Ones and Zeroes by Dan Wells

Author:Dan Wells
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-12-15T16:00:00+00:00

SEVENTEEN

“We need to hurry,” said Bao, pulling Marisa to her feet. “The motorcycle’s over here.”

Everyone okay? sent Jaya.

We landed safely, sent Marisa. Alain got caught.

“Where’s Renata?” asked Sahara. “We can’t all fit on one bike.”

“I still can’t find her,” said Bao.

I’m so jealous of you guys, sent Fang. Seventy-five stories? You’re my new heroes.

Not now, Fang, sent Marisa. Hey, Renata, you around?

“This way,” said Bao, and led them down an alley toward the waiting motorcycle. It was big, but it wouldn’t hold all six of them.

Marisa sent a message to Alain, hoping his connection was still strong enough to receive messages. Where are you? Did they catch you? She was still processing the last few minutes—he had thrown her off a skyscraper—but she’d deal with that later. And kick him in the junk while she was at it. For now, all she wanted was to make sure he was safe.

“I’m calling an autocab,” said Anja.

“They’ll track it,” said Bao.

“They already know who we are,” said Anja. “It’s not like we used fake names at the gala.”

“We can’t even go home, then,” said Jin. She looked even worse than Marisa felt.

Alain hadn’t written her back yet. “I can’t get a message through to Alain,” Marisa said. “His djinni was crippled as it was—maybe that TED killed it?”

“He didn’t come down on a nuli?” asked Sahara.

“They shot it,” said Marisa. “He . . . insisted that I take the last one.”

“Then they got him,” said Bao.

“Cab’s here,” said Anja. “Come on—our only hope is to make it to my father’s house: they won’t dare touch us there.” They followed her down the alley to another street, where an autocab was waiting. “Sigan might mess with us, but they’re not gonna mess with the CFO of Abendroth.”

Marisa sent another message to Alain, asking if he’d been caught, and then wrote another note to Renata: Are you here? Did they get you too?

“Where do you think Renata is?” asked Bao, helping Jun into the cab.

“She’s not responding to anything,” said Marisa. “She hasn’t been all night.”

“You think they set us up?” asked Bao.

Marisa frowned. “What do you mean?”

“The entire job went south,” said Bao, “and suddenly we can’t find either of them. This could have been a setup from the beginning.”

“We got away, and Alain didn’t,” said Anja. “It’s as simple as that. I can’t see how any of this would benefit them, or Sigan.”

“Maybe they weren’t working with Sigan,” said Bao. “Maybe they were playing both us and Sigan against each other, to get something they wanted.”

“If he wasn’t working with Sigan, then he’s a prisoner right now,” said Marisa. “I’m telling you, they’re on our side.”

Either way, you have to go, sent Jaya. However this shakes out, it’s not going to matter now.

“Fine,” said Marisa, but gave one last, long look at the street around them before climbing into the cab.

“I think I know how to get Sigan off our backs,” said Sahara, settling onto the bench. She held up the two

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