Ultraviolet (4 page)

Seriously, I imagined doing all of that, all in an instant.

But I couldn’t move. I was still too scared of being seen, of getting caught, of getting hurt, or now, killed. I kept picturing that gun in his hand, the gun pointed at me, the sound of it, the sight of that gaping black hole full of bullets, real bullets, and how fast he had drawn it out of nowhere. So I didn’t move.

As I squatted there at the corner, I saw Frost pick up my parents and put them in the car, and then he got in and drove away.

Now I could move, now I magically had the power to run back to the alley and hide behind the recycling bin again as the car came back up the street and rolled quietly past me for the second time. When the car was gone, I just sat there on the cold concrete and cried.

I wanted someone to come and find me, to explain it to me, to tell me it was all going to be okay, to tell me what I needed to do to make it all okay.

But no one came.

No one explained it.

And I had no idea what to do.

Chapter 3
Negotiations

I knew I couldn’t sit in an alley, alone and crying, all night long. I’ll admit, there was a brief temptation to do it anyway, just to avoid dealing with everything, but instead I stood up and started walking. It was dark and getting colder. Fewer people on the streets, except for the joggers in their skin-tight pants and weird ergonomic shoes.

I hate joggers.

I headed back up toward the harbor, which was still a bad idea but for different reasons than before. The harbor area emptied out by nine or ten o’clock when all the stores and restaurants closed, which meant the only people around were people you didn’t want to run into. But I wanted to get out of the south side and the only way out was around the harbor.

My phone buzzed. Call from an unlisted number. I didn’t answer.

A minute later it buzzed again. This time it was a text from an unlisted number, most likely the same unlisted number. It said, “We have your parents in custody. Surrender to the nearest company office or police officer to secure their release.”

He didn’t name Cygnus Systems as the company in question. He didn’t need to. I stared at the message for a minute. It helped to know my parents were alive, or at least to believe they were alive. It was hard to believe Cygnus would kill innocent people over some rogue tech, but then… I’d heard the rumors. The sort of rumors you didn’t want to believe, but sounded just believable enough to make you worry.

I called Dom. No answer. I left him a text to call me, and then I called my friend Mercedes. She answered on the fourth ring, which seemed like a strange number to answer on to me. I know a lot of people don’t like to actually talk on the phone. I think that’s crazy. I pictured her standing there, staring at my name on her phone, trying to decide whether to pick up.

“Carmen?”

“Hey Mercy. How are things?”

“Are you kidding? How are you? You’re all over the news. Are you okay?”

“Not so much.”

My voice was steady. Fortunately, I’d gotten all the crying out of my system earlier and now, with the cold air in my face and my nerves all on edge as I walked around the Inner Harbor, my brain felt much clearer.

“Don’t worry, we’re scrambled, you can talk.”

I checked my phone to make sure she was right. Not everyone knows how to use their scrambler properly. “Thanks. Listen, so, you know I got fired from Cygnus a little while back, right?”

“Right.”

“So, I’ve sort of been using my spare time to invent something, and now there are some people who want it, and they want me, and there’s a Special involved, and my parents are in trouble.”

“Your parents?”

I bit my lip to keep my voice steady. “Yeah, they took my parents.”

“Oh my God!”

“Yeah, they want me to turn myself in.”

“What for? You broke the law?”

“I don’t think so. I think they’re just mad about the competition.”

“And they took your parents over that? That’s kidnapping! That’s crazy!”

“Yeah, it is. But this thing I made… it could sort of destroy their whole company. I mean, seriously, if I could sell it to Susquehanna Power or someone like that, I think it would put Cygnus out of business in less than a year.”

“Wow. Oh, Car. This is bad. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“Is there anyone you can trust, like a cop or a lawyer?”

“I don’t know any cops or lawyers. Do you?”

“No. Sorry.”

As I turned east around the Inner Harbor I glanced up at the USS
Constellation
, all wooden spars and masts and planks, floating proudly for no apparent reason in the center of the city. They said it was a tourist attraction, but I had never known anyone who had ever been in it. I certainly hadn’t.

