Текст книги "Our Lady of the Ice"

Автор книги: Cassandra Clarke

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 29 страниц)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

ELIANA

Eliana paced around her apartment, drinking watery Hope City tea and smoking a cigarette. Three days had passed since Lady Luna—no, Marianella—had showed up at the office covered in ice, but Eliana hadn’t heard from her once. She’d checked the papers, looking for mentions of her and finding only stories about unrest on the mainland and food shortages in the domes.

Isn’t that your fucking job, Cabrera? Eliana had thought. Bringing us food? She’d tossed the newspaper aside.

Probably what had happened was Marianella got her house security sorted out, and she was holed up in one of those big airy rooms drinking coffee with cream and planning all the ways she could rip Cabrera limb from limb with her cyborg strength if he tried to kill her again. Of course she wasn’t answering her telephone. Eliana had called a couple of times, trying to check on her. Never any answer.

Eliana probably wouldn’t answer her phone either.

In addition to trying to get ahold of Marianella, Eliana had looked over the photograph of the andie. She’d even called up the train station to learn what times the trains went into the amusement park (not often, as it turned out—only three times a day, morning, noon, and night).

Three days, nearly two hundred dollars on the line. Nothing to show for it.

She could always suck it up, keep saving. Other jobs would come along—they always did. But she didn’t want to turn this job down, even though something about Mr. Gonzalez left her unsettled. It wasn’t just the way his eyes didn’t seem real. He swore he didn’t have anything to do with Cabrera, and she was willing to believe him. But there were other factions in the city, other dangers. Still, it was a lot of money, and if she could face down Cabrera—well, she was willing to risk it.

Eliana pulled out the photograph of Sofia and sat beside her window, balancing the picture on her knee. She smoked the last of her cigarette, cracked the window, tossed the butt out to the street below. Bad habit. She did it anyway.

Cold air trickled into the apartment, and Eliana looked down at the photograph, which continued to tell her nothing. She looked out her window, at the gray building across the street.

She had to do something. She couldn’t just sit on this until Mr. Gonzalez came back asking about it.

She was just going to have to go to the amusement park.

She tapped her fingers on the glass, considering. The thought of going into the park made her skin crawl. She’d grown up with stories about the amusement park all her life, and when you hear something all your life, it’s pretty hard to shake it. The robots there were feral, dangerous. You could only trust the maintenance drones put out by the city.

Eliana took a deep breath and checked the time. Ten forty-five. She could still make the noon train. So she changed into some of her nicer clothes and put on a little makeup and tucked the photograph into her purse.

Then she knelt beside her bed and pulled out the cheap little safe where she kept her revolver. She counted the bullets—all accounted for. She’d only ever shot the thing at a target. But this was the amusement park. And she’d heard too many stories.

At first Eliana put the gun in her purse, but then she thought about it for a moment and stuck it into the inside pocket of her jacket. It bumped against her waistline as she walked down the stairs and out onto the street.

She waited at the station for almost forty-five minutes, sitting on the bench with her hands folded in her lap as the usual city trains pulled into the station and then departed from the station on great clouds of steam. The humidity curled her hair, and the air smelled like metal and damp. Everyone ignored her.

And then, right as the bells of the church rang out noon, the amusement park train slid up against the platform.

It was rattling and run-down and painted with faded murals like the cruise ships. Peeling penguins and icebergs and starry nights. Eliana stood up. A crowd had gathered, but none of them looked at the train with any interest, and none of them climbed on board with her.

The car was empty. Eliana took a seat and gazed out the window at the station, her breath clouding the glass. She thought about a time as a child when she and a gang of kids from her school had trekked down to the amusement park wall one summer afternoon and dared each other to run up and touch the bricks. Eliana had gone first. She’d always been brave when she was younger. The bricks were cold to the touch, and her terror had transformed into a waterfall of hysterical giggles when she’d turned around and seen all her friends gaping at her.

