Welcome to Pacific City by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-24T23:00:00+00:00

Swimming time was thinking time, time to fume, to get her mind back in order. Halfway back to Seamount, she began treading water. Waking the armscreen, she zipped through a series of commands to switch its protocols. With luck, it would screw up her GPS signal on the police monitoring software. Doubtful, but worth a shot. If they really cared about following her, they would use something advanced enough to prevent her from tuning them out. But if all that shit was just to scare her—which was entirely possible, given the city police’s pettiness—they might have installed a simpler bot, instead of some secure but costly third-party software with a per-use fee. Police forces lived on tight budgets too.

Either way, she wasn’t about to go back to Seamount knowing she’d done nothing to stop over-inquisitive eyes.

She felt freer when she continued swimming, as if their virtual chain had been weighing her down. With less actual weight to pull, she reveled in the waves instead of simply swimming straight home, less out of playfulness than simple relief. When she stayed above the surface it was chill, but her skin and the water, warmer than the air, kept her plenty warm.

Then something bobbing in the ocean caught her eye. Off to the side—was it a sea lion? She swam closer… and saw a person clutching a board.

A ’stead survivor. Had to be.

And even after two days of heightened police activity, was it really any surprise to find one of the unwanted, the detested, dying out here? The city authorities surely had no intention of meeting survivors halfway, not given the way steaders were rumored to be treated when caught trespassing in their jurisdiction. Easier to sweep up any bodies that washed up on the beach than explain ones inconveniently showing up in custody.

She stopped, conscious again of the screen on her forearm. The weight of surveillance was back, dragging her toward Pacific City. As if someone right now was watching her movement, judging what she’d do. If it were only herself, she wouldn't have hesitated. But what might those city officials do to her neighbors on Seamount?

Save a stranger, or protect her adopted family?

Either choice cut into her conscience. She might have hesitated there for an hour, but the survivor began slipping from the board.

Becklyn kicked herself closer. It was a man, wearing the tattered remains of what she supposed was typical seasteader clothing—but his face wore the signs of some kind of modification, the eyes pulled upward in a strange way and the forehead oddly puckered, though what exactly it was or why, she couldn’t guess.

He was unconscious. Becklyn pulled him from the board and swam backwards, dragging him with her. His weight was as great as the police tracker’s had been, but made real.

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