Heath pulled the van into a downtown garage. We both got out, and he locked it. He started walking away, apparently intending to leave Daniel inside.
I stood beside the rear bumper. “What are you doing? He can’t stay there alone.”
Heath’s expression was grim, determined. “This area is no place for a kid—especially at night. He’s safer in there. The windows are tinted—no one will see him. And the Gideon vans are like tanks. They have to be secure because of the value of the tech and meds we transport. No one’s gonna get in there.”
“What if he wakes up alone? He’ll be terrified.”
Heath’s tone gentled at my concern for his young brother.
“He sleeps like a rock. Once he’s out, he’s out for the night. Don’t worry. We’ll be quick. It’s only a couple blocks from here.”
It may have only been a short distance, but the walk through those city blocks was like exploring another planet.
This part of the city wasn’t as clean as the rest. The air smelled different, too, like industrial exhaust and spicy food and some kind of oddly pungent smoke.
Music spilled from the open doorways of several of the nightclubs we passed. Moving lights and neon signs cast an otherworldly glow over the scores of people strolling, cycling, laughing, dancing—alone—that one was interesting—and in a couple of cases, kissing passionately and groping in dark corners.
A few times the corners were not so dark. I averted my eyes as we walked by one particularly enthusiastic couple.
Unfortunately, my gaze landed on the large, clear window of one of the roadside shops.
Inside it, a woman danced provocatively, wearing only scraps of underwear.
“Are you sure this neighborhood is… okay?” I asked.
“Don’t worry. No one’s going to mess with you as long as you’re with me. We’re almost there.”
I scooted a bit closer to his side, working to match his long stride.
“Hey baby,” a tall, curvaceous woman called out. She was absolutely stunning, and her clothes looked painted on—wait—they were painted on.
“Is she only wearing paint?” I asked Heath under my breath.
“It’s spray-on fabric. You’ve never seen it before? It creates a layer of fabric directly on your skin.”
The woman moved sinuously as she approached us, her focus solely on Heath, as if I wasn’t there at all.
“You can peel it off again, handsome,” she purred when she reached him. “Don’t bother with an organic—you can have the woman of your dreams tonight.”
Her hands coasted over her nipped in waist and curvy hips. “I never get tired, never say no. Anything you want… all night long.”
“No thank you.” Heath grabbed my hand and picked up his pace.
“Sorry about that,” he muttered to me. “When I’m here, it’s usually during the day.”
“Was she a Gebby?”
Glancing back over my shoulder at her physical perfection, I had to believe she was. Why else would a woman that gorgeous be doing… that for money?
Heath gave me a terse nod before stopping in front of a small, eclectic-looking shop and opening the door. “We’re here.”
I read the sign glowing in the front window. “The Gob Shop. What’s a gob? What do they sell here?”
“A bit of everything.”
As the door closed behind us, a low electronic tone sounded, and a man emerged from a doorway in the back of the room. He was middle-aged and very thin, with tan skin and a balding head with hair just around the sides.
When he smiled at us, his teeth were large and square and very, very white.
“Ah, Heath my friend. You bring me some new biotech? I can always use it.”
“No, actually. I’m here as a customer tonight, Syd.”
One of the man’s bushy dark brows lifted. “Ah. Well, you come to the right place. What can I do for you?”
The guy cut his eyes over at me, and a wry grin slid across his face. “So, is this a new friend, or are you embezzling product from the day job?”
Heath coughed, and his cheeks darkened. It took me a minute to get Syd’s meaning.
By “product” from Heath’s day job, he was suggesting I was a Gideon-made genetically engineered being—a Gebbie girl like the ones we’d seen posing in the windows along the street and the one who’d propositioned Heath.
Now my cheeks heated. “Excuse me,” I began, intending to tell him exactly who I was and where I came from, and exactly where he could go.
Heath held up a hand. “No. Uh, Syd, this is Mireya. She’s a customer, too. Mireya, meet Syd. He’s the man to see when you have special items on your shopping list.”
The guy’s eyes dipped to my backpack, as if he was trying to use enhanced vision to see through it to my money pouch.
Who knew? Maybe he could. Some ocular implants did far more than correct poor vision. In any case, his manners improved in a hurry.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Mireya. We don’t get many customers who look like you.” He threw a wink at Heath. “So, what is it I can help you with?”
“We need I.D. Something she can use for travel.”
Syd nodded with droll understanding. “Lost yours, did you, sweetheart? Need a replacement?”
His leading tone and Heath’s encouraging nod told me I should play along with the lie.
