First Shot Page 5

  I run my hand over my face. Another memory blank. I’m driven by someone I don’t recognize. I can’t figure out why.

  I grab the sensor wand from my shelves and pass it over her calves. The tracker slug registers on the little screen. The scalpel makes quick work of it, and then I smash it beneath a brick from upstairs.

  Autopilot kicks in. I peel off my vest and shirt and toss them on the floor. The room is too quiet, so I yank my speaker set from beneath my bed. I use the speakers to mask the noise whenever Teq’s down here. Jin needs her beauty sleep.

  I grin, and it’s out of place—like a tic I can’t control. I almost say so.

  But then, instead of my room, Teq’s face fills my mind...the terror she exuded as she was dragged into the transporter truck. I couldn’t do anything. I push the memory away. She’s dead. If she isn’t, she’s as good as, and I can’t do anything for her now. My first priority is keeping me and Jin alive.

  I tip the speakers upright. They come up to my waist. I found them inside a closet in a bombed-out apartment. It took some work, but I got them working again. I traded a ton of favors for the player. It’s old and I’m always surprised when it works.

  I select something from the “heavy metal” folder. Whoever had this thing before had eclectic musical tastes. They were also extremely organized. Everything is sorted into file folders. I tap the shuffle icon and turn the volume up in increments while I watch the Pink on my bed. I stop just before my ears bleed. My head still hurts, but the throbbing beats in time with the bassline. It’s too loud. I can’t think, so it’s perfect.

  My guest doesn’t budge. I’m guessing she’ll be out for hours, sleeping off whatever happened to her before she arrived.

  Back at the door, I kick off my shoes, unzip my pants, and toss them aside.

  Teq’s face swims in my mind.

  I can’t let Jin die. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe.

  The back of my head is throbbing again. Bits and pieces, blinding flashes of things I didn’t experience. Ideas and memories that aren’t mine. It’s a street war in there. I can’t figure out why. Maybe the shower will fix it. Showers and sex fix most of my problems.

  Naked, I cross the room to my prized possession. We recycled the tiny plastic shower insert. When we got it in, it was like Christmas and Independence Day rolled into one. I pull on a tiny door at the back of my room and reach into the little square to turn the water knob. We never get hot water in the UnderCity, but a quick in-and-out knocks off the dust and smell. And it’s the only shower I’ve ever heard about down here.

  I clamp down on a curse when cool hands flutter against my back. I hadn’t heard Jin come back. Her return is surprising, but a relief for the case of alienation I’m nursing.

  Slender fingers trace my tattoos, up and down my spine. Her bare breasts brush against the bottom of my shoulder blades, and she flicks her tongue against my scars until I shiver.

  She’s carefully attending to the marks I make for every death. Soon, Teq will be listed there, too. My vision blurs. Damned water.

  Jin has blown through every line of propriety between us. And I don’t care. I want her. I want to drink her in. I want her to fix my broken pieces. I want to remember that we’re both alive.

  It’s erotic, primal. She’s licking my wounds, acknowledging my pain, sharing my sorrow. I don’t understand her motivation. If I’m being honest, I don’t care.

  Willowy arms wrap around me and pull me closer, and I can’t help my response. I’m bereft. Teq is gone, and I’m emptied out. My emotions are beyond my grasp. I need a little help to reach them. It worked that way with Teq. It could work that way with Jin.

  No.

  This can’t happen, but the surge of emotions is clouding my logic. I can’t risk it. I love her too much. If I turn around, I’ll ask my friend to my bed, risk everything we already have and my ability to keep her safe. If I turn around, I might break the spell she’s under, and I don’t want her to stop.

  Jin.

  I sigh. Jin is perfect against me. Fantasies of Jin war with memories of Teq. And then I don’t see Teq anymore, only Jin. I can’t let her do something she’ll regret tomorrow morning. I can’t lose her because of one night.

  I’m broken.

  But when I spin, I’m not staring into Jin’s green eyes. I’m staring into a pair of icy blues. I don’t know who this Pink is. I shouldn’t bed her. But I have a weapon under my pillow. “What are you doing?” I ask, and take a step backward. The stranger is seducing me, and I don’t know why.

