She thought back, remembering what Damos had told her about shaking a tail when she’d first joined the group almost three years ago now. After a few moments the lessons came back. Not wanting to waste any more time, Izzy began to make her way to the safe house. For the first part of her journey, she made several sharp turns, using reflective surfaces to check for a pursuer without looking back, all the while heading for the busy commercial area she knew was nearby. There, she entered several shops, trying to lose herself in crowds before quickly making an exit. Some she didn’t even enter, instead following the revolving door right back out again. In one she picked up a hat. She felt slightly bad for stealing it, but justified it to herself considering the circumstances. Ginger hair wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.
When she was finally sure no one could possibly be following her, she made her way to the skyrail. After all her hurried walking her chest screamed at her in pain. Only the fact that she would soon be with her family again made it bearable.
Chapter 9 - Relief
10:42, Safe house, North District
It was late morning when Lily finally woke. Still wearing the same clothes as the previous night, she pushed back the covers and climbed out of bed. Any hope of sneaking out before the others noticed was forgotten when she trudged down stairs and heard Victoria say “she’s awake.” Taking a moment to compose herself, she entered the front room.
“Good morning,” Matt said in a far more cheery voice than was appropriate. Victoria nodded, while Damos simply ignored her.
“Morning,” Lily replied, avoiding their gazes.
“Would you like something to eat? We don’t have much, but I could make you some toast?” Matt asked.
I am hungry, Lily thought, before replying, “Yes. Thank you.”
Matt gestured for her to take a seat. Lily sat in the arm chair, as far from Victoria and Damos as possible, beginning to regret her decision to eat as she watched Matt leave for the kitchen. She sat in silence while Victoria and Damos continued their conversation.
“As I was saying, we need to figure out who attacked us last night, and why,” Victoria said. Damos nodded but remained silent. “If they were after me, why would they take Owen and Izzy? It doesn’t make sense.”
“They couldn’t get you. Owen and Izzy were the next best,” Damos suggested.
“No, if they were coming after me they would have been far better equipped. Last night was a slaughter house.”
Lily thought she noticed Damos’s eyes light up for a moment, before returning to their dull gaze.
That man is truly sick.
“So they were after Owen or Izzy then?”
“No one would want Izzy; she’s just an old street rat. Owen, on the other hand, makes some sense.”
Or they wanted the disc you took from me, Lily thought.
“Why would they want Owen?” Damos asked.
“Maybe he hacked into somewhere he shouldn’t have?”
“There’s no way he’d have been caught. Owen is the best,” Matt said, returning with a plate of buttered toast. He walked round to Lily and held it out to her. “Sorry it’s a tad bland, but like I said, we don’t have much.”
Lily took it and nodded her thanks.
“If they didn’t want either Owen or Izzy, why would they take either of them?” Victoria said.
“Hostages? Leverage?” Matt replied as he sat down besides Damos.
“If they knew enough about us to plan to take hostages, to specifically take the two members of the team untrained in combat, they would know we’d never give in to their demands.”
“Yeah, true. Forget about the why a moment, let’s think about the who. Who would have hired mercenaries?”
“Who wouldn’t? No one’s stupid enough to try and take us themselves,” Damos said.
“Those mercenaries clearly were,” Victoria said.
“Or they didn’t know they would be. What if they weren’t there for us?” Matt said.
“What were they there for then?”
Matt paused for a moment.
“The disc. They wanted the disc,” he said eventually.
“That still wouldn’t explain why they took Owen and Izzy.”
“Yes it would, primarily because Owen had the disc in his pocket, but also because the disc contained a copy of the code Owen wrote back when he was working on the supersoldier project.”
“It what?” Victoria snapped.
“It had Owen’s incomplete code. The one he was writing before he got cold feet.”
“And you didn’t think to mention this before because…?”
“I was a little preoccupied! And Owen asked me not to until he could be sure he hadn’t made a mistake.”
