33 – Gateways

  Addie watched Tony unload packages from a pallet and carry them over to the counter, where her dad unpacked his ordered items, priced them, and sorted them to be placed on shelves. Apparently, he’d made out like a bandit on an online liquidation auction—some corp had gone out of business. Scanning the stacks of goods, she thought they looked like cheap electronics and household goods—cameras, warming plates, lamps, and other mundane items, but a few things caught her eye. Addie picked up a little plastic display case with a lifelike red robin inside.

  “Kokoro: a little bird with a big heart,” she read aloud.

  “Is that made by Kawaii Robotics?” her dad asked.

  Addie looked at the package again and then nodded. “Yeah.”

  “It’s supposed to be pretty clever, but it can’t stray far from its charging station. I got a dozen products made by Kawaii. I think there’s a lizard somewhere in this shipment.”

  Addie set the bird down and then raised her voice, including Tony, as she asked, “Will you guys be done with this soon?”

  They both looked at her and asked, “Why?”

  Bert knocked his knuckles on the counter. “You owe me a beer, Tony.”

  “Because I have to go down by the NGT building to speak to a contact, and Tony said he’d walk with me.”

  “NGT? Wait, when did I say—”

  “Remember the funeral home? We need to speak to someone who knows something about Dust! I checked on the local net, and the folks at the Aurora Collective are there until five.”

  Her dad frowned and looked from Tony to her. “What’s this about, hon?”

  “My story on Royal Breeze. We learned something about the Dust in the area that might lead to something interesting.”

  “Well, Tony’s done with the heavy boxes. I can handle the rest of this.” He nodded and folded his arms. “Yeah. Tony, I’d rather she didn’t walk down there alone, especially after what happened to her last night—”

  “Dad! I fell asleep in an AutoCab! I wasn’t kidnapped.”

  He held up his hands in surrender. “I know, I know. Still, it’ll make me feel better.”

  Tony set another box on the counter. “You sure?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got this. Business has been slow today, anyway.”

  Tony arched an eyebrow at Addie. “When you wanna go?”

  Addie looked at her clock and did a double-take when she saw it was already after two. “Man, remind me not to sleep ‘til eleven again. Let’s go now; it’s gonna take us a half hour to walk there.”

  “You’re the boss.” Tony winked at her as he said it, so Addie knew he was joking around. She scowled anyway—who was he to always be so cool?

  She hugged her dad and, as he squeezed her back, wrinkled her nose. “You need a clean shirt, Dad.”

  “Honey, I’ve been working hard this morning. I’m not going to change my shirt three hours before closing up.”

  “Suit yourself.” Addie started for the door. “Let’s go, Tony-baloney.” She giggled at the stupid name, throwing the door open with enthusiasm.

  “Oh, you got me with that one. Never heard it before!” He followed her out and, hands in his pockets, slouching like nobody’s business, fell into step with her. Somewhere along the way, he’d manage to put his cheap sunglasses on.

  Addie looked up at him and glared. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”

  He shrugged. “What do you expect from Mr. Baloney?”

  Sighing, trying to move the conversation back to something more substantive, Addie asked, “Do you wanna talk about your lunch?”

  He inhaled deeply, running a hand through his hair and shaking his head. Addie thought he wouldn’t answer her, but after a few seconds, he blew out his breath and started talking. “She was pretty cool. I guess Troy wasn’t so nice to her or her aunt. I don't know, though. Seems to me she should’ve been more upset. She was trying to see if I’d hang out with her after we ate, and, I mean, shit, isn’t that a little odd?”

  “I dunno, Tony. She went from betraying you to finding out you killed her uncle in the span of—what? Twelve hours? I don’t think it’s fair to expect her to be rational.” Addie paused at a crosswalk.

  Tony leaned against the traffic post, nodding slowly. “Yeah, I guess there’s no blueprint for human emotions, is there?”

  Addie started walking as the light changed. She looked at him sideways and offered a sly smile. “There might be, but I haven’t seen it. Some scientists in a lab somewhere probably think they’ve got it all figured out.”

  Tony snorted. “Yeah. So, if you don’t mind a change in topic, I was thinking about our possible business venture. I’m going to need a new handle—you know, my name as an operator. What do you think about ‘Shepherd?’ I figure you’ve already started building my rep in the district, so…” He shrugged, letting her finish the thought.

