“Yes sir. I’ll watch my mouth.” How many people were always trying to manipulate the city, anyway? “You keep talking like the city is one being, like it’s a big robot or something.”
“It’s not,” LeeAnne said. “I know. I talk to it all the time. It’s a million million connected systems and almost as many rules that tell those systems what to do. It’s hackable because it’s not one thing, but from the outside, to a normal person, it appears to have one face.”
That was a long speech for LeeAnne. A set of police drones whizzed by above their heads, small sirens warning them to look away.
The ground leveled out below them. Day almost whispered, “The streets will probably be more crowded as we get closer. The building is coming up on our right. We’re going to walk in front of it like we’re on our way to somewhere else, and we won’t look up unless a sound gives us a good excuse. Stay ready for anything.”
She tried to walk quietly and notice everything. They passed a French restaurant, a bar full of people watching news videos and dancing, which seemed utterly improbable while the city was under attack. A silent car crossed in front of them and went on.
Another car came toward them, its lights already on in the dusky street.
She couldn’t tell which building. Day and LeeAnne were behind her and Blessing, so she didn’t get any cues from them. She was afraid to look up, but wanted to. What would she see anyway? The tiny barrel of a gun three stories up? Probably not.
She tried to sense her sister. It did no good.
The quiet dull hum of surveillance drones grew a little louder right above them.
Three men loitered near a streetlight, all of them wearing blue uniforms. Not police; more likely some kind of utility worker. As they walked past, Coryn raised her hand and gave a little wave, and the tallest of the three waved back.
“Ignore them,” Day whispered, closer behind her than she’d thought. “You want to be background on cams.”
Were these buildings lofts? They were square and two to four stories and had big windows. The lofts she knew about in Seacouver were on the tops of big buildings, and only the super-rich lived in them. People like Julianna.
The car stopped one building in front of them and two uniformed police officers climbed out. Blessing let go of her hand.
One of the officers opened the back door, and the other held a gun on the door. Two more officers appeared as if from nowhere and stood in front of her and Blessing, stopping them. “Hold on just moment, Miss Williams.”
“Of course.” He had used her name.
LeeAnne and Day had stopped right behind them.
Blessing pulled her a little bit to the side.
A man in a restraining shirt slid awkwardly out of the car. Bartholomew’s second. Whatever his name was. Milan.
The coincidence stunned her.
The officer in front of them wasn’t watching the car, just them. He stood casually, smiling.
Drones she had neither seen nor heard poured from a window in the building and more swooped out of the sky.
The officer looked up. Then he crumpled down to the hard sidewalk as if all if the structure had come out of him. Day leaned down and caught his head so he didn’t crack it, an expert, fluid move.
Day hadn’t touched him before he fell. He hadn’t even really moved.
Every other officer looked up, but Day and Blessing focused on the street level, so Coryn tried to watch what they watched.
The uniformed man guarding Milan pulled him toward the building. One of the drones tagged the guard with a shot, and he fell to the ground. A door opened, and a man came out and helped Milan into the building.
Coryn winced, wanting to duck and cover her head, but Blessing tugged hard on her hand and they raced toward the building.
Day flattened against a wall and gestured for them to do the same. A door to the left opened, spilling out more uniformed people. Not the door Milan had gone in through.
Day’s eyes flicked back and forth as if counting the people leaving. LeeAnne watched the sky.
Coryn was certain attentions would shift to them any minute. Instead, two more cars pulled up, tires screeching.
Blessing stayed flat against the wall, looking forward.
She copied him.
Some magic number had been reached; Day slid through the door. Blessing pushed her after him and then came right behind. LeeAnne came in last, pulling the door shut behind her.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
As they entered the building, Coryn searched frantically for threats to avoid. Maybe a guard, or a drone about to blow her down into a boneless fall just like the two men outside.
Nothing.
They stood in a dimly lit hallway with concrete stairs leading up and a single black metal rail with peeling paint. The brick walls were completely bare. The only light came from dim bulbs recessed in the ceiling.
Muffled noises spilled in from outside—shouts and gunshots and engines. Nothing she could make sense of.
LeeAnne took the front this time, Blessing next, then Coryn, and Day at the rear. They went up fast but quiet, up a flight of stairs, turning to climb another flight, up again.
Just after they turned the second corner, a small camera drone buzzed LeeAnne’s head. Blessing—a full head taller than the rest of them—grabbed it with his right hand and smashed it against the outside wall. A trickle of blood dripped from his palm.
“You okay?” she asked.
“So far.”
She giggled softly, nervous.
LeeAnne stopped twice to listen at doors. Both times Day waved her forward from below. Coryn decided the two of them could talk to each other telepathically, or with signals or some other tool invisible to everyone else. Either that, or they’d been working together so long that it only took the smallest gestures to give each other paragraphs of information.
They came to the top of the highest flight of stairs, which was bounded by two doors. One had a window in it that looked out on a roof patio, and the other was different from the entrance doors to the other stories . . . metallic and reinforced. It looked thick.
Coryn leaned close to Day and whispered, “Is there a sniper out there?”
