17 – Worries

  As the van maneuvered the sleet-covered streets of District Seven, Addie and the others were quiet. Glitch was busy researching Rise’s corpo-sec headquarters—a building that was, thankfully, separate from the main corporate high-rise. Beef was leaning back in the jump seat, arms folded, eyes closed, his huge foot tapping to the beat of a tune only he could hear. As for Addie, she was consumed by her many worries and doubts.

  Against all reason, she felt guilty about what they’d done to Motor Cruz. She kept putting herself in his shoes and imagining how violated she’d feel. She didn’t say anything because Beef had already been generous about understanding her feelings, and she didn’t want to push her luck. Glitch… Addie didn’t want to distract her, and she also didn’t want to test their new friendship with too-often-voiced insecurities.

  To comfort herself, she had JJ log into the encrypted maildrop she and Tony were using. She’d hoped for a new message, but when there wasn’t any blinking icon, she opened the first one he’d sent ten days prior, and his voice came to her, soft and hesitant at first, but then stronger, surer, full of emotion: “Ads, I miss you.” There was a long pause, and Addie could hear Tony’s breath, ragged and raw, almost like he’d been running. Eventually, he spoke again. “I hope things are going well on your end. I think I’m in a safe spot, but I’ve already gotten myself on Eric’s radar. It started when I tried to pay a visit to an old friend. I was going to see if she’d cut me a deal on some gear—a new reactor and matrix. Well, to cut to the chase, she called Eric, and I had to hurt her to get away. I feel rotten about it, but I don’t know why. Something tells me you’d understand, though.

  “God, I miss you,” he said again. “I know, I’m repeating myself. I don’t care. I want to look into your eyes. I want to feel your hands touching the sides of my face like you do, you know, when you’re staring at me, waiting for me to read your mind. Hah! Listen to me—you’d think we’ve been apart for months, but it’s barely been a day… I don’t know if I’m gonna make it. Scratch that—I’ll make it, but I’m afraid of what I’ll be like when we get back together. Am I going to lose the…version of me that you woke up?

  “You asked me to do this—to be the old Tony for a while. I hope I can keep him from choking out the parts of me you love. I have to do some things soon. I have to tell some lies and probably hurt some people. Ads, send me a message soon, will you? I need to hear your voice. I need you to tell me I’m doing the right thing.” Again, he paused for a long few seconds, but she could hear his breathing. She knew he was still there, and that he was debating whether to say more. Finally, his voice came again: “I love you.”

  Addie sighed as the message ended. Every time she listened to it, she felt a mix of happiness, worry, and an overwhelming desire to drop everything and find Tony. Of course, she’d responded immediately, and, since then, she’d gotten two more messages, but both were short—just quick check-ins to let her know he was okay. The most recent was only two days ago, and he hadn’t said anything was wrong, but it was that lack of detail, his lack of emotion, that worried her. He was boxing away his feelings again, she knew it, but he didn’t respond to her concerned messages—not really. He just said things were fine—moving along.

  She didn’t know whom to talk to about her worries. Usually, she’d confide in her dad when she had a problem or when something was causing her to lose sleep. He wasn’t equipped to handle what she and Tony were doing, though. He thought Tony had taken a job—a merc gig that Addie wasn’t qualified for—in the hopes of bankrolling some upgrades for the two of them. It was a good story, but it took away Addie’s only confidante. She couldn’t talk to Glitch and Beef; they weren’t up to speed yet, and that was by design. Tony’s safety required their ignorance.

  She sighed again, trying to push the thoughts aside, trying to think of something to focus on in the present. She spun her chair, eyeing Beef. “You think Cruz will break out of that chain?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. I would.” He opened one eye and peered at her. “Don’t worry, though. He ain’t gonna talk. If he does, he’ll just get the blame if we succeed. Even if we don’t, this corpo-sec asshole would probably rub him out.”

  Addie wrinkled her brow. “Why?”

  “Because the dipshit isn’t supposed to know who he was working with. If he tries to warn anyone about us, the corpo-rat would want to tie him off.”

  This time, it was Glitch who turned to look at Beef. “Tie him off?”

  Beef tilted his head. “Loose end?”

  “Oh!” Both Addie and Glitch exclaimed.

  “Jinx!” Glitch said, leaning over to gently punch Addie’s thigh. They both laughed. “Anyway,” the netjacker said, “I’ve got a floor plan and a network schematic for the building. If we can get Humpty up to their antenna array, I should be able to get access. I mean, at least to parts of their network. I bought a couple of daemons someone used against Rise a few months back. They might still work, but if not, they’ll at least give me a good starting point.”

  “You’re awesome,” Addie said, smiling. “I wouldn’t know where to even look for something like that.”

  Glitch was visibly pleased by the praise, leaning back with a satisfied sigh, her cheeks tinting a faint shade of pink. “We all have our strengths.”

  Beef chuckled. “Yeah, Ads, like you can walk through walls. Dunno why you’re not already rich.”

