Sketches

by Teyla Branton

  Nova wanted to cry, but she wouldn’t let him or anyone see her do that. Not anymore. Still, the harness mattered enough for her to ask, “Can you get it back?”

  “I’ll try.”

  She hugged him then, and he held her tightly the way her daddy had, never mind her stinky hair or her disobedience. “I love you, uncle.”

  “I love you too. Now go. I’ll check on you tomorrow. I have to meet with someone or I’d take you there myself.”

  “I got it.” Nova drew away and started down the streets, keeping to the shadows. She had a CivID card stashed in one of the lockers near the sky train, along with a blocker for it that she hadn’t wanted the clippers to get a hold of. With the card, she’d have access to the train and be home within the hour.

  Her steps faltered before she’d gone far. Her uncle said he was meeting someone. Who? Before she’d fully made the decision, she was winding back through the dark buildings. Her uncle was still waiting where she’d left him, and he didn’t seem to be watching her progress on his iTeev.

  She hunkered down behind a set of stairs leading into an apartment building. Her hand went to a pocket, pulling out a handful of pretzels she’d taken from the woman’s bowl. It was all she’d eaten since breakfast at the Underground, never expecting her stakeout to last so long. Her uncle was right—she wasn’t fully trained, but it was one more lesson, and it wasn’t as if she hadn’t gone without eating for much longer in the past. Unhappy memories of when they’d first escaped Colony 4 threatened to distract her, but as miserable as that time was, at least her dad had still been alive. She pushed back the memories and concentrated on her uncle.

  She didn’t have long to wait. A big man with a black ponytail sauntered down the street toward his location, not bothering to hide his presence, walking with confidence and the grace of the fighters on the show that was broadcasted through the Teev every Saturday night. Gruesome, violent fights her father hadn’t let her watch when he was alive, but that she never missed now. He seemed vaguely familiar even at this distance, so maybe she’d seen him somewhere before, and if she waited until he came a little closer, she’d remember where.

  The man stopped and began talking with her uncle, who remained in the shadows. The big man handed him something before turning away and resuming his march through the streets. Nova pressed herself against the side of the stairs as he passed.

  Recognition flooded through her. She had seen him today, coming out of the woman enforcer’s apartment building. But that wasn’t all. She’d also seen him in the crowd yesterday at the Fountain. He wasn’t just anyone; he was an enforcer.

  Chapter 14

  TY DRANK DOWN the rest of his chotks as he waved his iTeev over the table’s charging device, transferring the credits to the bar. “Are you sure you have to go? This is fun.”

  Lyssa laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure.” She needed to get a few hours of sleep before Tamsin woke up and began another of her curious, question-filled days. She also had to work the half shift she’d exchanged with another dispatcher so she could attend Tamsin’s school on career day, but she didn’t have to be in until noon. “Don’t want to be too bleary-eyed at work.”

  “Oh, come on, we know you guys in dispatch have far too much time on your hands. I’ve seen those doilies your sister crochets.” His tone told her he was joking.

  “The funny thing is she never actually finishes one. She just pulls out the stitches every night.” She lowered her voice, aware that she was a bit tipsy. “She learned how from a tutorial on the Teev, and she isn’t very good. But it keeps her alert while she’s listening to the dispatch channels. When we work together, she always beats me to a call when they come in. And there are a lot of calls.” The job did have lulls, but for the most part, they were active here at Amarillo Division. More than she’d anticipated.

  “It’s a big division. We have more than double the employees here in Amarillo City than in any of the other Dallastar divisions. Plus, we keep an eye on two of Dallastar’s three colony subdivisions.”

  “I’m glad it’s busy. I mean, not for the crimes themselves.” Most of them involved domestic violence, petty theft, and drug calls. No, she was glad to be busy because that kept her from thinking about her life, and about Kansas in particular. “I’m just surprised there are so many.” She stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. “I’d really better go.”

  Ty popped up from the table. “I’ll walk you out.”