“Not anymore.” LeeAnne pulled on a leather glove and tugged something small out of her pocket. She aimed it at the door lock, which glowed red and melted. She hit the glowing knob with her fisted leather-clad hand, and the knob clattered to the floor; her glove sizzled, a trail of chemical-laden smoke puffing from it. LeeAnne ignored the smoke and used the same hand to pull open the door. A scream escaped though the opening, and a raised voice answered.
A drone slipped over the top of the doorway. Blessing slapped this one as well. It bobbled. A second slap sent it careening down the stairs. Pieces broke off and the whine of its engine stuttered and then stopped.
The loud voices came from straight ahead. Day slid past them all and took the lead, walking with his hands fisted. He carried something in each hand, but she couldn’t tell what. Now Blessing walked behind her, LeeAnne in front. They sped up, and she nearly stumbled as she worked to keep her place in line.
Day clearly had an objective in mind; he didn’t hesitate as they passed the first two doors.
Blood pounded through Coryn’s heart and drummed in the tips of her fingers.
The hallway opened up into a huge room with a wall of covered windows. Two people argued with each other, the voices clear now. A tall, broad-shouldered man leaned over a much smaller, older woman, saying, “—can’t leave. Orders!”
An equally strong man shifted his head from where he had been watching through curtains. He spotted Coryn and the others and turned toward them.
They were all the way in the room now. Day’s hands twitched and both men fell. Exactly like the two outside. Fast and like rag dolls. Day didn’t bother to try and catch anyone’s head this time, and one made a rather sickening crunch as he hit a table on the way down. The woman turned toward them, looking calm.<
br />
“Don’t move!” Day demanded.
The woman’s fingers twitched and a drone appeared from someplace in the ceiling. It sped toward Day. The machine swooped back upward, almost catching LeeAnne on the chin.
Had it been deflected?
Day stepped forward and grabbed the woman’s hands.
The drone turned near the ceiling and dove for her and Blessing. Blessing put up his hands in defense of them both. A sickening, searing smell filled the air as the drone dropped something that smoked and stung on his hands.
Blessing yelped.
Day knocked the woman down, physically this time, forcing her to her back on the carpeted floor.
Coryn jumped up at the drone, slapping at it, unable to get close.
LeeAnne grabbed the drone with her still-gloved hand and squeezed. It bucked and hummed, buzzing loudly. Something inside cracked and she opened her hand to reveal pieces that clattered onto the floor.
Blessing rubbed his injured hand on the walls, desperately trying to get rid of whatever hurt.
The palm of LeeAnne’s glove smoked and stank, and she ripped her hand out of it.
Day, leaning over the woman, said, “Sink.”
Blessing didn’t seem to hear him, but Coryn saw an industrial-style sink and tugged him to it, plunging his hand under a stream of cold water.
LeeAnne watched the way they had come in.
Day spoke softly and insistently to the woman, his voice honey with a cold edge. Coryn heard keys and where and no answer.
She didn’t see any sign of Lou. Coryn left Blessing scrubbing his hands violently at the sink and headed toward the man who had been near the window. He had fallen facedown, and she rolled him over, his body heavy and hard to move. She searched his pockets. Nothing.
“It’ll be electronic,” Day said. “Look for a device.”
There was nothing except a clear plastic band around his wrist. She tried to take it off, but it wouldn’t slide over his thumb.
Blessing had left the sink and started searching the other man with his good hand, holding the injured one close.
She pulled harder at the bracelet, afraid it might snap. When she let go, the man’s arm thudded back onto the floor. “Help me!” she called.
Blessing came over, leaned down, and squeezed the man’s fingers so his thumb rotated in toward his palm. The bracelet slid off, and Coryn landed on her butt with the prize skittering across the floor. She rolled and retrieved it and then came up to help Blessing get a similar device off of the other man. He patted the man’s pockets and found a small unexplainable square, which he showed her briefly and then palmed.
She went back and checked the man she had been looking over. Nothing like the little square.
She stood, looking around the room. They had come in a door, and so if there were any captives here they weren’t that way. Two other doors led away.
Day treated the woman more carefully than he had the obvious thugs He tied both of her hands behind her back with something plastic and helped her lean against a big, overstuffed chair. He looked up from where he seemed to be in quiet conversation with her and nodded toward the far door. “Down there. She says there’s seven captives. Start with our three.”
Coryn raced in the direction he pointed, Blessing following. They passed two normal household doors but kept going, since they could see that the door at the far end was metal. There was no obvious latch or handle, just a small glass window in the middle, just above waist high. She held the bracelet she’d secured up to the window.
Nothing.
Blessing’s good hand dropped down over her shoulder, doing the same thing.
Nothing.
“Move,” he whispered. She stepped behind him and to the side, trying to watch their backs as well as see what he was doing.
Blessing held the small cube up to the window.
Nothing.
She pushed hard on the door, thinking maybe it just didn’t make a sound when it unlocked.
A high-pitched alarm screeched in her ears.
Blessing cursed.
She muttered at the sound, “Shut up!” but then moved in on Blessing, feeling around the door for anything unusual. There had to be a way to open it. She ran her hands along the wall outside the door.
It felt smooth and freshly painted.
