by Anne Harris

In a near-future Detroit, the living polymer industry has the city in its grip. While vat-divers struggle to organize, the GeneSys Corporation works on making human workers obsolete. An escaped mutant, a con-artist and a techno-geek team up to unravel corporate blackmail, deceit and murder. One thing is certain: the city and the world will never be the same once the latest R&D development is unleashed.

Chapter 4 — Five Hands

She woke from a muddle of thoughts and memories; the recollection of movement and darkness, of being carried into a bright kitchen with a yellow formica table, a babble of voices, someone saying, "she's in shock," and a thin face framed by long black hair, bending over her with bright dark eyes, asking, over and over again, "What's your name?"

Helix opened her eyes and gazed at a pink, water stained ceiling. She was in a bed, a twin bed with a lumpy mattress, covered neck to toe with a multi-colored afghan crocheted out of some strange, nubby yarn. She turned her head. The walls were pink too; poorly fed plaint flaking away like dried skin. On a small table by the bed stood an old ceramic lamp, its shade yellow and fraying. She heard voices, muffled, from a nearby room. Her head hurt, and she shut her eyes.

She woke again to see light streaming in from the window, filtered weakly by sheer, age-faded curtains. There was a soft knock at the door, and it opened.

A face peeked through the door; sharp little nose, sharp chin, like a bright, friendly rodent. Tawny brown hair fell untidily across her forehead. Seeing Helix awake she smiled and came in. She was small but solid, dressed in a black tank top faded to grey, and a purple and yellow patterned skirt. She sat in a chair next to the bed and leaned forward. "You're awake," she said.

"Yes."

Her smile widened, "That's good. We were worried."

"You're the one who found me."

"Yeah, my name's Chango." she put out her hand.

Helix withdrew her upper right hand from beneath the afghan and shook with her. "I'm Helix," she said.

"Oh, you know your name. Thank goddess. Last night we couldn't get you to tell us. Mavi says your wound isn't serious. Somehow, the knife missed your kidney. She dressed and bandaged it, and the bleeding seemed to stop, but what she was really worried about was the concussion. See, you went into shock, in the car, and you were more or less unconscious when we brought you in. We couldn’t wake you up. You're not supposed to go to sleep if you have a concussion.”

"A concussion?"

"Yeah, from when those guys were kicking you. Mavi says you have a cracked rib, too, but there isn't much she can do about that except get you to keep still."

"Mavi?"

"The friend I told you about. She’s a healer."

"You, you saw those guys?"

"Yeah, and I'm sorry I didn't get involved, but I'm a shitty fighter, we'd probably both be dead."

"You saw me, fighting? And this friend, she saw... I-" In a sudden burst of shame Helix realized the obvious. Both of these women had seen her for what she was. Her face burned, tears welled up in her eyes. She wanted desperately to be out of the sight of this sharp eyed person, this person who had already seen too much. She tried to roll over, but the motion sent a lance of pain through her chest and she gasped, pulled at the afghan, and drew it over her head. The strange, nubby yarn was smooth against her skin and oddly comforting.

"Hey, hey, what are you doing that for? Was it something I said?"

"No," Helix said from her side of the afghan.

"Then what are you hiding for? Are you afraid?"

"Yes."

"Because Mavi and me saw you without that raincoat you were so particular about?"

"Yes."

"Look at me."

"No."

"C'mon, nobody's going to hurt you. Look at me."

Helix felt little hands, tugging firmly at the edge of the afghan. She swallowed, and allowed it to be drawn back from her face again. She looked up to see Chango peering closely at her with those strange eyes of hers, and suddenly she realized why they were strange. They were two different colors. One blue, the other green.

Chango nodded, acknowledging her realization. “That’s right. I’m one too.” She leaned back and released the afghan, but Helix didn’t draw it back. “I know this,” she waved at her eyes, “doesn’t seem like a very big deal to you. But it’s enough to give me a label for the rest of my life. Believe me, I’ve been through lots of pairs of sunglasses.”

Helix lay there, staring. She didn’t know what to do, she just remained motionless. Finally she said, “I’ve never met anyone else who was...”

“Oh,” Chango said quietly, steadily holding her gaze, “That must be weird - to be the only one. I’m lucky I guess. I grew up here, where there’s still a few of us to this day. People still treat us differently, but we don’t come as a big surprise to anyone.”

“Until yesterday, I hadn’t been seen by anybody but my father for ten years,” said Helix. She didn’t know why she said it, it just came out.

Chango took her turn at staring, her mouth hanging open. Silently she mouthed the words, “ten years?” Then out loud she said, “Goddamn, that’s terrible. Shit, no wonder you freaked out.” She paced the floor anxiously, glancing quickly back and forth between Helix and the floor.

