21 - TYSE

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

" H ey." I toe the woman with my boot . She doesn't move, so I do it again. "Wake up. What are you doing in here?"

No response. Just… deep breathing.

I wait for an attack, bracing for it. In my experience a half-naked girl lying on the floor in the middle of a place she ought not to be is nothin' but a trap.

But when it doesn't happen, I step backwards, keeping my Versi's torch trained on her as I put some distance between us. And then keep stepping until I bump up against one of the ruined servers.

I'm looking at her—right at her—when the glow that I was following just disappears. This is when it hits me that a minute ago my augments lit up and battle commands were scrolling down my field of vision.

But when I try and tap in and reconnect, it's… dead. Like it has been for the last seven years. Cursing myself under my breath, I shake off the memories that want to creep back in and concentrate on the woman in front of me. She's dressed funny, in sort of a costume. In all likelihood she's a whore and there was some kind of party down here and she got left behind.

It's the simplest explanation, which means it's probably true.

She's alone. I can feel it. I'm going to assume those sensors on the ceiling don't have cameras. Either that, or they stopped working, or maybe never worked in the first place because of the spark or that hum. This means there is a high probability that no one is watching, so I let out a breath, letting solutions run through my mind the way they used to back when I was in the Sweep.

Well, not at all the way they used to back in Sweep. That's the whole reason I'm no longer a soldier and live in a ruined god's tower.

I was first augmented on my fourteenth birthday. Then again, every year after that until I was nineteen. I was meant to be something special. Kind of a… super soldier of sorts.

But the augments never really took. Not the way they should've. I was given a commission as a specialist with computation upgrades. It wasn't a superpower, not at all. But in the beginning, it got me and my men out of a lot of sticky situations.

That didn't last long. My augments started wearing off around age twenty-one. And I was all washed up by the tender age of twenty-three.

That was seven years ago now and I haven't thought about those augments since.

But now—in this very moment—I am thinking about those augments because they were working. A minute ago, two at the very most, they were working. Data was falling down my field of vision in bright blue text. I could tell it was something to do with mission commands, but it was going too fast to actually read.

In the beginning, when the augments were fresh and working pretty good, I didn't need to read it to follow along.

Tomorrow's speed, today's mind!

My brain just understood and my body—senses, whole muscles groups, cognitive function—just responded without my input.

Be quick, be smart, be unbeatable!

That was the whole fuckin' point of having them in the first place.

Upgrade to instant reaction now!

Then, one day, the connection was gone and my mind hasn't been able to keep up with the software inside me since I was nineteen.

That's why you need BrainPulse!

So while I did have a couple of years there when I was able to react or form solutions to problems when high-stress situations triggered what was left of my augments, I wasn't in control of it.

In rare instances, users may experience severe side effects such as neural fatigue, prolonged cognitive dissonance, synaptic overload, or short-term memory fluctuations. Prolonged use may lead to dependency on the device for cognitive functioning.

And if I couldn't understand what the augments were telling me, then I couldn't trust them. That's the real reason they kicked me out of Sweep. If I couldn't trust me, no one could trust me.

But it doesn't matter now and this isn't a life-or-death situation. It's just a stupid woman on the floor. I don't know how she got in here, but nonetheless, here she is.

My disturbance.

You don't need to be an augment to solve this problem. She needs to go.

I toe her again, pushing her shoulder a little, which makes her body rock. "Can you hear me?" I bend down and shake her. "Hey. Wake up. Party's over and it's time to go."

No movement at all. It's like she's unconscious, not sleeping.

Which is just fucking wonderful. She's not a big woman—she's rather small, actually. But dead weight is dead weight and now I'm gonna have to carry her all the way back up to the fuckin' lobby.

Hopefully the social workers are still there. If she doesn't wake up by then, she's their problem.

Resigned to this being the only solution, I scoop her up in my arms and then make my way back through the maze of dead servers, out the door, and back up the stairs the way I came.

After traversing the endless hallway, I reach the door where I left Anneeta. I kick it so I don't have to put the woman down. "Anneeta!" I yell it. "Open the door for me. My hands are full."

It comes swinging open and her little face is looking up at me in surprise. Then she scans down, seeing the woman in my arms. "Who's that?"