  Addie’s smile had grown while he spoke. But, of course, she started to second-guess things. Was he serious? Did he actually like the name, or was he throwing her a bone, trying to earn points with her? “Do you really like it?”

  He nodded, reaching up to tug his sunglasses down a few centimeters so he could look over them with his piercing silver eye. “I think it’s cool as hell.”

  “Well, you know I think it’s great.”

  “What about you?”

  “Hmm?”

  “What’ll your handle be?”

  “Oh, um, is it required?”

  “No, but pretty much everyone uses one. I mean, sometimes we’ll be doing jobs where anonymity is important. You might be working with some sketchy people.”

  “I’ll have to think about it, I guess.” As they rounded a corner, she glanced at him again. “Did you have an idea?”

  “I was thinking about it, but I keep coming up with corny ones. Like, I was thinking “Sky-eye” ’cause of your drone, but it sounds—”

  “Like a fifteen-year-old boy’s gaming handle?”

  “Hey!” Tony held a hand to his chest. “That stings!” He reached out and snatched a length of Addie’s hair, holding it up. “In the sun, your hair looks pretty red. How about that?”

  “What?”

  “Red!”

  “Oh, brother! Did you have a meeting with Beef? Did he help you come up with that one?”

  “Hold on a second!” Tony laughed, grabbing her sleeve until she slowed and looked at him. “Are you giving me grief about my ideas after you called me Tony-baloney? You don’t have a leg to stand on!”

  Addie smiled mischievously. She liked bantering with him, and, to keep him off balance, she asked, “Have you ever had it?”

  His eyes narrowed in confusion. “What?”

  “Baloney.”

  “You haven’t? I just bought some canned meats, and one of them might have been bologna-flavored. You can have some.”

  “Canned meats?” Addie felt a wave of revulsion and shuddered. “It’s so slimy!”

  “You’re supposed to pat it dry or fry it up!” He turned away from her, pushing his shades up on his nose as he lengthened his stride, forcing Addie to hustle to keep up. “I’ll make you one of my specialties after I move into my place.”

  “Oh? My goodness, Tony! Is that a proposition? You’re luring me to your apartment with promises of canned meats?”

  He looked at her sharply, then turned his gaze forward again, clicking his tongue. “You’re a tough customer,” he muttered, almost under his breath.

  “Anyway—” Addie tried to steer the conversation back to something a little more serious again, “—I’ll think about a handle. I’m kind of leaning toward doing this whole operator thing with you, but I figure we’ll see how we work together to solve this Royal Breeze mystery. If we can’t handle it, maybe we should rethink things.” She knew exactly what she was doing and had to turn to the side to hide her smile.

  “What? You’re, like, taking me on a trial run? If I don’t help you solve this ‘big story’”—he made air quotes—“you’ll put me out with the trash?”

  Addie flashed her most winning smile. “That’s right, mister.”

  Tony surprised her by nodding. “All right. Challenge accepted.”

  They didn’t talk for a while after that. Addie’s mind was busy, trying to think of an operator handle. Ideas just as silly-sounding as Tony’s kept running through her mind, most having something to do with her camera drone. What if she was more than a drone operator, though? As they hurried across another crosswalk, she nudged Tony and asked, “I know I’m good with Humpty, but, like, what if I learn to do, I don’t know…more? Like, what if I learn more about my talents, as Zane put it?”

  Tony reached up and tapped his index finger against his temple. “That’s what I’m banking on, sister. Speaking of that dude, wanna tell me what happened that made you pass out in an AutoCab? I mean, unless it’s personal—”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “It’s not!” Addie felt her neck getting hot as she caught herself glaring at Tony. How was he so good at getting under her skin? “He was giving me a test—something to measure my sensitivity to Dust. I guess I did pretty well, but I accidentally absorbed a refined dust mote. It was too much for my reactor…”

  “Ah!” Tony slapped the palm of his cybernetic hand. “That makes sense. You got a big dose of Dust, and you’re not used to it. That’ll make anyone feel sick. At least it was clean. I mean, it was, right?”

  “Yes, it was clean!” Addie didn’t know why the question irritated her. Maybe it was because it felt like he was implying Zane would have given her corrupted Dust.

