summer. One morning I stood on a rusty fire escape ladder just above a flooded street with the tide coming in and waited for Caravaggio’s signal. He and the camera crew were on the roof of the next building.
Three times I’d climbed four stories to the roof of this burned-out factory building where
Dare was angry at what I was doing, but she tested the ladder herself and cleaned every rung before she’d let me go near it. After each take I got dowsed in purified water. The long T-shirt and shorts clung to me; my hair was wet and flat on my head.
All my life, pimps, militias, and gangs were on the prowl. A lot of any kid’s life in this city is not getting noticed. Now I’d given that up to bring in money.
Earlier in the morning, before the shoot, we went up to the UN clinic in the big temporary building that’s been standing ever since I can remember in the empty space people call Times Square.
Everyone in line was tense but nobody knew anything. Dare told the medicos what we needed. The Indian guy at the counter gave us double orders of salves, lotions, water purifier pills. “Just in case,” he said, but didn’t know much either.
I was thinking about that when someone said, “Action!” Just like before, I grabbed the handrails, held my breath, shut my eyes, ducked under the water, jumped out like I’d just swum there, and ran up the ladder to the roof.
Caravaggio was slumped in a chair but he raised his head and said, “Great!” I knew what was great was me coming out of the poison muck. For my crew I was doing stuff I didn’t know I could do. Up on the roof Dare led me behind a blanket in the shade, got my clothes off, doused me in clean water and oil, and put me in a robe.
Mai Kin stood maybe thirty feet away under a metal awning, surrounded by guys in protective gear. Her character,
The actor who plays Anselm spent most of his time coming on to Rock. The other boys were jealous.
The episodes always take place in danger spots like New York. Mai Kin and company go in and shoot for a few days when it’s quiet, then get out and finish the thing somewhere safe. There’s always some other guy Astasia gets involved with before going back to Anselm. But that would get shot somewhere else.
Fighter planes streaked over the city. Mai Kin glanced up, then looked at one of her handlers. His head-shake was so slight as to be invisible. Looking away, I went inside him; found he was getting news every couple of minutes. The UN had Liberty Land and Northeast Command negotiating.
Mai Kin wore a silk robe decorated with pictures of the planets. Dare said that up close she looked old and mean and way over twenty. Mai Kin was wired like most tourists, spoke into an implant in her left hand, and shook her head at something she heard. She never spoke to me or smiled, but never took her eyes off me.
I didn’t have to get in her head to know that she hated me for looking like I did, for being alive in the same world she was. She slipped out of her robe and, wearing clothes identical to mine, walked to the spot where I’d come off the ladder onto the roof. Shooting her, Tagalong said, was like filming a robot.
When the light was gone and shooting stopped, we headed home, moved fast in the moonlight. Rock had disappeared.
“Making it with that actor tourist—that whore,” Not said. Dare was pissed but sorry to lose him.
Not far from our place there was an explosion up ahead. We’d heard enough of them to know this was small, a grenade, not a bomb. We sped up and I tried to scan, to find Lott and see through his eyes, but I couldn’t.
Turning the corner we saw our lair with the locks and bars and door all blown off. Smoke drifted out. “Lott!” Dare yelled.
Regalia came out the door with a couple of her crew. She had an AK474 knockoff. The Peacekeepers would have shot her for carrying it, which meant they weren’t around. She leveled it at us and said, “Drop whatever you got—weapons, money—and you won’t get hurt.”
Dare held our gold. She stared back at Regalia and didn’t move. I went into Regalia’s head. The first thing I saw was all of us standing, eyes wide staring at her. She thought that was funny because she was about to shoot us down one by one. For her the sight of Lott’s bloody corpse was funny.
Her trigger finger twitched. I found her right arm and jerked the AK474 up. A burst went into the air.
She tried to get control of her hands. I yanked her to the side, fired a burst at her crew. One went down screaming; the other backed off. A couple more came out the door of our lair. I turned her their way, fired again, caught one in the face. Then the gun jammed.
I found Regalia’s heart and lungs, tried to tear them out of her body. Her eyes bulged. I moved her legs, ran her to the side of the building, and made her smash her head against the wall until the brains came out. All the time she made strangled noises and danced like a headless bird. When life went out of her, I couldn’t make the body move, and she fell to the ground.
The rest of her crew had come out the door. Dare had her gun out, threatened to kill them. Hassid and Not slammed them around, took back the stuff the crew stole. One that had been shot half crawled away. Another was dead. The boys stared at the bodies. Only Dare knew what I’d done. She made Regalia’s crew drag their dead away with them.
We found Lott inside, where the blast had killed him, wrapped his body in blankets and carried him into the park. We had a shovel and took turns digging it deep so the rats couldn’t get him. We buried the AK474 in another place.
Dare talked a little about how much we loved him. All I could think was I didn’t want to die like that. Even Dare was kind of afraid of me.
We huddled together in the lair, knowing we’d never stay there again. No one slept much, but I sat awake on guard. Almost at dawn I started crying and Dare held me, whispering, “You saved all of us. You’re a hero.”
5.
The next morning, Caravaggio was shooting on the waterfront. The crew and I were there because we had nowhere else to go. I looked for a chance to beg him for a place to stay. Our lair was gone. I felt older than Caravaggio, older than anyone. Rock had left us, Lott was dead, and after what I saw and did the night before, I half wished I was dead too.
Nice, Not, and Hassid dived for fake coins tossed by actors dressed in protective gear. The boys’ hearts weren’t in it. We were zombies. They missed the coins and Caravaggio screamed at them, screamed at Dare and me.
Mai Kin and her handlers hadn’t shown up. Caravaggio yelled at Tagalong, who couldn’t contact them. Everyone said the Peacekeepers weren’t around. On the water, scared passengers were cramming onto the ferries. Copters and planes took off from Liberty Land.
This world of mine was tougher now than it ever had been. Tagalong got definite word that the UN had withdrawn from the city. I said we had nowhere to live and asked him if we could stay at the studio until we found a place. He just sighed and looked at Caravaggio, who was yelling about traitors and ingrates.
I stood out on the seawall and Nice stood with me, rubbed my neck. I had my arm around him for comfort. We heard jets but didn’t see them. Then, over in New Jersey, lights flashed like the sun on a knife blade. Next came explosions, big muffled ones. Caravaggio suddenly shut up. A moment later there was smoke over Liberty Land Stronghold, more flashes.
“Seems like Northeast Command took them out,” someone said softly.
We should have been looking closer to us. I saw the ferries moving fast on the river, trying to scatter, before I heard the copters. Rockets exploded. The seawall slid out from under my feet. Nice got torn away from me. I flew toward a huge wave and hit the water face-first.
It was in my eyes and nose, drowning me. I reached out for Dare, caught other minds. I felt Nice get cut in two. Someone’s legs were crushed. Water was in my mouth and nose. I sank into the filth of the river bottom. I wanted Dare to have her arms around me. Then I was rising, pulled by my hair.
