Intrepid

by J. D. Brewer

  I grinned. “So you are more than just a pretty face.”

  “Aw, shucks.” He batted his long eyelashes at me and laughed. “Now quit screwing around. We need to get going.”

  “I’ve always wanted to see the Trubalanas,” I confessed. “Iago and I used to make up games about them all the time when we were kids.”

  “I know,” he said. I kept forgetting Liam probably watched my entire childhood. I wondered if I’d ever have a story about my life that surprised him. Liam put his screen away and got a pensive look on his face. “Want to hear something weird? The only reason we need our Planck Activation Bracelets now is to research things we don’t understand. How amazing is that?”

  I looked at the leather bracelet on my wrist and smiled. He was right. There was absolutely nothing holding us back from the Nothing. “Let’s go,” I said and reached out to grab his wrists.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  We landed on a cliff that overlooked a roaring ocean, and rain tumbled down in torrents, immediately soaking us to the bone. A cathartic laugh avalanched out of both of us. “We did it!” Liam yelled and picked me up to twirl me around in a hug. “This is it!” He set me down and turned his face up to the dark clouds above like he could swallow every drop if he just opened up his mouth and drank.

  I grabbed my wrist between my fingers and felt for the pulse.

  Thump-thu-thu-thu-thump. Thum-thu-thu-thu-thump.

  The bleating hum of life scrambled out of every ounce of me. “This must be a Producer!” I yelled over the wind. We’d never been on a Producer before, but this place was electrically charged in ways that reminded me of TVs flickering on, bacon sizzling, and dynamite bursting through solid-rock mountains.

  I turned around and saw a city filled with wide-walled skyscrapers a few miles away. Lights from windows floated in the sky and wavered beyond the rain as if they were stars on a windy night, but the clouds stopped us from seeing the tops of the towers.

  “Is this the right place?” he asked.

  “You bet your rear it is!” I laughed again, but immediately the laugh caught in my throat. Something felt right and wrong about this place, but I couldn’t pinpoint just what it was.

  He nodded towards the city and grabbed my hand. “Should we walk?” He winked, and within the time it took for him to squinch up his eye, we Bucket Hopped to the edge of the city.

  Neon lights poured off building sides like an avalanche of brightness, and strange texts bled into understanding. I stared at the first sign in front of me, tilting my head to see that it was an advertisement for synthetic galoshes.

  He grinned. Something was shifting within him, as if he was finally excited to tell me everything I didn’t know—as if he was ready to stop holding onto secrets.

  I looked up and tried to see the top of the skyscraper we stood next to, but dark clouds covered it. It could have gone for another mile beyond the clouds, and I would never know, especially with the gum-drop raindrops that were becoming painful as they plopped on my forehead and cheeks. They must have been growing in size with every second that passed. I squinted and looked around. The streets were nearly deserted, despite the few umbrella-ed souls racing in and out. I’m sure Liam and I looked ridiculous standing in the rain like we were.

  I saw a storefront with a hotel layered on top of it when another problem occurred to me. “Liam, how do we pay for anything? What do we eat? Where do we sleep?”

  He pointed to his Bracelet. “On planets where money is based on electronics, this comes in handy. We can hack into any system, because all systems have the same basic, technological origins. On planets where money is still hard currency or trade-based, we either find a solution or Jump back to other Veins for rest and sustenance.”

  “But… that’s stealing.”

  He shook his head. “Not really. We don’t take the money out of anyone’s account. It’s real, but it isn’t. We mimic the currency by hacking into the system and creating our own form of credit or banking accounts. It’s usable, counterfeit money, and although that seems unethical in so many ways, it’s insignificant to the bigger picture. Think of it this way. We only use it for food and sustenance, and we never use it on frivolous things that go beyond basic survival. One, we can’t take much with us, and two, our mission is to protect the Multiverse. Think of the money as the Multiverse’s contribution, like all these worlds are paying a Gaian Tax. If Gaia is going to sacrifice its children to help save humanity, then the least the universes we are trying to help can do is feed, clothe, and shelter us.”