A picture hung on the wall near the door, a small one that looked pretty amateur. A bird. She ripped it off. “There!”
A square hole.
He slid the square device into the square hole.
The shrieking alarm stopped. The door made a soft and satisfying click.
Blessing leaned into it and pushed it open, spilling himself into the room. She followed.
As Coryn stepped through the door, she realized the woman had lied to Day. There must be close to twenty people in the long, high-ceilinged room, maybe more. She spotted Lou and Matchiko in the far corner with Shuska standing in front of them, staring at the group in the doorway, looking ready to kill something or someone.
Coryn’s relief died almost at once. Lou was alive, safe, but what were they supposed to do now? Lead twenty-five people out of the building? Let them loose when they could easily overwhelm Day and LeeAnne if they wished them any harm? They shouldn’t hurt the people who freed them—but the look on Shuska’s face . . .
Coryn swallowed and walked toward Lou, her head high, hoping Lou would meet her eyes. Shuska blocked her way. Lou and Matchiko, and about twenty other people watched. Lou’s face was impossible to read, but it wasn’t I’m proud of you! Not thank you or pleased to see you, either.
“Did you come to gloat?” Shuska asked. “Why did you get us captured? How did you do it?”
It took a moment to get any words out at all. “I’m here to rescue you, and I didn’t betray you.” She took a step closer to Shuska and forced her voice to firm up. “You were the one giving the ecobots orders. Not me. I didn’t even know we were separated until the drone fight ended. I still don’t know what happened to you. But if we don’t get out of this building, I’ll end up captured with you.”
“Where’s your pet robot? She might have been calling some of the shots.”
“She died protecting me.”
That made Lou lean forward and look curious.
Blessing spoke softly to some of the other people in the room.
A few people she didn’t recognize started gathering belongings.
“What about Toto?” Shuska asked.
“What?”
“You’re little dog. Where’s your little dog?”
“Aspen is with . . . a friend. Safe. Why are you so hostile?” Indeed, Shuska was so big and broad and so angry that she looked exactly like a pissed-off wall. “I never did anything to you.”
“Nothing has gone right since you showed up.”
“And that’s my fault?” She turned her attention to Lou. “Who do you think betrayed you?”
Lou looked at the ground.
“What about your bosses? Someone let people know you were coming, and they had a plan that jailed you. You and everyone else in here. I heard you and Victor yelling at each other, that day I first met LeeAnne. You were in the trees.”
Lou stared at her, eyes wide. She swallowed. “Victor was part of it. But he said something that made us think you were, too.”
She stopped, curious. “What’d he say?”
“He said you were conveniently here and from the city.”
“Didn’t we already establish that in the barn?”
Shuska stared at Coryn, still belligerent.
“Look,” Coryn said. “I don’t know much. But it looks like you got set up to fail. The city seems to have known you were coming. Everybody got caught. Everybody. All the gates. I didn’t do that.”
For the first time, a small flicker of doubt ruffled the hard edges of Shuska’s face.
Coryn nodded at her. “I get it that you’re protecting Lou. Good for you. But I’m here to save her. We can debate d
etails after we manage not to get caught here. Just please . . . please believe me.”
Shuska turned her massive body—far more slowly that Coryn had seen her move before—and asked her cellmates, “What if it’s a trap?”
Coryn wanted to scream. She managed a controlled loud voice directed at Lou and Matchiko. “You were completely captive five minutes ago. Now you have an open door. You can come with me or not. But I’m leaving while I’m still free.” She met Lou’s eyes, saw she still looked confused, and stepped around Shuska. She expected a heavy hand to come down on her back and crush her to the floor, but Shuska let her pass. She stood nose-to-nose with Lou. “I came out here to find you. You saved me. Now I’ve saved you—at least if we get out of here. So let’s go.”
Lou glanced toward Shuska before turning back to Coryn, her voice breaking. “How do we know you’re not a spy?”
Shuska’s obstinace was bigger than her bulk. She was the decision maker. That hadn’t been true before, but something had happened here to change things. Coryn stepped close to Shuska, right inside her personal space. She craned her neck so she could look into Shuska’s eyes. “Why would I spy on you? Who would I spy on you for?”
Shuska swallowed. “The city.”
“Do I look like I work for the city? Any city? I just wanted to find my sister and have a family again.”
Lou glanced around the room as if there would be an answer painted on the walls. Whatever had happened to her, she didn’t have the confidence she’d had Outside on horseback. She looked lost, younger.
Matchiko watched everyone, clearly letting Lou and Shuska work this out. And Coryn. She mostly looked very curious.
Coryn dropped her voice to a whisper and spoke to Lou. “We have to stick together. You and me.”
Lou bit her lip, and then she twisted her hands in her hair, and Coryn knew it would be all right. “You’re my only family. Let’s go.”
Lou nodded.
Coryn turned to lead them out. The room was already half empty. Day was gone, and LeeAnne as well, probably leading this time. After all, they knew the way. So she might as well play sweep. Blessing was nowhere to be seen, but knowing him he was making the people in the middle of the line smile and feel like it was a great day. The thought made her want to giggle, and she had to suppress it and stay serious. This was no time for nerves.
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