  Glitch smiled, laughing along with Beef, but his words brought Addie’s mind back around to another worry she’d been avoiding—probably the whole reason she’d been thinking about Tony. In the back of her mind, a doubt had been growing. She’d felt her old fear about fading coming back to the surface. Maybe it wasn’t rational, but she was worried something was happening to her, and it stemmed from what she’d felt, what she’d seen inside the veil. When she didn’t say anything, instead falling silent, Beef cleared his throat, looking at her sideways. “What’s the problem?”

  “Um, nothing.” Addie forced a smile. “I was just thinking about something else. You know—I’m just worried about pulling this off. You don’t think the corpo-sec building is gonna have Dust disruption fields or something, do you?” She started off speaking to Beef, but directed the question more toward Glitch.

  “Eh, maybe if they have an evidence room or something, but there’s no way our boy would put his contraband there. If I had to make a guess, he’s got it locked up in his office. He’ll want it easy to get to without other people keeping track.”

  Beef nodded. “Makes sense.”

  “Speaking of,” Glitch said, gesturing to the blustery street outside the windshield. “We’re getting close. Wanna get your little buddy ready?”

  Addie nodded. “Sure.” She unbuckled and moved into the back of the van with Beef. Humpty was in her backpack, hanging from a hook on the wall near the rear door. “At least with the weather like it is, there won’t be many other drones out there.”

  Glitch snapped her fingers. “Good point! That sleet is gonna be rough on tiny props or air-jets.”

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  As Addie pulled Humpty out and sent her awareness through her Dust matrix and into him, he hummed to life, slowly floating out of her hands. “Is your code ready?”

  “Yep. Just make sure he’s listening to me.”

  “Port’s open,” Addie replied. The van lurched, and she stumbled back, almost falling over the cargo box. Beef caught her elbow, though, and guided her toward the jump seat.

  “We’re parking,” Glitch announced.

  Addie sat down beside Beef, then said, “Just open your window for him, Glitch.”

  “Oh, sure, let the netjacker get frozen!” Before Addie could respond, though, and offer to open the back door, Glitch’s window slid down and a cold draft blew into the van. “Hurry!”

  Addie closed her eyes, giving herself free rein to focus on Humpty. Fully immersed, she shot through the window and into the swirling wind and icy rain. Humpty powered into the gale, his sleek, rounded form slicing through it with ease, his anti-grav drive utterly ignoring the weather, simply using a little more Dust to compensate. Addie saw the Rise building immediately. It was a megastructure, though not as big as some of the more modern ones. Even so, it dwarfed the NGT building in height, soaring over the nearby skyscrapers of District Seven.

  “Where is it?” Addie asked, realizing she hadn’t a clue where the corpo-sec offices were.

  “The mirrored building a block south of the mega. It’s rounded on the north side and has an angled—”

  “I see it. Sheesh, Glitch, there are like ten antennae on the roof.” Addie swooped close, scanning the sky for other drones and hugging the buildings to avoid being noticed by anyone monitoring cams. She figured an AI would be on duty, and trusted Humpty’s nondescript, fast-moving gray form to get lost in the swirls of rain as she clung to the shadows. One of his nicest features, when it came to being stealthy, was the fact that his Dust-driven anti-grav drive had a near-invisible heat signature.

  “Let me see here. I’m connecting to see his feed. Get to a spot where you can see all the antennae, please.”

  “Already there.” Addie maneuvered Humpty down in the corner of the parapet-like structure on the building’s edge. From there, she had a panoramic view of the entire roof.

  “Okay. Not that one…not that one. Hmm, yeah, I guess it’s obvious, but sometimes that’s the way it goes: the tallest one, with the big trunk-line going into the roof by the environmental processor.”

  “Got it.” Addie flew Humpty close, extending his little data prong as she went, but she had to pause when she saw the access panel was enclosed in a plastic shell. “Uh, how do I—”

  “Use his MFL. There’s a clasp at the bottom of that casing.”

  “Right.” Addie extended Humpty’s tentacle-like “multi-function limb” and probed around the bottom of the plastic shell until she felt the clasp. The limb was surprisingly dexterous and strong, and she had no problem popping it open. A few seconds later, she’d inserted the data prong, and Glitch began to tap away on her crystal-glass pad. “Can I pull him back?”

  “Give me just a minute or two to hijack the signal. Once I can access the antenna directly…” She trailed off, clearly concentrating on something else, and Addie used Humpty’s many cams to scan the roof and the sky, trying to gauge whether she’d been noticed or not. It seemed quiet, other than the whipping wind and sheeting rain. After less than a minute, Glitch whistled softly and said, “Okay, he’s good to go; pull him out before you get noticed.”

  Addie retracted Humpty’s limbs into his egg-shaped shell and then, as fast as she could, flew him away from the building. She circled the block to the north, high in the air, purposefully driving him into low-hanging clouds, before circling back around toward the van. “Window,” she muttered, and this time it was JJ who accessed the van’s controls and lowered the driver’s side window for her.

  On a gust of wet, frigid air, Humpty swooped into the vehicle, and JJ immediately closed the window. “Nice one,” Beef said with a grunt, watching as Addie piloted Humpty into her hands.