“Hey Mercy, I hate to ask, but do you think you could loan me a couple dollars? My card’s all tapped out and I really could use something to eat.”

“Sure, no problem.”

My phone chimed. Transfer received.

“Thanks.”

“Hey Car, I have to run. Let me know if there’s anything else you need, okay?”

“Okay. Thanks again. Bye.”

I stopped at a vending machine under a streetlight to get some food. The burger came out all small and terrible, but it was hot and reminded me of all the box-burgers I had eaten as a kid, so the nostalgia smoothed over the indigestion. I was almost in Little Italy when I realized that I really had no idea where I was going or what I was doing, and I stopped. The streets were silent and empty. No people, no bikes, no cars.

I didn’t want to bug any more of my friends and risk getting them into trouble too. Besides, they’d all be like Mercy. No money, no connections, no idea how to deal with this mess. Just good intentions and well-wishes.

So I texted Dom, “I’m going to turn myself in.”

He called back immediately. “Don’t do it.”

“I have to.” I turned around and started walking back toward the harbor. There was a Cygnus office just across the street from the National Aquarium. There would be a guard at the desk. “I have to save my parents.”

“But you’ll go to jail. Not even a real jail, a private jail. You know what those places are like.”

No one knew what they were like. No one had ever been released from one.

“Yeah, I realize this plan of mine blows. Give me an alternative.”

“I will. We just need some time to think.”

“Every minute we spend thinking, my parents are spending as prisoners. No. I’m getting them out right now. They don’t deserve this. It’s my fault, my mess.”

“But they were shooting at you!”

“Yeah, I know.” I walked a little slower and wiggled my fingers in the tight mesh of the gloves. My amazing, stupid gloves. I took them off my hands and left them in my jacket pockets.

“Look, just come over to my place, crash for the night, and we’ll think of something in the morning, okay?”

“Thanks, Dom. But I can’t. I have to do this.” I didn’t have to, actually. And I definitely didn’t want to. But my feet kept walking toward the Cygnus building anyway.

“What if it’s a trick or a trap, and they don’t let your parents go?”

“Then I’m screwed.” I shrugged.

“No, come on, stop. Just stop for a minute.”

“Bye, Dom.” I hung up.

He called back. I ignored him. It was easier to walk up to the building without Dom reminding me of all the reasons not to, of all the things that could go wrong. I was just one good excuse away from turning and running. Instead, I opened the door to the brightly lit lobby of the Cygnus building and walked up to the desk.

The guard was an older man in a gray uniform who frowned at me. He looked like he frowned a lot.

“Carmen Zhao to see… uh, Mister Frost, I guess. I think he’s in security.”

The guard nodded and picked up the desk phone and started punching numbers and muttering to people on the other end. I didn’t try to listen. I didn’t look around. I looked at my feet and hoped that it would all be over soon.

I hate waiting.

“He’ll be with you in just a few minutes, if you want to take a seat.” The guard pointed to the couch on the other side of the lobby, and I sat down, alternately glancing at the front doors and at the rear elevators.

A few minutes passed. More like twenty.

A car pulled up in front of the building and I watched a man get out and walk to the doors.

Frost.

Watching him walk through the doors and approach me was my first real look at him, after he broke into my home, shot at me, chased me, and abducted my parents. He was pretty bland to look at. Clean shaven, short black hair, cheap black suit. He nodded to the security guard and then walked up to me. I stayed on the couch, my hands in my pockets, my stomach in knots.

“Miss Zhao, come with me.” He said it very calmly. In fact he sounded as tired as he looked. There was nothing smug or condescending about him, no barking orders, no threats. Just another boring guy in a suit.

I stood up and walked with him back to the car. He opened the door to the back seat, but then held out his hand. “The gloves.”

“No.” I stepped back. “Not until my parents are home.”

“I can’t let you walk around with a weapon like that.”

My mind raced. “I don’t have them on me. I hid them. Let my parents go, and then I’ll tell you where they are. Okay?”

He sighed.

