Ultraviolet (9 page)

I got the webbing jacket figured out and loaded up the feedstock to print it out while I went back to work on the boots.

“Hey.” Felix glanced at me. “Sorry about before. I didn’t mean to get mad at you. I’m just dealing with some stuff.”

“No, I know. It’s okay.”

“So… what are you going to do? I mean, what happens tomorrow? If you’re not going to Susquehanna, what’s the plan?”

“I don’t know. As long as I have the suit and some sunlight, I should be okay. I can ride the scooter wherever I want to go. Maybe Florida, or California.”

He nodded. “Oh.”

Yeah, it wasn’t much of a plan. You can’t really run from a company unless you’re willing to run to a foreign country, and it would have to be one of the meaner countries, one that hates American companies more than it needs American money, I guess. I don’t know much about other countries, really. But whenever they get mentioned on the news, it’s always pretty scary.

But I didn’t want to leave at all. I definitely didn’t want to leave my parents and my friends. And who knew how many more people there were like me and Felix who got royally screwed by the system? And how many more would there be next year, and the year after?

“I wish I could stay.” I put down my phone and looked at him. “I wish I could fix all this. I’d do it, I would, if there was a chance. But there isn’t. As long as I’m around, they’re going to keep hurting the people I care about. They’ve got all the money and the police and the law.”

Felix offered a smile. “But, hey, you’ve got leftover Chinese and a bed tonight.”

I smiled back and glanced at the cots. “Yeah.”

“Too bad you don’t…” Felix raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you do.” He pulled out his phone.

“Maybe I do what?”

“Hang on a sec.”

“Maybe I do what, Felix?”

“I was just thinking, what if you had enough friends to let you stay on a different couch every night?” He kept playing with his phone.

“No, I don’t think so. And Cygnus has my old account info, they know who my friends are.”

“They know about your old friends, yeah. But they don’t know your new ones.”

“What new ones?”

“Them.” He held up his phone to show me the page with the first video of me on the street, fighting off those two guys from the market with my sword. I watched the clip for a moment, and then I glanced down at the numbers under it. “That can’t be right.”

“It is. Eight hundred million views, and over ninety percent approval.”

Eight hundred million? I went global?

“And if at least a couple hundred of these fans are living here in the city, then I bet you’ve got a couple hundred friends who would love to hang out with you for an evening and let you bum a meal and a bed for a few hours.”

I sat back and looked at him. There was a real earnestness about him, he was so focused and excited about this idea. It was easy to get excited along with him, but I couldn’t turn off that part of my brain that likes to poke holes in fun ideas. “Yeah, but what’s the point? Spend the rest of my life couch-surfing and running from the cops? That’s not a life.”

He nodded and his smile faded. “Yeah, you’re right. It was just an idea.”

“Thanks anyway.”

We watched the rest of his prison show, and then the next episode.

“Hey Felix?”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry about your bicycle.”

He shrugged. “It’s okay. I know a guy. I can get another one cheap. Don’t worry about it.”

We were in the middle of a Norwegian movie about a ski instructor who fought trolls in his spare time when Felix rested his arm on mine and wrapped his hand around my fingers. I gently squeezed his hand, and then pulled mine back.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

“No, it’s fine.” It wasn’t really fine. Maybe it should have been. He was pretty good looking, and he was smart, smart enough to invent a new metal and to find me, and brave enough to run from Frost with me, and nice enough to feed me and give me a place to sleep.

In my head I started to make excuses, that I’d only just met him, that I didn’t really know him, that I had a lot on my mind. All true, of course. But I wasn’t sure what to say, so I didn’t say anything.

It was awkward.

The printer finished the jacket right after the movie ended, so I uploaded the specs for the boots and the machine when back to humming.

“I’m kind of tired,” I said.

“Yeah, me too.” He avoided my eyes at first, but then looked at me and offered a tired smile. “Here, you can take Marcus’s bed. It looks like he’s not coming home tonight.”

“Okay, thanks.”

