Xiao-Xing Shao,
I wish to invite you as my special guest to the new haan colony of Xinzhongzi in anticipation of its grand opening. There is an important matter I would like very much to discuss with you, and so I sincerely hope you will consider my invitation in spite of any issues I may have had with your family in the past. I look forward to your reply.
All the best,
Gohan Sòng.
“Unreal,” I said. I used my phone to scan the coded seal he’d stamped in the corner, then texted the number that it pulled.
Eat me.
I slipped the card back in its envelope and flicked it at the gonzo, who recoiled as it bounced off his chest. Twenty people dive bomb onto the street right outside the gate just last night, and he wants to invite me to the illegal colony’s “grand opening”?
“Fine,” I said. “You delivered it. Now beat it.”
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he removed it. The screen lit up and he read something there, and then he put the phone away again. He looked to his left, then whistled with his finger and thumb.
As soon as he did, the doors of a vehicle parked nearby sprang open and two more men in robes got out. They started heading toward me.
“What the hell is this?” I asked.
When I turned back, the gonzo by the shrine grabbed my shirt and pulled me off balance. I almost fell to the sidewalk, but managed to get my legs back under me as he continued to pull.
“Hey!”
My shirt got hiked up under my tits as I got spun around and fell back, my heels dragging fast on the pavement. In seconds the mouth of the alley had fallen away in front of me, along with anyone who might be able to help me.
“Let go!” I screamed, trying to twist around as the two other gonzos entered the alley and ran to join the first. The guy who had me was strong, far too strong for me to stop. He whipped me around, and then shoved me away toward the brick wall next to a big trash bin.
“Wait,” I said, holding up my hands. “Just wait…”
The gonzo from the shrine hit me in the side and knocked the breath out of me. I fell down onto one knee, and when I tried to suck in air a sharp pain jabbed into my ribs. Before I could recover, a cloth bag came down over my head.
“Just hold on,” I said, blood leaking from my nose. “You don’t have to do this….”
“We tried it the easy way,” I heard the man say. “You had your chance.”
He tightened the bag around my neck so tight that I choked, and spots swam in the darkness as I struggled to draw a breath. One of them kicked the back of my knees and sent me crashing down onto the ground.
“Sorry,” a voice said into my ear through the bag. “But he wants you there for Rapture, one way or the other.”
“Hey!” A man’s voice shouted from back toward the street. “Hey, let her go!”
The pulling stopped for a moment, as the people around me hesitated. I sensed they weren’t sure what to do.
“Security!” the man yelled. “I said let her go!”
Boots tromped on the pavement as someone began to approach. The man who held me dropped his guard, and loosened his grip. When he did, I got up and barreled into him, blind, with one shoulder.
He stumbled back. He didn’t fall, but with a witness approaching the three decided they’d better get lost. They took off down the alley, and I pulled the bag off. There were two officers. One flew past me and took off after the gonzos, while the other stopped in front of me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
He looked at my face, holding my chin and angling it toward the light.
“You don’t look okay.”
“They didn’t do that,” I told him. “It happened last night.”
He raised his eyebrows, amused. “Sounds like this isn’t your week.”
“Tell me about it.”
I handed him the cloth bag and he took it.
“You want to make a statement?” he asked.
“No,” I said. The guys were long gone. “My father’s in security, too. I’ll call him.”
The officer nodded. “If you’re sure.”
“If your buddy catches them, though, I’d like to know.”
“Will do.”
“This is my apartment right here. I’ll be fine. Thanks.”
He nodded, and headed off after his partner.
I leaned against the concrete wall for a minute, to catch my breath. The pink envelope sat on the pavement near the alleyway with its corner in a puddle and a boot print squashed over it.
When I had my wind back, I limped back toward the street. As I went, I took my phone out and texted Gohan’s number again.
Nice try, asshole. Next time come after me yourself.
I headed up the stairs and into the building. When I got halfway to the elevators, my phone buzzed. I checked it, and saw my message had gotten a response.
Next time, it said, perhaps I will.
Chapter Seven
Snow drifted down around me as I knelt on a patch of cold pavement, watching the flakes melt as they touched down. I heard footsteps approaching, and looked up to see a pair of pink, glowing eyes approaching from out of the fog. His suit jacket fluttered behind him as the wind blew and sent snow swirling down a broken street flanked by abandoned buildings.
He walked right up to me, and then knelt down to join me on the ground.
“Hello, Sam.”
He’d eaten recently, I could feel the heat still coming off from him.
“You’re warm,” I told him. “Come closer.”
He did, taking some of the chill away.
“I’ve been looking for you,” he said. “I need to find you, soon.”
“I moved,” I told him. “I live in Chenngong complex now. Or you could find me up on Ginzho tower. I still wash windows there.”
“Maybe I will do that.”
I remembered how his 3i icon had turned red the other day, and how it made my heart jump. My throat tightened. “Are you really still alive?”
“I am looking for you.”
“Are you alive? I thought I saw your 3i contact go active the other night but I’m not sure. I hope…”
“Something terrible…”
“…is going to happen,” I finished with him. “I know. You told me. What? Who causes it?”
“You plan to bring down the power grid.” he said. I jumped, a little, in surprise.
“How do you know about that?”
“That could be very dangerous.”
“I know that.” My voice had begun to shake. “But they’re everywhere, Nix. I…”
Over the past week or so, the flashes, or hallucinations, or whatever they were had gotten even worse. The strange movements seemed to appear in the corners of my eyes at every turn. I’d become afraid to use the eyebot app, for fear of what I’d see.
“I can’t be afraid anymore,” I told him. “I have to do something—I have to.”
“I have knowledge you don’t,” Nix said. “My people have constructed a second—”
The snow stopped falling suddenly, and Nix froze. Static crackled, and a voice cut in.
“…if you should receive this message, we are going to attempt a surgical strike. Bring down the force field if you can. Should the force field fail we are prepared with…”
The snow began to fall again. Nix lowered his head, looking down at my hands.
“A second what?” I asked him, but he seemed to have forgotten about whatever he’d been saying.
“You have beautiful hands,” he said instead.
“Nix, you were saying something. The haan developed a second… what?”
I followed his gaze down and saw my right hand adorned with a sleek black opera glove that hadn’t been there before. In my palm, a dead scalefly lay with its hooked legs sticking up.