I push past Anneeta and start walking. "Dunno. But she was my disturbance. Was lying in the middle of a fuckin' server room, all passed out from partying last night."

Anneeta is trotting to keep up with me. "Party? Down here? I don't think so. I would know about something like that."

"Maybe you don't know as much as you think."

"Maybe you're just wrong?" She runs ahead of me now, making the lights pop on above us. Again, it hits me that they are strong and solid in this section when they should be weak and flickering.

But there's no time to think about that now.

Eventually we get back to the stairwell and then it's a long hike back up.

It feels like it takes forever to get back to the hallway with the lights that flicker, and by this time my arms are aching. I pause, putting the woman down, take a breath, then pick her back up, but this time I throw her over my shoulder to give my arms a break.

Anneeta snickers at me. "If she wakes up, she's gonna be mad that you're carrying her like a bag of flour."

"Who cares? Let her be mad then. That's what happens when you pass out a million floors below ground and trigger security sensors."

By the time we've reached the end of the ramp and people start appearing again, I realize I can't really carry her past the lobby without drawing a lot of attention due to her dress. Which, I've got to admit, is wildly sexy, but completely inappropriate for nighttime. It's below freezing in the tower right now. So I put her down again, shrug off my jacket, and Anneeta helps me put it on her and zip it up.

When we finally make it to the lobby the government ID people are gone, but there's still a few people waiting in line for dinner services.

I look down at Anneeta, ready to ask her if she thinks the dinner people will take a passed-out woman, but I find her eyeballing the short pantry line in a way that has nothing to do with this woman over my shoulder.

She's hungry. I recognize the look. "Go on, go eat. I'll take care of her."

Anneeta looks back up at me, questions in her eyes. "What are you gonna do with her?"

I blow out a breath, frustrated. The closest health center is a long way off. I don't wanna do it. So I tell Anneeta the only other option I have. "Just… take her upstairs to my place and let her sleep it off, I guess."

Anneeta finds this solution to be acceptable, because she's nodding before I even finish. "That's a good idea. I'm super hungry. Are you hungry? Do you want me to bring you some dinner?"

"Thanks, it's a nice offer. But no. Go eat, then go to sleep. It's past your bedtime."

"OK, Tyse." She yawns cavernously as she talks. "I am pretty tired. And hungry. I'll come check on you tomorrow."

"Hey, wait."

She turns and looks at me.

"Check my pocket." I nod my head down to the one along the side of my leg. "Take four coins. Hell, take five."

Her eyes brighten. "Thanks!" Then she shoves her hand into the pocket, pulls out a handful of coins, counts out five, then drops the rest back into my pocket as she flashes me her new toothless grin. "Now I really will come by tomorrow!" Then she skips off and joins the short line for dinner, looking over her shoulder one more time to wave.

What a weird day. And I've only been awake for the end of it.

I hit the main stairwell, still carrying the woman like a sack of flour, and find that very few people are interested in the fact that I'm hauling an unconscious woman up to my quarters. A few of them make jokes, but most of them don't even look twice.

That's the thing about living in the God's Tower ruin—pretty much anything goes. As long as you don't mess with people, they don't mess with you.

By the time I get home and drop the woman facedown onto my bed, I'm exhausted. It's been a while since I did so much physical exercise and I probably climbed forty or fifty flights of stairs in the past few hours.

Once I've unloaded her, I grab the disposable phone from the trash can, checking for battery. It's at three percent, but that's good enough to shoot off one text to Stayn: Found your disturbance. All good now. Check in tomorrow .

It sends, but immediately after, it does the death beep, so I throw it back in the trash.

Then I turn and look at the woman. What now? Wake her up? Is she dying? Should I take her to the health center anyway?

I actually laugh out loud at the thought. It's not happening.

After all that exertion I'm due a shower. So I take myself over to the bathroom, which is just a tiny space separated from the kitchen by a curtain.

A few seconds later my battle belt is hanging over a chair and my shirt is on the floor. I peek past the shower curtain, start the water—praying there's enough power up here right now to get it lukewarm—and then sit down in the chair and unlace my boots as I stare at the woman on my bed.

