Awakening (35 page)

Her eye caught the reflection of his prayer mirror and she heard Abran saying in a rough voice, “I need it now . . .” just before he spotted her face in the hatch opening. He shoved his mirror in his hem so quickly, she could hear stitches rip.

He craned his neck up at her. “What?”

“You can use the washroom.”

She dropped back into the cab to give him space to get to the washroom. After he finished, then returned to the bay, Kayla and Risa moved to the sleeper.

“That was odd,” Kayla said softly as she dropped beside Risa. If he was inclined, Abran could press his ear to the bay wall and be able to make out ordinary conversation, but they were safe if they kept their voices low.

The lowborn woman arranged her voluminous, ankle-length sleep dress around her like a tent, then pulled her dark, gray-threaded hair forward over her shoulder. “What’s odd?” Risa divided her hair into thirds and started braiding it.

“His prayers. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but . . .” Kayla
undid her own braid, dropping the ribbon in the bedclothes, then brushed out her kinky hair. “He makes demands of the Infinite.
I need it now!
As if the Infinite serves him instead of the other way around.”

Risa stole Kayla’s ribbon and tied it on her braided hair. “Suppose the boy is arrogant enough to think so. But then, some don’t like the way their prayers are answered either.”

Kayla’s fingers stilled halfway down her braid. “You mean me? And . . .” She hooked a thumb back toward the bay.

“Thought you two might find a way to be together.” Risa cleared her throat. “After that kiss.”

“You didn’t look very happy about us kissing.”

Risa shrugged. “Wasn’t at first. But when you gave up the impossible, I thought that one might be good for you.”

Kayla had told Risa what had passed between her and Devak that night in Daki, had sobbed in the lowborn woman’s arms. “I thought he might be too. Abran’s a GEN. Good-looking. Seems to like me even though . . .” Her mouth twisted as she gestured at herself.

“You’re as beautiful as any GEN girl,” Risa said. “Or lowborn, come to it.”

Kayla took in a breath to deny Risa’s compliment, but the lowborn woman’s scowl stopped her. “Anyway,” Kayla said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t fall in love.”

“But?”

Now Kayla shrugged. Maybe she still clung to the idea of Devak. Maybe that kept her from feeling more for Abran.

Risa reached behind her and unearthed another ribbon from one of the cubbies. “As much time as that GEN boy’s spent with us, still don’t really know him.”

Kayla resumed braiding. “We know that his patron abused him so badly his GEN circuitry is broken. We know he ran, which was both stupid and brave.”

Risa held out the ribbon. “Seen more stupid than brave from that boy.”

“I’ve been wondering about his nurture mother and sister,” Kayla said, tying the end of her braid. “He said they’re in a bad situation. Could our friends”—she meant the Kinship— “get them re-Assigned somewhere? Or to a seycat den?” A safe house.

“Could ask,” Risa said cautiously. “Don’t know how interested our friends would be after the boy gives testimony.”

Kayla let that hard reality sink in. “I thought our friends would change things. But it seems like they don’t care about GENs anymore.”

“And they don’t give a rat-snake’s ass about lowborns. I can tell you that.” Risa’s barking laugh was so loud, it likely woke up Abran. She lowered her voice. “It comes down to dhans. Some of them have started to think how much GEN freedom would cost them.”

Just then, Risa’s wristlink beeped. She glanced down at it. “Mishalla. Best take it outside. Around the front.”

Kayla tugged on her shoes, then slipped out and took a seat on the lorry’s front bumper, her back against the suspension engine. She had to suppress a shriek when Nishi rushed out from under the cab, growling and feinting at Kayla’s ankles. The sharp scent of their drom wool cargo irritated the feline, making her crankier than usual.

While Nishi trotted off into the brush behind the warehouses, Kayla raised the wristlink. “Hey, Mishalla.”

Mishalla smiled at Kayla from the wristlink’s small screen. “Sorry to bother you. I wanted to ask if you and Risa were going anywhere near Amik sector?”