“Yes. That’s right. I must have dropped it.”
“Sure,” Syd said. “Or somebody might have picked your pocket. I know if I saw a pretty little pigeon like you coming down the street—”
“Syd—we’re in a bit of a hurry,” Heath interrupted. “Do you think you could get right on that? And I’m gonna need one for an eight-year-old boy as well.”
Syd’s eyes widened. “Whoa. What is going on, brother? You really are shoplifting from the boss if you’ve got a kid. You in some kind of trouble?”
His demeanor changed from concern to interest. He leaned over the cluttered counter and used a lower tone, though no one was in the shop but us that I could see.
“You doing black market deals on Pseudos? Cause if you are—”
“No,” Heath cut him off with a curt tone. “And don’t call them that.”
Syd held his hands up in front of him in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry man. I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m only saying, if you were, I could definitely hook you up with some buyers.”
Heath shook his head impatiently. “It’s nothing like that. Look, I can’t really explain, okay? I just need what I need. Can you help me or not?”
Syd glanced at me. “Ain’t gonna be cheap.”
“Syd—come on. You know I’m good for it,” Heath said.
The shopkeeper nodded a couple times then laughed. “Okay, come on back. We’re gonna need to use the camera.”
We followed him to the rear of the shop then through a doorway into a back room. It was set up with more gadgets than I’d ever seen in my life, which was saying something considering I grew up on a military base. He slipped behind one of them and started tapping the touchscreen with swift strokes.
Peeking out from behind it, he said, “Okay darlin’, step in front, look right here, and say soy cheese.”
I did as he instructed, smiling for the photograph.
“Alright now, what are we gonna call you then, sweetheart?”
Heath stepped up beside me. “Well, her name’s not sweetheart, I can tell you that.”
Syd laughed. “Okay then. Calm down now, friend.”
“It’s Reya. Only input it with a different spelling than she uses now.” He looked to me.
“Um, okay. Well, I guess you should spell it with two a’s then. R-A-Y-A,” I said.
“Last name?” Syd asked.
Before I could pick one, Heath answered. “Akerman. Use the same one for the boy’s I.D.”
“Gonna need a holopic of him, too,” Syd said.
“He’s asleep in the car.” Heath pulled something from his pocket and handed it to Syd. “Here’s his I.D. though. It’s a recent pic. You can reuse it—just change the surname and Genesapien I.D. number.”
Syd activated the device, and for a second, a transparent blue image of Daniel’s face glowed in the air above it.
Small lines of letters and numbers were underneath. Heath immediately grabbed the device, and the projection disappeared.
“Don’t. I don’t want any locator systems pinging that thing,” he said. “In fact, it would be smart to change the data in that one first, before you work on Reya’s.”
He pulled his own I.D. from his pocket and tossed it to Syd. “Just to be safe, change the surname on this one, too.”
“Okay boss, will do. Gonna take a half hour or so to get ‘em all set up.”
“Fine. We’ll do some browsing. And if it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to use your internet connection. It’s still encrypted here, right?”
With another quizzical glance at Heath, Syd said, “Yeah. Yeah, sure. Use my set up behind the counter there.”
Heath thanked the man then, with a hand placed on my lower back, guided me out of the tech room and into the main shop.
“What are you going to do on the Freenet?” I asked.
“Try to find some more specific information about the Haven. Syd’s got access to the dark net—and a search here won’t leave any traces to be found by anyone who might go looking for us. You can do some shopping while I’m at it.”
“Shopping for what?”
“Whatever you think you might need. I don’t know what you’ve got in your bag there, but it can’t be much. Go ahead and look around. Maybe they’ve got some spray-on fabric.”
He laughed at my shocked gasp. “Just kidding. Pick up a few days’ travel supplies. I’m going to take a look at the train schedule before it gets much later and my parents start searching for this thing.”
He pulled his holoconn from his pocket. “I’m gonna have to leave it behind.”
His holo looked newer and more expensive than mine. Which wasn’t surprising. My parents were not tech fans or big spenders.
I turned and started walking up and down the aisles of the shop, searching for items that might come in handy in a place I’d never been and might be staying for a long time.
The Haven. What would it look like? Who else would be there? Would it be well-supplied or would we be roughing it?
Will they even let me stay?
I picked up some soap and shampoo packets and several days’ worth of meals-ready-to-eat, in case it took us longer to find the place than we expected.
These were somewhat different from the MRE’s I’d sampled at the military base, but similar enough.
Both my hands were filled with supplies and I was looking around for a basket when Heath stepped up behind me.
“We’ve got a problem.”
