Chapter 11
“Come on, Mom, do we really have to do this? Just let me order clothes in virtual and I can have them delivered within hours.”
“But that’s no fun! I haven’t been clothes shopping in ages and we never got to spend time together last weekend. Come on, won’t you humor your mother this once?”
Lynn groaned, closing her eyes to block out the Bambi-eye look her mom was giving her.
Her first mistake had been mentioning that she needed new clothes, considering everything she had was too baggy and several decades out of date. She should have just ordered a few standard programmable outfits online, no need for fittings or fashion advice. But no, she’d had to open her big mouth and now she was paying the price.
Oh well. She did owe her mom several weekends’ worth of hang-out time with how much she’d been focusing on TD Hunter training.
“Uhhhg. Fine,” Lynn finally said.
Her mother squealed with unseemly delight and Lynn instantly regretted her words.
But it was too late now.
“We have to stop for food first, though. I’m so hungry I think my stomach has turned inside-out.”
“All right then, what are you waiting for? Let’s get this show on the road,” Matilda said and dragged Lynn toward the door.
It was Sunday evening a week after her impromptu meal with Mr. Thomas and she was tired from hunting and grumpy after having to deal with Ronnie all day. But it was a beautiful evening, clear-skied and not as humid as usual and she’d been craving a Maid-Rite sandwich for hours. At this point she could probably eat two or three.
They caught a robo-car to the Maid-Rite on First Avenue and Lynn’s mother looked on with raised eyebrows as Lynn devoured two huge sandwiches, their buns soft and buttery and their meat filling perfectly spiced. By the third she finally slowed and only managed to get halfway through before she gave up in stuffed contentment.
“I’d forgotten how much teenagers eat.” Matilda chuckled. She’d been eating her sandwich with a fork and a knife to avoid getting the oozing meat filling on her hands, which was pretty much sacrilegious in Iowa, but then she was picky about cleanliness. “Though even for a teenager that was impressive. I know you’ve been out with your friends almost every day the past few weeks but playing that AR game must be a harder workout than I thought for you to eat like that and still be losing so much weight.”
“Mom,” Lynn muttered, looking around, “we’re in public!”
“Oh, relax, dear. Nobody can hear us in this noisy restaurant and nobody would care if they could. They have their own lives to worry about. Besides, I’m proud of you.” She reached across the little table where they sat and gave Lynn’s hand a squeeze. Lynn smiled and squeezed back. “You’ve been working so hard the past few months and it really shows. It’s a good thing we’re going to get you some smart clothing, because at this rate you’re going to keep dropping sizes and there’s no point buying any standard clothes until your body finds its new normal. And, speaking of clothes, we’d better get going! The mall will probably close in a couple hours and I don’t want to be rushed.”
Lynn sighed and rolled her eyes heavenward. Time for the torture to commence. At least she would go to her doom on a full stomach.
Cedar Rapids’ Lindale Mall wasn’t much when compared to the sprawling, glittering shopping centers Lynn remembered from her girlhood in Baltimore. But it had been bought out a few years ago and completely revamped, transforming it into a state-of-the-art destination with every luxury a prospective shopper could imagine. Lynn and her mom hadn’t gone shopping since they’d moved to Cedar Rapids, at least not like they had before her dad had died and they’d been saddled with a mountain of debt. In an age where everything you could ever need could be bought in virtual, printed and drone-delivered within hours, and VR headsets made browsing stores in virtual as good as in person but without the annoying commute, shopping in the real had become an expensive hobby more akin to an amusement park trip than anything else.
Sizing issues for clothes and apparel had been solved by the invention of smart materials and even those who preferred natural materials could have their LINC do a full body scan and send exact measurements in the blink of an eye. Mass-produced standard sizes were so yesterday. Custom print-on-demand was the new model and many stores didn’t even keep retail stock anymore. The only shopping centers that had survived were those that had shifted their focus from selling “things” to selling an “experience.” Some thrift stores still limped along but after the 3D printing revolution and rise of drone delivery networks, buying in virtual was so affordable that only the truly budget constrained—i.e., Lynn and her mom—still frequented them. And even then, it was more of a walk of shame than “shopping.”
But now, Lynn had money. Or at least, now she could spend the money she already had because she’d come clean with her mom. She didn’t like the idea of spending it—years of counting every penny had marked her permanently. But quality clothes that fit well were an acceptable expense and treating her mom to a shopping “experience” was the least she could do. Besides, after the disaster at the hospital last weekend, Lynn knew her mom needed something fun to take her mind off the deaths that weighed on her shoulders.
When the robo-car dropped them off at Lindale Mall’s customer arrival center, they were greeted by a life-size concierge hologram. Lynn had to stop herself from staring. She’d never seen one in the real, only read about them. The woman looked and moved exactly like a real person and only the slight transparency of her figure made her identifiable as a hologram. Lynn knew the transparency was a built-in feature, meant to make people more at ease. Years of research and experimentation with AIs had made it painfully clear that, while people liked their service AIs to be humanlike, anything so accurate as to make them indistinguishable from humans in voice, looks, or behavior made people so uncomfortable that entire lobbies existed to prevent it.
“Good evening, ladies, and welcome to Lindale Mall,” the hologram said with a pretty smile. “We look forward to making your experience here one of a kind. Would you like to rent an AR interface for your visit this evening, or use your own?”
“We’ll rent, please. One for each of us,” Lynn said before her mom could speak. Matilda’s AR glasses were so out of date that Lynn wasn’t sure why her mom even bothered using them anymore. She had state-of-the-art glasses for her work at the hospital of course—allowing her to easily interface with the hospital’s system, check LINC-tracked vitals on those patients who allowed emergency access of such things and get real-time updates from the EMTs’ glasses so they could have everything pre-prepped—but those were hospital property so using them off-duty was strictly prohibited.
Lynn’s own TD Hunter-provided glasses were more than capable of interfacing with the shopping mall’s systems. But then Lynn would have to use the mall’s app and opt into the mall’s end-user license agreement, which of course would give the mall’s software permission to track her every move in virtual and in the real to gather valuable data it would use to monetize her later. No thanks. She could always go back in later and remove the permissions but it was a pain. Most people not only accepted but welcomed such data collection because of the customized experience it made possible. But not Lynn. She knew too much—had seen behind the curtain, so to speak, in her years snooping around in virtual—to be comfortable with it.
“Certainly,” the service hologram replied. “Right this way please.” It led them to a holo-screen kiosk where they could select their interface type—glasses were the most popular but helmets, contacts and visors were also common. Then the kiosk offered them their selection on a velvet-lined tray that extended from its depths.
“Fancy,” Lynn muttered as she and her mom slipped on their glasses. These were a bit different from standard AR glasses in that they were a combination LINC and AR interface together. That way Lynn, or any other guest, could enjoy their shopping experience without being dependent on their own LINC—or lack of LINC.
Lynn’s vision lit up with the mall’s welcome display. First things first, she authorized Lindale Mall in her virtual wallet, then chose the option for an “ad-free” experience—for a fee, of course. After that Lynn had the option of creating a “group” for shared visual and audio input, which she did.
