Weight of Ashes

by Rook Winters

  A heavyset woman in a uniform with the train company’s logo barreled into the car. “You two need to go to your seats until the train departs.”

  “Why?” Elle asked.

  “Policy, safety, it doesn’t matter. It’s the rules.”

  “When does the train leave?”

  “In a few minutes. You need to go now.”

  The woman stood there waiting for them to leave. Elle started to give her a dirty look but thought better of it. They couldn’t afford to draw any extra attention to themselves.

  “Come on,” she said to Court and grabbed his hand to pull him after herself.

  “Where are we supposed to go?” he whispered.

  She didn’t answer, just led him through the next passenger car and into a lavatory. Court surveyed the cramped space, confused at first.

  “Is this for, you know…”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Stop talking.”

  Being so close to him in the tiny space, she noticed the lingering scent of soap. For the first time since they’d met, he didn’t smell like dirt and old sweat.

  Finally.

  A series of chimes played followed by a gentle vibration.

  “I think that means the train is moving,” Elle said. “Let’s go.”

  They squeezed out into the hallway. A man who didn’t look much older than Court grinned and winked at them. Elle rolled her eyes as they passed him.

  They went back to the dining car, which didn’t remain empty long enough for them to talk.

  Elle said, “Come on, let’s see if they have any public tablets.”

  The train traveled at 900 kilometers per hour, floating above the trees using Qyntarak gravity technology. It wasn’t a train like the old ones that she’d heard stories about, more like a long grav flyer or a floating building. Only when Elle looked out a window at the landscape racing by beneath them did she have any sense of the speed. Passengers inside the train had no perception of the incredible speed, which made it easy to walk through the cars.

  They passed through passenger cars of varying comfort levels until a locked door halted their exploration.

  “No passengers beyond this point,” a disembodied voice said.

  “Computer security system. We had lots of those in the center.”

  The door slid open before they could turn around, and the heavyset woman in the train uniform stared at them.

  “Look who it is. You two really don’t like staying in your seats.”

  Elle wrapped her arm around Court’s. “It’s our first train trip. We want to see the whole thing while we can. What’s back there?”

  “Cargo starts here. No passengers allowed.”

  “That’s a shame,” Elle said. “Say, since we’ve got you, we were wondering if there are any public tablets anywhere onboard.”

  “You don’t have your own? I don’t see many young people traveling without wrist computers these days.”

  Elle forced an excessive level of cheerfulness into her voice. “Oh, we sold ours. We’re buying upgrades in the city when we get there. Kind of part of the whole experience for us.”

  “There are network terminals in the observation car, near the front of the train. Just between you and me, though, they’re overpriced considering how slow they are, but that’s all we’ve got.”

  “Thank you,” Elle said.

  They retraced their route and carried on to the observation car, which they found unoccupied. Elle selected a terminal screen that wasn’t visible from the doorways.

  “Ten qynars for thirty minutes. We’re burning through our qynars pretty fast.”

  “What exactly are we doing?”

  “I’m going to use this network terminal to figure out how to get from the train station to the University of Toronto.”

  “Assuming we can get out of the train station. You’re forgetting the little complication of the people expecting us to show up with money that we don’t have.”

  “Right, so I should try to find the layout so we can make an escape plan.”

  Court looked bewildered. Elle got a sick feeling in her stomach, comprehending for the first time the risk of Court’s ignorance about the world. She had grown up sheltered enough. He was completely out of his element.

  When he said nothing, she added, “We also need to find a cheap place to stay tonight.”

  The terminal dinged when she tapped her anonymous currency device against it to confirm the fee for thirty minutes of use. Elle worked quickly but the terminals were sluggish. She tried to keep Court abreast of what she was doing but partway through the second half hour, he drifted off to sleep in his seat.

  She woke him before her third half hour expired to look at a map of the station. She pointed at locations as she explained her plan.

  “The train arrives at what used to be an airport. There’s a security checkpoint where they scan IDs as people leave. Since we don’t have IDs, we go to a special processing area here. Then there’s a hallway to bathrooms that connects to the luggage area.”

  “What’s a luggage area?”

  “It’s where you pick up your bags. You know, suitcases and stuff? It doesn’t matter right now. Just look here. I’m pretty sure we can get our IDs checked then go down the hall and blend in with the other passengers as they leave.”

  “And then where do we go?”

  “It’s about twenty kilometers to the university.”

  “That’s a long walk.”

  “Yes, I thought the same thing. So we go here and get on a public transit shuttle.”

  “I don’t understand what that means.”

  “It’s like a miniature version of the train. It’ll cost us another forty qynars. We should be able to get to the university before it closes.”

  “I thought the university was closed years ago.”

  “Most of it was shut down, but there’s a small part still operating. I mean before it closes for the day. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find a clue. And I found a place nearby to sleep that will take anonymous payment.”

  Court rubbed his hands over his own freshly shaved scalp.

  “Now you look nervous.”

  “That’s because I am.”