  “Okay.” She arose slowly, stumbling a little, and his arm went around her with a lot more willingness than Kansas had ever shown. Ty was the perfect height. Tall enough for her to look up to while wearing heels, but not so tall that she felt like a child.

  His eyes locked on hers. He had pleasant brown ones, and his face was smooth, which told her he’d shaved. How would it feel to rub her cheek against his?

  The next moment they were kissing, and Lyssa didn’t care who saw them. Why had she been avoiding this man? He kissed like a prince, slow and sensual, and she didn’t even think about Kansas.

  Except she had, just then, and it spoiled the moment for her. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t see Ty again, because she hadn’t thought about Kansas or Lyra all evening until now. And she liked Ty. He was fun, witty, and so sweet. Maybe too sweet, but even that was refreshing.

  She let the kiss go on because he was quite amazing at it.

  “I had fun,” she whispered in his ear when they finally came up for air. “Let’s do it again sometime.”

  “I’d like that.”

  He walked her outside to Kansas’s car, and she drove away with a little wave. She made sure he turned toward the sky train station before circling back and following him. Her breath caught in her throat as a man stumbled out of an alley toward Ty. Was he an attacker?

  No, just an old saucebag who’d had far too much. She expected Ty to step around him, but he stopped and something exchanged hands. Was Ty helping the old man or buying a trinket from him? Usually punks were careful about approaching division employees, not wanting to be hauled off to a colony where they wouldn’t pester responsible folk, and this bar was a common haunting place for enforcers and other division workers. No way would this guy approach Ty unless he had some idea that Ty wouldn’t report him.

  The old man bowed three times, and Ty moved on. Probably, he’d given him a few cash credits. Most transactions were accomplished through the iTeev feed, but some still carried plastic “cash” credits with different amounts coded into the internal chips. These were used to avoid an electronic trail, though Lyssa suspected the chips weren’t completely devoid of information.

  Maybe Ty was just a nice guy. He hadn’t even invited her back to his place.

  She frowned. Why hadn’t he?

  No one else approached Ty or followed him, and Lyssa released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. No one had followed him for her sake, at any rate. But she did intend to see him again, so she hoped Jaxon and the others discovered more information at the Coop tomorrow.

  No, today. It was after two now. She fumbled for the automatic controls. “Take me home,” she said.

  “Destination, home,” said the onboard Teev. “Estimated time of arrival, two forty-five.”

  Lyssa angled back the seat and closed her eyes, letting herself drift. No time seemed to pass, and before she knew it, she was traveling. Traveling to Lyra.

  Lyra wasn’t sleeping, but sitting up in bed watching a holo on the Teev. Not a feed but a recording of her wedding to Kansas. The young couple that had been Kansas and Lyra were kissing, their faces radiant. The real Lyra touched her lips, apparently reliving the moment. A tear skidded down her cheek.

  “I know you’re here,” Lyra whispered.

  Lyssa grabbed on with more energy to the room, knowing this would make her visible to her sister. “Oh, sweetie, tell me what happened.” Lyssa’s voice didn’t make a sound in the room, but Lyra’s face jerked in her direction.

  “Our application for a birt
h order was denied again. The message came in after dinner.”

  “What? That’s crazy! You both make good money. You’re stable.”

  “They said we already have a child.”

  “But every couple is supposed to be able to have two.” In theory, having two children would mean a couple had “replaced” themselves.

  “Well, they’ll only approve as many births as they’ve recorded deaths, and all the orders given out this year went to first time parents. They say people aren’t dying until much older these days and that we might never get another order.”

  And there it was, the desire that had become a wedge between the sisters—and between Lyra and Kansas. Without a birth order, there would be no child. Period. No exceptions. No backdoors. Now wasn’t like ten years ago, before mandatory birth control implants, where you could choose to rebel against the state or accidentally forget your pills like Lyssa had done. These days everything was different. Even if Lyra was desperate enough to risk being sent back to a colony—which was unlikely because she wouldn’t take Tamsin there and she was officially responsible for the child—no doctor would remove her implant without a birth order.

