Estranged (37 page)

Jenna sat on the bed, legs crossed
beneath her as she looked out the window. It wasn’t a scenic view
of the mountains or the ocean, but Kalei could see most of
Downtown, and even the fence and parts of the grey zone. It wasn’t
necessarily a bad view, so long as one didn’t mind the fact that
most of the buildings in sight looked like something out of the
apocalypse.

Jenna glanced over her shoulder to see
who it was, but when her eyes alighted on Kalei, they turned grim.
Jenna snapped, “Fuck off!” Then she looked away to the window
again.

Kalei took a deep breath, knowing full
well she had deserved that, and also knowing full well that she
couldn’t leave until she made amends. She shook off the not-so-warm
welcome and said, “I just wan—”

Jenna turned her head, just far enough
that her ear faced Kalei. “Didn’ your foster mother teach you
manners? I know Mom did. Get da fuck out of here!”

“
Hey! I’m here to
apologize!”

Jenna spun around on the bed. “Oh
really? For what? Shooting me in the back of the head or leaving my
body in the street?”

“
I left you
with—”

“
Who? Who would my dear
sister entrust with watching over my fucking corpse? Please, tell
me. ‘Cuz there sure as hell weren’t no one there when I woke
up.”

Kalei hesitated. “He must’ve... I’m
sorry, I—”

“
No! Don’t lie to me! You
ain’t sorry for shit. As far as you’re concerned, I killed that
man. As far as you’re concerned—”

“
You didn’t kill
him.”

Jenna froze. “What?”

“
I know you didn’t kill
him. I saw Samantha’s memory. You—”

Surprise turned to confusion.
“Samantha’s memory?”

“
Her memory. I—” Kalei
sighed. “I just know, alright? And I’m sorry I blamed
you.”

Jenna stood up and took a step closer
to Kalei. “No. You know what? It doesn’ even matter that you blamed
me. You know what pisses me off? That you write me off as some
junkie. That you think it’s okay to ditch me in the gutter the
second I stop playing by your rules. I’m your sister,
Kalei!”

“
You’re trying to turn
this all on me? You
were
a junkie! You should have seen yourself: the way
you were stumbling, pawing on Samantha to hook you up. You were
nothing but a blubbering, desperate bitch trying getting her hands
on another high!”

“
Oh really? If that’s the
case, then why didn’t I kill all those people in the street! Huh?
Why didn’t I just jump you and take what I wanted! We both know I’m
stronger than you, Kalei.”

Kalei scoffed. She
couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You are nowhere
near
as strong as me!
You can’t even handle your own darkness, and you think you’re
stronger than me? I hate to break it to you, big sis, but I passed
you by a long time ago.”

“
Is that what you think?”
Jenna stepped back and spread her arms wide. “Look at me, Kalei. Do
I look desperate? Do I look like a junkie? Or do I look like I’m in
control?”

Jenna’s eyes were abnormally bright,
but clear. Her arms were rock steady as she held them out. Jenna
dropped her arms and showed Kalei her nails, which sported five
wheels, spinning out of control, but still perfectly
maintained.

“
You think you’re all high
and mighty following Terin’s puritanical rules. Yeah, I know Gramps
has his reasons for bein’ that way, but I’ll tell you what. I’m not
sober! And I’m not high as a fucking kite either! I have this under
control. And you know what? I’m not the one suffering. Physically,
emotionally—the darkness can’t touch this.”

Kalei crossed her arms, glaring at her
sister. “And what happens when it wears off? What happens when you
need more?”

“
Look around you! We’re in
fucking Downtown! If you haven’t noticed, they’ve got Estranged on
every fucking block of this neighborhood!”

“
So what? You just stay in
the area, taking and taking until nothing will satisfy you. What
happens then? You take some more? You’re forgetting, I was a
fucking cop! I’ve seen this game before, Jenna. You’ve seen it too.
You may be all fine and dandy right now, but it will catch up with
you and then you will be in more pain than I ever was!”

