Snowburn

by Frost, E J

  Curious, I follow Kez through the garden, past the bathroom, and into a room I haven’t been in before. Like the lounge on the far side of the kitchen, this room is dominated by a flexypane screen that takes up one wall. Kez taps it as she enters the room and it flickers to life. Most of the screen becomes a detailed map of the Western Colony, while smaller panes at the bottom show several different vid channels: local news flashes and a weather forecast.

  Gig rolls a small, high table in front of the vid screen, taps it and several colored lines appear on the map.

  Kez stands next to Gig, with her arms wrapped around her middle, and surveys the map. “Six runs. Are the two Hemos-Nock for Leigger?”

  Gig nods.

  “Put Dunk on those. The client likes him. And he can take that one to the Delta on the way back from the second leg to Nock.”

  Gig nods again and the three lines connecting Hemos City to Nock and Nock to the Delta shade from red to blue.

  “What time is that North Shore run?”

  “Pick up by noon.”

  Kez grimaces. “You’re going to have to do a run.”

  “Yeah, I figured,” Gig says. “Chi can hold the fort.” The red line connecting Hemos and the small settlement of Ykimo on the North Shore turns yellow.

  “Take the skimmer. That’s right through NoBo territory. Ape can handle the other two.”

  “That’ll make him happy,” Gig observes. From the lines, I can see that one of the runs is long – Shyl to Roysten, all the way across the width of the Western Colony – so the chimp will be pressed to get both runs done in a day, particularly if he’s on foot.

  Kez hugs herself a little tighter. “I really don’t care,” she says.

  I move up behind her and slide my arms around her. I move slow, so she can shrug me off if she doesn’t want that much show in front of Gig. She relaxes and leans back into me. Wraps her arms around mine. Her soft head nestles against my shoulder and the clean soap smell of her hair rises to me. I drop my head and nuzzle her crown.

  “So,” Gig says slowly. “Where are you going to be today?”

  “Zhonnys to the Cloudlands,” Kez replies. Her eyes are fixed on the map like it holds her entire attention, but I don’t think it does. She’s avoiding meeting Gig’s eyes. “Could you put up that last run I did to the Cloudlands?”

  “Sure.” Gig fiddles with the table for a moment, opening and closing small panes on the map. The colored lines disappear and a broad dotted line traces its way down the Western Colony’s southern shoreline, through the desert separating Hemos from New Brunny. As the undulating shoreline curves westward towards the southern town of Jielt, the dotted band makes a sharp turn north-east and cuts across the wavy blue of Hemos Bay to the archipelago of islands that make up the Cloudlands.

  “Whaddo you have, gills?” I ask. The Cloudlands – the preserve of Kuseros’s founding families and the nouveau riche they allow to rub shoulders with them – are closed to outsiders. Approaches from the sea or air are only permitted at certain times, from certain directions, under a special permit. Anything else is met with extreme prejudice from the Cloudlands’ defenses. Kez’s dotted line doesn’t follow any of the permissible routes, and I know she didn’t bother to get a special license from the Cloudlands authorities. Not her style.

  Kez rubs her head against my shoulder. “I used a finboard. And I still nearly got my ass fried.”

  “And the package got wet,” Gig says.

  “Yeah, that didn’t go down too well.” Kez rubs her nose. “We got anything new on the Cloudlands?”

  Gig taps the table and small icons scroll down the right side of the map, over the blue of Kuseros’s ocean. “Rumor from Zures. You know what that’s worth.”

  Kez makes a small scoffing noise.

  Gig continues, “Rumor from Trunny about an approach through Jielt. Oh, no, I heard about that. It was a transport funnel. Couple of runners got killed trying to ride it. Remember, couple of weeks ago?”

  Kez nods. “Uh-huh. Let’s not go the certain death route.”

  I smile into her hair. At least she still has her sense of humor.

  “Here’s one,” Gig says, scrolling down through the icons. “Three days ago. Hot Sands to the Cloudlands . . . oh, you’re not going to like that one.”

  “Why not?” Kez asks.

  “It’s from Nasnay.”

  Kez rolls her head against my shoulder until her neck pops. “Figures.”

  “Who’s Nasnay?” I ask quietly.

