Light Shaper (21 page)

They were walking through one of the shadier parts of downtown Aurora, near the red-light district. A prostitute in a corner told Rigel suggestively that she’d give them a good price. When they passed her without answering, she flipped them off, insulting them loudly. Steve didn’t even blink, but Rigel was already so wound-up he jumped slightly, bumping into Steve without meaning to.

“Watch it,” Steve said irritably.

“Sorry,” Rigel answered.

They walked in silence for a bit more, dodging the crowds of people returning home from work or those going out to do the day’s shopping or visit friends now that the sun had gone down. Aurora came alive at night, but right then Rigel couldn’t help but feel disconnected from everybody else, as if there were an invisible barrier separating him from normal people. None of them were running for their lives like he was, none of them had absolutely no idea of what they would do when Steve finally got fed up with waiting for further instructions and left him to his own devices. Rigel couldn’t believe that only yesterday he had been talking with Misha as if nothing was the matter. It seemed like ages ago. Now everything was scary, every shadow was a threat, and neither of them had any idea what to do next.

They passed a newsstand soon after, and when Rigel saw the headlines in the monitors, he did a double take. He approached the vendor, forgetting about Steve for a moment, and started to read:

OTHERLIFE IS DOWN!

Shocked customers all throughout the city have been filing nonstop complaints against CradleCorp management today, as all Otherlife services have been suspended indefinitely for the first time in the company’s decades-long history. A spokesman for CradleCorp confirmed the suspension but declined to detail the reasons for—

“Rigel!” Steve snapped, coming back and grabbing him by the shoulder. “Hurry up!”

Regretfully Rigel followed, thinking.

There had been a couple of weird incidents through the afternoon as they were hiding. Once, they had gone into a department store to lose a guy that looked suspiciously like one of the assassins Tanner had sent. Over in the video department, all of the screens had suddenly blanked out and then shown, briefly, what looked like a map with a specific point labeled in bright red. Before either Steve or Rigel had been able to read it properly, though, the image had fuzzed out, and a split second later the screens had returned to showing the inane music videos they had been displaying before.

Another time, a couple of hours ago, a black car had screeched out of the corner upon seeing the two of them, and Rigel and Steve had bolted down the road. The car was in hot pursuit, though, and it was only forced to stop because every single traffic light along its way had turned red. A traffic drone had appeared out of nowhere, hovering in front of the black car and warning it loudly to stop running through red lights. The car had been forced to stop, and that had been enough for the two of them to get away.

“We’re stopping here,” Steve announced, walking out of the main road and under a bridge that roared with traffic. They hid in the shadows beneath it, the street below devoid of cars or people. The stench of stale urine pervaded the air, and there was a suspicious mound of what looked like discarded newspapers stuffed in a corner.

Rigel sat down gratefully. Steve remained standing, hands crossed over his massive chest. At any other time, Rigel would have found him insanely attractive. Now, though, he was mostly thankful for his presence and afraid that he would leave.

Steve looked down and met Rigel’s eyes with a scowl.

“I need some answers,” he said with his deep voice. “We’re not moving around anymore until you explain to me what’s going on. We should have either lost those guys who are after us entirely or been captured ages ago. Yet somehow, we always barely miss them, and they are always on our trail. I want to know how they’re doing it.”

“I’m not sure,” Rigel said truthfully, fidgeting with his hands and wishing they didn’t hurt so much. He stuffed them in his pockets and felt again the little quantum drive he had stolen from CradleCorp, still stuck to his brace. He wondered what was in it and if Atlas had told him the truth.

Steve looked like he didn’t believe him.

“I’m being honest,” Rigel told him. “This…. Well, I think a lot of it is Atlas.”

“Controlling traffic lights remotely? Making screens show what he wants?”

“Well, yeah. Atlas told me that it has access to most things that are connected to its network. Electronic stuff, I guess. Files and such. That map we saw, remember?”

“Yeah,” Steve answered, tense and alert. He was listening, but he was also checking their surroundings to make sure they were in no danger at the moment.

