The Color of Rain

by Cori McCarthy

  Kaya brings us into a shower room with a steamy atmosphere and tiled walls. Lo coughs, and I rub her back, as Kaya points to a huge tub sunk into the floor. “Get in,” she says.

  “With our clothes on?”

  “If you call those clothes.”

  Lo places her mother’s picture on a towel, sinks to the edge, and wades in. “It’s not bad, Rain. It’s warm.”

  “Your name’s really Rain?” Kaya chirps. “You should change it to something more suitable. How about Ginger or Scarlet?”

  “Just as soon as you change yours to Jerk.” I squat by the tub to keep from lashing out further. My mom gave me my name, and it’s all I have left from her. I drag my fingers through the warm water and though our pool was always empty, I can’t help but picture it how I last saw it: blood smeared across the deep end and Walker’s desperate cries. . . .

  Kaya shoves me, and I topple headfirst into the tub with a violent splash. I resurface, kicking and spitting.

  “Hey!” Lo yells. “We’re on your side! What’s wrong with you?”

  “I’m fine, Lo.” I hack up a mouthful of water and eye Kaya. “She’s just playing the queen. No doubt it’s been a long time since anyone wanted her.” I pause. “I bet Johnny barely even looks at her anymore.”

  Kaya stomps across the room and riffles through a shelf of products.

  “You need to do what I do,” Lo says so quietly that I almost miss it.

  “What?”

  “Stop running your mouth.” She squints angrily. “Don’t think that these girls are on your side. They all want to make the pimp happy. They all want to be his favorite. That’s how this works. Trust me. And if you’re his favorite, they’ll all want to take you down.”

  I start to argue, but she splashes me in the face.

  “Just keep your mouth closed. I don’t want you getting hurt!”

  I want to say that she’s wrong and to point out that it’s always been me taking care of her. What does she know? But then I see her terrible neck scar—how Bismark strung her up with a wire when a guy complained about her service. Perhaps she does know a thing or two that I don’t.

  “Rain!” Lo points to the water where red leaches from my clothes, blooming in the water like blackened roses. “Is that your blood?”

  “Walker’s.” I run my fingers through a cloud of red as though I can feel my brother through the color. I suddenly ache so bad that I can’t breathe.

  “Freakin’ mess! What happened?”

  “He fell.” For the first time since my brother dove, huge tears drop from my eyes. “I had to get help. I had to trade Johnny something, and I wasn’t thinking straight.”

  Lo wraps her skinny arms around my neck. “See, I knew I wasn’t high outta my head for getting on this boat. You need me. I need you.” She pulls away and runs her knuckles along my cheeks. “And we got each other.”

  Kaya returns, and I do my best to swallow my grief. She pauses above the tub like she’s got something snappy to say, but she dumps a cup of powder into the water instead. “Don’t breathe,” she adds with a smirk.

  The water bubbles and hisses and foams. I thrash, creating waves, waves that grow hot and sting like they’re scalding the skin from my bones. Lo shrieks.

  “What the—” I start.

  “Don’t breathe!” Kaya repeats before using her foot to dunk my head. The water roils in my ears, and I thrash, nearing the desperate moment when I will have to breathe, and Kaya releases me.

  I suck air as the bubbling dies out. Lo grips the side like a half-drowned sewer rat, and we’re both naked. My body is the angry, raw color of skin beneath a burn, and nothing is left of my bloody clothes except for a maroon foam marring the edges of the tub.

  It’s so bizarre that I almost laugh. “Well, I’ve finally done it, Lo. I’ve killed your lucky shirt.”

  She hiccups a little laugh through her whimpers.

  “Bet you’ve never been so clean in your life.” Kaya sits cross-legged on the floor. “I had to do it too, you know.” I don’t like her looking over my nakedness, but I’m not about to cower and cover myself up. She tosses a comb into the water. “For your hair.”

  “I know what a comb is for.” Lo darts a look at me, and I grumble, “Thanks, Kaya.” I pick up the comb and work it through my curls. It feels so clean that it’s almost light, and the grease and ash, which usually cake my scalp, are miraculously gone.

