Change of Climate

Prologue

The hurricane built off-shore.

Rafferty Gale knew it because her stomach roiled with the currents of the sea, and her bones ached against the push of the wind. Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians, miles away from where the tropical air seethed and writhed and pushed, Rafferty felt the hurricane, knew already how it would sweep its way up the coast and leave unparalleled devastation in its wake. How the towns and cities that had clustered along the sea back when it had been necessary for survival would once more be knocked down. Rafferty thought she could hear their wails of horror, but that was just the sound of the wind, hundreds of miles off-shore, warning her to take action now.

But there was nothing she could do.

Rafferty curled into a ball on the bed and tried to drown all of it out, drown it like the coastal towns.

***

London Lassiter was running.

She ran blindly down one street and then the next, into and through an alley, up over a fence. She didn’t know the city well—they’d only moved there weeks before, and they’d lived in so many cities recently that London’s head was blurring them all together, so she couldn’t even remember the vague, general layout of the one she was currently in, which way would bring her to safety.

If there was anywhere safe.

London wheeled around another corner. It was late, and the streets were mostly deserted. The few people who were around looked to be involved in drug deals or other nefarious pastimes, and they were unlikely to help. She chanced a glance over her shoulder, could see the people pursuing her, their feet pounding behind her on the pavement. There were three men, and London had no idea how long she was going to be able to outrun them.

Another blind corner, and London caught a break. A nightclub! The line to get in was a loosely organized crowd of barely dressed people, smoking and violating open container laws, their conversations and laughter loud and raucous. People, London thought, out enjoying a usual Friday night, like those things still happened.

London plunged into the crowd, pushing her way through the crowds of partiers. This won her a lot of glaring and rude phrases, but she was small and could slip through easily, and her pursuers were getting more trouble. London shoved and wriggled, making her way to the front of the crowd, where bouncers were lackadaisically checking ID.

“I don’t know where you think you’re going,” one pink-haired man told her, irritated. “The club’s full, they’re not letting anyone in.”

London didn’t even pause. She darted right past the bored bouncer, who suddenly came alive.

“Hey!” he shouted after her. “Hey!” He started moving heavily in her direction, which left the door unattended, which meant that London sensed the hordes of drunk people realizing their luck and pushing their way in after London.

London had never been in this nightclub before. London had never been in any nightclub. London was seventeen years old and had never been able to fake IDs. But London knew there had to be a fire exit. That was how these things worked, right? She’d been to plenty of scientific presentations in auditoriums, and they always made announcements about fire exits.

London kept pushing, through the crowd pulsing in tandem to the driving music. No one took any notice of her. She was just one shove among many.

The beat continued to be driving, and the music was building to a frantic crescendo. London stumbled her way off of the dance floor, now dodging people loitering around on the outskirts of the club, trying to have conversations or occupied with things that were decidedly not conversations. London caught, finally, a glimpse of a red glow. An exit sign.

She staggered through and around the people, glancing over her shoulder. It was impossible to know if anyone was still following her, though. Behind her was a massive crush of people, and if she looked hard enough, she felt like every single one of them was looking at her.

London reached the exit. Emergency exit only! the door exclaimed at her. Alarm will sound!

Good, thought London, and pushed open the door. The alarm blared all around her, chaos erupted in the club, and London ran.