Continuance (9 page)

Keeping his gaze toward the
police cars in the parking lot, Jason watched from the corner of his eye as the
spider paused inside the door. His eyes swept an arc in a slow pan of the
dining room. They came to rest on Jason, causing his breath to quicken. The man
strolled toward his table, but stopped a discreet distance away.

He was compact, on the burly side
with a close-cropped beard, and he carried himself with a kind of coiled intensity.
Jason had expected him to ask questions or even try to arrest him, but the
spider just stood staring out the window. With the sudden coolness outside, a
veneer of fog had formed on the glass.

He’s wondering
if I’ll bolt.

“Guess we’re making quite a scene
next door.” The spider spoke the words slowly, sounding like sandpaper dragged
over granite. “Hope we’re not bothering you over here.”

“No, not at all. Listen, I didn’t
think this place was off limits, too? If it is, I’ll be out of your way.”

 “No, you’re not in the way,” the
agent said. “The guys have it under control over there, so I thought I’d get in
out of the wet. Can’t really use these things in the rain anyway.” He gave
Jason a commiserating smile as he held up his wet smartglasses.

 “Too bad,” Jason laughed. “I was
almost hoping you’d tell me to leave. I had no idea what they served for
breakfast in here.” He gestured at the gelatinous concoction in front of him.
“I usually get mine next door. What’s all the commotion about?”

“Photonics sweep. Stolen
bioprints – some SLIDe data. Nothing to worry about, really.” The spider pulled
a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit. Taking his time, he dried
the lenses of his smartglasses before putting them on again. Inside the dim
restaurant, the lenses had depolarized, offering Jason a clear view of the predatory
eyes behind. Unnerving in their intensity, those eyes inspected him from head
to toe. Not the natural, appraising glance of one guy sizing up another.
Instead, the spider kept his eyes straight ahead, using his neck to pan down in
a slow, deliberate motion.

A photonics sweep
. He’s
scanning me. Please don’t let him look up. Please…

Jason’s insides churned. He
wanted to run. He wanted to lunge at the man and have it over with. Instead, he
forced words from his mouth, tongue feeling wooden, amazed his voice didn’t
sound the same. “So, did you catch whoever took them? The bioprints?”

“Yeah, we got him. One of them.
But he may have had a partner. You see anyone suspicious come through here?”

“No, not really.” Jason tried to
look like he was racking his brain for shady passers-through. “The only
suspicious thing I’ve seen over here is my breakfast. What would they look
like?”

“We don’t know. Pretty sure he’d
be young, though. Or at least young looking – maybe about your age…Jason, is
it?”

Jason told himself not to worry
the guy had pulled his name down off the cloud. Or that he’d said “he,” not
“they.” What concerned him more was the other stuff he might pull up. Jason’s online
records were pretty bullet proof, but still…
Stay calm. Keep him talking.

 “Young
looking
?” Jason
asked, ignoring the remark about his name and age.

The spider nodded. “We’re not
sure, but we think the other guy’s probably continued.”

“What, you mean like a retread?”

“We don’t use that term, of
course, but yeah. A retread.”

“Gotta be tough to find somebody
like that. I mean, with 70,000 students around here, they could blend right
in.”

“Maybe. But maybe not as well as
he thinks.” The spider reached into his coat, offering Jason a glimpse of a
holstered pistol next to some kind of sheathed knife as he drew out a business
card. “Well, if you happen to remember something later, I hope you’ll contact
me.”

“Sure. No problem.” Jason reached
to accept the card, but it fell from the spider’s hand while Jason’s was still
a few inches away.

Reflexively, Jason grabbed for
the card as it fell. As if it were a diagram, he
saw
the random,
fluttering trajectory it would take as it tumbled through the air toward the
floor. Without thought, his hand moved to intercept the card where it
would
be
after it flipped again, arced down to the left, and flipped once more. But as
it was about to come to rest in his palm, instinct overrode reflex. Something
felt wrong, and he delayed closing his fingers for a split second. The card
glanced off his hand and tumbled the rest of the way to the floor.

