Infraction by J.E. Purrazzi

Author:J.E. Purrazzi
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Three: The Water is Rising

Starke tugged the black lining of his ribbed tank top, squinting into the red-orange glow from the “sun set” overhead. Dubois was still in the office. Three times he’d tried the buzzer. Cowl had shown him how to tap the security system with a simple password. A “skeleton key” he called it. But one run-in with the law was enough. No pushing his luck today. No runs. No sales. No messing with the status quo until he could be sure that they hadn’t identified him.

The overseer had been worried about Dallard. He was a good guy. He seemed to genuinely care about the workers under his watch, even if he didn’t have time for most of the ailments that would keep a lesser man from their job. Bunker needed to be repaired, migraines, fevers, and sniffles be damned.

What if Dubois’ pod was being watched? Or if, somehow, the guards had gotten word about what Starke knew? But, no. If they knew, they would have arrested him already. They wouldn’t take that risk.

Would they?

And Dubois was overly friendly sometimes, sure, but he wasn’t an idiot. He wouldn’t have been spreading that kind of talk around.

Right?

Starke sucked in another deep breath, ignoring the ache in his chest where he had strained a muscle. It didn’t matter one way or another. He needed answers. Dubois was the best place to get those answers.

Word was already coming in on the underground. The Criminal element in the Farming Tier had been cleaned out and now they were on to the Industrial Tier. It wasn’t just big time dealers and revolutionaries they had grabbed. Everyone. Down to the guy on the street corner trying to exchange half-used joints for a couple extra credits. There were even a few guys who worked the same gig as Starke that had been nabbed.

Probably the only reason he wasn’t sitting in a jail cell, or rotting on the floor of the Pit, was because he lived in the Hub.

But none of this stuff had been worth the City’s time before. Petty crime was just part of society and as long as it kept people from grumbling they didn’t waste the resources to stop it.

There was only one reason they would have hit so hard. They were trying to corner someone. Hunting a rat. Closing off the exits so there wasn’t a way out of the maze.

Like there ever had been.

It was easy to think they were coming after him. Criminals were paranoid, right? He was a criminal. Hence, the shoe fit as well as his worn steel-toes.

And what exactly could he do about it? If he started to panic, he’d just put a target on his back.

Sighing, Starke tugged the arms of the coveralls tied around his waist a bit tighter. It was such an obnoxious color. Dirty as hell, too. No way he wasn’t calling everyone’s attention. Cameras included.

He let his hair fall around his shoulders, running his fingers over it to dislodge the spider webs and dirt that collected over the course of the day.

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