Silence (4 page)

Sheikoh's face broke into a tight,
relieved smile.

“
Sure you could, kiddo, but
how about you take me on a walk instead?”

The odd couple laughed and
joked with each other as they walked through the noisy, bustling
crowds. The concrete sidewalks were stiff with faceless people, and
the dirt pounded center was eerily emptied, in the event that one
of the occasional horsemen had business that required they pelt
through the dingy West Side. The wealthy east siders were the only
ones that could afford to keep Swifthooves in the crowded
city.

Swifthooves were the genetically
purified cousin to wild horses. They could run almost six times as
fast, but Sheikoh hadn’t had much chance to explore their speed;
the price for the animal’s upkeep here, in the industrial capital
of Skyrei was exorbitant. No one living on the destitute West Side
could afford transportation. That was a privilege reserved for the
wealthy. The east siders, who regarded their struggling
counterparts with contempt.

Sheikoh didn’t personally know any
east siders, but they made their feelings on people like him
extremely clear. Once or twice, he’d actually seen their
Swifthooves run down unfortunate pedestrians. One worried look
back, then the effluent would race back to whatever errand had
required the poor West Side life.

There were never any
reprisals. The dead party was treated like road kill. Everyone knew
east siders didn’t consider people living in the crumbling,
gang-controlled section as anything more than animals. After all,
only animals condoned a system of violence. Not humanity in all its
‘
civilized
’
society. Sheikoh’s eyes hardened. He glanced up at that familiar
sheet of Coral Grey, perpetually staring over his shoulder. The
wall. It slashed through the Interium’s horizon, cutting the city
in two and divided the Legacy-controlled West Side from the
prosperous East Side. It protected the rich from gangsters, trapped
the poor under their unchallenged rule.  

Unlike the misinformed east siders,
Sheikoh knew the truth. Violence simply took what it desired. It
was the chaos and destruction that fueled life itself, and when
face to face with the insidious entity, there were only two
choices; fight or flight. Sheikoh’s life had made that lesson its
go-to answer for every problem he had ever faced. Every challenge
that’d he’d had to overcome in his short, violent life had traced
that same menacing mantra. Everything boiled down to a single
choice that was both simpler and, paradoxically, more impossible
than any other; to live or to die by the harsh streets. Sheikoh had
chosen to live, but sometimes he wondered if maybe he should have
weighed both options a little more carefully.

Sheikoh shook his head and forced his
attention on Dorothi, who was expounding on something that she’d
been working on the last couple of nights. “I undid the remote’s
circuit board, I hope you don’t mind,” Dorothi confessed, her
expression hesitant.

“
I needed to rewire the
laser modulator to pick up another channel and program another
control sequence, but
I-promise-I’ll-fix-it-really-soon-don’t-be-mad-please?” Dorothi’s
eyes widened anxiously up at him.

Sudden warmth filled up his chest with
tingly a soda-bubbles feeling. She was so much like her older
sister.

“
Dorothi… you expect me to
get up and turn channels? That totally defeats the purpose of doing
nothing! Why not just kill me now?” Sheikoh whined
jokingly.

“
You totally tried to kill
me like five minutes ago so… I think it’s fair, right?” Dorothi
joked back, eliciting a false laugh and sent an electric shiver of
fear down his spine. Dorothi’s hard life had aged her far beyond
her eleven years.

Sheikoh’s secret dread was, directly
or indirectly, he would be the one responsible for her death. He
had quickly grown to love her as his sister after he had taken over
her welfare a little less than five years ago. Sheikoh had long
since given up on himself, but he would never forgive himself if he
was the reason she lost her innocent life.

Sheikoh’s glance over at her was
suffused with parental warmth, but Dorothi didn’t notice. She
squinted forward through the masses of jostling people. Sheikoh let
his eyes follow hers’ general direction.

“
Wanna find something to
eat?” Sheikoh asked, at the same time pulling a wallet out of the
ragged pocket beside him. His face settled with satisfaction.
Dorothi didn’t notice of course, she inhabited her own little
universe.