Kayla had memorized Risa’s delivery schedule in her bare brain, then stored it in her annexed brain. That hell-forsaken FHE programming was good for something.

Kayla accessed the schedule. “Day after tomorrow.”

“Thank the Infinite,” Mishalla said. “Hopefully that will be soon enough. Raashida is in an allabain village there. I’m certain of it this time.”

Even knowing Raashida would be going to the Kinship and not Akhilesh, Mishalla had continued to give Risa and Kayla tips about the GEN woman. Kayla suspected her friend hoped Hala would persuade Raashida to return to the fertility experiment after the Kinship had learned what it could about her healing ability.

In any case, all of Mishalla’s tips had turned out to be dead ends. Twice, Risa and Kayla had been in the area anyway, so not much time had been lost. The third time, they’d had to arrange for a significant detour, which had severely tried Councilor Mohapatra’s patience, especially when it turned out to be for nothing.

“I’ll let Risa know. I’m sure we’ll be able to take the time to look for her.” Although the way Kayla felt about the Kinship these days, she wasn’t even sure it was best to give them Raashida.

They said their goodbyes and Kayla went back inside. Risa was already snoring. Kayla climbed into the bed and pulled the drapes closed. Easing herself under the covers, she let Risa’s warmth lull her to sleep.

Kayla!

She jolted upright, confused and muzzy. She’d never been awakened before by that inner voice. Or had it just been part of a dream? Buffets of wind shook the lorry. Maybe that was what had roused her, and she’d only imagined being called.

Her internal clock told her just over an hour had passed since she’d fallen asleep. She lay back down, exhaustion and the warmth of the covers irresistible.

Before she could drift off, footsteps moving past the lorry brought her awake again. She tweaked aside the curtain on the sleeper and squinted into the shadows. Outside, the night was ill-lit by two of the trinity moons, half-faced Avish and a sliver of Abrahm. She spotted Nishi in a strip of moonlight, trotting across one of the warehouse’s plasscrete aprons into the thick nest of sticker bushes that ran along the back of the warehouse district.

Then she caught sight of a shadowy figure moving away along the alley. An enforcer?

With a shock, she realized it was Abran disappearing into the shadows. Was this it then? Was he running, so frightened about giving testimony against Baadkar that he’d leave the lorry and the only ones keeping him safe? He was never taken off the Grid. Baadkar could find him if he wanted to take his revenge.

If she went out there after him, she’d put her own self in peril. No GEN should be wandering the warehouse district at night. Any passing enforcer would want to know what she or Abran were doing there.

She couldn’t quite bring herself to let him go. She had to at least try to bring him back. She quickly pulled on dark leggings and changed her sleep shirt for a matching day tunic. Shoving her feet into shoes, she jumped from the cab of the lorry and shut the door quietly behind her.

She followed Abran’s path along the alley between the weaving factory and the foodstores warehouse. Halfway down the dark, narrow alley, she spied movement at the other end. She recognized Abran’s silhouette, his broad shoulders, just before he moved out of sight.

She hurried after him. If he doubled back, he would see her, but hopefully he wouldn’t bolt. She stopped at the corner, leaning out far enough to see him duck into the next alley over.

As she hesitated there in the shadows, another dark figure approached along the line of factories and warehouses. A man, from his stride and build. Dressed in black.

A fist seemed to grab hold of her stomach. A moment later, her unease became terror as the approaching man stopped at the alley Abran had entered. Avish’s moonlight picked out the emblem on the man’s chest. The red stylized bhimkay glowed like fire from the enforcer’s uniform.

Move on, move on, move on!
Kayla chanted silently.

The enforcer took one more look around him. Then he walked into the alley.

Kayla stood frozen for a moment, her mind moving in a hundred directions. Imagining Abran beaten, arrested, reset.

That last thought pushed her from her hiding place. She hurried along the front of the foodstores warehouse, keeping to the shadows as best she could. When she got to the next alley, she dared a look around the corner.

