19 – Cold

  Hands in pockets, Addie strolled down the sidewalk with her chin tucked down into the high collar of her jacket. It was cold out there, but she wasn’t the only one walking by Rise Corp’s security offices. She supposed that, in a city of millions, there would always be a few people who needed to be somewhere, even when the weather was awful.

  As she walked, she looked at her mini-map, and when she passed the white, blinking X that Glitch had placed on it, she looked to her left, taking in the frost-covered, darkly tinted window. Beyond it would be her target: Watch Commander Basil Denny’s office. “And hopefully a bag full of Dust,” she muttered.

  “What was that?” Glitch asked through her comms.

  “Nothing. I’m going to wander up to the alley so I can fade without people noticing.” Of course, that meant she’d have to fade longer than she’d want to, considering her burgeoning new fear that she was somehow driving herself insane with the ability. She chewed her lower lip as she walked, trying not to think about it. When she reached the alley, she turned in a slow circle, ensuring no one was walking nearby, then she stepped around the corner.

  The alley was dark, the slush up to her ankles, and Addie shivered as she looked around, wary of any cameras, drones, or people seeking shelter. There was nothing but a row of recyclers about twenty meters down. She cleared her throat, then said, “I’m about to do it. Anything I need to know?”

  Glitch’s voice came to her, a little broken by static. “I have footage from the cams in the hall. As I said, he brought the bag in, and the open door showed him setting it down under a chair by his desk. Nobody’s brought it out since then.”

  “Connection is spotty. You picking me up okay?”

  “You’re clear. It’s probably the storm. Got you on the map. Once you, um, unfade, we’ll see you and bring the van.”

  “Right. Okay, see you soon.”

  “Careful, Ads,” Beef said.

  Addie knew he was trying to be reassuring, but his out-of-character words left her feeling more stressed. Eager for some relief from the cold, she pushed aside her fears and gathered up the Dust in her reactor, shaping it almost reflexively as she spread it out around herself. The world shifted into shades of blue, the cold fell away, and Addie hurried back around the corner toward the window she’d mentally marked on her way past.

  Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t keep the tingle of paranoia from running up and down her spine as she walked. She looked left and right, even whirled once to look behind herself, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary—just a few bundled-up people and an occasional vehicle moving past. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to stay on task, and when she reached the window, she stepped through it.

  When her face passed through the dark plastiglass, she found herself standing in a surprisingly small office. Her body occupied a small credenza atop which sat an aquarium, and when she realized there were fish in it, Addie panicked and hurried forward. It was too late, though; the poor things—four fancy-looking fish with beautiful colors and delicate, wavy fins—were already floating to the surface, dead.

  Addie stared at the dead fish, frozen by the idea that she’d just snuffed their lives out by passing through their bodies. Before she could wallow in her guilt, though, a red light on the tank began to flash. The aquarium was fancy—it had little cams in each corner. Addie knew people with similar setups; they were obsessed with their pets, watching them on their AUIs when they weren’t there in person. Was Basil Denny like that? The fact that the aquarium was flashing an alert told her that he probably was.

  She glanced toward the door. It was shut, but what if he was in the building? How soon would he come running to see what was wrong with his little pets? Panic setting in, Addie hurried over to his desk, saw the chair Glitch must have been talking about, and froze again when she didn’t see a bag underneath it. “Dammit!” she hissed into the veil. As her heart raced, she scanned the room, looking for a closet or a…metal storage cabinet.

  Addie ran around the desk to the cabinet. It had three drawers, but the little digital print reader flashed red—locks engaged. Before she got bogged down trying to figure out that little puzzle, Addie scanned the room, making sure there wasn’t another place the bag might have been stashed. She didn’t see anything. The desk was glass-topped with no drawers. Other than that, the room held only a bookcase, a few chairs, and a large synthetic fern.