“Approaching park entrance.” The announcer’s voice was cultured and soft, not at all like the voices on the city train. Eliana straightened up, her stomach tightening. The train sped into a tunnel, and for the first time Eliana realized how dim the car lights were, because everything turned murky and indistinct, as if she were underwater.

Eliana peered out the window, but all she could see in the darkened glass was her reflection. The train was slowing down. She gripped her purse and took a deep breath.

The train rumbled to a stop. The lights flickered twice and then stayed on, brighter than before.

The doors screeched open and Eliana stepped out onto the abandoned platform. She could see how it had once been part of an amusement park: the murals of Antarctic animals greeted her from the walls, and on the platform was a line of wrought-iron metal benches that stretched out into the shadows. But the murals were faded and the benches covered in dust, and for a moment Eliana considered turning around and walking back into the train.

She didn’t.

She followed the faded arrows to the exit sign. The wooden escalator was frozen in place, and she took the steps carefully, one hand pressed against the railing, the other dangling beside the bulge in her coat that contained her gun. A point of light glimmered up ahead—street level. The park.

When she stepped out into the floodlights, the air was cold and still. The buildings all threw off sparkles of white light. Eliana tucked her hand into her pocket and touched the cold metal of the gun.

She had no idea which direction to go in.

After standing stupidly for a moment, listening for the sounds of approaching robots and hearing nothing, she decided to follow the amusement park signs. They were strung up on candy-striped poles and painted with the same white glitter as everything else. They directed her to attractions—the Antarctic Mountain, the Haunted Ice Forest, the petting zoo, the Fairy-Tale Village. Eliana remembered the story about the decapitated head on the roller coaster and shivered. She decided to go to the Fairy-Tale Village. If anyone was living in this place, robot or human, it made sense that they would be in a village.

Sometimes you had to stalk a neighborhood and stay under cover of shadows, and sometimes you just had to walk in like you owned the place.

Eliana marched along the faded path, listening to the dull click of her footsteps. The stillness unnerved her. It reminded her of the funeral home where her parents had been cremated. That place was all frozen white marble, sculpted to look like drifts of ice. Just like here. Just like the amusement park.

The path curved. Eliana found herself in a forest of metal trees, their trunks and branches painted white. A handful of the trees were hung with glittering, brightly colored leaves, pinks and purples and blues and greens. Eliana stopped and tapped one of the leaves. It was made of glass and it swung back and forth, throwing off sunlight.

She wondered why all the trees didn’t have leaves. Probably they had, at one point.

The leaf stopped swinging, the dots of light settling in a pattern on her shoe. She thought about what this place must have looked like when the park was still open, all this color and light. It must have been beautiful.

And then she heard a noise.

Eliana froze. Her hand went to her gun and her head flushed with nightmares.

The noise was a soft, mechanical buzzing. A robot sound. Without thinking Eliana yanked the gun out of her coat and cocked it and waited, telling herself she was ready.

The buzzing faded away.

Eliana breathed hard. After a minute or two passed she dropped the gun to her side. The artificial forest no longer seemed beautiful but unnatural and eerie. Dangerous.

She forced herself to move on.

The path led to a metal gate overgrown with flowerless vines. She walked under the archway and into what must have been the Fairy-Tale Village. She was surrounded by gingerbread houses and faded metal statues of elves and gnomes and fairies.

The stillness felt like it could choke her.

She went up to one of the cottages and knocked. The door nudged open. Eliana gripped her gun tighter. “Hello!” she called out. “My name is Eliana Gomez, and I’m just looking to speak with someone.”

No answer.

Eliana crept in, her footsteps stirring up dust. The cottage was full of broken furniture and the glitter of shattered glass. And dust thick enough to make her sneeze. She thought she saw something small moving jerkily in the shadows, but when she moved in to investigate, she found nothing but smeared tracks in the dust, miniature footprints marching up to the wall.