  I wade over to Lo and work the comb through her hair. It’s even thinner when wet, and I push past the eerie feeling that I can see the shape of her skull beneath her tight skin. “Your hair looks pretty,” I lie, and she makes a small sound.

  “Time to get out. We’ve got to give you girls some color,” Kaya commands.

  I help Lo out of the tub before heaving myself up the ladder. Lo reclaims her mother’s picture. “What do you mean by ‘color’?”

  Kaya doesn’t respond but leads us into a tiny room with benches. It’s small and warm, and when she flips a switch, the walls begin to hum.

  “What’s going on?” Lo won’t sit down. “What’re the walls doing?”

  “It’s a sun room. It’ll liven up that ghostly white skin of yours. Johnny can’t stand the sick pale of Earth Cityites.” Kaya has taken her shirt off and bends over to paint her toes from a small pink bottle.

  I sit, looking to the cotton white of my forearms and remembering the pier. Johnny had seemed so healthy-skinned, but it wasn’t because he travels close to distant suns; it’s because he sits in an electric room. What a letdown.

  Still, the air turns pleasantly warm, and the light gives my skin the same kind of baking sensation that I felt when Samson took the hover cab above the smog. The only difference is that the room glows orange instead of that wondrous golden color.

  In a few minutes, my skin is completely dry. Lo still won’t sit down, and I can tell that she’s on the very edge of her nerves. Kaya finishes her toes and caps the bottle. “Can I have some of that?” I ask.

  Kaya tosses the bottle over, and I beckon for Lo to sit. I begin to paint her toes, ignoring her occasional jittery shake.

  “My lucky color,” Lo says.

  “I know,” I tell her and wink. I check Kaya, happy to find that she isn’t glaring for once. Perhaps I can appeal to her human side. “You said you were from Entra. Is that a spacedock?”

  “It’s the only other planet with a settlement between Earth City and the Edge. It’s mostly farming, outside of the Runner outposts.” Kaya faces the orange ceiling as though she’s looking at something I can’t see. “We have two suns and two moons. That’s twice as good as that ridiculous Earth.”

  “I don’t doubt it.” I force a kind tone. She fidgets with her bracelet, and the green light makes the skin on her wrist appear alien.

  “What are the bracelets about?”

  “To keep track of us.” She twirls the band on her wrist. “Johnny can’t watch over all of us all the time. He’s got other business. More lucrative business. We’re his head servant’s job, though he sucks at it. He’s too busy tinkering with his toys.”

  “Ben? I mean, the Mec?” I finish Lo’s right foot and move on to her left.

  “Yeah. That rat of a Mec.” She leans forward and whispers, “Last run, he dropped a girl out the airlock.” She winces. “Forget I said that. So anyway, greens are elite and live in the Family Room. We get Johnny’s handpicked clients, and we don’t have to handle money. You have to be a little exotic to be green.”

  I stare down at Kaya’s tag. “So if green is the top shelf, what do the blue girls do?”

  “Trade themselves to the passengers. They’re a bit on their own, but they find regulars and rooms. I imagine it’s not terrible to be a blue girl.”

  “And yellow?”

  “They have to stay on the crew deck. Not a lot of money down there. Or food. Not a lot of anything.” She stands up like she needs to run away from her words. “Wait here until it turns off.” She leaves, and I put a second coat of c
olor on Lo’s toes. My skin tingles under the orange light, but it’s not unpleasant.

  “I feel a little nuts,” Lo says. “You feel a little nuts?”

  I nod, focusing on the job at hand and trying to project calm. “We’re going to be all right. Between the two of us, we have the smarts to get through this.”

  “Yeah. Maybe.” She touches my shoulder, and I lock my fingers with hers.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” I admit in a rush. “So glad.”

  She squeezes my hand. “Yep.”

  Something dings, and the orange light of the room fades. Kaya comes back, and I can’t help but smile at Lo, who’s admiring her newly pink toenails. We’re still as naked as the hour we were born, which makes things awfully awkward when we step into the shower room and find Ben waiting.

  I could try to cover up or turn away, but I’m too steamed. I wait for his eyes to fall down me as he turns to Kaya. I even plant my hands on my hips, almost wanting him to look, wanting to be able to kick him for looking.

