Youngbloods, page 15
‘We didn’t help the Futures break in,’ I say carefully. ‘But it wasn’t exactly a chance encounter.’
She frowns a little. For a moment, she looks exactly like Col, the way he would puzzle out an unfamiliar English phrase.
I shut down that thought, forcing my attention to what’s wrong with her disguise. The slant of her eyebrows, her hair black instead of darkest brown. She isn’t him.
‘Okay,’ Sara says. ‘So you were watching the Sarcophagus, in case anyone made a play for the surveillance data.’
‘More or less,’ I say.
‘Which means you’re spying on the cliques here in Shreve.’ Her smile is back. ‘And you were looking for me by my dust name, which means …’
She’s going to get there anyway, so I might as well take credit for being honest. ‘You already met me, Sara. Just before the fall of Shreve.’
She looks me up and down, frowning.
‘I was in disguise,’ I add.
‘You’re still in disguise. No real Special would wear that boredom-causing face.’ Her eyes light up, a hand rising to touch her dust detector badge. ‘You were one of the commandoes! The ones looking for allies just before the attack—which means Tally Youngblood was behind the Fall of Shreve? That’s huge!’
‘But not true,’ I say, holding up my hands to steady her reeling guesswork. ‘I was an ordinary rebel then, trying to rescue a friend. I joined up with the Youngbloods later.’
Sara isn’t sure whether to believe me. Somehow uncertainty makes her look more like Col, so I have to turn away.
‘You happened to sneak in,’ she says carefully, ‘the same week that Shreve got attacked by every free city in the world?’
‘One thing led to another.’
‘You can say that again.’ Sara turns away, lets out a sigh into the darkness. ‘I should be mad at you. When you’re going to blow up someone’s city in a couple of days, you should probably tell them.’
‘We didn’t know the free cities were about to attack—they didn’t even know! But once they got wind of nuclear waste being dug up, our diversionary attack just sort of … escalated.’
Sara looks down into the crater, as if trying to imagine the explosion huge enough to excavate it.
‘Sure did.’ She turns back to me. ‘You were the one called Islyn, right?’
I nod. Even with a new body, she’s recognized the way I talk and move and think. Just as I still recognize her behind her Savior surge.
‘Islyn was my dust name, I guess.’
She laughs at that. ‘Got plenty of names myself. What do you call yourself these days?’
This question again. ‘Let’s stick with Islyn.’
‘You were born in Shreve, weren’t you?’ she asks. ‘Your accent … and a lot of little things.’
‘Even Shreve has runaways,’ I say.
‘Well, nice to see you again, Islyn.’ She plucks the badge from her lapel and thrusts it at me. ‘Though I should point out that you ripped me off. Paid me with a dust detector, and two days later, all the dust was gone!’
‘Freedom wasn’t payment enough?’
She gives this a snort, pinning the badge back on herself. Maybe she wears it as a keepsake, or maybe she doesn’t trust my sister not to bring back the dust.
‘What do you need this time?’
‘We need to find the Futures, the ones out in the wild,’ I say. ‘They’ve gotten years of everyone’s life in Shreve.’
‘Including their own,’ she says. ‘Lives they worked hard to make historic. It’s their property, their art.’
I have to turn away. She’s reminding me of Col, that passion for anything scientific or historical.
‘You can’t take it away from them,’ she continues. ‘Not with Chulhee still fighting for his life.’
Of course—she was a friend to Future’s founders, and a true believer herself.
This is the point where I start lying.
‘We just want to make a deal, Sara. We’ve got some of the cores; they’ve got the rest. We can make copies and swap them so we’ll both have a full set.’
Her eyes narrow. ‘What do the Youngbloods want with Shreve’s old surveillance data?’
I’m ready for this question.
‘There might be more places like Hideaway, still holding people. With those recordings, we can find them.’
‘Maybe they’ll risk a meeting, for a good cause.’ Sara lets out a chuckle. ‘Or to record themselves hanging out with Tally Youngblood. Pretty historic, right?’