She's pretty, I'll give her that. Long blonde hair, nice body… niiiiice body. And a little bit slutty. Which is… kinda how I like 'em.

I'm just about to chuckle at my internal monologue when all of a sudden, my augments come to life again. The waterfall of text starts falling, too fast to read. But the moment I think that, they slow down. And I realize it's just one sentence repeating over, and over, and over.

Hide her .

Then it all disappears again. And the moment it does, every hair on my body sticks up on end. The spark.

I close my eyes, shaking my head. I hate that the augments can still affect me like this. And it has been quite a while since it's happened, so I kinda forgot how creepy it could be.

Back when I was younger, at the peak of my augmentation around age seventeen, it was a seamless interaction. I would think something and the augments would contribute. It was a little like a discussion—a brainstorming, maybe. Ideas floated, considered, discarded. But I was in charge, the tech was just a tool I controlled. The same way I control my hands and eyes. The blue text scrolling down my field of vision didn't come off as some kind of trespassing personality back then. Those were all my thoughts, enhanced. It was me.

This isn't how it feels now. Now these words are an intrusion. A violation, almost. It feels like a parasite. I would've gotten them removed, but it can't be done. Maybe, if you change your mind early enough, like within six months to a year after the tech is first introduced into your bloodstream, they can be filtered out. It takes about two years for them to really implant into your neural network.

But that would've put me at about age fifteen. And at age fifteen I couldn't fucking wait to join the Sweep. There was no way I'd turn back.

Boots off now, I stand up, looking over my shoulder at the woman one last time, then take off the pants. She's still sleeping. Or unconscious or whatever. So I get the shower—the water isn't even close to lukewarm—wash up as quick as I can, then step out with a towel wrapped around my waist.

The next thing I know, I'm staring down the barrel of my own VersiStrike.

I blink at the half-naked woman's glare. She's still wearing my jacket, but it's unzipped now, like she was about to take it off and got distracted. So I can see her whole bare stomach. Her hands are shaking as she points the weapon at me. It was a pretty stupid mistake to leave my battle belt somewhere she could get a hold of it. But in my defense, I thought she was unconscious and even with it pointed at my face, she doesn't come off as threatening.

Not to a guy like me.

I put my hands up, wave one of them, and try on a smile. "Hello. Nice to see you've recovered."

She doesn't say anything, not right away. She stares at me for a moment, eyes narrowed with suspicion. Then she starts stepping back, putting distance between us.

"I'm not holding you hostage or nothin', lady. You're free to leave whenever you want. But if you try and take my Versi with you, I will hunt your ass down and take it back. So why don't you just put it on the bed on your way out the door and we'll call this whole thing even."

Her arms stiffen and she shakes the Versi at me. It's got a hair trigger, that thing. And I can't tell from this angle if she's got the safety off, or what setting she's got it on, but when I used it last night, it was set to flechette. I only keep two cartridges of those loaded at any given time, so she only gets one shot. But it's pretty hard to miss a target standing six feet away with a Versi set on flechette and I can't think of a worse way to end this day than being assaulted with a barrage of tactical darts by a woman dressed like last night's whore.

Especially when I just hauled her ass up a million flights of stairs.

"Who are you?" She's spitting words at me. "Where's the god?" She looks around, like there might be a god hiding in the corner of my tiny quarters. "Where am I !" She yells this last part, then starts shaking the Versi at me again.

I put up a hand, trying to remain calm. "Woman. Do not shake that weapon. It's very sensitive and if you shoot me, I will kill you. Do you understand?"

She takes a breath and narrows her eyes. "Not if I kill you first."

"You get one chance. Got it? And while being shot with a VersiStrike flechette cartridge would be epically painful and cause a lot of scarring, it most definitely will not kill me." Now it's my turn to narrow down my eyes at her. "So you will not be killing me first. You will just be pissing me off. And I get it, we don't know each other. But take a nice, good, long look at me, darlin'." She does. Her eyes fall all the way down my mostly naked body, then come back up to meet mine. "Do I look like the kind of man you wanna piss off?"

