Proxy (17 page)

“Knox,” Marie said to him, her eyes also fixed on Syd. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

Knox looked up at her and clenched his teeth. He thought he’d killed this girl. His skin tingled. He wanted to put his fist through the car window. He wanted to put his fist through her face. He’d never been a violent guy before. He exhaled and tried to relax. He needed to get control of his thoughts.

He tried to project an image of unimpressed confidence, and ignored her question. In truth, he was far from confident. He’d had his share of crazy nights before. He and Chey and Nine and Simi had a damages bill that would have bankrupted lesser parents than theirs—and Syd had the scars to prove it—but tonight was beyond any trouble he’d ever been in.

He wasn’t worried about breaking the rules. If you could pay, the rules were yours to break. He was worried that he’d crossed some line where the rules he lived by no longer applied, past where his status, his father’s money, or his charm would do any good. And it was Marie’s fault.

“You look good for a dead girl,” he said.

She shrugged but didn’t deign to answer. She didn’t feel the need to explain or justify herself to him. She was nothing like the girl he remembered from before the accident. Her saucy laugh, her mischievous winks. This new Marie was cold.

“I mean, seriously?” Knox exploded at her, his face flushing red. “What is going on? How are you alive? Why?”

“Disappointed?” she sneered.

“You just want to yank me around?”

“You haven’t even apologized.”

“Apologized?” Knox couldn’t believe what she was saying. “For what?”

“For killing me.”

“Oh, come on!”

“Seriously,” said Marie. “I had to die because you wanted to get laid and you were careless and you can’t even admit you were wrong and apologize.”

Knox shook his head. “It was an accident.” The words caught in his throat. “I didn’t mean to—”

“You really are an idiot.”

“You knockoff slag!” he snapped. “You wanted an apology and then you spit it back in my face.”

“This is you apologizing?”

“Screw you.” They stared at each other in angry silence as the city raced by outside.

“So what’s the plan, now, Knox?” Marie said. “You’re taking me hostage? For what?”

“To help Syd get away from my father.”

“So . . . that’s him?” she said, her eyes fixed on Syd on the floor. “That’s your proxy?”

“Syd,” Knox repeated.

“Syd,” Marie repeated to herself, like she was storing it away. She didn’t look afraid. She looked . . . awed. This was not the reaction Knox had expected. Finally, she looked up at Knox. “You realize you’re kidnapping me with an antique plastic writing pen?”

Knox looked down at the pen. He squeezed it in his hand. She knew. He tossed it aside.

“I’m still stronger than you.” Knox leaned forward. “I can still hurt you.”

“No, you can’t,” Marie said and slid a slim silver EMD stick out from beside her on the seat. She rolled it gently between her hands. “If you’re going to take hostages, this is much better protection than a plastic pen.”

Knox leaned back. He’d screwed up. He’d underestimated Marie. Again. “Don’t do anything crazy, Marie,” he said.

“Like what? Kill you?”

Knox nodded. He’d never had a real weapon pointed at him before. He didn’t like the feeling. His clothes felt suddenly thin, his skin too, like all his fragile organs were exposed. The slightest move and she’d fry him.

“Relax,” she told him. “I’m not going to hurt you. You need my help.”

“Wait, what?” Knox wiped his palms on his pants legs. “You want to help me?”

“Not you,” Marie tilted her head toward Syd on the floor. “Him.”

Knox didn’t have a lot of experience kidnapping girls, but he imagined that they didn’t usually volunteer to help once they realized that your weapon was a bluff. Marie should be screaming and fighting him now, trying to get away. Or at least ordering the transport to go directly to the nearest Guardian control point.

“I don’t want them to hurt your proxy,” she said. “That was never what I wanted.”

“He’s
my
proxy. What do you care?”

“The problem
is
that he’s your proxy,” Marie finally said. “Don’t you see how messed up that is?”

“So you want to set him free or something?” Knox groaned. “You’re doing all this for the Cause?”

Knox had dated Causegirls before. They were always going on about debt reform and refugee forgiveness and all that Rebooter nonsense. Mostly, they wore political T-shirts. He’d actually dated two of them at once, because he thought it’d be hot the way they matched and the way they made his father angry, but their speeches got very dull very fast. Also they argued with each other all the time; one supported the Reboot agenda—violent overthrow of the system—and one supported an adjustment of interest rates. Knox just wanted to make out.

