Aurora closed her eyes as the tiny sphere covered her in mist.
Her laugh carried a hint of haughtiness. “Oh, I’m not trapped. I just wear sunglasses and claim to have a skin condition. It’s not as bad as you think. Especially in the city here, people are so busy, they don’t notice a damn thing.”
“It’s so hot here.” Anna walked to the edge of the patio, and leaned on the railing. “How can they live like this? Metal as far as I can see.”
The glare radiating from the shimmering city wrapped her with an oppressive heat that drew sweat from every pore. She took four steps to her right, stopping at the corner of the deck, and stared down on crisscrossing lanes of hovercars fifteen stories below; the ground well beyond them had about a tenth of the traffic. Sensing a person, advert bots drifted closer, and bombarded her with skin care products, cold drinks. One presented six images of Anna in varying shades of custom artificial tan. She scowled. It burst into flames and careened into the gloom below.
“So many hovercars…” Anna whistled.
Aurora laughed again. “Yes, well, the UCF doesn’t have a paranoid king. Anyone who has the credits can get one; not to mention firearms are unregulated. Just about everyone carries them here. I saw a little girl with a pink one yesterday.”
“That’s sad.” Anna shivered as she trudged back to her chair, sitting on the edge with her elbows on her knees. “At least they don’t arrest children for being psionic.”
The door hissed to the side as James emerged ahead of a rush of air conditioning. He held a drink in one hand with two others floating alongside. The levitating beverages glided to the women.
Aurora fanned herself. “They may not haul them away in manacles, but the government here watches them close.”
A shiver ran through Anna’s body at the thought. “They don’t put bombs in their ‘eads.” She squinted at James. “Do they?”
He smiled. “Not anymore, though everyone thinks they do.” James raised his glass in toast and took a sip. “It is certainly dreadfully hot. I am surprised to see you outside, Lauren.”
“I meant here.” Anna sipped her drink, savoring the cold on her tongue.
“Oh. No.” James frowned at the sea of endless construction.
Anna’s iced tea vanished faster than she realized. “Why did you pick such a humid place? Really, James, all the way in the south end of East City? Didn’t this used to be swampland?”
“Proximity to our goal.” He pointed at the skyline. “The Colony’s space programme still focuses a lot of resources in this area. The facility is a relic from the days when things getting shot into space could draw giant crowds of spectators.”
Ice rattling in her empty glass, Anna stood. “I can’t tolerate this dreadful heat anymore.”
“Wales was too cold. This place is too hot…” Aurora laughed. “You got a fickle one, James.”
“This place is too hot,” he muttered into his cup.
Beige interior carpeting squished soft and cool beneath her feet in contrast to the coarse hot concrete on the balcony. Anna basked in the air conditioning for a few minutes before she felt the urge to shiver. After wrapping herself in a dark blue satin robe, she flopped on a large sectional couch the color of sand. Soon, James joined her there, and she shifted up against him, leaning into the arm he put around her shoulders.
Aurora walked past in a black robe with a hem at mid-thigh.
“You joining a nunnery?” Anna sat up with mocking primness. “That robe is almost decent.”
“They wouldn’t have me.” Aurora kept going on her way to the bedroom. She paused, smiling as if she imagined the havoc she might wreak in such a place. “James, I’m going to scrub up a bit and do a little snooping around the facility.”
“This is a nice flat,” said Anna. “I thought your money was in a tangle back home.”
“The manager was nice enough to let us try the place for two months without a commitment.” He winked. “Of course, he thinks we paid for it.”
Anna whistled. “Naughty.”
“Well, we won’t be staying on the Colony’s east coast for long.”
“James, it’s 2413. I don’t think the Crown is going to take it back at this point.”
He brushed his hair over his ear. “Perhaps. So, how are you holding up?”
Anna snuggled tighter to his side. “Fine, I suppose. It was a bit dodgy having Lauren sharing my body at Heathrow. T’was like a voice in my head. At least my legs stopped hurting. Why didn’t she turn into a ghost and follow us? Did she just want to make me squirm?”
