The Two Towers (7 page)

Kayla looked up at the sound of excited voices to see Xantham, Cruncher, Zane, and Veridian enter the room.

“Holy shit balls,” Xantham exclaimed. “What the hell happened?”

Cruncher shook his head and stared at Kayla in amazement. “Unbelievable. You were the one who stole the Aurelia Data Cube?”

Xantham’s eyes grew huge. “No freaking way! That was you?”

Kayla looked around in exasperation, lowering the ice pack from her cheek. “I don’t know why everyone seems to have a hard time believing that. And it’s not entirely accurate. I stole it back. That pustulant zit on the ass of humanity stole it from me in the first place.”

Xantham climbed over the chair and sat down. “I’ve gotta’ hear this story. You better start talking, girl.”

Carl nodded. “I’m curious too.”

The crew gathered around while Kayla pressed the ice pack against her face and took a sip of her drink. She didn't usually subscribe to the practice of swapping personal tales with trader crews, but she figured she owed them an explanation. They hadn't thrown her out on her butt and Carl had actually stood up for her against another trader. She gave him a long look, contemplating once again the sincerity of his earlier words.

He leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest like some sort of ancient warrior standing sentinel over his troops. His gaze, along with the rest of the crew, focused on her and she resisted the urge to squirm under the scrutiny of an entire trader camp. She spared a quick glance at Veridian and he gave her a nod of encouragement. Somewhat reassured by his presence, she took a deep, steadying breath and began.

“Veridian and I were scavenging in a sector Ramiro’s crew cleared the week before. I didn't expect to find much since it looked like some sort of office building. I ended up locating a false wall that hadn’t collapsed. The room behind it had been mostly cleared out and trashed, but I found a safe in the floor.”

She twirled the scotch in the glass and took a sip before continuing. “The data cube was in there along with a bunch of journals that looked like lab records. I took the cube, along with the journals, and went back to ground.”

Veridian nodded and added, “One of Ramiro’s crew used to come by to visit Kayla. He’s the one who told us the sector was clear. When he saw our bikes that day, he stopped by to see her.”

Kayla shot Veridian a warning glance. There were some things she wasn't willing to discuss. “It was piss poor timing. He saw my bag and called it in to Ramiro. A few minutes later, there was a freaking party in our tent. Ramiro demanded the cube, and I refused. It got pretty ugly. Vex broke Veridian’s arm and Ramiro took the cube from me.”

She paused for a moment before continuing the story. “After we got Veridian back to camp, I worked on a program to send false data readings to the UV Guard at Ramiro’s camp. I drove out the next day by myself and told Ramiro I had reconsidered his offer. He took me into his office and I activated the program. When the alarm went off, he left me to go check the equipment. I broke into his safe, took my data cube back, and ran.”

“Holy shit,” Cruncher muttered.

Kayla took another sip. “I knew Ramiro would be hunting me down, so I drove straight to Warig’s camp. I told him I found it in a cleared sector and he bought it on the spot for forty thousand credits.”

Xantham let out a low whistle. “Damn, girl, that’s a lot of credits.”

Kayla shrugged. It was strange how some things seemed so important at the time. “It was fine until Ramiro found out I sold it to Warig. He flipped out and told Warig I had stolen it from him. Both traders blacklisted Leo’s camp on the spot. Leo was pretty pissed off about it, but the forty thousand credits helped smooth things over. He decided it would be a good idea to get out of the area. So we picked up and moved closer to Henkel and Carl.”

“So that’s why you came this direction,” Carl mused. “You first popped up on our radar about a year ago, right after that incident happened.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like we had a whole lot of choice.” Kayla finished her drink and pushed away from the table. “So, thanks for the drink and the entertainment, but I think it’s time for us to head out. Come on, V.”

Kayla dropped the cold pack on the table and avoided looking at the faces around her. She knew she'd see a mix of emotions on them, some with awe and others with pity. She’d seen it before and wasn't any more prepared to deal with it now.

Veridian moved to stand beside her, offering her the opportunity to retreat without further conversation. With a smile, he took control of the conversation at the table and gave her a gentle nudge toward the door. She tossed him a grateful look.

