“What are you talking about?” I asked, dropping Claire’s hands as we both turned toward the kid.
Daze glanced at Case and then back at me. “If anyone else would’ve shot him with any other gun, he would’ve exploded.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Bender asked, his disbelief talking for the rest of us.
Daze shrugged, kicking something imaginary on the ground. “When I took off his clothes to look for the powder, he was wired. I think he was hoping you would use a laser or something on him. The wires were connected to some hydro-bombs stuffed in his pockets.” Daze lifted his head. “Lockland took care of it.”
I turned to Lockland, my expression accusing. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
His face remained impassive. “We trust him when you trust him. There was nothing to say.” He was referring to Case and that it didn’t matter if he’d known he was the only one who could’ve killed Hutch.
Claire cleared her throat. “Honestly, does it really matter who killed whom? The important thing is that he’s gone and you’re fine.” She took my hand again. “Do you remember what it felt like?”
“Bits and pieces,” I replied. “I remember feeling strange. There were a lot of colors and weird things lighting up in my mind. I definitely craved pleasure. My body demanded it. That stuff is incredibly potent.”
Bender coughed into his fist. “You tried to disrobe a number of times.”
“You kept calling out a name,” Lockland said, his voice breaking into laughter.
“Case was very patient,” Bender added as the two of them guffawed.
“Very fucking funny.” I scowled. “I could’ve died, and you two are acting like a couple of teenage assholes. In case you’ve forgotten, I was given a very powerful hallucinogenic drug that messed with my mind. None of my actions were conscious on my part.”
“Disrobing wasn’t the only thing you wanted to do—”
I walked over and held my fist in front of Bender’s face, my expression like ice. “I will not be held accountable for things I did under the influence of a drug that drives people out of their goddamned minds and modifies their DNA. Are we clear?” I turned to give Lockland the same hard stare. “It ends here, never to be discussed again.” I pierced Case with a look. “That means everyone.”
“Understood,” Lockland said.
“No problem,” Bender added.
“Fine by me,” Case said as he began to swing his arm at the elbow, flexing his fist open and shut, turning it sideways as he made a show of examining it.
“Why are you doing that?” I asked, perturbed, knowing he was deliberately messing with me.
“The feeling only came back recently. I’m just making sure it still works.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Cozzi, you were a damn fool,” I proclaimed, hand over my heart. “But I loved you all the same. You were like a grandfather to me on those few occasions our paths crossed. I’m sorry our time was cut short. Peace be with you.” I’d never met my own grandfather. I could only imagine that if he’d still been alive, he would’ve been like Cozzi—a character with a story to tell and a kind heart.
That narrative, of course, would be ignoring every story my mother ever told me about her father, who had been a hardass militia man with little time for family. But there was always my father’s father. I’d never met my dad, who died in a salvaging accident before I was born, but I was told he’d had a kind heart.
Maybe he got it from his father?
I’d like to believe that.
We were all assembled at the edge of a blown-out building in the canals, minus Claire, who’d gone back to her job so as not to raise any suspicion. We’d ventured to one of the most deserted places we could find, where the buildings had been sheared off only meters from the sea, near the mouth of the harbor that would hopefully, eventually, carry Cozzi out to sea. Just like he wanted.
The old man was wrapped in another, bigger, burial shroud, not even a tuft of his white hair peeking through. My heart clenched. Losing people was inevitable in this unforgiving city, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
Lockland stood next to me. “Sir, you were a vital piece of this city. We are sad to see you go. May your soul pass on to a better place.”
A short silence followed before Bender growled, “You were a nuisance, old man. Always getting in the way. Always asking for handouts.” I shot him a glare before he continued, “But I wouldn’t have had it any other way. You might outlive us all yet. I hope the sea serves you well.” He finished with a three-finger salute.