Unsettled, she went back outside.

“Now what?” she said.

Her voice echoed. She checked two more of the cottages but found them as run-down and abandoned as the first. She followed the path to the edge of the Fairy-Tale Village, where she found a tangle of thorny plants that she thought might be roses, although there were no blossoms anywhere. She sat down on a nearby bench and lay her gun across her lap. Took a deep breath.

That buzzing began again. Closer.

Eliana leapt to her feet and spun around with the gun. But she didn’t see anything.

The buzzing stopped.

She rubbed at her forehead. Her adrenaline had her body drawn tight like a coil about to spring. She checked her watch, and her arm was shaking. She had over three hours before the next train would arrive in the amusement park. And she’d heard the city kept the front gate locked, so she couldn’t just walk back out onto the street. But maybe those rumors weren’t true.

She left the Fairy-Tale Village and walked until she found another signpost. This one pointed her to the Snow Village, concessions, the Ferris wheel, and the Ice Palace. She decided to try the Snow Village. The path twisted through snowdrifts carved out of painted cement. Eliana sweated beneath her coat and sweater. Not from heat—it was freezing here—but from a vague, unshakable sense of dread.

The Snow Village loomed up ahead. Behind it rose a huge white art deco structure Eliana could only assume was the Ice Palace. It seemed high enough to touch the top of the dome.

A speck of darkness slid down the Ice Palace’s side.

Eliana’s skin prickled. Nothing emerged from the Snow Village cottages. She slunk forward, cautious, holding her gun in front of her at an awkward angle. It occurred to her that if she was going to find someone—something—it would probably be in the Ice Palace. The speck of darkness was most likely a maintenance drone, and there might have been others with it, others that could lead her to an andie if she didn’t scare them off and if she could figure out how to ask.

But despite all that, she shivered at the thought of going to the palace, even with her gun. The cottages, she decided. The cottages would be safer.

She knocked on the door of the first cottage with her foot. No one answered, but the door nudged open a little, just like the door in the Fairy-Tale Village had done. She stepped inside. There was no dust and broken furniture here. The room sparkled with electronic parts, all set out on shelves and tables, lined up in neat rows like in a grocery store. Eliana fought the panic rising in her throat like bile; she fought the urge to run. Instead she slid forward, gun lifted, her finger on the trigger.

Footsteps sounded behind her.

Eliana screamed and whirled around. Her finger curled and there was a dazzling flash of light and a loud reverberating bang and a sharp burning pain in her ears. Her arms jerked back and slammed into her forehead. A man stepped forward and slapped the gun out of her hand, and it went clattering across the floor. Eliana stumbled backward, shaking. Half of the man’s face was missing, the skin blasted off and charred at the edges. Beneath it was dull burnished metal.

She screamed again.

The man picked up her gun and shoved it into the waistband of his pants, then grabbed her by the arm and yanked her up to standing. She tried to struggle against him, but his grip was too strong.

“Come along,” he said, in an even, pleasant voice.

A voice she recognized.

“Luciano?” she said, suddenly struck with a painful, piercing guilt.

He looked at her. With only half his face she could hardly see that it was him. “Yes. Hello, Miss Gomez.”

He led her out of the cottage and through the Snow Village. Eliana pulled against him, but he didn’t let her go, and her guilt was replaced with a trickle of fear.

“Please, Luciano—I’m sorry I shot you. I didn’t mean– I thought you were—”

“You thought I was some other robot,” he said, still in that even, pleasant voice. His grip tightened on her arm.

Eliana yanked against him. It didn’t work. Her vision blurred with tears, refracting the light from the floodlights and the glittering white paint. Luciano didn’t say anything more; he kept walking. Her arm felt like it was being pulled out of the socket as she stumbled after him, her fear now so palpable, it was a physical pain.

Maybe Marianella wasn’t her friend at all. Maybe there was a reason cyborgs were so distrusted. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybe Eliana was going to die.