“I’m the team leader. You report to me!” Victoria exclaimed.
“You never asked about it, so I had no obligation. Owen and I agreed it would be best not to panic you in case he’d got it wrong.”
“I’m not panicked,” Victoria replied.
She’s lying, Lily thought, feeling panic well up inside of her.
“Okay, okay,” Matt said, holding his hands up. “Back to the attack, assuming they wanted the disc, that significantly narrows down the list of people who might have taken them.”
“Narrow doesn’t give us an answer,” Victoria replied.
“Find out who hired the mercs,” Damos said.
“I could try some of my contacts in the city. We need to get her a fuzzer anyway,” Matt said, nodding at Lily.
Me? Lily thought, sitting up in surprise.
“Okay, head out and see what you can find,” Victoria said.
“Leave in twenty minutes?” Matt said, looking up at Lily.
“Leave? For where?” Lily exclaimed.
“The city centre. We can take the bike. We need to get you a fuzzer.” Seeing the panicked look on Lily’s face, Matt explained. “It’s a device, a necklace or similar, which hides your ManaNet aura so that you can’t be identified through ManaNet. Regular people don’t need to worry, but Gifteds are easy to track.”
“How do you know I’m gifted?”
“It was… it was in our ‘brief’.”
Realising what Matt meant, Lily didn’t reply. Her own fears, combined with Victoria’s panicked state, tipped her over the edge. Dropping the now empty plate, she leapt for the door.
“Wait!” Matt called, chasing after her.
Lily broke into a run. There was a rush of footsteps. She felt a grip around her arm. She tried to yank it away, but the grip remained.
“Let go,” Lily yelled, tugging as hard as she could. Matt released her. She began to run again, throwing open the front door.
“Stop,” Matt said, darting round in front of her with his arms outstretched. Lily tried to push past but Matt’s stance was too strong.
“Stop and listen,” Matt repeated, grabbing her shoulders. “Whoever attacked us, whoever took Owen and Izzy and the data disc, they likely hired us to kill you as well. I’m sorry, but that’s how it is. I don’t know who hired us, neither do Victoria or Damos, but as long as they’re still out there, you’re a target. As long as you’re not dead, you’re a target. If you leave now, they will kill you. I promise, we will not.”
Lily stopped fighting and stood still, looking at the ground.
“We will protect you. As long as you’re with us, you’re safe. Look at me.”
Lily kept her eyes on the floor.
“Look at me,” Matt repeated. Lily slowly raised her head.
“We. Will. Not. Harm. You. I promise.”
I hate my powers, Lily thought as she felt the sincerity of Matt’s words through his emotions.
“Fine,” Lily said. “Let’s go.”
“Right now? Don’t you want to get ready?”
And do what? It’s not like I have any of my things.
Lily shook her head.
“Okay. Let’s get going then.”
* * * *
11:24, City Centre
Lily clung on tight as Matt swooped low and parked the jet bike in a side alley. After dismounting, Lily waited while he locked it to a nearby bike stand before the pair made their way into the city.
“First up, acquiring a fuzzer. The sooner we get you off the radar, the better,” Matt said.
Lily remained quiet as Matt led her through the busy streets, the pair weaving their way through a mass of pedestrians.
It would be so easy to just slip away, Lily thought before Matt’s words came back to her. She sped up slightly, making sure not to lose him.
Lily hated crowds. She always had. Rogue emotions bombarded her from all directions. The worry of a mother keeping hold of her child; the distrust of a potential customer with the dodgy merchant; the worry of a vendor who’s not sure he’ll sell enough to feed his family. She focused through the sea of feelings onto Matt, trying to home in on his emotions. He seemed relatively cheerful, especially considering recent events.
How is he always so positive? Lily thought, slightly frustrated with his optimism.
“This way,” she heard Matt call as he turned off the bustling road. Lily darted out of the crowd and into the less busy avenue. She instantly felt the chaos in her head die down.
