Sam?
I perked up as Alexei’s heart icon pulsed. It had turned from gray back to red, and right then it felt to me like a flat line had just blipped. He might be hurt, may be hurt bad, but he was alive.
“Alexei!” Dragan shouted, his voice rising over the din as the first siren chirped from somewhere up above us.
“I got him,” I called back. I looked around, trying to spot where he may be.
“Where?”
“I’m not sure. Close, though. He’s alive.”
I couldn’t see him in the crowd but he couldn’t be far. I used the 3i’s locater to home in on him, and a spot on the map flashed from somewhere just across the street.
The siren chirped again and I looked up to see the underbellies of aircars slowing down in the skylane to get a better look. Sun shone down between them, where another dark shape moved into view, making a tight circle. The vehicles overhead began to part carefully, sneaking past one another to let the security vehicle descend down to the street. As it lowered through the hole, two more cruisers darted out from between the buildings to join it.
I waved to Dragan, tapping my forehead with one finger. He saw it, and on the 3i his heart icon turned from gray to red.
I got him, I told him. You take care of this. I’ll bring him to my place.
He—
He’s a Pan-Slav; you don’t want him to get sucked into this.
Dragan paused, then nodded as the first security ship came down, heat ripples pouring off the undercarriage as the coolant pumps whined to keep up. People in the crowded street began to shield their faces as the graviton emitters kicked up dead flies and bits of debris, sending them swirling on a huff of warm air.
After a moment, Dragan tossed something to me and I caught it. It was his security twistkey.
There’s a security gate one block over, he said, pointing. Get him out of here.
I nodded and crossed the street to the smoke shop on the other side. There were people crowded around the door and window but they stepped back to let me in when I approached. Inside people were talking to each other in hushed voices, some of them crying while a TV set displayed an overhead view of the scene outside.
I turned away, moving farther into the shop down one of the aisles where cartons of tightly packed cigars were displayed in and among exotic additives, powders, herbs, and oils. A soft, shuddering breath came from up ahead.
When I got to the end of the aisle, I saw Alexei sitting on the floor. He had his back to the wall, hugging his knees with tears in his eyes.
“Hey,” I said. He didn’t look up. I thought he might be in shock.
I walked over and knelt down next to him, then took him by one arm and pulled him toward me. He resisted at first, but then leaned over and put his head to my chest.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“You’re okay,” I told him.
“I’m sorry.”
He let out a pent-up breath, sagging farther into my arms, and I felt him shake. I hugged him, looking him over as I stroked his hair. There wasn’t a scratch on him. He couldn’t have been there when the bomb went off, even though he’d been standing with the other gonzos only a minute before.
“How did you—”
“I was on my way over here,” he said. “I was going to get gum for you… the kind that helps you stop smoking. I didn’t mean what I said….”
Back outside the first security ship landed with a heavy thud, and I peeked down the aisle out the shop window in time to see its doors spring open and four officers step out. Dragan joined them and they started to secure the perimeter.
“I know,” I said, and hugged him a little tighter. “Me neither. You just dodged a bullet, kid.”
“I never got the gum.”
“That’s okay.”
“Is Gohan dead?” he asked.
Anger flared, but I just sighed, and stroked his hair.
“I don’t think so.”
As I watched the guards, Vamp’s app bubbled up again. It locked on to each officer’s security transponder, then captured their faces and ID numbers. Eyebot had them flagged as toughs with records of violence. They meant the first response to crack down hard.
“Come on,” I told Alexei, standing up and helping him to his feet. “They’re going to lock this place down; we have to get out of here.”
Alexei nodded, still looking down at the floor. Back outside, I saw one of the officers pointing toward the shop while another got on his phone.
“Is there a back way out of here?” I called over to the woman behind the counter. She pointed, and I took Alexei’s hand. “Come on.”
I led him along after me, heading toward the back of the store and through a door that led to an alley outside.
Back on the street, people had seen the writing on the wall and made themselves scarce as the security perimeter closed in. Eyebot’s data, compiled from the thousands of eyes who ran the app, showed security troops in a net that covered several blocks around the blast site. They’d already closed it, and were moving in fast. None of the people running was going to get through. The only way out would be the security gate.
Someone shoved past us and bolted down the sidewalk as we came out of the alley. I spotted the security gate off to my right and pulled Alexei’s sleeve.
“This way.”
He trailed after me as I made a fast clip toward the set of concrete steps at the street corner. We climbed down to the landing, a graffiti-covered cinder-block box where the metal gate frame was mounted. More people stormed past on the sidewalk above us as I took Dragan’s twistkey and slipped it into the frame’s socket. When I turned it, the air in front of the concrete wall shimmered, and was suddenly replaced by what looked like the inside of an office. A woman in a pantsuit who was standing near the gate when it opened nearly jumped out of her skin and dropped her electronic tablet down onto the tiled floor in front of her with a crash.
I turned the key again, then again until the doorway looked out onto a street I recognized. It was off in Jangbong somewhere, far away from all of this.
“There,” I said. “Come on, let’s go—”
A man came barreling down the steps toward us, with several others close behind him. They’d seen that the gate was open and that they had a way to duck the security net. The man clipped me with his shoulder and spun me into the wall as he ran through. The others didn’t slow down as they closed in.
I grabbed Alexei around the waist, turned, and dragged him through the portal with me. There was that moment, that strange feeling of stepping into deep, dark water that froze us both in place. I could feel Alexei next to me, a solid, living presence, but for that instant he was as still as a statue.
As suddenly as it started, it ended and my foot came down on the pavement halfway across Hangfei. As soon as I felt solid ground again I grabbed Alexei and hauled him out of the way, taking refuge against the wall to our right as the people behind us stormed through. Two more made it before the gate’s timer wound down and the field collapsed. The chaos of Render’s Strip disappeared from the doorway, replaced by a cinder-block wall.
I got to my feet. We’d managed to get away, and the sooner I could get us back to my place the better, but I found myself just standing there, staring down the neon-lit streets.
“Sam?” Alexei asked.
Dao-Ming, I sent over the 3i. Her little heart pulsed in the tray, lit up red, but she didn’t answer.
“Sam?”
Just tell me, I sent. Did you have anything to do with this?
“…blood will come next.” That’s what she’d said.