  Addie smiled. “Doubt anyone saw him in this weather. No drones, anyway.”

  Glitch shook her head, disagreeing. “He’s definitely on the footage from the roof cams, but I know what to look for. I don’t see any incident reports from the security AI.”

  “So, as I said, then,” Addie replied, feeling defensive. “Nobody saw him.”

  Glitch waved a hand, still staring into space. “Fine, split hairs.”

  “What’s the story?” Beef asked, changing the subject. “You got any clue where the dude might have stashed the stuff?”

  “Sheesh, give a girl a minute to peruse the feeds. Talk amongst yourselves.”

  Beef grunted and leaned back, folding his arms over his chest. “Probably not gonna get any action, am I?”

  Addie arched an eyebrow at him, giving his shoulder a gentle shove. “You’re here for a contingency that I think we want to avoid. You don’t want to get into a shooting match with a major corporation’s security forces, do you? I mean, we’re kinda far from home, big guy.”

  His only response was another grunt, so Addie turned her thoughts inward, trying to examine her unspoken fears about fading. If Glitch found the Dust, she had no doubt it was going to be up to her to pull off the theft—it was the whole reason they thought they had any chance at all. If it weren’t for her fading “talent,” they’d be back in the Blast trying to earn a few thousand bits here and there, and Tony would—if Addie had anything to say about it—not be trying to infiltrate his way back into Cross Corp.

  All of those thoughts served to agitate her further as she thought about the things she’d thought she’d seen and felt in the veil. No matter how she tried not to, her mind kept conjuring images of the girl—the fade—Tony had guided away from the neighborhood. What had her name been? “Deirdre,” Addie whispered.

  “Huh?” Beef asked, snorting as if he’d been about to fall asleep.

  “Nothing.” Addie couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with her. The worst thing about it was that there was nobody she could ask—no medical journal or pharmaceutical net page. At first, she’d thought the things she’d seen and felt had been part of the veil—some anomaly or intrusion on her perceived privacy there. Now, though, that creeping doubt tickled her brain, and she had to wonder if fading was having some sort of effect on her mind. Was she doing to herself what had happened to Deirdre against her will? Did fading lead to insanity? Deirdre and other fades couldn’t help it, but Addie could.

  She shook her head, feeling her thoughts spiraling down paranoid avenues. She didn’t know anything. Maybe the strange feelings had been external. Maybe something had been there with her. Addie almost chuckled at the idea; she was suddenly hoping there was some kind of ghost or otherworldly being haunting her, if only because it would mean her sanity was intact.

  She must have lost herself in her thoughts for a while, because when Glitch spoke, it was almost startling. “My pocket AI found our guy. It’s Basil Denny; his face was on Cruz’s footage, and it checks out—he’s a watch commander for Rise corpo-sec.”

  “Yeah?” Addie asked, letting her know she was listening.

  “Yep, and I’ve had another AI reviewing security footage from the building. Morning after the robbery, Denny walked into his office with a gym bag that looked a little too heavy to contain just sneakers and maybe a weight belt. He set it right there under a chair beside his desk, and it hasn’t moved since.”

  Beef started to chuckle, but a tremendous yawn quickly overtook the reaction. When he regained control of his body, he asked, “You mean to tell me that dude put a million bits’ worth of Dust in a gym bag and left it sitting on the floor of his office?”

  “I’m hoping that’s the case. His office is on the ground floor and he’s got floor-to-ceiling plastiglass windows facing Bolliver Avenue…” Glitch trailed off, but Addie knew what she was thinking: it should be a snap for Addie to fade through one of those windows, grab the bag, and fade right back out.

  “Shit.” Beef sighed, slumping back into his seat. “I ain’t gonna see any damn action, am I?”

  The whole time Glitch had been speaking, and as she pictured what she’d need to do, Addie’s stress had begun to mount. She felt like she could feel her heart thudding behind her eyes, and even as Beef whined, she struggled to concentrate on him over the rushing sound in her ears. She knew she was about to spiral into a full-blown panic attack, so she focused on Tony, remembered why she was there, and mentally told herself to calm down. You’re blowing everything out of proportion.

  As if to prove something to herself, she scooted forward on the jump seat and said, “Update my map. I’ll go grab it.” Without awaiting a response from Glitch, she walked, stooped half-over, to the rear door, reaching for the handle.

  “You want me to follow you?” Beef asked.

  Addie glanced at her mini-map, already populated with a new walking path and a blinking yellow X. She looked at Beef and shook her head. “Not sure why. If something goes wrong, I’ll be behind security glass, and about a hundred meters deep in a building crawling with corpo-sec.”

  “She’s got a point, hon,” Glitch added. “You should wait here in case she comes running. Besides, if she can’t get out of the building, we’ll do her more good out here, where we can find a way to free her.”

  “Aw, c’mon!” Beef said, sounding almost angry. His next words surprised Addie, though. “I don’t like to hear talk like that. She ain’t gonna get caught.” He grabbed Addie’s shoulder and tugged until she looked him in the eye. “You ain’t getting caught.”

  Addie mustered her bravest smile and nodded. “Nope, I ain’t.”