by Alex Fedyr
During one of these solitary memory meditations, Mar came up and paid Kalei a visit. She asked, “No hard feelings about leaving you in that cage, right?”
Kalei shrugged. “You were just keeping yourself out of trouble. I can’t hold that against you.”
“Damn right.” Mar sat down next to her. “You know, things have gotten a lot stupider since you left. I got assigned to a team of fucking kids. One of them spends so much time focusing on his nails that he damn near walks into a wall if you don’t steer him in the right direction. I’m trying to get Terin to reassign me to whatever you’re working on.”
Kalei was touched that Mar wanted to work with her again, but she was also a bit surprised. “Why do you want to work with us? You don’t even know what we’re working on.”
“I don’t care. Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s a hell of a lot better than patrolling the fence with a bunch of piss-heads.” Mar leaned back. “So, you visit your sister yet?”
Kalei gave Mar a sideways glance. “Since when do you know I have a sister?”
“Hell, everyone knows. I can’t believe I didn’t see the family resemblance sooner. But hey, your sister don’t make it easy with all her crazy haircuts and makeup. Anyway, Shenaia, Jenna, whoever the hell she is, I hear she’s got a pretty sweet room down on the third floor. Rumor has it she’s got—”
Kalei cut Mar off and stiffly replied, “No. I haven’t been to visit her. Now bug off. I’ve got meditating to do.”
Mar grunted, bemused. “That’s harsh.”
Kalei didn’t see the humor in it. “You want to talk about harsh? Some man is dead because of her! Who knows what kind of family he left behind, or how many people will miss—” Kalei cried out as a shooting pain sliced through her skull; it felt like an ice pick had just emerged in the core of her brain and was trying to make its way to her forehead.
“What is it?”
Kalei held up a hand to shut up Mar. One of Samantha’s memories was working its way through. Kalei’s own memory of the man lying on the ground shifted to one of the man standing up. But he was lying down – now he was standing up – down – up...Her mind fought the contradiction, but another burst of pain hammered into the invisible icepick. With a mental shove, Kalei forced the two memories apart. She tried to focus on the new one— to pull it through gently before it ripped itself through whatever barrier her mind had erected between herself and Samantha.
The dead man was standing; talking, even. He seemed wary as Kalei-Samantha asked him for directions. The man tried to brush her off, but Samantha pulled off a glove and showed him clear nails, assuring him that she was harmless. At that, the man relaxed a bit.
Samantha put the glove into her pocket and asked if the man lived nearby. He said he lived just up the street, and asked her to repeat where it was she was trying to go. Samantha smiled and said that he could give her directions on the way, and offered to help him carry his groceries home. She could see his well-toned muscles bulging beneath the weight of so many bags. The man politely refused, noting that he only had a couple of bags.
That was when Jenna showed up. She emerged from a side street, haggard and frantic. When she saw the two on the sidewalk, she gave a painful grunt and bit down on her fist. But then she recognized Samantha. “Hey, can you hook me up? I need—”
While the man with the groceries was distracted by Jenna’s arrival, Samantha’s ungloved hand shot out and closed around the man’s arm. He screamed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Sisterly Love
“Where is Jenna?” Kalei stood up and waited for Mar to answer.
“Last I heard, she was in her room on the fifth floor.” Kalei started toward the stairwell. Mar called out, “I think it’s room 520!”
Kalei raced down several flights of steps, down the hallway, past a half dozen doors, and stopped outside door 520. Kalei raised her hand to knock, but she hesitated, unsure of what she was going to say. She let her eyes linger on the bronze numbers tacked to the door. They still held a dull gleam, but the 2 hung upside down, making it look more like 550. Kalei took a deep breath. She decided to wing it. She knocked.
Jenna’s voice called out from the other side, “Yeah?”
Kalei placed her hand on the cold doorknob and opened the door.
The room was a bit smaller than their old rooms, but the furniture was much nicer. There were far fewer scratches in the wood of the nightstands, and the upholstery on the chair in the corner was almost entirely intact, aside from a minor rip on the side. If someone bothered to give the room a good dusting, it could have passed for a real hotel room.