Another image of a well-dressed lady appeared in front of them, though this time it was part of their AR display, not a life-size hologram.
“Good evening, ladies,” it said brightly. “My name is Taylor and I will be your guide while you enjoy Lindale Mall’s amenities. Would you like to reserve the services of a personal shopper or porter this evening?”
Lynn looked at her mom, who shook her head.
“No thanks, Taylor,” Lynn said.
“Of course. Would you like a brief tutorial of how to customize your visual experience today?”
“Um, what?” Lynn asked.
“Every aspect of your AR visuals is customizable, from my voice and appearance, to the appearance of the mall around you. We have a whole catalog of AR interactive environments available for your enjoyment.”
“Environments?” Lynn echoed.
“Yes. Our Great Barrier Reef environment, for example, will add an underwater skin to the mall including lifelike, exotic wildlife to swim around you and interact with you as you shop. Have you always wanted to shop on the streets of Paris? Choose our Champs-Élysées environment and enjoy the sights and sounds of France’s most famous shopping destination, all the while being entertained by authentic Parisian street performers.”
Lynn and her mom exchanged a wide-eyed look.
“Uh, I think we’ll stick to the basics for now, but all the settings are in the mall menu right?”
“That is correct, miss. Would you like a brief tour of our grounds and the amenities you can enjoy?”
“Yeah, please,” Lynn said, already overwhelmed and ready to go home.
“Right this way, then, please,” Taylor said and gestured them forward.
The image of the service AI wound its way through the scattering of mall-goers entering and exiting the main doors. Most of the mall’s grandeur was lost on Lynn—she would rather be doing almost anything else—but the youthful sparkle in her mom’s eyes was unmistakable, so Lynn sucked up her trepidation and tried to enjoy herself for her mother’s sake.
Taylor’s image stopped where the main corridor emptied out into a large, multi-level hall with a glass dome roof that let in the evening light. Everything looked modern and elegant, from the white tiled floors to the sweeping columns, to the walls decorated in abstract art—at least wherever the walls weren’t glass, making the entire mall feel bigger and more airy. Lynn wondered if everything was white with lots of glass to give the AR customizations more of a blank canvas to work with.
“The Lindale Mall is laid out in wings based on interest and product type,” the service AI began, gesturing with a slender hand as she spoke. “There are separate wings for apparel and accessories, home furnishings, entertainment and electronics, health and beauty, sports and children. The central hall contains our dining area where you can browse our virtual menu and select from hundreds of food options while you enjoy our live entertainment. Or, if you are in the mood for some pampering, visit our very own Lindale spa and relaxation center off the main hall. We also have an in-house VR suite where you can enjoy all the best VR experiences including movies, games, world-tours, nature explorations and more.”
Lynn’s eyebrows rose higher and higher as Taylor spoke. Good grief. All they needed to do was add a hotel wing and she bet some people would never leave this place.
“And if you find the Lindale Mall experience to your liking, there are the Lindale Mall apartments which rent for a very low monthly fee…”
Even better, Lynn thought. Squeeze every dime…
“Our goal at Lindale Mall is to give you an unforgettable experience with premier customer service. All of our products are meant to be tried, sampled and enjoyed so that you have complete assurance in your selections. There are testing areas available for most products and almost everything is customizable. Simply select a product and scroll through the available customizations. If we do not have your selection on hand, simply put in a product request and we can print it while you enjoy our amenities. Your Lindale Mall app includes a map and navigational assistant, simply state what product you are looking for and our guidance system will lead you right to it. If you have any questions at all or would like a personalized tour, just ask and I will make sure you are taken care of.”
“Thank you Taylor, I think we’ll take it from here,” Matilda said vaguely, obviously distracted by the sights in the huge hall, or maybe the live band playing some low-key pop music on a raised platform in the middle of the dining area.
“Of course, enjoy your visit!” said the service AI and disappeared.
Lynn couldn’t help but grin as she watched her mom’s bright-eyed look.
“So…” Matilda began.
“We can do whatever you want, Mom. My treat. You deserve some R and R.”
“Some what?”
“Sorry, rest and recuperation.”
“Oh, yes. Thank you dear but won’t it be…expensive?”
Lynn shrugged.
“Probably but we can afford it once. Just don’t try to move into the apartments, ’kay?” She grinned and her mom grinned back.
“Want to see what environments they have available?” Lynn asked, curious what it would look like to see exotic fish swimming through the air around her.
“They sound fun, honey, but also distracting. Why don’t we go get you your clothes first? Then we can worry about having fun.”
“Drat. I was hoping you’d forget that part.”
“Nonsense! I respect your right to wear whatever you feel comfortable with but it’s clear you’re not comfortable in the clothes you have, so let’s go find you some that fit well and make you feel excited to wear them, okay?”
“Feeling excited about the clothes you wear is a thing?” Lynn asked, wrinkling her nose.
Her mom laughed and tugged on her arm, pulling her toward the wing marked “Apparel and Accessories.”
Mercifully, clothes shopping with her mom didn’t turn out to be too painful. Once Lynn relaxed and ignored the scattering of other shoppers, she actually kind of enjoyed herself. The offerings were incredible and she watched in amazement as the clothes she tried on morphed to fit her perfectly, changing color and pattern at her command. Matilda might have had a little too much fun with it, in Lynn’s opinion. But letting her mom play dress-up with her in the privacy of the changing rooms was fine.
Lynn had no idea what to even look for in terms of style and had no desire to summon Taylor for advice, even though she knew the AI existed for exactly that purpose. She knew Taylor was as fully customizable as everything else in the mall but no amount of changing the AI’s appearance, clothes, gender, or race would make Lynn more comfortable chatting about clothing choices. Human shopping assistants could be seen here and there interacting with customers who preferred them over AI assistance. Lynn was glad she had her mom with her. No way would she have set foot in a place like this by herself.
With Matilda’s help, Lynn picked out some less expensive soft cotton casual wear as well as three smart fabric outfits for school. But when Lynn was ready to find some athletic performance wear for monster hunting, her mom wasn’t much help. After a moment’s debate, Lynn took off her rented glasses and slipped on her own. She held up a “wait for it” finger when her mom gave her a quizzical look.
“Hey, Hugo, can I ask you a question?” Lynn subvocalized after firing up the TD Hunter app, keeping it out of combat mode.
“Certainly, Miss Lynn. How can I assist you?”
“I know you’re not a general service AI but you have complete mesh network access, so I was hoping you could give me a little advice on…well, on clothes.”
“While it is not within my primary programming, I am capable of performing a mesh search and analyzing the results. However, you have a fully functional service AI as part of your LINC software, why not utilize its capabilities?”
“I thought you might have better insight, considering you know the TD Hunter game better. I’m looking for some good athletic clothes to play the game in but I’ve never shopped for smart clothes before. Will any of the, um, electronic components of the clothes interfere with the TD Hunter app’s performance or sensors or anything?”
“Not at all, Miss Lynn. You can be assured that such advanced apparel was taken into account by TD Hunter’s developers.”
