Undercity by Asaro Catherine

Author:Asaro, Catherine [Asaro, Catherine]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Space Opera, Action & Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781476736921
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2014-12-02T08:00:00+00:00

XV

Dust Gangers

Displays throughout the Imperialate often showed images of Cries. It was good public relations: look at our beautiful, futuristic city. The wide streets were for pedestrians only. Designed in red tiles streaked with blue, they used stone that existed only in the Vanished Sea. The towers of Cries rose like obelisks honoring the architectural achievements of the human race. The few hover cars that flew above the city made clean arcs in the air, gleaming with wealth. Of course they never ran into each other, not in Cries, where nothing was ever out of place. You never saw wild kids out on joy rides, shrieking with laughter while they hung out the windows and dropped trinkets on annoyed pedestrians. The transit authority would say it was because you couldn’t drive in the city until your twenty-fifth birthday. I would say it was because the kids with the guts to defy the rigid structure of life here were too busy dying in the dark under the glitzy city. Screw Cries.

Stop it, I told myself. Jak was right, we couldn’t expect the above-city to solve our problems. The rare time Cries offered help, they wanted to “fix” the undercity by making us like them. We had failed the mother who died in childbirth and we needed to fix that cause of that failure ourselves.

Although the undercity had no formal legal structures, we had plenty of unwritten laws. Adults like Gourd, who took responsibility for providing clean water, looked after all the children. Although few jobs existed, our population was sparse enough for most adults to find work. We learned trades undercity style, like the cyber-riders who exchanged their wizardry for whatever they desired. Some grew up to be crime bosses, like Jak, Scorch, and Dig. Charming company I kept.

Even so. Jak was no Scorch; he treated his people well and paid good wages. Who knew what his employees were doing now, though, with his casino hidden so well that even I had no idea where he stashed the place. Given that I was currently working for the military, the less Jak told me, the better. I couldn’t reveal what I didn’t know.

Cries, however, wasn’t the poster child of the Imperialate propaganda machine. Its beauty was too stark. When it came to glossy testimonials to the human race, most broadcasters showed images of Selei City on Parthonia. Hell, even I liked living there. It was peaceful to my ravaged mind, which in that idyllic place could repress anything I wanted to forget. But it wasn’t home. I had to acknowledge the truth. I couldn’t run from Raylicon forever.

Today, I sat on a stone bench by a spacious boulevard in Cries. The sun beat down on the city and the desert beyond, which was visible in the distance between two widely spaced towers. Farther down the avenue, a couple strolled together. They were the only ones out during the midday sleep. I didn’t feel like resting, though, so I commed the one person guaranteed to keep me awake.

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