  Addie turned back to the cabinet. Gritting her teeth, she pushed her face through the front panel of the top drawer. It was dark inside, but the veil always had a strange, bluish ambient light, and she saw some small electronic devices, a bottle of booze, and a pair of tumblers. Addie pulled her face out and leaned over to peer into the second drawer. A wave of relief washed over her when she saw a medium-sized black duffel. “Bingo,” she said, then the door behind her beeped and clicked open.

  Adrenaline shot through her, and Addie straightened, whirling to watch as a muscular, almost too-fit middle-aged man with neatly trimmed gray hair stormed into the room. He walked directly to the aquarium, his face a mask of despair as he wailed, “Oh, no!” He leaned forward, staring at the four dead fish. “How did this happen?” He sounded utterly ruined, and Addie almost felt sorry for him. Then she reminded herself that this man was, if she and the others were correct, a corporate thief who’d killed a bunch of people at his company’s R&D lab to steal some Dust—that she, in turn, hoped to steal.

  He straightened and whirled, peering into the corners of the room as he muttered, “Hanson, if you did this… No, no. This is too far. He wouldn’t.” He walked over to the desk, and Addie had to step to the side, moving behind the cabinet to avoid him brushing against her. He sat down in the office chair not two meters from her, and then, as his eyes went blank, he spoke again, “Get me Langston.” A moment passed, and then he shook his head. “I don’t care. Interrupt it.”

  Addie realized she couldn’t afford to stand there forever, waiting for him to get back to wherever he’d been before she’d killed his fish. Why had they even died? Was it because they were so small and her presence had somehow disrupted their… what? Their brains’ electrical signals or something? She’d honestly thought a fade would only hurt someone if they materialized out of the veil inside their bodies—

  “Get over here ASAP. I think we should move it. I know, I know. Something’s not right, though. Anyway, things are cooling off… Shut up. Jesus, man, think about your words.”

  Fresh panic washed over Addie, spurring her to action. She leaned toward the cabinet, pushed her face through the side, and into the second compartment, so she could see what she was doing. Then, she pushed an arm through. She carefully unwrapped the Dust from her hand, grabbed one of the duffel’s straps, and then, as fast as she could, spread the Dust over her hand again, and then out, over the entire bag.

  It was a clumsy mesh, and part of the pattern was missing underneath the bag, but she knew she could “brute force” it. She had enough Dust for a minute or two like that. She was just starting to pull her arm and the bag out of the side of the cabinet when a weird shiver ran down her spine, and something cold tickled her flesh.

  “It’s here again. Warm…” The sibilant, hissing whisper sounded right behind her, and Addie yelped, jerking the bag out of the cabinet. To her horror, the part of the bag she was counting on forcing into the veil slipped out and caught on the metal, ripping as it hung up, rattling the cabinet in the process.

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  “The fuck?” Denny flew out of his chair, staring at the cabinet.

  Meanwhile, Addie had whirled, trying to see what had whispered, but there was nothing there. Still, the chills on her spine persisted, and her heart hammered in her chest. She clutched the ripped bag with both hands, tilting it up so that the hole was at the top. As Denny approached the cabinet, she stepped to the side and, with some panicked efforts, spread her Dust web over the bag more thoroughly, concealing it inside the veil.

  As Denny reached a thumb toward the print scanner, Addie practically dove through the window, emerging onto the sleet-soaked sidewalk. She didn’t come out of the veil, but turned and ran. As she moved, more whispers chased her: “Warm! It came! Ours!”

  Addie screamed as she bolted across the street, crossing paths with a plow truck. It passed through her, and as she mounted the far sidewalk, she cried out again—an inarticulate, panicked, disgusted sound—certain that whatever was whispering, whatever had touched her, was right behind her. She sprinted for the corner, turned left, and, finally out of sight of the windows and cams of the Rise building, she pulled her Dust back into her reactor, but not before another frigid touch clawed at her shoulder and a whispered breath tickled her ear, “Stay!”