“Okay, good to know. Do you have any advice on what brand or type of smart clothes would be best for monster hunting outside in the heat and the cold? Something that’s durable, easy to clean, protects against brambles but isn’t suffocating to wear?”
“Let me see, with such criteria, you would want to look for high performance athletic wear for extreme outdoor activities such as mountain climbing. According to my research, NanoTechLabs has developed a variety of fabrics for just such activities. They use nano technology to coat smart fabrics in materials that repel odor and dirt particles, have advanced wicking technology for high performance in heat or cold and absorb and redistribute force impact to minimize injury. Simply check that your clothes selection uses NTL’s high-performance nanofabric and it should meet your criteria.”
“Awesome, thanks, Hugo,” she said, then slipped off her own glasses and replaced the mall’s set.
“Okay, not sure what that was,” chuckled Matilda. “Your facial muscles were moving like you were having a conversation but I didn’t hear a thing.”
“Oh, yeah. It’s called subvocalization. It lets me talk to Hugo without saying things out loud.”
“Hugo?” her mom asked with raised brows.
“The TD Hunter AI, remember? The British-sounding service AI that made you sign all those NDAs?”
“Of course! How could I forget. So, did you find out what you needed?”
“Yup. I just need to look for a specific fabric type. Let me look in the mall’s directory and see if I can search for athletic wear by who made the fabric.”
Sure enough, she could—bless modern technology—and the mall’s helpful navigation software took them right to the correct racks of clothing. The clothing itself looked underwhelming, considering everything appeared to be made of the same black, matte material. Lynn reached out and rubbed a sleeve between her fingers, marveling at the odd texture. It was smooth like silk, yet there was a sturdy and satisfying thickness to it.
Right beside the racks were also various displays showcasing shoes, boots, backpacks, hats and other outdoor gear. And behind it all along the back wall of that wing was a “product testing area.” It looked like a cross between a rock climbing gym and a lab. There were various strips of terrain—including rocky walls with climbing equipment—as well as a circular glass chamber that Lynn assumed would imitate various climate variables like heat and cold. There were half a dozen people using the testing environments while a mall employee wearing a shirt that declared “Safety Officer” stood to the side and observed.
Lynn turned to her mom.
“This. Is. So. Cool. How much time do we have before the mall closes?”
“Lindale is open until midnight,” Matilda said, probably checking the hours through the app menu. “We have plenty of time as long as you don’t mind staying out late.”
“Um, is that okay with you?”
“Of course, honey! My next shift doesn’t start until Monday evening. Let’s make the most of tonight.”
“Swee-EEE-eet,” Lynn sang under her breath, feeling giddy with excitement. She picked out a pile of clothes and equipment to try out and quickly changed in a dressing room, taking a moment to choose a blue scalelike pattern for her clothes that reminded her of her Skadi’s Glory skin in TD Hunter. When she took a look at herself in the mirror, though, she had a moment of paralyzing panic.
The clothes were as tight and stretchy as yoga pants, bottom and top, which was all perfectly normal for athletic wear. Except she’d spent the past four-plus years being viciously bullied for her form and had trained herself to hide it at all costs. Yeah, so maybe she’d slimmed up a bit and added some muscle in the past two months but she was still, well, her. What if someone pointed and laughed when she came out of the dressing room?
“Honey? You okay in there?”
Matilda’s voice drifted into the changing rooms and Lynn gritted her teeth. This was stupid. Just like Mr. Thomas had warned, she couldn’t let other people’s opinions dictate her behavior. She would not cower in fear. Even if she couldn’t get rid of the fear entirely, at least she could shove it back to the farthest corner of her mind and lock it away. If she ignored it long enough, maybe it would eventually disappear.
After a deep breath, her body started to relax and Lynn finally marched out of the dressing room, shoulders thrown back and head held high. Her mom spotted her and delight lit up Matilda’s face.
“Wow! Look at you, honey!” Matilda said, then whistled in appreciation.
“Um, could you not be quite so loud, Mom? We’re in public.” Lynn cut her eyes from side to side, expecting derisive looks. But, of course, not a single person in the entire wing was paying her an ounce of attention. They went about their business, caught up in their own little augmented worlds.
Lynn relaxed and even cracked a grin.
“Come on, Mom. Let’s take this stuff for a ride.”
They both had entirely too much fun, especially in the environment chamber where Lynn cycled through wind, rain, sleet, snow and even hail settings, as well as various temperature levels. Her mom laughed, observing from the outside, as Lynn made a snow angel in the thin scattering of half-melted snow on the floor.
Once Lynn had tested over a dozen different outfits and pieces of equipment, she headed back to the dressing rooms, dried off and gathered her selections to take home. She cringed inwardly at the swiftly rising price tag of this mall trip—no prices were openly displayed unless you asked for them in the app settings and Lynn wasn’t the sort to purchase in ignorance—but she knew it was worth it, even if it set her savings back a couple grand.
Once they were done shopping, they put all their purchases in a complimentary locker then headed to the center of the mall for a late snack as they tried out various AR environment settings together. The results were truly spectacular.
When Lynn selected the Great Barrier Reef environment she was floored as the walls transformed into gorgeous coral reefs while a rippling light overlaid everything and everyone around her, making it seem like she was underwater. She had fun holding her hands up in the air for the AR fish to come nibble at. They swirled away in a flash of color as soon as she tried to grab them. Her mom was just as awestruck and pointed in wonder at the glass ceiling and walls of the mall where the outside world of Cedar Rapids had vanished. In its place they saw a myriad of sea life, from turtles and manta rays to sharks and even distant whales swimming in the sapphire blue water.
She’d just gotten a manta ray to allow her to “pet” it, when the entire mall suddenly plunged into darkness.
“What the heck?” Lynn muttered as voices of other patrons rose around her in confusion and consternation. Being the middle of summer, there was still a bit of dusk glow coming in from the open skylight despite the late hour. It was almost more beautiful seeing the AR underwater overlay glowing softly in the dimness but Lynn dismissed the overlay anyway and once again swapped her rented glasses for her own interface.
“Hey, Hugo, any idea what’s going on?” she asked after opening the TD Hunter app. There were angry voices and calls for a manager around her as some guests stayed put and some mobbed a hapless shopping assistant who looked just as confused as everyone else.
“It appears that the building has suffered a power failure, Miss Lynn.”
“But, why? Isn’t it on the city grid just like everything else?”
“Indeed, however—”
“Lynn,” her mom interrupted. “The mall AI is asking everyone to make their way outside while they investigate the malfunction.”
Lynn made a face.
“Are they saying what caused it?”
“Nope. Just that it isn’t an emergency and they apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Weird. You’d think places like this would have some sort of backup power…do you think this has anything to do with what happened at your hospital?”
“I don’t know, sweetie,” Matilda said, “but I’m glad this is just a mall and no one is getting hurt. Come on, we should go ahead and leave.” She headed toward the main entrance, but Lynn caught her sleeve.