I elbowed Darby, who was on my other side. He cleared his throat. “I didn’t know you very well. You were nice…enough.” I elbowed him again. “What?” He turned to me, exclaiming, “The man barely tolerated me! Every time he saw me, he called me a ‘goofy brainiac with the overly large eyes,’ whatever that meant. Then he barked at me until I left. Like, a real animal sound with growls and everything.”
“Well,” I said, stifling a laugh, “if you don’t know what he meant, you’re not such a brainiac after all.”
“I know what brainiac means.” He hesitated. “At least…I think I do. It’s kind of an old-fashioned word.”
Bender tipped his head back and snorted. “It means you have a big brain and you’re smart. Even I know that. Nothing more, nothing less, brainiac.”
“Well,” Darby huffed, “I am. But the way he always said it made it sound like an insult. Or a disease. How should I know?”
“Enough arguing,” I said. “We’re here to celebrate Cozzi’s life and give him a decent sendoff.” I nodded to Daze, who stood just in front of me. “Have anything to say, kid?”
Daze placed his right hand over his heart and glanced solemnly down at the shroud, which we’d strapped to a raft of dead branches. “You were a brave man, even though I never met you. Thank you for helping Holly. If you hadn’t helped her when she was young like me, I wouldn’t be here.” His words were heartfelt, and I gripped his shoulders, giving them a small squeeze.
Then I gave a side-eye to my left, where Case stood just behind Lockland. “Anything to add?” I asked. He was here because he happened to have brought Daze back from a treatment in the medi-pod and stuck around to help build the raft.
Getting Cozzi through a bunch of torn-up buildings and lugging a bunch of branches haphazardly twined together hadn’t been easy.
Surprisingly, Case bowed his head. “Rest in peace, old man. May the heavens look down upon you kindly and may the sun shine on you once again. Our destinies are unknown, but our legacies live on forever. You will be remembered.”
Before I could comment, Lockland responded with, “Amen.”
“Amen,” Bender added.
“Amen,” Daze followed.
Darby huffed out an, “Amen.”
Everyone looked at me expectantly. “Okay, okay, amen. Jeez, talk about old-fashioned,” I muttered. “Nobody worships anymore.”
“Since Cozzi was old, he would’ve liked it.” Daze glanced up at me, his helmet half slipping down the back of his head.
“Yeah, he would have.” I reset the thing on his skull and turned to Case. “Those were nice words for a guy you didn’t even know.”
He shrugged, flipping down his visor. “I told you before, my second sustainer family were Sun Optimists. They did a lot of praying to the obscured yellow disk in the sky. I picked up a few things. It seemed appropriate.” He turned and walked away.
“It was,” I murmured begrudgingly as I took out my Gem. I switched the level from high to low and aimed it at the foot of the raft, then nodded to Lockland. “Let him go.”
Lockland poked the branches with a pole, and the old man drifted into the current. As the raft began to bob away, I pulled the trigger. The laser beamed out, catching the edge of the burial shroud.
Flames erupted.
We all watched as the raft bumped its way along the canal, almost getting hung up before catching the current once a
gain. “It kind of reminds me of Cozzi shuffling down the street,” I said, smiling. “Maybe he’s guiding it cosmically.”
“Or maybe he left this Earth a long-ass time ago,” Bender said, turning to head out. “And doesn’t give a fuck where that thing goes.” Once we were back under the coverage of the building, he addressed the group. “We meet at my place in forty-eight hours. You guys need to be packed and ready to go.” He jabbed a finger between Case, who stood a few meters away, and myself. “And no more arguments. You need him to help you find what Darby needs. You won’t be able to do it on your own, so quit complaining.”
“I’m not a child,” I argued, trying hard not to sound like a child. “I can complete a mission by myself.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Lockland said. “You’re not familiar with the South or the sea, and he is. It makes sense to go together. We all have a job to do if you want to save Mary. If not”—he shrugged—“we can call the whole operation off. It’s your decision.”
“Why is it my call?” I was going to the South in search of seaweed. None of us was sure it still existed, but since it’d been likely Tandor had been the one to procure it in the first place, we were starting with his first known location.