  “Get off!” Addie screamed as the cold of the physical world slammed into her.

  “Ads?” Beef asked, worry in his voice.

  “I see you, Addie! We’re coming! Keep moving; something’s up in the security building. Alarms are sounding,” Glitch said.

  Addie barely heard them. She was running with the bag clutched against her chest. For the first time, she spared a thought for the contents—it wasn’t anything soft. It was a rigid, slightly springy, oblong container, and it was heavy. Could it be what they sought? Could it be a million bits worth of Dust? She looked over her shoulder, half expecting some sort of specter to be there, howling madly, chasing her with wicked claws. Nothing was there. Still, she ran.

  “We’ll get you at the next corner,” Glitch said through comms.

  Addie ran, gasping as she realized her left arm felt numb. She wriggled her fingers where they grasped the bag, and she felt the fabric, but it didn’t feel right; it was like her nerves were half-dead. Was it just the cold? She wriggled her other hand, and it felt fine. Was it the thing that had grabbed her shoulder? She looked at her shoulder as she ran, and her eyes bulged out when she saw the rips in the yellow fabric. Then her foot went off the curb, and she slipped on the slushy ice in the gutter, sliding like she was trying to steal home base into the street.

  The hum of the van, the squelch of its tires, and the creak of a door opening came to her as she stared up into the gray sky, watching the flakes of snow swirl. “Ads!” Beef cried, boots stomping, chains jangling as he ran to her. His heavy hands grabbed and lifted her as if she were a child. She still clutched the bag to her chest as he cradled her against himself, turned to the van, and with a grunt, stepped up and in, causing the new shocks Tony had installed to hiss as they adjusted to their combined weight.

  “What’s wrong?” Glitch asked.

  “Dunno,” Beef replied, leaning forward to deposit Addie onto the jump seat. “Get us moving.”

  “Close the door,” Glitch replied, but the van was already rolling as he turned to comply.

  Addie sat up, wincing at the icy water soaking her pants. Her teeth chattered as she held her left hand up, squeezing it into a fist and releasing it. “It works…” she said, her voice a near whisper.

  “The hell happened to you?” Beef asked, lurching past the storage box to collapse onto the seat beside her.

  “I slipped.”

  “Bullshit,” he growled.

  “Who were you yelling at?” Glitch asked, swiveling in the driver’s chair now that they were on the move and the van’s AI had taken control.

  “N-nothing,” Addie muttered, clenching her hand open and closed again.

  “Quit bullshitting. What happened to your shoulder?” Beef pulled on the ripped fabric, and Addie tried to jerk away, but his fingers were strong, and so was the material; she didn’t move much. “Your fuckin’ skin is blistered. Did they blast you with something?”

  Addie groaned, shaking her head, suddenly feeling a wash of nausea and lightheadedness.

  “Ads,” Glitch said, her voice soft, almost tender. “What is it?”

  Perhaps impatient with her, or seeing she wasn’t dead or captured, and deciding answers could wait, Beef took hold of the duffel bag. “At least you got the package.”

  “Is it in there?” Addie asked, welcoming the distraction.

  Beef yanked the zipper open, pulled out an oblong, insulated polymer case, then cursed, stood, and threw the back door open. “Fuckin’ tracker in here!” He threw the bag out into the slushy mist behind the van, then pulled the door shut.

  Glitch sighed, watching him. “Relax. The jammer would’ve covered it.”

  “Now it’s out, though,” Addie pointed out.

  The netjacker nodded. “Yeah, well, be thankful for the storm. Drones aren’t going to be watching every street and vehicle.”

  Beef sat back down with the insulated case, then cursed again, stood, and passed it to Glitch. “It’s got a biometric lock on it.”

  “Right. I’ll crack it.” She smiled as she took it and flashed Addie a thumbs-up. “It’s the right kind of case, though.”

  Addie nodded, closing her eyes, hardly hearing her as she rubbed her hand, praying that the feeling would return to normal.

