“NICE DESK,” LYSSA said, faking excitement when in reality disappointment pushed at her. The desk appeared to be real wood, but it was small and lacked the elaborate carvings of the one in Reese’s sketch. Too bad because getting the nyckelira case here wouldn’t have been difficult. She lifted her gaze to meet Lyra’s, who had become visible in the small room. Lyra frowned, sharing her frustration.
“I got that desk in New Jersey,” said Connor Simmons, the HED dispatch manager, whipping out his arm in a flourish and sending it through Lyra’s incorporeal image. “Pre-Breakdown, of course.”
“Of course.” Lyssa gave him a demure smile.
“Full of himself, isn’t he?” Lyra said, rolling her eyes at the man. “Too bad he can’t hear me or I’d make him think the desk was haunted.”
Lyssa managed to hold back a laugh of agreement. Simmons was a little too good looking for her tastes, and in her heels she towered over him, not something she was accustomed to. He wore a marriage band around his finger, the kind that couldn’t be removed until the marriage was broken. While not yet mandated by the CORE, it was all the rage, and Lyssa guessed it would be mandated soon. Breaking a union wasn’t against the law, unless you had a child under eighteen, but you had to file and receive permission. Affairs by those in valid unions were punishable by huge fines and even psychological reconditioning. None of this seemed to prevent Simmons from touching her waist whenever possible.
On her iTeev, Lyssa brought up a copy of the drawing Reese had made of the desk—after removing Dani from the image. “This is one owned by a friend of mine,” she said. “You ever see anything like it?”
He studied the sketch. “No, but those are nice carvings.” He glanced at his own desk, a slight frown on his face. “Well, this is where you can reach me if we need to talk. I guess we should continue our tour now.”
“Poor baby’s jealous.” Lyra made a show of shooing Simmons as he led Lyssa from the room. At least someone was having a good time.
From his office, Simmons took her back down the corridor past their dispatch room, which was triple the size of theirs in Amarillo City, and up to the cafeteria and the exercise room. “All Special Forces employees are encouraged to reach optimum physical conditioning. Supporting personnel don’t train for combat with them in the mornings, of course, but we do need to stay healthy as well.”
He rattled on. About shifts, employees, recent advances of the TAD-Alert. Not until he started talking about prisoners did she finally perk up.
“Mostly disgruntled youth and juke users, huh?” she said. “That’s like us in Amarillo City, but what about fringers? I know enforcers have been sweeping the empty zones here, and we always send our fringer prisoners to you.” She shivered, as if the idea frightened her, and moved closer to him.
His grin widened. “That’s because we’re equipped to handle them here. And you’re right. We have been working overtime on clearing the empty zones.”
“I guess you keep the fringers onsite with the other prisoners.”
“No. Well, they’re here but in a special suite upstairs. It has cells and experiment rooms.”
“Experiment rooms?” Lyssa pretended surprise. “Why would they need those?”
His gaze slid away from hers, his smile vanishing. “I meant interrogation rooms.” So, he knew or suspected about the abilities at Colony 6, but apparently it wasn’t common knowledge. He took a deep breath. “Anyway, most of them aren’t here long.”
“What do they do with them after interrogation and processing?”
Simmons shrugged. “The colonies, I believe. That’s what they exist for.”
“I wonder what will happen once the colonies are integrated with the rest of the CORE?” she mused. “That’s a goal that probably isn’t far off.” She watched him carefully for his response. If he believed this, he probably didn’t know anything about the real situation in the colonies.
“I’m sure they’ll figure something out. Maybe combine them. We still have to help those in need.” He winked at her, causing a shudder of unease to ripple up her spine. “It’ll be nice not to send half our earnings to support their dead weight.”
His words made her momentarily dizzy. She could almost see the factories, the places of horror where her parents and grandparents had put in sixty hours a week and died while still in their fifties.
“You okay?” Simmons asked, his hand snaking around her waist. “You zoned out there for a moment.”
