At thirty-seven, Caroline had been New York’s deputy mayor for several years. She was Mayor Seward’s mouthpiece and gatekeeper, and a shoo-in to replace him when he retired. She was also, to Simone’s constant surprise, a very good friend—intervening on her behalf when the police rattled her, sending business her way. Simone liked Caroline, even trusted her, which was an unusual feeling for her—one that actually made her feel queasy every time she saw Caroline, as though she were looking down from very high up, waiting for someone to push her. But she’d grown used to liking Caroline. Enjoyed it. She was her only friend. And having a deputy mayor as a friend was always a nice advantage for a PI.
“Why don’t I deserve it? Because I said I was on a stakeout?”
“Because you didn’t seem very grateful.”
“I don’t know what it is yet.”
Caroline pursed her lips and looked forward again, nodding. She leaned back and stretched, her hands clasped above her head, her back arched. In the white suit, she looked like a cold crescent moon.
“Fair enough. It’s an anthropologist. Or archeologist. I don’t remember. I met him at some party my parents threw two weeks ago, just for five minutes, but then he came into the office this morning, saying he needed a tour guide.”
“I’m not a tour guide,” Simone said.
“Slash bodyguard,” Caroline continued, ignoring her. “He’s good looking. Extremely good looking. From the EU, Spain I’d imagine, beautiful body, slight accent. Tell me you don’t owe me one.” Caroline smiled for the first time since Simone had sat down, a small upward curve so subtle that it almost didn’t exist.
“What does he want me to do?”
“He’s looking for places where the buildings are dry down past the twenty-first floor.” Caroline’s laugh came in a short, sudden burst, like the single rotation of a siren. It harmonized well with Simone’s own low chuckle, like the rumbling of a building about to collapse into the sea.
“Is this a joke?” Simone asked. She’d heard rumors, of course—everyone had—about buildings that were so airtight and advanced that you could walk down to the bottom of the ocean. When the water was first rising, scuba companies had done good business offering to rappel down the sides of buildings with airtanks, going into submerged apartments to bring back old heirlooms. As the water got higher, though, buildings began to crumble, and algae bloomed everywhere, making it impossible to see below the surface. Crumbling cement could land on your head without your ever seeing it falling towards you, or an adventurous shark could take you from an alley. These days, if you were foolish enough to go into the water, you didn’t come back out. People still went in, now and then, not searching for waterlogged heirlooms but for the mythical airtight buildings—the Atlantis under New York. No one ever found anything because it was all nonsense. Simone had lived there thirty-six years and knew the city as well as anyone, and she didn’t know of anywhere where the water stopped below the twenty-first floor.
“No joke,” Caroline said, though she let out another laugh.
“And he’s a real anthro-archo-whatever?”
“His papers were legit. But that’s the best part. You basically get to spend time with a good-looking guy and get paid for it, and, since what he’s looking for doesn’t exist, he’ll be with you a while.”
“I have other cases, Caroline. I don’t have time to babysit some pearl diver.”
“I know you find the idea of work that doesn’t involve you skulking alone in the shadows to be a personal insult, but you need the money, and you could stand to get laid, judging by the fact that you’ve cracked your neck twice since coming in. Haven’t called up Peter for a quick-and-dirty evening of heartbreak lately?”
“We broke up years ago,” Simone said, trying not to sound too bothered and failing. “And I haven’t seen him in almost a month.” She looked over at Perske, willing him to mix the drink faster. “And even then, we didn’t fuck.”
“Exactly. Take the job, take the money, and take any bonuses that come with it. If only so I don’t have to watch you roll your head around like some MouthFoamer who just found a stash the size of the ocean. You’re doing it again.”
Simone stopped rolling her head and glared. Perske put a yellow drink down in front of her and walked off to another customer. She drank deeply.
“Okay,” Simone said, “but I’m not agreeing that I owe you one till I see him.”
“Fair enough. I gave him your info; he’ll probably stop by tomorrow.”
“But he’d better not be full-time. I have to at least finish up this case I’m on.”
“What is it?”
“Wife thought it was a cheating spouse, now it looks like more.”
“More?” Caroline cocked her body on the stool, turning slightly closer to Simone.
“I can’t tell you,” Simone said, smiling. “You know that.”
“Hmmm,” Caroline said, and locked her mouth onto her straw again. “You’re no fun,” she said.
“I’m lots of fun,” Simone said, “but only when water pistols are involved.”
Caroline snorted into her straw. What was left of her drink bubbled in the glass.
“I’ll be sure to tell Alejandro that.”
“That the hot client?”
“Yep. Alejandro deCostas.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to tour him yourself?”
“Nah,” Caroline said. “I don’t like them stupid.”
“Ah, but you have no problem with the stupid ones for me?”
“If you don’t, I don’t… and judging from your dating history, you really, really don’t.”
Simone finished her drink and raised an eyebrow at Caroline. Caroline stared back, eyes wide with a false innocence.
“Okay, gotta drift. Have to call a woman and tell her about a blonde.”
“Why is it always a blonde?” Caroline asked.
“I’ve been asking myself that for years,” Simone said, getting up and putting her coat on.
“Let me walk out with you,” Caroline said, standing. “I have way too much work to do tonight.”
“Something interesting happening at City Hall?” Simone put on her hat. Caroline put on her long overcoat, then pulled her hair out from under the collar in one quick motion. For a moment, it haloed out around her, like dark, churning water.
“You know I can’t tell you that,” Caroline said, her voice rising slightly with amusement.
“We still on for the weekend? Going to finally try that VR bowling place?”
“Yeah,” Caroline said. They walked out the door. Sea froth whipped up over their ankles, occasionally up to their knees, as they walked the rickety walkway from Undertow back to a more solid bridge.
“You’ll have to have a real conversation while bowling, you know, so you better come up with something interesting to talk about,” Caroline said.
“Yeah,” Simone said, nodding. They parted ways at the next bridge, a steady one with rusted metal railings, and Simone headed home.
She lived on the sixth floor above sea level of an old thirty-story building, its brick walls mirror-smooth from the waves. The rent was cheap because there was a chance it could fall into the sea at any moment. But Simone liked that.
It was in an area of town her dad used to call Alphabet City, but which most people now called Cartarojo for the large tanker in the center of the neighborhood. It was a relatively peaceful neighborhood, with plenty of bars below the various decks. People were quiet, or at least not too loud. It wasn’t like the touristy area to the west, or the expensive places uptown. It was just the city: cool, wet, uncaring. She had large picture windows that she’d had to reinforce against the ocean storms but which gave her a nice view of a flat expanse of water and the buildings just beyond it. On bright days, when the sun was at the right angle, she could see a building maybe ten or so feet below the water, like a reflection of what the city once was. The water was too shallow to dock a large boat over the building but too deep to build anything on top. Small taxi boats and private yachts sailed over the empty water at all hours. Sometimes it was a lake. Sometimes it was an intersection.