Chromed- Rogue Read online

  “That’s no problem. Put the harness on.”

  Haraway ran a hand through hair that looked like it preferred more time in the company clinic. “Why aren’t we inside with them?”

  “You wanted power.”

  “Power can wait until tomorrow. We don’t need to turn power on at midnight.”

  Sadie tightened her harness. “You kill anyone today?”

  A couple of seconds passed. Haraway sighed. “I shot … things. I don’t know if I killed them.”

  Sadie offered a sigh of her own. “In there,” she jerked a thumb at the gap in the wall, “is a girl who’ll be afraid of the dark forever if we don’t get the lights on. Because we couldn’t hold a fucking line. Because we couldn’t see.” Sadie wanted to say, see your company bullshit or see what you’ve done, what you’ve always done, but she stopped at Haraway’s expression. The woman looked like a tree felled in a storm. Still had leaves, sure, but might be dead soon.

  Haraway’s voice was soft. “I get it. More than you know.” She straightened, dragged her head through the harness straps, then turned on the lamps. Beams of light pushed against the dark. Rubble raised fingers of shadow against the buildings. “It’s quiet, isn’t it?”

  “Long may it last.” Sadie hauled a toolbox out of the van, offering it to Haraway.

  Haraway took the box from Sadie. “Everything here is ruined. It’s broken down, used up. You can’t kickstart a reactor.”

  “You’re the scientist. I’m here for moral support.”

  “Moral support?”

  “It’s what I call sticking an axe in anything that tries to eat your face when you’re coming up with the real answer.”

  Haraway laughed. “Fair play, Sadie Freeman.”

  Sadie leaned against the van, a smile she hadn’t realized was there falling from her face. “I play guitar. I don’t know what I’m doing here.”

  “You’re not a prisoner, Sadie.”

  “I know.” Sadie scuffed her boot against rubble. “You don’t give prisoners weapons.”

  “Right, you’re a part of the team.”

  Sadie straightened, anger’s fire going right to the heart of her. “Don’t you dare. Don’t you fucking dare.”

  Haraway took a couple of steps back. “I don’t—”

  Sadie stalked toward her. “You people shoved me in a van. Brought me here. I didn’t choose to be here. I’m not a part of your team.” She spat the last word out, bringing her face close to Haraway’s. “I’m not company.”

  Haraway held a palm out, the movement slow. “Freeman, I didn’t plan it like this. You weren’t supposed to be here.”

  Sadie glared. “What do you mean?”

  Haraway turned, shoulders slumping. “It doesn’t matter. Just … I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to be here.”

  Sadie grabbed Haraway’s shoulder. “Hey. Don’t turn away!”

  Haraway slapped her hand away, eyes bright. The white lights of Haraway’s harness glared, and Sadie couldn’t make the other woman’s face out. “Don’t touch me. You have no idea what this has cost me. You’re worried about being on an unplanned camping trip? Shit happens. Deal with it.”

  Sadie felt her anger growing, fingers curling into a fist. Steady. Listen. Not to what she said, but what she meant. She made her hand relax. Haraway was rigid, caught between staying and running. “Can you do me a favor?”

  “Oh, you want a favor? From the company?”

  “Not really,” said Sadie. “From you. Could you turn your lights off? They’re in my eyes.”

  The moment stretched, then Haraway laughed, a broken, fragile sound. She turned the harness lights off.

  “Thanks.” Sadie blinked, trying to clear her eyes. Night vision? Gone. “Do you think you can do it?”

  “I don’t know. It’s been hard to get here.”

  “What?”

  Haraway shook her head. “What were you asking?”

  “I wanted to know if you can get the power back on.” Sadie kept her voice low.

  “Oh.” Haraway looked into the street, quiet for a moment. “I thought you meant something else. It doesn’t matter. I can get the power back on, sure.”

  “How?”

  “We’re going to find the distribution center. Be a building. Lots of cables. Can’t miss it.”

  “Okay.”

  “We’re going to hook the reactor in the van up to it.”

