Scarlet Prison

Chapter 24

I arrived at work, still wearing my choker, not because it was now a new fad plaguing the streets, but because I still needed it. The little pin pricks on my neck didn't seem any better tonight than they had last night. In fact, they almost appeared as if the healing process had been reversed. I must have overestimated their progress the other night.

But this is not what occupied my thoughts as I worked. I spent the night thinking about the dome where Veins of different restaurants comingled. Knowledge was bound to be shared among mingling people. If I was going to start asking people about Novashi, the dome was an ideal place to start. The problem was that I couldn't risk revealing my identity to Veins that were a part of my everyday life. I had to find a way to communicate with them anonymously

By closing time, I had devised a reasonably sound plan. The "sound" aspect of the plan relied on Ekai, so just after sun rise, I went to go see him.

He was seated at the computer when I stepped into his doorway. He spun around in his chair and gave me an agitated look.

"Shit, Zermia, if you had taken any longer to come see me, I was going to march into your hotel room myself," he announced.

We both new that such a move was too risky for him, but the gesture was flattering enough. "You've been spying on me with the dragonfly. I didn't need to tell you in person that I was okay."

"Do you know how frustrating it is to not be able to talk to you with that thing? I finally can ask you what the hell happened!"

"I'm surprised you haven't yet modified it to communicate with me," I commented, avoiding the question at hand.

"Are you kidding? The pico drive in that thing doesn't have the capability of transmuting audio output information to a speaker system. Then there's the whole issue of building a speaker small enough to fit on the dragonfly. I would probably be able to do it, but the quality and volume of the sound wouldn't be enough to make the effort worth it." Ekai looked at me like the explanation was obvious.

None of that really made me understand why we couldn't use the dragonfly like a phone, but he knew a lot more about it than me, so I had to trust him. Plus, that wasn't what I came here to discuss. "I need a favor."

"Of course you do. You know, Zermia, we've started to rely on you as our food source. You dump us with an extra mouth to feed, and then you disappear, cutting us off from our food supply. Mera and I had to make a robbery run to get the food we needed. We almost got caught. She sprained an ankle when we were running away. Then you show up in an alley, but instead of coming to see us right away, you decide to take a couple days to think up a favor. Then when you finally do show up here, you won't even offer an explanation as to where you've been." Ekai raised an eyebrow expectantly. He was trying to guilt trip me into telling him. We both knew that he got some sort of weird thrill out of robbery runs, and Mera was more likely to be proud of her battle scar than to be upset about it. I was the one that didn't like their robbery runs because they were dangerous. Casey complained about them too, but only because he was never allowed to tag along.

"Here's your food," I said, tossing a full paper bag at his feet. I glared at him. "I'm sorry for the delayed delivery. It's a shame about Mera's ankle." He couldn't guilt trip me into saying anything. I was doing him a huge favor by supplying them food and he knew it. Feeding five people practically drained my bank account. "How is Laser, by the way?" I asked.

"He was pretty surprised to see me here. I had no idea who he was, but he seemed to recognize me. Apparently I'm somewhat of a legend back home?" He looked to me for confirmation of this.

I rolled my eyes. Like he didn't already know about the reputation he had left behind. "You ditched school all the time, and you still managed to get amazing grades. Not to mention you were a Naroekoo master. You were admired, feared, and envied by every high school student. Stories were still circulating about you long after you left. Of course, many of them weren't true, but that didn't stop certain kids from worshipping you like you were some sort of delinquent genius god."