“Hey, I’m on your side,” Kendi interrupted. “Look, let’s cut the tough street kid act. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them you flashed a knife at my balls, all right?”
Sejal grudgingly leaned back again.
“All I want to do is talk,” Kendi continued. “I have some questions.”
“Like what?” Sejal asked warily.
“Did you possess those cops in the alley? And the one in the hotel?”
Sejal’s blue eyes shifted. He didn’t answer.
Kendi sighed. The kid was distrustful, but probably with good reason. He glanced around. The booth afforded them a certain amount of privacy, and there weren’t any other patrons within hearing range.
“Look,” Kendi said, “I’m not a Unity guard or a spy or a slaver. My name is Kendi Weaver. I’m a Child of Irfan.”
“Who’s Irfan?” Sejal asked.
“We’re an order of monks.” Kendi met Sejal’s gaze square on, willing himself to look trustworthy and honest. “We find people who are Silent and we train them.”
A strange looked passed over Sejal’s face. “I’m not Silent. I was tested for it at birth.”
“Sejal, only the Silent can possess other people like-well, not like you do, but similar to the way you do.”
“I’m not Silent,” Sejal repeated stubbornly.
“Listen.” Kendi leaned forward. “Do you sometimes hear voices whispering at you? Voices you can’t quite hear?”
Sejal’s eyes went wide. “How did you know that?”
“When you dream at night, is it sometimes so real, you wake up and it feels like you’re still dreaming?”
“Yes,” Sejal almost whispered.
“You’re Silent.”
Sejal bit his lip. The shifty arrogance had left his face and he looked like a frightened twelve-year-old instead of a streetwise teenager. “The Unity ran tests when I was born. If I was Silent, I’d be a slave right now.”
Kendi held a hand out over the table. “Try this,” he said.
Looking even more bewildered than ever, Sejal took Kendi’s hand. A jolt banged through Kendi’s arm and crashed down his spine. Sejal gasped and yanked his hand away. Kendi sat stunned. A serving tray scuttled up to the booth and placed their drinks on the table. Both Sejal and Kendi ignored them.
“What the fuck?” Sejal said hoarsely.
Kendi shook his head. It felt as if every vertabra in his spine had fused for a split second. He had never felt a jolt that strong before.
“What the hell was that?” Sejal demanded.
Kendi cleared his throat. “The Silent touch,” he said. “It happens when you touch flesh-to-flesh with another Silent old enough to reach the Dream.”
“Every time?” Sejal asked, eyes wide.
“The first time,” Kendi clarified. “And once you touch another Silent, you’ll usually be able to find them when you’re both in the Dream.”
Sejal stared. “That’s being Silent? That and the voices?”
“That’s part of it,” Kendi said.
Sejal blinked hard and remained quiet for a moment. It took Kendi a second to realize that Sejal was holding back tears. Kendi’s chest welled with sympathy. Poor kid. His childhood had obviously been hard, he’d been selling himself on the street, and now Kendi was scaring the life out of him.
“Hey, it’s all right,” Kendi soothed. ”Being Silent is a gift. We can teach you-”
“It’s not that,” Sejal said in a thick voice. “I’m relieved. God, it’s a fucking relief.”
Now Kendi blinked. “A relief?”
“About six months ago,” Sejal said, swiping at his eyes with quick fingers, “I started hearing voices whispering in my head. Some days they got so loud I couldn’t even hear myself think. I couldn’t tell anyone-they’d think I was crazy. I thought I was. Now you pop up and tell me-show me-that I’m not.”
“You’re not crazy,” Kendi said with an emphatic nod. “But you are Silent.”
“So if I’m Silent,” Sejal emphasized the two words as if he were tasting them, “why didn’t I show up on the Unity gene scans?”
Kendi shook his head. “That I don’t know. It may be an old-fashioned mistake.”
“Maybe,” Sejal said dubiously. “So what do we do now?”
“Now we-”
“Kendi,” came Ben’s voice in his ear. “Kendi, are you there?”
Kendi held up a hand to Sejal. “I’m here,” he subvocalized. “What’s going on?”
“Trouble, ” Ben said. “You and Sejal are on a wanted list for the Unity guard.,”
“What? Shit!”
“Was there a raid on a hotel in the market?”
“Yeah. I almost got caught in it. Why?”
“One of the guards had a camera. Standard Unity procedure on a vice bust in case someone gets away-like you did. Your and Sejal’s pictures are on the nets. You’re wanted for unlawful solicitation, breaking and entering, malicious destruction of property, assault of a guard officer, and resisting arrest.”
“What’s going on?” Sejal asked. “Who are you talking to?”
“We’ve got to get moving,” Kendi said, rising and throwing a kesh on the table for the untouched drinks. “The Unity’s looking for us.”
Without a word, Sejal followed Kendi out of the restaurant. Kendi eeled through the crowd outside, trying to glance in all directions at once. Every muscle was taut with tension. The crowd, however, seemed content to ignore them. If anyone recognized them as fleeing felons, no one gave any indication. Kendi refused to relax. The general populace may not be up on the latest wanted pictures from the guard, but the guard itself was, and the guard would have ocular implants just like Kendi’s that would alert them if any wanted criminals passed through their line of sight.
“Where are we going?” Sejal asked.
“Kendi, what are you doing?” Ben asked almost simultaneously.
“I’m heading for the ship,” Kendi replied to them both.
“He what?” Ara screeched.
“He interfered in a Unity raid,” Ben replied calmly. “Kendi got Sejal out of there before they would have been arrested.”
“That idiot,” Ara fumed, nearly knocking her coffee cup off the console in her quarters. Ben stood in the doorway.
“Idiot?” Ben echoed, confused. “Kendi saved Sejal from the guard.”
“And caused us a hell of a lot of trouble.” Ara closed her eyes, trying to bring her temper under control. Once, just once, she wished Kendi would think before he acted.
“I don’t see how-”
“If the Unity had arrested Sejal,” Ara said in a level voice, “we could have bailed him out. Sejal would be grateful. Vidya would be grateful. Sejal would want to come with us. Everybody wins. Now they’re both wanted and we’re in up to our necks.”
“Well, in any case, he’s headed back here with Sejal.”
Ara bolted to her feet, and this time the coffee cup went crashing to the floor. “He’s what? Shit! Ben, get on the transmitter and tell him to stay the hell away. Go! Hurry!”
Ben fled. Ara rushed into the corridor behind him, pulling her purple trader’s tunic over her clothes as she went.
“Peggy-Sue,” Ara barked, “open intercom channel to Brother Pitr. Pitr, grab two sets of slave shackles and two brother’s robes. Meet me down at the main hatchway on the double! Move!”
“All right, Mother,” Pitr’s voice said. “But what-”
“Peggy-Sue,” Ara interrupted, “close channel and open intercom to Harenn Mashib. Harenn, emergency. Meet me down at the main hatchway with a medical kit, and I mean yesterday!”
