CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Paradise

The longer I rode the hoverbus to high-rise 3217 G, the sketchier the people became. Some of them had clothes resembling ripped T-shirts and jeans from my generation. I sat next to one woman with more holes than jeans. Were her clothes from my generation? Maybe the new styles just didn’t permeate the lower class.

My outfit began to stick out, the exact opposite of what I’d wanted. At the bottom of my pile of hand-me-down clothes, there was a black tunic with a hood and matching black boots that came up to my knees. Len said clothes like those were only worn on formal or solemn occasions, like funerals. So, I had snuck out of the apartment and wore it to the meeting. I wanted to look like I was serious about this, not some rich high-school playgirl doing it for a thrill. But now, all it did was scream rob this rich girl.

We traveled farther from the center of the city and closer to this massive cement wall that reminded me of the Great Wall of China. I had no idea what the wall did, because more high-rises were beyond it. Did buildings cover every square inch of the world?

When my stop came, I pulled the hood around my head and signaled the driver. It wasn’t a preprogrammed stop on the route. Hopefully he’d honor my request.

The hoverbus stopped, and I stepped onto the platform.

The driver cast me a questioning stare before he left, like I’d gotten off by mistake. I waved him off, pretending to know what I was doing by digging in my backpack. The hoverbus sped away, and I felt abandoned even though I’d chosen this for myself. What was I doing here? Why couldn’t I just accept my new life?

Because I’d be living a lie. I’d be ignoring my dreams, and I’d end up just like Martha, an old lady with a replicated cat. Cracking my knuckles, I entered the building.

The temperature in the hall seemed colder than outside. There were no lights, so I opened my miniscreen and used the white background of a new document to light my way. I had two or three hours of battery left. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need the light for that long. The air had a wet, mildewy smell, like old dish towels left in the sink for too long. I wrapped my arms around myself and looked for an elevator. Old soybean wafer wrappers, broken glass, and tattered plastic bags lined the hallway. I kicked my way through. How could anyone live like this?

Did anyone live here? I listened for voices, but the walls were as silent as a graveyard. That made me think about conveyor belts carrying bodies into recycling plants, and I shivered and cursed myself for thinking such scary thoughts in such a creepy place.

I reached an elevator and slapped the panel, but nothing happened. The buttons were all blank. Great. I’d have to take the stairs all the way down to level twenty-four. Checking the time, I only had twenty minutes. This didn’t seem like the type of thing you could wander in late to.

I found the emergency stairs and booked it, leaping two steps at a time. Debris on the stairs slowed me down, but I kicked it away and kept going, making excellent time. I watched the painted numbers descend from seventy-three down to forty-two.

Only twenty more to go.

Working up a sweat, I jumped onto the next landing, right in the middle of something squishy.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going,”

I scrambled back, covering my mouth with my hand to prevent a scream. My miniscreen bounced on the floor, illuminating the old woman’s face in fluorescent light from her hairy chin up. She crawled out from under a pile of sleeping bags, a woven ring of plastic bags on her wispy-haired head.

“I’m sorry, ma’am.” I wanted to keep going, but she blocked the way. Should I mention the meeting? Does she need a code word, too? By the look of her tattered clothes and toothless mouth, I didn’t think so.

She gave me a suspicious glare. “What are you doing down here?”

“I…I’m going to meet someone.”

She snorted. “Not here you ain’t. This building is condemned.”

I felt like the walls would fall in around me, crushing me to death on the spot. “Condemned? How?”

“Mold infestation. They kicked everyone out. Said I couldn’t live here no more. This place is all I got, you see.” She paced back and forth, swinging her finger through the air, making me nervous. “I’m not gonna start over, work my way up from level one all over again.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry ain’t gonna cut it.” She shot me a nasty pout, her whole bottom jaw extending way past where it should. “I hid here in the stairwell. I was doing fine until you came along.”

“I won’t tell anyone.” I put up my hands to show my innocence. “I’m just passing by.”

Meanwhile, seconds ticked by on my miniscreen. I had to get going. I dug in my pockets and brought out a soywafer. She looked like she hadn’t eaten in days. “Here, you take this. I have a bunch at home.”

The old woman snatched it up, tore it open, and shoved the end in her mouth. I bent down slowly and retrieved my miniscreen. “If anyone asks, I didn’t see anyone up here. I swear.”

I slowly stepped around her as she sucked on the soywafer. With no teeth, it would take her a while to eat the whole bar. Enough time for me to get away. “You just keep going on living up here, okay?”

She didn’t answer, so I shuffled down the next flight. I listened over my shoulder, but no footsteps sounded, so I increased my pace, practically jumping each flight at once.

Ten more levels to go.

My whole body shook from the strange encounter, and my knees weakened until I worried they’d give out. Come on, Jenny; you’ve made it this far. You’re sure as hell not going back up there.

What if no one was on level twenty-four? My skin crawled with the thought of climbing all the way down here to an abandoned room.

No. Martha would never send me to these people if they weren’t for real.

How well did I really know the old woman, anyway? I’d only met her twice, but it was a bond that had to be trusted. She’d gone through everything I had times ten. If Martha said to contact these Timesurfers, then they were here.

By the time I’d convinced myself to keep going, I reached level twenty-four. I pushed in the door and a waft of dusty air came out. Slipping inside, I glanced down the corridor. A shadowy figure of a man stood at the end. My heart beat a thousand times in that one minute.

“Are you alone?” His voice sounded grizzly, like he’d smoked cigarettes his whole life.

Besides the old crazy homeless woman? I cleared my throat and my voice quivered. “Yes.”

“Good.” He stepped forward and I took a step back, ready to make a run for it. At that point I didn’t care if I ran into ten homeless crazies on the way back up.

“Code word?”

I paused. That wasn’t something an axe murderer would ask. Then I remembered my conversation with the blue-haired man. “Paradise.” My voice croaked.

He opened a door and waved his hand inside. “Welcome to the Timesurfers.”