  “Mmhmm. So let me make sure I’ve got things straight: he took you to dinner, ‘tested’ your Dust sensitivity, you impressed him, then puked on him, then got in the cab and fell asleep?”

  Addie punched him in the shoulder, and he feigned stumbling, barely avoiding falling off the sidewalk. “I didn’t throw up on him! I ran to the bathroom first!”

  Tony clicked his tongue again, his crooked grin maddening. “Sheesh. Talk about a rough first date.” He gestured ahead of them where the enormous, broken structure of the NGT tower loomed. “And here we are! Back at the scene of the crime.”

  Addie hurried her steps, moving ahead of him—not easy at the pace he’d set. “You’re being a jerk.” He didn’t respond and seemed content to stroll along behind her. When they got to the plaza outside the NGT building, and she began to weave through the thick throngs of people, he moved a little closer but continued to let her lead the way.

  She walked through one of the many automated doors into the enormous lobby, past the information counters, and stopped in front of the directory kiosk. As soon as she looked at the data-tag, her AUI populated with a resident directory. Addie selected the “business” section and then scanned down until she found the entry for the Aurora Collective. “Forty-ninth floor, suite 4911-A.”

  “Yep,” Tony confirmed. Addie glared at him; if she were honest, she’d forgotten he had a PAI now. He didn’t react to her expression, so she turned and stepped onto an escalator; the nearest elevator bank was on the second level of the lobby.

  When they stepped into an empty car, Tony’s PAI must have selected the floor because they started up immediately, and Addie knew JJ hadn’t done it. Tony leaned against the wall, his arms crossed, his gaze fixed on the empty space before him. Addie couldn’t stand the silence. “Your new PAI seems pretty smart.”

  “Not too bad. I only have to explain things once.”

  “Are you a good teacher?”

  That got a rise out of him. He lowered his shades and looked at her again, one eyebrow arched. “Huh?”

  “I mean, do you think you explain things in a way that helps the PAI to learn, or do you think she’s just clever?”

  “I don’t know, Addie. I haven’t thought about it. Why?”

  “Because if I’m going to be embarking on this entirely foreign lifepath with you, it would be a bonus if you were a good teacher!”

  “Okay, now you’re just—” He stopped speaking, shook his head as though debating something with himself, then said, “Addie, I’ll do my best to teach you anything you need to know.”

  “Good!” Just then, the bell rang, and the elevator came to a stop. She followed the signs to the Aurora Collective’s office, then stepped through the big glass door. An empty desk sat in the small lobby area, but a button on the counter labeled “Press me for assistance” caught her eye. She started toward it, but not before Tony smacked his cybernetic hand onto the button, setting off a series of chimes through the office’s PA system. “You had to, huh?”

  “How often do you see a random button asking to be pressed?”

  Before Addie could think of something appropriately biting, the door behind the counter opened, and a gray-haired man wearing smart specs stepped through. “Ahem, hello there. Did I forget an appointment?”

  Addie smiled and shook her head. “No, sir. My name is Adelaide Jones, and this is my associate, Tony. We’re hoping to speak to someone familiar with the Dust levels in District Seventeen.” While she spoke, Addie was aware of Tony taking off his sunglasses and slipping them into his jacket pocket.

  “Oh! Pleased to meet you. I’m Dr. Yang, and I’m afraid I’m the only one in the office today. I’ll happily vouch for my expertise, however!” He chuckled softly, then approached the counter. “What sort of information did you need?”

  “Well, first of all”—Addie touched her temple—“I’d like you to know that I’m working on a news article, and I was hoping to record our conversation. I can mask your appearance and say my source was anonymous if you’d prefer not to—”

  “Oh, it’s no bother.” He waved a hand dismissively. “I try to get as much exposure as possible to our project. We function entirely off grants and donations, after all. What’s the news angle you’re after?”

  “Well, we’re tracking some strange gang activity around a, um, certain apartment complex on the north end of the district. Our investigations have revealed that an influential corporation has taken an interest in the apartment complex because of unusually high Dust purity readings in deceased residents’ reactors.”

  “Just the deceased ones?”

  “I…” Addie’s teeth clicked as she shut her mouth, surprised by the question's simplicity. “I’m still investigating, so I’m not sure about that. In any case, the readings from local funeral homes alerted the corporation to the anomaly.”

