Page 101 of Coldwire
“Listen to me.” I perform a cautionary survey of the apartment, poking my head through the two other doors. I find a tiny bathroom and an empty bedroom. “This virus has a coin-toss chance of killing you in a few days.”
“Maybe…” He trails off. Wheezes, catching his breath again. “Maybe it’s just common cold.”
“Your eyes are turning pink.”
Nik reaches up to rub his eyes, and I slap his hand away vigorously. He doesn’t protest, his hand hovering in midair for a second before it slackens, his body curling into the couch and his eyes fluttering closed. When I prod his forehead again, his skin is hot, feverish.
“Do you have an extra comm link for me?”
Nik doesn’t reply, nearing sleep. I go to the kitchen and fill up a mug of water. Ice cold, slightly freckled with dirt from poor filtration. He’s definitely still awake judging by the way he splutters when I throw it over him.
“Hey—”
“Do not sleep,” I seethe through my teeth. “I am trying to make sure you don’t die a tragic and insignificant death, so the least you can do is keep your eyes open. Do you have another comm link? We’ll run it on radio.”
He winces like he’s thinking hard on the matter. “There are two in my bag on the same frequency—”
I’m already ripping his bag off him and rummaging through it. He’s got a scratch pad shoved in here. A pair of socks, too, for whatever reason. I make a note of both and then close my hand around an earbud case at the bottom.
“I looked pretty closely at the map when I was drawing our route across Threto, especially around the river,” I say. “There’s a pharmacy three blocks over. I’m going to get you Eveline. I shouldn’t be longer than an hour.”
I shove one earbud into Nik’s ear. He flinches, but he doesn’t crane away entirely. The link activates.
“Don’t go anywhere. Do you understand me?”
He tries to sit up. “If you’re skipping out—”
“I am not having this conversation.” In the kitchen, I put a hand towel under the water. No matter how long the faucet runs, it doesn’t clear. This is as good as it’s going to get. “Keep in mind that my life getsworseif you die, so pull it together. I’m returning shortly.”
I toss the hand towel at him with a wet clunk. It lands on his arm, and because he doesn’t make any move to pick it up, I grit my teeth and go over again, placing it on his forehead.
“Oh.” He blinks at me. “Thank you.”
I shove his other earbud into my ear. The connection snaps into place—I can hear everything on his end.
“I’m going,” I say. “Keep your eyes open.”
28LIA
We found the delivery bot outside the museum spinning in circles to amuse itself. I was worried about the large box clutched in its arms, given the sheer speed it was whizzing at, but after we signed for the package and ripped it open, it turned out there was nothing fragile anyway. It was two high-visibility vests and two hard hats.
The costume is certainly doing its job now. There must have been a call for volunteers to manage the parade that Kam mimicked the gear for, because there are others along the route dressed similarly. They’re not walking with the cheering paraders like we are: they’re performing crowd control among the viewers. I catch sight of one volunteer tugging a kid to the side, off the path. The kid barely notices he’s being moved, only distractedly reaching up to make sure the willow crown he’s woven onto his head doesn’t fall off.
Kieren and I stay somewhere in the middle of the slow-moving parade, behind a wagon cart and in front of a dance group. No one looks closely at us. While they’re observing the parade, they see our vests, and their gazes glance right off. I peer up at the overhead skybridge we’re passing, where more observers are hanging out, and some go as far as to look away if I’ve met their eyes. They’re afraid that I’ll notice something about wherethey’re standing and ask them to move away from the nice spot they’ve picked.
We’ll be approaching the data center soon. The map in my display shows a few more blocks.
“So,” I say, breaking the focused silence that has settled between us, “what exactly does preparing for the cyber division entail?”
Kieren rolls his eyes, already knowing what I’m getting at. “I’m not a secret hacker, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Kam seemed to imply you were.”
“Common misconception,” he says, snootily. “Cyber will care about my math grades, but everything else is taught on the job. It’s still NileCorp. They would definitely have an issue with a cadet committing illegal activity prior to recruitment.”
Key word: “prior.” If it’s illegal activity while employed at the company, that’s perfectly fine.
I veer closer to Kieren on the path. He scowls when I nudge right into his shoulder, but I know he’s faking it. If he were actually annoyed, he would have moved.
