The Burn Zone (41 page)

“
Yeah, yeah,
”
he said.
“
Get out of here.
”

“
Thanks again.
”

As I moved out from behind the counter, he tossed me a free smoke and I caught it. I stuck it in the corner of my mouth and blew him a kiss.

“
If you do find him,
”
he called,
“
like I said, he likes being a father. Let him be that.
”

I nodded.
“
Come on, guys.
”

Nix and Vamp exchanged glances, and then followed behind me as I stepped back out into the square.

“
You got the rations?
”
Vamp asked as the door closed behind us.

“
I got them,
”
I said.
“
If we hustle we can be there in thirty.
”

“
Are we actually going to pull this off?
”
Vamp asked. I checked the time.

“
We
’
ll make it,
”
I said, and wished I was as sure as I sounded.

~ * ~

Chapter Fifteen

07:41:13 BC

At the far end of Render
’
s Strip, the dispensaries and eateries trickled out into a shantytown built on the remains of the Pot
’
s old construction site. The temporary housing structures used by the crews fifty years prior were abandoned when the money ran out and eventually taken over by squatters. Old one-room homes, storage shacks, and even portable bathrooms had all grown into a massive commune over the years, glued together by new units of varying quality that sprouted up in the empty spaces. Tarps covered leaky roofs, tied down over clusters of shacks and spanning the winding makeshift paths between structures that served as streets.

Hanging out in the packed patches of dirt that served as yards to some of the homes were groups of filthy, scrawny people dressed in Dumpster clothes. Some sat in salvaged lawn furniture, while others just sat on the ground sharing smokes and playing cards. A lot of them didn
’
t seem to be doing much else other than sitting back to watch the tide go out near the edge of the flats beyond, and the distant hulks of foreign ships that loomed on the horizon.

Vamp was crowding me, walking with a confident, aggressive strut that said
Don
’
t
come near us,
while Nix stuck close behind. The crowds of squatters were interested in us, but unlike the Row punks, none of them seemed aggressive so far. They seemed more fascinated by Nix than anything. I doubted haan ever came into their territory.

“
This place is a shit-hole,
”
Vamp muttered, and an old woman glared at us as we passed by. She and a man I imagined was her husband sat on folding chairs in front of a little TV. A cable trailed from the back of its cracked, yellow shell and off into the maze of shacks.

“
Then get the fuck out, shit-head,
”
the woman said.

“
He
’
s sorry,
”
I told her.

“
Never mind them.
”
The man yawned.

“
You
’
re on the wrong side of town, assholes,
”
she muttered.

“
You
’
re from the ship, huh?
”
a new voice asked. I looked down to see a filthy little girl tugging on the tail of Nix
’
s jacket. He looked down at her, and when the triad of pupils in each eye revolved in a slow circle, the girl smiled.

“
No,
”
Nix said. She narrowed her eyes, still grinning as she put her hands on her narrow hips.

“
Yes, you are,
”
she said. She pointed back over the roofs of the shantytown where off in the distance you could see the main tower of the ship looming up above the rest of the skyline.
“
You
’
re one of them.
”

“
I am,
”
Nix said, his voice box flashing,
“
but I live in the settlement of Shangzho, not the ship.
”

“
Why?
”

“
So I can be closer to your kind.
”

“
Why?
”

“
It will help us learn to live together.
”

The girl scrunched her brow.

“
If you want to live together, then why don
’
t you just take down the force field?
”
she asked.

“
Yeah, Nix,
”
I said.
“
Why don
’
t you just take down the force field?
”

“
Yeah, just take it down,
”
the girl said, holding out her hands.

“
Because my people are afraid to,
”
Nix said.

“
But the failsafe can zap through it anyway.
”

“
True,
”
Nix said,
“
but your people would have to be very, very angry to do something like that.
”

He knelt down and placed his hand on her nest of dirty hair, stroking it gently before resting his fingers along the back of her scrawny little neck.