  Sadie looked at the van, trying the idea on for size. It didn’t fit. “It’s a van. It can’t possibly power a town.”

  “Why not? It’s got a reactor in it. One of our reactors. This is what we do, Freeman. The Federate makes clean, limitless energy.”

  “Reed put an Apsel reactor in their van?” Sadie frowned. “I thought you syndicates tried to shop local.”

  “When we can,” said Haraway. “Reed bought this van from someone who used our reactors. Sort of a supply-chain thing.”

  “You know a lot about this,” said Sadie.

  “I make reactors. I know where we sell them.”

  “Okay.” Sadie thought about it. Reactor in a van? Sure. But powering a city? “How are you going to make a reactor in a van power a city? They seem different levels of hard.”

  “Now that is a trade secret. You leave the science to me. If we can get to the distribution center, I can make this van give us as much power as we need.”

  Chapter Two

  Prophet stood with his back to Julian. The Master looked out the window of Reed Interactive’s Tower Prime. They were in the highest executive suite. The previous owner … fell.

  Clouds reached, gray and ugly, over the city below. Julian blew across the surface of his coffee before putting the plastic lid on. “I’m sorry, Master. I still have some … trouble understanding how this works.” He stood back — quiet, respectful, or the pain starts again — but he could see the flash of lightning. The boom came less than a second later. Motherfucker calls himself Prophet. Julian clamped down on the thought. Things like that led to more pain.

  “You do not need to understand. That’s not your function.”

  “Of course, Master. It’s just that—”

  “Does pain excite you? I’ve known some like that.” Prophet didn’t move. “They need to be discarded. Too hard to shape, like clay that’s been already fired.”

  “Master, please.” Incentives. Go with incentives. “I feel if I don’t do my best for you, you may hurt me more in the future.”

  Prophet turned slowly, his face pulled tight with anger. “If it’s my wish you feel pain, then you’ll be hurt.” Julian held himself still. “But you have been useful, Julian Oldham. It is a poor craftsman indeed who doesn’t listen to the hum of the tools under his fingers.”

  “Master?”

  “Speak, Julian Oldham. Speak, and I will listen.” Prophet turned to the window. “If your words do not please me, then there will be pain. Do you understand?”

  “I understand, Master.” Prophet could lift the thoughts from Julian’s head, so this was some kind of sick test. Was there a right answer? Julian looked down at his hands, the shake in them something that hadn’t gone away since the night he’d awoken in the crypt.

  Julian’s mind shied away from the memory. He knows what you’re thinking. Lead with it. “Have you heard the word incentive, Master?”

  “The taste of this word is familiar, but I do not know its meaning.”

  “It is a mechanism of sorts. It influences the way people make decisions.” Julian’s breath came short and shallow, fear stirring his thoughts in a way no boardroom presentation ever had.

  “Ah,” said Prophet. “Is this from those imbeciles in Marketing? They have not pleased me. Vacuous, intangible morons.”

  “No, Master. I mean, yes, Marketing are morons. This is not their term. This is…” Julian struggled with the right words. The words that would prevent pain. “It is economics.”

  “Is this to do with money?”

  “Yes, Master.”

&nb
sp; “I do not need money.” Prophet stared down at the cloudscape. “Do you see how they scurry and run? Of course not. You have only your eyes. But I can see their minds. All those people live their lives wrong. They make mistakes, cause harm, and disrupt the natural flow. I have been sent to return them to their place. Order will be restored.”

  “Yes, Master.” For a moment, Julian forgot who he was speaking to. “It is just that—”

  “You contradict me?” Prophet’s shoulders bunched before relaxing. “No. I said I would let you speak your piece. Say it and be done.”

  “The right incentive makes people do a thing, and at the same time believe they wanted to do it.” Julian felt his nerve trickling away, water down a drain. Harden up. Make the play. “They do what you want, but think it is their choice.”

  “They will do that anyway.”

  “Of course. But they will do it faster with the right incentive.” Julian took a half step forward. “Out there, your … agent—”

  “The demon. What of it?”