  She follows, pressing herself against my front. Her wounds have healed. Those injections sure did their job. Her skin is pale and smooth, freckled all over, so different from Teq’s and Jin’s. She makes a feral noise, deep in her throat, and drags her nails over my back. “Please,” she whispers. She’s left her clothes in a pile on the ground.

  “What’s your name?” I could kill her in a heartbeat. The energy pistol is close by, under my pillow. A roar fills my brain.

  “Do you have an itch I can scratch?” she asks, dragging her nails down my front this time. For a nanosecond, I’m sure she said glitch instead, and it catches in my thoughts like a trout on the line. Something is wrong with me.

  She pirouettes away, pushing her hands into her hair as she spins. Now all I can see is her, the soft curve of her waist, the swell of her breasts and the roundness of her hips. She’s different, but so much the same. My resolve weakens, and I forget what had bothered me before.

  Damn it.

  Damn it all to hell.

  She comes close enough to touch. “Call me Wiskee,” she soothes. When she takes my hand, a current flows through me, setting my nerve endings on edge.

  Good sense loses.

  I reach for her and hope she can’t taste the sobs as despair washes over me. I lift her upward to kiss her mouth. My heart is cold, but she’s warm and soft. We’re guaranteed only this moment. Wiskee wraps her legs around my waist and then instead of her face or Jin’s, I see Teq’s.

  Loss short-circuits my sense, and grief is a kind of madness.

  Chapter Six

  LOCUS: ALTER EARTH

  UnderCity

  Bostgo Sector

  Cheers

  Date: 12 Pentian

  Time: 0000

  IN MY ROOM, I KICK the broken chair and the brittle legs shatter, the force sending splinters all across my pallet in the corner. I knock the table over. Teq’s life deserves more respect than Tonick is willing to give it. I am unwilling to believe that he would dismiss her like that. I can’t believe he doesn’t care.

  I fall to my knees on the cover she made for me out of old bits of fabric she’d kept. When Tonick gave me Dyad, she gave me the blanket to replace the tatters I owned before. Teq was good at everything, a compassionate problem solver. Shards of wood stab my knees as I try to clean up the mess I’ve made, but I can’t. Instead, I press my palms over my eyes as the dam breaks and a fresh flood of tears runs down my cheeks.

  Teq is gone. And I can’t change it. I’ll never see her again. I wrap myself in the blanket, and Teq’s spicy scent fills my nostrils. I bury my face in the softness.

  The weeping tide recedes slowly. In its place, I find the need to do something. Anything. I decide on a risky trip through Bostgo.

  I straighten gradually. Tonick’s music is playing now. With her down there, I don’t want to think about what it means. Tonick never uses those speakers unless he’s trying to shut me out. That usually means only one thing.

  More proof he doesn’t care about Teq. I clamp down on an outraged scream.

  A good yank, and my thick-soled boots are on my feet. I’m taking Dyad out. I don’t care about the Corp. I don’t care about GenCor. Pink is just a hair color. I make my own rules. Pain shoots up the side of my face. I’ve been gritting my teeth.

  I can do this. I’m not being foolish. I’m the master of my own destiny.

  I snort. The self-talk sounds like it’s from motivati
onal holo leftovers.

  I tap my wristlet until it buzzes in response. The display begins a countdown. Dyad will be here in less than two minutes. I slip into a different T-shirt and shiny black pants. The clothes aren’t dirt-free. Clean is relative in the UnderCity.

  Antislide leather pants go over my stretchy pants, and the jacket finishes my prep. Finally, I wrap a bandana around my hair.

  Someday I won’t have to wear it. Someday Pinks won’t have to hide.

  I’m so tired of hiding. I’m tired of being on edge. I’m tired of shaving my head. I tuck a dagger in my waistband along with five creds. It’s all I’ve got, and I intend to spend it all on a few minutes of peace.

  I stick my head out of my room and then slip out to the metal catwalk. The walls vibrate with Tonick’s music. Tremors travel through the building and up through my soles. Below the barroom, I can hear other noises now. He could at least have closed his hidden door so I don’t have to hear that.

