Gentle hands shook her awake, pulling her back to her body like a frayed string attached to the back of her mind. It creaked and threatened to snap at any moment, but she arrived intact behind her own eyes. Immediately she cringed away from the hands and curled up into a foetal ball. Her mind was still hovering on the painful edge of orgasm, still felt the fading glow of Jock grinding inside her, but her body was cold and barely awake. She couldn’t finish it. The feeling quickly slipped away from her.
She lay there for a moment, shivering, trying to remind herself that she wasn’t Rat even while her own body fired her hormones up to teenage levels. She nearly went mad. Jock might be a repulsive little troll, but his fooling around with Rat was the closest she’d come to a decent fuck since Gabriel on the airship. The pent-up stress inside her could’ve driven a priest into a whorehouse.
“Are you alright?” asked Darius’s voice. She could feel him hovering just out of reach, catching the tail end of her ragged emotions. And God knew what else . . .
“Fine,” she coughed. “What’s the fucking emergency?”
He shrugged. “We’re coming up to the border. Figured you should be awake for this.”
The sky stretched out over the mountainous pass, tinged deep navy blue by the last rays of daylight. On the horizon she spotted a line of armoured towers speckled with floodlights, looming over the landscape like arrows driven into the ground by some ancient archer god. They were linked together by long stretches of wicked-looking nanowire fencing that could stop a tank in its tracks. Despite the impressive display, it was an open secret that much of the security here was invisible. A whole suite of intelligent systems patrolled the fence, primed and ready to zap or gun down anyone who got any funny ideas.
Gina watched from the back of the van. Instinctive fear squeezed her throat. There were Feds there, and if her time on the Street had taught her anything it was the nameless dread that a Federal uniform struck inside you. It wasn’t the Feds’ cold-hearted conditioning, or even the implants boosting them to a level beyond humanity. It was the unwavering iron knowledge that they were unstoppable. They could do anything to you, absolutely anything, and they’d never even feel a thing. Against Feds you had no hope at all.
It wasn’t entirely dissimilar to the way she felt about Gabriel and, to a lesser extent, about Bomber. Two people who held very confused places in her heart.
You have some kind of fucked-up thing about power, girl, she told herself. Why don’t you bring that up while you’re getting your head examined?
Annoyed with herself, she speared Darius with a look. “You said you had a plan for getting me across.”
“Naturally,” he chuckled. He reached into the glove box and pulled out something small and metal, which he handed to her without comment. It was a big chunk of scrap, scorched black in places, heavy and vaguely uncomfortable to the touch. Gina didn’t know what it was but disliked it on sight.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” she said acidly. “This is it? This is your plan to fool the Feds, a small bit of junk?”
“Trust me, they won’t look too close if we give them enough of a reason not to. Everything will be fine, just don’t get your tits in a twist.” She started to get angry, but he held up a warning finger. His mind spun through evasion techniques so fast it made her dizzy just being near him. “I could make this real easy on myself by turning you in, Gina. Make sure I don’t have a reason. We’re all on the same side, right?”
She bit back the rage bubbling in the pit of her stomach. “What makes you think you’re on my side?”
A manic smile creased his lips at her question, and he flicked a pair of tablets from his pocket into his mouth. The amphetamine rush started almost immediately, and Gina caught a glow of it from his mind, driving out tiredness and electrifying his body with new energy. The other tablet wouldn’t kick in for a few more minutes, Gina knew all too well. She pushed down the urge to beg him for a hit of Spice.
“How long has it been since you closed your eyes?” she asked instead.
“You have no idea.”
“We are here,” interrupted Mahmoud. Gina and Darius both looked around, and Gina gasped.
The big towers were only a stone’s throw away now. Several high-powered spotlights locked on to the van, one of the few vehicles on the road at this time of night, and tracked it into the checkpoint. Thick concrete walls rose up on both sides, lined with the discreet metal nubs and bumps of sensors and automated weapons.
Scanners began to probe the driver compartment, soft laser beams searching for faces and electronic identification. Gina ducked behind the seats and tried to make herself inconspicuous.
They eventually hit a closed gate and had to stop. Mahmoud removed the makeshift patch on his window, and a recorded voice piped up from a speaker in the wall. “Welcome to the Federation of Equal and Allied Cooperating Nations border. This system will assume you are familiar with your rights and obligations under Federal law. If you are not, please say so at any point and I will endeavour to answer any questions you may have. How many are you bringing in?”