“Everyone is going that way, and I don’t want to get stuck in an angry crowd in a dark mall. There’s a smaller exit over here. Come on.”
Lynn wasn’t a Tier One virtual mercenary for nothing. She subconsciously mapped out her surroundings in the real just as much as she did in virtual and always kept an eye out for exits. Plus she’d taken a good long look at the mall navigation guide when they’d come in.
After swinging by the lockers to snag their bags, Lynn led her mother to a smaller set of doors hidden between the spa center and the home furnishings wing. They left their rental AR glasses at the small kiosk between the inner and outer doors, then pushed out into the warm summer night. While Matilda worked on calling them an air taxi, Lynn looked around, idly searching for anything out of the ordinary that might alleviate her curiosity as to what had befallen Lindale Mall. There was nothing to be seen, though, besides the parking lot and a cluster of HVAC units and power nodes mostly hidden in the alcove created by the mall’s home furnishings wing. The units were quiet, devoid of their usual humming and spinning fans. But they gave Lynn an idea.
“Hey, Mom. Since we aren’t going anywhere for a bit, I’m gonna fire up TD Hunter. Might as well do something useful, right?”
“Sure, honey. The taxi should be here in a few minutes, though, so don’t go far.”
Lynn nodded as she reached in her backpack to get out her baton. She didn’t need to go anywhere at all, not with those power nodes over there…
“Hey, Hugo, take me into combat mode and let’s see what unlucky schlubs are hanging around, ripe for the picking. Take me in full armor, full stealth, just in case.”
“Certainly, Miss Lynn.”
This close to a building and people, Lynn wasn’t expecting to find anything high level. But it was good she’d gone in fully stealthed because the moment Hugo dropped her into combat mode, the space around her lit up with dozens of TDMs.
Lynn cursed and jumped back, moving before she was even aware of it. She was swinging a split second later and her plasma blade cut right through the vulnerable backs of the demons on either side of her. They went up in sparks but she barely noticed as she waded into the rest of the aggressive TDMs surrounding the power nodes. They were spaced out in a loose semicircle but almost all except the furthest away converged on her after she ambushed the first two.
Fortunately for her, they were all just demons, Grumblins and the like. Nothing she couldn’t take care of with a few well-placed strikes. She’d almost finished off the lot before the nearby ghosts finally seemed to get the memo. She ignored their spooky sounds until the last second, then spun to cut through a trio of them all at once. After that she stilled, waiting to see if any other aggressive TDMs popped up before she turned her attention to the now defenseless imps. Nothing showed itself and Lynn gave a self-conscious little wave to her mom who was watching by the mall doors with a motherly grin on her face.
Mopping up the crowd of imps around the power nodes took under a minute. They couldn’t even see through her stealth until after she’d already stabbed them in the face. She was surprised with how many there were packed in such a small area but she wasn’t one to complain. More experience for her. She even found one lone little Lecta hiding in the farthest corner between the mall building and some sort of power unit.
She was just collecting the piles of loot and a few items lying around when a sudden hum behind her made her jump. But it was only the power unit coming back to life. Within moments the whole group of units and nodes were purring with energy. The mall lights came on in a rush and Lynn shook her head as she headed back over to her mom. Of course the stupid mall system would pick now to pull its head out of its butt.
“What do you think, is it worth it to go back inside?” Matilda asked, eyeing the air taxi heading their way over the mall parking lot.
Lynn shook her head.
“It’s getting late and I’m worn out. Let’s go home.”
Back at their apartment, Lynn fell into bed with a satisfied sigh. The mall had been spectacular, despite the annoyance at the end. She firmly rejected any anxious thoughts over what the guys would think of her new clothes the next day and instead fell asleep to pleasant thoughts of going back to Lindale Mall someday, only this time with Edgar instead of her mom.
When Lynn arrived at their Monday meeting place—Paul Revere’s Pizza near where Collins road went over Interstate 380—the guys’ reactions were mixed.
“Whoaaah-ho-ho-ho! Lynn, you look awesome!” Dan crowed, grinning like an idiot. “That looks like some high performance stuff there, where’d you get it?”
“Lindale Mall,” Lynn said, grinning as Mack gave her a high five and joined Dan in admiring her hunting attire complete with delightfully stompy boots and her TD Counterforce backpack. Her batons she wore on her lower thighs, secure in slim, tight pockets on the outside of each leg. The pockets had probably been intended for energy bars or those electrolyte replenish tubes runners used. It was just a happy circumstance that they were the perfect size and height to fit the TD Hunter batons like some sort of nunchacku holster. It was going to be a darn useful place to keep them when she needed her hands free instead of having to tuck them under one arm or take the time to return them to her backpack.
She glanced around and spotted Edgar and Ronnie standing next to each other as if they’d been talking right before she’d arrived. Both were frozen like deer in the headlights, shock written in every line of their bodies as they stared at her. Edgar’s expression was dumbstruck and his mouth was hanging slightly open but any impulse Lynn might have had to grin at his reaction was squashed by Ronnie’s tomato-faced, lemon-sucking look of disgust.
Well, win some, lose some.
She clamped down on her emotions and refused to give it further thought, instead turning to Dan and gesturing toward the highway.
“Come on, let’s get busy. The electric rail along the interstate should be crawling with monsters and we’re really close to Level 10.”
In fact, she was close, the others were lagging behind. It was a problem that had been worrying her for the past week. Considering that each successive level would take longer and longer to achieve, Lynn knew they weren’t progressing fast enough to reach Level 20 by the end of August, a mere seven weeks away. It was why she’d suggested ditching alleyways, roadsides and local parks to instead seek out lower human density areas with high energy emitting installments, hoping to find larger concentrations of higher-class monsters. The electric rail should be just the thing.
“Hey, I’m the team captain. I say when we move out.” Ronnie protested from behind them.
Lynn gritted her teeth and slowly counted to ten.
“Sure, whatever you say, captain,” she muttered as Ronnie strode past a moment later, telling everyone to “hurry up” and “we don’t have all day.”
Their group trotted across the street, dodging a few robo-cars, then headed down the greenway that ran along Collins Road until the road began to rise in a bridge that arched over Interstate 380. At that point, Ronnie led the way down the grassy hill to where an electric rail passed under the bridge, paralleling the interstate. There was a chain link safety fence between them and the rail but it was easy enough to go around it where it butted up against the concrete holding wall that cut into the hill, carving out a space for the rail to pass under the bridge. They dropped down one-by-one onto the uncut grass on the other side of the fence and then regrouped.
“Okay, looks like we have plenty of room between the fence and the rail,” Ronnie said, hands on hips as he glanced up and down the rail. “Just keep an eye out and everyone have their AI warn you when a train is headed our way, okay?”
A murmur of acknowledgments came in reply.
“Right. Does everyone have their assigned augments equipped?”
Another round of affirmatives and Lynn rolled her eyes. Perhaps she was being overly critical. It was good, after all, to double check things. But this was something she would have checked a while ago, not left it to the last moment.
