He dropped down out of the skylane so suddenly my butt came up off the seat, then whipped between two buildings before dipping down just above the strip’s canopy of street signs. I could hear them huffing by underneath us as he accelerated, then banked down a side street to approach my apartment. Haan constructs skittered along crisscrossing power lines, their little clusters of pinprick, glowing eyes watching us as we cruised by. As we descended, the graviton stream disturbed a passing swarm of scaleflies and they flit past the windshield like big flakes of disturbed ash.
I released my grip on the door handle, my heart still thumping. He took us down to street level and double-parked near the front entrance. As vehicles inched past us, he popped the passenger door open.
“Oh, one last thing,” he said. He fished out his Escher tablet. “Sync up with mine—I set up a plan with a shared space to use while this is going on.”
I touched my tablet’s screen to his, and Vamp tapped at the controls on the back of it for a minute.
“Okay, open it up,” he said.
I opened the field on my tablet, and saw that a different space appeared behind it.
“Where’s all my stuff?”
“It’s still there, you can toggle between the storage spaces, but if we need to get something to each other fast…”
He shook a cigarette from his pack, and dropped it into his tablet’s field. While I watched, the smoke plopped down in the space in front of me. I reached in and took it.
“Cool,” I said, fitting the cigarette behind my ear.
“Put ice on that,” he said, nodding at my forehead. “Get some rest, and we’ll talk more later. Okay?”
“Okay.” I kissed him again.
He touched my cheek, and I could see he wanted more than kisses. He wanted a lot more than kisses. He’d been patient, too, but the hunger in his eyes said he might not be patient much longer. I worried that soon he’d make me decide whether I ever intended to be with him or not.
Not today, though. He eased back, and I saw him let it go.
“Is it okay to bring Dragan in on this?” he asked. “All of it?”
“Not yet. I’ll do it.”
“Okay. I’ll see you soon.”
I stepped out onto the street, and hot air puffed around my pant legs as he fired the emitters back up.
“Thanks again,” I called back.
He winked. “Anything for you.”
The door thumped shut, and his aircar lurched back up off the street. He turned it around ninety degrees, then shot back up into the air, and was gone.
I watched his car become a small silhouette, then heard the distant blare of horns as he reentered the skyway.
A flash in the corner of the 3i tray caught my attention, and I looked in time to see a gray icon turn red.
NIX
The little heart began to beat as I stared, caught completely off guard. By the time I picked it from the tray, it had turned gray again.
Nix? Nix, are you there?
The icon stayed gray. The messages bounced back, unread.
Nix?
Nothing. Had I imagined it?
I crossed the street and saw a gonzo shrine set up at the edge of my building, next to the alley. A man in white robes knelt in front of it, eyes closed as he faced the spinning wax apple. The wind blew, causing bright embers to glow at the ends of the incense sticks beneath it and threads of smoke to spill over him.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said.
The gonzo opened his eyes and looked over at me.
“I’m sorry?” he asked.
“It isn’t bad enough you’ve sucked my brother into your stupid bullshit and gotten my father written up over it? You’ve got to stake out my place now too?”
The gonzo stood and brushed his robe off with both hands. “I’m not staking out your place.”
“You can’t solicit here,” I told him. “I’m calling security.”
“I’m not soliciting, and anyway, this, over here, where I am, is technically public property so I’m allowed to be here.”
“Just stay away from my brother,” I said. “Can’t you just stay away from him?”
“This has nothing to do with him. I’ve been waiting for you.”
A red flag went up at that. The gonzo had a strange look in his eye as he watched me.
“Me?”
“Yes. Gohan instructed me to place a shrine here, and await your arrival.”
“Why?”
The gonzo reached into his robes and I tensed for a moment, but all he drew out was a paper envelope, sealed with a fancy gold sticker. He held it out to me.
“What’s in it?” I asked him.
“If I had to guess? A letter.”
“What kind of letter?”
“Open it and find out.”
“What if I don’t want it?”
“Then don’t take it,” he said.
I snatched the envelope out of his hand, and turned it over. The envelope formed a perfect square, and the paper had a faint pink tint to it. On the front, beautiful calligraphy spelled my given name, Xiao-Xing. “You know, your boss is an asshole,” I told the gonzo.
“He’s not my boss,” he said. “He’s the leader of our church, and he sees through the veil to gaze on secrets few can imagine.”
“Whatever. He’s still an asshole.”
“He is a compassionate, illuminated man who you do not even know.”
“I know he crashed his aircar because he was drunk, and killed a guy and his kid. Everybody knows that, and about how his rich father got him off.”
The gonzo bristled a little, at that, but kept his cool.
“That happened decades ago.”
“Oh, okay. I guess it doesn’t matter then.”
“Gohan has paid—”
“He didn’t pay shit; his dad even got him out of that.”
“You don’t believe he suffered for that? That the memory of it causes him suffering?”
“Give me a break. He gets driven around in a fancy aircar, eating fancy food and wearing fancy clothes like some posh celebrity.”
“That accident changed his life, forever.”
“The people he hit, too.”
“You know,” the gonzo said, dropping his ethereal tone a little, “your father didn’t get in trouble with his superiors because his life is unfair, he got in trouble with his superiors because he harassed a religious official.”
“Are you kidding me? The only people who think he’s that are the gonzos.”
“Reunification church members.”
“Whatever.”
“No matter what you believe, Gohan Sòng is still a private citizen and security can’t target him for harassment.”
“Is that a joke? They target people for harassment all the time,” I said. “They just can’t do it to Gohan because he’s rich.”
“Whatever,” he mocked. “He doesn’t have to tolerate it, and he won’t. Alexei chose the church.”
“No one finds religion at nine without help,” I said. “And I’m telling you, if Dragan thinks you’re threatening his family, then you’re not going to like it.”
“Sounds like you’re the one making the threats.”
“It’s not a threat.”
“Look, my job is to deliver the envelope. Just open it, read whatever he wants you to read, and I can leave. Okay?”
I turned the envelope over in my hands. The calligraphy characters displayed the meaning of my name.
Little Star.
I detected a faint, sweet smell, and sniffed the paper. It had been perfumed.
“That isn’t creepy,” I muttered, but in spite of all the shit I’d just given the gonzo I had to admit to being a little curious. I tore the gold sticker, and opened the envelope that contained a single square card with no fold. Gohan had written on it in columns of little, precise characters.