Light Shaper, page 16
The silence between them stretched, becoming slightly awkward. They had escaped, and now they had nothing to do but wait.
“Does it hurt, what you have?” Barrow blurted at last, nodding at Rigel’s hands.
“What? Oh, no. Well, not if I’m careful. It’s more like weakness, I guess. The braces help. They give me a bit more strength, keep the hand aligned and so on. But if I overexert myself like just now, then yes. It hurts… for many days.”
Another grunt from Barrow. He didn’t know what to say to that, but he noticed he was thirsty and so told Rigel, “I’m gonna go look for some water. Stay put.”
“Sure. And, Steve?” he said, looking up at him with wide eyes.
“Hm?”
“Thanks again.”
“Right,” Barrow said gruffly, and stood up. He was finding Rigel’s attitude annoying, and he didn’t know why, so instead he walked over to the far corner of the warehouse, hoping to find a derelict vending machine that still worked. There was nothing there aside from more random junk. He saw stacks of crates, ship parts, a broken-down terminal, and a dead rat. That was no good. Without a word to Rigel, Barrow walked back to the broken window, climbed through, and stepped out into the street. He walked for a block or so until he found a small automated vendor that took cash. He slipped a few coins inside, and the little robotic arm dropped a couple of electrolyte drinks and some energy bars for him to pick up in return. Grabbing the stuff, Barrow hurried back to the warehouse, stuffed the things in his pockets, and climbed in.
Rigel was peeling off the sweat-drenched T-shirt clinging to his torso, then hanging it over a rusty nail on a little patch of wall that got direct sunlight. He turned around at the sound of Barrow walking toward him.
“Here,” he said to Rigel, throwing one of the drinks his way for him to catch. Too late, he remembered the kid couldn’t use his damn hands.
Rigel tried to catch the bottle. His reflexes were good, but the drink still hit the floor. Even in the dim light of the spacious warehouse, Barrow saw clearly that Rigel was embarrassed.
“Sorry,” Rigel said tightly. Barrow thought it weird that the guy should be apologizing for his disability, but he shrugged and said nothing. He did hold out a couple of the energy bars to Rigel instead of throwing them, though, and pretended not to notice that the kid had to use both hands to securely grab the food without dropping it. Barrow then sat some distance away, took off his jacket, and began to eat.
For a while there was only the sound of plastic wrappers being ripped open as the two of them ate and drank. It was hot enough that Barrow downed the entirety of his drink almost immediately. He thought he should have bought more bottles, but it was too hot to go back out, and besides it would be best if they waited inside for a bit without any more excursions. He ate the bars quickly as well, thinking that he hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast. Normally he ate like clockwork, every three hours on the dot to keep his energy level high and fuel his workouts. Not anymore, though, not for a while at least. Once again, he was on the run—but this time it hadn’t been his choice.
Rigel had finished eating, setting the garbage neatly aside. The kid then stood up and walked around, apparently unable to stay put in a single place for too long. Barrow followed him with his eyes, noticing the pale smoothness of his torso. Rigel obviously didn’t exercise, but he was naturally lean. When he walked over a patch of sunlight coming from the ceiling, sweat glistened on his chest for an instant. He looked young, barely out of his teens, maybe twenty or twenty-one. The jet-black hair, carelessly messed up as it was, gave a nice contrast to his penetrating blue eyes.
At that moment Rigel turned those eyes to look his way, and Barrow hastily looked somewhere else. There was a mild discomfort in his pants, and Barrow berated himself silently, crushing the bottle he was holding in his hand a bit. He took out his mobile to cover the awkward moment, checking for messages from Atlas, but there was nothing in there yet. Disappointed, Barrow stashed the phone away, crossed his arms over his chest, and started thinking. Atlas had only told Barrow that he was supposed to take Rigel to a safe spot, but he hadn’t said when. What if they had to wait for weeks? Barrow had no way to contact that bastard, and he doubted his mobile would be of much use if it got bugged somehow. Tanner was probably rich enough to do just that, and once they got a GPS lock on him through the phone, they’d know exactly where he was.
