The Burn Zone (12 page)

The hotel room offered little more than a dingy closet with a single twin bed and an end table with a plastic lamp. It had its own toilet, though, and the tiny bathroom had a standing shower stall, as promised.

As the door latched behind me, I tossed my pack on the bed and peeled off my tank top. It was stained with blood and there were some holes in it, but it was going to have to do for now because I hadn
’
t thought to grab another one before I left the apartment. I kicked off my shoes and wiggled out of my pants, then hung the clothes on the curtain rod to try and dry them out a little, stopping for a minute to look out at the streets below. I could see my apartment down the street, where another police aircar cruised down from the sky lane to join the others on the ground.

What am I going to do?

I didn
’
t have a good answer to that at the moment. I just stared through the sheets of rain that washed down over the window, and watched the lights stream by until
my stomach growled and I remembered the ration. There was no point saving it now.

I unzipped the pack and found that the guards hadn
’
t looked inside, or if they had, they didn
’
t confiscate anything. One piece of good luck anyway. I grabbed the ration and carried it into the bathroom, where I turned the shower dial to a single rinse. The pipes thumped in the wall, and while the water tank filled I pulled the plastic wrapper off the ration and ate the dry crunchy puck while sitting on the toilet.

As the food made its way down to my belly, the pounding in my head eased somewhat, but it didn
’
t do much to stop t
h
e empty ache. I felt a tickle on my cheek and wiped my eyes. Once they started, the tears wouldn
’
t seem to stop. They
’
d beaten him so bad. He was knocked out, facedown, and bleeding, but they
’
d just kept beating him. How could they do that?

“
I love you like you were my own flesh and blood....
”

Dragan never said stuff like that. He just didn
’
t. He pushed. He teased. He yelled sometimes, and swore. He didn
’
t tell people he loved them, not even when he did.

It had taken me so long to trust him. The thought chafed in my mind as I chewed bitter scalefly that was supposed to be his. I
’
d spent too long waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to beat me, or touch me like so many other
men had done or tried to do. It felt like time wasted now, and I realized that I was starting to get scared, really scared, that I
’
d never see him again.

I swallowed the last of the cake. What would I do without him? Ling kept saying I should be going off on my own, that most people my age couldn
’
t wait to get out of the house. She acted like it wasn
’
t normal not to have any plans to leave, but the truth was I just wasn
’
t ready to go. I didn
’
t want to go. I wanted things to stay the way they were. I just wanted to hang out, bitch about work, and go to Fangwenzhe Festival with him instead of using
it as a place to pickpocket. Even when he got on my case, there was a small part of me that kind of liked it. It made me feel like I was his real kid. What was I going to do if
—

The tank thumped and the hiss of water ended in a muted dribble. I climbed in and stood under the shower-head, rubbing alcohol gel over my bare skin even when the cuts lit up like fire. The slice from when I
’
d picked up the glass shard burned so bad it made my nose run as I wiped my hands off in my hair, then turned the faucet and let the liter of hot water dribble down over me. I rinsed the cleanser away as best I could and scrubbed the funk out of my hair until the last drops patted down on top of my head. Then I leaned against the wall for a while, looking down my flat chest at the ridges of my ribs and feeling dizzy.

When I stepped back out into the hotel room naked, I saw an arc of blue lightning flash over the top of the skyline through the mist outside. Way off, another building lit up and began to fall as fat drops splashed off the window. I kept the light off and grabbed the bottle of shine from my backpack. I cracked it and took a big gulp, then let out a long breath and crooked my neck to reactivate the 3i feed.

Vamp, it
’
s me.

Sam, are you okay?

Yeah.

I took another swig off the bottle, and fished the pistol out of the backpack.

You
’
re all over the news.

I know. I
’
m okay.

Where are you?

Someplace safe.
Don
’
t worry.

Don
’
t worry?

I headed over to the window and sat on the sill with my head against the glass, peering through the rain
toward my apartment building. I pointed the gun up toward our balcony,
then
squinted through the scope, trying to frame it.

