Divided Worlds Trilogy 01 - Disconnect Read Online Free PDF Page B

someone young. How old are you?”
    Zachary gazed at the glimmer in her eyes. “Sixteen.”
    Her hands unclasped and snapped back together aloud. “ Me too! The first person I’ve met in years, and he’s the same age as me. You really can’t make these things up, can you?”
    What did she mean by the first person? Didn’t Overworlders meet one another, or did they have so much time and space that people became an afterthought?
    “I don’t know.” Zachary inched to the path they’d taken to reach here.
    “What’s the fashion down there? Do you all dress alike? Are women treated equally, or is it a man’s world? Do you have to pay lots to travel into space, like save up for years and then watch it waste away with a click? I’ve got so many questions.”
    Rosa’s excitement scared him. What devices could be recording them now? What if they were shown to his dad? Evidence.
    He snapped his teeth tight. “Can you just shut up and let me go?”
    Rosa scowled. “I get it. You don’t want to talk because you think that we’re too good to be seen with. You’d rather stumble in the shadows than accept that we’re not terrible.” The harsh tone crept back. “Mother says Underworlders consider us to be the real filth of Galilei . If you only tried to be more civilised then our worlds wouldn’t be so separated. We could actually live together like they used to before the Reckoning-Age.”
    Zachary shook his head. From what he knew, the Reckoning-Age of three hundred years ago was the catalyst that saw exploration into space outweigh the need to calm the civil wars that flattened the old world.
    “It was your people that shoved us down there.” He didn’t know that for sure. “In Underworld, we have to struggle to survive. You never have to worry about where your food comes from. You only have to worry about getting any. My dad has been working all day, and he’s tired … but for your stinking money, he came to clean up your mess.”
    “ Our mess? We didn’t ask for this .”
    Bracing his anger, Zachary thumped his thigh. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
    “Yes – go back to washing in the sewage.”
    Turning away rattled, Zachary rasped, “Hopefully next time the pirates will break through and leave your home in ashes. Then you’ll know how it feels to live in muck.”
    Her fingers clicked causing him to turn.
    Rosa slapped him. She jumped back, gasping.
    Zachary clutched his cheek, unbelieving, as the sharp pain deepened. Seeing the slightest of movement is what saved scavengers from being buried under heaps of junk. Yet, here, without a hint of darkness, he’d been slapped by a girl.
    “I shouldn’t have done that. I’ve never …” Rosa paused. She removed her Intercom-transmitter again. “Take it. It’s another Raptor model. They’re worth a lot.”
    “You’ll say I stole it off you.”
    “ No ,” she cried. “Please.” Her ‘please’ was more like ‘sorry’.
    The hinges were all in place and the shine on the device’s circular rim dazzled, even in the gloom under her home. As an attempt to make up for the slap, it’d do. Zachary snatched the Raptor.
    “Goodbye,” she muttered.
    A firm hand seized Zachary’s arm. He twisted, trying to release the vice-like grip. It didn’t budge.
    “Alice,” said Rosa. “Let him go.”
    Zachary stared into the pale face of a girl with hair cut in a bob. The black pupils of her white eyes shrank.
    “Who is this?” asked Alice.
    “A repairer.” Rosa lunged forward and took Alice’s hand off his arm.
    Zachary pulled back to see the new female’s perfect white tunic and pressed trousers. He’d uncovered similar parts in the Wastelands. “A working bot.”
    “An Intuitive-Assist Android.” Alice turned to Rosa. “Did he harm you?”
    “No, he’s leaving.” Rosa led her bot by the hand, giving him space to pass.
    Sighing, Zachary walked away from the structure. Several times, he almost looked back. Was she still there with her