Heir Ascendant (Faded Skies Book 1)

by Matthew S. Cox

  “My mother is looking at me right now.” Maya pulled the dress off and rolled it up.

  “Cover your ears.” Genna pointed the gun at the back window again.

  Two shots sent another Authority car skidding into a mass of parked vehicles.

  “Are there more?” yelled Maya.

  “Yeah, but I can’t see ‘em.”

  Maya opened the bag and wriggled into her tee shirt and leggings before packing the expensive teal thing and the heels inside.

  “Got anything my size in there?” Genna smiled.

  “Vanessa didn’t have anything except a Cailliermo skirt suit and a couple of Dori Kavan evening gowns. Not your size.”

  “Figures. She looks that cheap.”

  “Cheap?” Maya blinked at her. “That’s a joke, right?”

  Drone fan whirr tone-shifted as they shot under one. Genna leaned out the driver’s side window and fired three times into the air. Maya whirled around to look back. A spray of .50 caliber ammo tore up the side of an office building in the midst of an out of control spiral that ended with the drone smashing upside down on the road and exploding in blue flames.

  The car squealed, tail end swinging out as it skidded into a right turn. Buildings around them got shorter and farther apart, the area taking on the aesthetic of an industrial section. Maya clamped on to her bag to keep it from flying out the window. Maybe Zeroice wanted to bring them to the reservoir area where she’d come in. Another moment later, it swerved to the side of the street and stopped.

  “Who or what is driving this thing?” asked Genna.

  “Zeroice.” Maya pulled herself up from the floor. “I think he wants us to get out.”

  “Who?”

  “Alfonse?” asked Maya.

  “Who the hell is that?” Genna ducked and aimed up at the sky, but didn’t fire.

  “Headcrash had a friend.” Maya clung to her bag.

  The car horn tooted once.

  “He can hear us.” Maya smiled. “He probably heard you say tracker, so he’s going to drive it around and lead them away.”

  The horn tooted again.

  “Right on.” Genna got out. She looked down at her plastic-baggy shoes. “I feel ridiculous.”

  Whirring, like a swarm of a million locusts, echoed from everywhere.

  Maya climbed out and pointed at an alley. “They’re coming. Run!”

  Genna picked her up and rushed into the shadows. Drones and Authority cars blurred past the mouth of the alley but none of them followed. The distancing rattle of a heavy machinegun preceded metallic clanks and squealing tires. A heavy metal crash that could’ve been a car or drone made Maya jump, but the shooting continued.

  They kept going for a few minutes before Genna hooked a right and slowed to walk out on a congested street filled with rickety booths built in the shadow of the Sanctuary Zone’s exterior wall. Maya squirmed around to look in front. This close, the gargantuan barrier made her feel insignificant and tiny. Fabric and plastic in an array of reds, greens, and white clung to pipe frames or thick ropes. The aroma of spiced rat meat mixed with the burnt-silicon smell of an electric stove pushed past its prime drifted by on a mild uptick in the breeze. Some of the stalls sold trinkets, handmade (and probably deadly) moonshine, or street food. They appeared to be a higher-class version of the unfortunates who lived in plastiboard boxes out in the Dead Space. Maybe the Authority didn’t care about what went on in the outermost reaches of the Citizen’s city. More likely, these people didn’t have anything worth taking, and kept far enough out of everyone’s way that the Authority overlooked them.

  “Open the bag,” said Genna.

  Maya complied.

  Genna stashed the pistol and closed the zipper before taking her hand again. The locals in the street market regarded them with curiosity. A few people clapped at Genna’s exhibitionism, but she didn’t slow down or react in the least, even to the men who offered her a couple NuCoin to take her underwear off or flash them. She followed the slight curve of the road past four streets leading back into the city. Eventually, Genna ducked into the ground floor of an abandoned building at the deepest part of a dead end crammed with pitiful shanty shelters. Maya held on, content to be carried across a wide-open room past piles of debris that used to be walls. At the back corner, they descended a flight of stairs to a basement full of tattered strips of unidentifiable material dangling from the ceiling, casting hundreds of scary shadows.

  Maya shivered.