“Do you have a plan?” Rigel asked timidly, sitting nearby.
“Not really,” Barrow admitted. He didn’t elaborate.
Rigel shifted around on his seat, but apparently he couldn’t stay silent for long either.
“Steve?”
“Yeah?”
“Not that I’m not grateful or anything, but… why did you help me? How did you know where I was?”
Barrow briefly considered lying, but there wasn’t much to gain from it. The quicker Rigel trusted him, the more cooperative he would be, which meant a better chance of survival for both of them as long as they were together.
“Atlas made me do it. Don’t know why. But he’s got something on me, and… well. All I got to do is get you to a safe place, and then my part is done.”
Rigel nodded slowly, taking it in. “So… do you know where?”
“No idea. The guy told me he would contact us once I had gotten you out of that hospital. He didn’t say very much else.”
“But… you shot me,” Rigel said, frowning at Barrow. “Those people at the hospital were sent by Tanner. And you work for Tanner too. You wear a security guard uniform!”
Barrow gave a bark-like laugh. “You mean I worked for Tanner. The assassins saw my uniform. They saw my face. By now, Tanner knows that one of his security guards went batshit crazy trying to save the guy he wants captured. I bet he’ll be confused, but not as confused as me. This guy who’s blackmailing me, Atlas, he talked to me right after you got out of CradleCorp. Don’t even know how he hacked into the system there, it’s supposed to be impossible. But he got me, he convinced me, and so here I am. In the same boat as you, at least until I do my bit and drop you off wherever this mysterious guy wants you.”
Rigel lifted his hand to touch the spot on his shoulder where the wound should have been. There was barely a scar left from the shot, and Barrow was amazed at how quickly nanodrones could heal injuries like that. Somehow it still seemed like magic, even if the technology had been imported more than ten years ago.
Rigel saw Barrow looking. “It hurt, you know. The shot.”
“No kidding,” Barrow said. “I got shot once, but with a real bullet. I know what it’s like.”
“Could have been worse, though. You could have shot me in the chest, and I would be dead…. And you also let me get out of the building. I’d almost forgotten. You didn’t take a shot—you just let me go.”
“Well, it was that or killing you,” Barrow said defensively. “And I don’t like killing people if I can help it.”
Rigel nodded, smiling at Barrow. With an unexpected start, Barrow felt a little kick in the pit of his stomach at that smile, at its warmth and sincerity.
“So that’s twice you’ve saved my life today, Steve. Wow. I don’t think I can ever repay you.”
“Forget about it,” Barrow told him.
“I won’t. And I’m sorry you had to do this. You’ve given up your job…. How long had you been working for CradleCorp?”
“Two days.”
“Two days?”
“Yeah. Must’ve broken a record somewhere.”
Rigel grinned, and Barrow found himself grinning too.
Then his mobile buzzed.
Barrow took it out and looked at the incoming message.
This GPS signal is being tracked. Leave the device behind. Run.
—Atlas
Barrow jumped to his feet, startling Rigel.
“We have to move.”
“What?” Rigel asked, sounding confused.
“Come on!” Barrow yelled, grabbing his jacket. Rigel put on his T-shirt hastily.
“But… what happened?”
“Over the window. Come on. I’ll help you like before.” Barrow threw his mobile at the back of the warehouse, where it shattered with a crack.
Rigel hesitated.
Then a sudden booming gunshot broke the noonday silence. Somewhere very close by, glass exploded.
Barrow had the horrible sinking feeling that they were cornered.
“It’s too late,” he said. “They’re already here.”
Chapter Twelve
THEY ESCAPED. Barely. Then they were on the run for hours, constantly weaving in and out of alleyways, abandoned buildings, and busy thoroughfares where Steve said they would be lost in the crowd. Rigel followed, scared out of his mind, the moments blurring into one another as the same thoughts kept on going round and round through his head.
