imperfect (19 page)

“
You looking for trouble
or what?” demanded Troop.

“
No. I’m trying to stop
trouble from happening.”

Mason faked a blow to
Troop’s face and swept his leg out, hitting Troop behind the knees.
Troop lurched forwards, the backs of his legs throbbing.
There’s no way I can outfight Mason—he outweighs
me by at least fifty pounds.

Troop ignored his pains
and pushed himself up. He spun around and backhanded Mason hard
enough to send him backwards a few feet. However, he barely had the
time to blink before Mason knocked him onto his back. Troop rolled
over, popped up and then landed a square punch into Mason’s gut.
Mason elbowed Troop hard and the two of them landed on the ground
with enough force to knock over a solar-car.

Clump. Clump. Clump.

They hastily detangled
themselves when a patrol of three law enforcers peered into the
alley. Mason pierced Troop with a look that could have skewered
steel. Nevertheless, he remained at a distance away from
Troop.

“
Fighting is a public
crime,” said a uniformed officer.

“
Any idiot knows that,”
Mason muttered.

The officer shot Mason a dark look. “I am
issuing both of you a warning and a fifty point fine. Names?”

When neither Troop nor
Mason offered their names, the officer rumbled impatiently then
said, “I will increase your fine to a hundred points each if you
don’t hurry up and tell me your names. I have better things to do
than waste my time on this.”

“
Troop Mendax.”

An officer typed something into his
electro-slate and said, “ID.”

Troop passed his ID card to the closest
officer. The officer entered more information into his
electro-slate, and then returned the card back to Troop.

“
Fifty points has been
deducted from your account. A warning has been added to your
records as well. If you are caught fighting again, there will be
harsher consequences than a fine and warning. Am I
clear?”

Troop nodded.

The officer turned to Mason expectantly.

“
Mason Fusran.” He passed
his ID card to the officer.

The officer entered
Mason’s information to his slate. His eyebrows furrowed in
confusion. He pulled another law enforcer to his side and pointed
to something on the electro-slate.

Troop craved to know what was so interesting
about Mason’s ID.

The officer holding the
electro-slate stammered, “Ah, Mason, we’re terribly sorry about
this misunderstanding. We didn’t know—”

Mason seized the man by
the throat and hissed, “Are you stupid? Don’t. Say.
Anything.”

Then he released his grip. The officer
slumped down, rubbing his throat. Mason stalked out of the
alley.

An officer motioned for
Troop to get out of there. So he did.

chapter
twenty-one

[ Kristi ]

Kristi woke to a dull pain
blossoming in the center of her chest.
She
hadn’t gotten much sleep last night because the solar lamp’s
brightness never permitted her to fully sink into sleep’s embrace.
If anything, Kristi felt more exhausted than before.

Jaiden and Chelsa were still fast asleep, so
she took great care not to wake them up when she crawled
outside.

The storm had left an additional foot of
snow on top of the three feet from previous days. Kristi stood up
in the knee-deep snow and accidently bumped her head against the
branches of the willow tree, causing the snow that had accumulated
on the branches to plop onto the tent.

“
What the heck!” came a
muffled shout from inside the tent.

So much for trying not to wake Chelsa and
Jaiden up.

A red-cheeked Chelsa poked her head out of
the snow-flattened tent to see what had happened, then re-emerged
when she got her boots on.

“
What’s going on?” Jaiden
asked, still inside the tent.

Chelsa, who was outside, answered, “Kristi
tried to squash us beneath a ton of snow.”

“
Hm,” said Jaiden. “Murder
by Snow. That would make a great murder mystery.”

Ghost crept into the camp, carrying a dead
bird in his mouth. He dropped the bird by Chelsa’s feet, giving
Kristi a clear view of the prey. It was a flashy, colorful creature
with bright green plumages and a striking blue head. Ghost finished
washing his paws and picked apart his meal.

Kristi looked away, not wanting to see the
beautiful animal become a bloody mess of bones and entrails.