  “Johnny’s already asking for Rain,” he says. “Have her dressed and ready to go in five.”

  Kaya’s tight mouth suggests that she’s holding back a few choice curses. She must really believe that Ben killed that girl, but Ben had alluded to Johnny doing it before, hadn’t he?

  Ben checks his com. “I’ll wait out there.” He thrusts bracelets at us without letting his gaze drop to my skin and leaves. I turn the circlet of silver over in my hand.

  “Mec silver,” Kaya says. “All the way from the Edge.” The bracelet shines like a mirror, and it’s heavy and cold. It’s the most expensive piece of jewelry I’ve ever seen, let alone held.

  “You have to put it on to see your color,” Kaya says. “And remember, once it’s on, it doesn’t come off unless Johnny takes it off himself. Otherwise you’ll get zapped.” I snap the piece of silver around my wrist, and it locks.

  After a few trilling heartbeats, the silver glows scarlet.

  “Ah, red,” Kaya says. “Shoulda guessed.”

  “Is red bad?”

  “Means you’re his. No one else gets to touch you.” She grabs a towel off a rack and throws it to me. “For now.” She holds a second towel out to Lo, but she doesn’t take it. Her hand is clamped over the silver bracelet.

  “What’s wrong, Lo?” I ask.

  She holds out her wrist.

  It’s rimmed in yellow.

  CHAPTER

  7

  Lo shivers while we choose clothes from an overstuffed closet. She’ll need a drink soon or she’ll start withdrawal.

  “Kaya,” I say carefully. “Do you know where Lo could get a drink? A strong drink?”

  Kaya looks over Lo’s shivers. “We have some wine in the kitchen, but Johnny doesn’t like us drinking too much.”

  “Wine is good.” I nod to Lo, and she follows Kaya to the kitchen area. My best friend looks back over her shoulder at me, and I smile, which hopefully looks less fake than it feels. At least Kaya has been easier on Lo since the reveal of her color, but as Lo’s tiny frame stands out among the curves and grace of the other girls, I can’t help thinking that Kaya wasn’t just being cruel when she pointed out Lo’s looks. Lo is on the bad end of a bad decade.

  Despite all that, it sounds like Johnny approached her on purpose in the Blackstar. And what about our meeting on the pier? Was it accidental or was he really looking for a redhead?

  If these pieces begin to fit together, I’m in more trouble than I thought.

  I glance down at the slim-fitting outfit that Kaya chose for me. It’s comfortable, but I can’t ignore the zipper that runs from one side of my collar to the middle of my thigh. Easy access, she said. I feel the tightness in my chest, but I force myself to breathe through it. I am going to sleep with Johnny. I am here. And this all has to happen if I have any hope of helping Walker.

  I touch the tender spot on my cheek and find Ben by the door. “I need some answers.”

  “Not possible.” He turns, leading me into the elevator. He plays with his com as we sink down a level, never looking at me.

  “Still busy working your secret Mec magic with that bracelet? I’ll really try not to mention it to Johnny.”

  He looks up hard and fast before pushing past me and through the doors. I jog to catch up, but he stops fast and turns. I run straight into his chest, my forehead hitting his jaw.

  I swear, rubbing my head. “You have a ridiculously hard chin, you know that?”

  “You won’t tell Johnny I was messing with my com. I’ve sorted you out, and like I said earlier, you’re not a bad person. You really want to see Johnny punish me?”

  “It could slip,” I say. “So you should probably do me a favor to keep my lips sealed.”

  I swear he looks at my lips for a moment before responding. “What do you want?”

  “Make Lo a green tag.”

  He shakes his head. “Johnny sets the groupings.”

  “Well, how about a favor?” I look away. “When I need one.”

  “That’s it?” He reaches for my cheek, and I almost smack him. He holds up the blue disc that he used to heal Walker. “Hell, I was just going to fix your bruise. Okay?” He steps forward, and I let him heal me purely out of curiosity. His fingers are calloused but careful, and the device spreads strange warmth over my skin.

  “So are you a doctor or are all Mecs like this?” I say to beat the awkwardness of being so close to him.