“That must have been Atlas trying to show us where to go. And the traffic lights also, maybe Atlas did something to them. So we could get away. If it hasn’t contacted us again, then maybe it’s because it can’t. Maybe they did something back in CradleCorp, disconnected it, I don’t know. Did you read the newspapers? Otherlife is down. That has never happened before. It’s got to have something to do with all this.”

“So…,” Steve said thoughtfully, “Atlas is some kind of extremely good hacker?”

“I think he’s more like a program.”

“Excuse me?”

“You know. Like an AI. It can control most electronic stuff unless someone is interfering. Like Tanner now, I guess.”

Steve looked confused.

“An AI?”

“Yes. I also think Tanner is getting desperate. He knows that I have the files Atlas gave me,” Rigel said. He held up the little drive for Steve to see. “In here there’s valuable information, I’m certain of it. Maybe something serious enough to—”

But Steve held up his hand. “Save it. I don’t want to know. The less I am involved, the better for me. All I got to do is deliver you to a safe place, and then I’m gone. Whatever you did to piss off Richard Tanner and make him shut down the biggest company in the city is way too dangerous for me to know.”

“But—”

At that moment, a traffic drone came hovering around the corner, following the course of the road on the bridge above. Its little searchlight swept lazily over the vehicles, but Rigel saw its beam stop suddenly when it was right above the place where they were hiding. The drone veered off course, flying lower, and appeared visibly over the edge of the bridge above their heads. It swerved, facing them fully and shining the light in their faces. It hovered there for an instant and then flew away like nothing had happened.

“Was that Atlas behind the drone?” Rigel asked fearfully. “Or Tanner?”

“Either way, we got to get moving. Come on.”

They left the shelter of the bridge and walked quickly away. Three blocks later, they were passing a pawnshop when one of the monitors for sale in the window flashed brightly. Words appeared for less than a second, then they were gone in a burst of static. Too fast for Rigel to read.

Rigel looked at Steve. “Did you see that?”

Steve nodded slowly. He looked a little bit spooked. “Was that… Atlas?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Okay. How about we just keep moving.”

And so they walked. Steve kept glancing at his watch, his impatience evident to Rigel. They couldn’t just keep on wandering through the streets all night, and whatever it was that Atlas had used to secure Steve’s help would not keep him around forever. Rigel began to get scared again. He didn’t know what to do. Atlas had been vague, and Rigel had no emergency plan. He supposed he could check into a motel somewhere, but he didn’t have any cash with him, and any electronic transactions he made would be easily traced back to his location. He could go back to his apartment, but he was afraid of endangering Misha. He had no family to go to. Nobody to ask for help.

As he followed Steve out of the downtown area and through a more residential district of Aurora where people were walking their dogs and chatting outside cafés, it dawned on Rigel that he was alone. It was weird, but he had never thought about the fact quite in that light. He was an only child, and his parents were gone. No other family that he knew of. The realization made him feel vulnerable and for some reason slightly disappointed with himself.

“Watch out,” Steve said suddenly, pushing Rigel roughly behind a tree. A suspicious car drove past, too slowly. Tinted windows prevented them from seeing who was inside. Rigel held very still, only daring to sigh with relief after the car was gone. “Let’s go this way.”

They turned down a smaller side street. It was empty and dark. Overhead, the moon had begun to rise over the tops of the buildings, giving them a little bit of additional light to see by.

A woman appeared on the other side of the street when they were halfway through. Her face was brightly lit by the glare of a small handheld she carried in both hands. She was walking without looking up, and although Steve tensed beside him, he did not tell Rigel to stop or do anything else, so they kept walking as naturally as they could.

The woman was maybe three steps away when she looked up. Then she quickly looked down at the screen, her eyes darting back to them immediately.

She gave a little squeal of fright.

“A… Aaron Blake?” she said, looking from Rigel to Steve. She seemed to settle on Rigel as the most likely candidate, although a bit uncertainly.

Rigel nodded out of habit. Too late, he realized this might be a trap.

