Archangel Down: Archangel Project. Book One (14 page)

“Is that an app?” James whispered in her ear.

Noa had no idea if he was joking, which made it funnier. Covering what had to be a goofy grin with a cough, she slid into the booth and tried to observe everyone discreetly. James had just taken a seat across from her when the door flew open. The guy they’d passed on the way up the stairs lunged in, eyes wide, shouting something into the din. Noa couldn’t hear the words, but she could read his lips: “Patrol!”

The holo went silent, but the noise in the room increased. There were a few cries, a few shouts, and around them people started yanking cables from their ports. James lurched to his feet, and Noa did, too. Other patrons were already ahead of them, running to the back door, but before Noa had slid out of the booth, the door in the back burst open and men in Luddeccean Green blocked their exit.

Noa’s eyes darted across the room, looking for a place to hide. There had been a time when alcohol was prohibited on Luddeccea. Maybe there was a hideaway behind the bar?

“Noa,” James hissed. Her eyes snapped to him—he was staring at someone not two steps from the table.

J
ames’s muscles tensed
. He heard shouting and saw people dropping hard links to the ground as they pressed in a mob toward the exits. A part of his mind noted the anomaly of it—hard linking wasn’t illegal in the Republic. It was necessary for psychotherapy or neural interface repair. It was, however, typically found to be in poor taste in public places. He remembered half-seriously suggesting to a girlfriend that they hard link in the backroom during a particularly tedious event. She’d suggested he go hard link himself.

At the same time his mind processed these thoughts, his eyes remained fixed on the “creep.” The man shuffled toward the table—fortunately, effectively blocking the Guard’s view of Noa and James. Hands in the pockets of a long trench coat, the stranger looked James up and down without ever meeting his eyes, and then he looked at Noa and smiled.

Her eyes narrowed at the man. “Do I know you?”

James heard footsteps on the stairs, and shouts of, “This is an ID check, stay calm!” James’s eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape, but he heard the Guard at both exits. For a brief moment his vision went black. They’d run through a blizzard, fallen into a gorge, crashed into a canyon wall, hidden in a magni-freight car … this couldn’t be their end … not in a bar. But of course it could be; it was magical thinking to suppose otherwise.

There were whispers and screams, and someone cried, “Dear God, dear God.”

More magical thinking. But what was the alternative? He told himself they would get out of this. His vision returned, and he was once more staring at the stranger, but he couldn’t move. He was frozen in place, his mind scrambling for a viable course of action and finding none.

Chuckling despite the chaos, the stranger slid into the booth across from James, blocking Noa’s escape. Pulling his hand from his pocket, the stranger put a stiff plastic necklace on the table. “Put this on, Noa.”

James looked to her, surprised the man knew her name. Realizing the man’s frame wasn’t blocking the view to others in the room, James leaned as far as he could in his seat, turned his head to Noa, and put a hand to the side of his face visible to the crowd.

Noa didn’t move. “Who are you?” she demanded.

The man’s smile widened, but he didn’t show teeth. “It will hide you from the patrol.” The smile lasted too long without changing, and was too symmetrical.

Sliding toward him in her seat, Noa said, “Get out of my way … ”

The man frowned. The necklace he wore went dark. Halting, Noa gaped. James did, too. Where an instant before there had been a handsome if artificial-looking face, what appeared now was the face of a man who was pudgy and overweight. He had a thin unkempt beard, above which his cheeks and forehead glistened with sweat. His nose was long, pointed and European, but his eyes were narrow and red-rimmed. He lacked a distinct chin.

“I’m only trying to help you, Noa,” he said, his lower lip quivering.

“Dan Chow,” said Noa. James’s eyes slid to her. She recognized “Dan” obviously, but didn’t look overjoyed to see him. Her eyes darted to the necklace. Dipping her chin toward James, she said, “If you’re going to help me, you’ve got to help my friend.”

“We don’t have time for games,” Dan said. Around the table the crowd was being pushed backward. James heard shouts from the patrol, “Take out your IDs!”

“Lizzar dung. You’ve been playing a game since we came in,” Noa hissed back.

Dan’s eyes slipped to the crowd and back to Noa. He looked down his too-long nose at James and sniffed. “Fine, Noa. Keep your toys.” James felt heat flash beneath his skin, but instead of sweating, he shivered.

“My friend,” Noa said, and the heat cooled.

The man’s lips quirked up in a small smile. He snorted. “Really?” Pulling out another necklace, he slid it across the table to James. Leaning back, Dan said, “And he looks like a throwback, too ...” James raised an eyebrow. He remembered, in his past, getting into shouting matches with people who used that slur. Now … he told himself that it was just their circumstances forcing him to keep a level head. But the slur felt wrong, like his name, an incorrect label, a jumble of syllables.

