Page 4 of Untraceable
“Family didn’t believe in them, but I am exposed to enough stuff here that they were essential. I missed way too much work last year.”
“True. Right. Off you go.”
Val dusted herself off, changed into street clothes, and got her bicycle. She pedalled through the market area and toward the clinic. It had taken her a long time to find a place that would take in a non-citizen. This was one of those places.
She checked in, sat down, and read her phone. Twenty minutes later, she was called in and had rolled up both sleeves to get the jabs. Her doctor had been shocked that she didn’t have any vaccines, so the cycle had begun. Two years after they started, she would finally be free of the threat from the insects of spring and the jabbing plants of high summer. She was safe.
The bill was less than she expected, and she was told to rest for the rest of the day. She smiled, thanked them, and left the clinic to head home. She had a date with a frozen pizza and couldn’t cancel that again.
Val lay back in the sun and just relaxed as the sound of shrieking seventeen-year-olds rang in the air. This was nice. Bailey was fretting over Mira’s very adult appearance, and Val was keeping her ears focused for trouble while the sun gently baked the aches of the vaccination out of her.
She heard her timer and rolled over, untying the straps to let her back remain strap-mark-free.
Bailey snorted next to her. “And now all the teens are doing the same thing.”
Val sighed. “Sorry, but it just feels so good.”
“I told you to go to the club.”
“Nope. Not for me. I also can’t afford it.”
“You get good money.”
“Yes, and now that my medical care is up to snuff, I can actually start spending money on fun stuff. Though how getting under a guy and sweating is considered fun is beyond me.”
Bailey snorted. “It can be a lot of fun if you can just let yourself trust them for the time you are at the club.”
She laughed. “I did try to, but the guys that I could afford were not particularly interesting to me.”
“Did you disclose virginity?”
“No. Why?”
“It makes a difference. Trust me. The guys who want to be your first line up out the door.”
“Right. Well, maybe I could consider it after my next payday.”
“First time they don’t charge. I am guessing that they just didn’t believe you are a virgin.”
“It didn’t come up. I saw the price list and then had to look up half the references. I turned around and got my ass out of there.”
Bailey laughed. “Okay, that explains a lot. I have seen you do the same at a restaurant.”
“Well, if I don’t wanna put it in my mouth, I don’t wanna put it in my mouth.”
Bailey hooted.
When her timer went off, Val retied her top and then sat up. She reached for a drink when she heard a scream. It was not a good scream.
Val couldn’t help herself. She was up and running to the growing crowd where a woman was wailing and a small figure was on the ground, pale and still. A little boy.
Val checked him, and he was still alive, but he had started to glow, and that wasn’t good. She knelt next to him as the person who was giving emergency treatment tried to get the child breathing. She held the soul in place until the other responder leaned away. Val leaned forward and whispered, “Do you want to live?”
The energy under her hand writhed in confirmation. She made a fist and pinned his soul to his body with a solid thump. The child coughed and started to cry. Val got out of the way as the ambulance services arrived, and the child was taken for treatment.
Val walked away slowly, and no one seemed to have seen what she did, so she got back to her spot, and Bailey asked, “What happened?”
“He got some water in his lungs. He’s awake and alert and being taken for treatment.” She sat, took out a drink, and opened it.