  “Hmm.” Dr. Yang tapped something on the side of his specs, and Addie saw his lenses flash with tiny lights. “What were the readings?”

  “Nearly 2.7 on the Luminal Index.”

  “Oh?” Yang’s eyes widened. “That’s a full point higher than average for the district.”

  Addie nodded. “Exactly. Do you have any idea why that would be?”

  “Well, to answer that, I need to ensure we’re of an equal understanding when it comes to the basics.” The doctor’s tone had taken on a familiar cadence; he sounded like her dad when he was about to teach her something. “You understand the origin of Dust, yes? I don’t mean the mysterious Aurora Gate, but after that—how we’ve come to harness it and why the Dust in District Seventeen isn’t suitable for harvesting. Are you well versed on that topic?”

  “Not totally. I mean, everyone knows the Dust here is dirty because the Aurora Gate hit the NGT building. Right?”

  “And the Aurora Gate was?”

  Tony sighed heavily, but Addie humored the scientist. “It was the space station where Persephone housed her servers during the AI war when she defended humanity.”

  “Well, that’s the speculation. She destroyed the other major AIs, but we never knew her motivations. Was she benevolent, or was she seeking to rule us, herself?”

  Addie frowned. She liked to think of Persephone as good. “She gave us Dust, even though it destroyed her.”

  Yang smiled slyly. “A gift or a happy accident? Will we ever truly know? In any case, you understand the calamity that befell District Seventeen, but it’s a bit more complicated. In the basement of this building, there are four compact fusion reactors. There were another four at the halfway point—very near where the piece of the Aurora Gate struck the tower.

  “The reactors were well-contained and had redundant safeguards; however, the Aurora Gate posed a unique challenge. You see, when Persephone opened her gateway to…somewhere, her station broke apart—each piece seemingly linked to that place. The pieces fell to Earth, and those that didn’t burn up—all eighty-four of them—are still gateways.”

  Addie glanced at Tony. He was staring at the doctor intently, listening, but his lips were pressed tight. Either he was just letting Addie run the interview, seeing as this was her “thing,” or he didn’t have any questions. She certainly did. “Why was that a unique challenge for the reactors?”

  “Because the pieces of the Aurora Gate that fell to the Earth annihilate any matter or, as far as we can tell, energy they come into contact with. Most of the pieces struck the ground or the ocean and bored downward—the soil and rock were simply obliterated by the fragment’s presence. They descend unchecked at first, carving their way through matter as if drawn by something—gravity, perhaps—”

  “Wait!” Addie had a sudden sinking feeling. “You mean they're still boring into the earth? What if they all meet at the core or—”

  Yang smiled gently, shaking his head. “A justifiable fear, but no, that’s not what happens. Eventually, they reach a depth where their momentum ceases—perhaps due to some balancing force. The leading speculation is gravity because the fragments seem to hover in a small void. It’s usually around 500 meters down. We’ve sent boring probes to investigate.” He chuckled. “By we, I mean some bigger corps. They even tried moving one, but the annihilation remains, destroying anything that touches the fragment.”

  “So…” Addie frowned, trying to picture what the doctor was describing. “There are tunnels leading down to these things?”

  Yang shook his head. “In most cases, they rapidly collapsed, especially those underwater. When fragments hit the ocean, the annihilation effect instantly displaced thousands of cubic meters of water. It was like a bomb going off, with water rushing to fill the void. None of those tunnels survived more than a second or two.

  “The piece that hit this tower ripped a hole through the center—a direct hit on the reactor room. It destroyed most of their containment shrouds and pulled those reactors in its wake, dragging them deep underground. The reactors were designed with multiple fail-safes, but the fragment disrupted those systems in ways the engineers couldn’t have anticipated. They’re down there, unstable and uncontrolled, producing intense radiation and heat that would devastate the area if not for the fragment’s annihilation effect.”

  “Why would…” Tony trailed off, but Addie had an idea of what he was trying to ask.

  “Why did the reactors follow it into the earth?”

  “It wasn’t just the reactors! Most of the concrete and plasteel pulverized by its impact were dragged along, too. We think it was a combination of inertial forces and a pull exerted from the gateway. At least that’s the leading theory.”