“
Yeah! How about
Primelight?” She suggested happily.

Sheikoh groaned, but his eyes sparkled
with amusement.

“
We were over there
yesterday, don’t you ever get tired of that place?” he asked. His
tone of voice implied they’d had this conversation more than a few
times.

“
But it’s right here,
Sheek!” said Dorothi.

“
So is the dirt! That
doesn’t mean we have to eat it!” Sheikoh responded
quickly.

His grin quickly crumpled under
Dorothi’s big, hopeful eyes. He endured them until there was no
choice but compliance. They shifted their course in Primelight’s
direction. Dorothi smiled, half-skipping along beside the bigger
boy. She had Sheikoh wrapped around her finger.

“
You’re
right here…”
Sheikoh grumbled under
his breath. He really needed to figure out how to break her
insidious hold over his emotions.

“
I totally am!” Dorothi
exclaimed happily.

“
No
I
totally am!” Sheikoh shot back at her.

“
You’re silly, Sheek,”
Dorothi laughed. “That doesn’t even make sense!”

“
You
don’t even make sense…”
he
muttered.

Dorothi just giggled to herself and
ignored him as they made for the restaurant. Currents of the crowd
pressed them conclusively ahead, as Sheikoh tried to work out how
this child had subdued him so easily. It was both a happy and sad
line of speculation. He hoped that it’d never be a talent Dorothi
came to regret.

“
We’re here!” Dorothi
exclaimed in words colored by delight. A small smile crept onto
Sheikoh’s face.

Primelight was a startling mixture of
shabbiness and overdone ostentatiousness. It’s chipped windows
gleamed with gaudy neon silhouettes of happy people and crowds.
It’s brickwork exterior was overlain with fading smiles, children
wearing styles from the last decade and flashing, neon arcade
games. Dorothi looked up at him, her face shining. Sheikoh shook
his head slowly at the irrepressible girl, remembering their
conversation. He was a little unsure as to how they’d gotten
here.

“
We’re here,” Sheikoh
agreed with a dazed look as the two pushed opened the double doors
to the world of lights, cigarette smoke, and laughing conversation.
He sauntered past the servers waiting to greet them by the door,
and knocked on the rectangle window to the kitchen.

“
Yo Adeil, whassup? Can we
get a grilled cheese and… a rack of ribs? Oh, and two colas, too,”
Sheikoh called in to the busy kitchen. A hairy man in an apron
smiled harriedly back at him and clanked two cans onto the
separating ledge between about five other jobs. Sheikoh flashed a
grin in return, and handed Dorothi hers as they walked away. The
dude barely had time to breath, let alone talk.

Sheikoh’s smooth gait
resembled a glide through the smoky room, while Dorothi
half-skipped at his side, chattering happily about whatever popped
into her mind.
The two sat down at their
usual table, a curved booth in the back that was draped in a rare
blanket of the ambient shadows that allowed Sheikoh to see others
while hiding the two from most wandering glances. They were far
from invisible, but the tacky, neon rainbow designs of the gaudy
restaurant were usually more than sufficient distraction to
disguise the two children-shaped silhouettes. Sheikoh didn’t feel
threatened in the restaurant necessarily; it was more a question of
habits modeled on his lifelong mission to see dangers before they
were dangerous. Besides, if he was going to pay for this meal
with
‘hard-earned’
money, they better make him and Dorothi as comfortable as
they’d ever been.

Then Sheikoh screwed up his face,
wondering who ‘they’ actually were. Did east siders own all the
businesses and factories in the west? If so, he felt a lot better
about his day-to-day.

Dorothi misinterpreted the crinkle
between his eyebrows.

“
Don’t pretend you don’t
like this place Sheek, I know you do.” She smiled, her eyes
sparkling with excitement. Sheikoh snapped back into focus, and his
face softened into a smile. “No, you’re right,” he admitted. “No
one can cook runaway Purmynxs like good old Primelight.” Dorothi
hit him in the arm, indignant. Sheikoh burst into
laughter.