“I was asking about you.” He placed a soft kiss on top of her head. “But, it’s rather tiring on her to do that. Having a body is a lot less work.”
“And I don’t suffer the random attentions of restless spirits… and other things.” Aurora winked. “And there is the making you squirm bit.”
Anna fussed at his hair and drew in the scent of him. “I don’t know how I feel about learning the bastard wasn’t really my dad. Who was he? Do I still have a family somewhere? Did I ever? Ol’ Jack seemed to know my mother. Where did I come from?”
James brushed his hand over her hair. “I don’t have any of those answers, my dear. It was fate that brought us together. Somehow, you managed to hide even from Lauren. Do not waste another thought on that pitiful excuse for a person. You have to remember you were only defending yourself. You did what you had to do in order to survive. Knowing he was not your own blood should make it easier to cope with.”
“It feels so odd. The way he looked at me after.” Her fingertips teased at the inside of her wrist. “It hit me bad at first, but you know that.” She looked up. “Oh, I was chattin’ with Penny on the vid this morning. She’s doing okay, but I miss her. She wanted me to thank you for helping get her that job.”
“Think nothing of it. The school will keep paying her until she’s dead. She could dance naked and drunk through the halls and they would keep her on staff; you need not worry about her.”
Anna shot him a look.
“I know you care a great deal about your friend. I made some adjustments to a few brains on the board of trustees. Nothing harmful.” He took a sip of his drink. “They all think she is the bees knees.”
She relaxed, settling her head against him. “Are you still sore from the hot tub?”
He drew a breath through a grimace. “The numbness is gone. That little trait of yours is a bit of a nuisance.”
“Is there a way I can control it? I’m rather sick of blowing out NetMinis every time a rat scurries over my foot.”
“Oh, Anna…” His arm around her shoulders squeezed. “You’ll no longer be living among rats. Perhaps there is something, let’s have a look.”
He shifted to face her, drawing one leg up on the cushion, and locked eyes. Lightheaded euphoria came over her, followed by a strange sense of floating away from her body. She fixated on his face, once more adoring the surrender to his presence. He provided the sense of security she had craved for so long. When she had been doing jobs for Mr. Carroll, she possessed confidence and poise, traits starting to come back. With James in her life, in this place free from the CSB, she no longer felt the need to act meek as a survival mechanism.
When her thoughts settled back into the present moment, she noticed a smug smile on his face.
“Did you fix it?”
“Not entirely, although I believe I understand it now. Those who are born Awakened have some modicum of difficulty with their abilities when they are young. Some, like Lauren, experience visually obvious indicators of what they are. Others, like you, have an event or circumstance knock things loose. This is a great deal of power for a little mind to handle.”
“What happened?” She pushed at his chest, trying to squeeze the words out of him.
“You may have been a year or two old when you witnessed the CSB assassinate your mother. There is no conscious memory of it left in there, but given your circumstances and what has happened… I believe that to be the cas
e. The event caused a connection between your emotional state and the part of your brain that governs your electrokinesis. While I believe it is physiological in nature, you may be able to overcome it with mood control such as meditation, discipline, that sort of thing.”
She sighed. “So I’m to become a Buddhist monk then?”
The unexpected quip made him laugh. “Well, that would certainly be one way to go about it, but I think it would be an unnecessary extreme. Besides they have a dreadful sense of fashion. Perhaps when I unlock the secret, I’ll better understand how to adjust such things.”
“What did you do with the detainees?”
A wave of his hand in the air brought a holo-vid screen up from the silver bar mounted to the wall. Endless confusing jumbles of program guides scrolled along the 120-inch screen.
“I sent them ahead with Terrence, who I have entrusted to run things in my absence, to the west coast. Not so different here, is it? Nine hundred channels and still nothing worth watching.”
