The Body Market

by Donna Freitas

  I shifted in my chair, the wood creaking, the noise angry and sharp against the quiet. I leaned across the table. “Your daughter is going to involve herself whether you like it or not. Whether I like it or not. Do you have any idea where she’s been?” I didn’t wait for Mariela to guess. “First, Skylar went to the Body Market. The Body Market. She wanted to find Inara.” Mariela’s eyes grew wide. “Then she was gone for almost a week—I actually thought she might never come back. She showed up finally with a bounty hunter. No explanation. And she won’t talk about what happened either.”

  Mariela ran her hands down her face. “Is she all right?” she asked in a whisper.

  “She’s fine. Or at least she seems fine.”

  “But you said—” Mariela started.

  “I know what I told you before,” I interrupted. “And for a long time, Skylar kept to herself. Ever since the night of the fire she’d been . . . different, like she’d lost her will to fight, or really to do anything.” I stared at Mariela hard. “But it’s back, stronger than ever, and your daughter . . . she has all kinds of ideas about the Body Market.”

  Mariela got up and crossed the room. She faced the wall. “What kinds of ideas?”

  “Intriguing ones, honestly,” I said. “Good ones. Though some of the ones she has about herself are rather . . . unexpected.”

  She spun to face me. “Unexpected how?”

  “There’s something I need to know,” I said.

  Mariela hesitated. “What?”

  I took a deep breath. “Skylar thinks her father might be Emory Specter and that her brother is Trader. Is any of this true?”

  She was shaking her head. “I should never have said anything. I thought it might be the last time we ever saw each other. . . .”

  I inhaled a sharp breath. “So it is true?”

  Mariela didn’t respond.

  “Emory Specter is . . . is her father?” I pressed.

  “Where is she now?” she asked, as though this was an answer.

  “Gone.”

  “Gone?” she croaked. “Where?”

  I sighed. “To New Port City with her Keeper.”

  “But it’s not safe for her there!”

  “Well.” I got up from the table and crossed my arms. “If she knew you were here, maybe she wouldn’t have left.”

  Mariela sat down again in a heap. She cradled her head in her hands. “You need to get her back. She’s so vulnerable. Her sister . . .”

  I stared down at Skylar’s mother. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Skylar since she showed up in this world, it’s that she can take care of herself.”

  She looked up at me. “I hope you’re right.”

  “I need to go. I’ll be back again as soon as I have more information. Consider what I said about letting Skylar know that you’re here.”

  She nodded, but her eyes were elsewhere.

  I left her there, not sure what else I could say, and closed the door of her room behind me softly. When I emerged from the alcove, someone was standing there, blocking the hall.

  We nearly crashed into each other.

  Lacy tilted her head, red hair cascading like flames along her left side. She ran a single finger down my cheek. “Rain Holt, what are you hiding?”

  25

  Skylar

  siblings

  I TOOK THE crumpled map from my pocket.

  As I slipped it out of my coat, one of the tablets tumbled onto the ground with a loud thud. I bent down to retrieve it, worried that it might be broken, but it seemed fine. No cracks or dents.

  Kit was suddenly at my side. He stared at the shiny metal device like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Where did you get that?”

  “Out at Briarwood.” I held it out to him. “You can look at it if you want.”

  He took it from me. “I haven’t seen one of these in ages.”

  “You’ve seen one before?”

  He nodded. “My parents had them. My mother was obsessed with hers. They were illegal contraband back then, but over the years they seemed to disappear from the Real World, either destroyed or hidden away. Eventually they were useless, because there was nothing to connect to.”

  I followed Kit back to our chairs by the stove and was immediately greeted by a welcome surge of warmth. The air in the cottage was chilly except right next to the fire. “Apparently my sister has found a way to turn the Wi-Fi back on in this city. And Zeera, the tech whiz I know, found a way to tap into the network so these”—I tapped the on button Zeera showed me—“are functioning again, at least for sending messages.”

  The tablet came to life, the blue of it projecting a glow onto Kit’s face. He swiped a finger across the screen and began tapping away, immediately at ease with the device.

  “You know how to use it?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” He sounded sad. “My mother would give me hers to play with sometimes.” He glanced up from it. “This is a nice one. Solar powered. That was one of the last advancements before these got banned.” He angled it so I could see the tiny black panels striping the back of it. “And see these?” He ran a finger along the silver edge of the tablet. It was perforated with holes so tiny they formed a kind of metal mesh. “Better for the environment to harness the sun and the wind.”

  I hadn’t thought to ask Zeera about this. “Wow. Clever.”

  “Maybe,” Kit said, but rather darkly. “Or desperate might be a better way of putting it.” He tossed the device high into the air and caught it. “Before they figured out how to power these with the environment, the batteries would run down fast and people would go crazy when they couldn’t get their fix. They’d do anything to charge them up again, even keep their small children in sweltering-hot cars or just abandon their kids altogether to go in search of a charging station.” Kit looked at me. He sounded like he was speaking from experience. “The sun and the wind made it so there was endless energy to keep them going and, poof, problem solved.”

