Ms. Ivey was tied to a chair in the middle of the room, red hot heating strips and burns covering her arms and legs. Her head was gone, blood everywhere. She was unrecognizable, except for the Moon-shaped birthmark on her right hand. Ugh… Who’d done this?
Sick to my stomach, I backed out. Don’t touch anything. I’d seen crime holos. Fingerprints, fragments of skin, hair, bone… My DNA shouldn’t be anywhere near this.
Someone was watching me, I could feel it.
I spun and a tall, black-clad officer with narrow blue eyes stood on the path, eyeing me. He looked to Ms. Ivey, and back to me without a reaction. My gut told me he was an emulate, I don’t know why. What was an immortal doing here, the house of a simple teacher? Had he killed her? Why?
“Excuse me, sir.” Walking toward him, I bent my head in an intentional timidness. “Can I help you?”
His mouth opened, confused. “Well, I… we’re investigating two missing cynetics.” He reached for his hip holster.
I didn’t hesitate, striking like lightning, fist pummeling his chin before surprise even registered. Landing on him, my claws ripped at his eyes, fists pounding his head and chest. Power coursed through me. If I didn’t kill him, I was dead.
He pulled a blaster and aimed for my head. He fired, but I dodged it and horror appeared on his face, mouth hanging open. He fired again but my left hand pinned his arm to the ground.
The man was bleeding everywhere at this point, some blue pseudo-organic mixture. Even his body’s mechanized skeleton and inhuman strength couldn’t stop me. He was losing and he knew it.
I had to finish the fight before more officers showed. Ripping a brick from Ms. Ivey’s path, I brought it smashing onto his forehead.
His components and memory chips exploded everywhere, blue goo gushed over the sidewalk. It was over.
The surrogate body spasmed twice and stopped. He—or it, or whatever he was—was dead.
Wait, what had I done? Shaking, I stood. The shock should have been crippling, or at least slowed me. Instead, I felt calm and relaxed, despite the tremors.
Our window was dark and the place was deserted.
Where were they? Mom had said to run. I did.
It was light out when I reached the edge of the forest. I was lucky, no cops or townsfolk along the way. Everyone must be hiding. But what was going on?
Despite sprinting, I was far from winded. Blood pumped through my veins, power like I’ve never felt before. In a small clearing, I shimmied a tree, and pulled the bag from my back. Thank you, Mom.
A few sips from my canteen to quench my thirst. Now what?
It got dark fast. A wolf howled and it hit me: I was an outlaw. What was I going to do? The DNS would find the body and know something happened. Things would get worse.
And Ms. Ivey, that was all my fault. She died being questioned and tortured. The burn marks on her arms and legs were seared into my mind, her headless miserable body. Ugh.
And where were Mom and Vynce? Were they okay?
There were three possibilities where they could be: home, our old campsite west of town, or captured. As long as it wasn’t the third. I had to go see for myself.
It took three gut-wrenching hours of sneaking to reach our street, three-to-four times longer than usual. But no one saw or followed me. Approaching from the back, I scurried through the Ivey’s and Lonet’s yards and hopped the ugly mini fence into ours. Everything was dark and deserted. Not a good sign.
I crept to the window. The place was a mess. Tables and chairs were tossed about and glass shards blanketed everything. Even a few caved walls, like a bomb went off.
Were they okay?
Out of the corner of my eye, movement. A hand clapped my shoulder.
7
Home Is Where The Heart Is
Without thinking, I dove and came up two meters away, knife in hand. I was ready to fight for my life... How do I use this damn blaster?
The figure flicked a staff and sent my knife clattering to the ground.
“What are you doing, Raek?”
What the—? “Professor Fitz? What are you doing?”
“The same as you,” he whispered. “Trying to find out what happened.”
“But, why are you here?” Something didn’t add up.
“I was waiting for you. Knew you’d be back.”
I was suspicious now, angry. “Why?”
“Shhh.” He grabbed my shoulders and pulled my face to within inches of his bitter coffee breath. “Want to live? Want to see your family again? If you do, be quiet and follow me. We haven’t got much time.”
“But what about—”
“That can wait. We need to get out of here. See the shadow in the corner, over by your couch?” He pointed. “That’s an enhancer from the DNS. He’s been here all night, waiting for you. There are two more like him and another team of cynetics on call five minutes away. We have to go, now!”
A team of cynetics, for me? “Okay. But where?”
“The last place they’d expect.”
8
Trust
“School? You can’t be serious,” I said, as we rounded the corner and the outline of the rundown schoolhouse came into focus.
“What kid would hide in a school? Or willingly go?”
He had a point. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a large old key ring, some ten-odd bronze and silver keys jangling as he did.
“You have a keyring?” My mouth fell into a lopsided grin. Was he serious?
He smiled. “Of course. They can’t track the low tech stuff.”
Again, he had a point. Who was this guy?
Once we were in, we closed the door and descended steep concrete steps to the half-finished storage basement. Even with lights on, the space was small, damp, and not well lit, just three low tech bulbs, one flickering. If he wanted to kill me and dispose of the body, this was the perfect place.
“Why were you at my house? What were you doing? How’d you know about those goons?” I asked, voice rising. “And why don’t you use a band? Who the heck are you?”
He smiled. “That’s a lot of questions, son. I’ll start with the big ones.” He cleared his throat. “Why was I at your house? Like I said, I was waiting. I knew you were in trouble. Your next question: Why’d you need my help? I don’t have a good answer, other than I’ve lived an interesting life, made a lot of friends, and more than my fair share of enemies. I’ve been in your shoes before. We’ll leave it at that. What was your next question?”
“The DNS?”
“Simple,” he replied. “I came after I heard what happened. You’re a smart kid. I wouldn’t be able to find you unless you wanted to be found. But you’d want to see your family. I’m friends with Ms. Qin, two houses over. She’s visiting her sister so I let myself in, turned off the lights and hid. Half an hour later, twelve DNS broke into your house and searched the place.”
Twelve? Holy cow.
“An hour after, nine of ‘em left. That leaves three.” He must have seen the pain in my eyes because he added, “I don’t know what happened to your family.”
I said nothing.