Jenna sat on the bed, legs crossed beneath her as she looked out the window. It wasn’t a scenic view of the mountains or the ocean, but Kalei could see most of Downtown, and even the fence and parts of the grey zone. It wasn’t necessarily a bad view, so long as one didn’t mind the fact that most of the buildings in sight looked like something out of the apocalypse.
Jenna glanced over her shoulder to see who it was, but when her eyes alighted on Kalei, they turned grim. Jenna snapped, “Fuck off!” Then she looked away to the window again.
Kalei took a deep breath, knowing full well she had deserved that, and also knowing full well that she couldn’t leave until she made amends. She shook off the not-so-warm welcome and said, “I just wan—”
Jenna turned her head, just far enough that her ear faced Kalei. “Didn’ your foster mother teach you manners? I know Mom did. Get da fuck out of here!”
“Hey! I’m here to apologize!”
Jenna spun around on the bed. “Oh really? For what? Shooting me in the back of the head or leaving my body in the street?”
“I left you with—”
“Who? Who would my dear sister entrust with watching over my fucking corpse? Please, tell me. ‘Cuz there sure as hell weren’t no one there when I woke up.”
Kalei hesitated. “He must’ve... I’m sorry, I—”
“No! Don’t lie to me! You ain’t sorry for shit. As far as you’re concerned, I killed that man. As far as you’re concerned—”
“You didn’t kill him.”
Jenna froze. “What?”
“I know you didn’t kill him. I saw Samantha’s memory. You—”
Surprise turned to confusion. “Samantha’s memory?”
“Her memory. I—” Kalei sighed. “I just know, alright? And I’m sorry I blamed you.”
Jenna stood up and took a step closer to Kalei. “No. You know what? It doesn’ even matter that you blamed me. You know what pisses me off? That you write me off as some junkie. That you think it’s okay to ditch me in the gutter the second I stop playing by your rules. I’m your sister, Kalei!”
“You’re trying to turn this all on me? You were a junkie! You should have seen yourself: the way you were stumbling, pawing on Samantha to hook you up. You were nothing but a blubbering, desperate bitch trying getting her hands on another high!”
“Oh really? If that’s the case, then why didn’t I kill all those people in the street! Huh? Why didn’t I just jump you and take what I wanted! We both know I’m stronger than you, Kalei.”
Kalei scoffed. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You are nowhere near as strong as me! You can’t even handle your own darkness, and you think you’re stronger than me? I hate to break it to you, big sis, but I passed you by a long time ago.”
“Is that what you think?” Jenna stepped back and spread her arms wide. “Look at me, Kalei. Do I look desperate? Do I look like a junkie? Or do I look like I’m in control?”
Jenna’s eyes were abnormally bright, but clear. Her arms were rock steady as she held them out. Jenna dropped her arms and showed Kalei her nails, which sported five wheels, spinning out of control, but still perfectly maintained.
“You think you’re all high and mighty following Terin’s puritanical rules. Yeah, I know Gramps has his reasons for bein’ that way, but I’ll tell you what. I’m not sober! And I’m not high as a
fucking kite either! I have this under control. And you know what? I’m not the one suffering. Physically, emotionally—the darkness can’t touch this.”
Kalei crossed her arms, glaring at her sister. “And what happens when it wears off? What happens when you need more?”
“Look around you! We’re in fucking Downtown! If you haven’t noticed, they’ve got Estranged on every fucking block of this neighborhood!”
“So what? You just stay in the area, taking and taking until nothing will satisfy you. What happens then? You take some more? You’re forgetting, I was a fucking cop! I’ve seen this game before, Jenna. You’ve seen it too. You may be all fine and dandy right now, but it will catch up with you and then you will be in more pain than I ever was!”