  “Kind of like the way they figured out how to use the sea to power the plugs,” I said, making the connection.

  “Exactly like that,” he said, nodding.

  I thought about this, trying to decide if this energy source was more clever or desperate, as Kit said. “It’s a bit ironic,” I began.

  “What is?” Kit pressed.

  “Having to rely so much on the ocean and the sun and the wind and the body to access the virtual,” I went on. “No matter what the technicians and scientists do, or how hard people try to escape dependence, the Real World and all its natural resources are necessary for the App version to exist. Well, until now,” I added. “Until they figured out how to leave behind the body altogether.”

  Kit tapped the screen a few more times, then peered closely at whatever was on it. “I wonder where the virtual sphere is going to exist, you know, in space and time, once all the bodies are gone.”

  I nearly laughed. “For that we’d need a physicist. But to me, it seems eerie to disconnect entirely from the Real World. People are making a huge gamble, to think that virtual living can continue on totally disconnected from reality. What if everyone is wrong, and it just, I don’t know, blinked out?”

  Kit didn’t answer. He was busy studying the tablet. Eventually he handed it back to me. “You have a lot of messages,” he said absently. Then he got up and took our plates over to the sink.

  I looked down at the screen.

  He was right. People had been trying to contact me ever since I left Briarwood. Well, Zeera and Rain had. Skylar! Zeera here. Now we’re connected. Just reply and I’ll get the message, said one of the ones from Zeera. Skylar? I gave you this so you would use it. Write me back and let me know you’re okay, said another. Mostly, the messages were from Rain. One after the other, they ran down the entire screen and beyond it.

  Skylar, are you okay?

  Skylar, please let me know that you’re all right.

  When will you be back? Do you know?

  Skylar, seriou
sly. There’s a reason why we decided to use these. They’re pointless if you don’t stay in touch.

  We miss you out here.

  Zeera says hello. She’s busy working on the tech necessary for your plan. Making progress too. Come back soon.

  The last message was the one that sent color flaming across my skin.

  That bounty hunter? He is NOT to be trusted.

  Had Kit scrolled down that far? I didn’t reply to any of them—not yet. Instead, I slipped the tablet back into my coat pocket and picked up the map again. Kit stopped washing dishes and came over to me.

  He studied the map over my shoulder. “I know where this is.”

  I eyed him. “So you’ll take me?”

  He glanced up from the paper. “What’s there that you need to see? Or is it a who?” His last words were careful. If I had to bet, he was thinking about Rain.

  “It’s a who.” I took a deep breath. “It’s someone I know from the App World. I think he might be my brother.”

  Kit looked at me with surprise. “You have a brother?”

  I lifted my shoulders. “Maybe. That’s what I want to find out.”

  Slowly, he folded the paper in half, then in half again, lost in thought. He held the map out to me absently.

  I took it. “We’re going to get your sister back,” I said, wondering if my mention of a possible brother turned his thoughts to his twin.

  He nodded. But his eyes drifted away.

  “Tell me what’s going through your mind, Kit.”

  He crossed the short distance to the wall where our coats were hanging on hooks. He began putting on his jacket. “That if you want to go today, we should leave before it gets dark.”

  “Okay,” I agreed, though I felt reluctant to go so soon after I’d arrived, to leave the now familiar comfort of this remote haven by the sea. I went to Kit and stood in front of him. “I know you’re worried about Maggie. I understand—I really do. I’m worried about the people I care about too. Thank you for keeping your promise.”

  Kit wouldn’t meet my eyes. He bobbed his head once.

  I grabbed my coat and put it on. Kit’s neck was still bare. I started to unravel his scarf so I could return it.

  He stopped me with his hand. “Keep it,” he said.

  The place he touched my skin was warm. When he let go, I dug around in my pocket and came up with the other tablet. “I almost forgot. I brought one of these for you.”

  Kit’s eyebrows arched. “Thank you,” he said carefully. “But I don’t need one. Or want one.”

  I pushed it toward him. “Why not take it? Just in case?”

  He studied me like I should already know. “The only person I need to communicate with is standing right here,” he said. Then he opened the door to the cottage and walked outside. I followed him, the roar of the nearby sea crashing across the questions in my mind, smoothing them over like the round rocks that tumble along the ocean’s edge.

  The air was cold but I didn’t feel it.

  Kit steered the motorcycle along the coast and over a bridge, then another one. My hands gripped his waist and I leaned into him, peering over his shoulder. His eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses. This was my third time on the bike, and each time felt more normal, like maybe I belonged here. A haze of clouds filled the sky and the temperature began to drop. The noise of the engine was occasionally cut by the sound of a particularly big wave hitting the beach as we raced by.

  The trip was quiet and beautiful.

  And it was empty of human life. The Real World beyond the city was nearly abandoned.

  Virtual life was appealing, but was it really so appealing that this many of us were willing to never lay eyes on the real version again? That we’d forfeit knowing the power of the sea and feeling the crunch of snow under our feet as I had this morning? I tightened my grip around Kit’s waist and pressed into his back, sensing the way his body shifted as we leaned into a curve. The smell of leather mingled with the salt in the air and I closed my eyes. Was virtual life worth giving up the opportunity to be this close to someone else’s real body?