Luciano took her to the Ice Palace, winding through fake glass glaciers covered in thick gray moss. When they came to the entrance, he pressed his hand against a sensor and the door swung open. Eliana choked back sobs.

“Where are you taking me!” she shrieked. “What are you going to do with me?”

He looked at her then, his eyes fierce and glittering and strangely human.

“I really didn’t mean to shoot you,” she whispered. “I didn’t—I just want to talk to someone about– Please. Lady Lu—Marianella is my friend.” Eliana could taste the lie on her tongue.

“Please be quiet.” Spoken in that same reasonable voice. “You’ll wait here.” He took her to a small, narrow room. A maintenance drone squatted on the floor, lights glowing red. Luciano let go of her arm. She curled herself up against the far corner, eyes damp, her arms wrapped around her chest.

Luciano knelt down beside the maintenance drone and moved his fingers over its spine, too fast for her to see. Then he stood up and looked at her.

“He’ll watch you,” he said. “Don’t try to leave.”

Eliana tried to push down her fear. “Wait!” she shouted. “I just need to speak to Sofia. Just let me do that. I don’t want to—”

“Wait here,” Luciano said, and then he left.

Eliana slumped down the wall, drawing her knees into her chest. The maintenance drone blinked its lights at her, and she thought about watching the dismantling after the blackout. It had been the same sort of robot as this one. She remembered how cold she’d felt afterward. She wondered if the robot would feel the same way, watching her die.

She waited in the room for almost forty minutes, shivering.

The door opened. Eliana yelped.

It was Luciano, his skin still missing.

“Come,” he said, holding out his hand.

“Are you going to kill me?”

“No, Miss Gomez. Come along.”

She didn’t move. He made a noise like a sigh and pulled her up by the arm again. They left the narrow room and threaded through the hallway. Luciano stared straight ahead, not speaking, not looking at her. It occurred to Eliana that perhaps he’d been reprogrammed after Marianella’s attempted murder. Cabrera, maybe? Did Cabrera have ties to the amusement park?

Panic set in again.

Luciano brought her into a room that looked like it had once been a dining hall. A long narrow table was pushed off to the side, and old-fashioned chairs lay in a jumbled pile in the corner. A broken chandelier hung at an angle from the ceiling. Everything was clean, though. No dust, no grime.

He led her through the dining hall, through a pair of swinging double doors, into a kitchen.

The kitchen was spotless. The white tile on the floor and walls gleamed. But it didn’t smell like a kitchen. It didn’t smell like food. It smelled like burning metal.

A woman stood behind one of the counters, her hands moving in a blur over a pile of computer parts. She looked up when Eliana and Luciano came in, but her hands didn’t stop moving.

“You shot my friend,” she said.

Eliana’s mouth dried up. The photograph Mr. Gonzalez had given her had been a good one.

This was Sofia.

Sofia smiled. Even in real life she looked like a movie star, tall and voluptuous, her hair falling in a wave over one shoulder. She was so beautiful, it was difficult to look at her.

Luciano led Eliana over to a rickety metal chair and sat her down. Then he sank into one of the corners, as if he were used to going unseen. It was exactly the way he’d been at Marianella’s party.

“Well?” Sofia said. “Do you have anything to say to that? About shooting poor Luciano?”

Eliana stared at the blur of Sofia’s hands. “I—I’m sorry?”

Sofia laughed. She slowed her hands to a normal speed. A human speed. The pile of metal, Eliana realized, was a maintenance robot.

“Is that better?” she said.

Eliana nodded.

“You’ve never seen anyone like me before, have you? Or like Luciano?” She pointed into his corner. “You’ve only seen the maintenance drones that run the city.”

Eliana started to nod, then stopped herself. “No, I’ve seen—I met Luciano before.” She took a deep breath. “At Lady Luna’s house. He knows me.”

