Cassidian
As the world became sharp again I stepped out of the crossjump platform and immediately saw Blue ahead of me. He was walking quickly away from me, the sides of his open gray trench coat visible as they flapped in the manufactured breeze caused by the passing innerships to his right. He brought a finger to his ear tellingly and I knew he was speaking to someone on his commpatch. Cyris most likely, saying that I was dead.
I wondered then if all of this had been planned. The fight in The Canopy Garden. The drunk men at the table. Seung Lei. All of it.
For some reason I didn’t think so. To me it seemed like Blue simply took advantage of the situation. Blue didn’t care about the cassies in my account. He didn’t want what Cyris wanted. He only wanted me dead to avenge his brother Green, and he saw an opportunity and took it.
And now he was most likely asking Cyris for forgiveness instead of permission.
In profile I witnessed as he spoke out loud and walked to the covered innertaxi stand at the edge of the artery, activating the kiosk there. I could see him talking irritably as he pressed the touch screen harder than he had to. Soon the light on top of the stand turned to a flashing green.
Even though I was surrounded by a thick crowd, I prudently found a large man wearing a garish oversized coat with fur trim who was walking slower than the rest. I stayed behind him and watched as one of the colored lines in the artery far ahead of me shortened, becoming something tangible and beaming.
Within seconds an innership had pulled aside, hovering just within the covered alcove and a gull wing door opened.
My bloody serrater still in my hand, I broke away from the pack, sprinting towards the innership stand and passing through the arched opening. Blue’s back was to me as he ducked into the innership and I followed, forcing my way in behind him.
“No, no, no. Take the next one,” he said loudly, but then our eyes met as we both fell back into the black padded seat together. I pushed the serrater into his side.
“Tell Cyris you have to go,” I said quietly. “Do it or you lose an arm.”
“I have to go,” he said flatly.
“Now rip it out,” I said. I could hear the tinny sound of Cyris yelling at him through the commpatch.
He slowly brought his right hand to his ear as I pulled my serrater away and leaned against the right inner padded wall of the innership.
“Destination?” the innertaxi said. The programmed voice was a woman’s.
Blue had ripped the commpatch out of his inner ear by then, showing a round flesh-colored tab in his palm, and he held it out to me.
“Throw it out the door,” I said.
He started to lean over and I raised my weapon. “From where you’re at,” I said.
Blue folded it in half and placed it between his forefinger and thumb, showing it to me. He then tossed it out of the innership’s door with a slow arc of his arm.
“Destination, please,” the woman’s voice repeated.
I nodded towards the front of the ship. “Better say your destination.”
“I don’t know where they went, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
I shook my head in disapproval. “Desalination towers,” I said while keeping my eyes locked on Blue.
The side door closed silently from above, immediately insulating us from the white noise of the streetscape outside. “Do you have a specific address, sir?”
“Not right now. Start heading there,” I said.
“Certainly. However you will have to confirm you are willing to pay an extra tax due to your weight exceeding normal levels, sir.”
I realized then that the innertaxi did not know there were two people in the ship. It only registered Blue’s ID since I was a Delete, and therefore assumed Blue’s weight was the sum of both of ours.
“That’s fine,” I said.
“I have already confirmed payment. Estimated charges are one hundred seventy four cassies, although this cannot be confirmed until an address is given-”
“That’s fine. Go now,” I said, and we immediately started to move.
It was very dark inside the cabin. The windows were all tinted to the point that I could hardly see anything out of them, or Blue for that matter. The space inside the ship was small as well. We could have fit two more people in the facing booth opposite us, but definitely no more in the back where we were.
"Ship, clear the windows," I said.
"Clearing the windows," replied our ship with its feminine voice, and our surroundings became visible in all directions, except from below. In my peripheral vision I could see that the platform to our right rose away from us slowly as we descended. To the left was the main artery, a wall of moving color that gradually rose away from us as well.
We had temporarily descended below the artery to pick up speed, I knew. The buildings and people to our right started becoming distortions as the streaks above and to the left of us began shortening, finally becoming discrete points of light. These points of light were getting closer as we rose again.
We were merging into artery traffic.
“I’m going to ask you where the burrow is only once. If you don’t tell me, I’m going to slice you in two like I did your brother.”
“Fuck you,” he said, his lips sending spittle my way.
I sighed. “Is that your answer then?”
He stared straight ahead saying nothing for the longest time, but then he opened his mouth. “Ship?” he said suddenly.
“Yes-”
“I wish to report-”
Half expecting this, I had already set my serrater on stun. I instantly fired before he could utter anything to the ship, and he immediately was knocked backwards, his head hitting the clear top of the ship before collapsing back into the black seat. His body slowly slumped forward as it convulsed, mostly falling to the floor.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t understand you. Please repeat?” said the ship.
“Never mind,” I said as I pulled his body around awkwardly, leaning over him. Searching through his side membranes, I found the splitter and let it fall to the floor. There was something else there as well – a delicate cylindrical shape – and I pulled it out carefully.
It was a fabricreader, similar to Lei’s but smaller (once I unrolled it, I realized it was about the size of my palm).
It lit up, activating itself.
It was not locked and as such there was a note scribbled haphazardly there. Eight words written down since the last time Blue had used it. At first I thought it meant nothing but then I looked up, my mind racing as fast as my body.
Cyris had mentioned a nanoline while in the ratskeller. I realized then that even though the burrow was in a desalination tower, the entry point might not necessarily be in the same place. It was quite possible that Lei and Myria were currently heading towards a building next to a tower and would nanoline into it.
“Ship?” I said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Do a search on the following: Lies From Above – Four Tales of Canopian Betrayal.”
Within a few seconds the ship responded. “There is a performing arts show with that title currently playing at the Torsian Institute of Art. Would you like show times?”
“Where is the Torsian Institute of Art?”
“1400 Colonel Effinger Drive, Grid S Fourteen.”
“Grid S fourteen,” I repeated, more to myself. Speaking up then, I asked the innertaxi, “Is that the same grid as the desalination towers?”
“The desalination towers span seventeen grids south of here. The Torsian Institute of Art is in grid S fourteen, which is one of those seventeen-”
“That’s the address,” I interrupted, dropping the fabricreader on Blue’s limp body and sitting back down in my seat in fatigue. “Go there.”
“Yes, sir,” said the innership, and we banked right.