looked beyond Adelaide. The green lights he’d seen before illuminated the ring-net’s path. It curved away as far as he could see, cutting through the ocean until it was lost in the distance.
“Quite colossal, isn’t it?” Adelaide cried. “Keeps out the sharks.”
“Not always,” he yelled back. Adelaide nudged her Dolphin the short distance to him, and took hold of his handlebars once again. They rose and fell together on the waves.
“What?”
Beneath the goggles her face was pink and glowing.
“I said not always,” he repeated. “I saw sharks when I was underwater.”
Her mouth opened dramatically.
“Big ones?”
“Big enough.”
He felt a sense of menace, knowing what was on the other side of the net, and yet knowing nothing at the same time. The significance of the net overwhelmed him. Even here, in the middle of the ocean, with as much space around him as he could have desired, he was both locked in and locked out.
“If anything got through the net now we wouldn’t know anyway. Not since the alarm system broke.”
Vikram stared at the interlocking chains.
“It doesn’t work?”
“Hasn’t for years. My grandfather told me. Can’t even zap a shark.”
She pushed a button on his handlebars, then on hers. The Dolphins turned luminous. Against the brightness, the rest of the sea turned black. He realized it was already nearing dusk, and he was cold.
“You’ve not looked back,” Adelaide said. “Axel never looked back. Always out there, beyond the net.”
“You came out here together?”
“We did everything together.”
She was looking past him, back the other way. He spun the Dolphin around. With the onset of dusk it was difficult to distinguish the outlines of the towers; he saw only a geometric construction of light. Osiris a blazing star in the crepuscular ocean. If anyone had been left to find us, he thought, it wouldn’t have been hard.
“Have you ever gone past the ring-net?” he asked Adelaide. She did not respond, gazing at the City with an intensity that was uncanny. He repeated his question. He thought she hadn’t heard, but as she gunned her Dolphin into life she yelled, “There’s nothing out there.”
They sped back across no-man’s-land. He felt the gridlock of the City pulling him in. Adelaide poised rigidly on her bike, her head pushing forward. He saw huge waves breaking against her bike, and prepared himself for the same impact. It never came. It took him a few seconds to realize she must be deliberately colliding with the swells. At the same time he realized she had speeded up.
They were approaching the harbour. Vikram accelerated. His bike skimmed the sea like a petrel, almost flying now. Adelaide remained ahead. He could see the gateway from where they had ridden out before, the two ships pointed towards one another. The gap seemed narrower, and she was travelling far faster, hurtling at impossible speed, plunging her bike nose first, leaping up again, almost invisible behind a mask of spray.
“Adelaide!” he shouted.
She shot across the final stretch of water.
The bike and the hull smashed together. She was a bolt of green through the air-his own bike was charging forward, some part of his brain telling him to slow down and she was falling, almost gracefully. She was face down in the water. She didn’t move.
The waves raised her and lowered her, and her body bumped once against the ship’s side.
Vikram surged his bike forward. His heartbeat trebled in his chest. He leaned into the water and grabbed her arm, pulled her almost viciously towards him. Her body was cold and awkward. Not again, not Adelaide too. The suit, he told himself, it’s just the suit, she’s warm inside it. Please, not Adelaide too. The bike tipped as he hauled her up, both arms around her. Stars, if she was dead they would never believe he hadn’t killed her. He pressed his hands beneath her ribs and jerked, once, twice. They’d drown him the way they’d drowned Eirik. Please breathe. Her chest heaved and her mouth opened and water poured out. She gasped, choked, spat. Spasms racked her body.
He pushed her goggles up. Her eyes wheeled crazily, then settled on his face. She tried to say something. It might have been “A.”
“Adelaide,” he said weakly.
“I’m okay,” she rasped. “I’m fine.” She glared up at him. “I’m fine!”
Relief gave way to anger in a blink.
“Your bike fucking isn’t, though, is it?”
The Dolphin floated listlessly on its side, handles twisted. Its light had gone out.
“What the fuck were you doing?” he shouted.
Adelaide’s head was shaking. He was clasping her so tightly she could barely move. Her body was shaking too and he felt each tremor hard against his ribs.
“Let me go.” Her teeth chattered.
“You’re going to have to ride back on my bike.”
“It’s not your bike,” she said. “It’s Axel’s.”
He wanted to hit her. He looked around him and saw the waves slapping against the ships. Seagulls rose from their perches to circle overhead. Adelaide gasped as the birds came into her line of sight.
“We have to get back,” he said. “Can you climb on behind me?”
She hauled herself up, wrapped her arms around his waist. One of the birds dove low and she screamed and lashed out at it.
“Leave it alone!”
“I hate them.”
“It’s not going to hurt you.”
He nudged the bike across to the other Dolphin and tried to start it but they both knew that it was futile.
“The speedboat can pick it up,” she said.
But a storm was coming in and they knew that as well. Vikram did not respond. If he opened his mouth he would say unforgivable things. He wove back through the harbour with grim determination. When they reached the pier the man in the speedboat gave a shout of mingled relief and alarm.
“What happened to the other bike?”
“It broke,” said Adelaide shortly. They climbed into the speedboat stern, shivering. The boat took off at once. Incoming hail chased them all the way back, sweeping across the ocean and the harbour before it slammed into the walls of the pyramids. The deluge caught them moments before they banged to a halt against the first decking they found. Adelaide leapt out and darted inside. Storm sirens began a wailing crescendo. The boatman cursed as he secured the craft with fingers already deadened by the cold, Vikram straining to hold the boat steady. Hailstones whipped against them. The decking was treacherous with ice, and they almost slipped running inside. Vikram heaved the doors shut.
The sirens ceased. The door sealed with a soft hiss. Vikram listened to the barrage, gasping for breath, praying that none of his friends were outside.
They were on an empty floor. Lifts and stairs ran up the back of the tower, a couple of flat trolleys were parked by the lift. Faint sounds of machinery, the lifts and other workings, filtered down the building.
“We’ll have to wait it out,” said the boatman. His voice echoed in the open space. “Unless you two want to hop on a shuttle line?”
Vikram glanced down at the puddle forming around his feet. A watery trail crossed the concrete floor to the other side of the tower, where Adelaide sat on the first steps of the stairwell, arms wrapped around her knees. Her eyes were cloudy.
“We’ll wait,” he said. “Where are we, anyway?”
“Probably some kind of storage place,” said the boatman.
Vikram slumped against the wall. It was warm compared to outside, but Adelaide should get dry or she’d catch hypothermia. She didn’t look like she wanted to move though, and he told himself it was her own stupid fault. Nils had been right about her.
