Emily Eternal by M. G. Wheaton

Author:M. G. Wheaton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2019-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

XXII

A second later, I’m shaking my head at Mayra while giving her wrist a triple squeeze. Our signal. She immediately goes docile, a chastised child wanting her punishment to be over.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t help you,” I say through Saitta’s mouth, stern now.

“It’s okay,” Mayra mutters, seemingly confused.

“Can we call you a taxi or something?” I continue, even as I search Saitta’s mind. His first name is Timothy. The other guard is the musically named Cory DeJoria. “Do you have somewhere you can go?”

“Of course,” Mayra says, as if in a trance, indicating the neighborhoods north of campus. “I’ll go home.”

“This way, ma’am,” I say, trying my best to sound as if Saitta’s nearing the end of his patience.

We’re out of earshot of the other guards, but we’re not taking any chances. I’m still holding her arm as we near the Massachusetts gate, the very one Nathan’s killers came through. The gate and guardhouse I’d seen bullet-riddled are back to their original condition. As if nothing happened.

I nod to my fellow guards, indicate Mayra with a shrug, and point to the sidewalk.

“Be safe,” I say.

I give her arm a gentle squeeze but then she heads away. She doesn’t look back even once.

Her placement of the interface chip was perfect. It’s on my—well, Saitta’s—neck below his shirt collar. I adjust it, careful not to break the connection, then head back to my post.

Cory waits for me, lighting a cigarette. “Surprised you were so gentle with her,” he says. “She was crazy as hell. If she’d touched my face, I would’ve shot her then and there.”

I search Saitta’s memory. He thinks of Cory as an odd duck, someone who doesn’t believe all the hype about the coming apocalypse, believing instead it’s a hoax perpetuated by the president to accumulate wide-ranging powers. He’s told Saitta he plans to take the money he makes to Antigua in a few months to live like a king.

Saitta, on the other hand, does believe the hype, but he also believes the government has a plan they’ll soon unveil, likely one to do with large underground cities. I remember this really was a scheme they’d proposed on one of the many pie-in-the-sky lists sent in by lower-level federal employees, moving folks into temporary housing in subway lines and the like with New York City being the test case. But as soon as they brought it to us, we pointed out the NYC tunnels must be constantly pumped free of seawater, something impossible to do once the geomagnetic storms begin to wipe out power. The plan was shelved.

He seems like a good guy, this Timothy Saitta. Good grades in high school, went to work at an office supply warehouse, got a girlfriend, lost a girlfriend, got that girlfriend back. Took the job as a security guard to save money for a car so he can visit said girlfriend more, as she lives three counties over. Hmm. I’ll try not to get him killed.

“She reminded me of my grandma,” I say.

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