  “We’re going to make it work. The people we loved died over this. We’re going to find this Nora Barrett person and we’re going to find out what A2 jackets have to do with this suit and why that matters so much.”

  She prodded the bag at her feet that held the suit. The bag was new to them but definitely not new. Elle hoped something that looked so worn out wouldn’t attract any special attention. And it had only cost seven qynars, an important consideration in her purchasing decision. She’d never had a reason to worry about money beyond the little bit of personal spending allowance she used to get from Dr. Donovan. Now she found herself worrying about what they would do if they didn’t find Nora Barrett right away.

  They’d have 216 qynars left when they reached the university. If answers didn’t come soon, they’d be broke and homeless in a strange city.

  CHAPTER 28: COURT

  “Our IDs were stolen. Someone was dropping off new ones for us. Do you know where that would be?”

  Elle did a sickly sweet voice, making herself sound more like a naive teenager than a nervous fugitive. The guard grunted something unintelligible in response and pointed at a SPECIAL PROCESSING sign.

  “I thought you knew the way already from the map,” Court whispered.

  “I do but we need to look believable. The good news is that so far the layout matches what I saw.”

  They told their cover story again to the bored-looking clerk at the special processing counter, who fished their ID bracelets from a box.

  “You all should get these implanted since you’re old enough,” the clerk said, tapping his own forearm. “A lot harder to get your arm stolen.”

  Elle continued with her faux sweet voice. “Oh, I know. I’ve been saying that for months. I think this’ll be the thing to get us off our behinds a
nd get it done.”

  The clerk scanned their IDs almost absentmindedly, focusing more on Elle’s smile than whatever displayed on his tablet. Court couldn’t blame him. She had an enchanting smile when she let it show.

  “You all have a nice day.” The clerk didn’t look at Court when he said it.

  “I need to use the lavatory,” she said, grabbing Court’s hand and leading him to the hallway. She kept quickening their pace the further they got from the security checkpoint.

  “Keep your head down. Don’t look around,” she said.

  Court did as she instructed. The throbbing of his heart pulsated in his ears. This was the moment of truth. He didn’t want to find out what happens when you skip out on ID forgers in a big city.

  The clerk called after them. “Ms. Sir. Just a moment. Hold on a second.”

  “Keep moving,” Elle said.

  They pushed into a throng of several dozen people streaming through the luggage area. A meaty hand pressed on Court’s chest.

  “Our friends from Alma,” the man said. He was big, too big for Court to brush aside. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

  “We need to go,” Elle said.

  “Not yet. We haven’t concluded our business.”

  “Yes, we have.”

  “You still owe us.”

  “We paid in Alma.”

  “No, you didn’t. And here we charge extra for cash on delivery.”

  Court could hear the clerk shouting after them from the hallway, his voice growing closer.

  “Help, security,” Elle screamed. She waved frantically at a nearby security guard. “He’s trying to rob us. Help.”

  The guard began moving in their direction. The big man took his hand off Court’s chest, his eyes darting around the room, assessing. People had slowed and stopped walking to stare at them. From further away, several people started running. Two were dressed like the security guard, one was not. The closest guard pulled a stick from his belt. It looked like the Scorpion baton that had killed Marsh.

  Elle kicked the man in the groin. He yelped and doubled over.

  “Run,” she said.

  Court chased her toward an outside door. The security guard yelled something at them as they ran past. Court glanced over his shoulder and saw the guard attempting to talk to the man Elle had kicked.

  They barged through a glass door into the warm Toronto air. Elle yanked a headscarf off a woman waiting outside.

  “Sorry,” Elle said as she ran off with the scarf.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Working on that,” she said. “There.” She veered toward a sign that read TOUR CARS.

  Court followed her into a bulbous black machine. Its door closed behind them automatically.

  “Downtown,” Elle shouted. “Hurry.”

  “Please state your destination,” the machine said.

  “Downtown,” she repeated.

  “Please state a specific destination.”

  “Uh, the CN Tower, or whatever it’s called now.”

  “Destination accepted. Please approve payment.”

  Elle fumbled with her bag and slapped the anonymous currency device on a scanner.

  “Payment authorized.”

  “Hurry. Please,” Elle said, the panic undisguised in her voice.

  As the machine moved away, Court saw a security guard, the clerk, and one of their other pursuers swinging their heads back and forth, unable to determine where Court and Elle had gone.

  “Here,” Elle said. “Help me get this headscarf on.”

  Court held the fabric while Elle wrapped it around her head.

  She pulled the ID bracelet off her wrist. “These IDs are obviously useless. Good thing we didn’t pay for them. Open window.”

  The computer responded to her command and part of the shell of their moving bubble retracted, letting in fresh air and wind noise. Elle threw her ID bracelet out the opening.

  “Yours too.”

  Court tossed his after hers.

  “What’s at the CN Tower?”

  “Nothing. It was the only landmark I could remember, and we should be able to walk from there. It’s just far enough away that even if they track this car, they won’t know where we’ve gone.”

