The Ghost and the Machine

by L B Garrison

  Standing on tiptoes, she pulled herself up to the polished surface of the letters.

  Reflected in the metal was a heart-shaped face with an upturned nose and those peculiar, peach-colored eyes. The girl’s face. Even in dreams, people retained their own image. That’s why she didn’t have a tattoo. It wasn’t her body. The metal crumbled in her hand.

  Her legs stopped working. Mandy dropped to the floor, pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. The last hug from Sage, Landan’s kiss and the birthday card from Mom she hadn’t opened. The girl’s story was ludicrous. Insane. Stupid, even.

  But, it might be true.

  Mandy’s eyes stung. She wiped the tears and stared into the gloom. The ache in her chest had nothing to do with her physical injuries. At least the pain kept her from being empty.

  “They’re all dead,” she whispered.

  Mandy’s hand slipped to the Tamashii. She pulled until the chain snapped. The lifeless amulet lay heavy in her hand, mocking her. She let it fall to clink against the floor.

  “I’m dead.”

  The air was cold, the rain dripped, the sound of falling water filled the silence of the ruin—and everything was different.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  M

  andy reached out in the darkness. Broken stone blocked the way forward. Another dead end. Despair squeezed her heart. She had no choices left. This was the last twisted warren through the debris big enough for her to explore.

  She squirmed out of the snug burrow and sat in the lobby, surrounded by furniture and piles of broken concrete. Far above and out of reach, the sky shone through gaps in the ceiling. The weight of all the things she had never done and all the words she had never said pressed against her, making it hard to breathe. Tension built in the corners of her eyes. She bit her lower lip. No. She had cried until the rain stopped and solitude closed in. With Bailey and Alex’s fate unknown, Cisco only had her. She couldn’t dwell in the past while the present fell apart. Cisco at least still needed her. She had to find a way out and get him to safety before the girl returned to claim their shared body.

  The building shuddered again. Mandy held her breath and closed her eyes until the shaking stopped. Each quake was worse than the last. She sneezed as the dust settled. Near the wall on the street side of the building, a dark fissure gurgled with the sound of rushing water. It might be the only way out, but it promised danger too.

  Something slid through the dust behind her. Fabric whispered. Cisco?

  Mandy’s heart leaped. She scampered to her feet and ran back to the stairs.

  Cisco was sitting up, resting on one elbow. He looked up at her approach.

  Mandy wrapped her arms around him and held on tight. She might be skipping a few levels of intimacy doing this, but the loneliness of this tomb and the girl’s revelations had left her empty. And she didn’t even understand how deeply she was shaken until she felt the touch of another human being.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. “Good morning sunshine.”

  Cisco’s body, warm from being huddled in the tapestry, flooded Mandy with thoughts of Landin. She should let go. Landin was long dead and this seemed wrong, but Cisco put his strong arms around her and she melted into his embrace. At least for the moment, she wasn’t alone.

  “Bailey’s right,” Cisco said, “the sunshine bit isn’t funny.”

  Mandy let go and sat watching him. “It’s kind of funny. I practiced the line in case—for when you woke up.”

  Cisco looked around at the damaged room. “Something about falling,” he mumbled.

  She looked away. “The stairs buckled and I slipped. You tried to save me, but we both fell.”

  He turned to the stairwell. “The upper floors collapsed. How did we get here?”

  “I dragged you on the banner. Stop working out, by the way. You’re too heavy.”

  He chuckled, then winced. “I’m lucky you’re so strong.”

  “My super strength works when it wants. That was pure girl-power.” Mandy stared at the cracks in the tile beside her hands. “You shouldn’t keep risking yourself for me. I’m just a stranger to you.”

  The rain and wind started again. Streams of water drizzled from the splintered ceiling. Lousy weather.

  He fingered the tapestry. “I wouldn’t have let you fall even before I owed you.”

  “You don’t owe me, Cisco. I don’t keep score.” The knot in her throat grew, but she pushed the words out. “I don’t know where Bailey and Alex are. Better off than us, I hope. Can you reach them with your cell phone telepathy?”

