“It won’t have to.”
Outside, someone began clambering up the ladder toward our unit as I found the gate remote. I triggered the holodisplay and selected the endpoint for the black hole drop, then aimed it toward the back wall of the tube and pushed the button.
A white point of light appeared, which dilated out into a circle. On the other side, I saw only darkness.
“Come on,” I said, pointing. “In.”
Nix slipped through. When he did, I saw electric light flicker on from above as he triggered a motion sensor. He stepped away out of view on the other side, and I stuck my own legs through.
Someone tried to open the tube door, but it jammed against the magnetic bolt. A fist thumped on the other side, and a man’s muffled voice came through.
“Give it up,” he barked. “You’re trapped. Open the damned—”
I grabbed the bag of rations off of the mattress and jumped through the gate. After a short hitch, I came out onto the factory floor. I turned back as the gate collapsed, and saw a metal pry forced under the door seam just before the portal shrank to a point of light, then faded.
Chapter Seventeen
“Shit,” I breathed. I took out my phone and pulled up the flashlight app. In the dim light, my eyes began to adjust and I looked around. I laughed a little. “Holy shit, it worked.”
“Where are we?” Nix asked, looking down the row of rusted machines.
“Out in the rim somewhere,” I told him. “It’s where I hide things.”
He nodded, not asking for any further explanation. “How do we get out?”
“This way.”
I led him back to the green door, past the box I’d stashed, and squeezed through the gap. He followed, slipping into the corridor in a single, fluid motion while I retrieved the twistkey from my tablet.
“Let me go first,” I told him. “Security is probably watching the place from the outside to see if I come back, but they could have someone waiting inside.”
I put the key in the gate’s socket and turned it. The concrete wall shimmered, and then disappeared to reveal the inside of my closet. My stuff had been disturbed, a shoebox of pictures dumped out onto the floor and my duffel bag emptied, but it didn’t look like they’d found the gate. I pushed the hanging clothes aside and crept through, moving into the closet and then stopping with my ear toward the door. I didn’t hear anyone on the other side.
I turned the knob, and opened the door a crack so I could peek in. I didn’t see anyone. The apartment sounded empty.
“Okay,” I whispered back to Nix. “Come on.”
I opened the door and stepped into my bedroom. As Nix came in behind me, I crossed to the opposite door and tiptoed out into the hall to check the other rooms.
“We’re alone,” I told him. “For now. Come on, over here.”
I patted the sofa, and Nix shambled over, his hunger pangs seeming to grow worse by the second. He dropped down onto it, sounding heavier than he looked.
“Lie down,” I told him, crouching beside him so I could ease him onto his back. When he’d gotten comfortable, I removed one of the rations from the bag.
Has anyone seen or heard from Alexei? I sent out over the 3i. I had him with me in Baishan Park last night, but he ditched some time before I woke up.
Nothing, Vamp sent back. Sorry. I can scan the eyebot data and look for any hits on him.
I haven’t heard from him, Dragan said. How long’s he been gone?
I’m not sure what time of night he bailed, but—
He’s with me, Dao-Ming sent.
Dragan, I asked, can you pick him up? Or should I—
I think this is the safest place for him, Dao-Ming said. For the time being.
They’ve got me stationed in Xinzhongzi, Dragan said. Dao-Ming can watch him.
I didn’t say anything. There wasn’t much I could say without spilling everything. I didn’t like the idea of Alexei being with Dao-Ming anymore, but at least he was off the street. Whatever else she might be, she wouldn’t let anything happen to him.
Is that okay? Dragan asked.
Yeah, I said. Of course. Thanks, Dao-Ming.
You’re very welcome, Sam.
I disconnected.
“It appears that security has found you out,” Nix said, watching me from the sofa. “You should stop what you’re doing.”
“Quiet,” I told him, tearing the ration’s wrapper.
“Sam, you—”
“Come on, Little Demon, eat.”
I propped up his head, and aimed the ration toward his mouth. The lower part of his face dissolved into smoke, and I felt it connect with the feeding tube. A rush of pleasure, and relief flooded in through the cluster as Nix devoured the bar in seconds. I grabbed a second, and fed him that one as well. He ate the second, and then a third before I felt him relax. As the nutrients flooded through his body, I felt his aches and pains begin to leave him. The hollowness in him filled, and his strength began to return. I stroked his forehead, which had begun to grow warm under my fingertips.
“This feels familiar,” I said.
“Yes.”
I sighed, putting one hand to his cheek.
“I should be afraid to even touch you,” I told him.
“Your brain is hardwired to recognize faces. You interpret the face you can see, not the one you can’t, and my face has already formed an association in your mind that you cannot help.”
“But I know it isn’t true. In my mind, I know it isn’t true.”
“You know it as an abstract concept. Your brain is wired to believe the sensory input it receives.”
“Are we so easy to fool?”
“Your brains are very well adapted for your world, but they contain many exploits.”
“Exploits,” I said, annoyed. “So I’m right then. It really is all a lie.”
Nix considered that. The three pupils in each of his eyes revolved slowly in the pink light.
“Your race is very visual,” he said. “You are programmed, from an evolutionary standpoint, to react to things outside your experience. To become alarmed by them, to a degree we didn’t initially understand. When we realized the extent of it, we knew your people would have to be eased into accepting us as we are.”
“It’s been over fifty years. Give us some credit.”
He put his hand on mine. His delicate fingers curled around them, warming them.
“Please,” he said. “Consider what you’re doing.”
“I have.”
“The haan from the park—”
“Used to be human.” Nix didn’t answer. “Didn’t she?”
“In the ways that matter, she still is.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Nix. Sillith’s virus changed her, right?”
“Yes.”
“Her and how many others?”
He didn’t answer that.
“Nix, are they eating us?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think you do.”
“Sam, she knows,” he said, changing the subject. “And if she knows, then others will know. There will be more. Once she learns to utilize the scalefly memory transfer efficiently, all haan will know.”
“Then we’d better move fast.”
“Revealing the truth now will cause pain, and upheaval.”
“Working through things does, sometimes.”
“But—”
“Nix, you won’t talk me out of this. No more secrets. At this point, I’m thinking that if we can’t figure this thing out with all the cards on the table, then it’s because our interests don’t line up.”