“
Can you pass me the tent
bag?” Jaiden asked.

Kristi stooped down, picked up the canvas
sack and passed it off to Jaiden. He and Chelsa efficiently packed
away the tent and they were ready to set off. Kristi grabbed the
front of Mist’s saddle and stuck her left foot into the
stirrup.

“
Ow!” she gasped. She
lifted her foot out of the stirrup and stood still, massaging her
aching ribs.

“
I forgot you got hurt
last night,” Chelsa said. “Why didn’t you remind me? I could’ve
rebound your wrist if only you had asked.”

“
The cold partially numbs
the pain snd my wrist should be fine; it’s just my ribs that hurt
really bad when I tried to mount Mist.”

“
Do you need a leg up?”
Jaiden asked.

“
That’ll be great.” She
accepted Jaiden’s boost into the saddle, gritting her teeth. Once
she was remotely comfortable in the saddle, the pain lessened and
she relaxed.

Chelsa navigated her horse onto the road and
determined the direction where New Amsterdam lay. Kristi bit her
tongue every time Mist took a step; her upper ribcage complained at
the jarring movement. She made sure Jaiden and Chelsa were in front
of her, so they wouldn’t notice her grimacing every time Mist took
an extra bumpy stride; both of them had enough to worry about
without Kristi adding to their list.

After an hour, her tongue was a bloody
mess.

The droid-horses picked
up
the pace, sensing their rider’s
eagerness to arrive at New Amsterdam. The town of New Amsterdam
greeted Kristi’s eyes. It wasn’t a big town, probably a mile wide
at most. Either way, she was heartened to see plowed roads, coffee
shops and an inn advertising vacant rooms.

“
Let’s check into an inn
first,” she said. “I need to get out of the saddle and stretch my
legs.”

“
Same,” said Chelsa. Her
eyes lit upon an inn. “Let’s go check out Country Inn.”

The deeper they rode into New Amsterdam, the
more wanted posters of Jaiden and Kristi appeared. The posters were
taped to the windows of many shops, posted on public bulletin
boards and nailed onto trees. Thankfully, the pictures were the
same ones Kristi saw in Oxfield, which meant the government hadn’t
realized Jaiden and she had changed their looks yet.

New Amsterdam wasn’t like the city she used
to live in; this place was obviously accustomed to the old way of
living. Although such civilizations weren’t unheard of, they
certainly weren’t common. There were no public news-screens, street
cameras or droid-pets roaming the streets. The houses were built
out of wood—real wood, not synthetic wood.

Kristi dismounted with care, not wanting to
jar her ribs too much. They tied their horses to the hitching post
and entered Country Inn.

“
Are you looking to lodge
here for the night?” a pleasant looking woman greeted the trio from
behind a solid oak desk.

The interior of the reception room was
painted a warm red and an electric fireplace cast a cheery
glow.

“
Yes,” Chelsa
said.

“
Room for
three?”

Chelsa nodded and added, “Do you have a
stable for our droid-horses as well?”

“
Country Inn doesn’t have
a stable, but if you go down Cherry Lane you can lodge your horses
at Blossom Barns.”

“
Thanks,” Chelsa said.
“How many points will it cost to spend a night here?”

“
150 points.” The woman
waited until Chelsa had transferred the points to her account then
showed them to their room.

Like the rest of the inn, the room had a
rustic feel to it. The walls were painted a soft yellow and there
were two twin cots and one futon in the room. A soft, braided rug
lay in the center of the hardwood-floored room to keep out the
chill.

“
Stay here,” Chelsa
ordered Kristi. “Jaiden and I will retrieve our bags and get the
horses settled in at Blossom Barn. Aside from the bone-growth
supplement tablets, is there anything else you want me to buy at
the drug store?”

“
No, I think I’m all set
here.”

Chelsa and Jaiden left the room then
returned shortly, dropping off their backpacks before leaving again
to buy the needed supplies.