It's a rhetorical question. I'm covered in Sweep tats, battle scars, and even though I've been out of service for seven years now, I'm nothing but muscle. I mean, while it was a bitch to carry her ass up those sixty million flights of stairs, there is a little part of me that's proud I could still do something that physically demanding.

I feel the augments in this moment. It's like a shot of endorphins. And then the blue words are falling down my vision again. They are senseless words this time. Or something more like symbols. Then something really fucking weird happens.

The woman in front of me begins to glow .

I meet her gaze and she gasps, taking quick steps back. She trips over something, the Versi fires, and tactical darts come flying out.

I duck, just on instinct, but luckily, she was pointing it at the ceiling and when I look up there are several hundred scars in the cement above my head.

My gaze wanders back to the woman, who is crouching on the floor, and now I'm angry. I walk over to her, grab the barrel of my weapon, and yank it from her grip. She shrinks back, putting her hands up like I'm about to hit her.

And this pisses me off even more. "Go on, get out if you want. I don't need this shit." I point the Versi at her—it can't automatically reload a flechette cartridge because that was the only one in the magazine, so it's gonna stay empty until I change the setting or meet a very specific set of high-threat circumstances that this woman will never be able to trigger. But I direct it at her anyway just to make a point. "I saved your life. You were passed out a million levels below ground. You would've died down there. So… ya know… you're fuckin' welcome."

"Who are you?" Her voice is shaky now. "What is this place? Where the fuck am I and how did I get here?"

I hold up a finger, ready to make a list. "Tyse." And then a succession of fingers come flying up as I tick off the rest of the answers. "The God's Tower ruin. You're here, inside it. In my quarters. And I already told ya. I carried your ass up a million levels of stairs from below ground. Specifically, sector 4, quad H minus 5, floor 2. Which is, as it turns out, the fucking dead brain room of the ruined god."

"Ruined god?" She looks thoroughly confused. "But… what ?"

Her face is so contorted with this confusion, I actually laugh. "You must've been really stoned. That must've been some party."

"Party? You mean the gala?"

"Kind of a fancy word for a fucking sparkfest, but OK. Call it whatever you want."

She just blinks at me for many, many seconds. And the weird thing is, she doesn't look stoned. I mean, for someone who was out cold the whole time I was carrying her up those stairs, she looks like any woman who just woke up after a normal night's rest and not anything like one who partied so hard the night before, she blacked out.

I extend my hand and take a few steps forward. She looks at it with suspicion, then up at me. "Your eyes."

"What about them?"

"They're… blue ."

"So are yours."

She shakes her head. "No. Not that kind of blue."

I turn and walk over to the mirror over the small sink. And sure enough, my eyes are shining an unnaturally bright blue. An indicator that the augments inside me are working at the moment. This is what scared her. That's why she stepped backwards and tripped.

I frightened her.

I let out a long breath, then walk back over to her, extending my hand once again. "It's just the augments. I don't know why, after all these years, they're acting up like this, but it's nothing you need to worry about."

Me, on the other hand? Yeah, I'm startin' to get a little worried.

But I don't tell her that. Instead I say, "Come on. Get up," and shake my offered hand at her.

She hesitates, deliberating. But what other choice does she have? She takes it and I pull her up off the ground.

We stare at each other for a few moments, then she pulls the jacket tight across her half-naked torso, dialing down her slutty factor, but only marginally.

But my slutty factor has been dialed up, I guess. Because I'm wearing nothing but a towel and she's staring pretty hard at me. I chuckle, then turn away. "I'm gonna get dressed and be right back."

I take the Versi with me, stuff it back into my battle belt, and then grab a pair of tactical pants off a shelf by the sink and step into the shower, pulling the curtain closed behind me.

Once that's done, I come back out, expecting her to be gone, but find her sitting in my favorite chair near the steel-shutter window.

I downed all my whiskey last night so I don't have anything to drink but water, there's definitely no food in the cupboards, and she's not here for sex, so… I really don't know what to do with her now that the preliminaries are over.

The chair she's in is the only one I have besides the spindly thing holding my battle belt, but there's a weird vibe floating through this room right now so I lean against the wall instead, silently kinda fuming that she took my chair and is causing all this awkwardness.

"Sooooo." I don't really have anything to say to her, so that's all I've got.