Barely registering Veridian's voice saying his good-byes, she headed toward the exit and nearly ran into Carl leaning against the wall by the door. When she met his eyes, he gave her a small smile and a brief nod. Her face flushed at the approval in his expression. Turning away, she hurried out the door, wanting to leave and rebuild her emotional shields before they collapsed.

A few days later, Kayla was back underground. Against Veridian’s advice, she snuck out of camp and headed back to the ruins. Veridian grudgingly followed her, unwilling to let her scavenge alone. She knew he was apprehensive about making Leo angry.

In Kayla’s opinion, she'd stayed above ground for a few days, which was more than reasonable. Sitting in camp made her stir-crazy and she found herself snapping at people left and right. She figured Leo wouldn’t be all that upset at her leaving. In fact, she reasoned, he would probably end up welcoming a more relaxing day without having her yell back and forth with him.

“Dropping down to level four,” Kayla announced over her headset. The cable lowered her back down into the ruins in Sector 12. Once her feet touched the floor, she pressed the button to signal she’d stopped her descent. Kayla unhooked the harness and looked around the room again.

This is where I belong
. Most other ruin rats might look at scavenging as a way to survive, but there was something eerily calming about being in the ruins. Walking through rooms forever frozen in time allowed her a glimpse of another world. She could almost get lost in other people’s memories.

She smiled to herself as she moved through the old bedroom and spotted the empty jewelry box she’d thrown in the corner. She picked it up and stuffed it into her bag. It probably wasn’t worth much, but it had been preserved fairly well.

Making her way across the room, she climbed over a partially collapsed wall separating the bedroom from the hallway. She worked her way through the hall, careful to check the stability of the ground before each step to avoid another collapse.

She came to a large hole in another wall, which appeared to lead to another bedroom. This room was remarkably well preserved and appeared to have belonged to a child. Kayla began sorting through debris looking for any salvageable items.

She moved to the other side of the room and discovered what looked like an old toy chest in the corner. She grinned and knelt down on the ground. It might not look like much from the outside, but sometimes the contents were in decent shape.

Kayla pried open the rusted lid and discovered a few old-fashioned toys inside. One looked like some sort of worn plastic music player. She put it in her pack and picked up a ceramic doll wearing a long faded red dress. It was in better condition than she expected. She added the doll to her pack as well.

The rest of the items looked like trash. She doubted they would bring in many credits, but she made a mental note in case she ever wanted to come back.

“Kayla,” Veridian’s voice called over her headset. “We’ve got a problem. I’ve got three riders on approach. It looks like Carl again.”

“Shit. That guy is seriously becoming a pain in my ass. It can’t be a coincidence that he knew we’d be here today. How long do I have?”

“Not long. But if you get up here now we might be okay.”

Kayla dashed to the harness, strapped herself in, and hit the button for the cable to lift her to the surface. “Disengage the UV Guard and get the hell out of here, V. I’ll grab the cabling device. I’ll meet you where we discussed.”

“On it,” he replied.

By the time she climbed out of the hole, Veridian was already driving away. She grabbed the cabling device and attached it to her bike. Glancing up, she saw three bikes approaching in the distance. She leaped on to her speeder and fired up the engine.

With a grin, she pulled back on the throttle and took off. She sped over the landscape with the three bikes following behind her.

She leaned forward as she pulled back on the thrust lever. The bike engine roared and shot forward at near breakneck speed.
Let’s see how well you can ride, Carl.

Kayla crouched low on her bike. The wind rushed around her as she pushed the bike to its limits. Angling into a turn, she shifted herself slightly toward the edge of the seat and brought the bike nearly to the ground before pulling out of the turn. She glanced into her mirror and saw she’d left the other bikes far behind.

Kayla continued driving for another ten minutes until she was sure she’d lost them. She and Veridian had designated meeting locations for those times they needed to outrun traders and their crew. She turned her bike around and went the long way back toward Sector 3, one of the few cleared sectors, making sure not to cross Carl’s path.

When she arrived, Veridian was already waiting for her under the UV Guard. He was clearly agitated, pacing under the artificial shade. The moment she pulled off her helmet, he asked, “You lost them?”