‘Sure,’ I say, though Tally won’t be happy with that part of the deal. ‘But we have to keep this quiet. Your friends can’t tell anyone they saw me.’
‘My friends know not to spread my business.’ Sara hesitates. ‘But I’ve got one more question—the most important one.’
‘What do you get paid?’
Sara shakes her head. ‘All I want to know now is … how come you can’t stand to look at me?’
I almost deny it, but I’ve been staring at the ground for most of this conversation. Or at the lights of Shreve in the distance, the party, the sky. Anything but the face she’s stolen.
I force myself to look into her eyes.
Once again, I have to trade a little truth for her help.
‘I knew Col Palafox, the real one. We fought together when he was allied with the rebels.’ I glance down into the crater, at the amoeba of blue uniforms spreading its tendrils through the party. ‘I know the Saviors are supposed to be a tribute to him, but it’s brain-wrecking to see all these … copies.’
‘Oh.’ She takes a step back from me. ‘I never thought about that. I mean, Col saved my family, my friends, everyone I’ve ever met. His sacrifice kept every place I’ve ever been from turning into a nuclear dump. It’s hard to imagine him as a … person.’
‘You met him,’ I say. ‘He was in camo-surge that day, like the rest of us.’
Sara’s eyes widen. ‘One of your commandoes?’
‘Yes. He fought for Shreve’s freedom just as hard as for Victoria’s.’ My voice drops to a whisper. ‘In the end, harder.’
Sara crumples, all her swagger evaporating at once. She looks dizzy, as if Col was some Rusty sky god briefly manifest on earth.
She sinks to her knees before me.
‘I’ll bring the Futures to you, Islyn.’
In her Vic uniform, head down, her voice hoarse with emotion, Sara reminds me of when Col pledged to fight for me.
I take panicked breaths as I back away, trying to force my Special senses to focus, to cut through her layers of cos-surge and makeup. She isn’t Col. She doesn’t move, talk, or smell like him.
As those lungfuls of clarifying, cold night air clear my head, I hear soft breathing nearby. I realize what my senses, battered by a profusion of impostor Cols, have missed till now …
Someone has followed us up here.
I turn and peer through the darkness.
Veracity.
35. VERACITY
‘Someone’s watching us,’ I whisper to Sara. ‘I’ll deal with it. You set up a meeting.’
She stares, still a little in awe of me, this person who knew the real Palafox heir. ‘I’ll make it happen.’
I hand her a chip that turns any comm device into a hotline to the Youngbloods, then turn away to stride into the darkness, toward the silhouette of body heat in the shape of a zoot-suited boy.
‘Veracity,’ I call. ‘What are you—’
‘You asked for this.’ He raises a glass, his expression sheepish and confused.
‘Oh, right.’
He looks past me, to where Sara is rising to her feet. ‘Did you just get a proposal?’
I have to smile.
‘No, just an intense conversation.’ I take the glass from his hand, relieved to be talking to someone who doesn’t look like Col. ‘Thanks for getting this. I feel better already.’
‘You looked like you were going to puke!’
I glance at Sara walking back down into the crater. ‘It was just unexpected. Someone I hadn’t seen in a long time.’
He follows my gaze. ‘You recognized her under all that Palafox surge?’
I take a drink—it’s bubbly, not the water I asked for.
‘We have a connection,’ I say.
‘You must.’ His voice is tinged with wariness now, as if my tiny inconsistencies have been adding up.
‘We hadn’t seen each other since the Fall,’ I say. ‘We’re glad to both be alive.’
‘Who isn’t?’ he asks, still uncertain. Maybe Sara has thrown his flirtation into doubt. Which is fine—it’s time to get back to Shay.
‘Anyway, it was nice to meet you, Veracity.’
‘Nice to meet you too. But I didn’t get your name.’
I give him my bored Rafi shrug. ‘Still not sure what to call myself.’
I start to turn away.
‘Okay,’ he says. ‘Tell Tally I said hi.’
I freeze, just a moment too long to deny he’s hit the mark. The wind whips our coattails around us for an awkward stretch of silence.
