Page 9 of Vicious
“Four.” She flipped theClosedsign on her register over and glanced in their direction again. “If you see them, you’llknow.”
Mumbling my thanks, I took the bag from her and set off to find Randolph in the next booth. I stuck my gaze to the dirt road, though that might make me seem like I had something to hide. Probably because I did. If Parker was here looking for Mase, did he know about me, too? Or any of us? With a little digging, anyone could find out who the rest of the crew on theViciouswere.
Randolph was talking prices about several large, wooden tables to the human vendor. I sidled into the tent behind them so they’d block me while I peered out. We needed to get out of here, but we couldn’t exactly leave without any food when we weren’t sure when we’d be able to landagain.
Down the road a bit, in the direction Parker had gone, I spied an appearance modification booth wedged between a produce tent and a fresh bread tent. I could be in and out in fiveminutes.
“Just pick one,” I hissed to Randolph. “Then start on the food. I’ll be rightback.”
He gazed down at me, seeming to read my expression. “Uh, we’ll take the cherry oak one. Anything’s better than eating off a gurney,” he said with a forcedsmile.
The vendor’s eyes widened. “Agurney?”
“Long story,” he said, following after me out of the tent. “We’ll be back to pick this uplater.”
“Have you seen Mase anywhere?” I hissed, glancing around for anyone who hadDrug Baron & Friendsstamped to theirforeheads.
“No, but you could call him.” He plucked a phone from his inside vest pocket and handed it over. “Mase handed these out in case there was trouble. They’re pre-programmed.”
I looked over my shoulder at the appearance modification booth, and my head spun at the thought of really going through with this Mind-I idea. It was beyond reckless, but I had no other way to warn Moon and Pop that was long-range enough. And now I needed to warnMase.
“I’ll meet you in the produce or bread tent, but I have two things I need to do first.” I handed him my bag and pointed at him so he’d be sure to listen. “Produce or bread. Nowhere else. Not withoutme.”
“Great boogly bags, something has happened, didn’t it? Produce or bread, I got it.” He held up a finger. “Then alcohol or I boycott this whole damnedday.”
We parted ways next to a wooden stand filled with fruit. I ducked inside the cramped appearance modification booth and quickly slid the folding door shut. A slow breath heaved from my lungs as I sat. I tapped a finger to the male picture on the glowing screen since Nesbit’s card had a male face, although I supposed it didn’t reallymatter.
With the copies of me that Ellison and Captain Glenn were hiring, I would confuse the police better if no one knew who the real me was. OrwhereI was if there were sightings across several star systems. No more James, chef’s apprentice son to Randolph. It was time I reembraced the physical embodiment of Absidy Jones, ghost magnet, thief, wanted murderer, though I hadn’t actually killed anyone. But the day was stillyoung.
“Scanning,” a soothing female robotic voicesaid.
A red laser double-pulsed as it scanned myhead.
While the lasers, localized painkillers, and hair embedding needles did their thing, I held the phone Randolph had given me in my lap and dialed Mase’s already programmed number. After the twentieth ring, long, dark hair waved down past the middle of my back, just like it usedto.
“Chain embedding laser in three, two,one.”
I clutched the phone in my fist, refusing to hang up in case he answered. Worry twisted my gut, and I clamped my back teeth tight. Had Parker already gotten to him? Was he the drug baron Mase said he owed money to? Why wasn’t Maseanswering?
Soon, chains whispered through my new hair, and the added weight to my head throbbed aches to my neck and shoulders. But it was worth it. As James, a fourteen-year-old boy, few people would listen to me, but as Absidy Jones, I might be able to somehow force us through the rings again to go home. I had myself back, but I was seconds away from changing my natural state onceagain.
I hovered my finger over the Mind-I button, my whole arm quaking with the magnitude of this decision. Invasive, dangerous, but not permanent. I could have Ellison take it out again after I told Moon and Pop about the Saelis’s plan to destroy the rest of humanity. Then they could warn everyone else and maybe find a way to get off Mayvel and Wix as soon as possible. But for the short time the Mind-I was implanted in my head, the Saelis could control me, likely with a push of a button, just as they had the Saelis/human hybrids in the SAIL Nursery. They’d come after Ellison and me, all in perfect synchronization, like when we’d attempted to escape the Saelis on TheBlack.
A whole-body shudder coursed down to my trembling knees. I inched my fingercloser.
The computer screen flickered, blipping a glow across my hand. Gray scales marked my skin, more of them this time, nearly halfway to my elbow, and then gone again in the blink oflight.
A rush of panic spread through my chest. I yanked my arm back as the screen flashed again and again. This booth was broken. Or I was. The scales were just a withdrawal hallucination like Randolph said because my skin wasnormal.
I plucked Nesbit’s currency card from the machine, cinched the hood of my sweatshirt over my new hair and chains, then stumbled out of the strobe-litbooth.
The female robot’s voice said, “Have—d-d-d-d-day.”
Yeah, definitelybroken.
The sun’s rays speared into my skull. Shielding my eyes the best I could, I blinked down at my wrist and underneath my fingerless leather glove. Nothing. Completelynormal.
Forcing myself to breathe easy, I went in search of Randolph at the fruit tent. The crowd swept me along, but it was so packed that the throng jostled each other for a pocket of air. I ran into several creatures and people, not by choice, and finally smashed straight into a wall. A wall made of bricks and a black trench coat. An odd choice of clothing for awall.