  The motorcycle came around a bend and slowed.

  Kit pulled up to the only house for what must be miles. It was so close to the ocean it was practically nestled into the rocks. There was a flat expanse between them just big enough for a cottage. I got off the bike, and as I took in the sight before us, I laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Kit asked.

  I shook my head. “This just . . . this looks like a place where Trader might live.”

  The roof sagged, and in the upper right-hand corner it had fallen off altogether. The windows were so covered in grime it was impossible to see through them, and they were broken in places, like someone held batting practice here on occasion. The front steps had nearly crumbled away and a brick chimney along the left side of the house tumbled toward the ground. The facade looked to have once been painted a cheerful blue to match the seaside, but the color had faded to gray in some places and peeled away completely in others. It reminded me of Trader’s house in Loner Town, the only difference being that this one was real.

  Kit stood there, taking in the broken-down house alongside me. “This doesn’t look like a place anyone would be living. Or should be. I bet it’s empty.” Kit pulled out the map again. “But this is definitely the location.”

  I picked my way over the rocks and went to the front door, careful not to slip on the ice slicked across them. I knocked and waited. Meanwhile, Kit cupped his hands against one of the windows that wasn’t broken, trying to see through the grime.

  “I don’t think anyone is home,” he said. “Or has been here in a long while.”

  This close to the water, the rhythmic crash of the waves was nearly deafening.

  I tried the knob on the door. It creaked open.

  “Skylar—” Kit protested.

  I went inside anyway. It was the same as outside: crumbling plaster, the floorboards sticking up and splintered in places, a chair that tilted to the side because it was missing one of its legs. The place was freezing, yet the air was humid somehow, with droplets of the sea. Everything was damp. I listened for any sign of life, but all I heard was the roar and sigh of the waves. A thick door that looked to be made of driftwood was cut into the wall at the back of the room. At first when I pushed against it, it didn’t move, but eventually it started to budge.

  And I yelped in surprise.

  “Skylar?” Kit called out from behind me.

  I stared and stared.

  Beyond it was a single room, nearly sunk into the rocks, simple and spare and clean. There were wires and monitors and tools on a long black counter. It was like a miniature version of Zeera’s work space, sleek and humming. In so many ways this place would be unremarkable, if it didn’t stand in such sharp contrast to the rest of the house.

  And were it not for the single object at its center.

  The cradle that served as the plug to the App World, only without the glass box around it.

  Trader lay across it, as though sleeping.

  I went to him and knelt down. He seemed so peaceful.

  But I knew better.

  Trader was virtually alive and awake and engaged in . . . something. Probably something illegal.

  “Trader? Trader? It’s Skylar.”

  Kit was suddenly next to me, kneeling on the floor, staring at me like I was crazy. “I don’t think he can hear you.”

  I shook my head. “I think he can,” I told Kit. “Or that there’s a way to break through to him. When I was still in the App World, someone in the Real World communicated with me once.”

  “But I thought that was—”

  “Impossible? I know. Me, too.” I turned back to Trader. “Apparently there’s a lot that we don’t know about plugging in and how it all works.” This time, before I spoke to Trader, I reached out and grasped his hand, then nearly snatched it back. His skin was cold, like death. “Trader, it’s Skylar.” I squeezed his cold finge
rs.

  Then I waited.

  My hand in Trader’s cold one, my face bent over his own.

  Meanwhile, Kit got up quietly and went to investigate the counter and its tools. While I sat there, watching for a sign that Trader could hear me, I realized how much I hoped that he could help us. If we could code an App that gave each individual control over their comings and goings between worlds, and over their real brains and bodies, the power structure both here and in the App World would change dramatically. No longer would just a few politicians have control over people’s decisions, or be able to force anyone to choose one world over the other. The borders would cease to matter altogether.

  People could live in both places.

  Kind of like they used to when technology and the virtual was something you could hold in the palm of your hand and connect to and disconnect to at will.

  Though that was the problem, wasn’t it?

  Nobody wanted to lose control over things. Not Jonathan Holt, not Emory Specter, and certainly not my sister and her New Capitalists. Until now, plugging in was astronomically costly and the process itself was shrouded in secrecy, just as the process of unplugging was.

  But this would be a game changer.

  Well, if we could find a way to code this App it would.

  I peered closer to Trader. “Where are you? What illegal thing are you doing right now that is so important that you can’t come back from it to see me! The Body Market is going to open again soon and we don’t have any more time to waste!”

  I sat back on my heels in a slump.

  After another long while, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up.

  “It’s getting dark,” Kit said softly. “We can come back first thing in the morning.”

  I nodded, defeat battling against the hope that maybe tomorrow things would be different.

  “I’ll wait for you out front,” Kit said, and disappeared into the other room.

  I was about to get up and follow him when I stopped and reached for Trader’s hand, leaned over his face. “Trader, it’s Skylar,” I tried one last time. “I think I might be your sister,” I added in a whisper. “Please answer me.”