I threw the cigarette butt on the ground. Okay, so none of that would happen. But I’d ridden the rail all the way from the shitty Back 40 part of town to the ritzy Hightower part of town, so I might as well go into the expo.
It was crowded. Too crowded. I got my badge and shoved shoulder through the mass of bodies to get to the expo floor. It took up the space of ten hurlball courts. A hanging gondola dangled at the ready if you wanted to quickly get from one side of the floor to the other. I wasn’t looking for anything specific, though, so I just wandered.
I was in front of a booth showing a new toilet robot when I saw her. Myka Benton. She walked confidently across the floor of the expo, placid smile on her face, as always. She stopped when she reached me. “Ms. Henderson. How wonderful to run into you.”
Myka was henchman to Adela Glezos, regional VP of Cadinoff Corporation—the ultimate Core corporation. Glezos headed up Cadinoff’s business in this slice of the Outer Core. We’d all had a run-in about a year ago when Glezos had tried to rope me into designing some exclusive model for Cadinoff. Since then, Myka had had a habit of popping up with that mindless smile, always reminding me that Glezos still wanted me. Of course she’d show up at the expo.
“What is it this time, then?”
“I’m sorry?”
“What’s your boss want?” I enunciated around the smoke in my mouth.
Myka’s off-putting smile widened. “You do know that Cadinoff Corp has a booth here at the expo? Not everything is about you, Ms. Henderson.”
Except when it was.
It was a shame. If it weren’t for her employer, Myka would be pretty. Shorter than me by a head, she had light brown skin and curly ringlets that fell around her face. I’d never seen an authentic smile on her, but I imagined it would look nice. She had dimples along with bright brown eyes. Of course, being at the beck and call of Glezos, she was outfitted in some overpriced professional assemblage with a collared coat and a pressed skirt that ended at her knees, complete with ridiculous heels.
I turned back to the toilet robot. It was a robot for when you were on the toilet. Like a bidet but more visionary, according to the manufacturer. Myka joined my side as if we were attending this expo together. “Of course, none of this is really cutting edge,” she said. “It’s all been in development for years. We’ve known about it.”
“So why are you here, then? Is Glezos making you work the booth?”
She laughed a soulless laugh. “No, of course not. I’m here for the night expo.”
“Night expo?” I thought this thing ran till 6:00 PM.
“You don’t know?”
Here it was. “Okay, fill me in. Dangle your info. Go ahead.”
Her smile never broke. “If you want the interesting stuff, you have to attend the night expo. Did you get an invite?”
My invite was only for the day. This secret night expo had to be some Cadinoff bullshit. I blew smoke into her face. “Let me guess. You can get me in? As a favor, of course.”
“Why, since you bring it up…”
“Can we pretend that the world you live in is straightforward and people just say what they want plainly without a bunch of mind games?” I spoke slowly. “Why do you want me at this ‘night expo’?”
She gave me a knowing look before casually turning away. “The question is why you want to go to the night expo. I’ve heard you have a Model 280 you’ve been kicking at for a bit now.”
Of course she knew about the details of my day to day. I expected Glezos had my entire place bugged. Cadinoff probably charted my bowel movements on a spreadsheet. I should refuse to take the bait just on principle.
But I had to admit, that was a nice-looking carrot she was dangling. Maybe there was something to this night expo thing.
“Okay, how will the night expo help with the Model 280?”
She watched the amorphous crowd streaming past. “You’re not going to get it working with the tools you have now. The fuel flow is damaged, and the company that made the replacement parts for it folded during the war.”
“Yeah, thanks. I figured that out on my own. I’m an engineer, you know.”
“But,” she said. “Tonight there’s a new company offering up universal parts that promises to restore some of these old junkers. It could get your Model 280 going.”
I could see the appeal for a company to fill a market there. Plenty of space scrap around that really didn’t have to be junked. Still, “So why wouldn’t I wait for this shit to come to market? I don’t need to go to some night expo for that.”
Myka’s facial expression shifted. Same smile, but her eyes changed. Usually her expression was friendly but neutral. Suddenly, it was just friendly. It was only there for a moment before she went back to her corporate mask, and I couldn’t say if I was imagining the whole thing.
“Cadinoff is buying out the company next week,” Myka said.
“Huh?”
“The plan is to keep the manufacturing and patents under the Cadinoff brand so that Cadinoff becomes the monopoly supplier of vintage engine parts.”
“I don’t buy shit from Cadinoff.”
“I know,” Myka said. “So you might want to buy it from
