“What the hell was that?” he asked.
“What was what?”
“You jump on the guard?”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Run! I was creating a distraction so you could get away!”
“Both of you, shut up,” one of the guards warned.
“What’s the matter? No smart-ass comeback?” Vamp asked.
I shrugged.
“I should have known. I should have known that instead of getting away like a smart person, you’d dive right into the middle of an armed security—”
“Hey, I said be quiet,” the guard said. I felt my gut drop as the graviton emitters wound up and the vehicle sprang up into the air. Outside, a horn honked as we veered and then began to accelerate.
“If the table hadn’t slipped—” I started.
“Oh, yeah, if only the table hadn’t slipped. I had it under control.”
“Yeah, you had it totally under control.”
“It was under control.”
“Yeah, facedown on the floor with the goon squad Tasering your asshole….”
“Hey!” the guard barked, drawing his nightstick. That shut both of us up. When he had our attention, he pointed the end at me, then Vamp, then back to me.
“First off,” he said, “We have names. I have a goddamned name. It’s Li. Second, if both of you don’t shut up right now the hoods are going back on, and if that doesn’t work things are going to go downhill from there. You understand?”
“Can I ask where we’re going?” I asked.
“You cannot.”
“Sam, just can it,” Vamp said under his breath.
“You can it.”
“No, you can it. Shit, you just don’t know when to—”
“No, you can it!” I shoved his knee again with my foot and the guard banged his nightstick against the wall of the transport.
“That’s it!”
He grabbed the hoods and pulled one down over Vamp’s head, then the other over mine.
“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” I heard Vamp say.
I tried to call Dragan, but my 3i transmitter had been switched off. He’d know, though. I’m sure he’d be keeping a close eye on our warrant status. He’d do something. We just had to be cool.
“Hey,” one of them said. “It just came over the wire—looks like a security camera picked up the Pan-Slav kid over in Tai Po district, near Ping Xi.”
I perked up at that. Ping Xi… that meant he’d left Dao-Ming’s place and not too long ago. Where the hell was he going?
“They catch him yet?” someone else asked.
“No, but they’ll get him.”
“Where to first?” a voice crackled over the radio.
“Shangzho,” the man, Li, said. “They’ve got a team there ready to take this one back to Shiliuyuán. Then we’ll take the rest in.”
“Shangzho’s out of the way,” the voice crackled back.
“No shit. Just do it.”
“It’ll take an hour to process the paperwork,” the radio voice said.
“Listen to me,” Li said, keeping his voice low. “The haan want the maggot back. LeiFang says it’s a top priority, so that’s the situation. Take us to—”
The vehicle bucked suddenly, my gut dropping as we dipped in the air. Something thumped against us and I turned my head, but the hood had me in pitch darkness.
“What the hell was that?” Li spat.
The vehicle dipped again, as outside several horns began to blare. I felt us slow down, and then stop.
“Hey!” Li said, thumping his fist on the back of the hold. “What the hell’s going on up there?”
The vehicle dipped a third time as something boomed through the air outside. It sounded like thunder, almost, followed by the sizzle of a huge, far-off electrical arc. Li pounded the wall again.
“Talk to me!”
“…electrical disturbance,” the radio voice crackled through static.
“What?” There was more static as the sound outside swelled, turning from an angry buzz to a long, electric moan that made my hair stand on end.
“disturbance… lanes are cutting out… ’nother black…”
Something cracked outside so loud I jumped, and a second later all the icons in my 3i tray flickered from gray to pulsing pink.
The security field had just dropped. I pinged Vamp, and he picked up immediately.
Vamp, what the hell?
I’m on it.
The vehicle wobbled hard enough to toss me in the seat, and then the driver seemed like he decided to abandon the magnetic lane and just freestyle it. I sank into the chair as we shot up into the air amid the blaring of horns. The vehicle bucked, and I heard everyone stumble.
“Damn it, get back on the goddamned skyway!” Li yelled.
“The magnetic lanes are failing… bunch of goddamned idiot commuters are all on autonav and everyone’s drifting all over the goddamned place, it’s safer—”
Something clipped us, and I heard glass break as everyone got thrown.
Vamp, what’s happening?
It’s another partial blackout. The whole district’s dropping off. We’re going to lose—
All the icons went gray again as the 3i network went dark.
“…outage is localized…” The radio voice skipped. “…if I can make it to the gate…”
I managed to scoot my zip-tied wrists under my butt and in the confusion no one tried to stop me. I reached into my pocket as far as I could, looking for anything that might help. I didn’t have my pocket knife with me, but I did feel something metal, something vaguely sharp.
The restroom key, I realized. From that charging-station toilet. I’d never returned it.
It would have to do. I managed to slip it out, but knew I’d never get through the plastic tie with it. I decided to go for the hood instead, using the edge to poke through the canvas in front of my face.
Another crash boomed from somewhere below us, and an explosion of glass that faded as we peeled away from it. It sounded as though, with the field gone, one of the cars had drifted out of its lane and hit a building. I was jerked to one side as the transport stopped almost on a dime and then dropped suddenly as a horn wailed off into the distance above us.
“Damn it!” Li barked. One of the guards fell to the deck as the vehicle righted itself.
“Are you okay, sir?” someone asked.
“I’m fine, I…” He trailed off.
“Sir?”
“What in the hell…”
His voice had changed. The anger and frustration had gone out of it and he sounded almost awed.
“What is that thing?” he said.
“What thing?” another voice asked.
“There… out the back… in between the buildings…”
I managed to tear a small hole in the hood before I dropped the key and heard it skitter across the deck. Through the space, I saw officers crowded around the back window, looking out at something.
Then I heard a low rumble, something I almost heard in my head more than my ears. I could feel it in my chest a little, and as it changed in pitch something like several different whispers began to overlap. Through it all, a deliberate clicking sound began to trickle through that sent a shiver down my spine. On the far wall, I saw part of Nix’s shadow as it began to unravel into a shivering, writhing mass.
Li turned, and his face turned ashen.
“Holy—” he gasped, but then everyone began yelling at once and I sensed a lot of movement all around me. I struggled, trying to squirm my hands out of the zip tie but he’d tied it too tight. Even when I felt blood trickle down my palm I couldn’t get even one hand out.