First things first,
Kristi thought.
What I
need is a soak in the tub
. She filled the
bathtub with scalding water and dumped in two capfuls of
grapefruit-scented bubble bath. Once the water had cooled down
enough so that she wouldn’t burn herself upon contacting it, Kristi
sank into a blissful state of mind.

She re-examined her ribs and was horrified
to find the bruise covered about a third of her chest. It was a
patchwork of colors ranging from a sickly green to a deep purple.
In short, the bruise was not a pretty sight.

After the soak, Kristi moved all of the
filthy laundry into a bag. She heaved the sack over her shoulder
and stumbled into the laundry room.

No one occupied the laundry room except for
a well-dressed man. He didn’t look threatening or particularly
noticeable. Rather, it was the fact that the man seemed to be so
unnoticeable and mundane that caught Kristi’s attention; if she
hadn’t almost run into him upon entering the room, Kristi highly
doubted she would’ve noticed him at all.

“
Sorry,” she apologized to
the man, taking a step back before colliding into him. “Are you
using the washer and dryer?”

“
I’m just about done with
my laundry,” he said in a bland tone. “Go right ahead and use the
washing machine. I’ll be gone once I collect my stuff from the
dryer.”

She loaded the clothes into the washer,
feeling the man’s eyes on her back the whole time. When the dryer
beeped to announce it was done, the man gathered up his clothes
into a satchel and left without a sound.

Jaiden found Kristi in
the
laundry room. She had dozed off,
waiting for the clothes to finish drying in the dryer.

“
There you are,” he said.
“Chelsa and I couldn’t figure out where you went when we got back.
Here, take these tablets.” Jaiden handed her two white tablets and
a bottle of water.

“
Thanks.” Kristi swallowed
the bone-growth supplement tablets, making a face at the chalky
taste and texture. “Any news about Maria and Don?”

“
Their trial is in five
days.”

They lapsed into a thoughtful silence,
thinking about what would happen to Don and Maria if they were
deemed guilty. The outcomes weren’t exactly hopeful; at best, they
would be exiled from United Region, at worst, they would be
executed.

Although Kristi was hurt
that Maria and Don had lied to Jaiden and her and gotten them
tangled into
their
mess, she still didn’t want something terrible to happen to
them.

“
I’ll take care of the
laundry. You go back to our room and stay in bed for the rest of
the day,” Jaiden said, bringing Kristi out of her
thoughts.

“
Are you feeling better?”
Chelsa
asked Kristi the next
morning.

She tentatively flexed her wrist and was
delighted to find it no longer hurt. “My wrist is better, at any
rate.” Then she let herself have a big stretch and pain shot
through her ribs. “But my ribs still hurt.”

“
Do you think you can
ride?” Chelsa asked.

“
I should be able
to.”

Jaiden said, “I want to have a doctor look
at your ribs.”

“
I don’t think that’s
necessary,” Kristi said. “I managed just fine yesterday, didn’t
I?”
I don’t want to delay our traveling
with a doctor’s appointment.

However, Chelsa seemed to be considering
Jaiden’s words and said, “Jaiden’s right. We won’t be able to
travel at all if your ribs get worse. Jaiden, will you go ask
around for a doctor?”

“
There’s a reputable
doctor staying
at Country Inn,” Jaiden
informed them. He closed the door behind him. “Dr. Hanson is an
excellent doctor, according to the innkeeper. Apparently he travels
a lot because he is wanted in many places.”

“
What time will he see
Kristi?” Chelsa asked.

“
He’ll come up here around
7:30 a.m. So we have about half an hour before the
appointment.”

Kristi went to the bathroom to change and
brush her teeth. When she was done, Jaiden and Chelsa had already
prepared a breakfast of instant-waffles. They were just about
wrapping up breakfast when there was a soft knock at the door.

“
That would be Dr.
Hanson,” Jaiden said, striding open to the door to let the doctor
in.