on the first yellow cross. “What happened here?” She’s starting to get a headache, and scrunches her forehead in the hopes of warding it off.
“Power out, which hardly ever happens in the City, as I bet ya know. Cut for six blocks, then another section went dark. Soldiers pitched up pretty fast. I followed them 'cuz they rumbled right pas’ where I was doin’ a job. I was sneakerin’ like, not that they woulda noticed if I’d just joined in and started marchin’ right along with them. They’re all too busy checkin’ their ‘quip, and chattin’ back ta base about a breach. I couldn’t figure out what happened, but they tracked summat ta that buildin’ and went in hard. Grenades, smoke canisters, ya name it. I got outta there 'cuz reinforcements kept showin’ up. Whatever was in there, they wanted it pretty bad. Get?”
Serena shuffles smoothly onto a handy desk and settles in, gesturing for him to continue. She does indeed ‘get.’ So, there’s a big palaver over goodness knows what, and something that seems to have caused a huge power cut, which is totally weird. All that, plus soldiers heading round the city like ants from a damaged hive.
She sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. Okay, we can do this. We’ve just gotta figure out where the soldiers are, not go there, and somehow get ahead of them to find the target. Easy. Internal sarcasm aside, this is obviously not going to be a cut-and-dried mission. She wishes there was someone else with them, someone else she could spitball ideas with. The fact that Leaf is around is relieving some of the tension between herself and Abial, but it would be a huge load off to have Kion, or anyone really, to brainstorm with.
Meanwhile, Abial continues to make notes as Leaf spins the map so he can point out a building near the first yellow cross.
“I chatted brief-like with the body who owns this apartuh.” His pronunciation of ‘apartment’ is weird enough that Abial snorts a little huff of air out of her thin-bladed nose, but he pays no attention to her and continues with his story, clearly completely comfortable with his bizarre way of speaking.
Serena likes him, she decides. He’s a silly little toe rag, though. He’s also taking entirely too long to tell us what we need to know. “Alright, can we get to the point? Clock’s ticking ...”
Leaf looks slightly hurt, but continues at a faster pace. “And he said that before the place went dark, two soldiers had demanded he shut his buildin’ down, hard. No one in or out. So they’re after a body. Ain’t been able to hear any description, or nothin’ helpful, though. The soldiers were diggin’ round in that buildin’ for hours, but when they went they only left a two-man guard. Intrestin’ fact... a bunch of them ended up with bandages on their hands, but I dunno what happened to them. They booted back ta their base, clearly on a dead trail, like. Then I guess they got more orders, or a clue as what they were after, 'cuz they kicked off again the next day and done four more buildin’s like the first. Three more today. They’re still guardin’ the empty buildin’s, but not heavy-like, and no one’s been allowed back in. I could get ya in, if ya want a looksee yerselves?”
“Huh. But they’re just hopping from building to building, shutting stuff down and not caring that the Citizens are getting creeped out? Weird. Is there an official story?” Serena asks, steepling her small hands in front of her face, elbows resting on her knees. She feels confused, and a little out of her depth, but is determined not to show it.
“Stuff on the wire is all ‘terrorist this, terrorist that.’ They never come up with anything new, do they?” Abial replies, clicking her fingers together furiously, text streaming over the top of the holograph. “According to this news site, there’s a dangerous terrorist on the loose, who’s stolen something important from the governor. No information about what that could be – not that I’d believe it anyway – but there’s a reward offer for any information.” Her voice is terse and business like, and Serena breathes out slowly, thinking.
“Well they’ve obviously lost something. And whatever it is that’s gone, and whoever it is that stole it, we want them. Obviously. Is there any pattern to the buildings the soldiers have been attacking? Anything we can use to predict where this mystery character might go next?”
She runs her fingers through her hair, getting caught up in the problem, and zooms in and out on the map to check for information about the locations. Apart from the fact that they’re in some sort of line, jagged though it is, she can’t seem to work out why they’ve been chosen. They look totally random – a bank, a school, office buildings, a storage facility, and then three places that aren’t big enough to be identified on the map. Maybe shops or other businesses. None of them are owned by the same people, according to the info Abial is pulling up and flicking onto the holo for them to read.
She racks her brain for reasons she would choose a place if she was on the run, and frowns. She wouldn’t be going to the sort of places the runner is; the number of people in the areas chosen alone should guarantee that the person wouldn’t get away clean. No, she’d be aiming to get out of the City. There must be something the person wants in the buildings, or maybe they can’t travel far? She tries to figure out what the longest distance between any two of the focal points is – less than three kilometres, if she’s doing her math correctly. Nothing that couldn’t be jogged inside half an hour, even by someone who was pretty out of shape. If the streets are overrun by the Institute, though, there might not be a reason for the selections. It could be that they feel safer inside, and are just moving to stay ahead of the soldiers. Urgh. Come on, Serena. You can’t mess this up. Think!
Abial spends a few minutes in silence as well, scanning the nets for useful information, while Leaf wriggles his nose from side to side, swooping eyebrows narrowed in concentration. Then he brightens suddenly, unhunching himself and waving a hand in the air to get their attention.
“They’re all wired!’” he exclaims, excitement filling his hushed voice. “All the buildings’re on the original wire trunk, holdin’ massive servers. Maybe the terrorist chap needs a pluggable connex for summat, not just wireless. Look!” He takes the datapad right out of Abial’s hands so quickly that she’s still blinking at the empty space where it was when he starts typing away on the touchscreen, pullin
g up and discarding things so rapidly that Serena can’t even make out what they are.
Pickpocket, she’d bet on it. She snerks at Abial’s mildly shocked expression, then looks back at him.
“Aha!” He taps again, and the city map is overlaid with a blueprint that shows massive swathes of wiring under the city. The original underground power lines for the entire City’s grid. Serena’s eyes scan the map, and then the blueprint over it, her heart racing. Leaf is right – every building hit is at a terminal point on the wires, meaning direct access to the City’s power if you manually spliced in. That would explain the electricity cuts, for sure.
It seems that whoever they’re chasing needs power, lots of it, for whatever they’re doing.
Leaf pauses, his face suddenly growing serious, concern painting his features. “Nukeslints! If I figured it out this fast, either the soldiers are thicker’n rocks, or they know too.”
“And they’re probably already on their way to the next stop.” Serena finishes his thought for him, mind flashing through the possibilities. Whoever this person is, they’re taking a traceable route. The soldiers have to be on to it, which means they’re probably waiting at the next building. If Serena and Abial are going to get there first, they don’t have much time.
She nods, pursing her lips. “You’re right, there’s no way they missed this. Not with the sort of tech they’re running. Look, there’s three buildings that make sense as a next stop, and four more a little further out, if this person is willing to move an extra klick. So she could be hiding in any one of these seven locations!”
“She?” Leaf raises a sharp eyebrow, black eyes glittering like oil. “Why she?”
Serena smirks, raising an eyebrow back at him. “Why not? Anyway, if they’re sending the Institute scrabbling like this, it doesn’t matter who they are. Just that we get to them first. They’ve got to be important, and that means we need them.”