  “Chain’s new girlfriend,” Gig answers when Kez doesn’t seem inclined to.

  Chain, the boyfriend who never stayed the night. The boyfriend her brother said she couldn’t hold on to. Somehow, I doubt that’s the whole story.

  “Think she holds a grudge?” Kez mutters, more to herself than Gig or me.

  “After you knocked three of her teeth out?” Kez glares at him, but Gig shrugs. “Want me to try to get in touch with Chain? See if he’ll divvy?”

  “Yeah. Plex him. Tell him I want to talk.” Kez hugs my forearms to her chest.

  “Nothing more than that?” Gig asks. “C’mon, Kez. If he thinks it’s personal, he’ll be banging down the door in half an hour. Give him a break.”

  “And if he thinks it’s just business, he won’t call back. This run’s important,” she says. She doesn’t tell him why.

  “Okay, okay.” Gig taps at the table for a few moments. Panes open and close over the map. Finally, all of the little panes close, the lines disappear, and the map dominates the wall on its own. Gig reaches under the terminal and pulls out a pair of eskeys, probably loaded with schedules and directions. “I’ll give these to Dunk and Ape,” he says.

  “Thanks. If either of them bitch, send them to me.”

  “Will do.” Gig nods at me and slides out of the room.

  Kez remains, staring at the map, loosely holding my forearms to her chest.

  “Knocked three of her teeth out, huh?” I say, to divert her from whatever particular worry is chewing through her mind.

  She lowers her head until she can rest her chin on my crossed hands. “It’s not like it sounds.”

  “Nothin’ is with you.” When she laughs, I ask, “C’mon, what happened?”

  “It was an accident. We were all at Bounce, the club the guys went to last night. Chain and I were up in harnesses. A fight broke out.” At my murmured, uh-huh, she says indignantly, “It wasn’t like it sounds. I didn’t start it. We’d have been fine, we weren’t involved, but Nasnay had to get in the middle of things like she always does. She was screaming at everyone. The guys fighting, Chain, the rest of his crew, me, everyone. One of the guys threw a punch at her. Chain and I dropped down to help her and in all the craziness, I kicked her in the mouth.”

  Bet the girl went down like she’d been kicked by a mule. Running hasn’t just given Kez a great ass. She’s got strong fucking legs. No wonder the girl lost three teeth.

  “Accidentally.” I lift an eyebrow in disbelief, a gesture Kez will be able to see in the reflection off the map.

  “Mostly.” Kez shrugs. “It shut her up.”

  “So you get along well with your ex’s new girl.”

  Kez chuckles. “Oh, yeah, we get along great. She calls me the Dreaded Bitch. Says I scarred Chain for life.”

  “Did you?”

  She shrugs, leans more firmly into me. “I wasn’t the one who slept with his best friend.”

  So it’s not just her abandonment issues that are the root of her jealousy. The men in Kez’s life have a bad habit of ending up in the beautiful girl’s bed.

  “You don’t need to worry about that with me,” I say into her hair.

  She sighs. “I know. You’re not like that.”

  “No, I’m not. So let’s move on to the next thing.”

  She nods. Shakes herself free of whatever memories are haunting her. “Do you want to head out? I’ve got some equipment to get together, so I could meet you at your ship in an hour. We’d sti
ll have plenty of time to get to Zhonnys.”

  We’ll have plenty of time to get to the pickup, but we’re not splitting up. Not for an hour, not for five minutes. I turn her around in my arms. Tip her chin up so I can look into those big blues. “Remember how I said I was comin’ with you?”

  She nods. Her pupils dilate a little. That’s better.

  “I’m not lettin’ you outta my sight until this is done.” And Tyng is dead, but she didn’t respond well to that idea, and with Baby Tyng just down the hall, it wouldn’t be smart to broadcast it.

  She grins, her open, mischievous grin. “Really?”

  “Really. So if you need to pack, we’ll pack. Then we’ll head to my place. But we’re not splitting up.”

  “I like this plan.” She takes my hand and leads me back to her bedroom, swinging our joined hands.

  Such a little thing, insisting that we stay together. It’s the safe thing. The smart thing, even. But more than that, it’s made Kez happy. My kitten’s a complex woman, but her happiness is not complicated. Something to keep in mind, whatever comes.

