Well, she couldn’t expect everything to be close by that night.

  The sun was finally about to disappear, though with so many clouds, she hadn’t seen it in a while. The rain seemed to be giving her a break—just in time to go see her best friend.

  There it was, at Electric Motor Charging Station Fourteen. A machine with sleek, curved lines, made to be ridden. Yes, Patrick, it was a motorcycle joke, but no—if the clown respected her enough, he’d know she preferred joking with her own body rather than with her friend.

  The Voltrider, made by Old Steam Rides. A marvel she’d bought—or at least put a down payment on—with her severance from the police force. Most companies that still manufactured combustion engines were either bankrupt or selling their products as collectibles to the wealthy in New Cities. That didn’t matter to her as long as her best friend existed.

  Nearly four hundred horsepower; intelligent suspension and stabilization; dense graphene finishes resistant to scratches and impacts. And, of course, a dazzling violet color. The moronic salesman had offered her a Hadesmachina or a Clarin. A Clarin! To her! Did she look like a pizza delivery girl? No, she needed a vehicle for chases. Police motorcycles had disappointed her time and time again. She wouldn’t lose a suspect or let anyone catch her as long as she had something to say about it.

  It was a 2119 model—the last of the perfect ones. Rachel hated that the newer ones looked square, angular, almost as if they were made from boxes. Hers was curvy, just like her. She paid for the charge and headed to Brooklyn.

  Thanks to magnetic repulsion, she didn’t even have to take off her hat. She liked turning it off and feeling the speed, the wind, but with the rain that could start pouring at any moment, she drove with her protective bubble around her. She would take advantage of some of the new overpasses—few people used them because they were so narrow, but she found them perfect. The risk invigorated her, and she could make the most of her machine’s power. The previous mayor's white elephant, in the form of narrow, unprotected paths running parallel to the main roads, made her so happy that if, by chance, they let him run for office once he got out of jail, she’d vote for him. What had he done? Nobody kept track of the crimes of the powerful anymore—there were too many.

  She called Bit out of courtesy, knowing full well she’d be home. She set the call to audio-only to drive better.

  “Tabitha Marcus.” The waiting sound was brief, but Rachel had little patience. “Answer, Bit!”

  The personalized icon appeared in a corner of her field of vision, out of the way of the road. Rachel could see the optimal route with her Holox, as if the street subtly glowed.

  “Goodness, little purple one, I’ve answered already. You get so unpleasant when you call via audio.”

  “How do you know what color I’m wearing, Bit? Are you hacking my camera again?”

  “Ugh, so distrustful. You always wear that awful purple trench coat and hat when you’re working, and you’re always working when you call me. You never invite me out or anything.”

  “As if you liked going out. Do you want to go dancing? There’ll be a girls' night at the Fitz next weekend.”

  “Very funny, Rae Rae, I’ll pass. That bar’s a dump, though I wouldn’t mind having Zena any night.”

  “You know Zena and Alexander share the same tastes. You don’t stand a chance.”

  “They’re boring. Are you coming over? Did you forget your access codes again, or does your Holox need an update?”

  “It’s something different—you’ll be interested. It’s your kind of crap.”

  “It better be, or it won’t be cheap. They don’t call me Bit because of Tabitha.”

  “Shut up. Neither you nor Pat stop pretending—you’re like kids.”

  “Did you see Patrick again? Rae… you promised you’d stop calling him. That clown only makes you suffer.”

  “It was important. I might have a lead on Priscilla.”

  “Really? Do you think she could still turn up after all this time?”

  “Even if all I find are her bones, I’ll find her. And you’re going to help me, aren’t you? Not like that idiot Patrick.”

  “You know you can count on me. I’ll be waiting at home. Take care—those new paths aren’t safe.”

  The call ended with the usual beep. So, after all, she was keeping an eye on her. At least her location.

  She sped up onto one of those motorcycle-exclusive paths—a series of platforms that levitated steadily over the road thanks to magnetic repulsion—and hit the gas. The route would be dangerous, but that was what she loved about life itself. The paths hugged buildings or rose dozens of meters to avoid them. She passed within centimeters of some balconies, came close to falling on more than one sharp turn, and finally…

  She spotted a gap in the distance between two platforms. If she stayed on the path, it might take her two more minutes. It was almost forty meters—and she could fall the same distance. She didn’t think twice. She gunned the throttle to the max and trusted her friend’s power. The traction of her tires made the rain irrelevant, even on those metal platforms. When the ground ended, the motorcycle soared through the air over a bustling avenue. Distracted citizens might not even see her fall onto them if she didn’t make it to the other side.

