Page 28 of Jump or Fall
Her mouth dropped open and she hurried over.
“It’s the leftovers of an old armory,” he said. “From before Teichus closed.”
“Can I touch it?” she asked, wonder in her voice.
“Sure. No one will miss it if you break it somehow.”
Her fingers delicately glided across the gauntlets.
“So heavy,” she said, picking one up to examine it. “They didn’t have augmented strength yet, so they had to carry all the weight on their own.I studied diagrams of these old suits, but never had the chance to see real pieces.”
The armor was quite basic compared to what Mara crafted. It had a heavy chest plate that ended right above the hips. There were guards for the front of the legs and the upper arms, but most of the extremities were uncovered.
She tilted her head and let out a soft chuckle. “They had to make a tough judgment call on which parts of the body were important. If I left that much of the groin unprotected, I’d never hear the end of it.”
“I’m glad you’re the one designing the suits now,” he said, trying to keep the grin off his face. “I think most men would rather protect the head between their legs over the one on their shoulders.”
“I think you’re right.” Mara bit her lower lip, smiling. “Thank you for showing me this.”
He gestured to the dusty monitor. “I’ve got one more surprise.”
She followed as he crossed the room. He inserted an old override key into the bulky grey machine on the desk. It clicked on and a dull whir filled the quiet space as it booted up.
The monitor flickered before a search engine appeared on the screen.
“I was able to rebuild the old servers,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “Everything is over fifty years old, but it’s like a window into the past.”
The light from the screen washed over her face as she leaned in, making her eyes even more luminous. Almost surreal.
“I can search something?”
“Go ahead.”
She typed slowly: “Teichus.”
The results loaded after a brief pause—pages on the city’s history, the construction of the wall, and its system of governance.
She clicked on a headline:Border Closure Considered Amid Rising Threats. The article detailed the rising unrest in the city and the measures they were considering to keep peace. Stripes had become the standardpunishment for crime, and Division Eight had been set aside for those whose offenses were severe enough to earn a facial scar—a permanent warning to others that they couldn’t be trusted.
Could anyone have predicted how far it would go? Eight had become a dumping ground for the scarred, the poor, and anyone too inconvenient to fit elsewhere. It didn’t matter how someone got the scar anymore—or if they had one at all. Simply listing an address in Division Eight on an application was enough to ruin someone’s chances of housing or a job in another Division. Their reputation was stained and escape was nearly impossible unless someone on the outside was willing to share their address.
He’d seen it during his time in Surveillance. People born in Eight, or forced there by poverty, clinging to anyone who might get them out. That kind of desperation made them easy to use.
If a man promised a young woman a way out and demanded sex in return, who could she turn to? Enforcers from other Divisions rarely gave a shit about “Eight rats”. And if the enforcer she called was a Silver? He might decide to keep her for himself.
That was the cruelty of Teichus, it didn’t just trap people in impossible situations—it made sure they had no one to trust. No one to turn to.
His stomach clenched as he looked at Mara, now reading through a page about Naxos. She was beautiful. Smart. Trapped in a brutal system—and with a brutal man.
And still, she kept fighting.
He would help her fight. No matter the cost.
She deserved to be free.
“I wish I had the time to read everything,” she whispered.
“Let me see your tablet.”