‘Everyone watched that feed,’ Veracity finally says. ‘It’s not every day Tally Youngblood comes to town.’
His smirk sends anger sizzling through my veins. The adrenaline of seeing two hundred Cols finally has somewhere to go.
‘You knew who I was this whole time?’
He shrugs, all innocence. ‘Was I not supposed to?’
‘You’re right about your name,’ I say. ‘You’re not very honest.’
Another smirk. ‘Veracity is a two-way street.’
I have no answer for this. I’ve played someone else for so long, it hardly feels like lying anymore.
Veracity keeps talking. ‘I have to admit, everything you did tell me was fascinating. Those questions you kept asking—what do I miss about the old days?’
‘Just making conversation.’
‘Really?’ He smiles. ‘Sounded to me like the Youngbloods are curious if Frey of Shreve is doing a good job.’
‘We’re curious about a lot of stuff.’
Veracity glances down at Sara as she blends back into the crowd of Saviors. ‘Was she really an old friend?’
I don’t say anything, suddenly glad for Sara’s disguise. Veracity will never be able to track her down among all those other Cols.
I let the cool distance of a Special settle over me.
All he knows is that one of the Youngbloods came to this party, asked a few questions, and met a friend. Even if he spreads this news far and wide, my sister won’t guess what we’re up to. She’ll probably think Diego sent their avatar to poke around.
I tell my crash bracelet to call my hoverboard.
‘It’s been fun, Veracity. But you should seriously pick a different name.’
‘At least I tell people my name.’ He turns away, heading down to the party with tip of an imaginary hat. ‘Good night, good night, whoever you are.’
Whoever I am.
Those words cut sharper than his lies somehow, as if anonymity is the hidden truth of me.
36. WRECKING BALL
Two minutes later, my board zooms up the crater’s slope, Shay flying about ten meters behind.
‘You found her?’ she calls.
‘Yeah, it’s done.’ I step onto my board and rise into the air.
‘Good.’ Shay comes to a skidding halt beside me. ‘I’m too old for this party.’
When I don’t answer, Shay drifts closer. I feel pale, my heart still beating sideways.
‘You okay, Frey-la? Did you run into …?’ She looks back at the robin’s-egg-blue snake now coiling around the center of the party.
I nod my head.
‘Sorry you had to see that,’ Shay says.
The simple words, undemanding of me, make it easier to answer.
‘Col didn’t die quite the way they think, but he did come here to help free Shreve. I’m glad they remember that part of him.’
Shay absorbs this, adding it to her tally of me. ‘And what are we paying Sara to connect us?’
‘Nothing. Turns out she …’
Worships my dead boyfriend.
‘… just wants to help.’
‘Huh. Maybe there’s hope for this city yet.’ Shay turns to face the wild beyond the party. ‘Which means we’ve got a whole new mission.’
There’s an intricate moment of silence, the music of our unspoken conflict. Shay would rather focus on the criminals behind Hideaway, not my father’s recordings. But I’ve distracted the boss.
She moves on. ‘Anybody recognize you?’
‘This one guy. He was trying to find out what a Youngblood was doing at the party. He pretended to be flirting, and I believed it!’
‘Don’t feel bad. Everyone in Shreve must be a pretty good liar by now.’
I frown at her—lying was illegal here.
But she’s right. Everyone I’ve ever met in my hometown—Veracity, Sara, Jax the smuggler—has shown a streak of unexpected cunning. Maybe that’s the natural result of living with the dust. When every word is recorded, usable against you in a trial for high treason, you learn to communicate with misdirection and half-truths.
I thought I was the only impostor in Shreve.
‘They’re all choosing new names,’ I say. ‘They get to be themselves at last.’
Shay lets out a sigh. ‘So maybe Tally’s plan makes sense. If people want to erase their old lives, we should help them. We’ve all done things we want to forget.’
A stray memory hits me. ‘The other night at the campfire, you said something about Tally collaborating with the authorities.’
‘If you want that story, you’ll have to ask the boss. It was a long time ago.’