They’d been “pooling” their augments for the past week, swapping whatever they found around to whoever it fit best based on the team roles Ronnie had assigned. Augments that improved accuracy, for instance, went to Dan, their sniper. Augments that improved damage went to Edgar, their heavy weapons, while things that supplemented stealth or detection went to Ronnie or Mack, who needed the most mobility and tactical information. It didn’t escape Lynn’s notice that Ronnie never once asked what augments she needed, nor suggested to anyone else that they give what they had to her, though he was bossy enough with the allocations to everyone else. It was one more reason she had to grit her teeth every time she was around him. His very presence grated on her nerves. The others had offered her augments, of course, but she always turned them down with a polite, “Thanks but I’ve got my own.”
Which she did. More than enough. Tougher monsters dropped better augments and she was the best hunter on their team. She always went after the most challenging monsters within her field of responsibility, some of which her teammates couldn’t even see since she was ahead of them in experience. Of course, she wasn’t always a whole level above them—it fluctuated day to day—so she wasn’t sure why she attracted higher-class monsters than the others. She assumed it must be the game’s AI adjusting its algorithms to give her an appropriate challenge, like Fallu had said back when she was beta testing.
In any case, she always kept the best augments for herself and, reluctantly, shared the rest with the team, only selling the extras that they didn’t have enough slots for in their weapons. So far, nobody had found anything spectacular but then they weren’t even Level 10 yet, so Lynn wasn’t worried. She kept an eye on the auction boards in case anything truly unique got posted. But at this stage it wasn’t worth buying much since they were just grinding. She might buy a few things right before the qualifiers to give them some extra punch but that was it. Besides, there were few people ahead of their team in terms of leveling. A few über obsessed players up in New York and on the West Coast were already up to Level 14. But they seemed more interested in keeping their loot than selling it, because Lynn rarely saw items at auction that were too high a level for her to use.
“Okay, everyone. Once we drop into combat and clear out this area, let’s head south, toward downtown. Now, circle formation. Engage combat mode on my mark.”
Lynn had already subvocalized to Hugo to sync with Ronnie’s timing, so her hands and concentration were primed and ready to fight. She only hoped everyone else was as ready. The last few times they’d tried this maneuver, somebody inevitably forgot to top off their armor or stealth or something and would get hammered when all the monsters went after them. Ronnie was supposed to do a supply check before they dropped into combat but had forgotten it—or ignored it—this time.
“Three…two…one…”
Lynn missed her playlists but music was too distracting when she had to keep track of her teammates in addition to monsters. Ah well, she listened to her music enough that she could easily play the opening vocals and electric violins of “Planet Hell” by Nightwish in her head as she tensed, poised and ready to fight.
Ah…ah…ah…oh-ah…oh-ah…oh-ah-ah-ah-oooh-ah!
“Engage!”
At Ronnie’s call, Hugo switched her into combat mode and her display lit up with tactical information. Lynn was moving a split second later, reacting to her visuals before Hugo could even sound a proximity warning.
Lunge, strike. Roll, spin, strike. Dodge, strike, strike, strike.
For the first thirty seconds Lynn knew nothing but monsters and movement. Whether by luck or fate, they’d truly dropped right in the pot and she had her hands full taking out an Orcull and a handful of Grumblins that converged on her the moment she “appeared.” No amount of stealth globes could hide her when she materialized literally within striking range of a TDM.
Once her display was no longer flashing red with active attacks, she spared a glance around. Ronnie and Edgar were both engaged with attack TDMs on the other side of their loose circle, while in the center, Dan and Mack were picking off the swarm of rocs they had correctly predicted would be hanging around the electric rail. Lynn couldn’t see anybody’s stats but hopefully after what had happened to Ronnie last week the guys would have the sense to give a shout if they needed backup.
She didn’t have time to do anything more because the second wave was closing in. Wait, was that a Spithra? Lynn tightened her grip on her Plasma Blade. Last time she hadn’t encountered those until she’d hit Level 10, so why had one detected her now?
“Hey guys, looks like I’ve attracted a few higher-class monsters. I’m gonna be busy with them for a bit so I won’t be able to give any backup.”
“I’ll—say a—prayer for them,” Mack quipped between shots. “Is there a—patron saint—for monsters?”
Dan guffawed. “No idea. I never paid attention in Catholic school.”
Now there was a story. Lynn hadn’t known Dan had ever attended Catholic school. She knew his parents were well-off, so they would have been the type to send him to some elite private school.
Edgar’s undulating choo-hoo-HOO snapped her attention back to the fight at hand and she just had time to glance back and see his grin as he waded into a group of Grumblins before she had to turn and leap forward into a roll to take her under the approaching Spithra’s first slicing attack.
She lost track of time as she fought, letting herself sink into the rhythm of battle. It probably only took them a minute or two to clear their immediate area but it felt like a tiny eternity in which her muscles thrummed with energy and she rode the adrenaline high doing what she loved best: utterly destroying her enemies.
Soon enough her area was clear again and this time she saw no more red dots heading her way on her overhead. She backed up, scooping up loot as she went and returning to her spot in their circle formation.
“Okay, everybody, status?” Ronnie said, his breath coming heavy. He wasn’t the only one panting. Their shared channel was full of everyone’s gasping breaths.
“Down fifty percent health and armor,” Edgar said. “Also, nearly out of gum.”
“I’m down about twenty,” Mack chimed in and Dan echoed his words.
“I’m hanging in there,” Lynn said, not wanting to give specifics. She’d noticed Ronnie always seemed more grumpy whenever she brought attention to the fact that she regularly suffered far less damage than anyone else and she was only down ten percent on her armor and five on her health.
“All right. Resupply, then we’ll move out.”
While everyone else was busy, Lynn opened a private channel to Edgar.
“Hey, need some Oneg?”
“Yeah, thanks, Lynn,” Edgar said. “I go through that stuff like a football team goes through ribs at a barbecue.”
“No problem,” Lynn assured him, transferring the two packs of Oneg she’d picked up from the Spithra. They were the most reliable source of it she’d found yet, perhaps the algorithm’s attempt to balance out the destructive power of the Spithra’s acid spit attack. “You’re our tank, after all. You get in deep and dirty, though you’ll gradually take less damage as we get you better armor augments and you get more practice staying on your toes.”
“Lynn, the last time I was on my toes was when I was ten and my mom hid the cookie jar on the top shelf of the cabinet,” Edgar told her, chuckling. “I’m more like a rock in a pond than a leaf in the wind.”
“Don’t worry about it, man. You’ll get better—”
“Hey, everyone ready to move out?” Ronnie said, his voice on their group channel overriding Lynn’s private chat.
She’d already topped off her slots as soon as she’d killed her last monster, so she joined the rest in sounding off.
“Okay, patrol formation, moving south. Let’s go.”
Lynn smiled, actually looking forward to her afternoon for once. It seemed like they’d finally found a place with a high enough concentration of monsters that they could fight continuously for as long as their strength held, instead of tiring themselves out walking on and on looking for enemies to engage. Plus, her new clothes and boots were like a breath of fresh air.
