The Color of Rain Read online

  “This planet’s not dead,” Samson says. “Just veiled.” He pulls the cab straight up, and I grip the seatback to keep from tumbling into Ben. We soar higher than the spacedocks, slamming into the smoke sky. For a few breaths we are swathed in gray, but then we come rocketing free . . .

  And I’m blinded by yellow light.

  I peer through my fingers as the cab pauses above the smog, squinting into a stretch of blue sky and a golden sun. The light strokes my skin with gentle heat, and I turn my hands over and over in the baking glow. What I wouldn’t give to share this with Walker.

  Through my daydream, I hear Ben ask, “Are we above the net?”

  “Aye.” Samson grunts as he clears his throat. “It’s now or never, Ben.”

  I glance at Ben’s narrowed eyes. “Well, don’t mind me,” I say. He makes a face like he’s chewing the inside of his cheek and turns back to his com. A high-pitched buzz slices through my hearing, and I clasp my ears. “What was that?”

  “Interference.” Ben pulls his sleeve over his com, and his eyes catch mine in a kind of playful dare.

  “All right.” I uncover my ears. “Call us even . . . for the Limpicilin.”

  Ben smirks. He might dismiss the idea that we could be friends, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use him for information.

  I point to his com. “That’s what Johnny was yelling about when he said he knew what you were up to, wasn’t it? He thinks you’re doing something with that bracelet. And you’re a Mec. You could be doing anything with that technology, am I right?”

  “All right. What do you want from me?”

  I turn back to the window. “Nothing yet.”

  “We could still let you go,” he says. “Your brother, too.”

  “It’ll be your head, Ben,” Samson calls back.

  “No,” I say. The dried blood on my sleeves scratches. “I have to save him.” Ben’s steel eyes are as clear as the sky outside, and I don’t shy from staring into them. “There’s nothing for us here.”

  He glowers a little and twists the silver band on his wrist.

  Samson adjusts his own grip on the steering drive. “To Imreas we go.”

  I take a last look at the golden sun, and we fall through the smog to where the starships are parked in the Earth City sky. The skyscrapers appear less decrepit from our height, and I let myself look down, whispering a good-bye that I don’t want them to hear.

  “How long will it take to get to the Edge?” I ask.

  “A couple of months. The Edge is at the other end of the wormhole.”

  “Wormhole?”

  “The Void is a wormhole—an accelerated tunnel of sorts. Otherwise it would take decades just to get to the next star system,” Ben says. “And the Edge is about six thousand systems away. But how long it takes to get there will depend on how long we stay on Entra and spend in the Static Pass.”

  “The what and where?”

  “Hell. I feel like I’m leading Alice down the rabbit hole.”

  I turn from the window. “How do you know that Earth City story?”

  “It’s an Earth story. And, if you haven’t heard, we are all human.” He twists his hand in his hair; now I know how it gets so wild. “Before the Mecs emigrated to the Edge, we were all the same. Before the genetic advancements, we were all exactly the same. And we still are, for the most part.”

  “Genetic advancements?”

  “I’m as human as you.”

  “That’s a weird thing to say. I didn’t mean that you’re not human.”

  “Ben’s just sore from the looks he gets on account of him being Mec,” Samson supplies.

  “It’s not like you’re green-skinned or anything. Apart from your eyes, you look just like an Earth Cityite.” I glance over his shoulders and the strong muscles of his neck. “Of course, you’re a good deal healthier.” I lean forward, my excitement getting the best of me. “I’ve heard that Mecs are geniuses. Evolved.”

  The hint of a smile turns up his cheeks into that boyish look. “A real genius wouldn’t admit to being one, would he?” he says.

  Samson snorts a laugh and steers us through the spacedocks until we’re facing the ship that Johnny called Imreas. We dip below the vessel, coming up from behind with a great view of the fiery blue thrusters. A small hatch opens in the side, and we swing around and in as though we’re being swallowed whole.

  We set down on a platform, and I reach for the door release, so excited to step foot inside my very first starship that my mouth is dry.

  Ben stops me. “Wait for the airlock.”

