cupped hand. I lifted mine automatically, felt something drop into my palm as he grasped my fingers. “You are not alone in this,” he announced, and then his fingers slipped free as his hand disappeared, along with his body.
Cold air rushed in invading my side where he’d only just kept me heated, as I stared down at the object in my palm. I sucked in a breath of air, felt the burn as it filled my aching lungs. My hand shaking, body quaking, as I stroked it with my thumb.
I snapped the lock on the side and opened the locket, knowing what I’d see. On one side was a picture of Aiko and Tan, and on the other side was me.
This had been hers; my best friend’s. She’d worn it every single day until the day she’d died. Until the day General Chew-wen ordered her death.
Death by drone.
Death by a corrupt regime.
Wánměi was meant to be perfect, as long as you fitted in perfectly. Aiko had been a shooting star, burning too hot, falling too swiftly. She’d been wiped, in its most basic sense. Not sent to Merrika or Urip, but wiped from existence most brutally.
We’d thought all our Wiped had been. Tan’s heart bled for his sister. Mine wept, a crack so wide I’d always known it would never be whole again. Never be smooth. Complete. Forever a jagged gap in my psyche.
Wánměi was no different. We were as broken as Lunnon. As cut-off as Merrika. As isolated as Urip. The crack that made us what we currently were was wide, but Tan wanted us to bridge it.
Wanted me to bridge it.
Change the world the locket’s engraving said. Make it whole again .
I lifted the locket up and held it securely, flush against my heart.
I couldn’t bring Aiko back. I couldn’t change what had happened to the Wiped simply by rescuing them. I couldn’t mend the world alone.
But I had Cardinal Beck, even if I had no one else.
My eyes searched out Trent, one last attempt to reach him.
His back was to me. And he was talking to my father.
I might not be alone, but I had never felt as lonely as I did right then. Never felt… so on my own.
Five
Time To Remind The Elite
Trent
I t was almost time to leave. The new base was secured and no sign of any more Lunnoners had been seen. It was as if they’d melted into the wreck that was Lunnon, licking their wounds. Or preparing for their next attack.
We were pretty sure our new found digs were safe. But we’d been pretty sure we were alone in Lunnon too.
I looked toward Lena, felt that hole in my chest get bigger, and shook my head. She’d been speaking more and more to Beck as she’d been speaking less and less to me.
Fuck it! I wasn’t the one who’d kept the Lunnoners a secret.
“I should bend her over my knee and spank her hard,” I muttered to myself, forgetting that a certain sentient computer was listening. And why I was fixating on Lena’s butt and spanking it was anyone’s guess. Lena Carr was no one’s sex slave.
More’s the pity.
“The longer you neglect her the harder it will be,” Calvin helpfully supplied.
“What would you know, you’re a computer,” I snapped, trying futilely to find his off switch.
“Ask yourself this, Trent,” the doctored Shiloh unit said, “Why do you think she kept the attack a secret?”
“That’s a question only Lena can answer,” I ground out.
“Then have you asked her?”
I shook my head. I was not having a therapy session with a fucking computer.
“Has it not occurred to you that your behaviour has been as bad as her father’s?”
“ You are her father.”
“I am Calvin,” the computer agreed. “But I am not her father.”
Wonders never ceased. Sometimes the Shiloh unit seemed more alive than the real Calvin Carstairs. His failed attempts to reach his daughter was sending the man into a deep depression. Even Irdina couldn’t reach him.
I sat back with a disgruntled sigh and dropped the vid-screen I’d been attempting to use to access Calvin’s programme. It was a dead-end street. He was more tightly
Cold air rushed in invading my side where he’d only just kept me heated, as I stared down at the object in my palm. I sucked in a breath of air, felt the burn as it filled my aching lungs. My hand shaking, body quaking, as I stroked it with my thumb.
I snapped the lock on the side and opened the locket, knowing what I’d see. On one side was a picture of Aiko and Tan, and on the other side was me.
This had been hers; my best friend’s. She’d worn it every single day until the day she’d died. Until the day General Chew-wen ordered her death.
Death by drone.
Death by a corrupt regime.
Wánměi was meant to be perfect, as long as you fitted in perfectly. Aiko had been a shooting star, burning too hot, falling too swiftly. She’d been wiped, in its most basic sense. Not sent to Merrika or Urip, but wiped from existence most brutally.
We’d thought all our Wiped had been. Tan’s heart bled for his sister. Mine wept, a crack so wide I’d always known it would never be whole again. Never be smooth. Complete. Forever a jagged gap in my psyche.
Wánměi was no different. We were as broken as Lunnon. As cut-off as Merrika. As isolated as Urip. The crack that made us what we currently were was wide, but Tan wanted us to bridge it.
Wanted me to bridge it.
Change the world the locket’s engraving said. Make it whole again .
I lifted the locket up and held it securely, flush against my heart.
I couldn’t bring Aiko back. I couldn’t change what had happened to the Wiped simply by rescuing them. I couldn’t mend the world alone.
But I had Cardinal Beck, even if I had no one else.
My eyes searched out Trent, one last attempt to reach him.
His back was to me. And he was talking to my father.
I might not be alone, but I had never felt as lonely as I did right then. Never felt… so on my own.
Five
Time To Remind The Elite
Trent
I t was almost time to leave. The new base was secured and no sign of any more Lunnoners had been seen. It was as if they’d melted into the wreck that was Lunnon, licking their wounds. Or preparing for their next attack.
We were pretty sure our new found digs were safe. But we’d been pretty sure we were alone in Lunnon too.
I looked toward Lena, felt that hole in my chest get bigger, and shook my head. She’d been speaking more and more to Beck as she’d been speaking less and less to me.
Fuck it! I wasn’t the one who’d kept the Lunnoners a secret.
“I should bend her over my knee and spank her hard,” I muttered to myself, forgetting that a certain sentient computer was listening. And why I was fixating on Lena’s butt and spanking it was anyone’s guess. Lena Carr was no one’s sex slave.
More’s the pity.
“The longer you neglect her the harder it will be,” Calvin helpfully supplied.
“What would you know, you’re a computer,” I snapped, trying futilely to find his off switch.
“Ask yourself this, Trent,” the doctored Shiloh unit said, “Why do you think she kept the attack a secret?”
“That’s a question only Lena can answer,” I ground out.
“Then have you asked her?”
I shook my head. I was not having a therapy session with a fucking computer.
“Has it not occurred to you that your behaviour has been as bad as her father’s?”
“ You are her father.”
“I am Calvin,” the computer agreed. “But I am not her father.”
Wonders never ceased. Sometimes the Shiloh unit seemed more alive than the real Calvin Carstairs. His failed attempts to reach his daughter was sending the man into a deep depression. Even Irdina couldn’t reach him.
I sat back with a disgruntled sigh and dropped the vid-screen I’d been attempting to use to access Calvin’s programme. It was a dead-end street. He was more tightly
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