“Just follow my lead,” Darius murmured under his breath. He leaned across Mahmoud and waved at the speaker grille. “Listen, we’ve got a sick passenger on board. We got no time to waste, so put us on the fucking fast track right now.”
The voice went on unhurried. “Do you have full and valid electronic or physical identification for all occupants? If you do not, you may be asked to submit to a retinal scan or visual inspection by a Federal officer.”
“Just send me some goddamn uniforms out!”
The robot chirped a confirmation and went silent. A few minutes later two Junior Constables came through the gate, a man and a woman, looking tired and overworked. They didn’t have their helmets up and their hands were well away from their weapons. For all the world they seemed like regular people as they leaned into the van’s windows and shared a yawn.
The man spoke as courteously as he could manage, “What seems to be the problem, sir?”
Darius looked at him with haunted eyes, and his voice rang with such heartache that Gina had to remind herself it was an act. He said, “Constable, please, we’re taking my wife to the City for medical attention. There was an accident, she doesn’t have a passport or any travel documents on her, but if we don’t get her there she doesn’t stand a chance. You’ve got to let us through!”
“Right,” said the woman, not convinced. Her hardened scepticism surrounded her like a defensive aura. “Let’s see the woman, then. Please step out and open the back door for us.”
“That . . .” Darius shifted uncomfortably. “That might not be such a good idea, Constable.”
“Why? What’s wrong with her?”
“Radiation poisoning,” said Darius, and the Fed’s smile froze on her red-painted lips. She instinctively took a step back to put some distance between herself and the van. Then her eyes narrowed, and she took a small sensor from her belt, waving it around like a magic wand. Her partner did the same. Both sensors beeped with a steady rhythm.
The male Fed grunted with mild surprise, “Vehicle’s elevated but within safe norms.” He brought out a little PDA, flicking through the screens in a hurry, and muttered out of the corner of his mouth. “There’s definitely something hot in there. One thermal, looks human, but they could be smuggling.”
Feigning urgency, Darius went to his wad of cash and opened his door. He stepped out and thrust the bundle at the woman, who looked at it like a nest of ants.
“Please,” he whispered, “take as much as you want, just let us through. She hasn’t got much time.”
Gina could almost see it in their faces, the rigid Fed control starting to slip. They were only Junior Constables, not yet walking extensions of the Federation’s will. They still felt things like empathy, greed, mercy, fear. It took time and money to really burn someone’s humanity out of them.
At the same time Darius’s Spice-touched mind reached for Gina, and through the howl of feedback it communicated one thought.
Scream.
The fear throbbing in her veins concentrated Gina’s mind like nothing else. She could feel every thought and emotion around her, clear as crystal, sharp as knives. Trembling like a leaf, she took the pain from inside her and channelled it into a long, shrill howl of agony. Her own terror radiated out through the walls of the van.
Although Darius didn’t give away a hint of it, on the inside he was grinning. That’s it! Divide and conquer, babe. Hit them where they’re weak. Remind them they’re human, and they’ll crack.
Gina could feel the truth of it, the persistent flares of emotion struggling with their well-drilled sense of duty. Could she really influence that? Could she really reach inside their thoughts and change them?
Yes, she knew, deep inside. She could. She could do anything she wanted. Things began to fall into place as her mind found the two Feds, fear and doubt already whirling through their brains. She made it stronger. She pushed down their trained discipline and moulded their feelings to her will.
The Fed woman hesitated before she spoke. No way was she going near that van, but how could she make sure it was okay to go through? She had to do that, didn’t she? Biting her lip, she looked at the cash in her hand. It would be so much easier just to . . .
She cleared her throat and said, “Shinji, maybe we should . . . Let’s just stop and think, okay?”
“Think about what, Anja? No papers, no access, you know that. We– Someone has to go in there.”
A flicker of defensiveness woke inside her at Gina’s touch, money still crinkling between her fingers. “Our armour’s not rated for hard rads. Do you want to spend ten minutes getting a fucking retinal scan?”
The words caught in his throat. He looked down, ashamed. “No.”