  A whining clank rises into a sharp clang, and Ben pops the door open. I help Samson pull Walker’s pod from the trunk, and something inside twists up a little too tight. I touch the stinging cold metal. Have I traded my brother for this chance to escape? What if he never wakes?

  What if this is how I really lose him?

  I follow Ben across a catwalk that spans the length of a massive docking bay. Crew members in black flight suits cross a network of intersecting catwalks under a ceiling cluttered with hanging crates. Below the grated walkway, the starship’s cavernous belly stretches into deep shadow, issuing tendrils of steam from clanking, unseen machinery.

  The crew clears from Ben’s path even though most of them are twice his age. Their faces even turn away like they’re afraid he might take notice of them. Apparently it’s not only Earth Cityites who fear Mecs.

  Samson leads Walker down a different walkway, and I stop. “Where will you put him?”

  “Wherever there’s room,” the old man calls over his shoulder. “I’ll let Ben know where, and he’ll let you know when he’s allowed.” Samson turns a corner, disappearing with my little brother. I didn’t even get to say good-bye.

  “When he’s allowed?” I repeat. I hurry into a cargo lift behind Ben. “What did he mean by—” A crew member forces himself through the closing lift doors, distracting me. We begin to rise as the short man holds out a huge wad of bills to Ben. “Send me a good one, will you?”

  Ben doesn’t take the money. “You know it doesn’t work like that,” he says tightly.

  “What about her?” Gregg ogles my chest. “She won’t mind. In fact, she’ll do nice—”

  “She’s a red tag,” Ben says.

  “Apologies.” Gregg glances all over the elevator like he’s worried that he’s been caught on camera. He slams the emergency stop, making the doors jerk open between levels, and he shimmies over the edge to the top floor. Ben smacks a button, and we begin to rise again.

  “What was that about?” I ask.

  “A desperate act by a desperate idiot.”

  “What’d you mean by ‘red tag’?”

  He twists his com like it’s cutting off the circulation to his hand. “You’ll see.”

  We exit on a dark, quiet level, and Ben’s boots bang confidently as I follow him toward a door with a giant wheel lock. He presses something on his com, and the lock spins until it jumps open.

  We step inside. “This is the center of Imreas,” he says. “The safest place on the ship during early space. You’ll be freed once we hit the relative safety of the Void. Johnny’s weird about his girls walking around before we reach traveling speed.”

  “Girls?” My eyes turn around a huge room with high ceilings and . . .

  Girls.

  Dozens of girls are strapped to the wall. Their heads hang forward like a demented rainbow of white-blonde to black hair colors. “What the—”

  “They’re not dead. They’re knocked out. Just like you’re about to be.” He steps to the front of the line and picks up an empty harness. “Hurry up. I’m late.”

  I step closer even though I’d rather be running backward. “These are all his girls?”

  Ben laughs hollowly. “Johnny calls them his girls because they work for him to keep their spots on the ship. He trades them.”

  “Trades?”

  “Prostitutes.” Ben loosens the harness, talking low. “He pimps them to the
crew and other passengers.”

  “He’s going to pimp me?”

  Ben slips the harness over my shoulders. “I tried to warn you.” I stare into his face, but he looks away, locking the straps around my hips. “Besides, you agreed to give him your body. You didn’t tell him that he couldn’t share it.” He shakes his head. “I didn’t mean . . . hell, I always say the wrong thing. I’m sorry, Rain.”

  Of all my rushing thoughts, the words that come are soft. “I didn’t know you knew my name.”

  “It’s a hard one to forget.” He slips something papery through my half-open lips. “Do yourself a favor and dream of someplace else.”

  A minty taste spreads across my tongue and darkness crowds my vision.

  “But the Void is my dream.” I keep my eyes open past the moment when they can no longer see.

  CHAPTER

  6

  I fall . . .

  And slam face first into the floor. Bright spots pop across my vision.

  “Move, move, MOVE!” someone shouts.

  Groggy, I lift up on my elbows. My cheekbone aches as I squint around the cargo room. Someone unsnapped my harness. Someone let me drop to the floor. But I’m in the Void now—I jumped Earth City.

  “GET UP!”

  I peer at the voice, and a familiar thin frame and pink hair come into focus. “Lo? What’re you doing here?”

