One Life

NINE

. . .

. . .IN ENRICKS, THERE is more green than I have ever seen in my life.

Trees line the streets, sit atop buildings, grow out of windows. Flowers surround me. And all around the city is a ring of forestry so lush I imagine that's where angels go to take naps. Apparently, Enricks is the city of Synthesizers. It has the largest Synth population in all of the Onasa. Still, I never could've envisioned a desert oasis such as this.

Apparently, after the Anchoring, a city once known as Seattle managed to retain some of its greenery for longer due to its title as one of the rainiest cities in the country. Now, it is Enricks, and I wish desperately that I could've seen it under any other conditions.

Kane and I walk through the city almost aimlessly, asking around about something called the "sound". Most people look at us as if we're crazy. I don't blame them.

We stop in a café to get water in our systems, and Kane heads to the bathroom. I linger at a table and chug the free cup down.

A blonde-haired woman and her friend sit down behind me, murmuring together. They look like Vaeli immigrants, which is rare. One of them sounds like she's crying, or at least trying not to. Against myself, I lean back to hear their conversation.

"He's just gone," she says. "They took him in the middle of the night. I don't know what to do."

"You have to inform the Guard," her friend insists. "Where did they take him?"

A chair shifts and what sounds like a hand slaps down on the table. "It was the Guard," the first woman says through her teeth. "They took him because he's a Hydro. They didn't say where, just that his services were needed—"

"Vanlerra," the other says. "I've heard whispers from the other girls at the hotel that they've had similar incidents with their husbands and children. All Hydros and Praetas and Whisps, people who can help with gathering resources. He's certainly gone to an ice reserve in Vanlerra."

My blood runs cold.

I remember the drive to the Draw, when my father was whispering into his telepiece about the ice reserves in Vanlerra, a city north of here. He didn't want me to hear about what they were talking about, and I didn't care—now, I wish I'd paid better attention.

The Atla Guard is taking Vaelis to the ice reserves forcefully?

Kane rushes to my table, startling me from my haze. He's grinning practically ear-to-ear.

"I heard the sound," he says.

"Huh?"

He ushers me out of the café and down the street back where we came. "I didn't realize I had, but I was thinking about the clue while I was in the bathroom. Green. Sound. When we were coming down the highway through the woods, I heard a ringing in my ears that sounded like—"

"The OLC horn," I gasp. Now that I think about it, as we were entering Enricks through their forestry ring, I could hear that as well. "I thought my chip was acting up."

Kane shakes his head. "Nope. Let's just get back to that road and follow the sound."

. . .

It takes time I wish hadn't been wasted for us to make it to the bordering forest, and I take cautionary steps inward on the right side of the road while Kane attempts the left. There are no cars on the streets—Enricks isn't as wealthy as Solara or Marez, and cars are much more rare here. We search in unbothered silence.