A heavy silence fell on the scene. The only sound was the occasional rush of cars passing through the other lanes.
Moving stiffly, the woman crossed to her partner, slipped half the cash in his pocket, and whispered warmly in his ear, “Don’t you dare spend a dollar of that on pixie dust, you little bastard.”
She turned back to Darius and said, “Get going. Mention anything about this to anyone and I’ll hunt you down.”
Darius nodded and hurried back into the passenger seat. A moment later the gate opened and they were through.
When they were through the gate and away, the telepath smiled.
“I knew you could do it. You’re something special, Gina. Imagine what you could achieve if you put your mind to it.” He tapped a finger against his temple and grinned.
She ignored him, trying in vain to get back to sleep.
The longer Gina tried to get to sleep the less tired she became. Hours went by, but she just got more frustrated and caged-up, trying to keep her mind from roaming. Her eyes throbbed with the effort of holding herself in, but the alternative was worse. Darius was still there. She’d rather not touch him again if she could possibly avoid it.
She wanted to cry with the frustrated need to be alone, even for a little while, but she couldn’t be. Not here. Not where she was going.
She could feel it in the distance. Something new, something dark, pulsing with its own heartbeat. When she closed her eyes she could see it glowing on the horizon. Skeletons of neon and steel in the darkness, minds flickering brightly like candles until they burned out.
Gina was coming back to the Street of Eyes. She was on her way home.
“What is that light?” asked Mahmoud, straining his eyes toward the horizon. “Sunrise isn’t for three more hours.”
Darius chuckled, “Fuck the city that never sleeps, big man — welcome to the land where the sun never even goes down. That’s home.”
Mahmoud offered no response.
Gina sighed and got up to take a look. There, in the distance, the outliers of the City glimmered in the night. Simple houses shared space with big blocks of concrete and glass, residential towers designed to house the largest number of people in the smallest possible space. On the ground floor of each tower was an assortment of seedy, brightly-attired shops vomiting light into the world.
Most of those towers were built for the local workers, lower-class Chinese packed in like sardines, earning just about enough to survive from one day to the next. And they had it good compared to some of the City’s other groups . . .
I missed you like a hole in the head, she thought at the looming buildings as they grew slowly closer. Did you miss me too?
“Take the ring road,” said Darius. “Unless something unexpected happens, it should be easy going from here on in. Just a couple more hours.”
“Are you sure this Jupiter guy will give us the time of day when we get there?”
“That ain’t my problem. Convincing him is all up to you.”
Disgusted, Gina sat back and tried to find a good way to kill the next few hours.
Boredom made her drowsy. She never even felt the dreamworld creeping up on her, spreading slowly to envelop the part of her mind that was still hers. She only realised it when Gabriel’s arms snaked around her waist from behind, holding her firmly in place. The touch glowed on her skin, made her feel whole again, and she found her heart beating faster with excitement.
Stars of every colour dotted the sky in their millions. It was a riot of mad colour, like a child’s painting made into neon. Whole galaxies were laid bare before her. She could see the distant smears of nebulae, yellow and green and pink, and even little pinpricks of darkness where some moon or planet blocked the light.
Black water rippled around her feet, and a strong sea breeze threw her hair around. It could’ve been any ocean in the world, except it was flat and motionless all the way to the horizon, free of waves or swells. The sea was becalmed even while the wind blew over the top of it.
Faint music played somewhere in the distance. The melody was familiar but she couldn’t work out where she’d heard it before.
“I do owe you an apology,” he said softly. “I’ve been selfish.”
“Yes,” she sighed, almost content. “It’s just how you are.”
“I panicked. I was afraid you’d slip away from me. Even as we speak you’re getting stronger, I can only reach you in dreams. When you’re conscious you just block me out. I’m only a . . . passive observer to all the interesting things you get up to.” His mouth teased her neck, making it tingle, and she had to stifle a gasp.
“You’ve been watching, have you?” she asked cynically. Without thinking she put her hands on top of his and leaned back. The next moment their lips were touching.
“Doesn’t anything worry you? I know where you’re going. I could be right there, waiting for you.”
Gina smiled. “Will you be?”
“Show up and find out.” He squeezed her hands and winked, but she couldn’t tell if it was meant to reassure her or promise something.