Case had been assigned to help me, and I, being my naturally magnanimous self, was having trouble not resenting it, even though rationally I knew it was the right thing to do. Case was familiar with the locations and places Tandor and his group had been. Trying to find those on my own would take time—possibly longer than Mary had.
Lockland gave me a look, one that meant I should know better. “You’re in charge of this mission. You were the one infected and the one who cares the most. If you call it off, we stay.”
He was right. I did care the most, and I’d sworn to help Mary no matter what it took. “It’s on,” I said solemnly. “We’ll be ready in forty-eight.”
Darby stood off to the side. “Good, now that that’s all cleared up, I’m heading back to the Emporium to get some work done.” We’d moved his lab—the one he’d shared with the unaccounted-for Marta—to the Emporium because it held more space, and that’s where Mary was.
Over the last few days, she’d been coherent, in and out of consciousness, but her condition had degraded severely over the last twelve hours, making this mission even more imperative.
“Daze and I’ll go with you,” I told him. I’d left Luce there. The Emporium was a little more than half a kilometer from here. It also wasn’t too far from my residence in the canals, which I’d gone back to yesterday. To my great and total relief, nobody had infiltrated it, and it didn’t seem that the government had any knowledge of the location.
We all picked our way through the building and emerged onto the street. The other guys headed to their crafts, which were waiting a short distance away. As Case left, I called, “We’re taking my craft South. I’ll get her to the barracks soon so we can pack her up.”
His eyes pierced mine, even from a distance, as he slowly shook his head, bracing one arm on Seven’s pilot door. “We’ve already had this discussion. We need speed and room. Your craft has neither.”
“Luce has the best tech available if we run into trouble. I’m not going to compromise safety,” I tossed back.
“I’ll modify his craft,” Bender butted in. Before I could say any more, he held up a beefy hand. “Speed and tech win.” Then he got in and shut the door, starting up his G5. Case slid into Seven next, likely to follow Bender back to the shop.
“Traitors,” I mumbled.
“It won’t be so bad going with Case,” Daze assured me as we began to walk toward the Emporium, the rain pelting down harder than usual. “Seven is fast, and we need to take a lot of supplies.”
Daze was excited for the trip. He, like most of us, had never ventured farther than a few kilometers from the city. I’d put him in charge of gathering food from the barracks, which he’d done with gusto. The piles were enormous. They could feed us for months. I still insisted that he spend time in the medi-pod, even though he looked and acted completely fine. He’d resisted at first, but was now resigned, knowing he wasn’t going to win the argument, especially since I threatened to leave him home if he didn’t comply.
Once inside the Emporium, a distinct sound came from Mary’s room. It wasn’t the usual noise of her trying to get free. It sounded like footsteps.
Placing a finger to my lips, I drew my Gem. “Darby,” I whispered as I moved ahead quietly, “you and Daze head to the lab. Let me handle this. If anything happens, go to Bender’s.”
He nodded.
I slipped into the hallway, my back against the wall, creeping slowly. Once I got to Mary’s room, I took a deep breath before I lunged through the doorway.
Seeing the man next to her platform was shocking. He started, turning as he raised his hands.
“Ned?” I slowly lowered my weapon.
He kept his hands up. “No one was here,” he stammered. “I…I knocked first. After Dill made me trap you, I slipped out as soon as I could. I never wanted to be part of this. I swear.”
I hadn’t given him much thought. A lot of Hutch’s guys had gone down while I’d been out of my mind on Plush. Ned had been easy to overlook.
“Why are you here?” I wasn’t ready to holster my weapon just yet.
“The gossip on the street is that you guys took out Hutch and Slim. I had to come and see for myself.” His head turned slightly toward the bed, his expression full of anguish. “It’s my fault Mary was taken in the first place. She was my neighbor and friend. Dill took a liking to her, and before I knew it, he’d made her his first Plushie.” His remorse was at the forefront. “I would’ve never introduced them had I known.” Mary had begun to moan. Ned’s longish hair fell in his face as he leaned forward, tentatively touching her arm. “Can you help her?”