Sofia frowned. It was as cold and insincere as her smile. She glanced at the corner where Luciano had tucked himself away.

“It’s true,” he said. “She recovered Marianella’s documents, and Marianella invited her to a party as a reward. She’s most likely trustworthy.”

“I see.” Sofia turned back to Eliana. “Is that why you’re here? To see Marianella? Has she missed a payment for your services?”

“Marianella’s here?” Eliana squawked. It seemed incongruous for Marianella to be at the park. Maybe Marianella felt more at home here. Or safer.

“Perhaps.” Sofia yanked a strand of wires out of the drone, although she still stared at Eliana. Sparks scattered across the counter. “Is that why you’re here?”

Eliana hesitated, then shook her head. “I mean, if I could see her, that would be great. I helped her out the other day, and I’ve been worried.”

Sofia stopped, her hand hovering a few centimeters above the jumble of metal and wires. “Oh,” she said. “So you’re the one.”

The way she said “the one” made Eliana’s blood turn to ice.

Sofia dropped her hands to her sides. The drone lay gutted in front of her. “Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Help Marianella.” Spoken with a slight condescending sneer. “Try to keep up with the conversation, sweetness.”

“I helped her because she asked for it.”

Sofia laughed. “Why didn’t you turn her in to the police? She’s illegal, you know.”

“Why don’t you?” Eliana snapped back.

Silence. Then Sofia turned to Luciano. “Go fetch Marianella, if she’s awake. I want her to verify if we can trust the girl.” She jerked her head at Eliana, and Eliana shivered.

“Of course.” Luciano peeled himself away from the wall and stepped through the swinging doors, leaving Eliana and Sofia alone.

They stared at each other.

“So why are you here?” Sofia asked.

Eliana stammered, trying to find her voice again. Although Luciano had frightened her earlier, she missed him now, as if he might do something to stop Sofia from hurting her.

“You said it wasn’t because of Marianella, and then you tried to pretend that it was.”

“I wasn’t trying to pretend!” Eliana said. “I really did want to know what happened to her. I was worried.”

Sofia’s face contained no expression. Somehow, this made her seem more human, not less.

“Then tell me,” she said.

Eliana took a deep breath. All around her the kitchen gleamed, metal on white tile. Such cleanliness could never belong to a human.

“A man hired me to investigate you.”

For a long time Sofia didn’t move, only stared at Eliana’s face. Eliana burned underneath her gaze. She wished Marianella would show up at the kitchen. Things would be easier then.

Right?

“What man?” Sofia asked. “What was his name?”

Eliana hesitated.

Sofia stepped out from behind the counter. She moved with liquid grace, hips swaying beneath her thin, flowered housedress. Her legs and arms and feet were all bare, and for a moment Eliana wondered if she was cold. But then she stopped very close to Eliana, close enough to hurt Eliana if she wanted.

“What,” Sofia said, and no soft burst of breath accompanied her question, “was his name?”

“Gonzalez!” Eliana blurted. “Juan Gonzalez. At least, that’s what he told me it was. I’m not sure it’s his actual name.”

Sofia stared at her. “Why did he hire you?”

“I’m not supposed to talk about clients.”

“You already told me his name.”

Eliana scowled. Sofia was still leaning in close, cold and intimidating. She smelled like old-fashioned face powder and syrupy perfume and nothing else. Eliana tried to push back against the chair, but Sofia clamped her hand down on Eliana’s wrist. Eliana shrieked.

“Tell me what you know,” Sofia said in a quiet voice.

“If you hurt me, Marianella’s going to be angry.” Eliana jutted out her chin and tried to believe her own words.

But Sofia lifted her hand from Eliana’s arm. Eliana grabbed it to her chest and rubbed at her sore wrist.

“Thank you,” Eliana said.

The doors swung open, slapping against the wall. Eliana jumped in her seat and twisted at the waist to get a better view. Marianella and Luciano walked in side by side.

“Eliana!” Marianella cried. “What are you doing here?”

