Moxyland - Lauren Beukes [90]
'Get down! Get down! Dammit!' The security cop bats at the dog, which whines in agitation. 'Okay. She's on her way. Forty minutes. You can go through and wait in the parking lot. The silver Chrysler Spitfire. That'll be her.' We sit in awkward silence, until Damian clicks the radio, loads a sample from Kill Kitten's new album.
'It's not the final mix,' he says, by way of apology. And I try to listen, I really do, but I'm distracted watching the main gate.
'Are you even into new spectro, Kendra?' asks Vix bitchily, but then a gunmetal shark of a car pulls into the parking lot and I don't have to answer.
Dr. Precious emerges from the Chrysler with Andile in tow. He chucks me on the shoulder, playfully. 'Woah, hectic mess you landed in, babes! Real history stuff. Don't worry, we'll sort it out. You didn't get caught up in all that ugliness, did you, Dame? No? No antibodies required for you, then, china! Well, come on, Kendra!' Andile ushers me giddily towards the doors.
Damian and Vix are standing, hesitating at the car.
'Should we, uh… Do you want us to come in with you?' Damian asks.
'Ag, no! She'll be fine! Really. You'll be bored. All the scans and samples. Nothing serious. Just procedure. You know what it's like. No point waiting around. We'll get her home.'
Damian looks concerned.
'It's cool, Damian,' I say. 'Seriously. Thanks for getting me here. I don't know what I would have done.'
'No. I think we should come with,' he says, slowly.
Dr. Precious moves over to him, and says something really quiet. Vix gives me a sharp, quick glance, but the way Damian studiously doesn't look at me is more alarming.
I smile uneasily. 'Is there something I should know?'
'No, we're good, come along.' He hustles me in through the doors. 'Precious, she's just living up to her name. Doesn't like people hanging around when she works, especially civilian hangers-on like Dame's little girlfriend. Doesn't really have the clearance to be here. You know she applied for the sponsorship, right? Didn't make the cut.'
The sound of a car door snapping shut makes me look back.
'I think she's jealous of you,' Andile shakes his head ruefully as Dr. Precious walks in behind us. Beyond the glass doors, the Anglia reverses into an inexorable parabola and out of the Inatec parking lot.
Tendeka
'So what are you gonna do with all your worldly after you're gone? Donate it to the street kids? Auction it off? Martyr relics get top price on eBay.' Toby bounces beside me, facing backwards on the street, so that he nearly crashes into a flower-seller struggling with two plastic buckets bristling with bouquets.
'I'm dying,' I tell the flower-seller, who is cursing at Toby, by way of apology. She recoils behind her buckets and the flowers. I can't tell what they are. The colours blur when I try to focus. 'No sir, I don't got no flowers for that!'
'Too dramatic,' Toby muses. 'Cliché. Flowers. Bad. No. I thought you planned all this meticulously. You can't go whimsical all of a sudden. And, besides, you're frightening the lady.'
'She should be frightened. We all should be. Can your friend hook us up? Lerato?'
'To what?'
'Remote link-up. So we can transmit your coat's cameras to the billboards? The city is going to bear witness.'
He looks uncomfortable. 'Yeah, about that.'
'You can back out. I don't mind. Go running to an immunity centre, get your life-saving shot and your arrest warrant all in one, let them fuck you, let them fuck all of us. Just leave me with the coat.'
'Jesus, all right. Don't get so worked up.'
'I'm fine,' I say, ignoring the smear of bright red on the back of my hand when I wipe my mouth. 'You still don't believe it, do you? We're dying, Toby. Both of us.'
'See, here's the thing. I don't feel like I'm dying, as a matter of fact, I… Jesus motherfuck.' He catches me as I list forward, bracing me against his chest and his shoulder,