  The doctor’s voice grew soft as he continued, speaking with a sort of wonder in his eyes behind his spectacles. “This part of the city would be a wasteland, its streets uninhabitable, if not for the fragment’s inexplicable physics—physics that annihilate radiation and heat as they would any other matter. The fragment either converts the energy into corrupted Dust or sends it through its gateway. We have no way of knowing which; all we know is that the Dust that drifts up from it is contaminated.”

  “But you said they were, um, in a state of equilibrium. It only destroys what it touches now.”

  “Even though it no longer annihilates bulk matter at a distance, its gateway effect continues to exert a subtle but powerful pull, gathering subatomic particles such as radiation.”

  Tony finally spoke, his tone cynical, deflating the breathless wonder of the doctor’s words. “This is an interesting history lesson, Doc, but what’s it got to do with our situation?”

  “Tony!” Addie shifted sideways, nudging him further down the counter. “Don’t mind him, sir.”

  Dr. Yang chuckled, waving a hand. “It’s nothing. I have children; I know I talk too much. However, I’m coming to a point, so please bear with me, young man.”

  Addie glanced at Tony, her eyes narrowed, and he grunted his assent. Addie nodded to the doctor. “Please go on.”

  “As you may or may not know—it’s anyone’s guess what they teach in corporate schools these days—the reason no major corps have made any effort to harvest Dust in this district is because of that contamination. There’s a bit of theorizing, and even some survey drone data to support it, that says we might get purer Dust if those reactors weren’t between us and the Aurora Gate fragment.

  “The thing is, as I said, there are nearly a hundred other sites on Earth giving off uncontaminated Dust. Removing the four unstable reactors would be an enormously expensive and dangerous endeavor, and there’s no guarantee that the Dust would be purer after that effort. So, the tunnel was sealed with a hundred meters of concrete, and the Dust was written off as unprofitable. I’m sure you’ve seen the memorial in Aurora Park—that’s where they capped it off.”

  “But…” Addie tried to make the connection between the doctor’s story and what was happening at Royal Breeze. “If people’s reactors in a certain area are gathering purer Dust—”

  Of course, Tony had to beat her to the punch. “Maybe some of the Dust isn’t getting exposed to the radiation?”

  “Exactly!” The doctor snapped his fingers. “You see, Dust traverses the path of least resistance. Generally, it will drift up the tunnel the fragment created when it fell, but when it comes to an obstacle, it will make its way through it, only more slowly. The Dust around us has come through half a kilometer of concrete and earth. If some natural fissure existed that allowed some Dust to drift up another way…” He shrugged as if to say he was done speculating.

  Addie tapped the counter as she spoke, “So if a corporation found out Dust was drifting up in a certain area with a higher purity rating—”

  Again, Tony interrupted her, “Then it might make sense to build a facility on that spot and see if they can open it up even more.”

  Dr. Yang nodded, “It would certainly be something a major corporation would want to investigate. They’d likely want it kept quiet, too, to avoid drawing bigger fish into the pond.” He frowned. “Listen, you two, if what you’ve told me is true, it might be dangerous to go around talking about it.”

  Suddenly, Addie wasn’t so sure the bangers who’d jumped them in the alley had been trying to settle a grudge with Tony. She looked at the doctor. “Are you going to notify anyone about this?”

  “About what? Rumors that some citizen journalists mentioned without any corroborating documentation? No, no. I’ll need more than that to write up anything official.” He shook his head, smiling. “No, I'll need some facts if you want me to stick my neck out. Perhaps there’s someone at the corporation in question—a, um, whistleblower, I believe they’re called.”

  “We’ll see.” Addie turned to the door. “Come on, Tony, we’ve got some thinking to do.” She looked over her shoulder at the doctor. “I’ll be in touch. Thanks for your time.” When they were outside, Addie whirled on Tony and grabbed the fabric of his track jacket, clenching it in her fists. “Did you hear that? This could be massive!”

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “Did you know that? About the Aurora Gate fragments basically being interdimensional gateways? Did you know they destroyed anything they touched?”

  “Do they?” Addie asked, her eyes widening with wonder and excitement. “Or do they just send stuff they touch through the gateway? You know—to wherever the Dust comes from.”