  “Tell you later.” She gets under my arm and hauls me to my feet. “We’re in one sweet freakin’ mess, Rain.”

  Someone barks orders while Lo drags me to the center of the room. Beautiful girls with varying shades of skin and hair are arranged in a line like they’re waiting for an inspection. “Can you stand?” she asks. “I’ve got yelled at twice, and I think we’ll be in it deep if we don’t do exactly like the others.”

  I plant my feet and push off her shoulder. “What’s going on?”

  The line of girls straightens as the wheel on the chamber door begins to spin, and by the time it opens, the girls are as silent as though they’ve been struck. Ben enters, his wild hair covering most of his expression, but he’s not the one who sends shivers through me.

  Johnny’s smile is daring. He steps in behind the Mec, one hand in his pocket as he strolls up and down the length of the room. His clothes are as elegant as they were on Earth City, but in the new scene, it’s something more . . . commanding? Threatening? He inspects the girls one at a time, while Ben works his way down the line, injecting each of them in the arm with the same needle instrument that he used on Hallisy.

  I panic as Johnny approaches, but a girl with black, tightly curled hair takes his arm before he reaches me. Her skin is so dark that it reminds me of a cocoa bean. “Johnny, I haven’t seen Shara. My cousin. Do you know if she . . .” Her voice trails off as he shakes his head. She lets go of his arm, and her eyes begin to redden.

  What have I gotten myself into?

  Dizziness makes me reach for the girl next to me, but she throws me off with an elbow to the ribs. I stumble forward and end up on one knee before Johnny’s great height.

  He takes my arm and lifts me back to my feet. A smile touches the corner of his mouth. “Welcome to the Void, Rain.” His fingers skim my hair, and I can’t help but notice the looks from every other girl in the room. Jealousy and heat.

  Johnny spins on the spot to face Ben. “She needs a shower and some color. Get the others on their way.” He leaves and the girls burst into hushed whispers.

  “Some party, huh?” Lo chews on her thumbnail. “Never thought I’d be under a pimp again. Not after Bismark.” She rubs the jagged scar that runs around her neck like a perverse necklace and laughs shrilly.

  She’s in shock. I’m in shock. What is going on?

  Ben makes his way to me and slips my shirt off my shoulder without making eye contact. I was waiting for him to get down the line, but now I don’t know what to ask. The shot jars me back to the starship. To outer space. To being a prostitute.

  “What was that?” I rub my shoulder.

  “Birth control and a resistant antibody for STDs.” He moves on to Lo. “You’re all set.”

  All set?

  He tries to get a hold on Lo’s arm, but she slaps him away.

  “It’s all right. He isn’t going to hurt you,” I try.

  “But he’s a . . . he’s a . . .” I get a hold of Lo’s arm and hold it still for him. Ben injects her, and I wait for him to say thank you. Instead, he calls for the attention of the room.

  “Green tags to the Family Room. Blues to the passenger levels,” he orders. “And yellows to the crew deck. That’s it. Go on.” The girls stream toward the door in a rush. Those with blue-rimmed bracelets find others with the same color. And the greens converge with the other greens. The white-blonde girl next to me whimpers as she stares at a yellow-rimmed bracelet. I look down at my own wrist, happy to find no bracelet—no bizarre identifier.

  Lo is unbraceleted as well. “What do we do?”

  “We ask the Mec.” I touch my cheekbone where my face smacked the floor. It’s hot and tender, bruising most likely.

  “We don’t have bracelets,” Lo says in a mousy voice that I’ve never heard before.

  “You two need to be cleaned up.” He touches the arm of a green-braceleted girl with the longest, prettiest dark hair I’ve ever seen. “Kaya, take the new girls up to the Family Room and get them bathed and colored, will you? I’ll be by to tag them.”

  Kaya nods, but withdraws from Ben’s hand as though it burned her. She beckons us toward the door, and Lo grips my waist like she’s forgotten how to walk.

  We pause at the very end of the crowd of girls, waiting for our turn in the elevator. Kaya combs her fingers through her dark hair, staring at Lo. Her eyes are a stretched, almond shape that I’ve never seen before. “You’re much uglier than most. Johnny recruit you personally?”