They took Dragan,
I said.

He paused, his heart icon beating several times before answering,
I
know. Did you hear what they
’
re saying?

No. What
who
’
s
saying?

The feeds are already buzzing. Word is he got picked up for smuggling some kind of weapon into Hangfei.
Something bad.

I clenched my jaw.
That
’
s bullshit.

I
’
m just telling you, that
’
s what they
’
re saying.

What do they mean
“
weapon
”
? Like a bomb or something?

No one knows. It sounds like it
’
s worse than that.

It
’
s bullshit.

I know.

You better know.

I found the edge of the shattered glass through the scope and followed it to our balcony, where one of the curtains flapped in the open air like an ugly flag. There were lights on inside, and I could make out movement.

Where are you? I
’
ll come over.

You can
’
t, security
’
s got
Tùzi-wō
locked down. I
’
m going to hole up for tonight and lie low. I
’
ll message you tomorrow once things have cooled down a little.
Another pause.

Okay.

I wanted to tell him what happened, to tell someone what happened, but they might actually be scanning the feeds for keywords and I didn
’
t want to risk it. Not until
I
was ready to put some distance between me and
Tùzi-wō
.

I put a call in to Kang. I can trust him. Hopefully he
’
ll get back to me soon.

Isn
’
t he with security? What if he just comes after you instead?

He doesn
’
t know where I am. I know it
’
s not perfect, but I need info, Vamp. I need to know something, anything.

Okay, I get it.

Dragon isn
’
t a traitor.

I know.

Peering through the pistol
’
s scope, I adjusted the zoom until I could see past the mangled railing and through the hole the airbike had left. Something moved inside again, and I spotted a shadow cast on one wall as whoever was there stepped in front of the light. It was someone big, someone tall, but there was something weird about him, like he had a sheet draped over him.

“
What in hell?
”
I said under my breath. The shape moved, and seemed to come apart as a series of ropy silhouettes undulated slowly across the drywall.

I blinked and rubbed my eye, but when I looked again the shadow was just the shadow of a man wearing a helmet and poncho. I sighed, lowering the pistol before tossing it on the bed. All the adrenaline had burned through whatever meds were left in my system, and all I had in hand was the shine. It was going to be a long night.

Can you come tomorrow? Once things have cooled off?
I asked him.

You got it.

Thunder rolled as I took another swallow from the bottle. It burned going down, but it helped keep my hands steady. I took another one and leaned against the window. Below, clusters of rain-slick, helmeted heads moved down the street through an alternating blue and red strobe while the whoop of a siren occasionally drifted up. I brought up the eyebot again and watched the orange markers move in time with the officers on the street.

The eyebot works really well,
I sent.
Are the security guys tracked by people who are running the app, watching from windows?

Mostly.
Some are on the street. If you
’
re watching now then your feed is part of the model.

You realize they
’
re going to crack down on this, right? Hwong isn
’
t going to like people being able to track any officer or soldier who...

I perked up a little suddenly, wiping breath fog from the window. As the helmeted heads moved, so did the markers.

What?

Does this thing keep a log?

You mean like a history of troop movements? The users can
’
t access it, but yeah, I store it so we can see how operations like this play out.

How many people are running it?

Actively running it, I
’
m not sure. Downloads are in the tens of thousands, though.

Then could I use it to track Dragan maybe?

Someone has to see the guys who took him. He
’
s wherever he
’
s going by now.

Not track where he is now. I want to know where he was between the time he came back to Hangfei and the time he got to the apartment.

The app only tags security, though. A person only gets painted if he
’
s fitted with a security transponder.

Dragan was still kitted when he came home.

Vamp thought about that for a minute.
Okay, yeah. He
’
d get picked up for sure then.

Can you find him?

Problem is, with the sweep and now the mess at your place, he
’
d be like a needle in a haystack.

Can you do it?

He wasn
’
t part of the sweep, so he might have been out of the main jumble. I don
’
t know if I can pick him out of the general noise of regular patrols, but I
’
ll see what I can do.