The Burn Zone (11 page)

I looked up at the female and nodded.
Tānchi
watched me over her shoulder, still hurt and confused, as she carried him to the empty station. She opened a smooth metal hatch there and then placed
Tānchi
inside. He looked back at me, and I gave him a little wave. He raised one little hand and waved back before she shut the door again with a vacuum thump. A low rumble came from the wall, making the floor vibrate slightly as she tapped at a virtual keyboard in the air in front of it.

“
Where are you
send
—
”
I had started to ask when the mites went dark and the connection broke.

“
Back,
”
she said.

“
Back
wh
—
”

“
Your transaction is complete.
”

She handed me a black strip of paper with a series of haan stamps on it, which I realized was a receipt. I sighed, not sure if I should laugh or cry. I stuffed the receipt in my pocket and ran my hand through a sweaty lock of hair.

“
Look,
”
I said,
“
I need help, okay?
”

The haan stared, not speaking.

“
Soldiers took my guardian,
”
I continued, the words coming on their own.
“
They tried to kill me. I can
’
t—
”

“
Thank you for your service,
”
she said.
“
Your transaction is complete.
”

I leaned a little closer, lowering my voice.
“
One of them was a haan.
”
She didn
’
t answer, but the shapes in her head writhed a little in their fluid
bath. She watched me, the rigid contours of her glassy face not moving. Whoever she was, she was good at controlling the mites. I couldn
’
t feel at all what she might be thinking.
“
She was pretending to be a human—
”

Light flickered behind me, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I didn
’
t have to turn around to see that the gate had opened again. She was giving me the boot.

“
You guys are so far beyond us,
”
I said, looking at the floor and shaking my head.
“
I know you could help me. I know you could. If you wanted to you could—
”

“
Your
tra
—
”

“
I know.
”
I turned, a little wobbly on my feet, and wiped a pink mixture of sweat and blood from my forehead.
“
Thanks for the help.
”
I put air quotes around the last word, but she didn
’
t seem to pick up on the gesture.

I turned around and found myself looking through a gate in the wall, back into the room I
’
d come from. With nothing else to do or say, I stepped through.

She followed me, which I hadn
’
t expected. On the other side I watched her as she reached up to grip a metal, many-eyed orb nestled up in a ceiling niche. Her
long fingers rotated it so that the eyes stared up into darkness.

“
What are you—
”

A second gate crackled into existence on the other side of the room, and through it I could see the city street outside the settlement. The protesters and worshippers were still there, and they perked up at the sudden appearance of the portal.

“
Leave now,
”
she said.

“
Fine.
”

I stepped through, back into the humid night air. On the other side, I turned back in time to see her approach the haan guard who first greeted me. She placed one hand on his shoulder, and I heard a muted slither followed by a crunch. As the gate fizzled out of existence, I heard the distorted splash of water and, for just a second, it looked like the draping material of the guard
’
s suit collapsed to the floor.

Then the portal vanished, leaving me to stare at the brick wall. The protesters who were gathered at the perimeter looked at me with contempt, while the gonzo worshippers looked at me with awe. To my right, the guards at
the station looked up from whatever they were doing long enough for one of them to laugh at me.

“
How
’
d it go?
”
Sun asked.

I gave him the finger, but he just laughed and tossed my backpack over to me.

“
Go
on,
get home before someone sees you out.
”

I shouldered the pack and headed back the way I
’
d come. When I passed the protesters, one of them muttered at me.

“
Haan fucker.
”

“
Excuse me?
”

I couldn
’
t see who said it, but a small group of the men were scowling, their ugly faces lit by the glow of the electric lamp.

“
Race traitor,
”
one spat.

“
Race traitor?
”
The fatigue had me punchy.
“
For real?
”

“
When they take over—
”

“
There
’
s not enough of them to take over even if they wanted to,
”
I snapped back,
“
so can the
‘
invader
’
bullshit. They gave us gate tech, force field and brain band tech, better rations, clean water, and free energy. The only bad thing they gave us was scaleflies, and even those at least you can eat.
”

“
The Impact,
”
the guy said, raising his voice.
“
Was that bad enough for you?
”
He threw a half-empty can at me and I swatted it away.