  The logic felt shaky, but he had a point. It wasn’t like we were joyriding around the Multiverse, but I still felt uncomfortable with stealing. When I was a kid, I’d stolen a bag of Skittles from the mini-mart, and when Ringo caught me, he walked me in to apologize to the clerk. I vividly remembered the flaming cheeks that burned under my skin as I squeaked out the “I’m sorry” to the pimple-faced kid who could not have cared less. Afterwards, Ringo asked, “Were you starving? Am I not feeding you well?” When I shook my head no, he added, “Never take anything out of greed. Life is full of gray areas, but when something is clearly black and white—like the choice to steal candy just because you want it—some things are just unacceptable.” I now knew that Ringo lived his entire life in gray areas, and I wondered how much of our life was counterfeit and how much wasn’t?

  Out of nowhere, I felt a tug in my gut, and I reached over to feel my pulse. It had changed from a thum-thu-thu-thu-thump to a th-thu-th-thu-thum. “Do you feel it?” I asked.

  Liam nodded. “It’s like the pulse is fluttering.”

  The tug grew stronger into a heartbeat running amuck. I saw a woman approaching in a swishing, brown trench-coat. Her orange umbrella flowered out around her head, and the neon lights reflected off the tattoo on her forehead. It was strange to see the interlocking circles between the eyebrows. It was Mrs. Ortiz’s stories coming to life before my eyes, and the rest of her tales came back too. She told me stories about the Trubulanas often, and the Hours of Acid was the daily acid rain that fell for a few hours every afternoon. This time became a Siesta time for the Trubulanas, and they spent it napping and eating with their loved ones.

  This memory also reminded me that even Mrs. Ortiz was in on my “training.” She didn’t make up all the fantastical stories about the Greeks and Yin-Yins after all. I don’t know why it hit me so hard right then and there, but the betrayal of it hurt. Everything she told me about was real, and, because of this, I knew a lot more about the Multiverse than I thought I did.

  Her voice flooded my memory with a piece of her story. “Most of the population lives in Upling cities that grow above the acid clouds, where a second set of clouds produce pure rain and drinkable water. However, there are still Groundlings who devote their lives to the preservation of history, the science of acid on the ground, and the maintenance of support structures for the above cities. At first, families were assigned to the type of lives they would live, but after a while, it became a personal choice. Although, if I were given the choice, I’m sure I could never live the life of a Groundling. There’s something erie about living under a constant cloud.”

  The woman with the umbrella came to a stop in front of us and said something, but I couldn’t hear her over the thundering rain. I struggled to equalize the noises in my ears until a strange accent flooded the canals and understanding adjusted itself into place. “You should not be here. The acid is coming,” she said.

  “The acid?” Liam said in an accent that matched hers perfectly. I couldn’t tell if the language was a strange form of English, or if it was a language completely foreign to the one I grew up with on Geronimo, or if my ears were just connecting it to a language that was more familiar.

  I looked around the streets and saw that they were completely empty now, except for us and this woman. She muttered a curse under her breath, but I made out the mumbled sentences that followed. “Stupid kids these days. Think they can survive the acid. This is w
hy I don’t want children. I should just let them kill themselves.”

  “Ma’am?” I asked.

  “Come into my store and wait it out. I should warn you. I am trained in KiNu. If you try to rob me, I will rob you of something much more valuable.” She nodded towards the storefront we were next to. In the window was the galosh advertisement, and through it, I could see a cluttered shop.

  I shrugged at Liam, and we began to follow her into the store. As we got near, she held our faces with her eyes. “Humph,” she garbled as she opened the door for us. The shop was filled wall-to-wall with books and canisters that held strange herbs. I wanted to pull out every book I saw and read what mysteries and stories resided within the pages. The colors that ran along the bindings were almost as neon as all the signs we saw outside. There wasn’t a hint of the galoshes she advertised, and there was a strong smell of incense permeating the air.