  At the corner opposite the stairs, Genna twisted a water valve on an old pipe. A click came from the wall, and a patch of cinderblocks opened outward revealing a room about the same size as the prison cell, but it offered concealment rather than hopelessness. She set Maya down on a dingy brown cot and pulled the heavy door closed. Weak light filtered in from a street level window too small for even Maya to fit through. Genna’s plastic shoes rustled in the stillness. She edged over and sat beside Maya.

  Genna lay back, feet still on the floor, and covered her face in both hands. “You shoulda gone home. You be happier with all that money.”

  “No.” Maya cuddled up to her. “Home is out there.”

  “You coulda got yo’self killed.” Genna ran her hand down Maya’s back in a repetitive, soothing motion. “Didn’t anyone try to stop you?”

  “Yeah, everyone. I snuck out. Sarah’s going to be mad at me for scaring her.”

  “Try an’ rest. We hide here a bit. Give shit a chance ta settle down, then we move.” Genna let out a long sigh.

  “Mom,” whispered Maya, sniffling as tears came on. “You’re alive.”

  Genna gave in to crying as well. “Yeah. Surprise the shit outta me too.”

  They wept, clinging to each other, for a while. In the subsequent silence, Maya stared past Genna’s stomach, rising and falling with her breaths, at the darkness. She mulled over her anger toward Vanessa, her disgust at all the suffering the woman caused, and tasted victory in one tiny thought.

  Maya snuggled tighter to Genna’s side. Vanessa would never know what it felt like to have someone willing to do anything to help them.

  aya awoke to a hand under her shirt, tickling her stomach. She squirmed and made a weak groan of protest at being conscious. A ‘shh’ washed over her hair. Maya opened her eyes to an impenetrable black void. Only knowing she curled up at Genna’s side kept her from losing control to fear. Despite the darkness, she nodded.

  Seconds later, she felt stupid and whispered, “‘Kay.”

  Genna withdrew her hand out from under Maya’s shirt and patted up her front until she found her shoulder.

  “It’s all right,” whispered Genna. “Heard some people in the basement.”

  Maya sat up and wiped sleep crumbs away from her eyes.

  “So.” Genna pulled Maya onto her lap. “You found a net pirate?”

  “By accident. He helped me.” She explained her odyssey of smuggling hacker drugs to get into the city.

  Genna pulled her close, unable to speak for a good few minutes. “Baby… you should’a stayed safe. Damn miracle you didn’t get your ass shot off.”

  “I’m sorry.” Maya sniffled.

  “Flyin’ on a damn drone…” Genna sighed. “I don’t wanna think how bad that coulda gone.”

  “I had to find you.” Maya sniffled. Her voice broke down to cry-speak. “They… they were gonna kill you. That guy was on vacation or they would’ve…” She clung, sobbing again.

  “Vacation? Hey, baby, it’s all right. Shh. I’m here.”

  A few minutes went by before Maya collected herself enough to speak. She explained about the Authority’s delay since they couldn’t tell ‘for sure’ about Brigade involvement. If not for that one person being away to give approval…

  Genna shivered. “Well, don’t do anything like that again.”

  “‘Kay,” she muttered. “Don’t get arrested again.”

  “Heh. Ain’t on my list of shit to do, but I don’ want you doin’ no more stupid shit on accoun
t o’ me. Better you be alive and lonely than dead, somethin’ happens ta me.”

  “Well, don’t let anything happen to you.”

  Genna fumbled around with something. Pills rattled, and an instant later, the bag pressed into Maya’s chest. “Here. Hold that. Now, spill it.”

  “Spill the bag?”

  “No, silly girl.” Genna ruffled her hair. “I mean tell me everything.”

  “He’s in a hotel called the Emerald Oasis.”

  “You dodgin’ my question. How did you go from safe in our building to walking into a damn Authority prison?”

  “If I tell you what I did, you’re going to be mad at me.”

  Genna leaned her to the side and planted two playful smacks on her butt. “There. Consider yourself punished ahead of time.”

  Maya laughed, gasped, and covered her mouth. “Sorry.”

  “Probably don’t need ta be so quiet.” She stood and set Maya down standing on cold concrete.

  “Well… Barnes said it was too dangerous to try and save you.”

