The Operator

Someone had brought in pizza, and the smell of it made her stomach growl despite it being near midnight. Allen and Jack were still tied to their chairs set mockingly in front of the big TV, but they’d managed to shift them somewhat before LB had sent a second man to watch them. Harmony was at the other end of the large room where LB and Fat Man had a semi-private area of couches around a low table. LB was constantly checking his state-of-the-art glass phone, making Peri wonder what Harmony was telling them. It had been at least a good half hour.

“I wish you hadn’t come,” Allen said, glancing at the nearby man more interested in the TV than watching them.

Her neck hurt, and she tried to stretch it out. “I missed you, too.”

Allen winced at her sarcasm. Blood still clung to his face where something had hit him, and his clothes were filthy, the same ones he’d had on when he’d been abducted. “I wanted you to escape, not get caught up again.”

Her lips pressed together, and she glanced up at a loud shout at the card table. “I don’t leave anyone behind, remember?” she said, then turned to Jack. “Except maybe him.”

Jack’s head came up. “Same old Peri,” he said, trying to smile around a swollen face.

“Shut up.” Peri rubbed her forehead, wondering why he was here instead of Michael. LB had confiscated both their supplies of Evocane, and it stuck in her craw that a part of her felt a sliver of gratitude to Bill for trying to get her some even as she despised the man.

“You should just accelerate yourself,” Jack said, and her teeth ground together. “If you’re hooked on it, you may as well get the benefit of it. It makes good sense.”

“Shut up!” she shouted, blowing off steam and garnering laughs from the card table.

A high-Q drone with a government shield was hovering at the ceiling, clearly hijacked and reduced to a toy. Peri stared at it when it dropped down to hover annoyingly before them, its red eye winking as it focused in on her chest. From across the room, LB shouted, “Quit sending me that shit, Hinks! Get your ass upstairs!”

Catcalls rose, and the drone flew to a corner of the room, where it landed. A burly man in a ragged jeans coat picked it up, a controller in his grip as he headed for the stairs. Two more men followed him, each with their own flyer. At the table, LB leaned over his phone and frowned at Harmony. LB’s gang was clearly tech savvy, and Peri would bet her panties that all the information was being funneled into LB’s phone. It reminded her of how the space missions that once took a room of monitors could now be run by one man at a single station.

Impatient, she turned to Allen. She could see his pity past his swollen eye, and she hated it. “Bill said Michael was going to make the drop.”

“Bill nixed it. He was afraid Michael was going to snuff you. The man is certifiable,” Allen said, and Jack bobbed his head, wincing as something hurt. “I don’t know how anyone can anchor him. Bill and Jack are playing him like a badly tuned guitar, but they are playing him.” Allen sighed. “He will kill you, Peri.”

“Jack?” she blurted, almost laughing.

His eye was nearly swollen shut, and Allen hesitated as he pulled his first words back. “I meant Michael, but yes. I think Jack will kill you, too. Only a little slower is all.”

Jack stiffened. “I’m not going to kill Peri. I want out. You think I’d risk being caught with you and enough Evocane to keep you safe if I didn’t?”

“I said shut up!” Jack’s story of wanting asylum from Opti was weak at best. No one believed it. Especially her.

“Bill is betting that once you can work without depending on anyone, you’ll come back,” Allen said, eyes pinched from his hurts. “That’s why he let Jack leave with the Evocane.”

“No one let me go. I left on my own,” Jack said.

Peri stretched a foot out, grunting as she shoved his chair over.

“What? Hey!” Jack exclaimed, hitting the floor hard. LB glanced up as a laugh rose, but no one moved to set him upright again. “What is wrong with you, Peri Reed!” Jack said, his face red with anger as he lay on the floor and struggled, still tied to his chair.

Ignoring him, Peri looked at her chipped nails, wondering whether they would ever be clean again. “I’m not going back to Opti,” she said, but it was soft and unconvincing. She wasn’t going back, even if she’d almost been a goddess, able to flaunt the law with impunity, live the way she wanted. But if she was hooked on Evocane, what she wanted might not enter into her choice.

“I know,” Allen said as Jack began to wiggle in earnest. “But as long as you aren’t accelerated, you might be able to get yourself off the Evocane.” He hesitated. “Ah, have you been craving salt lately?”

Her head came up, fear sliding through her as she remembered Silas mentioning a sodium uptake inhibitor. “No. Why?”

“Possible side effect,” Jack said breathily from the floor. “You’re not the only drafter Bill’s tried this on.”

“Shut up,” she said softly, “or I’m getting up out of this ugly couch and pounding you.” She looked away from Jack, eyes tracking the fast-moving man who’d come in. He was making a beeline for LB and Fat Man. Bad news? she wondered, taking in his stilted pace.

“How about uncontrolled tremors?” Allen said, bringing her attention back. “Sensitivity to light? More angry than usual?”