Lucky 7

by Rae D. Magdon

“Yeah,” she says. Jacobo is still sniffling into her shirt, but I can’t tell whether it’s with anger or relief. Probably both. “Let’s go, Jacobo. If you’ve got a jack now, I have some programs I need to set you up with.”

  Jacobo looks up at her in surprise. “What? You’re serious?”

  “You obviously aren’t gonna listen to a word I fucking say. I might as well make it a little less likely you’ll get fried.” Jacobo starts to laugh, and Elena rolls her eyes. “This doesn’t mean I’m okay with it. I’m still deciding whether or not to rip that thing out of your fool head.”

  She leads him to the door with an arm around his skinny shoulders, and I follow behind. This is going to make things a lot more complicated.

  Friday, 06-18-65 12:02:05

  “NOT MUCH, IS IT?” Elena says, looking around the suite of rooms.

  I take in our new accommodations with a fair amount of skepticism. To call it a ‘suite’ would be generous. The walls are bare concrete without windows, but the sticky heat from outside has managed to seep into the room anyway. All it has in the way of furniture is a couple of wooden chairs and a threadbare couch that’s definitely seen better days.

  Aside from the main entrance, there are five doors branching off from the room. Cherry peeks her head through one, then pulls back with a look of mild disgust on her face. “Cots look lumpy as hell, but I guess it’s better than the floor.”

  “More of the same,” Rami says, inspecting one of the other rooms. “At least I don’t see roaches.”

  “Nah,” Jacobo says. “Don’t get too many of those here. Jento sprays. Bathroom’s through there.” He points at one of the other doors. “The room behind the third door has a terminal.”

  “It’ll do,” I say, mostly to forestall more bellyaching.

  “Could’ve stayed in a hotel a hundred times as nice for thirty thousand credits,” Doc sighs. She slumps on the couch, slinging both arms over the back.

  I shake my head. “Too risky. Until we deal with Megan, we’re going completely off-grid.”

  Doc rolls her eyes. “Come on, Sasha. You really think Megan’s gonna track us all the way to Mexico?”

  “I think a woman who faked her own death for six months and created a FRAI from scratch can do pretty much anything she wants."

  “Hold up,” Jacobo says, staring at me with wide eyes. “A FRAI? This person who’s chasing you has a real one?”

  “No, she doesn’t,” Elena says. “It’s complicated. Come on, conejito. Let’s get you set up with some shields.”

  Jacobo seems more reluctant to leave than he was before hearing about jacker battles and FRAIs, but he allows Elena to drag him by the elbow into the next room. That leaves me alone with the rest of the crew, minus Val. There’s an awkward silence—a silence I know I have to address sometime. It might as well be now. “Come on. At least sit down.”

  Rami and Cherry grab two of the chairs, while Rock sits on the couch beside Doc. His half sinks significantly under his bulk, but Doc doesn’t seem to mind the slanting angle.

  “So, we’re doing this again?” Cherry asks. She seems angry, but at this point, I can’t tell whether it’s at me or herself. If I had to guess, I’d say both.

  “Not exactly.” I force myself to hold eye contact. “I keep going back over everything, trying to understand why you went along with Val’s lie. But I don’t get it. Just like I don’t get why I went along with Megan for so long. It seems so obvious when I replay the memories, but…” I pinch the bridge of my forehead. “Shit, I’m not doing this right. What I’m trying to say is, you had my back today, on what has to be hands-down the worst op I’ve ever been on.”

  “Really?” Doc says. “But you didn’t even die.”

  The kid means it as a joke, and I’m surprised when I take it as one. “Shut up, smartass. Anyway, my dead girlfriend’s actually alive and a psychopath, but you all rolled with it. I guess…sometimes we all fuck up.”

  “How was today your fuck-up?” Cherry asks. “You didn’t try to kill us.”

  “How wasn’t it my fuck-up? I’m the one who accepted Cross’s offer without thinking it through. I’m the one who refused to turn back when it looked sketchy. Hell, I’m the one who brought Megan onto the crew in the first place.”

  “Don’t blame yourself for that, Sasha,” Rami says, fixing me with a sympathetic look. “Megan’s smart. Charismatic. You find yourself going along with her before you even realize it. She fooled all of us.”