Zoned out? That was something she only did when visiting Lyra.
“You did look strange for a moment,” Lyra said worriedly, her ghostly body gliding closer to her. “You sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine,” Lyssa said to both of them. “This is all just a bit overwhelming. I mean, I’ve lived in Estlantic before, but mostly in Virginia and Haven, but you know how small those cities are.”
“That’s because they were completely destroyed during Breakdown,” Simmons said importantly. “But you’ll get used to it here.”
“I’m sure I will.”
“Ask him if you can see where they keep the fringers,” Lyra prompted, bringing Lyssa back to the work at hand.
Shaking herself, Lyssa said, “Can I see where they keep the fringers? I mean, I know if I worked here, I’d have no reason to see where they’re detained, but I confess to being curious.” She set a hand on his arm and smiled.
He placed his hand over hers, exerting more pressure than was strictly necessary. His hand felt moist and unpleasant. “I think that can be arranged. This way.”
Lyssa was pleased when they got off at the fourth floor, one of the only places besides the Controller’s office the TAD hadn’t been able to check for missing CivIDs.
“Dani has to be here,” Lyra murmured. Lyssa thought so too.
When they arrived at a set of double doors, Simmons didn’t put his hand on the panel to open the door or press the call button. Instead, he called someone on his iTeev. “Hey, I’m outside the door, and I’d like to show a future employee the reception room, if you’re not busy. No, look on your screen. We’re already here.” A pause. “Of course not. I know the cells are off-limits. Yes. Thank you. I owe you one.”
So Simmons didn’t have access to the “reception” room, much less the prison cells or experimentation rooms, which destroyed the plan forming in Lyssa’s head. But at least the location device she carried would compare the location to the information the TAD had given them.
The door opened, and an unsmiling male enforcer motioned them inside. “Make it quick,” he said, backing up a few steps to let them in.
Simmons nodded at the man and swaggered into the room. “This,” he said to Lyssa, “is where they bring fringers.” He gestured to the holo screen over the desk where another man stood watching them. “Those show the cells. Small rooms really. We’re not barbarians.”
“We don’t have different holding cells for fringers and CORE residents in Amarillo City,” Lyssa said. There were four doors in the room but only one had two guards standing in front of it, so that must lead to the cells.
“That’s because you send fringers here,” Simmons said.
“Well, it’s not like they’re dangerous, right?” Lyssa strained to see the holo screen. She needed to get closer, but the enforcer who’d opened the door was blocking her path, and he didn’t look as if he’d allow them to step further into the room.
“I’ll go look,” Lyra said. She passed through Simmons and the enforcers, moving her feet without really touching the ground.
“Oh, fringers are plenty dangerous,” Simmons said. “They—” He broke off at a stare from the enforcer, then began again a bit hesitantly. “Some of them have been living too close to the desolation zones. They’ve been affected by radiation.”
After hearing about the beasts her crew had seen yesterday, Lyssa guessed this could be an accepted explanation. Simmons might have suspicions about what went on up here, but she guessed he had no idea that the abilit
ies coming out of Colony 6 were induced by CORE experiments.
“What’s with the extra muscle?” Simmons asked, thumbing at the two Special Forces with the assault rifles.
“New fringer arrived in the night,” the enforcer told him. “Apparently, she’s special.” His voice stressed the “special” as if Simmons should know what that meant. “The Controller has taken particular interest in her. She’s the one responsible for killing two of our own in Dallastar yesterday.”
Simmons paled and his jauntiness lessened slightly. “Yeah. Well, uh, good they caught her.”
“It’s Dani all right,” Lyra called from the desk area. “And one of the other two looks just like her—black skin, white hair. If you’ll try to come in closer, I’ll see if I can get through the door to her. Not that she’ll be able to hear me . . .”
Simmons was turning to go, and Lyra knew she had to act fast. “So,” she said, stepping around the enforcer and moving at an angle toward the guarded door. “We see animals affected by radiation in Dallastar. It mutates their genes into horrific creatures. Is it the same with people? How has the radiation affected this fringer? What kind of stuff are you guys dealing with here?”