A long time went by, thinking in silence. Gina’s feet slowly left the ground. She floated in the air, bathed in the sky’s multicoloured light, always protected by Gabriel’s arms. She couldn’t have felt more secure, but deep down she knew that was just another manipulation. The screaming void he’d torn out of her was still there, begging to hurt him back.
She said, “I don’t know what to do.”
“Having second thoughts about going to see the Wizard of Oz?”
“Who?”
Gabriel smiled. “This Jupiter guy, you’re worried he’ll tell you you’re a fruitcake and you may as well give up hope.”
“Wow, it’s almost as if you could read my mind,” she said caustically. “You should be on stage.”
“So are you asking for my advice?” he teased.
“I can’t think of anything I’d trust less than your advice.”
“Are you sure about that?” Still amused, Gabriel summoned up a living bust of Darius hovering in the air before them. It was utterly convincing, with the same irreverent smile and brown, mocking eyes. “Here’s a tip, free of charge. Be careful with that one. Don’t believe him, even for an instant.”
She clenched her fists so tight her nails dug into her palms. The sight of Darius filled her with revulsion, but she wasn’t about to take Gabriel’s word for it. “Any particular reason?”
“Haven’t you felt it? He’s very good at evasion, but if you’re that wired all the time you’re going to let things slip. He’s got some kind of interest in you, Gina, beyond what he’s telling you.”
“I’d better be real careful then,” she whispered, trembling with fury. “He might be trying to seduce me, or kidnap me, or tear a great big fucking hole in my head, or torture my friends and then murder them.”
“I thought you’d say something like that. You’ve got a real mean streak underneath it all, I think that’s one of the things I like about you.”
That was the last straw. Anger and frustration boiled over as Gina reached her limit, and she turned inside his arms with a white-hot sense of purpose, the city of ashes flashing behind her eyes. Gabriel’s eyes widened as he sensed the direction of her emotions but he didn’t have time to react.
She shoved, sending him flat on his back on the water. He made a splashing noise as he hit but the water behaved more like a solid floor. It only rippled around him; he never even broke the surface.
“You haven’t listened to a goddamned word I said, have you?” she ground out. In a single fluid movement she ripped off her top and threw it away viciously, exposing herself from the waist up. Her voice broke as she said, “Come on, Gabriel. Take what you want. Nothing matters as long as you get your way, right?”
Without waiting for an answer she lowered herself on top of him. A burst of pleasure fluttered in her chest and brought up a long, tinkling laugh. She saw the surprise on Gabriel’s face and flashed him a cold grin, working her hips without mercy. There was no love in it, and she intended to make it crystal fucking clear. No more smiles, no laughter, just raw physicality all the way to the end.
Even as she came, Gina knew it wouldn’t change anything, wouldn’t take away the hollow feeling inside, but that was okay. She didn’t have to like him to fuck him. She didn’t even have to like herself.
Leaning both hands on his chest, she brought her mouth to within an inch of his lips and said, “Now get out.”
She put all her concentration into a single mental push. The music grew fractionally louder, as if detecting the change of mood — and then she slammed Gabriel down into the fake water with a sound like shattering glass. This time he went through the surface and sank like a stone. His eyes stared straight at her until he disappeared into the deep, blocked out of her dream by her own will.
At last, for a little while, she was completely alone.
Something roused her out of her isolation. Some unnamed sense or instinct switched the lights back on, and she knew right away. They were here.
All doubt vanished as she reached out, and quickly pulled back in panic, choking down a scream. There were dozens of minds all around her, telepaths, rippling out into the world like a brilliant mosaic sculpted in human thought. Some shone brightly with ideas and emotions, others were dulled and twisted by years of Spice addiction, but no matter their health, Gina could see them all as crisply as stars on a clear night. Even the distant pulse of the Street of Eyes seemed insignificant compared to this.
It was beyond her wildest dreams. Like taking off a blindfold only to find herself teetering at the edge of a cliff.
The van’s engine hummed as it slowed down, then stopped altogether.
Darius’s voice came out of the night, “This is the place. I can feel it.”
“You should go and introduce us,” said Mahmoud, his voice slurred with fatigue from the long drive. He waited until Darius had got out, then climbed into the back of the van to check on Gina. He could barely see her in the dim glow of the street lights, but somehow he knew her emotional state without ever looking at her. Heavy hands landed on her shoulders. “Something is different about you, Gina.”