I sat on the bed for a minute as he turned off the light. Then I kicked off my shoes, slipped the holo-gloves into my pockets, and went to sleep. I tried to, anyway, but I couldn’t stop thinking about everything that was going on, and I stayed up for at least an hour, staring at the wall, listening to Felix snore.

I woke up early. The light through the window was sort of dim and gray, but it was morning and I was awake, and once I’m awake I can’t go back to sleep, so I sat up. Felix was still snoring, and my gloves were still in my pockets. I took the new boots out of the printer and laid them on the floor beside the new jacket and the gloves in a patch of faint sunlight. I had no idea how long it would take to charge them.

In the mean time, I synchronized the wireless connection between the different pieces of holo-fabric and started playing my new favorite game: uploading random object specs into my suit. I upgraded the scooter to a nice big motorcycle so I could carry a passenger and some luggage. I also found some old designs for stealth body armor used by the Marines in the Canal Incident. Mine wouldn’t be very stealthy, what with the bright purple glow all around me, but at least I’d be safe from bullets.

I looked up gizmos to help me escape from a rooftop. A tent for sleeping in the woods. A parachute for jumping out of windows. It all would have seemed pretty random or ridiculous, except they were all things I had already needed in just the last two days. And there was no telling what I would need in the days to come. I uploaded so many designs that I had to come up with a new system for naming and numbering them all.

An hour later Felix woke up. Apparently he was not quick to wake up because he didn’t say anything and barely waved at me as he shuffled by, turned on the screen, and went into the bathroom down the hall. It took me a minute to realize he wanted the noise of the TV to cover up the noise of whatever he was doing in the bathroom.

I flipped over to the news. The weather report said clear and sunny, which was a relief. The last thing I needed now was a string of dark, overcast days leaving me stranded and defenseless when the suit powered down.

Felix walked back in as the sports report came on. “Morning. Sleep okay?”

“Yeah, thanks.” I flashed a little smile at him. It still felt awkward. “I was just thinking about my parents. Cygnus detained them the other day. They’re home now, but I should call them again.”

“Are they okay?”

“Yeah, I mean, I got them released and my dad said they were fine, so I guess they are, for the moment.”

“Then no worries, they’re safe now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Detention laws. A company can only detain a person once per ninety days and a max of three times per year. So they’re safe for the next three months at least.”

I blinked. “Really? I didn’t know that. Thanks. That’s a relief, it really is.” It was a relief all right, for about ten seconds. “But if they can’t go after my parents anymore, then…”

Felix nodded. “You have any other family in town?”

“No.”

“Friends?”

“Yeah, some.”

“Then you might want to give them a heads-up.”

So I called Mercedes and got her mail, so I said, “Hey Mercy, it’s me. Thanks again for the loan the other day, I’ll pay you back soon, I promise. I just wanted to let you know that you might want to be careful the next couple of days, just in case the people who are after me pay you a visit. Just… avoid men in suits and black cars, okay?”

I tried Dom next and had to leave a similarly confusing message. Then I called two guys I had known at Cygnus, Dean and Angelo, and then my friend from college, Suzanne. I was wondering who else counted as an important friend when Felix said, “Hey, take a look at this.”

He had a clip playing on his phone. It was dark and a little grainy, and it looked like it had been shot from someone’s house, through a window. Across the street, we watched two men carry a body out of an apartment building and toss it in the back seat of a black car, and then drive away. The timestamp said it had happened just three hours ago, a little before sunrise.

“I think one of those guys was our friend Frost,” Felix said.

I sat down on the bed. “That building. I know that building. It’s Mercy’s place.”

“Oh no. I’m sorry.” Felix put his hand over his mouth and went to stare out the window and look down the street.

“They’re rounding up my friends.” It was surreal. On the one hand, it was exactly the same as before when they took my parents. But it felt different now. Before, it had still felt like it was partly my fault, that I had screwed up and set off this legal minefield. But now… now it felt personal, now it felt out of control and vicious.

Now I was pissed.

I grabbed my new jacket and boots and started pulling them on.

