A Break in the Sunlight

28. Slip-Sliding

Near midnight, on the second night, she almost contacted Sain.

She debated it as she sat in the darkness, bleary-eyed at the edge of the bed, and nauseated from hunger and panic and lack of sleep.

He'd come as soon as she called. Jaren knew that instinctively. He'd come, and he'd rescue her, and he'd never mention Balqis, or her own desertion. And he'd get her off this godforsaken moon. And he'd pay someone to get this shit out of her head. And he'd ask for nothing at all in return.

And maybe, despite all that, death or official CIP mind-fuck would be easier to handle than the guilt. So she did nothing, but went back to working at the code, face down in the pillow and arms wrapped around her head.

Eventually, around 2am, the hunger gnawing at her stomach broke through her concentration, and drove her from the relative safety of her room. She had no money, but maybe she could get someone to buy her dinner, or scavenge the alleyways of restaurants. And now that she thought on it, didn't she remember a tray of donuts in the hotel lobby, when she'd checked in?

Quietly, she made her way down the walkway past the other rooms, with their lights dark or vids flashing light and sound onto their snoring guests. Her footsteps echoed, the creepy, unnerving way they do in a domed city, as she approached the back door of the reception area, which was propped open with a chair.

No one was behind the desk, but a sideboard next to two worn fabric seats held a trayful of stale leavings. Three donuts, presumably left from the morning, and one half broken one. An apple with a brown spot on the top. And some thick, cold coffee.

Jaren stuffed the half donut in her mouth, and opened a napkin to gather up the rest of the food, when she heard the door behind the desk open.

"I thought I heard someone out here," the young man said drowsily. "I fell asleep."

Jaren nodded slowly back at him, swallowing the donut in her mouth and smiling. "I was hungry." She held up the napkin of goodies, aiming for harmless and sheepish.

"Those're for anyone." He waved her off, and crossed around to the front of the counter, brushing long dark blond hair out of his eyes.

"So," he said with another smile, a little crafty, like a cow with an idea, "I guess you are in some kind of trouble."

Jaren presented him with a puzzled smile, produced at great cost to the rest of her, which remained frozen with panic. "How do you mean?" she asked lightly. "Because I have no money?"

He shook his head, looking concerned. "No..." he replied. "Because of the suits who came by here today, with a picture of you."

She just looked at him.

He shrugged. "It wasn't a very good one. Just a video still.. and your hair was a different color. But I told them I hadn't seen you."

Jaren paused, trying to decipher him. "So, what now?" she finally asked, flatly.

He blinked at her. "What do you mean?" he asked, frowning. "I didn't tell them anything. They'll probably be back, though."

She said nothing. What did he want?

He cleared his throat. "Did you run away or something? I could probably help you, you know. I mean, if you wanted."

Jesus Christ. Jaren nearly burst into laughter at the ludicrousness. It wasn't hard to get his drift. He clearly watched too many vids. Pretty girl in trouble. Lonely hotel clerk.

But what the hell. If he wanted to play white knight, and save her frail self from the baddies in return for a roll in the hay, she'd let him.

"Sorry," she said, looking up at him. Fluttering her lashes, and moving closer, she played the game. "I'm just scared."

Later, after he'd rolled off of her and fallen asleep, she rifled through his wallet and stole three cash cards with a total of about 150 creds. She didn't particularly like stealing from him, but she didn't much like fucking him either. It looked like she was going to be doing a lot of things she didn't like.

Yeah, this was going to be how it was, for a while, she thought grimly, pulling on her jacket and slipping from the back room into the hotel lobby. You didn't get far in this world without credits, and she needed to get pretty far. So, that kind of currency would do, until something better came along.

---------------

Sex was how she got from Cambria to the Delphian Transit Moon, stowed away with a Cambrian miner named Leath.

Sex was how she got from the Delphian Transit Moon to Khartoum, heavily veiled and disguised as the daughter of a Heggish diplomat who liked a little cross-species dabbling, and preferred his superiors to be none the wiser.

Sex was how she got to Kvreezev, and Diego 300, and L'hmm and a handful of other planets and stations in that sector and the next. Thanks to a resourceful, and somewhat perverted, contact in Delphia, she had a pocketful of new identities, and she cycled through them regularly, intent on erasing her existence, covering her tracks.

Until one morning in Hevva, when Jaren awoke next to the stinking refuse ship captain she'd been screwing for passage to Daykon, and she realized she must be safe. She'd outrun them for the time being. She wasn't foolish enough to think she'd avoid them forever, but maybe now she had time.

Time to figure out where she wanted to go. And time to find someone who could unlock her head and get the death sentence out of it.

She thought about it all the way to Daykon, sitting in the cockpit next to the Captain, smoking cigarettes to mask his stench. That was when she wasn't thinking about it while laying under him, close to gagging from revulsion and stink.

And by the time he docked in Daykon, and she slipped out his cargo door and through customs under the name Jennah Glosse, she'd gotten it figured out.

She was going to the dark underbelly of the Inside... the capital of crime for the entire known universe... the place where you could order state secrets and the heart of your enemy with your morning coffee and the waiter wouldn't bat an eyelash. Or at least that's what Jeremy had told her, so many years ago.

She was going to the Night City, to find Jeremy Ren.

All rights reserved. Copyright Jae Darcy 2016