“
We will take it down one day,
”
he said.

“
When?
”

“
Someday.
”

She nodded,
then
abruptly changed the subject.

“
My grandmother said you promised to fix everything,
”
she said.
“
Before you came out of the ship, you promised.
”

“
That
’
s true.
”

“
Are you really going to save the world like she said?
”
she asked.

“
No.
”

“
No?
”

“
You are,
”
he said,
“
but we will help you.
”

A woman stepped out of the crowd and grabbed the girl by the arm. She jerked her away from Nix so violently that the poor thing fell back into the dirt, half dangling from one arm as she was dragged away.

“
Get away from it,
”
the woman hissed. Her face was pinched, and pockmarked from chronic chem use.

“
Hey,
”
I called after her.
“
Take it easy.
”

“
Fuck you,
”
she spat. The girl had recovered her footing and, apparently used to the treatment, followed along after the woman without
so
much as a complaint. She looked back over her shoulder as they went, and waved at Nix.

“
Let
’
s go,
”
Vamp said, pointing down the row of shacks.
“
The sooner we
’
re out of here, the better.
”

“
Hang on.
”

I backed out of the GPS and tried the phone number I
’
d dug up for the address again, letting it ring while I plugged one ear. Up ahead was the big gate that led into the project. It looked like it might have been impressive at one time, but now it was rain rusted and corroded from exposure to sea air and scalefly spray. It still stood tall, though, with a weathered sign over the arch: ZUN-ZHE.

The skyline shot up steeply past the gate where the housing project began. Dragan said the whole thing was some effort from back before the haan to resection the city and ease congestion. According to him, all it did, though, was mass everyone whose income level forced them to take the deal
into one of the most overpopulated spots in the city, while everyone who could afford not to live there got
“
an extra inch of space.
”

“
Still no answer,
”
I said.

“
How are we going to find anything in there?
”
Vamp mumbled.

“
We have an address,
”
I said, looking past the gate and into the tightly packed urban sprawl. I was a little unsure myself.
“
No sweat.
”

The streets through the Pot were narrow with no shoulders and rows of buildings that practically scraped up against each other lined the sides. Stoops at the front entrance of each stepped right off the curb and into the street. In the cramped alleyways I saw the odd motorbike or bicycle along with scattered trash. Small windows crowded each building face, and overhead a bedsheet flapped from one of them, unable to dry in the humid air. It made
Tùzi-wō
look roomy.

Ten minutes later, I thought I
’
d located the right building. It wasn
’
t marked, but the one to its left was. Three stories up a plastic tarp had been stretched between several of the windows on opposite sides of the
street, maybe to create shade or to catch rain from the gutter there. No one mingled on the sidewalks, and the whole area was strangely quiet. I checked the address again.

“
This should be it,
”
I said.

There was no lock on the front entrance, and it opened into a dimly lit cubby whose walls were lined with little mailbox doors. Each one required a key and a few hung open. Through a doorway up ahead, a feeble light shone over the landing of a narrow stairway leading up. Two elevator doors on the wall across from it were plastered with faded recruitment posters. Pasted over those was a strip of plastic tape that read Out of Order.

After nine flights, I thought I might keel over. When I finally pushed through the stairwell door, I had to stop and lean back against the wall to catch my breath.

“
Gonzo,
”
I muttered. I looked over at Nix, who, obnoxiously, didn
’
t seem fazed at all by the climb. Even more obnoxiously, Vamp didn
’
t either.

“
Aw, you tired?
”
he asked.

“
I
’
d hate to be an old person and have to make this climb every day.
”

“
You are not an old person,
”
Nix pointed out.

“
I didn
’
t say I was.
”

“
Your body is substandard because you smoke and take too many
chems
,
”
he added.

Vamp laughed suddenly through his nose.

“
Shut up,
”
I said, wiping sweat from my brow with my
equally sweaty wrist.
“
Haan have better stamina
...
That
’
s just, like, physics.
”