Sweet relief.
“There’s a technomancer here who should be able to sort you out,” Matt said, leading Lily towards what looked like a cross between a shop and a garage. “Normally Owen sorts all our tech, but well, you know…”
As they reached the shop-garage, the interior came into view. The space was filled with all kinds of machinery, littered across various tables and the floor. A large translucent monitor hung in the centre, displaying some kind of schematic, with two more fixed to the walls. Hunched over one of the tables sat a woman. Brown overalls hung off her shoulders, weighed down by the multitude of tools in the pockets. She wore dark leather gloves. Spidery animatronics ran down her fingers, flexing with her movements. From one extended a small claw which she dragged along a sheet below. Sparks leapt across the table’s surface from the contact, leaving behind a silvered line on the sheet.
Matt knocked on a nearby machine, the clang ringing out. The sparks disappeared and the woman looked up at them through a pair of green-tinted goggles.
“Matt, is that you?” she asked, reaching up and pulling her goggles over her head. “It is you. Gosh it’s been a while!” She leapt up and pulled Matt into a hug.
“It’s good to see you too, Gina,” Matt chuckled.
“And who’s your friend?” Gina asked, releasing Matt and looking at Lily.
“This is Lily.”
“Nice to meet you, Lily,” Gina said, holding out her hand. Lily reluctantly reached out and took it. She heard the animatronics on Gina’s glove whir as she closed her grip.
“What can I do for the pair of you?”
“Lily’s in need of a fuzzer.”
“Ooh, well isn’t that interesting? Not like you guys to team up with a Freelo-, sorry, Gifted.”
“Lily’s only temporary. Just sorting out a few things.”
“Just sorting out a few things? That doesn’t sound good. Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. The less you know, the better. We just need that fuzzer.”
“Okay, I’ll take your word for it. Lily, come with me a second, would you?”
Gina gestured for Lily to follow her to one of the desks at the back of the room. Lily carefully picked her way through the debris, delicately stepping between random bits and bobs. As she reached the desk, Gina handed her what looked like a woollen hat with rows of small metal spikes sticking out the top.
“I need to determine your ManaNet aura,” Gina explained upon seeing Lily’s horrified expression. “I’ll explain as I work. Just put the hat on, spikes on the outside.”
Lily took the hat and tentatively pulled it over her head. It felt just like a regular beanie, squeezing slightly around her forehead but otherwise unnoticeable. With a flick of her fingers, Gina moved the floating monitor next to Lily. She tapped an icon and the spikes on the hat began to glow.
“Every device which connects to ManaNet has a unique identifying signature,” Gina said as she brought a graph up on the screen. “When a device needs Mana, it sends a ‘Mana Request’ to the closest ManaNet server. The server then responds by sending back the appropriate amount of Mana in a ‘Mana Response’ to the device’s signature. A Gifted’s powers work similarly, and every Gifted also has a unique identifying signature, called an aura. Some, probably genetic, factor means that your brain is able to receive these Mana Responses. Upon receiving a response, your brain emits a signal back which the ManaNet servers interpret as a Mana Request, and so it sends back another response, and so on, giving you a constant connection. Unfortunately, due to the constant connection, if someone can determine a Gifted’s aura, they can track you anywhere you go. The fuzzer acts to scramble your aura, meaning the Mana Request sent is not identifiable.”
“Does that mean my powers won’t work?”
“Fortunately, no. A Gifted’s brain is able to pick up any response, not just those sent to its signature, so you’ll still acquire Mana by intercepting Mana Responses sent to nearby devices. That’s how the cycle is started to begin with.”
Well, it was a nice thought.
“And… done,” Gina said. “You can take the hat off now.”
Lily pulled the hat from her head, being careful not to stab herself with the spikes.
“Ah, so you’re an empath,” Gina said after studying a graph on the screen. Lily felt a brief moment of panic, as had become an instinct when someone mentioned her gift, but she quickly overcame it and simply nodded.