“Spying on me,” Sofia answered.

Marianella knelt beside Eliana’s chair and peered up at her. “Are you all right? You look so pale. Here, let me get you a drink of water.”

“I’m fine,” Eliana said. “Just a little creeped out, is all.”

Marianella smiled and walked over to the sink. She filled a plastic cup with tap water and brought it back to Eliana. “Here you go. Still a few remnants of a kitchen left in here. We’re part of the city, technically, so the water keeps flowing.”

“You really are friends,” Sofia said in a flat voice.

“I told you, she helped me after Ignacio tried to—you know.” Marianella glanced at Sofia with a strangely gentle expression. Eliana didn’t know what to make of it. “Why are you threatening her?”

“She was spying on me.”

“I wasn’t spying,” Eliana snapped. “I just wanted to talk to you.”

“About what?”

Eliana stopped. “I was just—going to ask you some questions, about what you do, and—”

“And you think I’d answer them?” Sofia loomed over her, hands on her hips. Eliana shrank back, the water sloshing in her cup.

“Sofia, please,” said Marianella.

“Well, that’s what I was hoping—”

“Did Juan Gonzalez tell you to ask them?”

“Not exactly—”

“Who’s Juan Gonzalez?” asked Marianella.

Eliana dropped her head back. With Marianella here, she no longer thought she was going to die, but it was growing apparent that she was the worst private investigator in all of Hope City.

“Her client,” Sofia said. “Supposedly he sent her here to spy on me.” When she said “spy,” she kicked at Eliana’s chair. Eliana gasped and spilled water on herself as the chair jerked backward.

“Sofia.” Marianella grabbed Sofia’s arm and yanked her back. “She’s only doing her job.”

Sofia fixed Marianella with a dark, inhuman look, but it didn’t seem to bother Marianella at all.

“Her job?” Sofia said. “Her job?” She turned back to Eliana. “This man, does he work for Ignacio Cabrera?”

“No,” Eliana said quickly.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure.” Eliana sighed. “Look, this is all shot to hell anyway, so—I don’t know anything about the guy. He’s paying me twice my usual fee, plus a fifty-dollar retainer. When I asked if this was related to Cabrera in any way, he said no.”

“Did you ask him that because of me?” Marianella said. She looked concerned.

Eliana shook her head. “Not really. It’s more ’cause my boyfriend—” Her chest tightened. “Look, it doesn’t matter, okay? He said no. I don’t think he was lying. Other than that, I know nothing about him. He just wanted me to tell him anything I could find out about her.” And she pointed at Sofia.

“Tell him I’m a robot,” Sofia snapped.

“He already knows.”

Sofia glared.

Marianella stepped between them. She pressed one hand against Sofia’s shoulder. “I’ll talk with her,” she said. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“He’s either lying about Cabrera,” Sofia said, “or he’s from the city.”

“I know he works for the city,” Eliana said quickly. “He was up front about that.” She meant this as a reassurance, but it just made Sofia’s face flash with anger.

“You said you knew nothing about him.”

“Other than that, I don’t. But him being a city man isn’t a danger.” She looked over at Marianella. “Right? As long as it’s not Cabrera—”

“The city is dangerous for the park,” Marianella said softly. “As dangerous as Ignacio is for me.”

Sofia fixed Eliana with a cold stare. “Yes,” she said. “Exactly. So don’t you dare tell him what happened here.”

“Sofia, I said I would take care of it. Come on, Eliana. We can talk outside.”

For a moment Eliana wasn’t sure she’d be able to move out of Sofia’s line of sight. But then Sofia looked away, and Eliana stood up, her legs shaky. Marianella smiled at her and linked her arm in Eliana’s and led her past Luciano and out of the kitchen.

“I shouldn’t have told her all that stuff,” Eliana said.

“I assumed as much. But you mustn’t let it get to you. Sofia’s very persuasive when she wants to be.”

