Blackfish City(21)

Soq


A crowd of people, approximating a line. Each one of them wearing entirely too many clothes. Somehow still shivering. They stood out, on Arm Six.

“What’re they waiting for?” Soq asked, arriving, acting extra cool and casual. “Is there a church here that serves food?”

“Waiting for salvation,” Dao said. “Deliverance. Death. Christ, kid, I don’t know what they’re waiting for. I don’t think they’re waiting for anything.”

“The breaks,” Soq whispered, watching them mutter and jerk.

“The breaks.”

People hurried past, trying hard not to look. A buoy clanged, and someone in the line started making similar noises. Then someone else did. The clanging rippled down the line, spreading as it went, heading for the Hub. “You’d think the city would . . . I don’t know, do something.”

Dao offered a pack of pine needle cigarettes. Soq spent entirely too long debating what was the right choice here—Refuse one, to show I’m proud and independent? Accept one, to establish a personal bond?—and then pocketed three. “Yes, it’s strange, isn’t it? The city possesses the resources to whisk all these people away. Why haven’t they?”

Soq fought the urge to shrug, say something flip. Treat everything like a test, even though probably none of it is. Dude could be just making conversation.

“Software hasn’t come up with a solution yet,” Soq said. “They’re waiting.”

“Ah,” Dao said. “I suppose that’s correct, on some level. That’s the official story, anyway. But these are some sophisticated programs we’re talking about. Capable of doing a trillion computations in a millisecond. Doesn’t seem like they’d need years to come up with something here.”

Dao smiled, and Soq thought maybe they’d passed the test, if it had been a test.

“Still, Safety will come tell them to move along soon,” Soq said. “Why aren’t they on Eight? They’d fit right in, among all the nutcases out there.”

Dao frowned! Oh no! The test is failed!

“Soq,” he said. “Really? Because this is their home. This is where they lived. Even if they couldn’t pay their rent anymore, or their family couldn’t take care of them, or they burned down their own building by accident, this Arm belongs to them as much as to any of the other souls who live here.”

“Of course,” Soq said, trying, and failing, to not get nasty. “You wanted to set up a meeting with me in this particular spot—why? To discuss injustice? Medical software?”

Dao smirked, and Soq got the impression that being cryptic and elliptical was an important management strategy. “Go has an assignment for you,” he said. “One she wanted discussed in person, rather than via messaging.”

“Because it’s so dangerous and important and you don’t want any way it can be traced back to you?” Soq said, knowing it wouldn’t be.

“Because it’s so strange. She thought you might have a hard time getting your head around it, and wanted me to answer any questions you might have.”

God, why did this guy have to be such a dick all the time? “Shoot. Try your best to baffle me.”

“Go is assigning you to the orcamancer.”

Soq’s eyes widened with excitement. “Assigning me . . . how?”

“Research her. Gather all the intel you can on her. Fact, fiction, legend, rumor. Follow her, if you can. Talk to her, if you can.”

“Fat chance of that,” Soq said. “Tons of people have tried. She hasn’t said a word to anyone.”

“You see?” Dao said. “You’re already on top of this job.”

“Yeah,” Soq said. “But . . . why? What does the Blackfish Woman have to do with Go?”

Dao rolled his eyes, turned his whole face skyward. “If it were up to me, this conversation would be over by now. But your assignment is important, and Go wanted me to answer your questions. So. Here’s the simplified, kiddie menu version. Go is beginning a very delicate and dangerous operation. She’s been planning it for years. It’s an extremely complex mathematical equation, and Go had it solved—and then, here comes this woman. An unknown variable, with the potential to be massively disruptive. Maybe she won’t affect the equation at all. Maybe she wants nothing to do with anything Go is working on. But if not, if whatever weird mission Little Miss Polar Bear is here to accomplish might impact something or someone we need for our plan to be successful, Go needs to know. And respond accordingly. Is that an acceptable explanation?”

Important. Me. My assignment is important. “Yeah. Sure.”

“Good. You can message me updates. Call or visit only when it’s urgent. If she does something . . . I don’t know, big. Unusual.”

Soq’s earlier visits to the Sports Platform had been for fun, but now it was for work. Destiny was nudging Soq toward the orcamancer. Soq was important. They could barely wait to get back there and sit in the presence of the polar bear woman again, watching wordlessly with the rest of the wide-eyed grid kids who had come to see something magical and monstrous.





Ankit


Wood smells like wealth, Ankit realized. Exposed beams filled the lobby of the corporate office building, smelling like money and safety and a time when the world was still solid beneath people’s feet.