The enforcer and Abran stood halfway down the alley, beside an incinerator. The enforcer had his back to Kayla, and Abran’s attention was on the enforcer. They were talking, but too softly for her to hear.

Any second the enforcer was going to pull out his datapod. He might do something as harmless as download Abran, but he could reset him just as quickly. Kayla tensed, ready to attack the enforcer and thrust him aside before he raised a datapod to Abran’s cheek.

But then Abran turned away, his voice drifting toward her. “Let’s go down to the other end. Less light there.”

The enforcer followed Abran deeper into the darkness, not seeming the least put out by a GEN leading the way. Was it a GEN enforcer then? Kayla hadn’t noticed a tattoo. But she’d been so fixated on the glittering bhimkay emblem, she’d never looked at the man’s face.

GEN or trueborn, the real question was, why was Abran meeting an enforcer in the middle of the night? She ran through every conversation with Risa that she could remember, or had stored in her annexed brain. They’d never mentioned the Kinship in Abran’s hearing. Could he be here to betray them?

Now they both had their backs to her and were well past the incinerator. She slipped into the alley, keeping to the warehouse wall as she got closer. With her gaze fixed on Abran’s and the enforcer’s backs, her clumsy feet caught on something. An empty fruit meld bottle went flying and slammed into the side of the incinerator with a metallic clang.

She scrunched herself against the wall beside the incinerator, praying the darkness would hide her. Footsteps approached, heavy enforcer boots. The enforcer stopped even
with the incinerator. His toes were no more than a meter from where she hid.

Abran called out, “What is it?”

A rat-snake squirmed from beneath the incinerator, its myriad beady eyes glittering in the faint moonlight as it paused to stare at her. She had to suppress a shudder as the rat-snake’s eight arachnid legs tippety-tapped closer, its abdomen wriggling left and right as it approached.

But then it ran out into the alley, all but crawling across the enforcer’s boots. The man yelped and leapt back. He kicked out at the creature even though it was well out of reach of his boots as it scrambled out of the alley.

“Rat-snake,” the enforcer said with disgust.

She’d been so focused on hiding, she hadn’t thought to look up at the enforcer’s face to check for a tattoo. She took the quickest glance around the incinerator, but could only see the back of the enforcer’s head again.

Then Abran started up the alley to meet the enforcer part way and Kayla ducked back to safety. But now she would certainly be able to hear them, even if they whispered to each other. If betrayal was Abran’s plan, she’d race back to the lorry, try to get her and Risa out of here before the Brigade could arrive in full force. But they’d been so careful—he shouldn’t know enough to betray them. Did he?

She eased herself right up against the incinerator and tried not to think about the possibility of a rat-snake nest beneath it. The smooth metal was just the slightest bit warm from its last use. The lid had been left open and the metal box amplified the enforcer’s voice when he next spoke.

“A big risk meeting me here.”

“I nearly died in that river,” Abran said. “Nearly died after from the cold.”

“Why jump in at all?” the enforcer asked.

“I couldn’t let the boy drown,” Abran said.

“Chutting idiot.”

“Maybe so. Do you have it?”

“Cost me a pile of dhans,” the enforcer said. “But I got two vac-seals’ worth, just like you asked.”

Abran was buying more jaf buzz? Was he truly an addict after all? She supposed it was better than betrayal. But how could he continue to hurt himself this way?

“I might not have enough to cover it,” Abran said. “But I’ll give you all of what I’ve got.”

Kayla crept out again, far enough to see Abran dig in the pocket where he kept his prayer mirror and produce a crumpled handful of dhans. He took the two vac-seals the enforcer handed over in exchange, tucking one inside his waistband. Abran thumbed the activator tab on the other and pressed the circular packet to his inner arm.

That he couldn’t even wait for the drug, that he took a hit in this dirty alley, sickened her. As it took effect, he staggered as he had in the sticker bush thicket, bumping into the alley wall and losing his balance. He fell, thwacking his head against the wall as he landed on his butt.