Cinder, Vaughn, and Ember walked to the city jail, a drab triangular tower that had small slits for windows and barbed wire lining its rooftop. The jail stood in almost the very center of the city, next to the courthouse and other government buildings. The machines from the testing facility, the ones she had thought looked like ATMs, lined the outsides. Her mind told he what the really were—transactors. Vaughn walked up to one and activated it. He found Nasser’s profile and Cinder pressed her finger to the screen.
A few minutes later, Cinder’s Clout ticker had dropped a million Clout and Nasser was walking out of the building.
“New girl!” Nasser said. “How did you get all that Clout?”
“Long story,” Cinder said. “I’ll tell you over lunch.”
They found a garden bar on the corner of Harrison and State and Cinder ordered them four huge plates of spaghetti. When the food came, the four of them devoured it. Cinder smiled to herself when even Ember lost her manners over the solid food. She imagined the Socialpunks hadn’t had it in awhile. Whatever the people of the future might say about its nutritional value or dietary balance problems, humans would be humans, and their taste for real food would continue to be insatiable.
In between bites, Ember told Nasser all about Nahum, the death smash, the Omega commercial, and their encounter with Kaiser.
Nasser leaned back, sagging his shoulders against the booth. “I heard about the riot in the slammer. Intense.” He said ’slammer’ like it was a badge that gave him major street cred. “Tell me more about the pills, though.”
“The Omega pills supposedly help you focus,” Vaughn said. “The commercial implied that the focus could give someone an edge in creating art, so they’ll be expensive when they hit the market.”
Ember nodded. “The problem is that—“
“Think we can sell diluted versions?” Nasser asked, cutting Ember off.
Vaughn gave Nasser a half-shrug. “I don’t see why not.”
“Nasser,” Ember said, trying to get his attention. “Cinder was in the commercial they played for the Omega pills. They doctored the video feed to make it look like she took the pills to win the smash as an amateur. Kaiser completely flipped out when he saw it and threatened Cinder afterwards.”
Nasser sat in silence for a minute, pondering Ember’s information before speaking. “They are targeting you,” he told Cinder. “FACE doesn’t want anyone to come out of nowhere and win a death smash. Too inspiring. You gave them no choice but to vilify you.”
His words shocked her so much that she started laughing. “It wasn’t even my art,” she admitted. “Nahum came up with it. I just used it.”
Nasser dug into a thick meatball, shoving it into his mouth whole. He chomped through it in a few chews before swallowing. “Speaking of the death smash.” He pointed at Cinder. “Now that you’re rich, you can pay me back for smuggling you into the city.”
Cinder looked at Nasser in surprise. “Sure,” she said after a minute.
Nasser lifted his sleeve and pressed Cinder’s thumb to it. “Do you accept?”
“Yes,” Cinder said, even though she wasn’t sure what she was accepting. Ember and Vaughn sat nervously, watching the interaction.
“Great!” Nasser rolled down his sleeve. “You just gave me access to your Clout account.”
Cinder saw her Clout balance, just a little under seven million, disappear to no more than five thousand.
“What—?”
YOU ARE READING
Socialpunk (Socialpunk #1)
Teen Fiction"This book would be good for those that enjoyed the Hunger Games!” ~ Cover 2 Cover Blog "When I read the first page, I did not anticipate that I would be finishing the book that night, but I did. I had to. I didn’t care that I was up until 3:00AM."...