"So," she says back.

"Do you… need coin, or something?"

"Coin?" She squints her eyes at me. "Why would I need coin? I'm in the God's Tower, right?"

"Yeah."

"So… where the hell is he? You're not him, obviously."

"Where the hell is… who ?"

"The god ." She says this in a mocking tone. Like I'm a literal idiot.

I chuckle. "The god? The god is dead , darlin'. Has been for hundreds of years."

"Dead? How could he be dead? He summoned me last night."

My chuckle turns into a laugh. "Did he now?"

"He rang the bells. I'm number nine. He can't be dead. He's been calling us in for nearly a decade now."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"He's not dead! I'm Maiden number nine. Clara Birch. I'm Clara Birch! He called me ! That bastard had better not be dead because I gave up my whole fucking life to come into this tower! I gave up Finn! I gave up all my riches! I gave up everything and I wanna see that fucking god, right fucking now!"

She sits there huffing at me. Her face bright red with anger, or frustration, or both.

In my experience, crazy women need to be dealt with in a certain way. You ignore them as best you can depending on the circumstances.

So I ignore the psycho outburst and proceed with questioning. "Is that why you were in the server room?" She shoots me another frenzied, wild look. Maybe she's still high from last night, or something. She doesn't look high, but maybe there's some new drug out there that I don't know about?

"I don't even know what a server room is. I walked through the door, it closed behind me, and I woke up here." She points to the ground. " In your bed ." She growls those words out. "So what happened to me and how did I end up waking in your bed while you were naked in the shower?"

My laugh is now a guffaw. I point to myself. "Are you accusing me of something? I saved you. How many times do I have to say it? You were a?—"

"A million levels below ground. I heard you. But that doesn't seem very likely."

"Doesn't it?" I laugh again. "You're funny, ya know that? I haven't laughed this much in years. You're welcome, by the way."

"You've already said that, too."

"For the coat, I mean. You're wearing my coat. That dress is something else. You look like a whore from the Shipping District."

She sneers at me. "I didn't pick the dress. Obviously, I know I look like a fucking down-city tavern whore. But thank you for reminding me, I feel so much better now."

" Down-city !" My mouth falls open in shock. "Wow. I haven't heard that term since I was Sweeping the Omega Outlands. Down-city ." I shake my head. "You're a fuckin' princess, huh? Up-city Clara Birch. Yeah, it kinda fits."

She scowls at me, her face goin' even redder than it was. "Wha… I don't…" Then she blows out a breath. "I only meant that I understand that I look ridiculous. I didn't get to choose the dress. The Matrons did. It was delivered. I had no choice, I just had to put it on! I mean, I did object, of course, but I was trying to be poised, proper, and polite, for fuck's sake! Nine! Nine Maidens!" Her eyes dart back and forth, searching mine for understanding. She takes a breath, trying to calm down, and then her last few words come out low, nearly whispered. "It wasn't supposed to happen this way. I was number nine. Tyse? That's your name?"

I nod.

"I was Maiden number nine . Nine chances out of ten that I would not get called into the tower. Ninety-percent chance of total happiness. And I get it—how ironic that the girl who was Chosen, and placed so high because she was in love with the Extraction Master's son, gets what's coming to her." She huffs out a sardonic laugh here. "I bet people were even happy about it. I bet they were saying I deserved it."

I'm not even sure what to say. She's… crazy. Her explanation, if that's what it was supposed to be, made so little sense, I kinda stopped listening back at the first mention of ‘nine.' "Uhhhh…" I scrub my hands down my face, absently wondering, Why me? "Maybe we should get you to a health center?" I say it very slowly, trying to keep her calm.

"What?"

"For some tests."

"Tests?"

"Look, I don't know what you were smokin' at that party last night. Or maybe… you're like… one of those people who can't handle the spark?"

She wheezes out an incredulous snort. " What ?"

"But you're not makin' no sense, lady. And I… I'm just the wrong guy, ya know?"

She growls at me. "Wrong guy for what ?"

"I don't know what you're lookin' for here. Comfort? Sympathy?"

" What ?"

"Whatever emotional reaction you're trying to get out of me, it's… just… you know." I shrug. "Not my thing."