  The woman locked the door behind her, and clicked a button so that a suctioning sound sealed the doors. Her umbrella made mini-puddles in the holder she propped it up on, and she hung her coat on a hook near the door. Her eyes were brown and round in ways that felt unnatural as she sized us up. She shook her head so red curls bounced in several directions as she made her way into the store. We followed her through a short maze of shelves, and she said, “Wait here.”

  To the left of the shelves was a doorway with a beaded curtain, and when she parted the strands to go through it, the beads made a musical wave of sound.

  I looked at the shelf I stood next to. I hovered my fingers over the items, but didn’t touch them. They were weird artifacts: masks, potions, strangely colored scrolls.

  When she returned with two towels, I immediately remembered to feel drenched and soggy.

  “Why were you children out at this hour?” she asked.

  “We lost track of time, is all.” Liam rubbed his hair with the towel, then wrapped it around his wet shoulders.

  I did the same, then my fingers moved absently to my wrist. I felt the universal pulse speed up, and I tapped my toes to the floor with an uncontainable nervous tick.

  She stared at us for a moment, watching the movement of my toes. I tried to still my foot, but it wouldn’t listen. Then she said, “Children these days. Never do their research before they Jump. I’m tired of Saltadors thinking of this place as a drug.” She reached out to adjust her watch, and I noticed a small tattoo on the instep of her wrist. It was a box, with a universe bubbling out of the corner. My heart skipped several beats as I remembered Sully’s tattoo. “See. This is the universe… this is all we don’t know about it,” he had said. This woman must be a Shadow Boxer, and if Sully had tried to strangle me, what might she do if she knew what I was? What we were?

  Liam saw the same thing and reached out to grasp my fingers as she fumbled with the watch on her wrist. Her fingers hovered impatiently over the screen she pulled up. The way Liam’s fingers squeezed told me to be ready to Jump.

  She caught Liam’s movement to touch me, and warned, “Boy, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Jumping when the acid comes is not a good idea, trust me.”

  Liam’s fingers relaxed, but didn’t let go.

  “What’s your Watcher’s coordinates. They should know where you landed,” the woman said.

  “Ma’am. We are unable to give you our Watcher’s coordinates. They are classified,” Liam replied.

  I let out the breath I was holding when I remembered that Liam knew all about Gaian culture. If anyone could talk us out of this situation, it’d be him.

  “How convenient.” Her eyes narrowed with a knowing suspicion that made my skin feel like a million cockroaches were climbing all over it.

  I gasped as I felt the universal pulse shift so that chaos ran rampant through my own pulse. I touched the wrist Liam held with my free hand, and realized the acid rain must have picked up speed outside. Something about it was moving the Energy here in beautifully tragic ways.

  “I think we just accidentally entered the wrong coordinates, is all. Would you be kind enough to tell us where we landed?” Liam asked, even though he knew.

  The woman grinned. “You’ve stumbled upon the Trubulanas right at the Hours of Acid, but I’m pretty sure you know that, child.”

  I looked up to the woman’s high ceiling only to understand that there were thousands of stories growing above us. The very skyscrapers we wandered into were the foundations for the Upling cities. The weight of it felt heavier than it should have, and it suddenly became the only thing I could think of. Something within me wanted to find stairs or an elevator and make my way up there.

  The woman studied my expression when I looked back at her, and her eyes narrowed with a different idea. “Since you’re stuck with us for a few hours, I’m Unua. And you are?”

  Still mesmerized by the idea of the world above me and the desire to see it lifting my mind up there, I opened my mouth to answer, “Te—” but Liam cut me off and said, “This is Tessanna, and I’m Lyndonal.”

  Unua’s eyes widened. “Gaians! Straight from the source, eh?”

  I wanted slap myself on the forehead for the mistake I’d almost made. Of course the names would give away what Vein we were raised on. “Yes ma’am,” I added for good measure.

  “Are you sure that’s your name?” she asked, and I sucked in another breath.