  “I’m so sorry,” Lyssa whispered.

  Lyra nodded. “I know.”

  Chapter 15

  JAXON SLEPT POORLY on Reese’s floor, pestered by thoughts of unseen attackers with knives, who laughed hysterically while jabbing the blades into Reese’s flesh as he watched, unable to move, pinned to the cold sidewalk by a teenage giant wearing Nova’s face. Just when he’d pushed those to the back of his head, new thoughts of Reese tumbled through his dreams: the smooth skin of her bare arms, the touch of her lips on his, her wide eyes as she drew the vision he’d had of his dead mother.

  He finally gave up the idea of sleep and arose to scrounge around in Reese’s kitchen for something to eat. He’d made good headway into the leftovers her aunt had given her before she appeared, looking rested, perfectly healthy, and ready for another day at the office in her enforcer blues.

  “I saved you some,” he said somewhat guiltily, because they both knew the half servings left in the containers really weren’t enough for a meal.

  She laughed and rolled her eyes. “I can see you restrained yourself. Don’t worry. This early, all I want is coffee. I’ll throw a couple of readymeals in my bag in case we get hungry on the way. Who knows what they’ll have to offer at the Coop.”

  He shrugged. “I seem to remember they had stores just like everyone else.”

  “I don’t know. I never had money to buy anything in one.”

  Her eyes didn’t leave him, and he was too self-conscious to finish his food under her stare. “What?” he asked.

  She folded her arms across her chest, a frown on her face. “Did you know that girl was coming last night? Tell me the truth.” This was his Reese, the girl who was all prickles and steep walls until you managed to earn her friendship. It looked like he would have to do it all over again like he had back in the Coop.

  “No. I told you last night. My premonitions don’t show me everything, and maybe after that glimpse of Dani, my ability was all worn out.” He wasn’t quite telling the truth, because there had been one other vision before their meeting last night—of Reese and him together, his hand gliding along the bare length of her torso.

  Not that he’d expected the premonition to come true last night, knowing her as he did, and he had doubts that it was even a true foretelling at all. But he hadn’t wanted to leave her after the attack, and the knowledge that someone might be out to kill them all had definitely added to his need to stay close. Yes, she could take care of herself, but partners always had each other’s backs.

  She nodded and glanced at the iTeev secured to her uniform sleeve. “Well, you’d better hurry. Eagle will be here soon.”

  He shoveled in the last three bites and swallowed. “Uh, I was thinking we’d go in incognito.”

  She looked down at herself. “No uniforms?”

  “We’ll learn more.”

  “Yeah, but these stop bullets.”

  “There is that. We can stop at division for a vest.” He had two vests waiting for him at his place, made from the same material as their uniforms, but even though they were light and stretchy, they’d be large for her.

  “I have one if I can find it in my boxes.” She turned to leave the room. “You’d better hurry,” she repeated.

  When he emerged from her bathroom, she was dressed in snug black pants, a dark purple blouse that was open just enough at the neck to show him the swell of her breast and a hint of the vest underneath. He grinned in approval. “That’s much better.”

  “We still won’t fit in,” she said.

  “Maybe not, but at least we won’t have people running the other way.”

  The doorman called up to let them know Eagle had arrived. Reese shouldered her bag, and they left, talking rather mundanely about going to lunch for the benefit of the bug in her living room.

  When they were in the hallway, she asked. “Did you send the info to Garrett?”

  “Yeah, in an encrypted file. I’ll also call him later, but I wanted to let him get a few more hours of sleep.”

  “Good idea.” She looked thoughtful as she pushed the button to call the elevator. “We really need to ask Hammer to look into the other colonies. I want to know how many are leaving—if any are leaving.”

  “You mean because of the girl?”

  “Yes. Because the welfare colonies exist to help the poor, to give them jobs and homes until they can go out into society. What if . . .?”