  “He was right.” Genna muttered several curse words over the sound of her patting the wall. “Aha!” A jigsaw slab of cinderblock opened. Outside, the abandoned basement crawled with shadows cast in the light leaking in from a hole at the far corner ceiling, where stairs led up to the ground level. “Still can’t believe those bastards found me so fast.”

  “Mom.” Maya followed her out into the room. Paper and plastic trash crinkled underfoot. “It was Brian. He called the Authority hoping to get a reward for me. He thought I was kidnapped.”

  Genna stopped. “What?”

  Maya took a step back. Sometimes a woman in only underwear and puffy white plastic booties could be damn intimidating.

  “I’m gonna feed him his balls.”

  “He said he thought he was helping me. Please don’t kill him. He’s going to have a baby.”

  “Damn right he is. I’ma hit him so hard he’s gonna give birth his damn self.” Genna scowled and stomped forward. “I won’t do nothin’ Doc can’t fix.”

  Maya clung to her bag on the way back to the street full of shanties. She muttered in a low tone, offering up every detail of everything that happened from the moment of the raid on their home. The explanation of what she did to Mason got Genna to stop and gawk.

  “Well, damn.” She exhaled, lips fluttering. “That man’s done.”

  Maya smiled.

  One by one, the locals stopped what they were doing to stare at them. Genna ignored a cascade of catcalls, though each one hardened her glare a little more. A few streets up, she took a left, heading deeper into the city. Not long after the buildings around them became modern and tall, three figures slipped out of the dark. Knives flashed orange, red, and green in the overhead light from innumerable advertisements.

  “Nothin’ to steal,” said Genna, sounding too calm.

  “Oh, you got all we need.” A man of average height and build stepped into the light and flashed a cruel smile. “No blood. Just a bit of fun. We won’t even charge ya for babysitting.”

  A fourth man circled closer to Maya, holding a long metal pipe. “Be a good girl and no one gets hurt.”

  “Stay away from me! Mom…” Maya took a step back, shaking her head.

  Genna sprang at the first man to appear and grabbed his wrist with her left hand while slamming her right elbow into his jaw. As he staggered backward, she drove her fist into his sternum with a loud thump that blasted him off his feet. The second man rushed in behind his knife. Genna spun into a reverse sweep that ducked the blade while taking his feet out from under him and knocked him flat on his back. She pounced before he could recover his wind, grabbed his weapon hand, and drove the blade into his heart with his hand still gripping it.

  Maya averted her eyes, focusing on the steel pipe coming closer. “Mom?”

  The third man raised a crowbar, but Genna jumped into him with a knee to the gut before twisting his wrist outward, breaking it, and slipping behind to grab him in a headlock. She whispered at his ear before the muscles of her biceps, shoulders, and chest swelled. A loud crack came from his neck. He slipped down out of her arms and rolled limp on the ground.

  Maya backed away from the man looming at her. She fumbled with the bag, trying to get the pistol, but Genna went for him before she could even find the zipper. He pivoted at the scuff of her plastic booties and raised his club while backpedaling. Genna shoved her right palm into his elbow, stalling his swing, at the same instant grabbing the pipe with her other hand. Between pushing the elbow back and pulling the club down, a vicious crunch came from his shoulder.

  He lost the weapon and staggered sideways, whimpering. Maya figured out how to work the zipper and pulled the gun out from between the wadded up teal dress and her sweater. Genna swiped it before Maya could point it at anyone, and raised it at the one remaining conscious man.

  “You got three seconds to take everything off.”

  “Aaah!” He sprinted away.

  Genna aimed, hesitated a second, then lowered the gun. “Shit. Too damn loud. I hate drones.”

  Maya looked at the man with the knife sticking out of his chest. “Were they going to hurt me or just threaten me to make you do what they wanted?”

  “No way to know, but I didn’t like the way he said ‘babysitting.’”

  Maya shivered. “Neither did I.”

  Genna pulled the ubiquitous oversized grey poncho from the thug she’d left merely unconscious and pulled it on; it wound up serving as a short dress. She replaced the baggy booties with the smallest man’s beat-up combat boots, after which she rifled their pockets, collecting NuCoin as well as a few sheets of pills.