  Some of the dead weight I’ve been carrying around in my chest subsides. I was angriest about my crew’s deception, of course. Part of me still is. But my emotions were fueled by more than that. Deep down, I was hurt that they hadn’t stepped in earlier and objected to Megan cloning me. Those were stupid, irrational feelings, but that didn’t stop me from having them.

  I sigh. “She took us all for a ride, didn’t she?”

  “No,” Rami says. “You’re right to feel angry and betrayed. We lied to you. We hid something important from you.” They sniff, wiping at the faint mascara trails on their cheeks. “Just because those memories were painful didn’t give us the right to withhold them. And I’m sorry I didn’t push back against Megan’s plans sooner. I didn’t know…”

  They lower their gaze into their lap, and Cherry wraps an arm around their thin shoulders. “I’m sorry for lying too. And what Rami means is, the other clones didn’t tell us how much it hurt or how scary it was to die.”

  Doc nods in agreement. “Yeah. Sometimes you…they…would be weird for a couple weeks, but they were always okay after that. They told us they just needed time for their memories to settle in.” She gives me a haunted look. “I guess I assumed the same thing would happen this time. I didn’t know keeping those memories secret for a little while would hurt you so bad.”

  Looking at my crew, it’s impossible to miss the pain and regret on their faces. It’s unfair to hold them accountable for failing to save me when I never asked to be saved. In the end, going along with Megan was my decision. As for my erased memories…well, they weren’t trying to hurt me, and when you fuck up, sometimes ‘sorry’ is the best you can do. The rest of it, I have to take up with Val.

  “What if I don’t clone myself again this time?” I ask, looking at all of them.

  “You already did,” Doc points out. “Sasha Eight’s currently floating in a tank underneath Kansas City.”

  Yeah, that’s another problem I’ll have to deal with once we’re out of immediate danger. No matter what happens, though, I know in my heart that I’m done going in circles. “Humor me. What if I told Val not to download my memories into her?”

  Rami wipes their face on the back of their hand. “It’s your choice, Sasha,” they say in a rasping voice. “But either way, I’m not going to let you die. Not ever again.”

  “No way, jefa,” Cherry says. “No reboots, no substitutions.”

  Doc gives me a weak smile. “I’ll give you bulletproof skin if you want. We’ll fix you up like Rock so nothing can touch you.”

  “I’ll stick with my tactical vest. But thanks.”

  That’s when Rock gets up from the couch, pulling me into a bone-crushing hug that lifts me several inches off the ground. It’s strong enough to squeeze out my breath and crack several vertebrae in my spine, but I try to hug him back. My body might be getting squished, but I feel better than I have in days.

  “Let me in there, big guy,” Cherry says from near Rock’s shoulder. “I wanna feel the love.” She throws her arms around both of us, and Rami does the same from the other side. Somehow, Doc manages to squeeze in the middle, and all five of us hug each other tight. It feels right. I’m still raw, wounded, but the pressure underneath is finally gone. I’m on my way to forgiving them.

  “What the hell is this? Some kind of clothes-on orgy?”

  I peer around Rock’s giant bicep to see Elena standing in the doorway with a smirk on her face.

  “Come get in on this, chaparrita,” Cherry says, nodding he
r over. “This is what crewbonding’s all about.”

  Elena snorts. “Fine. But only because you losers saved my ass in Malaysia.”

  “Actually, I saved everyone,” Rami says as Elena joins the huddle.

  “Excuse me?” Cherry says, jokingly offended. “I’m the one who blew up all those mechs.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re all badasses.” Elena ducks under my arm, which puts her hair right beneath my nose and my chest against her back. The warmth in my belly isn’t angry anymore.

  After a little more hugging, our huddle breaks apart. I give Rami an extra squeeze. “I shouldn’t have said what I did back in the Hole. About you not knowing who you are. Being mad doesn’t give me a blank check to be an asshole.” I look at Cherry. “And I didn’t mean what I said about you either. I know you wouldn’t leave me hanging out to dry.”

  Rami smiles. “I forgive you, Sasha.”

  “Not even a thing,” Cherry says. “Consider it forgotten.”

  “How the fuck are we going to deal with Creepy Smurf, anyway?” Elena asks. “Sorry to break up the love fest, but a crazy jacker genius running modded Dendryte Platinum is a huge problem.”