“Your father... He hid you.”

“No, not really. He let me hide. I went out from time to time, but always with the raincoat.” She tilted her head in some vague indication of the direction in which it might be. “Actually it’s his.”

“It’s his raincoat,” Chango repeated, and then shook her head. “Wow, so you just hid out for ten years. Why?”

“Before I went to live with Hector, I was in an orphanage. I was the only sport there, too. It wasn’t exactly a good place to be saddled with uniqueness.”

Chango had drifted back to the chair and sat down. “Yeah,” she nodded her head, “kids suck.”

“It was really bad. I remember one year where there wasn’t a single day that I didn’t wish I were somebody else. That was the last year. Then Hector came along and rescued me, and I guess I just didn’t want anything like that to happen to me again.” She shook her head, “I can’t stand that look. You know that look?”

“Yeah, I know that look. So what happened? How did you wind up where I found you?”

Helix shrugged. “I just left. I felt... I don’t know, like there was something out here that was meant for me, and I’d never have it unless I left.

“Wow, that’s amazing. What an incredible story.” Chango fished a pack of reefer cigarettes out of her t-shirt pocket and offered them to Helix.

“No thanks.”

Chango took out a cigarette, lit it and smoked in silence for a few minutes. The smoke made her squint, and Helix thought she could see her the way she would be years from now, an old woman, smoking and thinking. “So how long ago was this?” she asked at length.

“Yesterday. I just left the GeneSys building, that’s where I lived, and started walking around. I ended up in Greektown, I was in this casino. There were people everywhere, and I was starting to panic. Then someone bumped into me. I didn’t even see them, but I felt them touch my arm, my lower arm. I just took off, and then I wound up down this alley, and that was when those guys attacked me.”

“Welcome to the outside world,” Chango laughed harshly. “But then I found you. Out of all the people around there who could have found you, it was another sport. Maybe somebody watches out for us after all.”

“Maybe. At any rate, I can thank you for getting involved. I think I would have died out there if you hadn’t done something.”

“Oh probably not died.”

“Maybe not then. Soon enough, I’ll bet.”

Chango shrugged and looked at her wordlessly.

“Shit, what am I going to do?” Helix suddenly raised her upper hands to the sides of her head. She’d tried going out, and it had nearly killed her. She didn’t have a job, nor any prospects of one. Her only friend was a total stranger. What had she been thinking, that she could do this?

But every time she thought about going back, that hand reached up from her gut and pushed her back out again.

“You’re going to stay put for a couple of days and let your ribs heal and your head return to its normal size and shape,” said a voice from the doorway. A tall figure in a long black dress stood there, her thin face nearly hidden by the unruly strands of her black hair. She walked across the room with understated grace, and stood at the foot of the bed. She wore a silver amulet, a five pointed star inside a circle. She had a long and rather prominent nose which shouldered the main burden of pushing aside her hair. She made an imposing figure there, a long black line parted by a pale slice of face.

Then her hand swept up and pushed back her hair, to reveal a pair of eyes that were warm and deep, and strong lips spread in a smile. “Glad to see you’re up, how are you feeling?”

“Better.” In spite of herself, Helix slid farther down beneath the covers of the bed.

“This is Mavi,” said Chango, “She took care of you last night.”

“Thank you,” Helix nodded at her awkwardly.

“No problem,” Mavi hiked up one bare foot and sat on the edge of the bed.

“Her name is Helix,” said Chango.

“Let me take a look at your head, Helix.” Mavi moved around the side of the bed and bent over her. Her pendant swung above Helix’s eyes as her long, cool fingers probed her skull.

“Ow,” said Helix, reflexively jerking her head as Mavi’s fingers found the lump at the side of her head. The pendant banged her in the forehead.

“Sorry,” murmured Mavi as she gently probed the lump. “The swelling is down some, but it’ll be sore for a while.

“She’s been speaking coherently?” she asked Chango over her shoulder.

“Oh yeah. Complex sentences and everything, Mavi.”

“Good,” Mavi straightened up, nodding her head. “That was the worst of your injuries, actually,” she said to Helix, “The ribs will be alright if you just lie still for several days. But I do need to look at your knife wound.” She looked at Chango who was still sitting in the chair, picking at a thread on her skirt.

Chango looked up suddenly. “Oh, you want me to leave.” She glanced over to Helix, “You want me to leave?”

Helix looked from Chango to Mavi and back again. If she had her druthers, she’d be the one to leave, but her earlier attempt at rolling over ruled that out. “I guess so,” she said reluctantly.