  “Aren’t you going to take pants?” asked Maya.

  “You ain’t close enough ta smell them. I got some standards. Least we got a couple coins now.”

  Genna put the gun in the large front pocket on her new filter coat and pulled the hood up.

  Maya wiggled her toes. “Is it enough for shoes?”

  “Yeah, probably. Won’t be no designer shit though.”

  “What?” Maya faked a look of horror. “I… I’d rather stay barefoot than suffer the embarrassment of peasant footwear.”

  Genna snickered and pulled her close. Soon, they emerged from the more dangerous remote alleys to a pedestrian street and blended with the crowd. Maya held Genna’s hand as they walked about a mile and a half to a low-end mall quad frequented by people who lived out in the Habitation District and commuted to work. The second place they checked had some stuff in child sizes, but all the children’s shoes sat in a giant canvas bin, and not in matched pairs. Maya climbed in and rooted around until she found a matched pair of black sneakers that fit with some room to spare.

  She put them on and tightened the Velcro strips before climbing out of the bin to give them a test walk. Having non-high-heel shoes felt strange and awesome at the same time. Genna waited at the counter, making idle conversation with a fortyish Chinese woman wearing huge glasses. Maya walked over, smiling.

  “Found something?” Genna glanced down.

  “Yes. I hope they’re not too expensive.” Maya raised one leg to show off the sneaker.

  The clerk peered over her glasses. “Nah, hard to sell. No one who shop here buy little one sizes. Live in bad area, stole for drugs money. Citizens buy very ‘spensive cheap fall-apart things last not even year. Those she take, hand made in Hangzhou. Last ‘til she have kids of her own.”

  “They won’t fit me in a year.” Maya blinked. “Maybe two.”

  “That why hard sell,” said the clerk. “But they made good. You have kids, they wear them too.”

  Genna held up a dark grey tank top and black BDU pants for herself. “These too.”

  “Ten NuCoin or forty dollar.”

  “Why does she talk like that?” asked Maya.

  The shopkeeper smiled. “It adds to the atmosphere.” Wrinkles gathered at the corners of her eyes with her laughter. “Makes it frustrating for peo
ple to trick me when they think it’s difficult to communicate. Sometimes, it lets me trick obnoxious people when they think I’m stupid.”

  “Here.” Genna handed over a few of the clear plastic NuCoins.

  The clerk held them up to the light, studying the chromatic silver patterns. “Ahh, excellent.” She smiled and bowed. “Come back any time.”

  Outside, Genna stopped by a vendor stall where a giant cauldron of boiling water balanced on three sticks over a cluster of portable burners. Maya grinned from ear to ear, adoring the feel of having shoes on. Genna bought two massive dumplings from the cart vendor and handed one to Maya. They munched while continuing to walk.

  “You look like a little ninja,” said Genna. “Black shirt, black leggings, black shoes.”

  “These feel weird.” Maya grinned and gestured at the pants draped over her mother’s arm. “Are you gonna put those on?”

  “Not yet. I need a shower. What, you’ve never worn sneakers?”

  “No. Traction socks in the apartment or high heels outside. You’re not thinking of showering at that motel are you?” Maya shivered. “You’ll get scummier.”

  “It can’t be that bad.”

  Maya gave her ‘the look.’

  About a quarter mile from the Emerald Oasis, Genna made a seemingly random turn and entered the lobby of a regular (as in not by the hour) hotel. She went straight to the stairs, bypassing the front desk. Maya followed, trying to act as though she knew what was going on and belonged there. On the fourth floor, Genna stopped at the first door on the left and knocked.

  “Do you have a minute to discuss the wisdom of Jeva?” asked Genna in an overly placid tone.

  “Fuck off,” yelled a man inside.

  Maya covered her mouth to suppress a laugh.

  Genna repeated the process with similar results over the next three doors. On the fifth, no one answered. She grabbed the lock plate around the knob and wrenched it open, making Maya’s eyes bug out in awe. A moment or two of fiddling with wires later, the door clicked.

  “You’re stealing a room?” Maya blinked.

  “No. Just the shower.”

  Maya followed her into the bathroom.