  “As you say. Your demon—”

  “It is not mine, any more than my arm is mine. We are the same thing, Julian Oldham. Why is this so hard for you to understand?” Julian could feel the touch, light and delicate as a feather, as Prophet reached for his mind. The pain would start soon. “Speak your mind, while you have one. Know that my patience grows short.”

  “They hide, Master,” said Julian. “Before you came, people learned to hide from the rain.”

  “You can’t hide forever.”

  “No, but if people didn’t want to hide, how fast would you get what you wanted?”

  Prophet stood quiet for a moment. “You think that the right incentive would make them stand in the rain as it poured down, burning at their minds?”

  “Not quite, Master. How flexible is the demon?”

  “Flexible?”

  “Yes, Master. Let me explain.” As Julian laid out his ideas, Prophet relaxed, then smiled.

  This time, it wouldn’t hurt.

  Julian met Bernie Eckers at The Hole. The bar was dark. It and Eckers smelled of stale beer. The pudgy, sallow man’s shirt was stained with sweat and grime. He faced Julian from behind the bar, using the wood like a shield. Julian chose the fixer’s place of business figuring it might set the human cockroach at ease. He’d laid out his proposal like fresh chum, but the shark in Eckers hadn’t bit. Not yet.

  “I don’t get it, Oldham.” Eckers rubbed his belly where his shirt didn’t meet his buckle.

  How he’d managed to escape the grip of the Prophet was a curiosity, but in this instance it worked for Julian’s plan. He might get out of this and make decent cash. Prophet didn’t want money. He wanted control. Prophet was the biggest asshole Julian had seen in Reed’s C-suite, but he didn’t seem averse to Julian making a little on the side so long as he remembered who was in charge. Julian’s angle was to give Prophet the control while keeping the proceeds. Nice and simple.

  “You don’t have to get it. It’s a simple proposal, Eckers. You sell it, you keep a percentage.” It was hard to not murder the fat man. Julian’s last couple days had been harder than normal. You need him. At least for a little while.

  “I get that part. Why are you coming to me? You Reed assholes have all kinds of channels for this. You already distribute stuff at a scale I can’t touch.”

  “Sure, we distribute a lot of entertainments that proved to be profitable. Those have a history of clinical trials.”

  Eckers shuffled behind the bar, favoring a leg. “Trials.” He held up a tumbler, and Julian nodded. Eckers splashed amber liquid into the glass and pushed it over. “Last time you were here, you broke my shotgun and blew a hole in my roof.” He looked up at the ragged breach that let light and rain in. Both fell in roughly equal measure against the old concrete floor. It cast the inside of The Hole into relief where the tired bar wanted to stay covered in quiet gloom.

  “No, those Apsel motherfuckers blew a hole in your roof.” Julian shook his head.

  “Whatever. You’re all company to me.”

  “The difference is twofold.” Julian forced a smile. “First, we’re coming to you with a profitable endeavor. You make money, we make money.”

  “Fine.” Eckers poured himself Scotch. “What’s the other thing?”

  “We’re going to fix your roof,” said Julian. “In fact, we want to invest in your business. We want you to be one of our strategic partners.”

  Eckers coughed, spitting liquid on the bar. “What the fuck did you say?”

  “Bernie — do you mind if I call you Bernie?”

  “Yes. No. I mean, sure. Call me what you like.” Eckers wiped his chin.

  Julian took the bottle from Eckers. He poured Scotch into Ecker’s glass, the liquid sloshing. “Bernie, we want to enter into a business contract with you.”

  The shorter man squinted at Julian. “What’s the catch?”

  “There will be paperwork, of course.”

  “No, the real catch.”

  “Ah,” said Julian. “This entertainment won’t be Reed branded. There’s … commercial sensitivity at this early stage.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s new.” Julian adjusted his shirt — too tight, I haven’t walked around outside in a while — before putting the bottle down. “There is some risk.”

  “It could blow up in my face,” said Eckers.

  “It could,” agreed Julian. “Without risk, there is little chance of reward.”