Instead of feeling hot, sticky and itchy, with baggy rough cotton clothes sticking to her, she felt like her body was sheathed in a second skin that breathed and moved with her. She didn’t even have any hotspots from her boots. With their smartcushion interior that molded to her foot, there was no need to “break them in” like she’d had to do with every other shoe she’d ever owned. The higher quality equipment mitigated the toll of heat and muscle fatigue and Lynn felt on top of the world.
Yes, this would be a good afternoon.
Protecting the rear, as usual, Lynn followed her teammates as they headed under the Collins Road bridge. But as they were about to come out the other side, a group of five people appeared from around the concrete barrier on the left, blocking their path. At the sight of them, Lynn froze in shock. And she wasn’t the only one. Her entire team had halted and she even saw Mack take a step back, as if his brain’s first instinct was “run.”
“Well, if it isn’t team Lame-O Schmucks,” said Elena. She stood with four guys, all of them tall and ripped like they were professional athletes or body-builders. They probably were, come to think of it. Lynn recognized two of them from her school’s varsity ARS team, so the other two no doubt were as well. All five of them wore form-fitting, professional athletic wear similar to what Lynn had just bought, though they wore wimpy tennis shoes in contrast to her glorious stompers.
When no one replied, Elena’s smirk widened and she tossed her hair over her shoulder. “What a bunch of pathetic losers.”
Anger unfroze Lynn’s muscles and she was stomping forward before her long-held “avoid all notice” instincts could kick in. She shoved past Ronnie and took a stance in front of her team, arms folded across her chest.
“What the heck are you doing here, Elena? Did you finally trade in your posse of harpies for these pop-boys? I have to say, it’s definitely an upgrade.”
“Jealous, pig-face? Your little group of scrawny nerds is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Well, except that fat blob,” she said, flicking a finger in Edgar’s direction. “He’s just disgusting.”
Lynn tilted her head, hiding her cold fury behind a bored look.
“You know, insulting our looks sounds a lot like you’re trying to compensate for something. Afraid your pop-boys aren’t up to competing against professional gamers?”
“Pffft. Professional?” Elena laughed. It was an annoying, high-pitched sound that made Lynn want to punch Elena in the mouth just to get it to stop. “Spending every waking hour playing lame little fantasies in virtual doesn’t make you a professional.”
Lynn didn’t take the bait—it wasn’t like she could trot out her status as a professional in virtual mercenary. Instead she forced herself to hold Elena’s gaze, keeping her face expressionless. Eventually the pop-girl couldn’t take the silence anymore and huffed.
“What did you name your stupid little team anyway, the Loser Squad?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Lynn retorted, rankled into replying. They still hadn’t reached a consensus on their team name and so far any time anyone broached the topic, Ronnie and Dan devolved into bickering about how juvenile each other’s suggestions were. “You’ll find out when we crush you at the qualifiers.”
“Well,” Elena sniffed, “we’re the Cedar Rapids Champions.”
A flurry of snorts sounded behind Lynn and she grinned.
“Seriously? Is that your actual name? And you call us lame?”
The pop-girl narrowed her eyes and the guys flanking her on either side shifted or looked away as if they had something to say but weren’t stupid enough to say it.
“Whatever,” Elena said and waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter. The point is, we are going to be the poster team for Cedar Rapids in the international Trans-whatever competitions.”
“Good grief, you still can’t even remember the name of the game you think you’re going to win?” Dan burst out, coming up to stand beside Lynn. “That takes lame to an entirely new level of pathetic.”
“Shut your mouth, dweeb-face,” Elena snapped and stepped forward, fists clenched. “We are the champions. We are top-level athletes and famous stream celebrities. You all are just a bunch of pathetic nobodies. We are going to put Cedar Rapids on the map and nothing is going to get in our way, least of all you. This is our hunting ground and if you don’t clear out, we’ll, hmm, help you along.” She crossed her arms across her chest in a mirror of Lynn, a self-satisfied smirk on her face.
Lynn scanned the faces of the guys to either side of her. The tallest, a guy with a shock of blond hair, looked distinctly uncomfortable. Lynn thought he might be their school’s ARS team captain but she wasn’t sure. The other three guys, though, seemed all too eager to take Elena’s cue and they adopted what they obviously thought were intimidating scowls. One of them even cracked his knuckles.
“That’s ridiculous,” Ronnie said, finally speaking up for the first time. He shouldered past Lynn and stood in front of her as if to block her from view. Okay, kind of rude but at least he wasn’t cowering or trying to make nice to the bullies. “You can’t claim ‘hunting grounds.’ Besides, we were here first.”
Elena stepped forward as well and a sneer twisted her pretty face. “Anywhere we want to hunt is our hunting ground, little Ronniekins, and I won’t have you idiots getting in the way of our training. Now, get lost. Or else,” she finished, tone dropping ominously.
“Oh, real smooth, Elena,” Lynn said, stepping up beside Ronnie and tapping her AR glasses. “It’s like you forgot that we’re all wearing live connections to the mesh web. I bet your stream fans are just loving all this drama. I wonder what Mr. Krator, the CEO of Tsunami Entertainment, will think when I tag him in a video of you threatening another TD Hunter team. Say, Dan, is that kind of behavior grounds for disqualification from the TD Hunter competitions?”
A painfully fake smile instantly replaced Elena’s nasty look as her eyes flicked nervously to each of their AR glasses.
“You know, I’ll bet it is,” Dan said and though Lynn didn’t take her eyes off Elena, she could hear the wicked smirk in his voice.
“You’re bluffing,” Elena challenged, her face still locked in a rictus of a smile. “Nobody would ever watch your live stream in a million years.”
Lynn shrugged.
“Who cares. It exists in the mesh if we ever need it later. Now if you’ll excuse us, we have some training to do.”
The big blond guy on Elena’s right side shifted as if to turn away but Elena’s hiss stopped him.
“Not a chance. We got here first. You all can go find somewhere else to be pathetic.”
“Come on, Elena,” Edgar rumbled, having come up behind Lynn so quietly she hadn’t even heard him. “There’s miles of electric rail, plenty of room for both of us.”
“Exactly, so you lot can just get lost. We’re not moving.”
“Hey, Elena, let it go,” the blond guy said, speaking for the first time. He reached out and grasped Elena’s wrist to pull her away, but she shook him off.
“Shut up, Connor. I’m not going to let these losers get in our way.”
Connor stared at Elena but his face was carefully blank, so Lynn couldn’t guess what was going through his head. But then he shrugged and crossed his arms too, expression shifting to boredom.
The childish stupidity of the situation was almost funny but as much as Lynn was tempted to scoff, she knew their precious afternoon was being wasted. It wouldn’t hurt to go farther down the rail, would it? But it would be foolish, bordering on suicidal at this point, to let Elena push them around. If they gave up, it would only make the bullying worse. Lynn knew from painful experience.
Ronnie knew it too but apparently he was willing to take the risk.
“Come on, guys. Let’s go,”
“What? No. We were here first,” Lynn said.