Jason bent down and plucked it
from the ground. When he straightened, for an instant he saw something in the spider’s
gaze – the look of a hunter that had just watched its prey escape. But as soon
as he saw it, it was gone again.

 “Sorry about that,” the man said
in his sandpapery voice. “Carless of me.” The smile he offered Jason never
touched his eyes.

The spider turned to leave, and
Jason looked down at the card. The flexible display printed on the surface
showed text alternating between various contact information, fading in and out
beside an animated government logo in blue. Feeling like he held a live snake,
Jason focused on the words that mattered.

T. Isaac Neal

Special Agent

Digital Interment
Authority

“Sorry for the inconvenience,”
Neal called over his shoulder. Then he walked out into the downpour.

Jason exhaled a deep, unsteady
breath. His hand trembled as he reached over and swept it across the glass,
making a clear smear through the fog. Steeling himself, he peered through the
water sheeting down the front window. A blurry version of Neal strolled through
the rain to meet another spider, younger and taller, but wearing a similar dark
suit. Jason hadn’t seen him there before.
That spider Fairchild introduced
in class. Grieves.

But at that moment, the pair of
uniformed cops who’d just emerged from inside Java 101 were a bigger worry. The
man they escorted between them walked with his hands behind his back, bound
with a restraint projector. His clothes clung to his skin, already soaked from
the rain. Jason could just make out a stoic look on Alex’s face as one of the
officers put a hand on top of his head, guiding him down into the back seat of
an unmarked car.

Jason told himself the watery
blur in his vision came from the rain cascading down the glass. Or maybe the
window was already fogging up again. But he’d had enough practice lying to
others to realize when he was doing it to himself.

2012

Michelle pressed her hand flat against
the glass beside her, bracing herself, breathing hard. Her fingers closed into
an involuntary fist, leaving a smear on the window as spasms of pleasure rolled
through her body. Gasping, she squeezed her eyes shut and arched her back,
throwing her head against the headrest. A long sound – half moan, half sigh –
escaped her lips. She took her hand from the window, gripping Patrick’s back in
a hungry embrace.

For a long moment, she lay still,
breathing deeply. She listened to the patter of raindrops on the roof of the
car, feeling more relaxed than she’d thought possible for the passenger seat of
his old Mitsubishi Mirage. Content, she opened her eyes and drank in the blue
warmth of Patrick’s gaze. The smile he gave her was warm, too, like a blanket
by the fireplace on a chill evening. As she smiled back at him in return, his
turned to a chuckle.

“God, I missed you.” He trailed a
pair of fingers across her temple, brushing away an errant strand of hair.

“I can tell.” Michelle kissed the
back of his hand. “Couldn’t even wait to get me home from the airport.”

“Are you kidding? It’s been four
months. I’ve been going crazy.”

“Me too.” The last few months had
been hard, with her in New York on an internship while Patrick stayed at
Everton. Winter break was the first chance she’d had to fly back and see him.

She leaned up to kiss him then,
one hand cradling the back of his neck, enjoying the moment. Enjoying him. At
first, he responded with a slow tenderness, moving his lips on hers, caressing
her cheek with one hand. But soon his breath quickened, and he pulled her
against him, his kisses growing in urgency. Her body responded, and she closed
her hand behind his head, fingers tangled in his hair as she pulled his mouth
onto hers. After a moment, he broke away and hung his head on her shoulder with
a loud sigh.

“I don’t think a week’s going to
be enough,” he murmured against her neck.

She sighed. “Not even close.”

Patrick slid back over to the
driver’s side, maneuvering his long legs around the shifter and underneath the
steering wheel. Michelle brought her seat upright, realizing it might not have
been as comfortable as she thought. Her back felt stiff, and the seat belt
receptacle had dug into her side, leaving a red rectangle on her skin. Rain
poured down the windshield as she flipped the visor down to see how much of a
mess she was.

