The Receiver

2 7 - M E M E N T O M O R I

"What do you think she wants to talk to you about?" I ask.

Zander and I walk side by side down the hall to Zoa's office.

He shakes his head. "Who knows."

"Does she know I'm tagging along?"

"No," Zander mumbles, nodding to the bot who waves us through the holographic screen.

"Great," I sigh.

Neither of us says what we're both thinking. That somehow, someway she knows what happened the last time Zander and I were downcity.

Zoa looks up as we pass through the barrier, her eyes an intense green today.

"Both of you," she chimes, unsurprised. "Even better."

Chills run up my arms at the sound of her voice. Too chipper. She knows something we don't.

Zander and I sidle up to the two guest chairs on the opposite side of her desk. We don't sit and she doesn't ask us to.

"I suppose I'll get right to it then," Zoa says, eyeing each of us. "Who is she?"

Zander glances at me, then back at his sister.

"Who's who?"

"The tatted-up downcity wench you were hugging behind the church."

My chills intensify as my stomach drops.

"You saw that?" I blurt.

"Don't sound so surprised. The best techies in New York work for me. I know all the tricks. I've had eyes on your bot Frank for months."

"She knows," Zander says. "I told her."

Zoa inhales a sharp breath. "Of course you did."

"Look, if you want to know the truth I'll tell you. But not if you're still Syphoning to Rho. It'll crush her."

"If that were true, you'd have stopped your own Syphon already."

"She shouldn't have to go through the same trauma twice."

Zoa rolls her eyes. "Fine." Tapping away on her cuff, she looks back up a few screens later. "It's a temporary mute, if you will."

"Prove it," I challenge.

Zoa punches an inch of skin on her arm between her thumb and index finger.

"Anything?" Zander asks.

"She's telling the truth," I say.

Zoa lets go of her arm. "Now it's time for you to do the same."

"You might want to sit down," I suggest.

"I'll be fine," she sneers. "Now get on with it."

Zander sighs. "Just so you know, she asked me not to tell you. I guess she wanted to wait and tell you herself, but since you insist... Downcity they call her La Señora Muerte. She's a fighter, a gang leader, and pseudo-mother to a lot of parentless women." Zander can't help but look over at me as he says this. We're both thinking of Iris. "She looks so different from before... you might not even recognize her now. Not at first—"

"But why were you hugging her?" Zoa interjects.

"Because she's our mother."