  The rear tire hit the platform first. The intelligent suspension barely let her feel the impact, but the brief flight filled her with that spark of life she now craved daily.

  The bridge was almost always the best part of the journey. She had the option to use the elevated path’s platforms or weave through other vehicles. For once, she chose the former and enjoyed the view of the river during the storm as she raced across it as fast as her Voltrider would allow.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Thanks to Bit, she wouldn’t receive tickets for her jumps or speeding. Her digital signature was invisible to the traffic sentinels—she had managed to keep her privileges as if she were still an officer.

  The downside of going so fast was always that the trip was brief. She reached Tabitha’s apartment in just a few minutes. She parked right in front of the building and activated the anti-theft system. By now, the petty thieves in that neighborhood already recognized her friend as untouchable—especially those with electric burns in very sensitive areas.

  She took the elevator up. It was only the third floor, but it felt proper. She had a key to the apartment, like many of Bit’s friends, so she just walked in.

  “Rae! I wasn’t expecting you at all, heh, heh, heh. Come here, let me give you a welcome kiss.”

  Rachel smiled and approached the desk where her longtime friend and fellow police academy companion spent her days. She bent down to her level as the magnetic repulsion chair spun so they could exchange a modest kiss on each cheek.

  “It's such a pleasure to see you in a good mood, Bit. How have you been?”

  The woman with short, green-dyed hair adjusted her glasses before answering. She wore them for style—no one actually needed anything like that to see well, thanks to Holox devices feeding their brains high-definition camera images.

  “Oh, as always. Studying, selling information, preparing to compete in ice skating.”

  It was unbelievable that even nanomachines couldn’t repair Bit’s spine, but she always made the best of her situation. Nearly five years in that chair hadn’t made her bitter. She had created much of her apartment’s automation herself and lived completely independently. Even Rachel found it infuriating to recall that a silly training accident at the academy had ended her friend’s career as a homicide investigator.

  “Well, stop looking at me like that, or you’ll end up in a wheelchair.”

  “Nothing to lose then, long legs. Unless you’re threatening to steal my chair.”

  “Were you listening at the station?” Rachel was annoyed—she didn’t like being spied on, not even by Bit.

  “I always listen when your Holox and Patrick’s are within ten meters of each other. That guy left you alone in your worst moment, Rae. I don’t want you crying again.”

  “I wasn’t crying that day; I just had a bit of a cough.”

  “Even if I wasn’t actually there, you can’t fool me. And I’m not going to let that pig worm his way back into your life, especially not into your bed.”

  Tabitha grabbed her right leg with both arms to cross it in a gesture of exaggerated decisiveness, resting her elbow on the chair’s armrest and her head on her hand. Damn! She was only wearing a tank top and shorts. How did someone paralyzed manage to keep her legs so well-toned?

  “Are you listening, Rae Rae?” The sharp, slightly nasal voice of the girl snapped Rachel out of her steamy thoughts.

  “Sorry, sorry. It’s been a tough day. You’re right, as always, but I don’t know what’s wrong with me—especially lately, it feels like I need a cold shower. And well, you know how we were.”

  “Don’t remind me. Because of you two, I’ve deactivated the olfactory receptors on my Holox. So, what’s this important thing you can’t tell Patrick?”

  “I still don’t feel comfortable with you listening in. But anyway, it’s this thing.” She pulled the glass ovule with nanomachines from her trench coat pocket. For a moment, Bit’s expression was exaggerated, as if she’d seen a ghost. “Are you okay?”

  “Where did you find that? It's not exactly something everyone in Old City has sitting in their closet.”

  “Old Grygoriy thinks Priscilla had it hidden in her desk—it showed up after the fire at their home.”

  “Let me see it,” she said, taking it from Rachel’s hands. “If it were a commercial set, you wouldn’t have brought it to me. I know you know how to investigate.”