  I steel myself, but the words come easier than I’m expecting. “We have to take her out.”

  “Still not hearing a plan, Jefecita,” Elena says.

  My face heats up at the nickname. “Well…”

  “I’m thinking trap,” Doc says. “Megan had the element of surprise last time, but maybe we can get the jump on her instead. Seven heads are better than one. Hercules against the hydra.”

  “Hercules won,” I point out. “And the hydra was the bad guy.”

  Doc rolls her eyes. “I know that. My point is, Megan knows our tricks, but we know her weaknesses. She’s a cocky shit who underestimates everyone that’s not her. So, let’s send her on a wild goose chase. Toss her two locations across the plate with our bank accounts, an obvious one and a subtle one. She’ll think the first one is to cover our tracks and the second is a slip-up. Then we’ll rig the second place to blow.”

  “There’s no guarantee she’ll bite,” Cherry says. “She doesn’t technically need to be on location to do some damage.”

  “She does if she wants Val’s access keys,” Rami says. “That puts her at a disadvantage. She’s a lot weaker in meatspace than she is in virtual reality.”

  “Since we're talking keys, I vote we keep the brainbox out of your skull, boss,” Doc says to me. “If I put it back in, Megan might try to crack you open. And since you don’t want to be cloned again, you won’t really need to be recording, will you?”

  She has a point. I also notice, with mixed emotions, that the stab of pain I feel at the thought of Megan trying to kill me is already weakening. Out of necessity, I’m adjusting to the fact that she’s willing to murder me to accomplish her goals.

  “We should find a place to hide it,” I say, patting my belt. “That way, even if Megan gets her hands on Val’s databox, she won’t be able to decrypt the source code.”

  “That’s another thing I don’t get,” Cherry grumbles. “It’s Megan’s code. She could probably recreate it, right? Why does she want Val so bad?”

  It’s a question I’ve been thinking about too, and I have some suspicions. “I’m sure she could, but FRAIs can modify their own coding to be more efficient. They learn. Val has much more experience than any AI Megan could write from scratch, even one based on Val’s source code. She’d be back to square one…or at least square two.”

  Doc chuckles. “Remember how buggy Val was in the beginning? Version 1.4 almost killed us all that one time because she wanted to ‘confirm that we would cease functioning’ if she stopped recycling the oxygen.”

  “She did what?” Elena squawks. The rest of us have long since turned the incident into a joke, but her face is the picture of horror.

  “The early versions of Val were basically toddlers with advanced math and verbal skills,” I explain. “She didn’t always understand the consequences of her actions.” And sometimes, I think, she still doesn’t.

  “Dios.” Elena groans, holding her head in her hand. “I really don’t want Megan and Cross to get their hands on her now.”

  Cherry laughs in agreement. “I guess I shouldn’t tell you about the time version 2.1 destroyed my beautiful base in Australia when I told her to run a decontamination cycle…”

  “Fuck Australia anyway,” Doc says. “Kangaroos are stupid.”

  “That’s because you hit one with the Eagle when I was teaching you to fly,” Rami points out.

  “Not on purpose! It was just too dumb to get out of the way.”

  “Tell you what, kid,” Cherry says. “Next time, you can run Megan over with the Eagle. Right, Rockstar?” She slugs Rock in the shoulder, and he nods his head, a dark expression on his normally placid face. In spite of his enormous size and top-of-the-line combat mods, he’s the gentlest member of the crew, but I can tell he’d punch Megan into the stratosphere, given half the chance.

  “Enough,” Rami insists. “We can figure out how to deal with Megan tomorrow. I’d like to remind everyone that none of you except Elena have slept in over twenty-four hours.”

  “Hey,” Elena says with a pout, “I have an excuse. I almost died.”

  Doc rolls her eyes. “Whine about it some more, why don’t you? I’ll write you a doctor’s note.”

  Elena ruffles Doc’s hair. “You’re almost as much of an asshole as my brother.”

  “What are we going to do about him, Elena?” Rami says.

  “Make Jento drop his ass back at home with Mateo and Abuelita. If we paid him thirty thousand credits, he can afford to drive the kid home.” She hides it well, but I can see the conflict in her face.

