Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
They’ll keep her there and then I’ll walk out and never think about her again.
I sit in my chair silently watching her sleep until the delivery arrives. Then I unpack the rations and shoot a text off to Stayn. I give him the story I promised her I would. A vagrant, it’s taken care of, nice doin’ business with you. By this time, it’s early afternoon and I don’t see much point in putting off the inevitable.
I pocket the phone and approach the bed, then shake her shoulder a little. “You ready?”
It takes her a moment to open her eyes, then another to remember where she is and what’s going on, but finally her gaze finds mine and she sits up, blowing out a breath. “Sure. Let’s go.”
We leave and descend the tower slowly. Everything about her is a little bit slow right now, her dash down the stairs this morning something akin to a long-forgotten memory.
The stairwell is crowded, as usual, and the lobby is even more of a madhouse than it was yesterday because the ID people are back. They have a whole bunch of tables set up this time and all of them have a massive crowd waiting in line.
We push our way through and go outside. She’s walking ahead of me at this point, but she’s unsure where to go, so she stops, looking up at me for guidance.
“This way.” I point to the stairs that lead down to the east side of the city. “All the government buildings are over on this side of the canal.”
She falls in next to me without comment, her mood dispirited. But she does start looking around at the buildings in front of us as we get closer to the edge of the ruin.
I would not say I like it here. I mean, I don’t care about Tau City. I’ve got no loyalty to it. But as a Level One Metropolitan Area it’s pretty fucking spectacular. I haven’t been to all the great cities, but I’ve been to a lot of them. And this one right here is definitely in the top three that people should probably visit at least once in their lifetime.
If they can afford the travel, that is. Which most people can’t.
But we went all over the world when I was in the Sweep. Especially that year before I was officially accepted into full-duty status. That was the year my augments were outperforming all expectations and I was at the top of my class. I was going places.
The Omega Outlands, as it turned out. Which sounds like a shit deal if you’re not aware of what’s actually out there. But for anyone in the Sweep, the Omega Outlands was the crowning jewel as far as deployment goes.
When Clara and I get to the very edge of the ruin, right at the boundary of all the new skyscrapers, she stops and just stares at it with her mouth open in shock as she tries to see everything at once.
It’s one thing to see it from a distance of ten floors up and five hundred yards back and quite another to be standing at the base, looking up at these towering examples of architectural genius.
Again, I get the feeling that she’s not lying. This is not a show she’s putting on. This really is her very first time seeing such a magnificent city up close. And it’s confusing for me. Because if her story isn’t true, then what could explain her jaw-dropped awe?
I don’t even prod her along. I don’t tell her to stop gaping like a tourist or anything like that. I just let her look so I can watch her reaction.
It’s real. She is genuinely surprised at what she is seeing.
“Do you like it?” I ask.
A breath comes out of her, like she was holding it in. Then she nods and smiles. “I have to admit, it’s… something else.”
“Good? Or bad?”
Her shoulders shrug up, practically to her ears. “Both? I’m not sure. My Tau City was much smaller.” She points to the water. “The canal was… natural. There were beaches on both sides with boulders and little waterfalls spilling over them.”
I look at the canal and picture this as she continues.
“And the bridges. They were not made of that hard-edged stuff.”
“Hard-edged stuff? You mean concrete?” I laugh these words out. Because how does she not know the word for concrete? It’s ridiculous.
“Yeah, OK. That.” But she’s moved on from the bridges and is pointing at the buildings now. “Are these made of glass?”
“Some of ’em. Some of ’em are made of steel. It’s just shiny, so it looks like glass when the sun hits it a certain way.”
“Well, our towers were tall too. But not this tall. And they were just made of plaster and stone, I think.” She looks up at me. “I don’t know how to make buildings. They just didn’t look like that.” She points to the skyscrapers. “They looked… natural. Like the canal. Like they fit in with it. All of my city was covered in muted shades of beige and blue. And most of the towers had domes. Sun-bleached blue domes. Almost gray, some of them, because they were so old.”