The Operator
Page 59

Catcalls rose, and the drone flew to a corner of the room, where it landed. A burly man in a ragged jeans coat picked it up, a controller in his grip as he headed for the stairs. Two more men followed him, each with their own flyer. At the table, LB leaned over his phone and frowned at Harmony. LB’s gang was clearly tech savvy, and Peri would bet her panties that all the information was being funneled into LB’s phone. It reminded her of how the space missions that once took a room of monitors could now be run by one man at a single station.
Impatient, she turned to Allen. She could see his pity past his swollen eye, and she hated it. “Bill said Michael was going to make the drop.”
“Bill nixed it. He was afraid Michael was going to snuff you. The man is certifiable,” Allen said, and Jack bobbed his head, wincing as something hurt. “I don’t know how anyone can anchor him. Bill and Jack are playing him like a badly tuned guitar, but they are playing him.” Allen sighed. “He will kill you, Peri.”
“Jack?” she blurted, almost laughing.
His eye was nearly swollen shut, and Allen hesitated as he pulled his first words back. “I meant Michael, but yes. I think Jack will kill you, too. Only a little slower is all.”
Jack stiffened. “I’m not going to kill Peri. I want out. You think I’d risk being caught with you and enough Evocane to keep you safe if I didn’t?”
“I said shut up!” Jack’s story of wanting asylum from Opti was weak at best. No one believed it. Especially her.
“Bill is betting that once you can work without depending on anyone, you’ll come back,” Allen said, eyes pinched from his hurts. “That’s why he let Jack leave with the Evocane.”
“No one let me go. I left on my own,” Jack said.
Peri stretched a foot out, grunting as she shoved his chair over.
“What? Hey!” Jack exclaimed, hitting the floor hard. LB glanced up as a laugh rose, but no one moved to set him upright again. “What is wrong with you, Peri Reed!” Jack said, his face red with anger as he lay on the floor and struggled, still tied to his chair.
Ignoring him, Peri looked at her chipped nails, wondering whether they would ever be clean again. “I’m not going back to Opti,” she said, but it was soft and unconvincing. She wasn’t going back, even if she’d almost been a goddess, able to flaunt the law with impunity, live the way she wanted. But if she was hooked on Evocane, what she wanted might not enter into her choice.
“I know,” Allen said as Jack began to wiggle in earnest. “But as long as you aren’t accelerated, you might be able to get yourself off the Evocane.” He hesitated. “Ah, have you been craving salt lately?”
Her head came up, fear sliding through her as she remembered Silas mentioning a sodium uptake inhibitor. “No. Why?”
“Possible side effect,” Jack said breathily from the floor. “You’re not the only drafter Bill’s tried this on.”
“Shut up,” she said softly, “or I’m getting up out of this ugly couch and pounding you.” She looked away from Jack, eyes tracking the fast-moving man who’d come in. He was making a beeline for LB and Fat Man. Bad news? she wondered, taking in his stilted pace.
“How about uncontrolled tremors?” Allen said, bringing her attention back. “Sensitivity to light? More angry than usual?”
“Just at Jack,” she said, not liking it when Fat Man whistled for some of his people.
“Good.” Allen’s smile was relieved. “You’re metabolizing the Evocane okay then.”
Peri’s eyes closed in a long blink. Hurray for me. Steiner would have a cow if he knew the flight risk she was. Probably lock her up in a cell—for good reason. Worried, she looked across the room at Harmony, wondering how long her decision to not tell him would hold.
“You’re okay, Peri,” Allen said, misunderstanding her expression. “If you weren’t, Bill would’ve never let Jack go to get the stopgap serum to you. You don’t need me anymore,” he said, voice softening. “You don’t need anyone. You never did.”
On the floor, Jack squirmed. “Hey! Some help here, maybe? Come on, Peri . . .”
Peri couldn’t meet Allen’s eyes. LB got along just fine with no anchor and no training, but her confusion not one hour ago when she forgot that LB had drafted was all too real. Her gaze lifted to find that people were leaving—some with pizza, but all with weapons. Even as she watched, Fat Man took Harmony’s shoulder and led her away. Harmony looked back, her expression saying nothing. She seemed bone-tired, ready to drop—but not afraid.
LB was on his way over, and Peri stood. Something was happening. Everyone was moving, darting out the door even as they checked their ammo clips. She stayed silent as LB scuffed to a halt before her, his still-wet sneakers torn at the toe. Still on the floor, Jack looked up, pleading for some help.
“You’re a drafter,” LB said as he tucked his phone away. “And they are anchors who can recall both timelines and tell you what happened when everyone else only remembers the last?”
Clearly Harmony had been giving him the basics, and Peri nodded. “They’ve been trained to recognize and destroy the first timeline in my mind so I can safely remember the correct one.” She looked at Jack, her jaw clenching. “Usually.”
LB turned to look at Harmony, now sitting at the abandoned card table. Fat Man was beside her, arms over his chest. “She says you hallucinate Jack.”
“Hey, can you stand me up?” Jack said, and was ignored. “Hello-o-o-o-o . . .”
Peri frowned. She hadn’t realized that Harmony had known that. “That’s not normal,” she said, embarrassed. “It’s a lingering scar from when I was forced to remember two timelines at once. It was either that or die of paranoia. That’s kind of why we forget them.”
LB moved closer, sitting on the edge of the couch across from her. “And when I black out, I’m rewriting time?” Smirking, he took one of her injector pens from his pocket and undid the cap. “This must be some good shit. That’s one hell of a story. Maybe I should try it.”
“Don’t,” she said when he made motions to inject it, and he paused, his expression telling her he’d only done it to get a rise out of her. “It’s the kind of story that makes a king into a pig herder, or vice versa,” she said, and he put the cap back on.