Taking the necklace proffered to her, Noa slid it on her neck—and she vanished. In her place was a woman with paler skin, straight black hair that cut off just above her shoulders, eyes that were narrower and lips that weren’t as full. She still wore the clothing they’d stolen from the train operators—it looked out of place. Her face looked perfectly made up with makeup that was sophisticated, but not too heavy. The tiny scars above and below her eye were gone.

It was a look he normally would like, but now it set him on edge. Noa was the only thing that felt real to him. The hologram—he was sure that was what it was—took away his one tether to reality. He gave his head a tiny shake. He had to get over it. Picking up his own necklace, he inspected it briefly. It looked and felt like a slender band of lightweight plastic. Slipping it on, his mind whirred. To work, holographic projections required smoke at the very least. In the hologlobes, rapidly oscillating beads reflected cyan, magenta, and yellow depending on the holographic data received. The necklace had no such medium to operate in.

As the latch at the back of James’s necklace clicked, Dan said, “Now you’re both more attractive.” Dan’s necklace was on again, his face once again artificially handsome.

Noa—or the hologram she wore—rolled her eyes, and James found himself doing the same.

“Hide your hands,” Dan commanded.

Glancing down, James saw Noa’s hands were still dark and his were still light. They both slipped their hands beneath the table as Dan pushed some ID billfolds out on the tabletop.

At that moment, a Luddeccean patrolman sidled up to the table. “IDs please!”

Dan nodded at the ID billfolds. “Right there, Sir.”

Beneath the table, Noa’s hand went to James’s arm, and he could feel her tension in her fingers.

The guard picked up the billfolds. As he flipped through them, James had the distinct impression that time was slowing. He cast furtive glances around the Guardman, noting there were no less than fifteen other members of the Guard in the room. All armed with stunners, and more lethally, laser pistols.

The Guard’s eyes went to James and then to Noa, and back again. James’s muscles coiled, ready to fight. Noa’s fingers tightened even more. Tipping his helmet, the Guard gave a wink to James and a smile to Noa. Nodding to Dan, the guard put the IDs back on the table. “Thank you for your cooperation,” he said, and strode away.

Dan chuckled. “I wonder if I should feel jealous or proud that he found you two ladies interesting.”

Noa made a barely audible gagging noise.

At the table where the two lovers had been hardwired together, James heard a woman’s voice, “Please, no!” and a Luddeccean Guard saying, “You are under arrest!” Noa went completely quiet and still. There were more sounds of protests, and scuffling, as other patrons were shoved up against the bars and tabletops.

James’s eyes slid to Noa’s and her holographic disguise met his gaze.

“Easy ladies,” Dan whispered. “Haven’t I just proved that you have nothing to worry about?”

Despite his assurances, Dan didn’t speak again until the Luddeccean Guard had cleared out of the room, taking a substantial number of patrons with them. And then he said, “Fancy meeting you here, Noa.”

Noa’s holographic illusion fixed Dan with a glare. “What’s your game, Dan?”

Dan cocked his head, and one side of his lip curled. “I go by Ghost now. Aren’t you going to thank me?”

“You didn’t do it out of the goodness of your heart … ” Noa tilted her head. “... Dan.”

Dan frowned and leaned across the table. “I could just as equally ask what your game is, Noa. You need something, too. You were off in one of their re-education camps—”

Noa recoiled as though she’d been struck.

Dan gave her a thin smile. “Didn’t think I’d know about that, did you?”

Noa’s jaw hardened. “You knew about that, but didn’t help?”

Dan’s lower lip trembled. And James smelled something familiar. He’d smelled it when Noa had darted off his bed and in the cattle car just before he clipped the man in the chin. Noa had been afraid. Had the man in the cattle car been afraid? Was Dan afraid? James’s eyes dropped from the man’s artificially generated face to Dan’s hands. They had a barely perceptible tremor.

“You were too afraid to help,” James said flatly.

Noa snorted. “Good call.”

James couldn’t meet her eyes. He’d almost been too afraid to help, too. Dan’s eyes flicked to James, and then went back to Noa. “I was too smart to get involved.”

“You’ve always been too smart, haven’t you, Dan?” Noa snapped.

“Ever seen tech like this?” Dan said, stroking his neck.

Noa’s holo’s eyes narrowed to slits.

Dan leered. “Oh, your precious Fleet would love these, wouldn’t they? Are you sorry that you didn’t recommend me for a promotion now?”

Huffing, Noa shook her head. “I had nothing to do with that.”

“You could have put in a good word for me,” Dan snapped.