"Not your thing ?"

"I'm just not… the responsible party, right? I don't play that game."

She takes a breath, eyes narrowing down. "I don't need you to save me , if that was the conclusion you just jumped to. I never asked you to save me. I'm trying to figure out what happened once I walked through the damn door! And for your information, I can handle the spark, OK? I might be number nine, but I lit up like a fuckin' sun!"

"OK." I don't even know what else to say. But she doesn't elaborate, just stares at me with her mouth open, so I gotta fill up the silence with something. "How about this? I'll take you down to the patrol. I know the chief. He's a friend. In fact, he's the one who sent me down there to look for you. Well, not specifically you. Just to check out the disturbance you were creating. I'm sure he's totally interested in this story you're tellin'. It's just… well, I'm really not."

Slowly her hand comes up in front of my face. And then, even more slowly, she raises her middle finger and shoves it right up to the end of my nose. "Fuck. You."

I slap her hand away. "Ya know, for such an up-city Birch , you've got quite the potty mouth going."

Her mouth falls open, aghast. Then her eyes dart past mine, focusing on something. The next thing I know, she's pushing past me, heading for the door.

I wave my fingers at her. "Bye. You're welcome. I'm really fucking glad I saved you by hauling your ass up all those stairs ! You've been a complete delight."

She grabs the door handle and pulls. But the door doesn't open. She turns to look at me, growling again. "Open. The door. Right now. I want to go."

"So go. It's not locked."

"Bullshit, it's not locked! Look!" She grabs the handle again and tugs. But it won't open.

I walk over, push her out of the way, and pull on the door. But it really doesn't open. "What the fuck?" I try again, but it's stuck. The handle moves, but the door doesn't so much as budge.

Which isn't even possible. Nothing locks in the tower unless you've got a private padlock on it. And I never bothered. I've got a stash of coin hidden here, of course. And it's worth a lot. But if someone were to steal it, I'd just restock. My one really valuable possession is the Versi, but I never leave it behind when I go out and while I know the people in this tower are mostly crazy, they're not crazy enough to steal my weapon. It's literally the only Versi outside the Omega Outlands. They couldn't even pawn it.

All that is beside the point. I kick the door. "Anneeta! Are you out there? Are you doing this?" I listen, but no one answers on the other side. "Anneeta!" I kick the door again. "If this is your idea of a joke, I'll kick your little ass if you don't knock it off right now!"

Just silence from the other side.

The woman comes over, pressing her face to the door. "Help! Someone! Help! The door is stuck!"

"Shouting is pointless. There's no one out there."

"It's not pointless when you do it, just when I do. Is that what you're saying?"

I point at the door. "Can ya hear anyone out there?" She pauses to press her ear to the metal. "No. Didn't think so."

She pulls back from the door and looks up at me with crossed arms. "Then who the hell is Anneeta?"

"A trouble-causing kid, that's who. This is her doing. I don't know how she did it but it's got to be her, 'cause—" But just as I'm saying that, the blue letters are back, again telling me to hide her .

The woman points at me. "Your eyes are doing that creepy blue thing again."

"Thanks for the heads-up."

She huffs. "What's it saying?"

"What makes you think it's saying something?"

She shoots me a look. This look says she thinks I'm the dumbest person she's ever met. "I can see them ?"

"You can see what?"

"The letters. I just can't read them, they're blurry."

I glance inward at the letters on my field of vision, then expand it out to her. "You can read them?" Then something hits me. "Wait. Are you from the Outlands?"

"The Outlands? No. I'm from Tau City."

I laugh. "You're definitely not from Tau City."

"The hell I'm not. I grew up there. I live in the Maiden Tower. Well, I did live there. Until last night when I walked through the God's Tower door."

"This is Tau City. And there is no god in Tau City, lady. It's been dead for hundreds of years, I've already told ya that. And I've never heard of a Maiden Tower. There's no Maiden Tower."

She lets out a breath, but her eyes are flashing anger as they look around my small room. "Is that a window?" She points at the window, which is covered in steel shutters.

"Yes."

"Can you open it?"

"We're ten floors up. You can't get out that way."

She hisses her words at me. "I don't want to jump. I want to look out."