“Come on. We’re wasting time. This is a crappy place to hunt anyway,” Ronnie insisted and turned, shooting the other guys a narrow-eyed look that promised unpleasantness to anyone who didn’t fall in line.
Slowly, the four guys turned and walked away, leaving Lynn alone to hold her ground in front of Elena and her goons.
The pop-girl smirked.
“Aw, poor little piggy. Did they leave you behind? Better hurry, before the big, bad wolf gets you.”
As if on cue, Elena’s three teammates—Lynn had dubbed them Moe, Larry and Curly—shifted forward. Connor didn’t move but he also didn’t say anything.
“Really? Big bad wolf?” Lynn said. “That’s the dumbest threat I’ve ever heard. You sound like a nanny threatening a bunch of toddlers—”
“Come on, Lynn!” Edgar called from behind her. “This isn’t worth it. Let’s go kill some monsters.”
With nothing to be gained by staying—except maybe a black eye—Lynn turned and walked away. A fight would almost be worth it, if it got that harpy disqualified. But it would just as likely get them in trouble, too. She couldn’t risk it.
As much as Lynn pretended in virtual to be some former black-ops merc and as many times as she’d hunted down and killed opponents in WarMonger, she’d never contemplated what such a thing would be like in the real. But imagining herself perched a hundred yards away in a WarMonger setting with Vera in hand, laser sight trained on Elena’s forehead, was the only thing that kept her going as the pop-girl jeered at her back.
They tried to go north on the rail line, instead of south. But apparently Elena decided she would rather keep them from hunting than let her own team train, because the morons actually followed them, interrupting and distracting them at every turn. It got to the point that Ronnie finally gave up in disgust and dragged them off to catch an airbus back toward the east side of town. They found a new spot—not as hot with TDMs as the rail line but not deserted either—and got to work. But ten minutes into it, the “Champions” showed up again, acting all nonchalant as if they hadn’t just somehow followed Lynn and her friends there.
Ronnie had them move a second time. About ten minutes later their harassers showed up once again, not even bothering to feign ignorance this time.
Elena was crazy, Lynn decided. Just flat-out crazy.
Ronnie finally told them to all go home and practice their simulations exercises for the rest of the day. Lynn was worried about them splitting up, in case Elena and her crew planned to jump one of them once they were alone. But Elena’s crazy obsession with them seemed satisfied once Ronnie “admitted defeat.” Lynn thought about messaging Ronnie to have them all meet again somewhere else but decided not to. She had no idea how Elena’s team was doing it but somehow the CRCs were tracking them—Lynn refused to think of them as the “Champions.” She would ask Hugo about it later, maybe even do some digging of her own.
After saying goodbye to her teammates, Lynn hopped on an airbus heading back to her apartment complex. She took a seat by a window but hardly noticed the view. Her mind was busy plotting.
Halfway home, she opened the TD Hunter app, keeping herself out of combat mode.
“Hey, Hugo,” she subvocalized.
“Yes, Miss Lynn? How can I help?”
“I want to scout a new hunting location but I don’t have time to go traipsing all over the city. Can you do a map search for me?”
“Certainly, Miss Lynn. What are my parameters?”
“I need to find the most isolated power node in the northeastern quadrant of Cedar Rapids. I need a balance of isolation and size. Look for either a node substation, or a power node that’s grouped with transmitter antennas and a mesh hub but that’s also removed from foot and vehicular traffic. Not too far removed, though. Look for something within a few minutes’ walk of the nearest airbus platform. If you can’t find anything that accessible, I suppose we could always catch a robo-car but that’s more expensive so I want to avoid it.”
“Noted. Is that all?”
“Oh, yeah and check the satellite and street level images while you’re at it. We need enough clear space to move around if we’re going to hunt. I’m pretty sure most power nodes are fenced in and I don’t want to go breaking into anything or trespassing. So, there has to be enough room outside the fence to hunt.”
“Excellent, Miss Lynn. One moment, please, while I gather the data you’ve requested.”
A moment later, Lynn’s overhead map expanded to fill her display. Since she was out of combat mode, the map was devoid of red or blue dots—the blue were TD Hunter players, which helped Lynn and her team not step on the toes of any other hunters. Lynn had briefly thought that was how Elena had been tracking them but players only showed up if they were in combat mode and Lynn’s team never stayed in combat mode when around civilians like at an airbus platform. Too much risk that a monster would attack them and they wouldn’t be able to fight back for fear of accidentally hitting someone with their batons.
The lack of TDM data cluttering up the map helped out in this case. Lynn saw that Hugo had dropped a GEO pin on four different locations in the requested quadrant. The farthest east was off Collins Road SE, along Indian Creek. A second pin was a little north of Collins Road, near the Rockwell Collins Aerospace company and almost across the road from Noelridge Park. The third was farther north near Dry Creek and the St. Andrews Golf Course. And the last one was south, closer to downtown and right by Interstate 380. Lynn realized the last one was right beside the same electric rail line they’d tried to follow earlier, a mile or so farther south.
“Okay, this looks good. Can you show me the street level images for each location?”
“Unfortunately not, Miss Lynn. While I can access the information, the TD Hunter app is not the proper platform from which to view web search images. Might I suggest switching to EarthMaps?”
“Yeah, sure. Can you message me all those addresses? Thanks.”
Lynn hopped from TD Hunter to the navigation app she always used. Then she pulled up the message from Hugo and plugged in the addresses one by one. The navigation app had 360-degree images from every road worldwide and when it “dropped” her at the first requested address, to her eyes it looked for all the world like she was standing on a gravel access road instead of sitting in an airbus—though of course, the navigation images were static. She used the apps controls to zoom along the access road until she could see the node substation and examine its surrounding area. There was a small park to one side, a subdivision behind it and the woods along Indian Creek on the other two sides. Not a bad location for hunting with lots of clear space but the park and neighborhood would probably cut down on the number of TDMs and it was several minutes’ walk from the nearest airbus platform.
The location by the aerospace company was no good. It was surrounded by streets on three sides with various supply buildings. There would be too much human interference.
The location near the golf course was promising. It sat at the end of an undeveloped street with manicured greenway on two sides, an uncut field on the third side and the woods bordering the golf course at its back.
The last location near the electric rail was bigger than the rest and so had the advantage of greater levels of electromagnetic radiation to draw in more TDMs. But it was bordered by busy streets on two sides and Lynn didn’t know enough about the app’s algorithms to predict how the increase in EM particles would be countered by the proximity to human interference.
Ultimately, though, she picked the last location by the electric rail to check out first. It was the closest to an airbus platform and they’d already had a good experience with the electric rail. Well, minus Miss Crazy and her four pop-boy thugs. Lynn wondered idly how she’d convinced Connor and the others to form a hunter team with her. It probably hadn’t been that hard, actually. Connor and his teammates probably had TD Hunter on their radar already and Elena would know them all since she was the captain of the cheerleading team. In fact…was she dating Connor? Lynn had never paid attention at school to who was dating whom. But Connor was pretty enough—and popular enough—to check all of Elena’s boxes. Lynn wasn’t worried about Elena by herself. The popularity-obsessed girl didn’t know the first thing about gaming, though she would be proficient enough with AR stuff since the cheerleading routines for the ARS games were thick with visual augments. Connor and his teammates, on the other hand…they would be trouble. They were already experts at AR sports, unlike her and the guys. The only edge Lynn and her fellow gamers had was their experience with gaming mechanics and tactics. Well, that and they didn’t have an airhead like Elena screwing up their team.