“
That was an accident,
”
I said, raising my own voice.
“
It sucked, but-
”

“
A quarter of a million people died!
”

“
An accident, ass-wipe!
It was an accident! They
’
ve been trying to make up for it ever since, but it
’
s never enough, is it?
”

“
They
’
ll take over one day,
”
the guy said.
“
You
’
ll see.
”

“
What are you afraid they
’
ll do if that happens? Clean the place? The sweep
’
s in less than an hour. I hope you all get arrested!
”

I pointed at the lamp they were huddled around.

“
The batteries in that thing are haan tech, you know,
”
I said. The oldest man turned as I passed by him, and stared up at me from the hollows of his eyes.

“
Fuck you,
”
he wheezed.

~ * ~

Chapter Four

28:23:51 BC

Rain had begun to fall hard and the security sweep was in full swing by the time I got back to my neighborhood. Vamp
’
s app displayed a cloud of orange markers moving toward
Tùzi-wō
, the 3i
’
s holomap laid over sheets of drizzle and the throngs of people hustling through street fog to get somewhere dry. If I zoomed in to the map, I could actually see the individual
units
strobe slowly down the streets as they were seen, lost, then seen again, and twice it warned me to take an alternate route to avoid them. It was the first time, I think, that I realized Vamp
’
s project was probably going to get him into real trouble.

As I slipped through knots of people on my way toward the market, I pulled up my chat contacts. I was about to tap Vamp
’
s heart to tell him what had happened when I saw the stack of messages from him in the 3i tray. He already knew.

I thought about messaging him back but wanted to get off the street first. Security hadn
’
t reached my block in force yet, but groups of local cops were out, rain pelting off their helmets and black ponchos while they watched the vendors all trying to pack up and leave at the same time. As they broke down kiosks they made last-minute sales under clusters of umbrellas, some with
the cops themselves. I moved under a shop front awning with a crowd of others, nestling into a gap next to a rattling rain gutter to get the lay of the place. Red and blue lights flashed through the haze of neon from in front of my apartment building a couple of blocks away. A bunch of cops were out front waiting to see if the nut who crashed the airbike would show, and I could see an aircar hovering up near our ruined balcony, its lights flashing off the building
’
s glass face. Going back there wasn
’
t an option.

I skirted across the street and made my way down the block to the Nan Hai Hotel where Vamp and I sometimes got a room with friends if we wanted
to cut loose a little and Dragan was home. It was a shit-box, and I really didn
’
t want to spend the money, but I needed a place to clean up and sleeping in a crash tube wasn
’
t going to cut it.

When I headed inside, a small crowd of people were in the lobby, dripping rainwater as they watched a TV mounted on the wall. It showed the wreckage from inside our apartment, reflected police lights flashing in time with the ones outside the hotel window. I recognized the remains of the smashed wet bar, where police were standing and pointing toward the battered airbike. The camera panned down and zoomed in on a few shell casings that were circled with chalk.

“
One?
”

I looked over at the woman sitting at the check-in counter. She
’
d checked me in before but didn
’
t show any sign she recognized me. Her stringy hair was streaked with gray, and her leathery lips were pinched around a thin black cigarette.

“
Yeah,
”
I said, approaching the counter.

“
Hourly or nightly?
”

“
One night.
”

“
I got two singles up on forty, no AC and no TV.
”

“
Shower?
”

She nodded.
“
Sixty yuan.
”

“
I
’
ll take it.
”

She swiped my card and pushed it back to me along with the room badge.

“
What the hell happened to you?
”
she asked, like she
’
d noticed the scrapes and bruises for the first time.

“
Long story.
”

“
I
’
ll bet.
”

I took the card and badge and made my way to the elevator lobby.

The A.I. yammered at me as I rode it up. Something about lip injections, I think; I wasn
’
t listening. My clothes were wet and uncomfortable, and the
chemicals in the rainwater made every scrape and cut itch. When the elevator finally stopped and the doors opened, I trudged down the hall feeling tired, beaten, and very alone.