Aurora emerged from the interior hall, dressed, and skirted the periphery of their vision so as not to disturb them. James wagged his fingers to scroll through the stations, eventually stopping on a documentary about the physiological effects of off-Earth colony life. Anna pulled her feet up on the couch, cuddling up to him and ignoring the brainiac drivel spilling from the screen.
“Where’s she off to?”
“That is the next part of the plan.” He stroked her hair. “The military over here is developing a starship, the largest yet attempted. With that machine, we can rid ourselves of prejudice and find a new home.”
“Are you touched? You’re talking about leaving Earth?”
“Indeed.”
Anna stared at her feet.
“Aren’t you excited?”
“I… Faye was beside herself with tears when I told her I’d left London. She begged me to come back. Penny and Spawny…”
“The girl has her own family, she will find her way. As for your friends, we can take them with us. If they want to go.”
“What do you need me to do?” Her voice came out of her, but she felt far away from it.
“Infiltrate the facility of the corporation responsible for the starship’s construction, and recover design specifications and access codes. The ship is still several years from completion, however. I need to make sure it will be capable of fulfilling our needs, and procure the means to infiltrate it when the time comes.”
She gave him a look as though he’d asked her to shoot her own dog. “Are you sure?”
James pulled her head to his chest. “Of course. Would I ever deceive you?”
Anna smiled and closed her eyes, snuggling tight, feeling as safe, loved, and protected as she ever had.
nna paused against an angled beam of white-painted plastisteel, square and as thick as her body. From where it bolted to the ground, it trailed into an upward spiral before joining the side of the Timmons-Orben corporate headquarters at the fortieth floor. Hundreds more formed a ring around the base of the building, a crisscross of metal in the shape of an inverted hyperbolic cone. Transparent panels set into the grid let sunlight in to an immense round courtyard.
The tower rose through the center of the lattice, a great white needle stabbing at the sky. Hundreds of people flowed to and from the entrance, around several one-quarter scale models of spacecraft, hovercars, and full scale mock ups of ion engines. Anna felt out of place wearing the loose black pants and combat boots she had ordered an hour earlier. Checking the buttons of her snug grey top from right shoulder to left hip, she tugged at the sleeves and grumbled.
I don’t fit in. All these people are wearing twenty thousand credits of designer crap. I feel like a terrorist.
Lauren’s voice laughed in the back of her mind. Well it’s not like we’re here for tea and biccies. It won’t matter in the courtyard. Like I said, they’re all too busy.
Her plain silver mesh belt held one small box at her left hip, a container of imitation white leather the size of a bar of soap. She squeezed it, hoping like hell she would not need the six stimpaks inside.
I should have gone with the white thigh-highs. Anna sighed, and Lauren chuckled. The military boots are what makes me stand out.
Anna shuddered at the oddity of feeling Aurora roll her eyes.
The bloody things you wanted had two-inch heels. You’d fall on your ass if things went wonky.
Two security officers walked into the periphery of her vision. Head to toe in black jumpsuits, armor, and headgear, they tromped around the perimeter with rifles clutched to their chest aimed down to the left. Their approach spurred her into motion before they could get close enough to scan her. Anna stepped out from behind the giant metal ribbon and went into the crowd, walking as if she belonged.
How can you stand it? Lauren’s question almost made her jump.
Gathering herself with a breath, Anna shot an annoyed look in a random direction. Stand what?
Being this short.
Color came to her cheeks. I am not that short! You’re a bloody amazon.
I’m only five eleven, hon. You’re tiny.
Anna got redder. Five eleven is a bloody amazon. Knock it off. You’ll give me away.
Okay, okay. I’m just not used to seeing the world at tit level.
Anna’s left hand reached up and checked the boob on that side.
Little petite, but they’ve got a good round shape.
She grabbed her left wrist with her right hand, forcing it down to her side. Stop groping me! Err… Stop making me grope me! You’re so unprofessional.
But, I’m not a professional, dear. That’s all you. I’m a freak.