I search for the right words. ‘But some crimes have to be punished—like putting kids in prison. You’d rather be looking into Hideaway than chasing down my father’s surveillance data, right?’
Shay nods, staring glumly at the party. ‘Stealing the recordings looked like a good way to find out more about Hideaway. But it’s been a wild-goose chase. We wasted a week, while someone was manufacturing a cover-up. It’s almost like …’
Shay turns to me, letting her words fade into the hubbub of the party. Our conflict entangles us again.
‘Like what?’ I push.
‘Like you had a conversation with your clever sister,’ she says coldly. ‘And came back with the perfect story to derail us.’
My mouth goes dry. ‘You think I’m helping Rafi? After what she did to Col?’
‘Not on purpose, no. But it’s how you’re made—to heel to your sister’s side. You went digging in Shreve House, blew out a window, when we were supposed to get in and out lightly.’
‘I wasn’t trying to get caught.’
But then I saw his desk …
‘What if she recognized you?’ Shay keeps turning her knife. ‘Avatars are different from humans.’
‘Rafi’s not a Special.’
‘But she’s no fool. She could’ve fed you a story, just to keep us busy.’
I shake my head. Rafi couldn’t have known that the Futures would beat us to the data vaults. And she’d never have been so nakedly wounded in front of me.
You think I’d traumatize those kids for a few trees?
‘That sounds paranoid, Shay.’
‘Maybe your city’s rubbing off on me.’
She says it with a smile, but she still thinks I’m a natural point of weakness in the crew. Daughter of a dictator, chaos merchant.
Astrix’s taunt comes back to me. ‘You think I’m like Tally.’
Shay makes an innocent expression, then spins her board around to face the darkness. ‘Gee, Frey-la. Where’d you get that idea?’
She flies away.
I stand there for a befuddled moment before urging my board after her.
She’s headed back toward our camp, skirting the vast and dazzling bowl of the party. The wind is sharp and cool, the wild looming ahead.
In the long minutes it takes me to catch up, I realize that it was Shay who sent Astrix with me to hide the cores.
I pull closer and shout, ‘Did you tell Astrix to say all that stuff to me?’
‘Of course not. But she has no filters.’ Shay grins back. ‘Sometimes she’s the best way to deliver awkward news.’
‘Did you really call me a mini Tally?’
‘My exact words!’ Shay shouts, slaloming around me, the wind of our passage carrying her laughter into the dark. ‘Ask yourself, Frey-la—who made you what you are?’
‘My father. His DNA, his idea to raise me as a killer.’
‘And who made him?’
I stare at her, remembering my conversation with Tally in the ruins of Hideaway. Of all the things I’ve created, your father was probably the worst.
But she didn’t mean literally.
‘You’re being sense-missing. Tally didn’t make him, or me!’
‘I’m glad you know that.’ Shay veers closer. ‘But the boss gets confused sometimes. She set the world on fire, so now she worries about every random spark. That’s why we’re focused on humanity-controlling AIs instead of Hideaway—we’re always fighting the next monsters.’
I glance back at the spectacle behind us. The light drones twinkle like distant fireworks, but the patterns—words, flags, images—reveal the subtle intelligence baked into them.
‘You don’t think AIs are creepy? Minds that can think circles around us, yet almost let my father wreck the world?’
‘Smart cities don’t scare me,’ Shay says. ‘They’re just places that talk.’
I hook a thumb at the crater behind us. ‘They can also railgun you from space!’
‘Humans put those weapons in orbit,’ she says. ‘And there have always been creepy cities. The place Tally and I grew up in didn’t have an AI, but our Pretty Committee was the strictest in the world. As an ugly, you could feel that control everywhere you went. That’s what made me and Tally what we are—we rebelled against our birthplace.’
It takes me a moment, but then I see what this has to do with me.
Shay thinks I’m a creation of my city too. Except Shreve didn’t just control its citizens—it invaded its neighbors, killed a hundred thousand people in Paz, dug up and weaponized ancient nuclear waste.