She started to snarl an insult at him, then bit it back, remembering who she was talking to. She forced her teeth together and let her background rage subside a little.
“I’m different. Stuff happened.”
“You sound like you need someone to talk to,” he said quietly. He hid a yawn behind his hand.
“I really don’t,” she snapped. The genuine caring and warmth radiating from him only rankled her now, and anything she said would only hurt him. The very idea of someone who thought she was worthy of that sentiment was offensive. How could she ever hope to repay a debt to someone like this?
There was just one thing she could do.
“Go home, Mahmoud. You’ve got a wife and a crew who need you. You don’t deserve to be caught up in this.”
Hesitantly he swallowed. The words rang in his ears, and they weren’t welcome. He said, “I am where I am needed most.”
“I don’t need–“
“You have something on your soul, Gina. It doesn’t take a telepath to see it. I don’t know what happened to you, I may not understand, but I hope that someday you will feel ready to tell me. Until then I will be here for you.”
“Yeah? Is it me you’re here for,” she wondered cruelly, shaking off his hands, “or is it Safi?”
Mahmoud flinched as if struck. His mind turned to stone, locked down under a cold weight, but for a moment Gina caught a glimpse of the bottomless pain behind it. He said nothing as he turned his back and left like a shadow through the rear door.
Mission accomplished, she thought, sick with self-loathing. You’re a real piece of work, Gina.
Once Mahmoud was out of sight she spurred her stiff muscles into action and clambered out of the van on swaying legs. As always, the City air choked her with its unrelenting heat and humidity, but she breathed it in deep anyway. The acrid, human smell of it was vaguely comforting. It was an overcast night, but the City lights reflected off the low clouds to throw a diffuse, yellow glow all over the world.
Without thinking her hand went to her pocket for a packet of cigarettes that wasn’t there. She hadn’t had a smoke since before her fever, but while the physical craving had gone, right now she wanted nicotine like nothing else.
She let out a long, calming breath, then wandered around to get a picture of the place.
The van stood in the middle of an empty car park, surrounded by dimly-lit structures on all sides. The main building was an old tea house built in the traditional style, with a big upswept roof and intricately carved wooden decorations all around, stained in bright colours. A series of well-worn gravel paths wound in between islands of grass and fish ponds covered over with plastic, leading to some outbuildings behind the tea house.
One thing kept nagging at Gina while she took in the sights. There was no fence, no guard, not even the implied threat of low-profile automated security. Anyone could have walked in.
But, something told her, those minds around her would know.
Golden light spilled out the front door of the tea house. Darius appeared in the doorway, looking harried. More harried than usual, anyway. When he caught sight of her he locked on like a missile. Even in the dark she could see his hands shaking, pupils shrunk to the size of pinheads. His mind was a constant explosion of wild, fractured thoughts driven by speed and Spice.
“I don’t think you’re gonna like what they’re gonna say,” he said as he approached. Then he took a good look at her and added, “Wow, you’re a mess.”
“No fucking kidding.” She shook her head and started to shove him out of the way, but then stopped and really looked at him. Gabriel’s words came up out of memory like mocking laughter. Don’t trust him, she snorted mentally. As if.
She said, “What’s your angle in this, Darius? What do you get out of helping me?”
He stared at her like she was possessed. Then he turned, barking a manic laugh, and strolled back to the tea house.
Clenching her jaw tight, Gina followed him. She dragged her fingers painfully through her hair in a vain attempt to comb it. She was dying for a bath and a set of straighteners, and even more, some painkillers strong enough to tackle the constant ache inside her.
Barring that, she’d settle for seeing Bomber’s face one more time. She pictured him now. For some reason he was smiling, caught in a fleeting moment of emotion, but behind his lightless brown eyes there were depths that he never showed. Except to a girl called Gina.
If there was anyone in this world who really understood pain, who could genuinely feel what she felt, it was him.
In her mind she blew him a kiss, whispered, “Wish me luck,” and then let the image go.
Three men and a pair of women waited at a low table in the sparsely-appointed main hall, lounging on cushions and sipping at cups of green tea. They turned as one to watch Gina, and part of her wanted to die with self-conscious shame. That wasn’t going to happen, though. She was too tired and pissed off, and she met their stares with all of Gina Hart’s aggressive confidence.