This isn’t real. This can’t be happening.
He was exhausted by the time night fell, and the punishing outside temperature began to drop at last. He had lost track of where they were. Everything looked different. In a single afternoon, he had seen more of the city than he had ever seen in the entire time he had lived there. And they weren’t stopping yet.
They were walking through one of the shadier parts of downtown Aurora, near the red-light district. A prostitute in a corner told Rigel suggestively that she’d give them a good price. When they passed her without answering, she flipped them off, insulting them loudly. Steve didn’t even blink, but Rigel was already so wound-up he jumped slightly, bumping into Steve without meaning to.
“Watch it,” Steve said irritably.
“Sorry,” Rigel answered.
They walked in silence for a bit more, dodging the crowds of people returning home from work or those going out to do the day’s shopping or visit friends now that the sun had gone down. Aurora came alive at night, but right then Rigel couldn’t help but feel disconnected from everybody else, as if there were an invisible barrier separating him from normal people. None of them were running for their lives like he was, none of them had absolutely no idea of what they would do when Steve finally got fed up with waiting for further instructions and left him to his own devices. Rigel couldn’t believe that only yesterday he had been talking with Misha as if nothing was the matter. It seemed like ages ago. Now everything was scary, every shadow was a threat, and neither of them had any idea what to do next.
They passed a newsstand soon after, and when Rigel saw the headlines in the monitors, he did a double take. He approached the vendor, forgetting about Steve for a moment, and started to read:
OTHERLIFE IS DOWN!
Shocked customers all throughout the city have been filing nonstop complaints against CradleCorp management today, as all Otherlife services have been suspended indefinitely for the first time in the company’s decades-long history. A spokesman for CradleCorp confirmed the suspension but declined to detail the reasons for—
“Rigel!” Steve snapped, coming back and grabbing him by the shoulder. “Hurry up!”
Regretfully Rigel followed, thinking.
There had been a couple of weird incidents through the afternoon as they were hiding. Once, they had gone into a department store to lose a guy that looked suspiciously like one of the assassins Tanner had sent. Over in the video department, all of the screens had suddenly blanked out and then shown, briefly, what looked like a map with a specific point labeled in bright red. Before either Steve or Rigel had been able to read it properly, though, the image had fuzzed out, and a split second later the screens had returned to showing the inane music videos they had been displaying before.
Another time, a couple of hours ago, a black car had screeched out of the corner upon seeing the two of them, and Rigel and Steve had bolted down the road. The car was in hot pursuit, though, and it was only forced to stop because every single traffic light along its way had turned red. A traffic drone had appeared out of nowhere, hovering in front of the black car and warning it loudly to stop running through red lights. The car had been forced to stop, and that had been enough for the two of them to get away.
“We’re stopping here,” Steve announced, walking out of the main road and under a bridge that roared with traffic. They hid in the shadows beneath it, the street below devoid of cars or people. The stench of stale urine pervaded the air, and there was a suspicious mound of what looked like discarded newspapers stuffed in a corner.
Rigel sat down gratefully. Steve remained standing, hands crossed over his massive chest. At any other time, Rigel would have found him insanely attractive. Now, though, he was mostly thankful for his presence and afraid that he would leave.
Steve looked down and met Rigel’s eyes with a scowl.
“I need some answers,” he said with his deep voice. “We’re not moving around anymore until you explain to me what’s going on. We should have either lost those guys who are after us entirely or been captured ages ago. Yet somehow, we always barely miss them, and they are always on our trail. I want to know how they’re doing it.”
“I’m not sure,” Rigel said truthfully, fidgeting with his hands and wishing they didn’t hurt so much. He stuffed them in his pockets and felt again the little quantum drive he had stolen from CradleCorp, still stuck to his brace. He wondered what was in it and if Atlas had told him the truth.
