The Receiver

1 8 - T R U C E

I check the time on my cuff as soon as my feet touch pavement. It only took me another half hour to rappel the rest of the way down. I wipe my forehead with the back of my hand, then let my neck and shoulders hang loose. Collapsing against the brick of the building, I look around while I rest for a minute.

I've landed in a narrow alleyway between two buildings. If not for the sweeper bots clearing vines like they're trying to initiate a new wave of deforestation I'd probably be covered in ticks and itching from the tiny serrations on the leaves.

It's been long enough that Frank has gotten Iris to a medbot. He's sent an audio message with an update on her condition.

"Iris is stable," he says. "Her vitals are good. She should be awake by the time you get back. We should have more information then."

I get two seconds of relief and then another three of joy that it isn't something worse when his words make me realize I'll have to do the entire descent in reverse on the climb back up. My heart sinks. It will be even worse then, with gravity working against me.

I record a quick audio message thanking him, then slide my cuff off and stuff it and my gear inside, re-strap my pack around my right thigh, and head toward Central Park.

On the streets, the sweepers march together in packs of four or more. Most have been marked with an X by now, some graffitied with other suggestive signs and symbols as well. Halfway to La Señora's, I glimpse something even more disturbing than robot violence.

Apparently, some people have decommissioned a few of the droids, scooped out the wiring from their heads, and are wearing them as helmets. Two children skip past me, holding the sweepers' sawed-off faces up to theirs like play masks. I don't know how to feel about it, only that my pace to Lady Death's hideout quickens with each new one I see.

The church is a lot closer to my landing spot than to our old apartment so it takes me just under ten minutes to arrive. I remember searching this place the one day I went to school. It used to be the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, but it's not so divine anymore.

I jog up the front steps and open the main door where I'm met by two guards standing inside. The one closest to me takes a step forward and crosses her tattooed arms.

"Get lost, puta," she says, popping a piece of gum.

"I need to speak with La Señora," I say. "It concerns one of your own. Iris Hesler."

The woman leans back toward the other and whispers something in Spanish too low and fast for me to understand. Her gang sister nods, then whistles over her shoulder, eyeing me from head to toe and back again.

From deeper inside the church, another woman emerges who, without any preamble, puts her hands on me. Snatching one of her wrists, I bend it at the joint so that her fingers nearly touch the inside of her forearm, forceful enough that I hear a few knuckles pop. She cries out and when I see she's got the message my grip loosens and she immediately jerks her hand back.

"I have to pat you down," she says between clenched teeth.

"Next time ask first," I say, holding up my palms in acquiescence.

While she checks me for weapons, I tilt my head back. Unlike the first time, I can see the church properly now. Although most of the interior has sprouted foliage and some of the stained-glass panels have fallen out, the ceiling still showers beautiful colored light onto the floor where the sun beams through.

But my attention is pulled away when I feel the weight of my pack slip away from my body. I glance down to see the woman checking me for weapons, of which I'm carrying none, but that doesn't stop her from opening my pack and rummage inside. She takes out the contents and holds each item up to the light as if this will reveal some hidden quality. I didn't think they'd check my pack. The cuff is a dead giveaway of where we've been. Nobody has tech like that in Lower. It might as well be advanced alien technology down here. But because the cuff unlocks to my finger or eyeprint only, its face doesn't light up at the woman's touch and she shrugs, chucking it back into my pack. I let out the breath I was holding and smile without my eyes when she glares at me.