The flier left within ten minutes of its scheduled time.
Kinji sat back on her seat and sipped on a drink bag. It was a cabernet, late vintage. Nothing remarkable, but interesting enough to go with the crisp wheat bread and vegetable dip she’d ordered preflight. It wasn’t, however, interesting enough to keep her mind away from Bexie Montgomery.
She requested an aspirin tab to squelch the headache that had been building for the past hour and tried unsuccessfully to avoid thinking about him.
He was a man with the soul of an artist, a man who took chances, a man who lived so much in the moment that he hadn’t given a second thought to trying to run away from the Central Inspector.
Incredible.
Witnessing that alone was worth the time it took to come to San Francisco.
Had he succeeded in getting away?
Had she been right to give him a link to the safety of a True Zone?
Would he use it well?
On the one hand, he’d been so firm about his belief in old-style capitalism, but on the other hand, he had a power about him — an aura that said he needed to be free to create in ways that others didn’t.
Artists helped artists.
That’s just how it was.
She hoped she hadn’t completely fucked everything up in one irrational moment of inspiration. Wouldn’t be the first time, of course, but you don’t mess with the Central Inspector’s Office if you could help it. This could be a big deal. If Bexie Montgomery screwed this up, he could screw it up for a lot of people, but that was the thing about True Space. The only way to grow it was to add people, but everyone who was added was another pressure point.
All Kinji knew for sure was that Bexie Montgomery was deeply interesting in a hundred different ways, not the least of which being his supple nineteen-year-old body, complete with a beautiful face, brown skin, and eyes as bright as a galaxy.
What was the rule of thumb in this kind of case?
Was Bexie Montgomery nineteen years old as his new body was, or was he a forty-something as his restored mind and experiences were? Or how about three hundred fifty, if you count from his actual birthdate?
Waker politics was going to get complicated.
The flier began to move, so to get her mind off the whole affair, she reached out her com node.
“Hey, girl,” she said as Tania’s essence flooded an area of her Think Space. “What are you doing?” An image of Tania bounced in a nook of her optic processing.
“Getting my run on.”
“You’re so ridiculous.”
“Gotta take care of the carbs, you know?”
“Yes,” Kinji said, staring down at her waistline. She was getting to that age where she would need to either get more active or take metabolism supplements. “I know what you mean.” Supplements kept the weight down, but exercise kept the muscles toned.
“I was beginning to think you were skipping out on me,” Tania said.
“I wouldn’t do that, and you know it.”
“I do not know that at all. You dumped me for that guy back when we were in Ethiopia.”
“Please. Just had a little delay.”
“You know I’m just joking, right, babe?”
Kinji settled back in her seat and sipped her wine. “It’s all right,” she said with a smile. “He was worth it.”
Her words gave her another flash of Bexie. She remembered the man’s fingers, the sound of his voice, and the shape of his shoulders. He smelled of coffee.
“Thhpth.”
“Can’t wait to get in.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just tired.”
“Well,” Tania said. “We’ll see what we can think of to get you revved back up.”
“Sounds good,” Kinji replied. “I’ll be in Acapulco in a half hour.”
“I’ll be there. Kisses!”
“Kisses.”
Kinji broke the line. It would be good to see Tania again. They hadn’t been together for over three months now, and just the idea of seeing her made Kinji’s entire body vibrate.
Yes, it would be good to see Tania again.
After the flier arrived and Kinji routed what little luggage she had to Tania’s place, she headed to Hubbell’s, a small club that was overcrowded and loud, but was one of Tania’s favorite haunts. The music hit her with a wall of heat. Electrified Punk-Tech. A set of classical instruments and synthesizers that had been mixed and matched to give it a discothèque vibe. Easy to dance to, even before you were amped.
She slipped into the crowd, ordered a jinked shooter, and, after a moment’s scan, found Tania on the dance floor.
She was silver blonde tonight, with purple and blue streaks fluorescing down her bangs and through the shock that fell over her shoulder. Tania was natural dancer, tall and graceful, even in this strange, free-form thing that was only half choreographed.
Yes, whatever you thought about Tania Brae — the woman could dance.
But Kinji didn’t come here to watch.
Kinji tossed back the drink and felt the alcohol burn to her belly. The amphetamine chaser she grabbed at the bar rode the wire faster, and she already felt her skin tingling.
She stepped into the crowd and made her way to Tania.
Yes, she needed this.
The music took her, and she danced, stepping closer and closer until finally she snapped her image into Tania’s Think Space and stepped into her dance space at the same time.
Tania gave a howl that satisfied every level of Kinji’s existence.
She wrapped her arms around Kinji’s shoulders, ground their bodies together, then slowly planted a long, gloriously wet kiss on her lips.
They joined, then, gathered in Think Space and danced.
Kinji would never be the physical artist Tania was, but she had fun, and she was fair enough.