  Chapter 16

  I’m finally getting to see the contents of Kez’s backpack-of-many-tricks – and the shit she has in there is amazing, including thirty meters of snake chain compressed into a coil the size of a dinner plate, a full chameleon suit and a pair of laze-sticks strung on monofilament, which I recognize as a weapon, but have no idea how to use – when the portal on Kez’s bedside table buzzes. The four rabbits, who are variously lounging on Kez’s bed, investigating the bags we’re packing to see if we’re hiding something edible, and head-butting my shins to demand attention, suddenly streak out the door.

  “Dinner bell?” I ask, watching the last pair of furry heels disappear down the hallway.

  “Front door,” she chuckles. “They love answering the door. It’ll be Chain. He knows where my room is.”

  She’s right. Less than a minute later, a man strolls through the door, carrying Ronnie under one arm and followed by a flotilla of fur balls. He’s taller than Kez, but enough shorter than me that I can look down my nose at him. Dark-skinned, maybe late twenties. Kez may like bald men, but her ex has a serious head of hair. A chrome visor holds a mass of tight braids back from his face. They spiral down his back to his waist. Fucking girl. He shakes his head to flick that mass of braids over his shoulders, tucks Ronnie to the side and greets Kez, hugging her a moment longer and much tighter than necessary.

  Kez steps back quickly once he releases her. She glances at me, pale blue shades of uncertainty. I know I don’t have anything to worry about, but I’m still tempted to stake my claim. Make it obvious that she’s with me now.

  Guess I’m not immune to the jealousy bug, either.

  But that’s the loser play. I’ve got nothing to prove to Kez’s ex. She is with me now. I don’t need to broadcast it to make it true. So I stand back and let them finish their greeting.

  The man’s green eyes, startling in his dark face, flick to me. His neutral expression doesn’t change, but a pinpoint of anger expands in each of his pupils. “Who’s he?”

  “Chain, this is Snow. Snow’s a pilot. Snow, this is Chain. Chain’s a runner.”

  She’s called me by my real name for hours while we’ve been alone, but she uses my pseudonym like she’s never known me by any other name. She said she wouldn’t make a mistake and she hasn’t. I slant a smile at her as I hold my hand out to her ex.

  Chain looks like he’d rather break my arm than shake. He takes a long time about it, shifting the rabbit around needlessly first. When he finally shakes, he squeezes my hand like he’s trying to pulverize my bones.

  I contemplate showing him what a crushing grip really means, but remember that I have nothing to prove. I shake his hand firmly and let go. Kneel down and give the white rabbit head-butting my leg some attention while keeping my eyes on Chain. The light in his eyes goes from ugly to murderous. Guess he doesn’t like the subtext.

  “Whaddo you need a pilot for, Kez? Thought you were pure foot.”

  Kez shrugs. “I’ve got a run from Zhonnys to the Cloudlands today. No way I’m going to make it on foot.”

  Chain shifts Ronnie around again and the rabbit finally gets tired of being passed from hip to hip. Ronnie kicks his hind feet like he’s trying to jump. I may not know lagomorph language, but that’s pretty clearly, put me the fuck down.

  Chain gets it. He kneels and releases the giant rabbit. As soon as Ronnie’s four paws hit the floorboards, he hops over and joins the queue at my feet.

  I didn’t think Chain’s expression could get any darker, but I was wrong.

  Kez interposes herself between the two of us, picks up Ronnie and flips him over onto his back like a huge baby. She scratches his furry tummy and Ronnie goes so limp he could be dead, paws dangling. “I saw you’d posted a route from Hot Sands to the Cloudlands on the Plank.”

  Chain’s light eyes shift from me to Kez. “That’s why you called me?”

  “Yup.”

  “Mature, Kez, real mature.” He turns on his heel and stalks out of her room.

  Kez throws me a puzzled glance. I shrug. She follows him into the hall, toting the floppy bunny. I smile to myself and scratch Helas a little harder. I’ll give them a moment alone. See if Kez can get what she needs out of her ex without my assistance.

  “I thought you wanted to talk!” Chain shouts. “But you just got me here so you could throw him in my face!”

