Blackfish City(58)
An illegal construction site might have fifty people working it at any moment. Most of them would have been swallowed by the sea when the grid gave way, its standard emergency practice when something threatened the structural integrity of an Arm. It would take weeks for the diving drones to complete a sweep, probing in and through the cluttered nest of twisting pipes and vents that made up the geothermal pyramid beneath the city.
“No worse than any other,” Kaev said.
“No, but this one is ours.”
“Yeah.”
Kaev went to the railing, watched the sea slosh at the struts underneath him, sipped his milk tea, smiled at the weird good fortune of being alive and unmiserable while so many people were not.
Soq
The biggest baddest deadliest puppy you ever saw. The bear lay on its back and let Soq rub circles into its soft stomach fur, smaller and smaller and then larger and larger.
Needless to say, Soq had never had a dog. They’d never had a home stable enough for one, not really, and while there were plenty of grid kids with companion animals it tended to be a pretty rough life. For the animals, certainly, and for the people, when the animal was inevitably murdered or stolen.
No one would murder this one, though.
“Does he have a name?” Soq asked the orcamancer.
“That’s up to Kaev.”
“Liam,” Soq said. “His name is Liam.”
Masaaraq raised an eyebrow.
“He’s practically mine. If my father has a problem with it, he can discuss it with me.”
Saying it still felt so strange: my father. The sad-eyed brute; the perpetual beam fight loser. Soq had read all about him in the long time they’d spent lounging on the deck of Go’s boat. Kaev was good, a skilled fighter with the stamina and savvy to make his fights entertaining. More than one fights writer had wondered why he lost to so many inferior warriors, and suspected syndicate involvement.
Was that Go? Had Soq’s father been Go’s pawn, too, a tool in her rise to power, an easy way to fix fights, build resources and a reputation?
They were belowdecks now. Kaev and Go. Not making love, Masaaraq had said—or the bear would be behaving very differently from its present lazy blissful calm. Catching up. They had a lot of that to do. And when would it be time for Soq to catch up? They imagined an awkward family dinner, screwball antics, hilarious malentendus, like the old movies that were the rage a few years back. Soq had a lot of questions, but they weren’t eager for that kind of conversation.
“Where did you go, the other day?”
Masaaraq frowned. “To see someone.”
“See who?”
“A friend.”
“You have friends here?”
“Shut up,” Masaaraq said.
“What did your friend say to make you so upset when you came back?”
“I’m your grandmother and you have to shut up when I tell you to.”
“Whatever,” Soq said, but then did indeed shut up.
A ripping sound snagged Soq’s attention. Masaaraq was sawing her bone-blade at a freshly repaired net.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” Masaaraq said.
“Yeah you are. You’re slicing up that net.”
“Shut up.”
“What’s the matter?”
Masaaraq said nothing.
The polar bear had been a distraction. Soq should have been focused on the fact that they had parents, and they were reuniting, and there was a ton of backstory to get caught up on. That, and Masaaraq, the orcamancer, last of the nanobonded. And maybe they’d continue to ignore them, but an inquisitive kid like Soq could not let a chance like this go to waste.
“You came here to do something,” Soq said. “But now you have to sit here like a schmuck while those two play house.”
“House?”
“Mommy and daddy. Happy family. Sexy times.”
Masaaraq rolled her eyes. “It’s of no concern to me, what they do.”
“But you’re here for a reason. And right now you’re wasting time. Right? That’s why you’re annoyed.”
Masaaraq shrugged, but it was a shrug that conceded there was some truth in what Soq said.
Masaaraq stood up. Sirens and flashing lights flickered across the water at the tip of Arm Three. Oversize evac drones buzzed in the air.
Soq asked, “Are you here to kill someone?”
“You have a lot of questions.”
Soq scowled. “You have a lot of ways to not answer them.”
“Here is a question for you. The Cabinet. You know of it?”
“Of course.”
“If someone was in there. Someone you wanted to get out. How would you do it?”
“Who’s in there?” Soq said, eyes wide.
Masaaraq exhaled angrily and turned away.
“Wait! I’m sorry. But I’m not sure I can answer your question. I’ve never heard of it being done before. Known plenty of people who ended up there, many of them against their will, but none that managed to bust out and tell the world about it.”
Masaaraq nodded.
“But you must know more about it than I do. Right? You’ve done your homework. I heard you lecture Kaev on the registration consent agreement, and you know it by heart, better than me or anyone else who grew up here. I have to imagine you spent a long time looking into this. What’ve you got? I’m pretty resourceful. So’s Go.”