  He snorts. “I’m eighteen. I’m as much of a career professional as you are. How old are you anyway? Seventeen?”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” I look over the steely rims of his eyes. “But you’re a Mec genius. You could probably tell me what’s . . . I don’t know . . . 39,000 divided by 203.8.”

  He doesn’t even pause. “191 and some change.”

  “Is that one of your fabulous jokes?”

  He smirks. “Maybe.”

  “But that’s the right answer, isn’t it? It’s a little sick that you just did that in your head.”

  “Yes, but you’re missing a key flaw to Mec society. If everyone knows what 39,000 divided by 203.8 is, then no one is special. Being a genius is average, and being above average is scary.”

  “Is that why you’re here? Why you left the Edge? To be different?”

  “That’s my business,” he says quickly. He drops the disc into his pocket.

  I touch my cheek; the soreness is gone. “Thanks, but that wasn’t the favor.”

  “Ah, hell.” He grins, and just like in the backseat of the cab, I’m not prepared for how cute it makes him look.

  I spin and start down the hallway. “Don’t smile like that.” This time he jogs to catch up with me. “I’m not supposed to like you. Remember?”

  “True,” he says. “But can I ask you a question now? You’re not terrified to face Johnny? Not even after you’ve found out what he does on this ship?”

  “I need some answers, and he’s the only one who has them, right?”

  “He has plenty of answers, but that doesn’t mean he’ll give them to you.” He stops at a glass door that looks in on a massive command deck. “Do whatever he says and you should be all right.”

  “What about my brother? Where is he? When can I see him?”

  He looks away. “Those are questions for him, but I wouldn’t ask them yet.”

  I touch the door handle, but I can’t seem to open it. “Let me ask you something then. You don’t seem bad either. What’s your game in all of this?” I glance at his com. “Are you trying to get that thing off? Are you trying to escape?”

  He tugs the door open. “If I was, would I really admit that to you?”

  The command deck is crowned by a wide window, giving me my first real view of the Void. Silver and white stars shine against a velvet black backdrop. Their magnitude and brilliance are so much more stunning than I ever imagined.

  I can barely breathe.

  Ben taps my shoulder, and I follow him around con
trol panels and crew members. They don’t look at us, their attention poised instead on Johnny at the center of it all.

  And yet, the captain doesn’t seem to be doing too much of anything. When he looks our way, he motions for Ben. I’m dying to step closer to that window and the teasing parade of stars, but I follow instead. I need some truth, and I need to find my brother. He better be somewhere safe.

  He better be exactly the way we agreed.

  Johnny waves everyone else away from him. He slides his shoulders out of his suit coat and tosses it to me without a glance. The fabric is surprisingly heavy and drenched with body heat, but still it may be the softest material I’ve ever touched.

  “So that little hiccup?” he asks Ben.

  “Taken care of.”

  “It better be. But I’m more interested in how it happened in the first place.”

  So Ben was the one who had to handle the tripped alarm just like Kaya said. What kind of secret things live in this ship anyway? I shift Johnny’s jacket from one hand to the other, wanting to dump it on the floor.

  “I don’t know how it happened,” Ben says after a long pause. Johnny’s eyes have that flint to them that stirs up my arm hairs, but Ben is unmoving.

  Johnny turns at me. “Tell me, Rain. What good is a Mec on staff if he can’t sort out a simple security bug?”

  “It branched,” Ben says. “And you didn’t give me all the pass codes.”

  Johnny sits on the edge of the control panel. He leans back until his leg is touching mine. “That, Rain, is a Mec trap. Do you really think he needs the pass codes?”

  Both of them are looking at me, and I clear my throat. To side with Johnny or Ben?

  Johnny, of course.

  “He’s probably just lazy,” I say.

  Johnny smirks at my assessment. He uses his thumb to unlock his communicator’s clasp and hands it to Ben. “Here you go then. Make the system work.” His tone has a playful edge that is too sharp. “Or else. Right, pal?” He knocks Ben in the shoulder, and I can’t help but catch Ben’s returning glare. A look that says, “Stand the fuck back and watch me.”