“
Purmynxs are pets! No one
would ever eat one!” Dorothi retorted vehemently.

“
You’re pretty cute, but
I’m hungry enough to cook you up,” Sheikoh mock hissed to Dorothi,
twisting his face into creepy grimace.

“
Well you’re big and ugly,
but I wouldn’t cook you,” Dorothi countered.

“
That’s cause us big ugly
ones don’t taste so good. It’s the cute ones you go after. I’m so
proud, you’re already ahead of the curve, Princess,” Sheikoh
gushed. Then he ducked as Dorothi tried to punch him
again.

“
You’re sick, Sheek,” she
informed him with disgust.

Sheikoh opened his mouth to make some
reply, but something out of the corner of his eye unsettled him.
Something that the grey-haired man standing by the door had done
had tripped his sense of alarm...

Sheikoh stared at the offender, noting
his khaki slacks and the blue suit and tie ensemble. Criminal, most
likely. He closed his eyes and searched his memory. Constant danger
had sharpened his mental recall until it was borderline
eidetic.

Sheikoh focused his thoughts on that
one, weird instant of peripheral memory that had seemed… off. Just
before Dorothi had fallen into his arms, the man had glanced up
with an expression of… recognition? He cursed to himself. For
someone like him, recognition was rarely good news.

Sheikoh shot a worried glance at
Dorothi. She was still glaring up at him from his arms. Whatever
this man was after, Sheikoh wasn’t going to let it touch the
innocent girl. His eyes tightened with resolve as he looked at
Dorothi’s porcelain, soft face, thus far unblemished by firsthand
knowledge of pain. Physical pain, at least. She wasn’t about to see
any scars in the mirror on his account.

Sheikoh pulled Dorothi closer to him,
leaning forward so that the man couldn’t see what he was doing. He
leveled a serious stare into her fiery eyes. They sparked slightly
brighter with sudden curiosity. Dorothi knew him well enough to
make out the seriousness in his expression. She began to look
around, but Sheikoh clenched her wrist and imperceptibly shook his
head.

“
Get out
of here. Go to the safe-house.
Now
. I’m not joking,” Sheikoh
muttered softly.

Dorothi’s mouth shaped a ‘w’ sound,
but Sheikoh cut her off before she could get a single question
out.

“
No. No time for
explanations. I’ll distract and you disappear.” Dorothi’s
expression was reluctant, but she nodded.

Sheikoh’s eyes hardened with resolve.
He wasn’t going to let anything happen to her. Dorothi’s nodding
sped up, and her own eyes were wide and anxious. She and Sheikoh
both stood up at the same time. Sheikoh faced the exit, and Dorothi
faced him, her expression uncertain. Sheikoh turned and walked
towards the doors. Dorothi scrambled after him and reached for his
hand, but Sheikoh shook her off.

“
No
. Get out of here and don’t look
back,” he hissed out of the corner of his mouth. “I’ll make sure no
one follows you.”

Dorothi bit her lip and fixed an
anxious gaze up at him. Sheikoh stared forward determinedly. His
jaw clenched. Then two seconds later, Dorothi turned and walked
through the restaurant's double doors. She had even listened to him
about the not looking back bit. Guess that’s the way you deal with
kids. He smiled with grim humor and met the man’s eyes as he
prowled forward. He saw the dude’s adam’s apple lurch nervously.
His face split into a feral grin.

Sheikoh slid a hand into his pocket
and flicked his electroblade out, twisting it around a finger. Its
edge ignited at the touch of a button. The black steel knife hummed
with menace like a swarm of killer bees. The weapon was more
dangerous when it was off, when it was on, it was a threat or the
fastest lock pick in the world – for the times it didn’t matter if
he left a mess behind.

Tie-and-collar inched backwards.
Sheikoh greeted the man’s nervousness with cocky tilt of the head.
Adrenaline and exhilaration rushed through his veins, kissing his
movements with the tiger-like grace.

“
Hey
mate,” Sheikoh whispered into the man’s ear. “What brings little,
old you down these parts?” With the slightest emphasis
on
old
.