“Of course. I drove around making sure before working my way back here.”

She pulled the cabling device off her bike and handed it to Veridian to reattach to his bike. “I didn’t think they’d be onto us so quickly. Carl must have known you’d try to go back into the ruins before the week was up.”

Kayla shrugged and opened up her backpack to make sure the artifacts hadn’t been damaged. A beep from Veridian’s bike radar made her look up.

“What is it?”

He stared at the radar. “Shit, we’ve got three bikes headed this way. They must have followed you.”

She shook her head in denial. “No freaking way. I lost them.”

“Could they have gotten back into our coms?”

Kayla considered the possibility for a moment. “I don’t see how. Why the hell are they chasing us down for a couple of stupid artifacts? He’s worse than a rash that won’t go away.”

“Do you want to take off?”

“Nah,” Kayla stretched her arms over her head and then leaned against the bike. “Not much point if the bastard is tracking us. Let’s find out what he wants.”

Veridian frowned but didn’t object. They waited while the three bikes pulled up. Carl dismounted, along with Cruncher and Xantham.

Xantham pulled off his helmet and stared at Kayla. “Fuck me sideways. Where the hell did you learn to ride, girl? I’ve never seen anyone with moves like that.”

She grinned and winked at him. “You pick it up quick when you have to outrun traders and their crew.”

Carl pulled off his helmet. “Kayla, we need to talk.”

She yawned. “Nice to see you too, Carl. But I’m a little busy right now getting my much-needed rest. You see, I’m still technically grounded, but I thought the fresh air might do me some good.”

“You sure looked pretty damn healthy for someone flying out of Sector 12 earlier.”

Kayla blinked at him. “Business for you traders must be really slow if you’re willing to chase me across half the district. If you need the credits so bad, go ahead and search us. But keep Leo out of this. He didn’t know I was coming here. I waited two days, which was more than fair.”

Carl shook his head. “No, it’s not that. I need to talk to you about Ramiro.”

Kayla's shoulders tensed. There was no way she was going to discuss Ramiro beyond what she had revealed the other day. “There’s nothing to talk about. The guy’s an asshole and I plan on staying as far away from him as I can get. I’m more interested in knowing how you knew I’d be here. I know for a fact that my coms and Leo’s system are squeaky clean. I spent the last two days…”

Kayla’s eyes widened as a thought struck her and she jerked upright. “You sneaky bastard. You put a tracker on my bike when I came to your camp the other day, didn't you?”

“Kayla, that’s not important right now,” Carl began.

She ignored him and crouched down next to her bike, pulling a flashlight out of her pocket. If there was a tracking device somewhere, she'd find it.

“Ramiro’s gone off the deep end. He’s looking for you.”

Kayla ran her fingers along the underside of the engine, wondering what it would take to get him to drop the subject. “Yeah, yeah, what else is new?”

“Dammit, Kayla.” Carl sighed, then walked over and pulled the miniature tracking device off her bike. He handed it to her, taking away her distraction. “Will you please talk to me now?”

She looked at the device and pouted. “I would have found it.”

He nodded. “I know. I’m trying to save a little bit of time. We have a problem with Ramiro. He’s been trying to access my com system.”

“That sounds like your problem, not mine.” She stood up and brushed the dirt off her pants.

“I’m afraid it’s not. Xantham went ahead and let him into our system enough to find out what he was looking for. He’s looking for you. Cruncher did some checking and found out Ramiro’s put a price on you.”

Kayla paused while she tried to wrap her mind around what he was saying. Her brow furrowed, and she gave a slight shake of her head. “That doesn’t make any sense. He might have gotten a little worked up the other day, but the Aurelia Data Cube incident happened a year ago. Why would he bother doing something now? Besides, he already knows he hurt…”

She pushed away those thoughts and straightened her shoulders. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter. It’s done. It’s in the past. I stay out of Ramiro’s way and he leaves me alone.”

A look of guilt flashed across Carl's face but disappeared so fast Kayla wondered if she'd imagined it. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple anymore. Ramiro broke the rules. You may think that as a trader we can do whatever the hell we want, but that’s not the case. Based on his own admission, I petitioned OmniLab to have his trader status revoked.”