“Whoa, whoa. What are you going to do?” he asked.

“I’m going to get them out. I’m going to find my friends and bust them out.” The jacket was a good fit and the boots were nice and snug over my shoes.

“But you don’t even know where they are. They could be anywhere in the city.”

“Yeah. So I should get started.”

“No, just wait a sec.”

“My friends don’t have a sec. They’ve already been in detainment for hours, and Dom needs his meds or he could die. He has a heart problem, and…” I pulled the gloves on, noting that my hands were shaking. I checked the power. Sixty percent and rising. More than enough. “…and I need to go.”

“Okay.” He nodded. “Will I see you again?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. I probably can’t come back here without putting you and your brother in danger too.”

“So where are you going to sleep? How are you going to eat?”

“I don’t know. I’ll figure it out later.”

Felix frowned as he pointed his phone at mine. “Here’s my info. I’ll be in touch, okay?”

“Okay.” I paused. I really had no idea where I was going or what I was doing, but I had to go, I had to do something. Dom and Mercy were in real trouble, and it was all my fault. “Thanks, Felix.”

I kissed him. Nothing serious, just a quick peck on the lips, and I don’t even know why. Maybe because he was trying to help, maybe because it felt like he was the only person on my side, maybe because I was scared. Who knows why people do anything. But it made me feel better for a second, and it made him smile. And that was nice.

Then I left. I walked straight out the front door and into the street. “Lux, bike.”

The new motorcycle was three times bigger than the old scooter, with fat tires and a contoured seat. Of course, it was still just a hologram, so there was no engine, no electronics, no features, but because it was physically bigger it was more stable and had better traction, so it was faster.

A lot faster.

I raced up toward the harbor and quickly found myself hemmed in by the morning rush, men and women by the hundreds on their bicycles, ringing bells and talking to neighbors and friends and coworkers as they slowly merged into a river of faces and spoked wheels on their way to work.

Most of them were trying to get to South Hanover Street to cross the water on their way south to the reclamation plant, but plenty of them were also in my way, heading north up Light Street toward the old offices, some to sit at desks but lots to just sweep under them.

A light turned red and I found myself stuck in the crowd, sitting there on my huge black motorcycle, perfectly silent, glowing faintly violet. I nodded to the woman on my right. She looked slightly curious but mostly scared.

The light turned green and we started moving again. As I rolled along, I could feel the eyes on me. Everywhere I glanced, people were looking at me and my bike. And then I started seeing the phones pointed at me, filming me.

Let’s be honest, they’re filming the bike.

And that’s when I began to wonder whether Felix may have been right about me having some fans in the city who might want to help out.

But wait. What sort of people are we talking about? Bikers?

I wonder if there’s a way to find people with the same problem as me. People pissed at companies like Cygnus. People looking to change the way the city works. People willing to take risks.

I looked up sharply.

I had an idea.

Chapter 7
Public Relations

I was halfway to Lexington Market when I called Felix.

“Hey Carmen, everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Listen, I was thinking about what you said about reaching out to my so-called fans.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, so I thought I would put on another show and see if I can get some volunteers to help me out.”

“Sounds good. How can I help?”

“For right now, I just need you to keep an eye on your news feeds and let me know as soon as you see anything about me, okay?”

“Sure, no problem.” He paused. “You be careful, okay?”

“I’ll try. Thanks.”

A few minutes later I rolled up in front of Lexington Market, where I stopped and sat on the bike for a moment, long enough to get a few stares from the people going in and out of the building.

“Lux, off.”

A small gasp ran through the crowd as the bike vanished in twinkle of violet lasers and the people cleared a small path for me as I walked up to the doors. I don’t blame them for being a little scared. I could only imagine what my holograms looked like to other people, seeing them for the first time.

Inside the market it was already crowded and I had to join the slow shuffle of people flowing past the shops, one by one. But I wasn’t looking at the shops. I kept my eyes on the doors and the shadowy spaces between the stalls, looking for young men, looking for hoods. It was early in the morning, but I figured someone had to be up and about. And I was right.