Steve looked like he didn’t believe him.
“I’m being honest,” Rigel told him. “This…. Well, I think a lot of it is Atlas.”
“Controlling traffic lights remotely? Making screens show what he wants?”
“Well, yeah. Atlas told me that it has access to most things that are connected to its network. Electronic stuff, I guess. Files and such. That map we saw, remember?”
“Yeah,” Steve answered, tense and alert. He was listening, but he was also checking their surroundings to make sure they were in no danger at the moment.
“That must have been Atlas trying to show us where to go. And the traffic lights also, maybe Atlas did something to them. So we could get away. If it hasn’t contacted us again, then maybe it’s because it can’t. Maybe they did something back in CradleCorp, disconnected it, I don’t know. Did you read the newspapers? Otherlife is down. That has never happened before. It’s got to have something to do with all this.”
“So…,” Steve said thoughtfully, “Atlas is some kind of extremely good hacker?”
“I think he’s more like a program.”
“Excuse me?”
“You know. Like an AI. It can control most electronic stuff unless someone is interfering. Like Tanner now, I guess.”
Steve looked confused.
“An AI?”
“Yes. I also think Tanner is getting desperate. He knows that I have the files Atlas gave me,” Rigel said. He held up the little drive for Steve to see. “In here there’s valuable information, I’m certain of it. Maybe something serious enough to—”
But Steve held up his hand. “Save it. I don’t want to know. The less I am involved, the better for me. All I got to do is deliver you to a safe place, and then I’m gone. Whatever you did to piss off Richard Tanner and make him shut down the biggest company in the city is way too dangerous for me to know.”
“But—”
At that moment, a traffic drone came hovering around the corner, following the course of the road on the bridge above. Its little searchlight swept lazily over the vehicles, but Rigel saw its beam stop suddenly when it was right above the place where they were hiding. The drone veered off course, flying lower, and appeared visibly over the edge of the bridge above their heads. It swerved, facing them fully and shining the light in their faces. It hovered there for an instant and then flew away like nothing had happened.
“Was that Atlas behind the drone?” Rigel asked fearfully. “Or Tanner?”
“Either way, we got to get moving. Come on.”
They left the shelter of the bridge and walked quickly away. Three blocks later, they were passing a pawnshop when one of the monitors for sale in the window flashed brightly. Words appeared for less than a second, then they were gone in a burst of static. Too fast for Rigel to read.
Rigel looked at Steve. “Did you see that?”
Steve nodded slowly. He looked a little bit spooked. “Was that… Atlas?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Okay. How about we just keep moving.”
And so they walked. Steve kept glancing at his watch, his impatience evident to Rigel. They couldn’t just keep on wandering through the streets all night, and whatever it was that Atlas had used to secure Steve’s help would not keep him around forever. Rigel began to get scared again. He didn’t know what to do. Atlas had been vague, and Rigel had no emergency plan. He supposed he could check into a motel somewhere, but he didn’t have any cash with him, and any electronic transactions he made would be easily traced back to his location. He could go back to his apartment, but he was afraid of endangering Misha. He had no family to go to. Nobody to ask for help.
As he followed Steve out of the downtown area and through a more residential district of Aurora where people were walking their dogs and chatting outside cafés, it dawned on Rigel that he was alone. It was weird, but he had never thought about the fact quite in that light. He was an only child, and his parents were gone. No other family that he knew of. The realization made him feel vulnerable and for some reason slightly disappointed with himself.
“Watch out,” Steve said suddenly, pushing Rigel roughly behind a tree. A suspicious car drove past, too slowly. Tinted windows prevented them from seeing who was inside. Rigel held very still, only daring to sigh with relief after the car was gone. “Let’s go this way.”
They turned down a smaller side street. It was empty and dark. Overhead, the moon had begun to rise over the tops of the buildings, giving them a little bit of additional light to see by.
