Static Crush {M/M} ✔

Chapter #22

The next day, they prepare for their trip into NeoTonto. Hale charts the most expedient route. Rayner double checks that there aren't vestigial data trails that might cause any shops scanning his implant to send out location markers and orders for his arrest. He double checks Hale's firewalls so scans won't pick up his illegal upgrades.

All is in order. Nonetheless, Rayner seems a bit on edge as he takes a too-big bite of protein toast.

"Stop gnashing your teeth," Theo orders. "It'll be fine. Look, there's even a food festival going on, so we can go there, and you can eat all the pumpkin pie."

"I just need to be sure," Rayner says, keys clacking under his fingers. Hale makes note to clean crumbs out of the keyboard later. "I appreciate your faith in me, but I'm just being careful."

"Oh, it's not faith in you," Theo assures him. "It's my faith in the incompetence of police."

"Thanks. That's reassuring."

"You're welcome."

Theo and Rayner both get changed for the trip. Theo emerges in a leather jacket and ripped jeans with earrings that light up like miniature fireworks. Rayner takes a lot longer, despite only having a duffel bag of clothes left from their evacuation of Alder Close. When he comes out, Hale's processes short-circuit.

Rayner's wearing a cropped hoodie in various shades of pink with floral tattoo patterns on the sleeves. It's loud, garish, and probably perfectly at home in the city, but that's not what catches Hale off guard. The hoodie is cropped short enough to reveal six inches of skin from Rayner's navel down to his hips, and Hale finds his vision gets stuck on the line of light copper hair vanishing into his jeans.

"How do I look?" he asks, not the least self-conscious.

"You're a train wreck," Theo says. "You're lucky I'm not embarrassed to be seen with you."

Hale manages to unstick his eyes long enough to say, with as much composure as he can muster, "I...like it."

They take the train into NeoTonto because traffic and inflated congestion tolls make driving nonsensical. Gliding through the transparent glass tubes that arc over the city between stations, they get a good view of the towering skyscrapers and sardine-packed grid that bleeds out into the surrounding suburbs like a viral contagion. Efforts to maintain air quality compete with the need for power, so most roof tops are green either with gardening attempts or solar panels. These efforts came too late; a grey miasma of pollution still lingers over the city from years of fossil fuel use.

Hale's closest encounter with NeoTonto was at the store where Melissa purchased him but even that had technically been a satellite city. They're now going to the heart of it.

"So what else have you boys planned to do for fun?" Theo asks.

"I'm planning to eat my weight in food," Rayner says.

"Boring. I'm so ashamed of you," Theo says. "Let's go clubbing."

Rayner says, "Food isn't boring. You're boring. But yeah, we could do that too. What do you want to do, Hale?"

Hale neatly avoids that question. "I'm happy to try any suggestions."

The morning's errands go over well. Rayner leads them into a dingy basement shop where a man, connected by wires to multiple computers, pulls a data-drive from a socket implanted on his arm and signals that he'll be in touch over their secure channels. Then they visit a hole-in-the-wall mechanic shop where Theo fills a basket with various parts and gets tangled in a debate over the pitfalls of two competing brands of virtual intelligences with the clerk. He insists that one has obvious signs of planned obsolescence in its components, while Theo argues their competitor is far guiltier of cheap, unreliable import stock with deliberate coding faults to strong-arm consumers into a repair subscription. Rayner drags her out after a good fifteen minutes when the argument gets heated. They visit a few more shops in the tech district, some with legitimate storefronts, others just the backrooms of dive bars and greasy spoons.