I holstered my Gem and took a step forward. Behind me, Daze had taken up a position to cover me, his taser out. Our symbiotic relationship was coming along nicely. I gave a nod of thanks to the kid as I moved farther into the room.
“We’re going to try,” I said, reaching the edge of the platform. “You can facilitate that by telling me everything you know about Hutch’s operations. Was this his only headquarters? What about Marta? My friend Darby worked with her. She’s a scientist, but we haven’t been able to track her down, and we have no idea if she’s alive. She likely has knowledge about the cure.”
“I’ve never heard of a Marta, I’m sorry. But I hadn’t been a ‘recruit’ for very long. They kept most of us in the dark about specifics. I can take you to Dill’s place, though. I don’t think you’ll find much, but it might be worth a try.”
I nodded. “That would be helpful.”
He glanced down at Mary. “Is she conscious? Can she hear me?”
“I’m not sure,” I answered truthfully. “She could last night, but she’s gotten worse by the hour. We’re doing everything we can, but we’re extremely short on time.”
He bowed his head. “I understand. We can leave shortly.”
I turned to give him some privacy. It was obvious he was remorseful about what had happened. Forgiving him wasn’t on the agenda yet, but if he could provide us with necessary information, we’d see.
Daze holstered his taser as we walked out. I’d confiscated the laser gun Bender had given him when they’d busted in here, promising that I would give it back once I had time to train him. Having that thing go off accidentally could kill someone, and it wasn’t going to be me or him.
Once we were in the hallway, Daze asked, “Do you think that guy’s telling the truth? Was he Mary’s friend?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “But based on our earlier interactions, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“If he hurts Mary, he’s going to get a taste of pain.”
My eyebrows rose. “Oh, yeah?”
“Definitely.” He nodded. “Nobody messes with us and gets away with it.” His voice was full of bravado.
I chuckled. “That’s for sure.” I mussed his hair because I could. “Now let’s go find Darby. I need some info before we head out. After we check out Dill’s place, we have a lot of packing to do.”
In the lab, Darby was hunched over the pico, as usual. He didn’t look up. He likely didn’t even know Daze had left.
“I just ran into one of Hutch’s recruits. He was in with Mary,” I told him. “His name is Ned, and he’s harmless. He’s going to take us to Dill’s residence. I’m hoping we can start putting the pieces together about what happened to Marta and maybe get a lead on where Slim called home. It seems Slim was in charge of procuring or making the Plush. From what Claire told us, he very well could’ve been in contact with that secret group in the government, the Bureau of Truth.”
Darby nodded absentmindedly. “That’s good. Very good.” He pointed at the screen. “See here, this formula is contradictory. In the actual data, it says one thing, but in the language of code, it specifies something entirely different.” He looked up, meeting my gaze for the first time, and I saw that his eyes were bloodshot. He likely hadn’t slept more than an hour or two. “Why would they do that?”
I pulled a chair over and sat as Daze leaned against the table next to us. “I don’t know, Darb. Maybe someone was trying to cover something up? When folks started having bad reactions to Plush, I bet there was a lot of fallout and people were scurrying around trying to avoid blame. Lives were getting ruined.”
“Yeah, maybe,” he said, though his tone remained unconvinced. “Or maybe they deleted all the damning evidence, but forgot to wipe the formulas. That seems more likely.” He straightened. “Thank goodness for the audiobooks I found over the years, or I’d have never been able to read these. I procured one that discussed bio-engineering when I was about thirteen. It was all about elemental compounds, and it was one of the only things I had to listen to as a kid. I guess it paid off.”
“I’ll say. We’re damn lucky. Without you, this wouldn’t be possible,” I said earnestly. “Before we go, I need you to level with me.” That got his attention. He cocked his head. “How likely is the success of this mission? Do you actually think once we’re back you’ll be able to figure out a cure?”
Danger’s Vice Page 20