  Cisco frowned in concentration. He sat up and grimaced.

  Mandy touched his arm. “Careful.”

  “I’m all right, for the most part. I can’t reach Bailey. If the signal repeaters are down, the wall might be too thick to get a signal through. We need to find them.” He scanned the cracked floor around him.

  Mandy rose unsteadily to her feet. “I couldn’t find the rifle, if that’s what you’re looking for, but you have your pistol. To help the others, we’ve got to get out of here. I did some looking and there might be a way, but I don’t think it’s safe. It’s been kind of a rough day, huh?”

  Cisco struggled to stand. “I’ve had worse, regrettably.”

  Mandy reached an arm behind Cisco’s back and tried to steady him, but her tired muscles trembled more than they helped.

  A fluttering, like paper streamers in the wind mixed with the noise of rain and thunder. Mandy peeked over Cisco’s shoulder. In the far corner of the ruined lobby, a golden glow dodged among the broken columns. Had the girl returned?

  Mandy patted Cisco shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”

  She crept toward the glimmer, around a hole in the crumbling floor and peeped through the crack in a column. Two folded paper butterflies sat on the floor, one behind the other, fluttering their wings nervously and casting a sunny-yellow glow on the broken tile.

  Another origami butterfly flew in a widening spiral, trailing sparkles like a fairy in the ruins.

  Mandy stepped away from the column and smiled for the first time since the fall. “Where did you come from, little one?”

  “What is it?” Cisco asked from behind her.

  Mandy flinched and turned. “I told you to stay there. I’m more mobile than you. At least I could run away.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t listen very well. It’s a guy thing.”

  Mandy rolled her eyes.

  The paper butterfly glided towards them. “I was terrified of what I might find. If I found you at all.”

  Mandy’s heart bumped at the familiar voice.

  Cisco hobbled closer. “Bailey?”

  The butterfly fluttered its wings. “You’ve been injured.”

  “It’s all right, Bailey, I’m fine.”

  “I’m fine too,” Mandy said. Somehow, Bailey had turned folded paper into talking drones. Mandy decided to just go with it.

  The origami bug made a loop around her. “I’d gotten round to inquiring. You’re dustier than I last remember.”

  Mandy crossed her arms. “You’re funnier than I remember. What about Alex?”

  “We were fortunate that our portion of the building remained standing. I’ve tried to enlist building weavers to free you. No luck there, I’m afraid. They’ve all buggered off. There is a way out, but it’s non-optimal.”

  Mandy had only found one possibility in her explorations. “The fissure? It’s the fissure, isn’t it?”

  The fissure was a dark void punched into the floor. A smell, like concrete after a light rain, and the rolling roar of rushing water spilled from the darkness. Mandy’s stomach churned, like the unseen water as she knelt by the hole. “Is it really the only way out?”

  The butterfly landed on Cisco’s shoulder and flittered its wings, getting fairy dust everywhere. “Unfortunately, yes. The drainage line runs to Mirror Lake, but you needn’t travel nearly so far. A few miles downstream is a maintenance walkway leading to Fair
Weather Station. From there, mag-lift trains to the Southwest Biblioteca station depart every fifteen minutes. By the time your mag-lift arrives, Alex and I should be at the station waiting.”

  Cisco stopped pacing. In the last few minutes, he had apparently finished healing. “And this Captain Hajjar that was supposed to be in charge here is meeting us at the Biblioteca?”

  “Yah,” the butterfly agreed and lowered its voice. “Alex isn’t thrilled. They have history, evidently.”

  The tremble in Mandy’s stomach spread to her fingertips. Summer swimming lessons were not her fondest memories. Nearly drowning and coughing up water was bad enough, but the embarrassment? Even worse. She cringed. Better not to dredge up any memories. One led to another. “I only know how to dog paddle. And not so well.”

  The butterfly hopped onto Mandy’s head and vibrated gently, like a sort of long-distance hug. “Cisco is a strong swimmer.”

  Cisco put his hand on Mandy’s shoulder. For the first time, he initiated contact without joking. “Unofficially at least, you’re one of us. We take care of each other.”