  Liam opened his mouth to respond, but movement from behind the beaded curtain caught his eyes, and we both watched a slender hand part the strands. “It’s not polite to lie,” the man who walked out of the room said. I’d never seen him before, but I knew the silver in his words, even in this foreign Trubulana language. He was beautiful in that calm kind of way, with bulbous cheeks and cashew-colored eyes. “You sure did figure things out faster than I thought you would.”

  Liam squared his shoulders. “Nobu!” he exclaimed as the man collided into him with a man-tastic hug.

  I backed myself towards the maze of shelves, and my entire body began to tremble.

  Did Liam know Nobu would kill us? Unua said not to Jump during the Hours of Acid, but was that just a lie to keep us here? Where could I go?

  My eyes began to swirl as I searched for an escape. I could push another universe into existence. It looked like there were plenty of places in this store that we could hide in until the Hours of Acid ended, and every time they found us, I could push another universe out so we could hide in a new place. There was definitely enough Energy here to pull from. It’d be a strange game of hide and seek, but at least it’d protect us until we could Jump again.

  Nobu let go of Liam, and the grin on his face was so genuine, it was hard to believe the man would ever harm him. But there were too many factors at risk. Nobu was with people who were clearly Shadow Boxers, but even that made no sense. If he was a Shadow Boxer, why didn’t he kill me on Geeta?

  “How’d you know I’d be here?” Liam asked.

  “You didn’t think Texi was the only one we’d track, did you?” Nobu said.

  “You’re kidding.” Liam tried to hide the anger in the words. He didn’t like being tracked any more than I did.

  “We knew you’d eventually trust your instinct and take off with her. I just thought it’d take you a little longer. You still had so much more to learn from Santiago! I thought I trained you better than to be so damn impulsive.”

  I cringed. Nothing he was saying made sense, but I didn’t have time to figure it out. The pulse of the universe was moving too fast for me to hold it inside myself. I felt an earthquake in my heart, pulling me forward into the fingertips of Creation.

  “Liam,” I squeaked. My voice caused the others to look my way. I backed up some more until my back hit against a shelf. There was a shivering of books and the crash of a jar as it cackled against the wooden floor and broke into shards to mix with a green, sparkly powder.

  My eyes were doing more than the usual swirling. I knew that the purples had not only invaded my irises, but the whites around my eyes as well. I could see the shap
es of their bodies like faded holograms in the distance behind galaxies being born in my eyes.

  Nobu, Unua, and Liam stared at me in gap-faced horror, and I felt my skin come alive with possibility.

  “Texi,” Liam whispered. “You have to stop.” He stepped towards me, cautious, as if he was approaching a skittish animal. The look on his face terrified me, but there was so much power in this universe—so much potential.

  The tha-tha-tha-tha-da-thump pulse was tearing me apart from my insides, as if my lungs couldn’t keep up with my heart.

  “Pull it in. Don’t let it out,” Nobu said, but what could he possibly know about what was happening to me?

  Liam took another timid step towards me, and I reached out to touch his arm. But then I saw why they all looked so terrified. There was a soft, green glow radiating along my arms, and I groaned as the color intensified. I couldn’t tell if it hurt or felt good.

  “Texi, I know it’s overwhelming, but breathe.” Nobu coached from where he stood, but still kept his distance. “Count to ten. Slowly.”

  I nodded. “One,” I whispered, but the word barely shook out of me. “Two.” I tried to slow the pulse, but the more I tried, the brighter the glow from my skin became. My Energy wanted to reach out with or without me.

  “Three, Tex,” Nobu added, trying to pull me through.

  “Three,” I parroted. “Four.”

  This little city on this little planet on this little universe within the infinite Multiverse hid something big. I squeezed my eyes shut and let go of the counting. I let go of Liam and Nobu and Unua and this little shop tucked under an Upling city, and I let my entire soul reach out to the Nothing for answers.

  I opened my eyes, and let the trickle-tickle feeling within them burn as a smile filled my green, glowing face. “The other half,” I whispered. “It’s here.”

  Emory