Tuning out Aurora’s laughter, Anna focused on navigating. Her eyes darted to pairs of security men monitoring the crowd. Far too many people flooded the place to mask her presence from everyone, but all she had to do was avoid notice by the guards. Anna mingled her thoughts with theirs, forcing minds to disregard her.
Lauren, can you take over walking? Hard to focus; slows me to a crawl.
Numbness came over her lower body as her legs vanished from her consciousness. Feeling as though she floated on a cloud, Anna maintained concentration on the patrollers while Aurora kept her at a brisk walk. Into the shadow of the building they went, under the gleaming archway of white plastisteel and glass. She maintained telepathic invisibility aimed at anyone in a security uniform as the room slid past.
They stopped between a pair of nine-foot tall ferns against a gloss black wall.
Care to hit the call button or shall I? Lauren chuckled inside her head.
Anna reached for the elevator control while keeping the security team oblivious. Doors squeaked apart revealing a mirrored cylinder. Energy filled the air and faint green lines traced a grid through the reflective wall. Having no firearms, blades, or cybernetics, Anna was unconcerned with the scan.
Not having an ID card, however, she pressed her fingertips into the console. Flickering amber threads stretched through the darkness; her mind mapped the electricity in the wires around them.
That’s bloody keen. So pretty… Lauren’s mental voice faded to an awestruck whisper.
Anna glowered at the pattern in the control box, hoping to find a circuit path to bypass the security system. This is so damn complicated… I should have gone to school for electrical engineering or something.
Lauren’s influence made her head turn to stare at five large amber slabs surrounding the elevator cab. Bugger the controls. Can you just tweak the magnets? Go for the 53rd floor.
She looked around at the insane mess of amber wiring and circuits. I don’t think I could figure that out, besides it’ll set off an alarm for a malfunction.
Wait here.
Anna shivered as icy fog rolled out of her body and vanished through the door. A couple of minutes passed in agonizing slowness. Without warning, the elevator got underway; the sudden motion caused her to yelp, stumble, and cling to the handrail. Frigid air crawled
up her legs from the floor, and Aurora’s presence forced itself into her thoughts again.
Nice fellow at the guard station decided to send us to the correct floor. No, he’s not hurt.
Moments later, she stepped out into a blue-carpeted hallway.
Duck into the ladies’ loo.
Had Aurora not kept refilling her tea that night, she would not have been awake in the outhouse when the ambush started. Wondering what the clairvoyant was up to, Anna complied without protest. She whistled at the gold-plated sinks with reticulated crystal faucets, feeling ever so much more underdressed for being in an executive washroom. Behind her in the mirror, one pair of legs indicated an occupant in the brown-marble patterned stalls.
Be right back.
Anna clenched her jaw at the momentary sensation of cold air sliding down her legs. Aurora exited her, leaving her clinging to the sink to avoid falling. She felt woozy for a moment until her body adjusted to being in control of itself once more. A female voice gasped and the stall opened to reveal a mocha-skinned security guard wearing Aurora’s haughty smile.
The officer walked up to her, head tilted to the side, and nodded. “Yep, you are short.”
Anna squinted with folded arms. “What’s the point of this? You want to fake arrest me?”
“Hate to disappoint you, luv, but you don’t get to wear handcuffs today. Though, I suppose I could save them for later if you want. One sec.”
Anna blushed and turned away, unable to come up with a good comeback. The officer took off her utility belt and laid it on the sink, followed by her armored vest, which she tossed to Anna.
“Put that on, don’t quibble.” Aurora walked the guard to the back end of the bathroom and sat on the floor. “Hurry up, we don’t have much time. Knock this one out.”
She wriggled into the vest before putting a hand on the guard’s shoulder and jolting her unconscious.
“Damn that hurts.” Aurora’s disembodied voice floated over her from behind. “I figure this one will start making noise in about ten minutes. Go out to the end of the hall and take the first right. You want the corner office. I’ll follow.”
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