"It's good that you're coming with us!" Alba squeaks. I know she's looking at me from her spot, gripping the pole tight with her little fingers. By the sound of her voice, there's no doubt a beaming grin there. Looking over might help slow my racing heart, but I can't bring myself to do it.
Sweat makes my palms slick and wet. The metal handlebar, cool to touch at first, now feels hot as I squeeze my fingers around it.
The city blurs by, the skytrain flying through the metal labyrinth at impossible speeds. Any second the hover tech holding the tracks will fail, make us crash and explode into the street below.
There's nothing like this in Cronus.
Even during the championship in Limon, I never had the chance to hop on one of these.
Never, ever again.
"It's an amazing place," Alba continues, briefly pulling me away from a near panic attack. "The camp -"
"Alba," Jesse interrupts, his voice a warning whisper.
She presses her lips together, like suddenly remembering not to reveal an important secret. Her eyes dart around, checking to see if anyone heard.
The camp.
Jesse gave me the rundown before we left the privacy of his office about this secret refugee camp, hidden deep in the city. Hiding amongst a group of other immigrants from the Mhinto government could attract unwanted attention. But as Jesse lovingly pointed out, I've got zero cards to play.
The train slows down briefly, turning at the intersection. All around us, the skywalks are jammed with people pushing their way through the chaos. 15 stories below, crowds stampede past the zooming hover cars.
Each walkway is like a vein of the city. An intense urgency, the heartbeat, pulsates in each direction. Every piece connects together in a network, until the entire place feels like a monster itself.
The world expands outside the window, growing into an infinite blur, and as it does, I shrink smaller and smaller. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can disappear all together.
"Nervous?" Jesse whispers, leaning in close. My eyes stay glued to the blur outside, but I can feel him, watching and analyzing me. His large stature looms near, 190 centimeters shadowing over me. "Limon's full of skytrains."
"I'm fine."
He's observant. Too observant.
Choosing Limon was a mistake, and it just might cost me. Mix together suspicion, a knack for reading people, and boldness into one untrusting guy who seems to enjoy pissing me off, and you've got Jesse Wu.
His prying could ruin everything.
Get in my way or help me. One way or another, you won't take me down.
The pressure seems to fade, his attention moving to the world outside.
The train shifts, turning down another intersection.
Northeast.
The word pops into my head, and at first I'm not sure what it means. A deep, undeniable certainty settles into my gut. We're headed northeast, no doubt about it.
My eyes flash to train stop information, projected over both exits.
Next stop Little Europa in 10 minutes. Current direction: Northeast.
The ocean is behind us, directly south, and the port is southwest. Somehow, someway my sense of the city slowly maps together in my head with each passing hour I spend here. It has to be related to the tech. Plenty of what felt like useless data from last night, now seems to piece together with the newfound energy in my body and brain. Something about sleep fueled me.
YOU ARE READING
CRONUS
Science Fiction[5X FEATURED] After discovering she's been turned into a cyborg assassin by her government, Ray Lovas - a sixteen-year-old fighter with impulsive anger problems - must survive in the enemy country, The Mhinto Empire, to save her family and keep the...