“
This isn’t just some
drug, Kalei. This is the darkness! It’s better! We get higher, we
get stronger, we don’t ever fade away! We’re fucking young forever!
And you know what? So long as I don’t touch an Untouched, I’m
harmless! The darkness is harmless! It’s not hurting us, Kalei;
it’s helping us. You just can’t see it.”

Kalei clenched her jaw and unfolded
her arms. “Do you want to be like Samantha? Killing fucking
civilians because a regular day in the park just won’t satisfy
you?”

“
I will NEVER be like
that! You just can’t see it.”

“
Really? I think I’m
seeing things quite clearly, sis. Remember that little Untouched
kid from the Call? Do you remember what happened to him? He sure as
hell ain’t going off to college, I can tell you that much. You need
to take a long look in the mirror, sister: you don’t have jack shit
under control.”

Jenna’s face turned a new shade of
red, her mouth forming a furious rebuttal. But Kalei wasn’t
interested in hearing her response. She turned and left.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Discovery

Kalei threw herself into her work. It
quickly became apparent that finding any information on Xamic’s
plan was a lost cause, so Kalei, Mar, Erit, and Walker switched
gears to focus on finding ways to counter the threat.
Counter-intelligence, increased screenings for anyone entering the
building, anything that could help them stop the device before it
got to them. A second and third terminal were added to the computer
room so that the team could conduct their investigations while
Jenna continued the day-to-day monitoring on the main
terminal.

Kalei pretended that Jenna didn’t
exist. The treatment was mutual.

Whenever she wasn’t working on the
terminal, Kalei was meditating on Samantha’s memories. It was weird
whenever a memory involved herself. She remembered E-night, seeing
herself, seeing Kalei walking up the path to Landen’s mansion, and
as she watched Kalei, she remembered criticizing her lack of
posture and messy hair before recognizing Jenna and opening the
gate. Coming out of those memories was always incredibly
disorienting, so she took special care to keep them separate from
her own, lest she lose hold of her identity.

Sometimes the memories came as gently
as remembering where she left her keys. Other times, Kalei blacked
out and woke up with her face pressed into the gravel of the roof,
while memories of fights or traumatic events still ran before her
eyes. Elaborate torture, sick punishments, twisted games; Landen
lived in one fucked-up world, and Samantha had a front row seat to
it all.

But in either case, Kalei had almost
no control over which memories came back. Sure, sometimes she could
nudge her thoughts into a certain direction, but more likely than
not, the memory that came back would be as benign a new pair of
shoes, or the latest gossip on Katy’s romance with Steve. Kalei
usually left the roof feeling absolutely ill from being immersed in
that woman’s life.

Kalei walked into the computer room
and sat in a chair next to Erit. Walker was probably out running an
errand for Terin, while Mar was most likely smacking some new
recruits around. Jenna still didn’t exist in her corner.

Erit asked, “Any progress?”

Kalei was thoroughly frustrated. Days
were slipping through her fingers, and all she could come up with
was, “Well, Maya finally launched her new line of perfume last
fall. Oh, and Landen likes his rum on the rocks.”

Erit laughed. “It seems I’ve had a bit
more luck on my end. Jenna pointed me to a conversation between a
couple of Landen’s subordinates, and it sounds like Xamic is
converting one of Landen’s condominiums into a sort of luxury
barracks. Open bar, massage parlor, the works. He’s also doubled
the Tusic patrols in the city.”

Kalei furrowed her brows, her
frustration making friends with anxiety in the pit of her stomach.
“So, playing the sugar daddy even as he puts them to the
grindstone, eh?”

Erit leaned back in his chair. “It
gets worse. He’s carting a number of Untouched into the barracks.
The few that come out are turned. And, well, the recruitment
process is engineered for the enjoyment of the turners, not the
turnees.”