  She didn’t finish, but he understood the implications. If no one ever left a colony, something was very wrong. “It’s absurd,” he said. “Of course they leave. The reason the populations in the colonies hasn’t changed must be due to births and the number of people we send there to be taken care of.”

  “I know, but Nova seemed very certain that we were from Colony 6 just because we were out.”

  “She’s a punk kid. We can’t trust her. But . . .”

  “What?”

  Pressure built in his chest, but he knew he had to tell her. “I looked up two guys I knew from my time in Colony 5, guys I was sure would make it out.”

  “And?”

  “Still there.”

  Her forehead creased. “We have to figure this out.”

  “I’ll talk to Hammer when I see him next.”

  They rode down the elevator in silence to the lobby, where Eagle was waiting, a huge grin on his face. “So, guys, why the long faces?” he asked as they continued to the basement parking where Reese had left the shuttle. “We should be celebrating. It’s not every day we get to go back to our roots. I’m really looking forward to this.” He shook his head, moving his hair away from the dark glasses covering his eyes.

  Jaxon sat in the shuttle driver’s seat, but he selected the Teev-assisted option. “Take us to Colony 6. Maximum speed.”

  “Destination, Colony 6,” repeated the shuttle. “At maximum speed, our estimated arrival time is eight thirty.”

  “Proceed already, you tin bucket.”

  In the back seat, Eagle squawked a laugh, while Reese simply smiled and rotated her chair around so she could see both Jaxon and Eagle. Jaxon did the same.

  Eagle pulled a deck of old-fashioned playing cards from his pocket. “Don’t these things have a table we can—” He broke off as Jaxon hit a button and the floor in the middle rose. Eagle promptly laid down the cards and a bag of pretzels. “Anyone bring something to drink?”

  Reese accessed the water stores in the side of the shuttle, passing them each a recyclable skin with a flip cap. “The six missing programmers and scientists,” she said after taking a swig. “Where are they from?”

  Jaxon knew what she was thinking, and he shook his head. “None were born in the colonies, if that’s what you’re hoping. So no connection.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Eagle asked.

  Reese gave him the
rundown of Nova’s visit and her claim that no one ever left the colonies. “We were thinking the colony populations might have remained steady with births and those sent there for misconduct,” she said, “but I just had another thought. How many people do you know on the outside who are waiting for a birth order? Wouldn’t those contributing to the CORE have more access to birth orders than those living in the colonies? People in the colonies should be permitted fewer children, if any. Right? I mean, if the goal is to eliminate the colonies altogether.”

  “I seem to remember everyone having children in the Coop,” Eagle ventured. “Maybe it’s different there.”

  Jaxon twisted in his chair to find a more comfortable position. “They still count in our overall population totals.” To Reese, he added, “I think you’re right. There should either be a greater effort at making sure more of the colony children succeed and leave, or that fewer children are born inside.”

  “They used to tell us in school that only one hundred out of a thousand kids would leave,” Eagle remembered.

  Reese’s teeth worried her lower lip. “Unless . . . unless there is some reason they want the children to stay inside.”

  “Colony 6 has only forty thousand people instead of fifty,” Eagle said. “So that’s a step in the right direction—or would be if the ten thousand didn’t seem to be missing. But since they are dead or missing or . . . well, one of us, that’s not very comforting.” He opened the pretzels and proffered the bag.

  Reese took one, but Jaxon shook his head and folded his arms across his chest, closing his eyes. He listened to the others talking, their voices fading as he considered the possibility of no one ever leaving the colonies. No matter what, the idea seemed impossible. Because the CORE—Commonwealth Objective for Reform and Efficiency—was founded on fairness and the good of the whole—a whole which included the poverty-stricken or those unable to care for themselves. They were given housing, food, and an education. What came next was up to them. They could leach off the CORE or work to prove they would contribute. That was how the system had been set up, and while it might not be the kindest situation, he was proof that it worked.