  Bit removed her glasses and stared intently at the object. She was likely running one of her applications or searching a database.

  “This,” she said, sounding unconvinced, “must be a blank set or a custom one. They’re used in NaNo’s R&D labs. Maybe a new product. If our Priscilla had it for any reason, it could mean whoever took her was after this.”

  It made sense, but assuming “Antonio” was telling the truth, and the fire was caused by the same kidnappers, why wait almost a year? Or worse, why hadn’t they searched thoroughly? If Mr. Boiko had found it in the end, something didn’t add up. But if they weren’t involved, the coincidences were more than astonishing.

  “Can you figure out its function? Connect to it?”

  “No, this is the kind of thing that requires a very advanced lab—way beyond what I have here. But judging by the quantity, they could be transformative. The kind that restores complex devices or creates things from raw material.”

  “Then my next stop has to be NaNo’s labs.”

  “In New City? That might be a bit harder than it seems, Rae. It’s not exactly forbidden to go there, but you won’t even get them to sell you a hot dog if you don’t fit in.”

  “Do they even sell hot dogs there?”

  “Rae, seriously, they have their own network, and it’s not accessible from just any Holox. You wouldn’t even be able to park your bike. Maybe in the residential areas, but you want to go to NaNo’s headquarters.” She was right—it was a whole problem. “You’re going to need your own nanomachines.”

  “And where do you think I’m going to get something like that? I can’t use the ones in this vial.”

  “Of course not. And it’s best if you leave it with me. If you take it there, they’ll try to take it from you. NaNo is extremely protective of its technology. Besides, I can try to access the data it holds while you interrogate a few big fish.”

  It made sense, but she didn’t like the idea of parting with her only lead.

  “I don’t know, Bit. What if I end up putting you in danger by stirring the hornet’s nest?”

  “I’m on a local network. My servers are untraceable. In any case, NaNo already has plenty of reasons to look for me, heh, heh, heh.” That laugh—she’d probably gotten bored again and tested their security systems.

  “Alright, keep it. Just let me scan it in case I need to show it to someone.”

  “I’ll send you a realistic, high-definition model. Your Holox doesn’t have such a good scanner.”

  “None of them do, show-off,” Rachel crossed her arms. “Not all of us get new engineering every three months.”

  “It comes with free time and about four attention disorders.”

  “Anyway, any suggestions for the problem of fitting into the big city?”

  “Yes… I have them around here… oh, right, according to my database, they’re in the bottom drawer of that cabinet behind you.”

  “What are you talking about?” Rachel turned and bent down to open the small drawer. “Seriously? Where did you get this?”

  In her hand now was a glass vial similar to the one she had brought, but much smaller, like a marble, and with many more engravings.

  “They’re an aesthetic model, for creating clothes with the app I’m installing on your Holox. A company gave it to me as payment for a job, but I hardly ever go out. Why would I need infinite clothes? It just takes up bandwidth.”

  “Bit, this must be worth about twelve thousand bits. I can’t pay you for it, and I’m not going to accept it just like that.”

  “Rae, what you’re doing is important, and no one’s going to pay you for finding Priscilla. Her grandparents are nearly broke. That’s trash to me—the job took me ten minutes. Besides, I never thank you for your other visits, and I’m not talking about when you bring me stuff from a store.”

  “That’s not something you need to thank me for, Tabitha,” Rachel felt offended. “It’s fun between good friends.”

  “Be offended if you want, but I end up spending too much on company. Yes, don’t be surprised. Not everyone is like you. Besides…”

  The silence was too long to be irrelevant.

  “No, forget it. It’s nothing. Just take the damn nanomachines. I’ve been playing with them and the app. You’ll be able to do a lot of fun things that NaNo doesn’t allow its users. That said, my private network and Old City’s network won’t work. When you’re in New New York, you’ll be able to access and start using them. With them in your clothes, your Holox will also be able to access basic services.”

  She would need them. She finally gave in. She bent down to give Bit a hug, and Bit grabbed her face to kiss her like they did on the nights they spent together—only a bit softer.

  “Take care, long legs,” Tabitha licked her lips, then adjusted her legs side by side and turned her chair back around to continue working on whatever it was she did.

  Time to head to New City.