  “Ads,” Beef said, his voice low and soft, “just tell me what happened. What’s up with your hand?”

  His genuine-sounding concern unlocked something in her that his earlier demands hadn’t. Moisture welled in her eyes, and she shook her head. “I don’t know. Something—something in the veil. The place where I go when I fade. Something chased me. It knew me, Beef.”

  “What the shit? There are things in there?”

  Addie chuckled softly, thankful for his blunt language. “I don’t know. I guess so? At first I thought I was losing it, but then, this time…” She gingerly reached up and touched her shoulder, wincing as she realized it was sore. She took it as a good sign that maybe her feeling was coming back.

  “There was another time?” Glitch asked, looking up from the little device she was attaching to the insulated container.

  “Just tonight.” Addie glanced at the clock on her AUI. “Er, last night. At Motor’s.”

  Glitch snapped her fingers. “That’s why you were acting spooked in his apartment?”

  Addie nodded. “Yeah. I saw glimpses of things moving. I felt cold…spots, I guess.”

  “And you never heard anything about a problem like this?”

  “No! I mean, who would I ask?” She sighed, leaning back, but wincing as pain lanced through her shoulder. “I guess I’ll talk to Pyroshi about it when we get back.”

  “That’s the goofy old spark teaching you about this shit?”

  Addie laughed weakly, punching his enormous thigh. “Don’t be rude.”

  “What did I say?” He managed to look wounded, and Addie laughed again.

  “I love you, Beef,” she whispered, closing her eyes again.

  “Too bad I’m—”

  “Taken. Right.” Addie snorted, opening one eye to peer at Glitch. The other woman wasn’t looking at her, but she was smiling.

  “Should have this open in a couple of minutes. Beef, hon, will you please spray Addie’s shoulder with something? I mean, if it really looks burned.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Addie heard Beef move over to the storage box and rifle through it. “Got some of those bugs T bought.”

  “How far to the checkpoint?” Addie asked.

  “We’re not going,” Glitch said. “No way we’re gonna let you fade again this morning, and there’s no chance they won’t spot this Dust if we try to drive through with it, even in the smuggling box. They’re on high alert. We’ll get a cheap hotel for a day or two.”

  Beef grunted. “You sure that’s Dust? What if it’s the corpo pig’s protein shakes?”

  Addie ignored him, staring at Glitch. “I can do it—”

  “Nah, doll,” Beef said, the amused, almost mean glint in his eye saying he knew the label would irritate her. “Glitch’s right. We ain’t doing that again for a while.”

  It was Addie’s turn to growl. “We?”

  “We’re a team, ain’t we?” He lifted out a small spray applicator and moved back to the jump seat. “Take your coat off.”

  Addie wanted to argue, but a voice in her head was telling her to be quiet—to take the win. She didn’t want to fade again, at least not until she’d had a chance to rest and talk to Pyroshi. Hopefully, he’d know something, and if not, maybe he’d know where she could look for answers. So, wincing and grimacing in pain, she shrugged out of her coat, eyes wide as she took in the shredded state of her T-shirt underneath.

  “Jesus, Ads,” Beef hissed through clenched teeth as he finished ripping her T-shirt, revealing three blistered red welts. He lifted the applicator and sprayed a liberal layer of nanite-infused foam onto the sore skin. It was cold, but it brought instant relief.

  Addie sighed, her face relaxing as she leaned against his shoulder. “Thanks, Beef.”

  “Got it!” Glitch announced.

  Addie opened her eyes enough to watch as the netjacker gingerly opened the top of the insulated case, revealing twenty-four vials of glittering, high-grade Dust.

  “Hell yeah!” Beef crowed. “You did it, Ads!”

  Addie smiled, patting his enormous knee. “We did it, you big dummy.” She turned toward Glitch, locking eyes with her. “Hope you’re ready to go shopping.”