“I’d already forgotten about your
car’s little charms. No vanity mirror.” She flipped the visor back up, twisting
the rear-view mirror toward her instead.

Patrick laughed. “If that’s
charming, this little Mirage is the Johnny Depp of cars.”

Leaning toward the mirror, she
saw the damage wasn’t too bad. She grabbed her purse and proceeded to touch up
any noticeable evidence with the small cosmetics arsenal inside. “I like your
car. I think it’s cute you drive something born the same year you were.”

“Well, I hope you won’t be
heartbroken if I ditch it and get myself something better. Maybe a real sports
car.”

The comment surprised her, but Michelle
liked the idea. Patrick was forever focused on the practical, on preparing for
the future. A good quality, but it meant he was always putting off dreams and
goals for some day down the road. “I think you should do it. Sounds sexy.”

He smiled, but a distant look
crept into his eyes. “We’ll see. Maybe after graduation.” He brightened. “In
the meantime, I got something for
you
.”

Patrick reached behind his seat
and produced a small box wrapped in gold foil paper. He handed it to her,
excitement plain on his face. She tore the paper away and removed the lid. The
blood drained from her face at what lay inside – a flip-top jewelry box in deep
blue velvet. She jerked her head to look at Patrick, seeing an amused smile.

“Just open it,” he said. “It
won’t bite you.”

Taking the velvet box in hand,
she felt blood rushing in her ears as she pried the lid open. Disappointment washed
through her, then surprise at feeling disappointed.
No ring.
But what
lay nestled inside was almost as good – a delicate gold necklace with a pendant
in the shape of a butterfly. Gold filigree outlined the familiar black and
orange pattern on the wings.

“It’s a Monarch!” she said. “I
love it!” She lunged across the center console, crushing him in a hug.

“I hoped you might.” Patrick made
mock choking noises, and she loosened her grip, pecking him on the cheek.

He peered through the water
sheeting down his window. “We probably should get out of here before we get in
trouble.” They’d parked the car beside a neighborhood park, closed in on two
sides by a chain link fence covered in green hedge. With the rain, no one was around,
and the park sat empty. Patrick twisted the key, letting the engine turn over a
few times before pausing and trying again. The engine caught and sputtered to
life on the third try.

“Hungry?” he asked, putting the
car in gear.

“Starving. I’m three hours ahead
of you, remember? I’ve been craving a Collegiate burger for weeks.”

“That’ll be our first stop,
then.”

“Second,” Michelle corrected him,
a sly smile creeping across her face.

“Right,” Patrick laughed. “Let’s
go.”

“Wanna swing by the campus after
we finish up here?” Patrick asked around a fry. Save for the sports broadcasts
playing on a few dozen giant screens, the restaurant was quiet. They’d arrived
well after the dinner rush, and most of the tables around them sat empty.

“I think the flight’s starting to
catch up with me.” Michelle sipped her Diet Coke. “Maybe tomorrow?”

“Sure. It’ll still be there. But
you’ll hardly recognize parts of it with all the construction. They’ve got a
new science building going up. I think they’re naming it after Dr. Novella.”

“Your advisor?”

He nodded “They say it’s going to
be pretty decked out. Six stories, with as many sublevels for secure labs, and
all of it packed with cool tech. State of the art network, 3D projection in all
the classrooms, smartglass windows. Way better than the slum we have now.”

Michelle liked hearing him talk
about the things that excited him. Science and architecture had always been
favorites. With a project that rolled both into one, he was like a kid in a
candy store. Being here with him at one of their old hangouts already made her
feel like nothing had changed. Like they could just fall back into the same,
comfortable routine. A cruel illusion, at least for now. Patrick still had
three semesters left, but her internship ended after another semester.
A few
more months isn’t so long.