  Mandy could admit, at least to herself, the warm assurance of his touch comforted her. She was too focused on the dark opening and her mouth sort of went off on its own. “It would be nice to belong somewhere. Sorry. What I meant to say was, we can’t both fit through the opening at once. How do we do this?”

  Cisco sat at the edge of the fissure. “I’ll go first and stay on the downstream side of the opening. I’ll be there as soon as you hit the water.”

  With a crackle of paper, the butterfly landed on the fissure’s edge. “I’ll use the other origami animals as relays to remain in contact and guide you to the station. Cisco will be able to use my light to find you.”

  With the disassembler cloud creeping closer, they didn’t have time for Mandy to get her nerve up. She shook herself and met Cisco’s eyes. “I guess that’s it then.”

  Cisco sat at the edge with his feet dangling in the darkness. “Be right behind me. All right?”

  Mandy nodded and moved next to him. Was it her imagination or did she really feel the heat from his body?

  The butterfly plunged into the darkness, briefly illuminating the rough sides as it dropped.

  “Here we go,” Cisco said and dropped after the butterfly.

  Mandy scooted to the edge. She really should have asked how far the drop was. Maybe it was best she hadn’t. She pushed off. Jagged stone scraped her back and then air rushed through her hair.

  She hit feet first. Her head went under the rumbling water. Bailey’s light flickered and faded, blocked by several feet of raging, cold water. Mandy hadn’t wanted to be separated from Cisco and had hurried to follow. Stupidly, she hadn’t taken a big breath. Her pulse thrummed in her ears. Which way was up? Where had the light been? She remembered something about watching the way the bubbles went, but she couldn’t see anything anyway.

  Mandy kicked and clawed in the direction she thought was up. Her lungs burned and she swallowed dirty water. Yeah, this was pretty much like summer camp, except colder. And the way she thought this would go, really.

  Her head broke the surface. She gasped for breath.

  “Cisco!” Mandy screamed into the gloom. Her voice didn’t carry far in the din of the turbulent water. She kicked and kept her arms moving, but only managed to keep her chin above the flood. Mostly. The cold stole her strength.

  Bailey’s light had seemed bright, but here the space was bigger, more of a cavern than a pipe. Grit and water blurred Mandy’s vision. The light from the fissure receded into the distance. She tried to turn around in the water. Panic crawled up her throat. Cisco was here somewhere. She had to focus. If she could find him and get his attention, it would be alright. It would. A wave broke over her and she went under again.

  She hadn’t been ready. Her lungs fought to breathe against her will. She clamped her mouth shut to keep the grimy rainwater out. Something struck her hard on the hip. Mandy swept through the water with her hands and hit it again.

  She grabbed a fistful of fabric.

  Hands turned her around. Arms enfolded her waist.

  Mandy broke the surface with a whooping gasp, arms flailing. The butterflies fluttered above the choppy water in the distance, presumably looking for her. One of them darted closer to them.

  Cisco held her back against his chest. “It’s all right. Kick. Help me keep us up.”

  Mandy moved her legs, copying Cisco’s rhythm. Her muscles burned and she was pretty sure only the adrenaline kept her moving. It took a few moments before she had the breath to speak. “You’re late.”

  Cisco touched his forehead against the back of Mandy’s head. “Sorry. The current is swifter than I thought.”

  Mandy took a deep breath and let it out, amazed at how good breathing felt when she paid attention to it.

  An origami construction zipped above them. Mandy couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be.

  A paper butterfly hovered overhead. “We’re beneath the utility platform. The walkway will be coming up presently. On your right. I cannot spread out these relay moths much further. You’ll be on your own soon.”

  To the right, the darkness along the water was black and the shadows above were gray.

  “Let’s move to the wall,” Cisco said.

  Mandy kicked and Cisco guided them diagonally across the stream. The shapes became dark and solid.

  Mandy reached up and touched a smooth surface a couple of feet above the water. She took Cisco’s hand and placed it on the platform. “Here.”