But the woman smiled, relieved. Then she seemed to remember why she was there, and the urgency returned to her face. “My name is Dr. Marion Fay. Atlas sent me. Follow me, please. There isn’t much time.”

BARROW DIDN’T
like it, but he reasoned that the sooner they were off the street the safer it would be for all of them. The woman they had found, Marion Fay, seemed to know where she was going. She led them through a couple of side streets, then made a turn onto a main road and kept on going for two blocks or so. She stopped at a large apartment building, used a key card on the front doors, and went right in with the two of them behind her.

She didn’t stop then, but kept on going straight to reception and made a beeline for the elevators. Barrow followed behind Rigel, looking around. Judging from the reception area, these were luxury apartments. Expensive-looking art hung on the walls, a few glass sculptures stood on impressive stands, and a solicitous concierge greeted Fay with familiarity. They got onto the nearest free elevator, and Fay punched the button for the penthouse level. She didn’t say anything as they went up and all but rushed outside when they finally reached the top floor. She fumbled with her apartment keys before finding the correct one, pushed the door open, and ushered them in. Only when they were safely inside the apartment did she finally relax.

“This way, Mr. Blake,” she said to Rigel. “Please have a seat. You as well, Mister….”

“Barrow,” he told her, although he didn’t go and sit down immediately like Rigel did. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. It was a comfortable apartment, obviously this woman’s home. The living room and walk-in kitchen spread out from the entrance hall, illuminated by cozy lighting. A couple of big sofas and exotic leafy plants stood next to the floor-to-ceiling windows, which covered the entirety of the left wall. They offered a spectacular view of the city at nighttime, the streets far below like little rivers of golden light. On the coat hook nearest the door was a CradleCorp-issued lab coat, an employee access card hanging next to it. This woman worked at the company too, then.

“Can I offer you a drink?” she asked them, not quite succeeding in keeping the edge of nervousness out of her voice. “Some tea, perhaps?”

“Just water would be fine,” Rigel said immediately. He had already sat down on the largest sofa and was looking down at the city with interest. “We’re very thirsty. We have been out walking all day.”

“In this heat?” Fay asked.

“Yeah,” Rigel admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever been outside walking at noon before, and I don’t want to repeat the experience.”

“How dreadful,” she answered, taking bottles out of the fridge. “Let me at least offer you some iced tea. You’ll find it wonderfully refreshing.”

“Thank you!” Rigel answered enthusiastically.

Barrow felt a twinge of annoyance. These people were talking as if they had just met for tea and cookies on a perfectly normal night, completely ignoring the fact that there were trained killers stalking them out there. He thought about leaving and actually walked a few steps toward the door, but then he changed his mind and walked over to the living room to sit on the sofa across from Rigel. Part of it was that he was curious about what the hell was going on, but a larger part of it was that he wanted to make absolutely sure that Atlas was now satisfied that he had gotten Rigel to safety. Once he was cleared, he would disappear.

“Here you go. Here is your tea,” Fay said a few minutes later. She was carrying a heavy tray laden with cups and plates, but her hands were shaking slightly as she put it on the table, and she nearly dropped the whole thing. Rigel was closest, and he reacted quickly, reaching out to steady the tray. It would have worked except that his grip obviously had no strength, and the thing ended up crashing down on the table, spilling tea and ice cubes everywhere. It would have been funny if it hadn’t been so sad. Rigel blushed a deep crimson and began apologizing profusely yet again, mopping up the mess with Fay’s help while Barrow watched. Rigel was obviously mortified. He sat back into his seat, hands crossed over his chest, and resolutely looked at nothing but the floor until their hostess returned with a fresh tray of beverages.

“Sorry again,” Rigel muttered. He took one of the glasses carefully with both hands, his metal braces clicking with the motion.

“Not to worry,” Fay said, offering Barrow a glass, which he took. He drank deeply. The ice-cold drink was unbelievably refreshing. “One of the senior scientists at the company has something like that around his ankle. It’s a kind of orthopedic support, isn’t it?”