44 – Epilogue

  Tony sat in the back of the van, his mind alternating between exhaustion and anger. He knew the anger was irrational—mostly—but that didn’t make it any easier to dismiss. Still, he fought against it, biting his tongue and sitting in silence rather than risk allowing his emotions to exit his mouth. Every inch of him hurt; his Dust was drained, so his nanites were struggling just to do the basics—forget about enhanced tissue repair. He figured he should count himself lucky; the exhaustion and pain distracted him—made it easier to swallow the pill the others had stuffed down his throat: Jen and Eric were dead.

  Everyone was quiet for a while as Glitch guided the van toward The Meridian Arms; they were going to stay at the hotel for a while. Why shouldn’t they? Tony’s ghosts were gone. Nobody was left to hunt him in District One.

  Addie was beside him, and Beef was sitting in the passenger seat. Had they planned it that way—Addie in the back to pull him into the van, Addie to break the news to him? Were they worried he’d have lashed out if it had been Beef? All things considered, it had probably been wise. Tony wanted to hit something.

  When they cleared the shadows of the megatowers, he couldn’t hold it in any longer, and he softly growled, “The whole point—” He choked the words off, fighting to push the anger back down into its hole.

  Addie leaned into his side. “What, Tony?”

  “If I wanted to ice them, I could have lain in wait with a sniper rifle. I could have bombed the fucking building. The whole point of me eating their bait was so we could take them alive.”

  Beef turned, folding his thick arms over his chest. His eyes were blood-red orbs, his face—despite attempts by Glitch to clean it—a red-streaked horror show. “It just didn’t work out that way, T.”

  “Just didn’t work out?”

  “Nah, man. Look at me. We’re lucky neither of us bit it. At least you can rest easy I confirmed they’re fuckin’ dead. I yanked their chips; I doused the building in BEEB on the way out. What we did is way cleaner than a terrorist act, and you know damn well a sniper wouldn’t have killed either of them—not permanently.”

  Tony frowned. Was he right? Eric definitely had skull plates and bio backups. He had nanites on par with Tony’s. They might not be able to repair a brain hit by a high-caliber round, but they could keep him alive long enough for a trauma center to effect repairs. Jen’s gear was a mystery to him, but he knew she’d have the best. He narrowed his eyes at Beef. “You made sure?”

  “Yeah. Without a doubt.” Beef patted the enormous peacemaker on his thigh. If he did enough physical damage, pulled their PAIs, and threw BEEB all over the scene, Tony figured he was probably right: Jen and Eric were done for. Even so, it rankled. He’d wanted to be the one to pull their switches. He’d wanted to look into their eyes and watch them come to grips with their many errors and succumb to despair.

  “Tony…” Addie started to say something, but trailed off, the words failing her.

  Beef proved he was more insightful than he let on once again by saying, “T, they knew they’d fucked up. They knew we were there for you. They were losing their shit about what was going on at the Tower with you when we came in on them. In the end, they were at each other’s throats.”

  Something about the image Beef painted—Jen and Eric turning on each other—calmed some of the hot anger stirring in Tony’s chest. At least that was better than a quick, anonymous death. A sniper couldn’t have delivered that, nor could a bomb. He’d danced their dance, and they’d gone down knowing he’d won. The thought, dark as it was, comforted him, and he exhaled some of his stress and frustration, leaning back in the jump seat.

  “Smokey’s dealing with the mess at the tower,” Glitch announced. “Drenched both floors in fire foam and now some synths are cleaning the mess. We wiped the security record of your coming and going, too. There won’t be a trail for anyone to follow up on. In the end, it’ll look like some of Jen’s personal goons got into a fight with each other.”

  Addie grabbed Tony’s hand and squeezed it. She didn’t say anything, but the message was clear: they were alive and it was over. She’d been quiet, and Tony knew there was more to her side of the story. The idea that she was holding back because of his initial angry outburst sobered him the rest of the way, and he shifted his arm over her shoulders, pulling her close. “Thank you,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head.

  She snuggled closer to him and sniffed, but didn’t say anything.

  “I think I’m gonna need new eyes,” Beef groaned. “Everything’s still colorless and blurry as hell.”

  “I’ve got a connection to a good doc,” Tony said.

  Maybe to take his mind off his suffering, Beef asked, “What’s in the bag, T?” He peered with his bleary, blood-red eyes into the back of the van.

  “Some gear I took from the mercs who tried to kill me. Some of it was mine, once upon a time. But a bunch of it’s new to me—to us.”

  “Yeah? Good stuff?”

  Tony nodded, nudging the heavy bag with his foot. “Few million bits’ worth, I’d say. Got my old plasma forge and reactor, though the reactor took some heavy damage. Not sure it’s salvageable.” He shrugged. “Anyway, there’s some losttech armor in there, and a few high-end guns, too. I’ll show you guys at the hotel.”