  Dyad has parked herself by the curb. I vault over the low wall and hop onto the only piece of freedom I own. The wheels fluoresce. She knows how much I like all the flashy bits and lights, and she does it whenever she can.

  “Greetings, Jin,” she says. “What is our destination today?”

  “I don’t have one. This is a ride-about. As fast as Pinkly possible.”

  “Is that wise? The Corp has been conducting sensor sweeps,” Dyad cautions. She frowns at me from the update screen. She has graying hair in a stern bun. Her avatar’s appearance changes with her moods.

  “Switch to manual.” I’m not going to argue with my motorcycle.

  “Confirmed,” she says. She probably senses determination in my bioreadings.

  When I straddle the elongated seat, she smiles at me from the screen. “Ready when you are.”

  And then we’re off.

  I wind up on the Mag Mile, not caring that my pink medusa ’fro is mostly back, whipped from beneath my bandana by the wind, like cotton candy dipped in black. It’s risky, but I need something to take the edge off. Teq is gone, and Tonick has made his feelings clear. If I’d known he’d bed Wiskee, too, I never would have helped her.

  I swipe at a leftover tear. Maybe then he’d have picked me instead.

  No, that’s probably not true. My grimace follows. I’m self-aware enough to know my own lies. I would have helped Wiskee anyway, but I’d have dragged her down the sharp metal stairs by her feet before giving her the injections.

  I send Dyad to hide around the corner while I browse the chemical vendors. The first peddler is selling weapons and fireworks, reciting a monologue about each one as I go. Tonick walked me through and taught me about each of them. My favorites are the six-pointed copper fireball bombs.

  He showed me how they worked on a building across the street. It blew out half the second story. At MidHeight, when you blow off the side of a building, it breaks the fake atmosphere and sucks everything out of the building.

  Scalers climb the sides of the buildings, set the charges, and then base jump. The goodies fall into the UnderCity, where we fight to the death over them. The gang lords always get the best pickings.

  I’ve got a craving for Happy Sticks and the instant euphoria they provide, and I shouldn’t hang here long. I know the woman who sells them. Raina won’t drug me. Well...she won’t drug me more than I want to be drugged.

  “Jin,” Raina says. “What can I get for you?” She waves her hand over her table. “Happy Sticks or Circumstance?”

  “Happy Sticks.” I’m not depressed enough for the other one yet. Circumstance is a brain-blower. It’s a fifty-fifty roulette, designed to make users forget they even have circumstances.

  Most of the time, people don’t even know who they are when they come to. They say GenCor sent it our way to clean out the UnderDwellers. I guess it didn’t work as well as they figured it would. We’re not all suicidal.

  She nods to me. “Let me know when you decide.”

  While I do a scratch-and-sniff run-through of her flavors, I get a whiff of rotting citrus and diaphoresis. Death rot is pandemic. It could be anybody.

  Someone bumps my arm. “Hey, watch it,” I say.

  “How much?” The gravelly voice is familiar. It’s the guy from earlier, the pinch-faced guy who sent me home to find a GenCor Pink bleeding out on my floor. I can’t tell if he’s asking about me or the Happy Sticks.

  I step backward and bump into somebody else, who curses and shoves me back toward Raina’s table and next to the freak who knows too much.

  “I could have turned you in already,” he whispers. “If I wanted.”

  Raina is hovering. Two paying customers could make her night.

  He holds up a hand, fingers spread wide. “I’ll take a sampler.”

  She bustles off.

  “Don’t use all those in one place,” I quip. Five sticks are a ticket to a black hole, and most don’t come back. As far as I can tell, no Circumstance. He must not be suicidal either.

  “I intend to. My time’s almost up. Only a few loose ends to tie up.” He grins, exposing gray teeth and blackened gums. His eyes are red-rimmed. Heat is rolling off him. The death rot has progressed. The LED in place of his other eye doesn’t light up anymore. He staggers and squints at me from clouded eyes. “Where have you been, sweets?”

  I tilt my head as I evaluate him. “Are you all right?”

