Wild Card Run by Sara Stamey

Author:Sara Stamey [Stamey, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, cybers, rebel spy, game designer, prodigal daughter, wild card, space adventure, science fiction romance
ISBN: 9781611385601
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2015-11-10T08:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

THE DOOR SLID into its sheath in a silent burst of light. I glanced behind me at the dark cellar and stepped through into the cubicle. I could no longer hear the music or laughter outside, only the soft hum of the air treatment.

I stared at the winking amber and blue lights, and despite what I’d learned from the Founder loop, I was unable to think of the cybers as machines, as tools built in some unimaginable past by humans. They were alive, and they were waiting inside the heart of the console—their bright, colored eyes watching me.

I shook my head and hurriedly activated the interface.

“Good evening! May I—”

The soft soprano cut off abruptly as I inserted the wild card disc. The green indicator blinked into holding mode. I waited. Like last time, there was no further response. Again I glanced nervously behind me and took a deep breath.

“Maintenance module requests verbal test.”

There was no response. The green light kept silently winking, the blues and ambers shifting in their oblivious checks.

“This is a maintenance module test. Respond verbally.”

Still the lights ignored me. Fireblood and thorns! It would be just my luck if there was some interface malfunction. I wiped damp palms on my skirt, peered out at the cellar again, and paced back to stare at the smugly winking face of the console. I took hold of it and pulled, and it rolled smoothly away from the wall. The thick cable ran into the floor just as it had in our family cubicle, but there wasn’t much dust here.

Crouching, I pulled the chain from beneath my dress to detach my IDisc. The tiny emerald eyes of the snake winked in the same sly joke as the console’s lights. I stuffed the chain back down my bodice and pried with the disc. The latches loosened easily, and the panel came free.

I nearly dropped it. “Blazing—!”

A confused mass of wires tumbled out into the light. I sat back on my heels and stared blankly at the snakelike twinings of a heavy, brown wire that twisted around and through and between the components and the neatly wrapped and diverging strands of the original wiring. Leaning closer, I pulled aside a thick bundle and peered through at the maze of wire coiled sloppily, crammed anyhow into spaces between relays, woven crazily under and around the neat, tie-wrapped bundles and secured with large, worn clips of discolored metal. It was too messy to be anything but human, like a kid playing at grownup.

“Hey!” The voice was behind me.

Caught off balance, I fell back and sat to look up at David’s owl-like eyes. Each freckle seemed separately astonished.

“What do you think you’re—?”

“David! What are you—?”

We eyed each other uneasily.

David swallowed and stuck out his chin belligerently. “What are you doing, breaking into our console?” He edged awkwardly closer, holding his hands behind him.

I tipped my head toward the console. “Somebody’s been playing in the cyber’s house.”

The freckles melted into an angry flush. “Whaddya mean, playing? Hey, don’t touch that! You might—” He darted forward, and something fell with a thump to the floor.

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