Outcasts Read Online Free PDF

There was simply too much at stake.

CHAPTER
2
    Y ou. Have a. SimTalk tap. From … Red.”
    The electronic voice of Omar’s SimTalk implant roused him from his stim nap. The remnant from Glenrock was still here, so he hadn’t been nodding long. “Answer,” he said.
    “Hey, trigger, where are you?” Red’s voice came tinny in his ear.
    “Theater.”
    “Be there in five. Wait for me?”
    “Sure.” Omar sucked in a long breath on his personal vaporizer. He watched his brother Levi ascend the theater steps to where Omar had claimed a seat in the back. His PV was filled with a combination of meds, grass, and brown sugar — low doses of the stims to keep Levi from strangling him. Though that looked like it might be about to happen anyway.
    Omar closed his eyes and held the vapor in his lungs, savoring the way the stims eased the ache in his soul.
    Levi’s footsteps scuffed in the row in front of Omar. “How could you mess this up?”
    Omar blew out a stream of vapor and opened his eyes. He still hadn’t gotten used to the way Levi’s nose looked. His brother hadn’tgotten it fixed — on purpose, as a reminder to Omar of his betrayal. “Don’t yell at me.”
    “You were late, weren’t you? You were late meeting Chord.”
    Omar paused to think how to answer, hesitating enough that Levi kept talking.
    “Why were you late, Omar?”
    “Between Sim Slingers and the messenger office, I’m tasking two locations. Give me a break.” But he didn’t deserve one. Chord was dead. It should have been him.
    “You told me you were done at Sim Slingers at five. You were supposed to meet Chord at eight. Was three hours not enough time for you to get from Sim Slingers to the messenger office? What is it … three blocks?”
    Levi’s interrogations only made Omar feel worse. “I went to dinner.”
    “Where?”
    “Does it matter?” What was done was done. The dead didn’t come back.
    Levi’s expression actually softened a bit. “Look, Bender put me in charge of certain things. I don’t like it any more than you, but I’m in his debt right now. So where were you?”
    “Just because you’re elder — ”
    “
Where
, Omar?”
    “At the Paradise, okay? Eating dinner — ”
    “With Red.”
    It wasn’t a question. Levi had been on Omar’s case for spending time with Bender’s errand girl — a crazy, wild, and physically friendly femme. Omar narrowed his eyes. “What makes you think I was with Red?”
    Levi barked out his disgust. “Omar, I’m not stupid. I know she lives in the Paradise.”
    “I’m not stupid, either.”
I’m not.
    “Could have fooled me, brother. All you had to do was show up at eight at the messenger office and bring the messages back to Bender.Simple. Now Chord is dead. The messages are missing, and Bender is all worked up over it.”
    “See, I don’t get that,” Omar said. “They’ve never been
Bender’s
messages before. And if Bender wanted them, why not ask Chord for them himself?”
    “Zane thinks Chord was murdered because he discovered something important. My guess is that Bender knew Chord had information to bring him and wanted your help throwing Otley off track. But Otley’s men got to Chord before he delivered his messages. So thanks to you, we’ll never know what they said.”
    Great. Just what Omar needed: more guilt. “I didn’t kill him, Levi.”
    “No, but you’re so consumed with this place, with that … vapo stick, that you can’t even think straight.”
    “Do you hear me sniffing, brother? No, because I’m vaping my allergy meds. And the ACT treatment.” And a little added sweetness to take the edge off Levi’s lectures.
    Levi paled a bit at Omar’s mention of the ACT treatment.
Elder Levi
hated that Omar was infected with the thin plague. So Omar did his best to bring it up as often as he could.
    “I wish you’d get your act together,” Levi said.
    That was all the lecture Omar could take for today. “No one respects me. I’m sick of it.”