  He shakes his head and then tugs a dirty rag from his pocket. “No, can’t see as well as I used to,” he says, and uses the bit of fabric to mop his forehead, in control of himself again. “But I don’t matter anymore.” He leans toward me and whispers, “Tonick has plans. Tonick knows things. Did you save her?”

  “What do you mean, ‘Tonick knows things’?” The part he said about her and plans makes me nervous. I squint at the guy. “How do you know Tonick?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Then it doesn’t matter. I deal in what I know.”

  “Then leave town. You have to stay safe, Jin. Bostgo isn’t the only place in Alter Earth.”

  I freeze. “Don’t use my name.” The guy is creeping me out. I push away from him. “Why would I leave? It’s dangerous everywhere.” Isn’t it?

  Bostgo is the end of the world for me. I don’t know anything different. Leaving is out of the question.

  “What if you had a place to go?” he asked.

  “Get away from me, old man.”

  He peers into my face. “Did you help her? Tonick said you would.”

  I laugh, once and without humor. “Fine. Yeah, I helped her. She’s alive.”

  Much to Tonick’s good pleasure, but I don’t say the last bit out loud. I don’t think the old man wants the soap opera that is my life.

  Relief softens the old man’s face. I’m surprised at the tear that leaks from the corner of his human eye. Again, I’m struck with a vague sense of familiarity.

  “Good, good,” he says, as though he didn’t hear my last question. His voice is soft and hard to hear now.

  I frown at him. “Who’s the girl?”

  “The only thing I have left,” he says. He sniffs and wipes his eye. “Her mother was a GenCor scientist. Brilliant. Beautiful. Vibrant.” His hand drifts over his implant. “And then the world changed. Maria wanted a Pink. She obsessed over her work, but I don’t believe she killed all those test subjects. She wasn’t a butcher. She wasn’t Mengele reincarnate. I don’t believe them. It took everything I had to hunt down the last piece of our life.”

  He taps the temple behind the broken implant. Maybe he knew it would kill him but got it anyway. “Once they lost contact with the cryostorage, the UnderDwellers raided it. Tell her we loved her.”

  Raina returns. He takes his package from her and tells her thank you.

  Raina asks, “What can I get you, Jin?”

  “Dealer’s choice.”

  “How many?” Raina’s wobbly on her feet, she’s so excited.

  I hold up three fingers and make her night. A tri
o won’t kill me, but they’ll get me good and heart-numb. Something brushes against my hand as Raina hurries away.

  When I turn back to the man, he’s gone, but he’s left something hanging from my fingers. It’s a beautiful necklace, shaped like the safe place painted on the intersection at Six Corners. My fingers tingle.

  It winks as though trying to communicate, reflecting the bit of light that comes from the barrel fires scattered throughout the Mag Mile. I close my hand around it. Down here, left behind means given away.

  Stars are lucky in the UnderCity.

  Chapter Seven

  LOCUS: ALTER EARTH

  UnderCity

  Bostgo Sector

  Cheers

  Date: 12 Pentian

  Time: 0200

  SOME GUY’S CROONING about his love across the sea. I can hear it all the way out here.

  I guess they haven’t had any more trouble with patrols. I’m not sure I want to go inside, so I’m leaning on the exterior, chewing on a Happy Stick, feeling like a buzzed criminal about to break into a fun house.

  Three sticks have built a humming beehive in my belly and left me wishing a friend could share the thrill. At least the lust didn’t hit until I was almost home.

  Dyad is putting herself away. I’m pretty sure she drove most of the way back. I’m not the steadiest on my feet. My hair is down to my shoulders, and I tuck a handful behind my ear. It’s gotten long enough to tie back, so it’s touching my sweaty neck and driving me crazy.

  I flick the stick wrapper across the road. I’m drifting in euphoria. I don’t even care that Tonick decided to have sex with the newbie instead of me. I’ll care again tomorrow.

  I could have used the comfort. I would have said yes. Maybe next time, then, since my loyalty isn’t dead yet. I hop through the front window, tiptoe across the room, and slip behind the counter.

  The hidden door is still open, but I don’t hear any other noises. Tonick’s getting lazy about security, but at least it makes it easier for me to get into his room.