  “So,” Glitch asked, turning in her seat, “what’s next? I mean, we’re geared up as hell now. We moving to ’Hattan?”

  Beef snorted. “Hell, I’m good with a vacation, but I dunno about all that…”

  Addie spoke, her voice muted by Tony’s coat. “I won’t leave my dad, and I don’t know if he’d be interested in a move like that.” She gripped Tony’s arm, pulling it tighter around her shoulders. “Still, we can travel more. We can do bigger jobs. Are we sure that’s what we all want?”

  Tony squeezed her and stretched his legs out, putting one foot up on Glitch’s immersion rig. “Let’s enjoy some time off. Nothing has to be decided right now, so let’s unwind, get healed up, and then consider our options when we’re all feeling a lot more clear-headed. I mean, maybe I’m just speaking for myself, but my head’s anything but clear right now.”

  “No,” Addie replied, “you’re right. I have a lot to think about. We have a lot to talk about.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Yeah,” Tony murmured, closing his eyes, finally coming to grips with the idea that things were done; the specter that had loomed over him for so long was gone. It was hard to believe to the point that he still felt some paranoid doubt lingering, but the tension was lessening minute by minute. Everything felt dream-like; in truth, he wondered if he was dreaming or if maybe he’d had his ticket punched, and he was in some kind of damn coma.

  He’d given himself about a fifty-fifty shot of coming out of Cross Tower alive, but he’d never believed he’d walk away from Jen and Eric with his soul intact. He felt like he’d cheated somehow, but the truth was he hadn’t—his friends had done it for him.

  ###

  Addie stretched out on the big mattress, luxuriating in the silken softness of the sheets and thick, warm comforter. “I’ve never in my entire life slept so soundly. Tony, I don’t care where we end up, but we have to get a mattress like this.”

  Some movement drew her gaze to the windows, where she saw him looking out at the gloomy, cloud-filled morning skyline. He turned to look at her—a shadowy silhouette against the window’s light. He was shaped like his nickname, a T—broad shoulders, lean body. His posture was comforting or threatening, depending on who you were to him. “Yeah, honestly, this place beats some of the more expensive hotels I’ve stayed in. I’m glad things worked out and you could see it.”

  “Are you feeling better?”

  “Feel great.” Tony tapped the shiny, circular display at the center of his chest. “The Dust I fed my nanites last night was all they needed. Speaking of feeling better, did you hear from Beef?”

  “No, but I heard from Glitch. They made it back a few hours ago; I’m sure they’ll be sleeping all day.”

  “But he got fixed up?”

  Addie yawned, reviewing the message Glitch had sent her. “Yes, but he was right: he needed new eyes and then some.”

  “And then some?”

  “I guess he had a lot of nerve damage. Glitch says your doc was amazed that he was walking around. Anyway, it wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix with some synthetics.”

  Tony nodded. “Good. He’s a tough son of a bitch, you know? I was a little hard on him last night when, really, I should have been more grateful.”

  “You were hard on him?”

  Tony shrugged. “I mean, mostly in my head. I wanted to cuss him out or hit him…” He shook his head. “Forget it. I was a little raw about…” He shrugged, trailing off. “You know. Anyway, you want some coffee?”

  Addie snuggled back into the sheets, burying her head in the pillow. “I don’t want to get up yet.” She patted the empty side of the bed. “Join me?”

  She didn’t feel the bed move, so she knew he hadn’t taken the invitation. Still, it surprised her when his voice came to her from the other side of the suite—he moved so quietly! “I can’t sleep, Ads. I want to put some feelers out and make sure things really went as smoothly as we hoped. Cross is a big, dangerous corp. If Jen’s uncle thinks I had anything to do with—”

  Addie threw her blankets off, sitting up as she interrupted, “Tony, Glitch and Smokey had control of all the comms. Beef pulled everyone’s PAIs. You took the PAIs from the mercs in the tower. I doubt anyone’s even found Jen and Eric yet.”

  She watched as Tony nodded his agreement. Even so, he continued getting dressed, pulling his pants on as he spoke. “I know. Let me talk to my friend at the hotel, anyway. She’s really resourceful, and if I ask her to put some feelers out…well, let’s just say I’d feel a lot better.”

  Addie crawled over to the side of the bed. “Let me take a quick shower, and I’ll join you.”

  “You don’t have to.” Tony pushed his head through the neck of a T-shirt she hadn’t ever seen him wear. It was soft-looking and white and clung to his chest in ways his other shirts didn’t. For some reason, it bothered her that he’d been buying clothes like that while they were apart.