“Look at him,” Marie said, pointing. Syd’s breathing was shallow, his chest heaving up and down. It looked painful. “You think it’s right for someone to go through all this because of you?”

“Because of me?” Knox threw his hands up in the air. “You were in on the accident. He wouldn’t even be here if
you
hadn’t set me up.”

“I had no choice,” she said. “Your father threatened
my
proxy, if I didn’t help him teach you a lesson. I didn’t think things would go this far.”

“Some excuse. You knew what would happen to Syd.”

Mary shook her head. “I thought it’d benefit Syd in the long run too, if you learned your lesson. We both know the accident wasn’t your first offense, so don’t act like you care about Syd all of a sudden.”

“Hey,” Knox objected. “I didn’t put him into debt. That’s just the way it is. I didn’t invent the system.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“Debts have to be paid somehow.”

“Do they?”

“Oh man.” Knox sighed. “You’re a believer? Bring on the Jubilee! All is forgiven! Really? Want to hold my hand and sing too?”

“Wouldn’t the world be better if the slate was wiped clean? We could start over. Build something more . . . fair.” She frowned. “I don’t expect you to care.”

“I don’t get why
you
care,” Knox replied. “I mean, your dad’s company controls most of the proxy system.”

“And yours enforces it,” she said. “But here you are.”

“I’m here
because
my dad enforces it,” said Knox. “My dad used me and he used you, and I’m not going to let him get away with it. If that means getting Syd to the Rebooters, then that’s what I’ll do.”

“Getting back at your dad is the wrong reason to do this.”

“Who cares what my reasons are?”

“Reasons matter.” She turned away from him.

Behind her, the lights of the restricted speedway zipped past. Knox watched the road, remembering their last drive together. The memory stung, but why should it? He hadn’t killed anyone on this road. It was just a road. The girl was right in front of him. She wasn’t flirting anymore. She wasn’t really flirting back then either.

Marie glanced out the rear window and Knox followed her gaze. The advos along the road were all for the fake IDs. It didn’t look like they were being followed, but they were definitely being watched. His father would have a tracker on the transpo already. He was probably sitting in the living room watching them from his datastream.

Syd had better wake up soon. He needed to tell them where to go in the Valve. They couldn’t just cruise on in without him and start asking around for some old man, especially not if his father’s enforcers were already after him.

“Listen.” Marie turned back to Knox. “For my part in what’s going on here, I’m sorry. I want to help. I owe that to Syd. He got hurt so my proxy wouldn’t.”

Knox took a deep breath. “Fine,” he said.

“But they still have to think I’m your hostage,” Marie said. “Or else your father will take it out on Beatrice.”

“Beatrice?”

“My proxy.”

“She’s not really my problem,” said Knox.

“You really are a heartless bastard.” Marie glared at him.

Knox shrugged. After everything he’d been through tonight, what did insults matter? Let her think what she wanted. She didn’t know his life. She didn’t know what he’d been through, what caring about someone else could cost. Everyone gets hurt in the end. Better to be the one doing the hurting than the one getting hurt. She’d know that if she’d ever really had to suffer, but she was a spoiled rich girl with pretty ideals, whose mommy and daddy let her get away with murder. Murdering herself, sure, but still . . .

“You know, I was actually jealous of you when they told me you’d been kidnapped by your proxy,” Marie said. “I was jealous that you got to meet him in person. I imagined that if I could meet mine, we’d be friends.”

“Friends?” Knox laughed. “You can’t be friends with your proxy.”

“Beatrice is her name,” Marie said. “I haven’t seen her in years. The only way to see her was to get in trouble and then . . . well, I’d like to see her in person one day. As equals.”

“You think she feels the same way about you?” Knox grumbled.

“I’d like the chance to find out.”

“That’s great,” said Knox. “But we’re not here to help you with your personal journey toward self-actualization. Syd’s running for his life.”

“And what are you doing?”

Knox ignored her question. He was helping. Wasn’t it obvious?

“Whatever. You’re in over your head here,” Marie said. “You need my help.”