I'm annoyed at this request because the shutters are old, and rusty, and a pain in the ass to close after they've been opened. I haven't looked out that window in a couple years, at least. But I go over there, fuck with it for nearly three minutes, and finally the louvers flip open.

I stand aside and present her with the view.

She comes over, lifting her dress up with dainty fingertips, and looks out, pressing her face up to the shutter. She doesn't say anything.

"Well?" I ask, after many silent seconds tick off.

"I don't understand what I'm seeing. It's… very bright."

"Well, it's night so… you know. All the fucking lights are on."

"But even down-city." She looks over her shoulder at me, wincing. "I mean, the lower end of the canal. There's no power down there. Not for lights."

"Of course there's power down there. There's power everywhere. Tau City is a Level One metropolitan area."

"What's that?" She sticks a finger through the louver, like this is gonna help me see what she's pointing at.

I lean in and bend down, trying to follow her point. "What's what?"

"All that down there? Where the up-city towers should be. It looks like… a ruin."

"Well, I'm glad you're finally accepting reality. It looks like a ruin because it is a ruin. As I've said several times now, there is no god in Tau City. The tower was decommissioned centuries ago. It's a place for spark addicts now. And… people like me. Who just… kinda hate society and don't want to participate."

Suddenly, she whirls around. Out of instinct I take a step back. "Wait! What about Haryet! Did you find her too?"

"Harriet? Who the hell is Harriet?"

"Har-yet. Haryet . She was number eight. She came the night before."

I point to the floor. "Came here?"

"Yes! Two Maidens in two days!" She says these words with manic excitement. But then she deflates with a long breath of air. "Imogen, Marlowe, Mabel P., Lucy, Mabel S., Piper, Brooke, Haryet, and me. Gemna's the only one left."

"Well… I don't know what to say about that. The only reason I went looking for you is because Stayn asked me to. He can't come inside the tower himself. Well, I guess he could, but uptight up-city fucks like him think they'll get addicted to the spark if they even come in once." I chuckle. "I like that term. Up-city. I'm gonna call him that next time I see him."

Clara's face is blank. Like I'm speaking some other language. But she doesn't yell at me again and she doesn't throw a tantrum. In fact, I watch in real time as she gives up, flopping down into my chair.

Which makes me point at it. "Uhhh, that's my chair."

She looks at the chair, then up at me. "What?"

"My chair. You're sitting in it and… you should just sit somewhere else. The bed or that one over there by the shower. But I'm warning you, if you touch my weapon again, I'll break your fingers."

She laughs. Then laughs again.

"What's so funny?"

But she doesn't answer. Just gets up, walks the three paces over to the end of the bed and crawls up it, flopping onto the pillow face down.

I'm not sure what to do next, but I did make a big deal about the chair, so I figure I should sit in it. Which I do. Then put my feet up on the foot stool.

I'm hungry, but there's no food in here. And the door is locked—which is a mystery I really should solve sooner rather than later. But now that I am sitting, the day catches up with me and I realize that Stayn told me that there was a magnetic lock keeping people out of the location where I found Clara.

But there wasn't.

There is, however, one on my door right now. That has to be why we can't open it.

Fuckin' weird.

My head starts spinning a little with all the sudden mysteries, not to mention the fatigue from all that stair climbing. Plus the hunger, and the added stress of arguing with a strange woman, and the sudden rebirth of my long-dead augments.

At some point during the past few minutes the words ‘hide her' faded away, but I can still feel the connections. It's not strong, but I've been living with no connections whatsoever for seven years now, so even the slightest bit of spark up there is a major development.

I close my eyes, thinking about this. About the way the blue words fell down like a waterfall. I feel the smile creeping up my face, and the guys all around me. Like I'm there again.

Dusty, it was always dusty. And it was always dangerous too. The Omega Outlands is a lawless place. But there were always moments, in between the deadly ones, when we were all together—me, Jast, Myra, Stepan, and Kirt. And when we were all together like that it was… OK. Maybe not good, but it was OK because we were all still alive.

My smile fades. Because we're not all still alive now.

I'm the only one who made it out and none of this is real.

It's just some dream about some place and a woman who I must hide.