  “Are you sure?”

  CHAPTER 29: PETRA

  Petra watched the video feed as L37 and her unknown male companion exited a car near the base of the CN Tower. L37 was smart to cover her face with a scarf but it was pointless unless she was going to separate from the guy. His face was in the database now and the facial recognition systems would flag him whenever he showed up on an accessible video feed.

  Petra had gotten lucky with the car’s video after L37 had shown up on multiple cameras in the station. If they went on foot now, she’d lose them. The old Toronto downtown was a hive of squatters and drifters. Camera installations didn’t last a week in a place like that, not even modern models that were almost invisible and difficult to detect. Some people had strong feelings about being watched.

  Can’t blame them.

  With the car door open, the sun glare overwhelmed the camera and she couldn’t tell which direction the pair was going. A moment later, a grime-smeared man with a wild beard and toothless grin took over the car’s interior. Petra shut off the video as he started unbuttoning his shirt. She couldn’t stop a small smirk—the car company would be spending its profit from the previous fare to clean the interior.

  Time to tell the team.

  She was taking a risk waiting so long. If she was lucky, they would mobilize without asking questions and no one would ever compare the time stamps on the video archives with the time she raised the alert. She could only hope it would give L37 enough time to get well hidden. Petra tapped a button on her wrist computer.

  “This is Petra. L37 is in Toronto.”

  “Roger that,” Wilkes replied. “Boss, you copy?”

  “Copy,” Kane said. “Everyone to the flyers. Petra, transmit details. We leave in ten minutes. Let’s go get our little runaway.”

  CHAPTER 30: COURT

  Court felt dizzy looking up, trying to comprehend the incredible height of the buildings that seemed to reach to the clouds.

  “Is this what all cities are like?”

  Elle shrugged. “Some of them, from what I’ve heard and seen in pictures. I came here once but not to this part. That’s how I knew about the CN Tower. Dr. Donovan pointed it out to me when we flew in. You used to be able to go up there to eat.”

  “Why would anyone want to climb up there to eat? How does the food even get up there?”

  “You didn’t climb. It had lifting devices that carried you up.”

  “People used to do weird things.”

  “We should get moving. It’s a couple kilometers to the university.”

  While they walked, Elle showed him the display on their anonymous currency device.

  “Only 182 qynars left. That private car ride wasn’t cheap.”

  “How much money are we going to need?”

  “Hard to say, but 182 isn’t much.”

  “What do we do when we run out?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The streets were empty of people but piled high with garbage. It stunk like urine and decay. Tall weeds and small trees were taking hold wherever they could, some even sprouting up from the tiny hills of things discarded by humanity.

  They came upon a little girl, filthier than Court would have thought possible. She was pawing through a pile of garbage and didn’t hear them. She recoiled in surprise when they came up beside her.

  “Sorry,” Court said. “We didn’t mean to scare you.”

  The girl snarled.

  “You should be careful, digging around there,” Elle said. “If you cut yourself, you could get an infection.”

  The girl scrabbled around the trash mound, using the pile of detritus as a barrier.

  “She looks half-starved.”

  “She’s feral,” Elle said.
“Living like an animal. Probably doesn’t have a family.”

  “We should help her.”

  “How? We don’t have anything to give her. In a few days, we might not be much better off than her.”

  “But she’s just a child.”

  “I know, but there’s nothing we can do.”

  Elle took his hand and led him away. Court looked back repeatedly. The first few times, the little girl was watching them go. Then her attention returned to the pile of trash. The last time he looked, she was holding some small discovery up to the sky to examine it.

  When Elle released his hand, Court felt a tiny pang of disappointment.

  “So people used to live in these buildings?” Court said.

  “Some of them. They also used to work in them.”

  “What kind of work requires being in a giant building?”

  “I’m not sure, I just know that’s what they used to do.”

  “It’s all so massive. I mean, my whole village could fit in one.”

  “In a small part of one.”

  “It’s hard to imagine so many people.”

  “Imagine how hard it is for people like Dr. Donovan or Marsh who remember it.”

  Court’s chest tightened at the mention of Marsh and his breathing grew shallow. He stopped walking and put his hand against a building. It felt rough and cool in the shade.

  “Are you alright?” Elle asked.

  He waved his hand at her, trying to tell her to give him a moment, but she didn’t understand.

  “Breathe, Court. Just breathe.”

  He tried to calm himself but couldn’t. Images of the village swirled in his mind. He saw Marsh falling to the ground, over and over, then the memory of Walker, a bloody hole in his chest and his legs burnt black. The memory of the smell came with the images and he convulsed until he coughed up the contents of his stomach, the morning’s breakfast oatmeal still recognizable all these hours later.

  His hand shook as his wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

  “Sorry,” he said, stammering a little.

  “Let’s sit down for a minute.”

  She led him across the street to steps that went into an alcove at the base of a building where they would be in the shade.