  After a moment of hesitation, I reach for her shoulder. “We’ll come back for them once we don’t have targets on our backs. And we’ve got emergency credit chits. Send Jacobo back with one of those.”

  Elena looks at me in surprise, and then her brown eyes soften. “Shit. You’re getting sappy on me. And what you did, paying Jacobo’s debt off down there...”

  I smile. “Consider it your first paycheck.”

  “I’ll pay you back for this,” Elena insists. “Don’t know how, but I will. I don’t like being in debt.”

  “It’s not a debt. You earned it.”

  Elena and I just stare at each other, and for a moment, I forget anyone else is in the room…until Cherry starts making kissing noises.

  “Cállate,” Elena snaps.

  Cherry makes a rude gesture with her fingers and tongue. “Make me.”

  “You two are idiots,” Doc mutters.

  “Sasha?” Rami whispers, tapping my shoulder. I turn toward them, brows raised. “I was just thinking…there’s one person you haven’t made up with yet.”

  I sigh. I know it needs to happen, for the crew and for me, but forgiving Val is going to be the hardest of all. I square my shoulders and turn to Elena, who’s still fake-arguing with Cherry. “Hey, Elena. Is your brother still using the terminal?”

  Friday, 06-18-65 13:23:21

  JACOBO IS STILL JACKED in when Elena and I enter the third bedroom, slumped in an uncomfortable-looking metal chair. His blank eyes stare at the softly glowing terminal, blinking far too slow.

  “Hold on,” Elena says. “I’ll get him.” She heads over and clasps Jacobo’s thin shoulder, holding her other hand over the terminal. The light casts a strange glow over her brown skin, and her eyes slide out of focus as she connects through the wireless interface.

  Although I’ve seen plenty of jackers leave meatspace, seeing Elena detach from reality leaves me unsettled. I turn away, listening intently, but all I hear is the shuffling of feet from the main room and the muffled murmur of my crew’s voices. I take a calming breath. It’s because of Megan. I’m expecting her around every corner, and Elena…She’ll be going toe to toe with Megan in virtual reality, all because of her association with me.

  Unless you jack in wit
h her when the reckoning comes, the voice in my head says.

  I can’t. I’m only running Bronze, and I barely even know how to use it. Only enough to be a decent handler.

  You could protect her. Buy her a few seconds.

  My stomach churns with fear. The room suddenly smells like vanilla.

  I…I don’t want to die again…

  Do you want her to die instead?

  My conversation with myself is interrupted as Elena and Jacobo disconnect from the terminal. Life returns to their bodies, and a wide grin stretches across Jacobo’s face. “That’s fucking awesome!” he says, looking at her like she’s some kind of superhero. “You seriously designed that shield program yourself?”

  Elena’s smile holds a hint of pride. “Hell yes, I did. Now move your ass. Sasha needs the terminal.”

  She heads for the door, but Jacobo pauses beside me. “You’re my sister’s handler now?”

  I nod, a little awkwardly. I don’t have much experience with kids aside from Doc, but Jacobo seems competent—he definitely is if he’s anything like Elena. I can probably talk to him like an adult. “Yes.”

  “Is that why you paid off my gear?”

  “Pretty much.”

  He squirms, rubbing the back of his neck. “Thanks. I know that was a shit ton of credits…”

  “Not for me.”

  Elena gives me a disapproving look. The message in her eyes is clear: Don’t encourage him.

  “But I’m looking to get out of the business after this last op.”

  “Why?” Jacobo asks, his forehead furrowing. He seems almost disappointed.

  “Because I’m tired. I’ve…almost died a lot of times. It stays with you. You can’t just shake it off afterward.”

  “But you didn’t die,” Jacobo says with a sly little smirk that reminds me of his sister’s. “So it was worth it, right?”

  I sigh. “Trust me, kid. There are other things you can do as a jacker. Find a way to survive without putting your life on the line.”

  Jacobo doesn’t look convinced, but Elena seems pleased. “Sasha’s right,” she says, placing her hand in the middle of Jacobo’s back. “You’ve got time on your side, hermanito. Plenty of chances to figure out your shit. But you won’t have time if you start running ops and get your idiot brain melted before your voice drops, right?”