Estranged [Completed]

Trust

Shenaia was thrilled with Kalei's new haircut. "I knew I liked you! Man, you should've let me do it, though. I could've made it look so good!"

"It's shaved. How could you have possibly shaved it any better?"

"There are lots a' ways to shave a head. You make some parts shorter, longer – it coulda looked good! You shoulda told me!"

Kalei shrugged. "There was nothing to tell. I did it, it's over."

Shenaia pouted. "Fine." She started walking toward the door and waved for Kalei to follow. "C'mon. Let's go play hooky before teacher comes snoopin' for us."

Kalei followed. "Hey, you've been here a while, right?"

Shenaia stepped out into the hallway and checked both directions as she said, "Yeah."

Kalei casually asked, "Do you know if there are any computers around here?"

Shenaia's eyes brightened. "Just one. But, girl, you wouldn't believe how big this thing is!" She slapped her hands together. "Yeah, dat's a good idea. Erit will never find us there. Follow me. I'll show you where they hide the brains 'round here."

Shenaia took Kalei further down the hall and stopped in front of a set of elevators. After seeing the elevators in the foyer, Kalei didn't see any reason to trust these deathtraps. Quite frankly, she didn't think Shenaia was going to prove her otherwise. "Why don't we take the stairs?"

"The stairs won't take you there. Trust me." Shenaia hit the call button and the doors to their left slid open.

What was Erit's first rule again? Kalei climbed into the elevator.

Once the doors shut behind them, Shenaia pulled out a small service key. "Hehe, took this off Walker the other day. Dumb bastard, probably doesn't even know it's missing!" She put it into the hole beneath the buttons, turned it, and hit "12" and "13" at the same time.

"Two floors?" Kalei asked.

"Nope, just one. Ever heard of nine-and-three-quarters?"

Kalei was baffled. "You read?"

"Of course I read! I may be street, but I ain't stupid. I call dis floor twelve-and-a-half."

"Twelve-and-a-half?"

"What? You got a problem with that?"

Kalei shrugged. "Nope, no problem."

"You judging?"

"I'm not judging."

With a light ding! the elevator doors opened. As the doors receded, Kalei found herself looking at a vast library of computer servers. She only knew what they were from the documentaries she had watched with Fenn. Otherwise, they just looked like tall metal cages with shelves of black boxes inside. The boxes themselves weren't featureless; they had ports and buttons and small lights ranging from a dull yellow to bright green, and several menacing red ones. Server after server lined the walls like ominous sentinels, blinking and whirring at them from the chilly room. A narrow aisle stretched between them and Kalei and Shenaia followed it to an opening in the collection. Beyond the aisle was a small space about ten feet wide and twenty feet across where all the servers had been moved aside to form a small room. In the far corner stood an office chair and a plain oak desk, just four legs with a flat surface to hold a black keyboard and mouse. Behind the peripherals sat six thin monitors, stacked above one another in rows of three and angled toward the chair. From behind the screens, dozens of wires cascaded to the floor and slithered off into the forest of hardware.

"What do they do with all this?" Kalei asked as she peered into the shadows between the towers.

"This is how they control Downtown. Keep da fence juiced, spy through ev'ryone's fancy jewelry..."