Continuance (19 page)

“They have the
best white rum,” she said, as if the rationale were obvious.

Stuart exchanged
a glance with Jason. She cocked her head to one side, pale blue eyes meeting theirs,
clearly expecting compliance. Chaela never seemed hard pressed to come up with
ways to surprise. “Steven’s it is,” Jason said.

“What’s this?”
Ivory sounded like a beachcomber who’d run across something interesting. She
touched an entry in the music library. A syncopated guitar riff filled the car,
repeating the same few notes over and over. “Old music,” she murmured, a mix of
surprise and curiosity.

“
Real
music.” Jason gave her a half smile. The song was a favorite from the days he’d
been young the first time. They listened as the M3 cruised the road, the
thunder of a driving bass drum joining the guitar, punctuated by power chords
and cymbal crashes. The song built momentum, and Jason felt a delicious energy
unfolding. The edgy feeling of adrenaline and hormones – absent for so many
years – welled up, coursing through him from core to fingertips.

A smile crept
across Ivory’s face. The music was more basic, more primal than the modern
stuff she was likely used to, but her head began to bob in time with the beat.
A glance in the rear view mirror showed Stuart and Chaela doing the same.

“What do you
think?” Jason called over to Ivory, loud enough to be heard over the volume.

“It’s not
De Novo
,
but it’ll do.” Jason recognized the glint in her in her eyes – the same energy
he felt.

“Jason’s got all
kinds of surprises in here,” Stuart yelled from the back. “You should see how
fast this thing is. It’s scary.”

Somehow,
Stuart’s comment crystallized the moment, setting it in a new light. Jason made
the decision before he knew it.

Maybe it was the
fact he’d walked away from a close call with the spiders, that Alex had too. Or
the prospect of actually finding Michelle, now that he had a concrete lead.
Perhaps it was because Stuart had practically dared him.
No. It’s because I
never did anything like this the first time around. Time to live. No regrets.

He looked around
at his friends.
They
are
my friends
. Aside from Alex, they were the
first ones he’d thought of that way since coming back. Ivory had her arms above
her head, swaying in her seat. Stuart was shaking his fist – and his head –
along with the music. Chaela drummed on the seat back behind him in a display
Jason might have expected to see
after
she got her hands on that white
rum.

He looked out at
the stretch of road ahead. He knew it well. In a few moments, they’d pass
through a tunnel beneath an interchange – a long, gradual curve of half a mile
or more. The singer opened up the first verse of the song in a vocal style that
was half yell, all emotion, and Jason slid back the hidden panel in the center
console.

He looked at
each of them in turn as they noticed what he’d done, plainly wondering what the
buttons were. Saying nothing, he tapped a finger, and the glow of red light
sprang to life beneath it. A message flashed on the HUD.

Manual
Navigation Ready.

Ivory’s jaw fell
open as she looked first at the message, then at Jason.

“Oh, now
that’s
the dog’s bollocks!” Stuart leaned forward into the front seat between Jason
and Ivory.

As the music
crescendoed toward the chorus, Jason grabbed the wheel. “Hang on.” The last
things he saw before he hit the gas were Chaela’s eyes, wide with surprise in
the rear-view mirror.

Jason’s head
thumped against the seatback as the car shot forward into the tunnel. A green
compact in front of him grew in size as he came up on its bumper, moving over
in time for him to blow by as its collision avoidance system sensed him coming
too close. From the corner of his eye, Ivory looked like she was riding a
roller coaster. She thrust her hands through the open sunroof and threw her
head back in a delighted scream. Similar sounds came from Stuart and Chaela
behind, barely audible over the engine and the music blaring through the sound
system.

Exit
Light. Enter Night.

Take my hand.
Off to Never Never Land.

Jason flew past
the next car, already doing 125 with another gear to go. Just as they did on
the racetrack, the perks made his vision clear, his movements sure. But this
was different. On the track, things were controlled and regulated, like a sort
of gated preserve for dangerous beasts. This was the open wild. Here, he was
like a cheetah among antelope.

For a heartbeat,
his fingers froze over the shifter paddle as he waited for the sweet spot on
the power curve. A quick tap and the car was in sixth, leaping ahead again. The
dashed dividing stripes on the pavement blurred into solid lines. At this
speed, he overtook cars faster than their collision avoidance could handle, and
he wove around the slower ones like pylons on a slalom course. With subtle
turns of the wheel, he guided the M3 the from lane to lane in long, sure arcs.

Jason drew a
deep breath. He felt alive. Alive in a way he never had. How could he have
never done this
before
? Chaela’s words about regrets came back to him.
He’d never miss a moment like this again. Life – even his own – was too short. He
pressed the pedal further, feeling resistance as it touched the floor. The
tunnel was the barrel of a gun, the car a raging bullet.

Distantly, he
heard shouts – no, screams – from the back. He felt an urgent tapping on his
shoulder, realizing Stuart was shouting his name. He risked a quick glance in
the rearview mirror. In that instant he glimpsed Chaela in the seat behind him,
eyes squeezed shut, her pale face a study in terror. Her mouth hung open in a
wordless cry, and she shook her head in tiny motions, urgent and rapid as if to
deny what happening.

Oh, shit
.

“Jason!” Stuart
shouted again. At the same time, Chaela found her voice, shrieking over the
noise. “Stop! Stop! Let me out!!!”

Jason took his
foot off the gas. His stomach sank as he slowed the car, though not from the
sudden decrease in speed. Ivory killed the music, concern written on her face
as she turned to face Chaela.

“Let me OUT!!!”
Chaela’s voice sounded deafening in the sudden silence.

“Okay. It’s
okay, Chaela,” Ivory said, her voice soothing. “He’s stopping. It’s okay.”