She snapped right back, “Get to the point. Why are you helping us? Just to gloat? To show off your shiny new tech?”

Dan sniffed. “Maybe.” He tilted his head. “Although I am curious as to how you escaped the camp.” He leaned closer to Noa. “That would seem to be a feat that would require divine assistance.”

James almost jerked back at the word “divine,” and felt all his nanos and neurons fire at once. The Luddeccean Guard had broadcast the falling of an “Archangel.” Had Dan heard the broadcast? Had he somehow pieced together James’s “identity”? What would it mean if he had?

Without missing a beat, Noa said, “What are you getting at, Dan?” James didn’t think he’d be able to speak as smoothly.

Dan’s brow furrowed and a light went on in his neural port. “The Archangel Project. I know you were involved.”

All the neurons and nanos in James’s skull lit again, and the charge spread to every inch of his skin. Dan knew … he had to know James was the supposed Archangel. And then another neuron flickered brightly in his mind. Noa had never said she was involved in the Archangel Project.

Noa’s jaw dropped. Her eyes flitted to James. Did she look guilty, or just confused?

“Dan,” she said, meeting the man’s gaze. “I’m not part of the Archangel Project.” She sighed. Bowing her head, she leaned on her elbows, her shoulders slumping. “But you’re not the first person to ask me about it. The Luddeccean Guard asked me about it when … ” Noa shifted in her seat. “I’d never even heard of the project,” Noa finished, “Not until they asked.”

A light flashed near Dan’s neural port. “But how did you escape?”

With one finger, Noa traced an engraving of some initials carved into the table top. “It’s not a pretty story.” Rubbing her upper arms, she said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Dan leaned back, tapped his neural port, and the light went out. “I believe you.” His forehead furrowed.

“What do you know about the Archangel Project?” Noa asked, leaning toward Dan.

Dan snorted. His eyes flicked to James, and for the first time James felt as though he was being looked at instead of looked through. Looking away, Dan blinked rapidly and waved a hand. “That the time of angels has come. Or aliens, or devils, or djinn. Who knows?”

“You’re too smart to believe any of that, Dan,” said Noa.

Narrowing his eyes at Noa, Dan frowned. “It’s Ghost.” And then he looked away and wiped a hand down his face. “Surveying my options … ” He muttered in a voice so low it was almost inaudible. “Hoped you had something special … ”

“What do you mean?” Noa asked.

Dan glared at her. James’s eyes fell on the ignored IDs on the table. On a whim, he plucked them up and flipped through them briefly. He saw Noa’s holographic image in one, another woman who looked startlingly similar to Noa’s ulterior appearance in the second – he supposed that was what he looked like. The third had a picture of Dan’s holographic avatar. James read the name “Hung See.” And suddenly James knew why Dan had approached them. Sliding the IDs to Noa, James said, “He’s on the run, too. That’s why he’s hiding his identity from the Guard, and he’s looking for help.”

Dan sat up very straight. He glared at James. Noa, by contrast, smiled. “Last I heard, the new Luddeccean Premier had hired you on; in your words, they ‘recognized your talent.’ Why would one of their own be hiding?”

Dan looked away. “I’m not one of them, obviously. They barely appreciated me. I built their non-ethernet dependent systems—a closed system that could never be infected by external influence. I gave them the computing power of a time gate at a scale that is … ” His eyes closed and a look of bliss passed over his features. “ … At a scale that is impossibly small.”

“And they turned on you,” Noa said. Her avatar’s jaw appeared to harden. “Because the mind that could build that sort of computing power—”

“Luddites,” Dan hissed.

“By definition, actually,” said James, remembering the origins of the Luddeccean name.

Dan scowled at him. Noa’s lips flattened, not like she was angry, but like she was trying to conceal a smile.

James’s own lips wanted to pull up—but didn’t. He touched the side of his mouth self-consciously.

Leaning toward Dan, Noa practically crooned, “You need help, Dan. Which is why you helped us.”

Dan sat perfectly still. He didn’t blink, or swallow, but his necklace flickered, and for a moment, James could see the red eyes and sweaty face of the real man. A passing barman, a bowl of peanuts and boiled soybeans in either hand, stopped and gaped.

Noa said quickly, “We’d like to see a menu, we’re hungry.” The man put the two bowls of snacks on the table, nodded, and left quickly.

James’s eyes fell heavily on the peanuts. He could see their oil glistening in the low light. Before he’d even thought about it, he’d scooped up the contents of the bowl and shoveled them into his mouth.

“How lady-like,” said Dan as James bolted down the peanuts. James shrugged. The taste of the peanut oil and salt on his tongue made his taste buds sing.