No one spoke for long seconds, and then the enforcer said, with a quick look at his partner behind the desk, “That’s not for us to say.”
Lyssa took two more steps before turning and saying, “Good thing all of you are here. I don’t know what these fringers think they’re doing. They can’t win against the CORE.” She snorted in disgust, daring a glance over her shoulder to see what Lyra was doing.
Lyra was partially inside the closed door, but her face was contorted “Sorry,” she said, emerging. “I can’t seem to leave you.”
Was that an odd inflection in her sister’s voice? It was hard to tell when the sound was only in your head, but Lyssa didn’t have time to worry about that now.
“You won’t need to deal with fringers when you come to work here,” Simmons said, his voice sure again. “The TAD will help you route it to the right team.”
“Of course it will.” Lyssa faked a smile.
“We need to get back to work,” the enforcer said, one hand coming to rest casually on his stunner. “We haven’t fed the prisoners yet.”
Simmons inclined his head. “Thank you for your time.”
Lyssa had no choice except to follow him from the room.
“It would have been nice to tell Dani to look for the nyckelira case,” Lyra mumbled beside her.
But Lyssa was sure Dani would know what to do if she found the case. Where they should leave it was the issue. The desk had to be close. But where?
Chapter 20
JAXON LOOKED UP from his glass of chotks and grimaced at Eagle across the tiny table they shared. “This is a bust. Half these guys are Special Forces and the other half want to be. They don’t know or care about wood desks.”
They’d come to the Coaster, a restaurant near HED, to intercept as many enforcers as possible, and while they’d both seen half a dozen people they had known from their previous years working in Estlantic and also chatted up complete strangers, no one had identified the desk in Reese’s drawing. Their cover story of finding a gift for their captain was wearing thin.
These enforcers also had no idea what was going on in the colonies. A few alluded to strange abilities among the radiation-crazed fringers, but even the Special Forces who mentioned going on missions to Dallastar, and who might have been a part of the Colony 6 extermination, didn’t seem to understand the full ramifications. Whoever had ordered the murders wasn’t giving enforcers the full truth.
“We’ve still got a few hours before the memorial,” Eagle said, grinning as if enjoying himself. “And we can explore HED while we’re there.”
Exhaustion rocked Jaxon. “Everyone here seems to have their own agenda.” He thumbed at Ekan Donnel, who he’d been with back in the academy and who was with Special Forces now. “He actually asked me if I knew anyone at HED I could put in a good word with so he could become a team leader faster.”
“That’s not unusual. Sometimes a promotion is just a matter of standing out.” Eagle swept a hand over the talkative crowd. “With all the competition, you have to get ahead somehow.”
“Yeah, I guess. Hey, I need to stretch my legs. Let’s take a break.” Jaxon lurched to his feet. “Lyssa should be finished at HED by now too. I want to see if she learned anything.”
They emerged into the bright light outside the restaurant and a chill wind blew through Jaxon. He wished he were wearing his enforcer blues so he could turn on the warming feature. He fastened the magnetized opening in his jacket instead, nearly bumping into a small group of women, who glanced over at him but didn’t smile. Had New York always been this unfriendly? Or was it because they were coming from a known enforcer hangout?
Eagle walked in a distracted manner that told Jaxon he was checking messages through the link in his special glasses. “Lyssa’s back at the C-lodge,” Eagle said after a minute. “No desk, but she verified that Dani is being held at the coordinates we suspected.”
“That’s something at least.”
The walking made him feel better, but he was still anxious. Ever since he and Reese had talked last night, the only vision he’d seen was of them together, and it was driving him insane. He understood that the reoccurrence stemmed from his anxiety about the future, but at the moment the premonition was blocking everything else.