  Lo picks at the pink streaks in her stringy hair. “Was just having a drink at the Blackstar, and this guy offers to get me off planet.” She looks at me. “I thought he was that same captain guy that chatted you up, so I thought, why not?” She touches her neck scar, her whole body shaky. “Couldn’t pass up the Void. Plus I wanted to be with you, Rainy. Then next thing, I’m waking up strapped to a wall like a freakin’ nutso.”

  I rub her back. “You think you’ve been abducted like the Touched?”

  She leans into me, fishing out the photo of her mom from her cleavage and rolling it between her palms. “Feels a bit that way, doesn’t it? Like no one will ever see us again?”

  I can’t help but agree.

  She stops fidgeting. “Where’s Walker, Rain?”

  “He’s safe.” I don’t like the way Kaya watches us while we talk. Me in particular . . . and mostly my hair. “He had an accident, but I’m going to get him help when we reach the Edge. He’s going to be all right.”

  Kaya laughs as the elevator opens. “You new girls,” she says. “You always have your heads up hope’s ass.”

  I yank Kaya’s hair so that her whole body jerks back, and she yelps. “That’s for calling Lo ugly,” I add, stepping past her and into the elevator.

  She’s ready to fight, but the doors close and a siren blares: SCHREECHEEENSCH! SCHREECHEEENSCH! SCHREECHEEENSCH!

  All three of us fall to our knees, covering our ears. The sound slices straight into my brain so that I can’t think or move.

  After a few moments, it cuts off, and we breathe into the now deafening silence.

  “Let me outta here!” Lo beats fists against the elevator doors.

  “No use,” Kaya says. “You see that red light?” She points to the ceiling. “We’re in lockdown.”

  “What the shit is lockdown?” I say, wiggling my finger in my ringing ear. “And what was that siren for?”

  “An alarm. Means something’s loose. We don’t go anywhere until it’s been collected.”

  “What’d ya mean by ‘something’?” Lo turns, her tiny features all bunched up. “Like some kind of space demon?�
��

  “You for real, girl?” Kaya snorts. “Something or someone set off the alarm. Imreas is a passenger ship, but there’s also things down in the storage areas. Questionable things. People bringing animals to sell on Entra. Or some other nonsense. Who knows.” She snorts again. “Alarms don’t usually get tripped this early in a run. Bet that Mec is sprinting around like a fool to fix it for Johnny.”

  “I didn’t think Mecs could be fools,” I say, both heated by the fact that she’d dismiss Ben and the hint that I care.

  “Yeah, well, most Mecs stay on the Edge where they belong. Only the idiot ones leave their paradise.” Something about her words is strange. Not to mention that her skin is a warm, toasted color that I’ve never seen before.

  “You’re not from Earth City, are you?” I ask.

  “Are you kidding?” She gets to her feet and swings her long hair behind her. “I was born on the Entra settlement, and I’ve been with Johnny since his early runs. Back before he owned this ship.” She rubs the green bracelet. “Takes a lot to keep in his favor, so don’t think you can pull anything over on me. No matter your stinking hair color.”

  I stand. “What is it with my hair?”

  “Johnny’s always wanted a true red.” She squints at my roots just as the warning light clicks off and the elevator begins to rise. “Can’t believe he finally found one.”

  Lo grips my hand, and I give her fingers a squeeze. Kaya leads us down hallways lined with glass ornaments and plush carpets to a large open room filled with couches and pillows and a variety of floor mats.

  “This is the Family Room,” she says. “This is where Johnny’s faves sleep when they’re not with clients.” Girls with green bracelet tags lounge around, and a half-dozen well-dressed men stand at one corner as though they’re about to take a survey.

  “Not bad,” Lo says, looking over the colored veils. They hang from the ceiling, creating secret-looking nooks around the room. “Better than I’m used to.” Lo leans in to whisper. “So this is where the green girls go? How do we get a green tag? And what happens to the other colors?”

  “I don’t know,” I whisper back. “But we need to find out.” Before we left Earth City, Ben had called me a “red tag,” but I don’t see any other red tags, and like hell do I want to be the only one.