Tonight, she danced release. She danced anger, and she danced all the questions she’d been pondering since she left the Central Inspector’s Office. Riffs poured through her veins in yellows and golds, colors that came when she wasn’t as certain as she had thought she was.
Red was her learning color, indigo blue her passion tone.
Greens were knowledge colors.
But yellows and golds were her questioning spectrum, which meant she wasn’t clear about things. And to avoid dancing yellow all night, she focused as much of her time on Tania as she could, which meant that she saw a steady stream of every shade of blue that existed.
It was a very nice color, a color that lasted late into the night and deep into the morning.
Tania was already awake, sitting at the counter of her kitchen nook when Kinji came to. Tania had gone to three-tone red hair today.
“Hey, sweetie,” Tania said.
“What time is it?”
“Well, you missed breakfast, but if you get your firm little behind up out of bed and get a shower, we could still make a late lunch.”
Kinji sighed, rolled to the edge of the bed, and ran a hand through her tangled hair. Her head swam, and she felt the ache of her thighs, calves, and stomach. She looked at Tania. “How do you look so good this early in the day?”
Tania gave a blazing smile and pointed at the tabs sitting on the nightstand. “Dental tabs, baby. With a lemon-water chaser,” she said. “The key to everything. Try one.”
“All right,” she said with a laugh, reaching the top off the bottle and draining the glass Tania put down.
The liquid felt wonderful.
The tabs did whiten teeth, but they were also a low-grade synthetic drug that pushed a slow dopamine bump, as well as a vasodilator that helped ease headaches.
She stood up and walked toward the shower.
Tania stepped into the room with her and sat on the privy while she prepared.
“So, you’ve got something to tell me,” Tania said.
“What do you mean?” Kinji stepped into the shower and punched up water at 30.5 degrees. The stream bit into her shoulders and flowed down her head. She moaned.
“Come now, love. You don’t honestly think you were covering well enough to fool me, did you? Something’s bothering you. It’s hanging over you like a wave.”
“You’re in my TS?”
Water splashed. She scrubbed herself.
Tania laughed. “Honey, I can read you like a palm. But it didn’t take sending a spy bot up your brain cord to tell something’s up. You were a butt-kicking woman on the floor last night, and if that wasn’t enough, I would say someone must be T-doping just based on your … uh … activities last night.”
“Sorry.” Kinji felt herself blushing in the shower.
“I am not complaining.”
“So, what is it that’s got you all tied up in knots, love?” Tania said. “Was it the Waker?”
Kinji bent to wash her legs.
“Yeah. I guess.”
“What was he like?”
“I don’t know. Not like anyone I’ve ever met.”
“Did you jump his three-hundred-year-old bones?”
“No.”
“I know you’re losing a step in your old age, but you really should be able to run down a three-hundred-year-old guy.”
“He’s in a clone that’s aged to nineteen.”
“Even better. For you, at least. I assume he’s still a man.”
“Yes, Tania, I’m sorry to report that Mr. Montgomery is a man.”
“Pity.”
Kinji used a moment to rinse her hair. “There are a few other things to this world than sex.”
“That’s true. But none of them matter.”
“Well, I’ll jump his three-hundred-year-old bones if I see him again. Good enough?”
“It’ll have to be, won’t it?”
Kinji used Tania’s shampoo.
Tania waited for her, like she always did.
“He’s just different,” Kinji finally said. “He talks about the old days with this off-the-wall passion. Money. Deals and … stuff.”
“Well, that makes sense.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“You’ve always been a sucker for something new, and in some weird-ass way this old fart is the newest thing on the block.”
“I don’t think it’s that.”
“What is it, then?”
“Well, maybe that’s a little of it. But Bexie’s something more that just the flavor of the day.”
“Bexie, is it now?”
“It’s his name, Tania.” Sometimes Tania’s single-minded approach to the world could be incredibly wearing.
She shut the water off and leaned into the dryer.
A moment later she was dry.
She stopped in her tracks when she saw Tania staring at her with a fixed expression somewhere between a grin and a grimace.
“What?”
“There’s something you’re not telling me.”
Kinji really did blush, then.
“What did you do, Kinji Hall? I know you didn’t get Mr. Montgomery’s rocks off, because you’d have held that over my head, and I know you didn’t just spend a pleasant day chatting. What did you do?”
Kinji knew better than to pretend that she didn’t understand. She walked to the bedroom and picked up a pair of her jeans, white with mint pinstripes.
Tania followed her.
“I let him in.”
“Oh, Kinji, doll baby. Are you that much of an idiot?”
“Maybe.”
Tania put both hands to her head. “This is going to be a long story, isn’t it?”
“Maybe.”
“Okay. Let’s go get something to eat and you can dump it on me.”
“Sounds good,” Kinji said.