Broken People by Ioana Visan

Author:Ioana Visan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: espionage, science fiction, genetic engineering, cyberpunk, heist, world war, circus, genes, prosthetics

30

Aurore forced her fingers to unclench the edge of the balcony. Had her fingernails been real, they would have been broken by now. The way it was, half-moon shapes had remained engraved in the fine layer of gold covering the polished wood. Gold didn’t scratch gold but, of course, her hands weren’t made of gold. They just looked like they were. She discreetly flexed her fingers, hoping her companions hadn’t noticed. The only other time her prosthetics had malfunctioned, it had happened during a cold winter when the entire city was without power for a week. Her technician had blamed it on the low temperature, though she had been sheltered in the house and hadn’t even caught a cold.

Keeping her back straight and her hands folded in her lap, Aurore urged her body to relax. Unfortunately, she had no control over what was going on inside her prosthetics. She felt no pain, but having lived with them for over a decade, she instinctively knew the circuits inside were overcharged, and she couldn’t figure out why. Her prosthetics didn’t make a habit out of moving without her willing them to do so. Yet, they had. The stumble while walking up the stairs had shocked her because she never stumbled. All her moves were perfectly calculated and executed. She didn’t have to think about them after her brain had sent the command.

Her mind scrambled to think of a reason for such behavior, terrified it could happen again. She paid no attention to the show. Colorful lights flashed in front of her eyes, and loud music assaulted her ears, but everything happened far away as, frozen in her seat, she waited for the next twitch to come. When the drums, sounding like cannons, announced the leap made by one of the gymnasts from on top of the human pyramid over the smaller tower in front, in did. Her left foot jumped, slamming down so hard, the heel of her shoe broke the floorboard underneath and remained stuck in it.

Dale’s arm rested heavily on the back of Aurore’s chair. “Calm. Down.”

“It’s because of the excitement,” she said in a weak voice.

“Sure it is.” Dale kept his eyes on the stage but didn’t remove his arm.

Aurore waited for another act to start before slowly rotating her ankle in an attempt to free her heel. Dale’s hand landed on her knee, steadying it. She was about to protest when Uncle Tem clapped his hands.

“Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!” he said, referring to the group of female contortionists performing on stage, all tangled up in a human jumble. “Don’t you agree?” His eyes strayed to the hand on her leg and widened. Still, the big grin didn’t leave his round face.

“They’re very …” Aurore paused, unable to find the right word.

“Gifted,” Dale said.

“Yes, gifted indeed.” She nodded, though her thoughts were not on the contortionists, no matter how skilled they were.

“Gifted. I like that!” Uncle Tem gave Dale a knowing smile and turned his attention back to the action on the stage.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.