footprints and such, like someone carried him out. Just no body.”
“Director Hightower got him,” Gunn said, real quiet-like, the same way he says everything.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “No doubt he ordered Thane to be collected, but the better bet is the Director in the Goodgrounds sent a crew.”
“Who’s there now?” Zenn asked, sliding me a paper across the table. I didn’t even look at it. I couldn’t stomach the sight of his neat handwriting, detailing the fifteen billion things I had to do in the next hour. Sure, he’d immediately taken his place as my second-in-command, but come on. A list every time I saw him? So unnecessary.
“Director Shumway,” Pace said. “A real piece of work.”
“No wonder Indy and her team were all busted up,” I said, more to myself than anyone else. I’d heard of Shumway, which meant he wasn’t exactly on my side. Or even close to crossing over.
“We’ll need the whole group for this,” Gunn said, pushing himself away from the table.
“Probably. But we can spare a few hours, I think.” My jaw popped with every word. I rubbed it but still heard the clicking when I said, “Let ’em sleep till five.”
“You got me up to say let’s wait until five?” Pace grumbled as he stood to leave. I should’ve felt annoyed, but all I could muster was a yawn.
I should’ve been more concerned, probably. The fact that Thane was MIA was about as bad as bad can get. Without him, all we had was Starr, and she spent most of her time in the Education Rise trying to gather intel without proper codes and clearances.
I thought briefly that losing Thane might actually be a good thing. I wasn’t even sure he was who Gunn said he was, and twelve years of hating someone doesn’t just evaporate. I’d ordered his location and pickup. That had to count for something. Too bad the bleeder wasn’t even there.
I cradled my head in my hands as Zenn left, huddled close with Gunn. My to-do list stared back at me from the table. The top item?
Which seriously needed to be done, but for the first time in a long time, I didn’t want to be the one to do it.
Under that, Zenn had written,
Hell to the no. I’d refused—over and over—to have my wrist ported up so I could see someone’s memories, or a vision-screen enhancement layered over my perfectly functioning sight. And getting an implant?
Never.
I didn’t want that tech up in my brain. No way did I want someone to be able to contact me at any time about anything. Or people to track my location just because I activated my cache to tell Vi she’s the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.
“I’d love to discuss the subject of implants, just so I can convince you that Zenn’s right about them,” Vi said, gently putting her hand on my elbow and helping me stand. “But first you need to sleep.”
“I’m fine.” I almost added “babe” like I used to. But Vi and I weren’t quite back to that level yet, even though we’d spent nearly every waking moment together for the past three weeks. She was still stuck in her whole Zenn- loves-me-and-has-saved-me-so-many-times loop. And our argument about Indy hadn’t been fully resolved yet.
“I’m fine.” Besides, I have the Resistance to run.
“You’re such a liar,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“Jag, let’s fly.”
I jerked awake, my heart beating a rapid rhythm in my chest. Gunn stood in my doorway, his fingers twitching in anticipation. “Cache convo with Starr.”
I moaned. Raked my fingers through my hair, which felt like wet straw. My eyelids scratched over my eyes. I needed more sleep—and a shower. “Time?” I asked as I pulled on my shoes.
“Five forty-one,” Gunn said. “Starr said six fifteen. I let you sleep as long as I could. Zenn’s filling everyone in about Thane and Indy.”
“Perfect,” I said, though it was anything but. I liked Zenn; I did. I just didn’t like him anywhere near Vi.
“Come on,” Gunn said. “She only has eleven minutes.” He left, and I scrambled after him, hoping we’d make it to the sector in time.
We didn’t. When we touched down near the southwest wall of Freedom, Starr only had seven minutes left. She stood beyond the towering wall, in the gap between it and the techtric barrier—the second and last defense keeping Freedom’s Citizens in and everyone else out.
When anything touched the barrier, an alarm shrieked. Enforcement Officers would then converge. The person who’d breached the wall usually didn’t make it past the barrier. The hundred-yard gap between the wall and the barrier made sure of that.
But Trek used his wicked tech skills to bring down sections of the wall, so Starr could get out for these little chats without detection.
Gunn and Starr each had a cache, a device implanted in their minds they could use to communicate mentally, even with the barrier between them. Everyone had a cache in Freedom—which was why I would never get one.
Starr had a limited number of minutes away from her duties inside the city, and she didn’t like it when we were late. She was also one of the smartest people I knew. She could get inside your head without even being in the same room.
Starr Messenger was true Thinker material. She’d been my contact in Freedom for almost three years. I’d only met her a handful of times, but I’d seen her face next to her reports—sent like clockwork every week. She liked organization and detailed lists and punctuality. So I didn’t have to use my empathic ability to figure out she was raging mad that we were late.
Not that I could hear her. Gunner didn’t speak out loud either. He just stood there, inches from the techtric barrier, gazing at Starr on the other side. At one point he raised his hand, and she lifted hers.
I felt the longing inside her. Guilt radiated from Gunn.
Until terror flowed from them both.
“What?” I asked Gunner. He didn’t answer, just took a step closer to the barrier. If he touched it, that alarm would go off.
“What?” I asked again, trying not to control him with my voice but frustrated I wasn’t included in the conversation.
I looked at Starr. Something fierce glistened in her eyes, making them shine like steel; power radiated from her shoulders. Yet fear kept the words silent. Well, that and the fact that I didn’t have implants to hear her with.
“What?” This time I gripped Gunn’s arm to get his attention.
“Director Hightower has Thane,” Gunn said in his unnervingly soft voice. “He’s using Raine to drain him. Tomorrow morning, eleven a.m.”
Zenn
4.
The day Vi tapped on my window changed everything. Well, if we’re gonna be all technical, and I guess we are, the window tapping happened at night.
Which was why she got busted.
She was only twelve years old. The infraction didn’t go on her Official Record, but it tattooed itself on my memory.
Vi shouldn’t have meant anything to me. I knew her because she lived six minutes away in the City of Water, and we were in the same year at school. But our relationship shouldn’t have progressed past us being two kids who were the same age.
I’d just turned thirteen, and I’d just returned from meeting Jag Barque in the Abandoned Area. I’d snuck in