Kalei’s felt a touch of bile rising in
the back of her throat. “What is Xamic getting at? Is he trying to
build a clientele? An army? Shit, how can we stop him when we
aren’t even in the game?”

Erit replied, “Truly, I do not
know.”

Kalei closed her eyes and took a deep
breath. “Well, regardless of the bigger picture, we need to stop to
this Untouched trafficking before it goes any further. Maybe if
we’re lucky, we’ll pick up more information on Xamic’s plan before
it blows up in our face.”

“
Indeed. I’ve already put
word to the police to increase their patrols, and we have the local
news stations doubling their ‘Estranged Awareness’ bulletins. Terin
has even allowed me to send some SWORDE patrols into the city to
support the police.”

“
Do you think that’s wise?
Sending Estranged, even trained Estranged, to patrol the
city?”

“
Wise or not, the police
patrols won’t do any good unless they have teeth, and our Estranged
can be those teeth.”

The thought of more Estranged in the
city made Kalei uncomfortable. She had to agree with Erit, though;
it was the only thing they could at the moment.

“
Okay, you seem to have
all that under control then. What can I do? Besides meditating on
prissy lady’s favorite brand names.”

“
Well, until we can pin
down the ‘why’ of Xamic’s activities, I will need aid pinpointing
the ‘where’ of this supposed Ruffian Paradise. Landen owned a
plethora of condominiums in this city, so learning its exact
location is proving to be more difficult than I had originally
anticipated.”

“
Start with the ones in
T-Town. Landen favored those because they gave him easy access to
City Hall and the financial district. Let me give Marley a call and
tell him to keep an eye out. He might have heard something about
those condos that we haven’t.” Kalei stood up to leave, then turned
back to Erit, “Oh yeah, and any word on Lecia yet?”

“
No. Unfortunately, the
girl is still missing.”

Kalei paused.
Where could she be?
Kalei felt her phone in her pocket and returned her attention
to the work at hand. “Alright. I’ll start looking for her again
when I get back.” She pulled out her cellphone and made her way to
the elevator. While she waited for it to come back down from the
fifteenth floor, she called back to Erit, “Hey, how did you pick up
that conversation anyway? Ear cams don’t have mics.”

“
The smoking buddies
didn’t take notice of an Estranged passed out across the street.
Their faces were perfectly visible for any passing lip-reader to
discern.”

“
And I take it lip-reading
is one of your many secret talents?”

Erit smiled. “Indeed.”

Once outside, Kalei dialed Marley. The
two had been back on good terms since she returned to SWORDE. When
she passed on Terin’s frat-boy description of Xamic, Marley got all
excited about building a profile and pressed her to ask Terin for
more information. Terin wouldn’t talk any more on the subject, but
then Kalei had passed the phone over to Erit and the two had a nice
long chat while Kalei left to meditate.

Otherwise, he had been a valuable
asset to their investigation. Since SWORDE didn’t have the manpower
to track down all the leads in the city, Marley usually tracked the
information down for them and sent out BOLOs whenever SWORDE needed
it. Kalei always tried to return the favor. More than a couple
cases had been cleared off his desk, thanks to an anonymous video
file.

“
Hey, Marley. It’s me.
I’ve got word Xamic is collecting his people into some sort of
barracks. Any chance you can keep an ear out and let me know if you
get a location?”

“
Sure thing. Any word on
Lecia?”

“
No. I’m guessing that
means no luck on your end either?”

“
Nope.” Marley sighed.
“Damn. Y’know, this could’ve been a hell of a lot easier if Lecia
had been a normal girl with a normal job. But nope, not our Lecia.
I have reports of her spending time in every corner of the city,
with no rhyme or reason. Even her contacts at the University had no
idea where she could be. I’m telling you, Kalei, this case is a
nightmare. I’ve tracked down every lead I can think of, and I still
don’t even know
when
she disappeared.”

“
Yeah, I know. But we
can’t give up on her.”

Marley sighed. “I haven’t given up
yet. I just wonder if it’s already too late, y’know?”