They had Ronnie, though.
Lynn sighed and exited the navigation app to check the airbus’s location. She’d have to bus-hop a few times to get on one that would take her by the node substation. She’d originally gotten on a bus heading east back to her apartment.
By the time she finally reached her destination, the sun had started its descent toward the horizon and shadows were lengthening across the landscape. The airbus platform was only a block from the substation and Lynn walked the distance lost in thought.
Would finding better hunting locations solve their leveling problem? If they couldn’t reach Level 20, all their hard work would be wasted. Eventually, she told herself to stop worrying about it. After all, if it got too close, they could always put in more hours. It would be fine for a few days. And Edgar would be quitting his landscape job before school started, so he could join them for longer periods.
Lynn was so involved in her thoughts that she was barely aware as she crossed the street and started along the brick wall that encircled the node substation. Still pondering, she reached the far corner of the substation and veered off the sidewalk into the grass to go around the corner and find a nice open space to start hunting. When she rounded the corner, though, she almost ran headfirst into someone.
“Oh, sorry!” she said, jerking to a stop and raising her eyes, which had been fixed on the ground.
It was Connor.
“What the heck? Are you all following me again?” Lynn burst out as Moe, Larry, Curly and Elena hurried up to stand abreast of Connor.
“Hey, sorry,” the ARS captain said. His voice was honey smooth with just the right amount of masculine roughness. Lynn thought it was massively annoying. “We didn’t follow anyone here. We just headed down the electric rail and thought this would be a good place to stop and hunt.”
“Yeah, right—” Lynn began but Elena butted in.
“I’m so glad we ran into you again, Lynn,” she said. Her expression was suspiciously pleasant. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. Do you mind?”
Alarm bells went off in Lynn’s head. Something told her to turn around then and there and run. But she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t intrigued. She doubted Elena just wanted to insult her more. No, more likely the pop-girl was going to threaten her, or offer some sort of stupid deal to get rid of Ronnie and the rest so there would be less competition. It would be interesting to find out.
“Sure. Whatever,” Lynn said.
“Great. Let’s go over here where there’s less noise,” Elena said and turned to walk farther along the brick wall, which was lined with decorative trees. Lynn hesitated but finally followed. She did surreptitiously reach back and unclip her little pepper spray keychain off her backpack to tuck it into her palm. Just in case. Her dad’s knife was in her backpack, so it would be too obvious to get it out now. Plus, she didn’t think it would be a smart idea to start a knife fight without any training. At least, not unless her life was in danger.
She also opened the TD Hunter app.
“Hey, Hugo,” she subvocalized. “You said you could flag down a police drone, right?”
“If you are in danger, yes of course.”
“Well…I might be soon, so keep an eye out.”
“As you wish, Miss Lynn.”
Elena stopped near the far corner of the brick wall, far enough away from the street that they were hidden by the ornamental trees on one side and the brick wall on the other from any observers. She turned to Lynn and blinked twice in succession. Lynn recognized it as one of the ways you could set an AR interface to shut down. There was no way to tell if the interface was contacts, or an implant but Lynn thought Elena was the kind of rich celebrity-wannabe who wouldn’t hesitate to jump on the very expensive implant bandwagon. Connor and his stooges probably all had contacts.
“Take your glasses off, Lynn,” she said, voice sickly sweet.
“Yeah, right. So you can beat me up in private? No, thanks.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I just want our conversation to be private, that’s all.”
When Lynn narrowed her eyes, Elena batted her eyelashes and added, “Pleeease.”
“Fine,” Lynn said with an exhale and slipped off her glasses.
“Put them in your backpack. Just as a precaution, of course.” Elena smiled again.
Lynn rolled her eyes and in the process spotted a gray dot in the sky above them. Was that a police drone, or just another survey drone doing routine work? She didn’t think it was police, those were usually bigger and patterned black and blue. Either way, she felt a bit safer with it hovering above and slipped off her glasses, taking a moment to stash them in her backpack. “Okay, we’re in private. What is it?”
In an instant, Elena dropped the nice act and her face twisted in a sneer.
“Tell your Lame Squad that if we catch you outside hunting again, you’re all dead meat. Nobody wants you in this competition and there’s no way we’re letting your team qualify.”
“Those are some mighty big words,” Lynn said, fingering her pepper spray. She was intensely aware of the three guys who had come up to stand behind her. Connor was beside Elena and slightly behind the pop-girl, like some sort of bodyguard. Or flunky. “You can’t get away with foul play like that anymore, not when nearly everything is either live or has instant access to the mesh net. You’ll get yourself thrown out of the competition and banned from TD Hunter if you even try it.”
“Oh, there are ways and there are ways to teach you little twerps a lesson you won’t forget,” Elena said with a nasty smile. “Besides, glasses can always slip off and get crushed—by accident, of course. And nobody wears their glasses all the time. You’ll never know when we’ll come to get you. Do you really want to live in that kind of fear?”
“Pffft,” Lynn snorted, to cover the cold chill that was spreading down to her toes. “You’re about as scary as one of those little chipmunks with a squeaky voice.”
Elena’s eyes flashed and she looked over Lynn’s shoulder.
“Well, let’s change that, shall we?”
Lynn reacted too late. Before she could lunge forward and give Elena a good punch in the face, two of the guys behind her grabbed her forearms and the third grabbed her braid, which she hadn’t bothered to pin up because she’d been out so late last night and had gotten a late start that morning. The red hot fire that blossomed across her scalp as the thug yanked on it ensured it would be the very last time she made that mistake.
“You’re a disgusting, irritating little fly in my plans,” Elena said, stepping close as Lynn tried to twist her forearms out of the stooges’ grasps. Their grips were like iron. “One I’m going to thoroughly enjoy squashing—EEEEYAAAAAGGG!!”
Fortunately for Lynn, the two stooges had been stupid enough to grab her forearms instead of her wrists and she was able to raise her right hand up enough to aim her pepper spray at Elena’s eyes and give the pop-girl a much deserved faceful. The girl staggered back, shrieking and clawing at her face. The two guys holding Lynn’s arms loosened their hold for a second in shock and Lynn took the opportunity to wrench her right arm up and shoot a long spray behind her at head level. The three stooges let her go and stumbled away, coughing and yelling. Connor was busy trying to calm Elena, leaving Lynn unimpeded for a few precious seconds. She took off toward the road at top speed.
She didn’t stop running until she reached the airbus platform and slipped onto a waiting bus, finding a seat at the very back where she collapsed into a seat and tried to catch her breath.
Those flaming jerkwads.
As if she didn’t already have enough to deal with, now she had attempted assault and blackmail to add to her plate.
Yippee.