The oldest of the group, a thin white-bearded man with a face like a hawk, regarded her bleakly. His narrow grey eyes did not welcome her. Nobody spoke, but everyone except the old man exchanged constant looks with each other.
Gina suddenly felt outnumbered. Her only backup was Darius, and that comforted her not at all.
Without looking away, the old man said in a smooth English accent, “Give us the room, please.”
The other people at the table rose jerkily and shuffled out of sight. For a moment Gina sensed a strange distortion at the edge of her hearing. She focused on it, peering out of her mental lockdown, and it suddenly resolved into an explosion of words and feelings. Many different voices were talking through each other, but without ambiguity or confusion. Speaking mentally. There was a conspiratorial undertone to it too, as if Gina wasn’t supposed to be listening.
She glanced over her shoulder and found Darius still standing at her shoulder. He scanned the room, eyes darting left and right as if he’d caught wind of something he couldn’t quite identify. He wasn’t taking any notice of the old man’s hint.
The old man who could only be Jupiter said, “As I just told you, Mr. Archer, this is a private home and not a hospital. We’re simply not taking on any more people. I don’t care what kind of pull you think you have–“
“This isn’t about me,” Darius said stubbornly.
“You’re still here. How many more times are you going to make me repeat myself?”
Any remaining nervousness went out of Gina then, and a slow smile crossed her lips. This was a game. Posturing and pretence, nothing more. Gina wasn’t putting up with that. Games were for people who played by the rules. She shrugged out of her jacket, chucked it on the table, and gracefully folded herself into the lotus position on some cushions opposite Jupiter. She gazed at him in calm silence with her fingers steepled under her chin.
“Very dramatic.” He flashed a brief smile and started to get up. “I’ll get someone to escort you off the premises.”
Darius balked, “What, you’re not even gonna talk to her?”
“I will remind you again that this is my house, Mr. Archer,” Jupiter said icily, “and I wouldn’t advise you to test my patience any more than you already have.”
Taking advantage of the distraction, Gina reached out with her mind and touched Jupiter. His thoughts were cool, ordered, clinical, and alive with the distant anger of a professional who believed his valuable time was being wasted. Gina didn’t find even a trace of Spice in his mind, which was odd, but it was okay. There didn’t need to be.
One by one, she placed the words in his head.
Are you taking me seriously yet?
Jupiter stopped speaking in mid-sentence. His eyes snapped to Gina like gun barrels locking on, his forehead creased, and his mouth pressed into a thin line. She looked back at him bold as brass and smiled.
Slowly, like a tree bowing in the wind, he sat back down. Facing Gina, he leaned his elbows on the table and whispered, “What is it you want from me?”
“I’m having some head trouble. An artifact. I hear you’ve got experience treating that sort of thing.”
“Be that as it may, I’m not a charity. Any favours would have to be . . . reciprocated.”
She gave a toothy smile. “Within reason.” She wasn’t sure what ‘reciprocated’ meant, but she had a fair idea.
“I think you’ll find me to be quite reasonable,” said Jupiter, a calculating gleam in his eyes, and he rose. “Come on, let me introduce you to the others. We’ll have to bring you up to speed as quickly as possible.”
“Bring me up to speed?” she questioned, following him through the common room and up a creaking wooden stair. A glance over her shoulder told her that Darius was still behind her, keeping pace.
“Believe me, it’s easier to show you than tell you. You could be what we’ve been waiting for.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Here we are,” he announced.
Jupiter led her into a large, circular room shrouded in darkness but for the mad flickering of LEDs. Little flashes of blue, green and yellow revealed silhouettes of large objects and wires in the gloom, but Gina couldn’t make out what they were. Fans whirred everywhere. Gina’s cheeks tingled as alternating waves of hot and cold air blew over them.
At first she might’ve thought of it as just some kind of computer room, but something was wrong. Her third eye picked up more than that. The air had a strange weight to it, and walking inside felt like wading through syrup. Her head began to throb. Whispers of thought and emotion blew through her, too powerful to block out.
Then, with a clap of Jupiter’s hands, the lights blasted to life. Gina’s hand went to her mouth to stop a gasp. The next moment her mind spun away from her.