“This isn’t just some drug, Kalei. This is the darkness! It’s better! We get higher, we get stronger, we don’t ever fade away! We’re fucking young forever! And you know what? So long as I don’t touch an Untouched, I’m harmless! The darkness is harmless! It’s not hurting us, Kalei; it’s helping us. You just can’t see it.”
Kalei clenched her jaw and unfolded her arms. “Do you want to be like Samantha? Killing fucking civilians because a regular day in the park just won’t satisfy you?”
“I will NEVER be like that! You just can’t see it.”
“Really? I think I’m seeing things quite clearly, sis. Remember that little Untouched kid from the Call? Do you remember what happened to him? He sure as hell ain’t going off to college, I can tell you that much. You need to take a long look in the mirror, sister: you don’t have jack shit under control.”
Jenna’s face turned a new shade of red, her mouth forming a furious rebuttal. But Kalei wasn’t interested in hearing her response. She turned and left.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Discovery
Kalei threw herself into her work. It quickly became apparent that finding any information on Xamic’s plan was a lost cause, so Kalei, Mar, Erit, and Walker switched gears to focus on finding ways to counter the threat. Counter-intelligence, increased screenings for anyone entering the building, anything that could help them stop the device before it got to them. A second and third terminal were added to the computer room so that the team could conduct their investigations while Jenna continued the day-to-day monitoring on the main terminal.
Kalei pretended that Jenna didn’t exist. The treatment was mutual.
Whenever she wasn’t working on the terminal, Kalei was meditating on Samantha’s memories. It was weird whenever a memory involved herself. She remembered E-night, seeing herself, seeing Kalei walking up the path to Landen’s mansion, and as she watched Kalei, she remembered criticizing her lack of posture and messy hair before recognizing Jenna and opening the gate. Coming out of those memories was always incredibly disorienting, so she took special care to keep them separate from her own, lest she lose hold of her identity.
Sometimes the memories came as gently as remembering where she left her keys. Other times, Kalei blacked out and woke up with her face pressed into the gravel of the roof, while memories of fights or traumatic events still ran before her eyes. Elaborate torture, sick punishments, twisted games; Landen lived in one fucked-up world, and Samantha had a front row seat to it all.
But in either case, Kalei had almost no control over which memories came back. Sure, sometimes she could nudge her thoughts into a certain direction, but more likely than not, the memory that came back would be as benign a new pair of shoes, or the latest gossip on Katy’s romance with Steve. Kalei usually left the roof feeling absolutely ill from being immersed in that woman’s life.
Kalei walked into the computer room and sat in a chair next to Erit. Walker was probably out running an errand for Terin, while Mar was most likely smacking some new recruits around. Jenna still didn’t exist in her corner.
Erit asked, “Any progress?”
Kalei was thoroughly frustrated. Days were slipping through her fingers, and all she could come up with was, “Well, Maya finally launched her new line of perfume last fall. Oh, and Landen likes his rum on the rocks.”
Erit laughed. “It seems I’ve had a bit more luck on my end. Jenna pointed me to a conversation between a couple of Landen’s subordinates, and it sounds like Xamic is converting one of Landen’s condominiums into a sort of luxury barracks. Open bar, massage parlor, the works. He’s also doubled the Tusic patrols in the city.”
Kalei furrowed her brows, her frustration making friends with anxiety in the pit of her stomach. “So, playing the sugar daddy even as he puts them to the grindstone, eh?”
Erit leaned back in his chair. “It gets worse. He’s carting a number of Untouched into the barracks. The few that come out are turned. And, well, the recruitment process is engineered for the enjoyment of the turners, not the turnees.”
Kalei’s felt a touch of bile rising in the back of her throat. “What is Xamic getting at? Is he trying to build a clientele? An army? Shit, how can we stop him when we aren’t even in the game?”
Erit replied, “Truly, I do not know.”
Kalei closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Well, regardless of the bigger picture, we need to stop to this Untouched trafficking before it goes any further. Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll pick up more information on Xamic’s plan before it blows up in our face.”