  “Right. What’s your risk?” Eckers had fresher sweat stains at his armpits, nervousness already at eleven.

  “The risk for us is that you’re unreliable scum.” Julian spread his hands. “You will probably try to sell us out. You may steal our product.” Eckers swallowed but stayed silent. “We could lose a whole line over this. It’s a risk we’re willing to take, to … expedite the product to market.”

  “It is?”

  “Yes. Because if our risk is realized, we will fucking execute you.”

  Eckers laughed, stopping when Julian didn’t join in. “You always negotiate like this?”

  “This isn’t much of a negotiation,” said Julian. “I’ve made you an offer. It’s a generous offer. A partnership from a major syndicate in your shitty, gasping, desperate business. All in exchange for marketing a new entertainment, a product people will line up down the block to buy. If you don’t want the deal, we’ll take it somewhere else.”

  “No, I want the deal.”

  Julian smiled like a wolf. Of course you do.

  Julian stood outside The Hole, a name more apt than Eckers knew. Or maybe the fat man did. He drew on his cigarette, blowing smoke in a stream. “Your problem is you let greed get in the way of your good sense.”

  Your other problem is you’re talking to yourself. Julian pushed off from the wall, walking back to his car. He managed to stifle the trembling in his leg by clamping a hand on his thigh, driving augmented fingers into weak flesh.

  Chapter Three

  Firelight lit the bottle, the inside looking like lava. Mason pushed a glass toward Laia. “Sip. Don’t gulp.”

  She stared before picking it up, slow and uncertain. “What is this material? It is clear but remembers the sea.”

  “Remembers the…” Mason frowned. “It’s glass. It’s made from sand.”

  “Glass? The glass we make is not so clear. Your artisans must be very skilled.”

  “I don’t know how they do it.” Mason shrugged, tossing back his whisky. He made a face, putting the tumbler down on the table. It was old and tired like everything else here. Even you, right? The surface was sanded by time, but Mason was sure it used to be a children’s table. Smiling cartoon characters drawn into the surface with old-style ink tried to stare at him through the years. He didn’t know their names, or which syndicate had owned the IP of making forgotten children happy. Doesn’t matter. “It doesn’t remember anything.”

  “You can’t hear it?” Laia mimicked him, tipping
her glass back. Her face screwed up, and she coughed. “It burns. How can you drink it like that?”

  “I said sip, don’t gulp.”

  “You didn’t sip.” She cast him a distrustful look, eyebrow raised. “You drained it.”

  “Practice.” Mason poured more whisky. The liquid burbled and laughed as it stepped from the bottle. “I practice a lot.”

  Laia stared into her glass, voice quiet. “I felt it die. I pushed against it, and it … stopped. It was afraid, and it didn’t want to die.”

  “That’s why I practice,” said Mason. “They never want to die.”

  Laia took a sip, cautious, tentative as a mouse. “It smells very good. Like the earth on the moors.”

  “Peat.” Mason held his glass to his nose. “And smoke. I like the smell more than the taste.”

  “You drink this to make the memories go away?”

  “No.” Mason tossed the whisky back. She’s just a kid. You put a kid in that position. “I drink to make myself go away.” He poured himself more whisky, watching as the girl chewed that one over.

  “Why do you do it?”

  Mason pushed his tumbler around. “It pays well. I’m good at it. It needs doing. It’s all win-win.”

  Laia frowned, sipping at her whisky. “Heaven is very strange. Not at all what I expected it to be.”

  “Sales and marketing,” offered Mason. “You always end up buying shit you don’t need with money you don’t have.”

  “Why would I buy shit?”

  “That’s a good question.” Mason topped up her glass. “I don’t think anyone really knows.” He leaned back, chair creaking, dust falling as the joints flexed. “I don’t have the answers.”

  Laia took a swallow of her whisky. “I came here to find you. If you don’t know, then who?”

  Mason picked up the bottle, shaking it. “Whisky has a few answers.”

  “You drink this for enlightenment?”

  “In a manner of speaking.” Mason put the bottle down. “You sure are a weird kid.”