“And they’re not weapons, anyway. They’re tools. They’re every tool. Screwdrivers and spatulas. They’re to help people, and to save money.” The sales pitch sounded pretty pathetic, so I stopped. There’s a reason I’m an engineer.

“Anything that can hurt someone is a weapon.”

“Wow, really? Then you must be terrified of paper. All those little cuts.” I didn’t mean to be that snarky. I really didn’t. But I was halfway between angry and terrified, so I wasn’t really focused on being nice.

He scratched his eyebrow and shrugged. “Fine. Get in. Let’s go.”

I got in the car and we drove away.

I stared out the window, watching the streetlights slide past in silence.

“Sorry about earlier, on the roof,” he said.

“What?”

“I shouldn’t have fired, but I had never seen anything like that before, that shield of yours,” he explained. “It looked like a weapon.”

“Oh.”

“This is off the record, of course. Cygnus would never admit to any wrong-doing, so…”

“Yeah, right.” I frowned. It felt wrong to be having a casual conversation with him.

“I saw the clips of you this afternoon,” he said. “You’ve had a busy day.”

I didn’t answer.

“Your parents are fine. I had their pharma profiles when I made the tranqs, so they were never in any danger.”

“You… you used customized tranquilizers on them?”

“Standard procedure.”

“Oh.”

We were heading away from downtown, northbound on the expressway, and then we swung off onto a road I didn’t know. Residential area, pretty old houses.

“So what happens now?” I asked. I didn’t really
want
to know, so much as I
needed
to know before the anxiety made my chest explode.

“When we get to the office, your parents will be released and given a ride home, and you’ll head upstairs to chat with the boss.”

“The boss?”

“Your former boss. Brian Rosewater.”

“Brian? Brian did this?”

“No, you did this. Mister Rosewater is just the paper-pusher who co-signed your non-compete agreement, so he’s the one who has to deal with you breaking it today. Company policy.”

“My non-compete? That’s what this is all about?”

Maybe this wasn’t so bad. Brian was a decent guy. I had worked with him for eight months. Maybe we could work something out. I could give Cygnus the specs for the holo projector, maybe even get my old job back. Win-win. Everyone looks good, everyone gets rich.

By the time we pulled up in front of the office building, I was feeling almost hopeful.

“Wait, where are my parents?” I asked.

“Right there.” Frost pointed across the parking lot just as three people emerged from a side door of the building and got into a car. I recognized my mom’s green jacket.

“Okay.” We watched the other car carry my parents out of the parking lot and down the road.

I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to them.

“Miss Zhao.” Frost nodded at the building and I followed him inside, past another sleepy old man at the guard’s desk, and into the elevators. We got out on three and went down a long, shadowy corridor past a lot of empty meeting rooms to a row of little offices. Light spilled out of one of the open doorways. We went inside.

Brian sat behind the desk. Not
his
desk, obviously. We were at least half an hour away from his building at Cygnus West. Plus, this desk wasn’t covered in stacks of papers and tablets covered in fingerprints. The computer was off. He had his phone in his hand when I walked in.

“Have a seat.” He nodded at the chair.

I sat.

Frost stood in the doorway behind me.

Brian glanced at Frost. “Give us a few minutes.”

Frost nodded and left.

“Carmen.” Brian set his phone on the desk. I couldn’t quite see the screen, but I assumed it was recording us.

“Brian.”

“You know why you’re here. Four clause violations of your non-compete.” He sighed and shook his head. “This is serious.”

“Is it?” I winced. I didn’t mean to sound glib, but I was genuinely confused. “I mean, Cygnus shut down my holography project when you fired me, right? So how did I violate my non-compete agreement if you don’t have a holography program for me to compete with?”

“Cygnus owns your on-site research from before your termination, which includes all future developments from that research.”

“Really?” That didn’t sound fair.

“Really. Which is why this is so serious.”

“Uhm, okay.” I moved forward to the edge of the chair and touched the desk. “But you know I wasn’t trying to hurt the company, right? I was just trying to… to prove that I could do it, you know? And to have something to show a new boss, or to get a contract. I wasn’t trying to hurt Cygnus. I was just trying to pay the rent and put some food on the table, and help my parents.”