Their feet echoed in the empty halls of the palace until they stepped through the main doors, out into the cold white light of the dome.

“If you tell that man about Sofia,” Marianella said, “it could be dangerous for her.”

“Dangerous how?” Eliana pulled away and crossed her arms over her chest, shivering. It really was colder here.

But the cold didn’t seem to bother Marianella. “I shouldn’t say. It’s not my place.” She looked over at Eliana. “He was looking for Sofia in particular, right? He didn’t ask about me?”

“He didn’t say a word about you.”

Marianella sighed. “He probably isn’t from Ignacio, then. Ignacio wouldn’t have any interest in Sofia. Only me. Ignacio should still think I’m dead. I haven’t—dealt with him yet.” She gave a weak, sad smile. “But if you give information to that man, and he does have ties to Ignacio—my life could be in danger.”

Eliana stared at her. The cold crawled over her skin. She wanted out of the amusement park. Being here was like being surrounded by the dead. She wanted to be back in her apartment in the smokestack district, in the months before Last Night, when she didn’t have uncomfortable suspicions about Diego doing violence for the man who’d raised him, when Marianella was just a woman on television, when Sofia didn’t even exist.

“He said he’s from the city,” Eliana said. “And given what I’ve seen of him, he looks like a city man. It doesn’t seem like something worth lying over, anyway.”

Marianella frowned. She didn’t look as put-together as she usually did. Her hair hung loose, her clothes were wrinkled. But she was still beautiful, and her unhappiness only magnified that. “If he’s from the city,” she said, “that would make sense, actually.”

“Why?”

Marianella looked to some point in the distance, toward the overgrown gardens. “Do you know where the maintenance drones come from?” she said.

“The city builds them? Marianella, look, I’m sorry, but I don’t see what that has to do with—”

“Yes.” A stillness settled over Marianella that made her seem less human. “The city builds them. Do you know where the parts come from?”

Dread crept into Eliana’s stomach. She didn’t know where this was going, and that made her nervous. “The mainland?”

Marianella shook her head.

“Then where—”

“From here.” Marianella gestured with one hand. “From the amusement park. From the robots who live in the amusement park.”

Eliana fell silent.

“I’m not sure why they didn’t dismantle them all at once—too big of an undertaking, I suppose. They’ve been coming here for years, although they don’t come around so much anymore. Partly because there aren’t as many robots to cull from, but partly because Sofia learned how to stop them. The androids in particular—they were the first of the robots here to gain intelligence, and they were being mutilated and destroyed so the city could make more drones. So she hid them away, where they can’t be destroyed further. She plans on repairing them someday, when it’s safe.” Marianella smiled again. Wistful. “And that makes the city very unhappy with her.”

Eliana didn’t know what to say. The robots had gained intelligence? Luciano and Sofia weren’t meant to be that way?

“If the man’s from the city, it’s just as dangerous as if he’s from Cabrera,” Marianella continued. “For Sofia and for me. The city will want to know why I’m living down here. It will arouse suspicion.” She grabbed Eliana’s hands. Her palms were warm. Human. “Please, Eliana. Feed him false information if you like, but nothing that could bring them here. Will you promise me that?”

Marianella’s eyes were bright and imploring. Eliana couldn’t say no.

*  *  *  *

Eliana trudged up the stairs to her apartment, the cold air lingering on her skin. Marianella had put her on a train back into the city, and she was vibrating from leftover adrenaline. She’d have to write up a bit of false information to feed to Mr. Gonzalez—she’d gone down to the park but hadn’t seen anything except old steam-style maintenance drones. That should be safe enough, and she’d at least get her doubled daily fees.

Eliana had the vague idea that she could string Mr. Gonzalez along for a few weeks. Could be more lucrative than just giving him the information in one go. But it was also the sort of thing she would have done last summer for kicks. Now she understood just how dangerous that was. For herself, for her goals.