  Mandy pulled until her midriff cleared the water. Her arms trembled and she couldn’t lift herself any further. Pressure on her bottom pushed her high enough, so she could get a knee on the platform.

  “Is that your hand?” She asked.

  “I’m not enjoying this either.”

  Mandy crawled onto the smooth stone. “I can’t decide if I’m insulted or not.”

  The girl from the lobby leaned against the wall with one hand over her mouth. “I’ve stood on the hulls of battlecruisers in hard vacuum with that body. Oxygen is unnecessary. Watching you struggle and drown was disturbing. Pathetic, really.”

  “And here I thought you were going to be sympathetic. At first.” Mandy collapsed onto her back, breathing hard. She frowned at a thought. “You’re not sympathetic to anyone are you? People are just numbers to you. Have you ever looked into these sociopathic tendencies?”

  In a blur, the blonde straddled Mandy’s waist. Their noses almost touched. “I am not like her. Do you hear? Oh, and I’m here to tell you—it’s coming. You should be moving your ass right about now.”

  Then she was gone.

  The butterfly landed on the damp stone. “Talking to yourself, love?”

  Mandy turned her head to face the little paper creation. “Apparently. I don’t have much hope for the relationship.”

  Far down the tunnel, the line of origami insects glowed faintly. The gurgling water echoed in the darkness.

  The butterfly stretched its wings. “You’re a strange bird. I can’t fathom you half the time.”

  “Eventually, everyone says something like that to me, though usually it doesn’t sound so British.”

  Cisco collapsed beside Mandy. He was just a dark outline in the butterfly’s glow. “You all right?”

  Mandy smiled in the darkness. “Yes. I guess I owe you one.”

  “We’re not keeping score, remember.”

  “Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.” Mandy reached out to the dark shape and almost touched him. Psycho-girl might be right, but it had felt like drowning. Cisco was always there when she needed someone. Her stomach trembled, like first date jitters. Her emotions were all jumbled up and the situation didn’t allow her time to untangle them.

  She let her arm fall straight back over her head. A warm yellow light snapped on, revealing a stone wall opposite the water. Mandy tilted her head back and looked at the wall. The glow came from a hexagonal panel. It wasn
’t bright, but Mandy had to shade her eyes with her hand until they adjusted.

  “It must be motion sensitive,” Cisco said.

  “I guess so. My arm must have moved through the detection field.” She forced herself into a sitting position. Her muscles ached and every movement took extra effort, like gravity had doubled. They were at one end of a platform that stretched away into the darkness. “I have a feeling we should get moving.”

  The butterfly hopped onto Cisco’s arm and climbed to his shoulder. “There is a way out. That way.”

  Cisco got to his feet. “You’re not pointing anywhere, Bailey.”

  The butterfly gave an exasperated shake of its wings. “I am. My legs are miniscule. To your right.”

  Each light came on and then faded as the next one lit. The path wasn’t wide enough for two people, so Mandy let Cisco lead. He made attempts at conversation, but her short answers doomed the effort.

  She didn’t mean for it to happen, but her thoughts distracted her from any interaction. As they passed each light, she fell into a pattern of checking the empty space on her wrist where the mood-tat used to be. Developing a compulsory habit didn’t bode well for her mental health.

  She touched her shoulder and clutched the damp fabric. Beneath it was the warmth of her skin. She felt her heart beat. Her gut said she was alive, no different than ever before. But her reflection? It wasn’t her face. Thoughts of everyone she had left behind crowded her and added to the heaviness of every movement. If she let the sadness win, she would just stop, and that wasn’t fair to the others.

  Cisco looked over his shoulder. “Mandy, you’re being awfully quiet.”

  Mandy tried to smile and failed. “It’s not like me, I know. Just thinking.”

  One thing was for sure: Mandy would do her best to get Cisco, Bailey and Alex out of the current danger. Beyond that, she had no idea what to do.

  The next light came on as the one behind them faded. The girl stood in the yellow glow. Mandy stopped.

  Cisco paused, but only looked at Mandy, like he couldn’t see the girl. Apparently, compulsory habits were the least of Mandy’s worries.