They exited the
tunnel, and Jason took the first off ramp. He pulled into a steakhouse parking
lot, bringing the car to a stop. The instant he stepped out, Chaela threw the
seat forward and burst out of the back. She ran a few steps over to a sidewalk
before she stopped and bent over, hands on her knees. Her reddish hair hung
down around her face, and her shoulders shook as she stood there, panted
breaths alternating with stifled sobs.

Uncertain what
to do, Jason went over to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry.”

She jerked away,
moving a couple of steps farther away, still not looking at him. Ivory started
to get out, but Jason stopped her with a gesture as he came back over to the
car.

He leaned
inside, keeping his voice low. “Listen, she’s pretty upset. I don’t think she’s
getting back in the car. You guys go on. I’ll catch up.”

Ivory put a hand
on his arm. “I could stay with her, Jason.”

Stuart coughed.
“Right. Like we’re going to leave two girls stranded out here in the middle of
town with no ride. I’ll stay.”

“No,” Jason said.
“It’s my fault. I’ll handle it. You can drive Ivory back, Stuart.” Jason held
out the key. “Just make sure you put it back on autonav, okay? I’ll see she
gets back home, then come join you guys.”

Stuart and Ivory
exchanged a look before Stuart gave a grudging nod and took the key. The M3
pulled back on the freeway, leaving Jason with the odd sensation of watching
his own car pull out of sight.

He turned to
find Chaela walking the other direction, already halfway down the block. “Hey! Wait
up!” He called to her again when he was within closer earshot, but she didn’t
turn, didn’t break stride. If anything, she walked faster.

The sidewalk ran
in front of a shopping plaza, the bright colors of photoscreens and animated
signs flooding the night sky in haze of light. The whoosh of tires along the
street was almost constant as cars passed at high speed. Their headlamps
intermittently painted Chaela’s retreating form in a harsh white, only to
return to the bluish illumination of the streetlights above. As Jason caught up,
she didn’t look over, keeping her gaze fixed on the ground in front of her
feet.

“Chaela, listen.
I’m really sorry. I should have realized that stunt might not be fun for
everyone. I should have asked.” Her pace didn’t change. Neither did her gaze,
fixed on the sidewalk as if she were trying to stare through it. “Look, can I
at least get you a cab?” More silence.

Jason
backpedaled in front of her, forcing her to slow down. “Fine. If you won’t take
a cab, how are you going to get home?”

Without looking
at him, she pointed a finger ahead, and he glanced over his shoulder. The
illuminated logo of a Cal Metro bus stop glowed in blue and white another
twenty paces on. While he had his head turned, Chaela used the chance to brush
past.

Jason threw up
his hands. “Come on. How many times can I say I’m sorry?”

Without breaking
stride, she called out a reply. “Apology accepted. Now you can go home.”

This is
not
going
well.

            She
reached the bus stop and took a seat on a bench beneath a curving aeroglass canopy.
Flanking on one side stood a seven-foot Cal Metro sign and the other, a city
map of equal height. Pulsating lines in red, blue and green traced out the
various routes. Jason kept his place on the sidewalk for a moment before
walking over to join her, leaving a generous distance between them.

“You’re just not
going to go away are you?” she asked.

“Well, I’m sort
of stranded out here, now. Besides, you said you wanted me to go home. This is
probably the best way. Sorry they don’t have His and Her bus stops.” That last
wasn’t a very good attempt at being apologetic, but she seemed determined to
let the olive branch wither in his hand anyway.

He glanced at
the digital grid beside the map, a matrix of times and street names in glowing
red. The map itself showed an animated blue dot a mile or two away, slowly
creeping toward the icon marking their location.

“At least we
won’t have long to wait,” he muttered. “It’s only a couple of minutes out.”

Chaela pulled
her AP from her purse, ready to pay her fare the moment the bus arrived.

“I’ll cover your
ride back.” He took out his own AP to illustrate the offer.

He started to
think she was going to ignore him again, but she shrugged and put the AP back
in her purse. For some reason it made him feel better to offer even this much
restitution for scaring her half to death. He’d been reckless, stupid.
Sometimes,
it’s better to act your age.

The digital map
sounded a perky chime, and the blue dot – almost on top of them now – started
blinking.

“Route 217
arriving,” said a recorded alto voice. “Down line stops at Via Lampara and La
Noche, Via Lampara and El Prado,…”

Bright lights
and the approaching crackle of tires on pavement drew Jason’s eye as the bus
arrived. Just a common city bus, but the round, sleek shape and tinted windows
reminded him of one of the high-speed maglev trains that had only existed in
Japan and Europe in days gone by. Thin seams in the shape of a rounded rectangle
materialized near the front, and the door slid silently to one side while a
small ramp extended silently down to the walk.

Inside the
cabin, Jason transferred enough for two fares back to Everton. Other than the
lack of a driver – the bus was full autonav – the inside was laid out like any
other bus near the turn of the millennium. A single aisle split the cabin front
to back, with pairs of c-shaped seats lining either side. An older woman sat
near the front with a Pomeranian in her lap. The other seats were all empty.
Jason followed Chaela toward the back, with the bus already moving by the time
he took a seat across the aisle from her.

Chaela kept her eyes
down, studying her hands resting in her lap. The PA provided the only break from
the silence as it announced upcoming stops. Every few moments Jason stole a
glance to see if perhaps her mood had brightened, but each she hadn’t moved.
Since she seemed determined to disavow his existence, he leaned back in his
seat, pulling his knees up to rest against the idle photoscreen in the seatback
before closing his eyes.

“Why are you so
nice to me?”

His eyes snapped
open again. She still stared at her lap, but her face was different now. Attentive,
a little softer. He could tell she was waiting for a reply.