“You’re the one with the EMD stick,” Knox replied. “I guess
I
don’t have a choice.”

“I guess you don’t,” said Marie. “Now, why does Syd want us to go to the Valve?”

“To save some old guy from my father,” Knox explained. “I guess everyone’s trying to save someone tonight. It’s like a charity ball.”

“You’re not funny,” Marie said.

“Oh, you know I am.” Knox winked at her, but not to flirt. He hoped it would annoy her.

It did. She was about to let a stream of curses fly his way when the car lurched to stop.

“You have reached your destination,” the transport announced, then it powered down around them, dead still in the middle of the road.

[25]

KNOX GLANCED OUT the window, certain the Guardians were right behind them.

“Why won’t it take us in?” Knox asked, tapping at a holo of the transport’s systems. On the other side of the fence sat the Valve.

“It’s not programmed to go off the patron roads,” said Marie. “There’s no transpo network on the Valve roads. You’d know that if you ever bothered to read anything.”

“Sorry, my dad doesn’t subscribe to the terrorist newsletters,” Knox said. “He’s too busy protecting your daddy’s fortune.”

Marie rolled her eyes at him. “So what do we do? We can’t stay here.”

“I don’t know if you noticed the fence in our way,” Knox told her. “We have to find a way around. Like a gate or something.”

“All the gates are guarded and monitored,” Syd said from the floor, his voice cracking as he pushed himself up. He looked up at Marie.

“Hi, I’m—” she started to introduce herself, extending her hand.

Syd’s hand went to his forearm and rested over the spot where they’d branded him. “I know who you are.”

“I want to help you,” Marie said.

Syd looked to Knox.

“She’s a Causegirl,” Knox explained. “She wants to fight injustice and thinks setting you free will make up for her living the lux life. I’m sure she’d move down to the Valve if she could.” He raised a fist. “Solidarity. It’s a thing up here.”

“A thing?” said Syd. He sighed and pulled himself on the seats.

Knox figured they didn’t have Causegirls down in the Valve. Down in the Valve, seeming to care probably wasn’t cool. Everyone must have that same detached anger that Syd had. It was all in the eyes. Even just sitting there on the floor of the car, half zonked from the EMD blast, Syd’s eyes looked angry. Maybe the Valve wouldn’t be such a bad place to live if everyone just chilled out a bit.

“Does it hurt?” Marie asked.

“What do you think?” Syd answered. His eyes went to the EMD stick in her hand. He didn’t like being that close to one. She noticed his glance and slid it under her jacket.

“It’s not on,” she told him.

Knox grunted and shook his head. “Of course not.”

“We gotta get down there before your fathers get to Mr. Baram,” said Syd. “Whatever’s going on here has nothing to do with him.”

“My father would never hurt an innocent person,” Marie said.

“She actually believes that,” Knox scoffed.

“It’s true,” she said. “Not everyone is a soulless corporate automaton like your dad.”

“True enough,” said Knox. “Some men are just cowards.”

“My father is not a coward.” She reached back into her jacket.

Knox held up his hands. “I surrender.”

Marie knew he was mocking her, but let it go. He wasn’t worth it. This wasn’t about the sneering, sarcastic pretty boy. It was about Syd, who was looking out the car windows and ignoring their squabble.

Syd studied the fence and the blast barriers along the side of the road. The hill just beyond them sloped down into the Valve, but not much was visible through the soupy smog that settled over it, thick as tar and just as black. He glanced up toward the sky. He couldn’t see any drones above, but at night they were almost impossible to spot.

“The fence is fortified graphene,” Syd told them. “We can’t cut through it, and it’s electrified so we can’t climb over it.”

Syd looked at Knox. Marie did too.

“What? You think I know how?” Knox pointed at himself. He’d snuck into a lot of places in his life. Concerts, girls’ houses, the zoo . . . he never imagined he’d be trying to sneak into a slum with his proxy and some Causegirl.

“You’re the only one here with a criminal past,” Marie said.

“That’s not entirely true,” Syd said. “I used to help rob construction sites . . . you still want to help, now you know I’m not just a poor innocent proxy?”

“Don’t be cruel,” Marie replied. “I do want to help you. As long as I’m your hostage, they aren’t going to hurt you. Without me . . .” She let the thought trail off.