“Give me a minute and I’ll be able to knock something together for you. Would you prefer a necklace, bracelet or something else?”
“A bracelet’s fine,” Lily said, moving back across the room to stand with Matt. Despite their circumstances of meeting and her earlier outburst, she still felt more comfortable next to him than Gina. After a couple of minutes of work, Gina stood up from her desk and presented Lily with a silver bracelet.
“Here, try this on. It should be the right size. Your powers might be dulled slightly while wearing it due to the decrease in ManaNet signal strength, but they will still work.”
Lily took the bracelet and fastened it around her wrist. She felt Matt and Gina’s emotions fade slightly, a sensation she likened to moving her hand away from a fire.
“Thanks Gina. How much do I owe you?” Matt asked.
“For you, I’ll let this one slide.”
“You’re the best,” Matt said. They exchanged a brief hug before he and Lily left. Back out in the daylight, Lily held the fuzzer up to inspect. It was made of silver, or something similar, and comprised a series of squares linked with small loops. Although from a distance it looked mundane, up close Lily could see tiny circuitry etched into the surface of each square.
“You like it?” Matt asked.
Now that she thought about it, Lily realised she did appreciate its simple yet pretty design. She nodded.
“That’s good, because you’re going to have to wear it twenty-four seven. Even when you sleep, it has to stay on. As soon as it leaves your person, you become traceable again.”
“I understand.”
“Excellent. Right then, now that that’s sorted, time to get down to real business: finding out who hired those Mercs.”
They turned onto the busy street again and began cutting their way through the crowd. Emotions bombarded Lily once more, but this time the feeling was less intense. After not much further, they turned off the main street and began weaving their way through alleyways and passages. After many twists and turns, Lily eventually built up the courage to ask where they were going.
“There’s a man who deals in information who operates around here. I’ve had a couple of run-ins with him before, and I’m pretty sure he’ll know something about the identity of the mercenaries.”
“And he�
�ll just tell you?”
“Probably not, but it’s worth a try.”
Not long later, the pair stopped outside a door wedged between a pair of shops. A neon sign hung above it, displaying the words ‘Lynx Lounge’, currently unilluminated.
We’re going in here? Lily thought, recoiling at the thought.
Matt reached out and knocked on the door. A few moments later the door creaked open a fraction. A huge man appeared in the gap, staring down at the pair of them.
“We’re closed,” he said.
“I’m here to see Kadan,” Matt replied.
“Kadan is busy. Go away.”
“Too busy for the people who took care of his last ‘accident’?”
Silence passed for a couple of seconds, then the guard pushed the door back and allowed them to enter.
After relocking the door, the man escorted Matt and Lily down a set of concrete stairs and into the main room of the night club. It presented a grim sight. The clean-up in preparation for the evening was clearly not going well, with broken glass and discarded cans littering the floor. Lily felt her shoes resist each time she lifted them, stuck down by layers of spilt drink, and the place reeked of sweat and alcohol.
Upon reaching the end of the nightclub, the man pushed open a door with a ‘staff only’ sign on it and led Matt and Lily inside. The corridor they found themselves in was bare concrete. Cables hung from the ceiling and piles of dust sat where the walls met the floor.
At the end of the corridor was another door. The guard knocked.
“What?” came a voice from inside.
“Man and lady here to see you. Says he’s from the group you hired to deal with your-”
“Send them in,” the voice interrupted. The guard pushed the door open, and Matt and Lily entered.
The office was nothing like the corridor outside. The walls were lined with red wallpaper, the carpet matching. Lily felt her feet sink slightly as she stepped on it, a welcome change from the sticky club floor. A desk occupied the middle of the room, behind which sat a man in a reclining office chair. He looked to be a bit older than Matt, in his mid to late thirties. His face had a rugged look to it, with the kind of hard lined expression that only came from years of experience in his line of work.
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