Pinning all their hopes on finding a certain desk from a vision that might not be real seemed impossible. But having Dani break herself out was the best solution, the only solution that might not get some or all of them killed. Whatever happened, if they didn’t act soon, Dani was as good as dead. Her brother too.
Unless he tried something different.
He waited a block before saying, “Look, there might be another way. Before you found us outside the tunnels in the empty zone, Kentley was telling us that juke enhances abilities.”
“It does? That’s interesting. I wonder if—” Eagle slowed his step. “Wait, are you suggesting we buy drugs?”
“If it saves Dani. And us. One time shouldn’t have an effect on me long-term.” At least not physically. He wasn’t sure about the madness, but even that wasn’t as important as Dani’s life. The madness was close—he could feel it—so just once really couldn’t make it worse. Maybe.
“They did make us take it once in training,” Eagle said. “Just to make sure we understood what we were up against. But that was under doctor supervision, and they don’t do it now with new recruits. Only the smeg, and that’s a lot less destructive. Do you think that would work? At least it’s not illegal.”
Smeg was a mildly addictive drug that heated the entire body, imitating sexual stimulation, and there was no way Jaxon needed that now with his visions of Reese. “I think he would have said.”
“It’s a lousy idea.”
“What about Dani?”
Eagle’s jaw clenched. “I won’t risk one friend for another.”
“Fine.” Jaxon would have to ditch Eagle and do it on his own. “Let’s go back to the restaurant. Maybe we’ll find someone who knows something about that stupid desk.” It wouldn’t be hard to slip away when Eagle was talking to someone else.
They turned around, retracing their steps a half block before Eagle sighed and came to an abrupt stop. “Okay, let’s do it. I know you well enough to know that you’re going to do it with or without me, and I’d rather someone be there to watch you.”
Jaxon grinned at him. “This has to remain between the two of us.” He instinctively looked in the direction of the nearby C-lodge where Reese was supposed to be waiting.
“That depends on how well the counter agent we get works,” Eagle said dryly. “I think the others will notice if you can’t wake up for the memorial this afternoon.”
“Good point. We’ll get it.”
Buying juke turned out to be more difficult than either expected, but Jaxon hadn�
��t spent a third of his life arresting jukeheads for nothing. They finally tracked down a dealer near a marketplace at the edge of town where illegal exchanges often occurred right under the noses of enforcers. Using the untraceable cash credits Brogan had given them, they bought two black hypos—the juke and the counter agent that dealers now sold in an attempt to prevent the overdose deaths of their best customers.
“You won’t need the counter for only one dose,” the man who looked like a school teacher told them, but it was with a smile that expected them to be back for more. “Just a lot of sleep. Best sleep you’ll ever have.”
“Now what?” Eagle asked as they left the marketplace.
“We need a shuttle.”
“Maybe we should get an ambulance.”
“Very funny.”
The shuttle arrived within two minutes. Jaxon climbed in and lay back in the seat. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“You sure about this?” Eagle asked.
For an answer, Jaxon pushed the small hypo against his neck and released the juke. They waited a few seconds.
“Anything?” Eagle’s face was impassive, but his voice oozed tension. “You’ll have about thirty minutes of high before you crash. Then I’ll give you the counter agent to wake you up. Better sooner than later.”
Jaxon shook his head. “I don’t feel anything. Maybe I’m immune like with the temper laser.”
“This is totally different. No one is immune.”
“Well, I don’t—” Jaxon cut off. Something shifted inside his brain. Eagle’s face split in two and then rejoined. Jaxon felt like laughing. Power and confidence surged through him. He could do anything he wanted, figure out anything, including breaking into any room in HED to plant the nyckelira case. In fact, he could rescue Dani himself and win Reese in the bargain. He had nothing to fear from Alex. He and Reese were a team. They’d always been a team. Together they could find out who was behind the continuing imprisonment of the colonies. They might even discover who his father was.
“Uh, Jaxon, that’s a terrifying smile,” Eagle said. “Are you okay? Are you having a vision yet?”
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