I’m not afraid of the dark.
It was what the dark meant. The cities were primitive. Energy ran through wires, snaking through the air or buried in the ground, safe from those who would steal it, abuse it, use it up. Unlike out in the real world, where energy was wireless and, as long as you could afford to pay, there for the taking, as much as was needed. That was the world I was built for. That was the world that powered the converter in my chest.
I’d last three days, maybe four. But that was it. Then no more power, which meant… what?
As long as the artificial brain was intact, it sent out a signal that interfered with the functioning of any other brains with the Lia Kahn pattern. It was how BioMax ensured that I remained Lia Kahn, the one and only. The memories I stored every night were guaranteed to stay locked away in storage. Until the brain in my head was destroyed and the signal failed, giving BioMax the automatic go-ahead to download Lia Kahn into a brand-new body. No harm, no foul.
But power failure meant I stayed in this body, even if it was useless. Maybe indefinitely, an unconscious lump of parts. And maybe that was the plan. Toss me out with the garbage—or keep me around, a life-size doll, to do with what they would.
None of the mechs I knew had played around with power failure. Maybe my brain would stay active while they did whatever they did. Maybe it would be like being trapped underground, blind and frozen, forever.
I said I wasn’t afraid of the dark.
I say a lot of things.
“Lia.” It was Riley’s digitized voice in my ear, low and urgent. The VM link only worked within a few miles, which meant they hadn’t taken me too far away. “Where are you?”
“Trapped.” I wiggled my fingers. If I’d been an org, they probably would have gone numb by now. “I don’t know where they brought me.”
“I shouldn’t have left you alone. I never thought Sari would—”
“It’s done,” I said. “Where are you?”
“They tried to…” A pause. “It doesn’t matter now. I got away. It was too easy—I think they let me. You okay?”
“They can’t hurt me.”
“They won’t try.” He didn’t sound as sure as I would have liked. “They’re not after that.”
“So what do they want?”
“It’s complicated.”
It was always complicated.
“There’s this guy Wynn,” he said. Then stopped.
Keep talking, I thought. And not just because I needed to know. His voice, even in this monotonic form, was warm, something to hold on to in the dark.
“He thinks he runs things around here,” Riley said finally. “And I… pissed him off.”
“I heard.” Sound tough, be tough. That was the rule. “So he wants some kind of revenge?”
“He wants me,” Riley said. “And Jude. For you. That’s the trade.”
“He had you,” I pointed out. “He took me instead.”
“Because that was easier.”
Because he knew you’d fight back, I thought, disgusted with myself. Because he knew I couldn’t.
“And he needs me to get Jude,” Riley added. “He wants both of us.”
“Why?”
There was another pause so long, I was afraid he’d gone.
“So do we have a plan?” I asked. “I assume Jude’s not just going to walk in and give himself up?”
Say yes, I thought. Say Jude’s already here, ready to play martyr.
But Jude didn’t do martyr, any more than I did damsel in distress. Self-preservation was his defining quality. Like it was supposed to be mine—I just wasn’t proving to be very good at it. Maybe Jude would sacrifice himself for someone else. For Riley, maybe—I was sure Riley thought so. Maybe even for Ani. Never for me.
“It’s complicated,” Riley said again, like I didn’t know what that meant. “But we’ll find you. Wynn’s got the top thirty floors of the east tower. Security’s good but not perfect. We can get through. Find you.”
“Take your time,” I said, wondering if sarcasm could travel through the VM line. “Not like I’m in any—”
The door eased open.
“Lia? What is it, what’s wrong?”
“Later. Company’s here.” A tall, slender figure stood in the doorway. It was too dark to see his face.
“I’ll get you out of there, I promise.”
Feel free to hurry, I thought. The man stepped into the room, slamming the door shut behind him. “Wynn?” I guessed.
A hard laugh. “Not as dumb as they said.” His voice was deep but hoarse, like the words scraped his throat on their way out.
“This is insane.”
Another laugh, more genuine this time. “Damn right. Welcome to the city, skinner.”
“I’ve never done anything to you.” It sounded lame, even as I said it, like I was starring in a vidlife, reciting someone else’s script, forced to play out the scene, though we all knew how it would end.
“You picked the wrong people to be friends with,” he said. “Bad luck. And they owe me. So now you pay up.”
“Whatever you want. I’ve got plenty of credit, I can—” But even in the dark, I could see he was shaking his head.
“Eye for an eye, baby.” His face was an unnerving blank in the dark. “Life for a life.”
Jude would never give himself up, not for me, I thought. And even if he did, this guy might never let me go. Everything in a city belonged to someone, Riley had told me, and you never gave up what you had, not if you were smart. Wynn wasn’t stupid, not if he’d set this whole thing in motion. I belonged to him.
“I never had a skinner before,” he said, approaching me. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t do anything but watch the shadow loom, the dim outline of a hand swoop toward my face. He dragged his knuckles across my cheek. Softly. Rested a hand on the back of my neck. Gently. Bent his head to mine, his lips feathering across my ear. “This could get interesting.”
The door exploded. There was a burst of light, someone screamed—maybe it was Wynn, maybe it was me—and a thud. Wynn’s body, smacking the floor. The man who’d shot him, his green uniform and black faceplate illuminated by dancing flashlights, ducked back into the hallway, leaving me alone again. Out there it sounded like a war, or at least the way war sounded on the vids: voices shouting on top of one another, boots pounding, thuds and thumps like punches landing, bodies falling, “Fucking animals!” someone yelled, another shot, and then silence. In the room, just one mech tied to a chair, an org sprawled at her feet.
A phalanx of secops marched in, stunshots drawn. “Lia Kahn?” the lead guy said.
It wasn’t a real question, so I didn’t bother answering.
“You’re coming with us.” Though the unidirected sonic blast of the stunshot could knock an org unconscious in seconds, we both knew it wouldn’t have any effect on me. Not that it mattered. I was outnumbered, outpowered—and almost as eager to get out as they were to bring me in.
As two of them began to untie me, a third kicked Wynn out of his way. His body rolled a few feet, then stopped, one arm flung over his head, palm up, fingers slightly bent as if he were holding an invisible hand. I couldn’t tell if he was breathing.
I never saw his face.