Flux Read Online Free PDF Page A

crystals.
    Finally the surge of energy left her and Nellie found herself once again in the body of a twelve-year-old girl, standing beneath a limp set of window curtains. To her left, the street scene progressed as usual. No one seemed to have noticed her rapid-fire shapeshifting experience, but most Outbackers preferred to put on blinkers when flux entered their lives, grabbing at the hunk of nevva root around their throats and muttering incantations to the Goddess. This was both sad and stupid, Nellie had decided. Sometimes, as she passed from one shape to another, she could have sworn she felt Ivana’s delighted laughter rippling through her body. The Goddess didn’t mind Her children exploring flux, Nellie was certain of it, though the idea of being doubled left her less keen. Imagine something from another level sticking its snout through yours so it can take a casual look around, she thought, shuddering, and reminded herself to dig up a hunk of nevva root as soon as possible.
    About to head back onto the street, she glanced to her right and froze. Just on the other side of a small hedge stood a corner store, and there on its sunlit wall a shadow was shifting in and out of itself, unattached to anything solid. Peering through the hedge, Nellie gasped softly as the shadow stepped free of the wall and solidified into a casually dressed man who carried signs of the Interior in the heavy-lidded watching of his eyes and the trained nonchalance of his shoulders. Everything about him said Interior Police, violence waiting for release . Nellie had never seen an agent of the Interior step out of a moment of flux, hadn’t realized they knew anything about manipulating the molecular field or traveling the levels. Spinning on her heel she darted into the crowded street, giving the fluttering hand signal as she went: Interior Police. Beware, Interior Police.
    Everywhere hands took up the signal, a silent nervous system rippling outward: Interior Police in the area. Red alert, red alert. Halfway down the block, Nellie ducked behind a parked car and peeked over the hood. From her position she could see the Interior agent stroll casually past the store’s front steps and out into the street, oblivious to the hands that fluttered and gesticulated on all sides. From this point onward, wherever he went Outbackers would be tuned to his presence, watching him from the back of their heads. Everywhere the rippling hand signals would precede him, without a word he would be identified: Interior Police, beware, beware.
    When she was certain the agent had passed on in search of other prey, Nellie returned to the corner store from which he’d emerged. It was obviously a building in flux, which made it worthy of a second glance. On top of this, it was a building that could supply her with everything she needed for several days. Entering the store she picked up a basket and moved along the aisles, selecting packages of candy, nuts, cold cuts, some bread rolls and fruit. Two women had followed her in and she waited them out, dawdling and scratching at fresh bug bites until they’d completed their purchases. As the clutch of bells tied over the door signaled their departure, she grabbed a large bottle of nevva juice and approached the till.
    Everything seemed quiet and she could see no sign of the flux the building had displayed when the Interior agent had emerged from its east wall. Briefly Nellie considered hanging around in the hopes of another shapeshifting rush, but she had more than one goal to accomplish today and needed to act quickly. Besides, she and the clerk were alone in the store, and that simplified her next task greatly. Nellie had never seen anyone else do what she was about to do. No one had taught her this skill. It had come to her,startlingly, after her mother’s disappearance, born out of necessity, out of flux. Setting her basket of purchases on the checkout counter, she smiled at the clerk.
    “Hi there.” The girl behind