  “Oh, I’m coming,” she said, luxuriating in how the carpet embraced her toes. “I want to meet this friend of yours.”

  Tony chuckled and walked over to the suite’s kitchen. “Then I’m making you a coffee—and don’t worry about Titania; she’s eager to meet you too.”

  Addie yawned and stretched again, glancing at the clock on her AUI: 09:43. “Just promise me that before we leave, we can spend at least one day in bed eating room service. They always do that in the serials, and—”

  “We’ll do it, promise.” Tony laughed, and the cheer in his voice gave Addie pause. She turned in the bathroom doorway to watch him as he went about making coffee. He seemed lighter than before, and it was more than just a good mood, more than just happiness. A shadow that had lurked behind his eyes, buried in the depths of his voice, was gone.

  Images of the veil and the memory of her hand in Jen’s chest flashed through Addie’s mind. She could still feel the woman’s heat bleeding out, absorbed by the iciness of her spectral fist. Even as a fresh wave of guilt threatened to wash over her, she looked into Tony’s eyes, and he smiled at her, probably wondering why she was staring, and the feeling faded.

  She’d killed Jen when something lesser would have served, and maybe that was evil or wrong, but Addie felt like the good she’d done, if not for herself, then for Tony, was worth it. It more than balanced things in her book.

  ###

  “You better lock that van up, T,” Glitch said as she and Beef waved from the sidewalk. “I mean, until we rent an office or something. That’s half a million bits worth of hardware—”

  “I know, I know.” Tony shook his head, chuckling as he glanced at Addie. “Trust me, we’re going to upgrade the security around the place.”

  “Well, can we get together tomorrow, anyway?” Glitch looked up at Beef, who shrugged.

  “Tell her yes,” Addie said, nudging Tony’s ribs.

  “Yeah, sure, Glitch. Let us talk to Addie’s pops, because if he’s not up for a move, then we might as well build some operations space into the warehouse.”

  Glitch frowned; while they’d been at the hotel, she’d tried to argue several times that they ought to move their operations into a district closer to the center of things—closer to New Manhattan. Of course, it had come up again during their drive back to the Blast, too. She let it go, though; probably because she could see he was itching to get moving. With a last wave and nod, she said, “Okay. We’ll talk.”

  “Later, T,” Beef called. “Later, Ads.”

  Addie leaned past Tony to wave out the window. “Bye guys! See you tomorrow!”

  Tony nudged the van’s AI into movement, and Addie continued to wave out his window, leaning over his lap, as they pulled away. When the van turned the corner, she pushed off him, sitting back in her seat and fastening her seatbelt. “Do you think Glitch feels stuck with us?”

  Tony arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, most of the money we earned from that Dust job went into her gear.” She jerked her thumb toward the immersion rig. “I hope she doesn’t feel like she’s, like, indebted.”

  “Nah, she loves working with you, Ads.” Tony chuckled. “You worry about what other people are thinking and feeling too much. I mean, just trust people to let you know if something’s wrong, would you?”

  “I try.” Addie sighed almost wistfully as she eyed him sideways. “The problem is that some of the people I love tend to hide their feelings.”

  “Well, I’m feeling pretty damn good, and you need to hear this: I’m fine with staying in the Blast or moving or traveling or whatever, so long as I get to do it with you. As for Glitch and Beef, something tells me they’re both pretty damn happy to ride this train. I mean that with all my heart, Ads.”

  Addie smiled, and unbuckled again, crawling over the center console and onto his lap. Tony grinned, moving his seat back a little to make room for her to snuggle against him. “If traffic weren’t moving at a snail’s pace, I’d make you put that belt back on.”

  “You’d make me?” She nuzzled his neck, and Tony realized he was powerless before her.

  He kissed her forehead, then tilted her face upward so he could kiss her lips, but she stiffened and her eyes went blank, staring into the space between them. “What is it?”

  She stared for another couple of seconds, then she spoke, her voice breathless with excitement, “Smokey cracked the code I told you about!”

  “The one from the veil?”

  “Yes! Tony, it’s a message from someone called Athena and it has coordinates—a meeting place.”

  Tony frowned, smelling a trap. “Coordinates to where?”

  “That’s the thing—Smokey says they don’t make sense for Earth. He thinks they’re for Luna.”

  Tony stared at her for a long minute, looking into her bright blue eyes as her excitement not only persisted, but began to infect him. What could a message inside the space between universes, originating on the damn moon, be about? Who the hell was Athena? It had to be a handle of some sort, right?

  “Well?” Addie asked, arching an eyebrow.

  Tony shrugged, and a corner of his mouth lifted into a half smile. “Well, I guess we better keep on working, ’cause it isn’t exactly cheap or easy to get off-planet.”