  “This is not about you!” she responds at the same decibel. “I need to get to the Cloudlands today without getting my ass shot off. He’s helping me, which is more than I can say for you! What happened to, ‘I’ll always be there for you, baby’?”

  “You don’t need anyone! Don’t you remember tellin’ me that?!”

  I chuckle to myself. I bet she did, my feisty kitten. Probably right after she found out he’d been humping the beautiful girl.

  “I’m asking for your help now!”

  Whether or not my presence will add anything to the conversation, it’s time for me to make an appearance. She doesn’t sound like she’s getting anywhere on her own, and I don’t like the idea of her groveling to get info from the fucker who cheated on her. I straighten slowly, dust fur off my fingers, and stroll into the hallway where Chain and Kez are facing off. She’s put Ronnie down and is standing with her hands on her hips, her back to me. Chain faces her. His skin’s too dark to tell if he’s gone red, but the tendons in his neck are standing out like zip-wires.

  I sidle up behind Kez and put my hands on her shoulders. “I hate to break up your reunion,” I say to Chain over the top of Kez’s head. “But we’re on the clock. If you can tell us somethin’ useful, do it. Otherwise—” I hook my thumb in the direction of the front door.

  Chain’s face twists with rage. He raises his hand and points at me. “Stay the fuck outta this.”

  “What concerns Kez, concerns me,” I tell him, finally staking my claim. “You can help, or you can keep on wastin’ our time.”

  Chain yanks something out of the pocket of his pants and throws it at Kez’s feet. I pull her back a step in case whatever it is is unfriendly. Looks harmless: a thin metal chain with a silver-blue sheen to it. But the threads wound through Kez’s dreads look harmless, too, and I’ve seen first-hand the damage they can do.

  “I’ve been saving that for a year. Shoulda kept my credits,” he spits. “Go to Orange Beach. Find Shaker. He rents skimmers. The Mirrormen have a route from Hot Sands to the North Island. Shaker’ll give you a tracer so you can find the route. Pray you don’t run into any Mirrormen while you’re on it.”

  Kez crosses her arms over her chest. Doesn’t make any move to pick up the silver chain. “Thanks. Really, I appreciate it.”

  “Don’t call me again. We’re done.” Chain turns and strides away down the hallway towards the door.

  “We were done a long time ago,” she says softly. If Chain hears her, he gives no sign.

  I rest my chin on Ke
z’s soft head and watch him until the hallway door slams shut behind him. “You gonna take that?” I ask, flicking my finger at the chain by her feet.

  Kez looks down at it. Shrugs. “I’ll give it to Nevie.”

  “If you like it, keep it,” I tell her. “Doesn’t have to remind you of him.”

  She snorts. “That’s oborundum,” she says, referring to a native metal that’s mined in Kuus. It’s supposed to have healing properties, but I’ve never put any stock in that particular bit of folklore. “I’m allergic to it. Brings me out in great big red spots. If Chain’d paid one fucking bit of attention, he’d have known that. But Nev loves oborundum.”

  I press my cheek against her crown. She has reason to be angry, and bitter. Much more reason than her ex does.

  “You trust what he told you?”

  She nods, rubbing her head along my jaw. “Chain wouldn’t fuck me over that way. It’s not even that we used to be together. He wouldn’t do that to another runner.”

  “You sure?”

  “Mmm, pretty sure. It’s worth a detour to Orange Beach at any rate. And if we can’t find Shaker or the route’s closed, there’s always the Mirrormen.”

  She doesn’t need to tell me who the Mirrormen are. Unlike the strange underground clans of Kuus, I’ve heard of the Mirrormen. They control the long shoreline south of Hemos City, which the locals call Orange Beach. Ultimate MAO-A boys: unstable, violent, anti-social. Addiction to the trance drug Hyp is a prerequisite to membership; otherwise, I’d fit right in.

  “You know any of Capp an’ Dag’s crew?” I ask, referring to the titular leaders of the Mirrormen. Like Kez, the Mirrormen have major issues with authority. Capp and Dag barely rule the mob, and they do it by being bigger, stronger and more violent than the rest of them.

  Kez nods. “I’ve bought passage from them before.” She twists her head to look up at me, and kisses the underside of my chin. “I’m glad you’ll be with me.”