“Indeed. I’ve already put word to the police to increase their patrols, and we have the local news stations doubling their ‘Estranged Awareness’ bulletins. Terin has even allowed me to send some SWORDE patrols into the city to support the police.”
“Do you think that’s wise? Sending Estranged, even trained Estranged, to patrol the city?”
“Wise or not, the police patrols won’t do any good unless they have teeth, and our Estranged can be those teeth.”
The thought of more Estranged in the city made Kalei uncomfortable. She had to agree with Erit, though; it was the only thing they could at the moment.
“Okay, you seem to have all that under control then. What can I do? Besides meditating on prissy lady’s favorite brand names.”
“Well, until we can pin down the ‘why’ of Xamic’s activities, I will need aid pinpointing the ‘where’ of this supposed Ruffian Paradise. Landen owned a plethora of condominiums in this city, so learning its exact location is proving to be more difficult than I had originally anticipated.”
“Start with the ones in T-Town. Landen favored those because they gave him easy access to City Hall and the financial district. Let me give Marley a call and tell him to keep an eye out. He might have heard something about those condos that we haven’t.” Kalei stood up to leave, then turned back to Erit, “Oh yeah, and any word on Lecia yet?”
“No. Unfortunately, the girl is still missing.”
Kalei paused. Where could she be? Kalei felt her phone in her pocket and returned her attention to the work at hand. “Alright. I’ll start looking for her again when I get back.” She pulled out her cellphone and made her way to the elevator. While she waited for it to come back down from the fifteenth floor, she called back to Erit, “Hey, how did you pick up that conversation anyway? Ear cams don’t have mics.”
“The smoking buddies didn’t take notice of an Estranged passed out across the street. Their faces were perfectly visible for any passing lip-reader to discern.”
“And I take it lip-reading is one of your many secret talents?”
Erit smiled. “Indeed.”
Once outside, Kalei dialed Marley. The two had been back on good terms since she returned to SWORDE. When she passed on Terin’s frat-boy description of Xamic, Marley got all excited about building a profile and pressed her to ask Terin for more information. Terin wouldn’t talk any more on the subject, but then Kalei had passed the phone over to Erit and the two had a nice long chat while Kalei left to meditate.
Otherwise, he had been a valuable asset to their investigation. Since SWORDE didn’t have the manpower to track down all the leads in the city, Marley usually tracked the
information down for them and sent out BOLOs whenever SWORDE needed it. Kalei always tried to return the favor. More than a couple cases had been cleared off his desk, thanks to an anonymous video file.
“Hey, Marley. It’s me. I’ve got word Xamic is collecting his people into some sort of barracks. Any chance you can keep an ear out and let me know if you get a location?”
“Sure thing. Any word on Lecia?”
“No. I’m guessing that means no luck on your end either?”
“Nope.” Marley sighed. “Damn. Y’know, this could’ve been a hell of a lot easier if Lecia had been a normal girl with a normal job. But nope, not our Lecia. I have reports of her spending time in every corner of the city, with no rhyme or reason. Even her contacts at the University had no idea where she could be. I’m telling you, Kalei, this case is a nightmare. I’ve tracked down every lead I can think of, and I still don’t even know when she disappeared.”
“Yeah, I know. But we can’t give up on her.”
Marley sighed. “I haven’t given up yet. I just wonder if it’s already too late, y’know?”
Kalei rubbed her head. “Yeah... Anyway, anything new on Xamic?”
She heard Marley’s chair squeak as he shifted positions. “Not really. We haven’t had any new Xamic-related attacks since last Friday. I’ve been giving myself a headache trying to figure out what the hell he’s been up to, but now that you’ve mentioned this barracks thing, maybe he’s had his hands full with that?”
“Let’s hope so.”
There was a brief silence. Kalei found herself thinking about the Untouched who had been hauled off to the new Tusic barracks. “Well, I wouldn’t say you have had no ‘Xamic’ attacks. Apparently, he‘s been kidnapping Untouched and bringing them back to the barracks for his men... make sure you watch yourself, Marley.”