“I couldn’t really bandage your ribs,” said Mavi after Chango left, “so we just have to do this carefully. Gently she helped Helix roll over.

Despite the pain of moving, Helix was glad to have her face down against the mattress. She didn’t have to face Mavi as she pulled back the bed covers to examine the wound near the small of her back. “I have to change the dressing” said Mavi, moving across the room. Helix heard a drawer open and close and then she felt the cold blade of a scissors against her skin, felt the bandages lifted, and something cool and soothing applied to her wound. “I have you closed up with cellular tape. It seems to be healing clean.” She heard the tearing of paper, and then Mavi reapplied bandages, and helped her onto her back again, and not once, during any of it, did she say anything about a second pair of arms.

oOo

Chango walked up the rickety steps of Hyper’s house and leaned against the screen door, shading her eyes with one hand so she could see inside. Squinting she surveyed the dim interior of the first floor.

Hyper had gutted the place after his folks died; knocking down walls and taking out the front two thirds of the upstairs, leaving only a small room above the kitchen where he slept, when he slept.

Four metal tables stood bolted to the floor where the dining room had been, heaped with machine and electrical parts. The front part of the house was a maze of books, magazines and holocubes. And above it all hung the archives of Hyper’s past interests. He’d laid steel girders across the rafters, and every time he completed or tired of a project, up it went. Old model airplanes and boats spun lazily in the occasional breeze, along with automated kites, walker robots, rebuilt text processors and a chemistry set.

“Hey, you home?” she called, her lips brushing against the rusting screen.

Hyper looked up from behind an enormous old cathode ray monitor squatting on the floor by the front windows. He had gutted it and was now putting it back together. His brick-brown skin glowed with perspiration. It wasn’t all that warm a day, but Hyper always ran hot. “Chango, c’mon in sister dear, check this out.” He waved her in with one hand as he worked an electric screwdriver with the other.

She slid in the door and locked it behind her. “You shouldn’t leave your door open,” she said.

“Oh, I forgot. C’mere,” he gestured for her to sit beside him on the floor. His skinny legs stuck out from paisley boxer shorts that were too big for him. His long toes splayed among screws and transistor chips. The shorts and a faded, stained t-shirt were all he wore except for a head mounted holotransceiver perching atop his skull like a small black brain parasite, secured by a thin band across his forehead and over his ears. The imaging lens which hung down over his right eye reflected a miniature circuit diagram. To Hyper, it would appear larger, hanging in the air two feet in front of his face. His eyes darted from it to the tube while his fingers sorted feverishly through chips and wires.

“Can you hand me that scissors?” he asked, nodding to the graphite shears by her knee as he uncoiled a length of fiber cable.

“What are you doing?” she asked, handing him the shears.

“If I install an optical receiver in this thing and connect that to a quad board I can program it to display raw visuals in real time. I want to mount it on that go-cart chassis over there, give it infrared and motion sensors and let it follow people around and imitate them. Robo-Mime.”

“God, what a pain in the ass,” said Chango.

Hyper glanced at her grinning, “Love those nuisance machines,” he said. He fastened a connector clamp onto the end of the fiber cable and turned to face her. “So, how'd it go?" he asked, "I missed you last night at Josa's."

Chango shrugged, "There were complications." She handed him the swiper containing the codes she’d scanned the day before.

Hyper’s dark brown eyes widened, "Complications? But you weren't arrested."

"No, not those kinds of complications. At least not yet. I scanned this woman, I thought she was armed," Chango laughed weakly. "When I tried to give her back her card, she bolted. I followed her, and she got jumped in an alley. Turns out she's a sport. She was hurt pretty bad, so I took her to Mavi's."

"You got pretty involved with a failed mark, didn't you?" Hyper said softly, his gaze upon the circuit map only he could see.

"Hyper, she was really hurt. One of her assailants had a knife. What was I supposed to do, leave her to die?"

"Why did you follow her in the first place?"

Chango shrugged, searching for an answer. "When I bumped her, and then tried to give her card back, she freaked. She ran, scared! I was... curious."

"You said she was packin'. She shoot any of those guys?"

"No she wasn't. I thought she had a shotgun, but it wasn't — it was one of her arms. She's got four."

Hyper whistled, "Functional?"

"Yeah! Fully developed, fully functional."

"Wow, impressive."

"See? I couldn't let the sister die."

"Yeah, I guess I can see that. You give her card back, then, or what?"

"No, I didn't," Chango reached into her pocket and pulled out the plastic square. "But get this," she handed it to Hyper, "it isn’t even a cash card. It’s data."

Hyper glanced at it. "What's its encryption signature?"

"I don't know, It’s nothing I’ve ever seen before."

"Hmm." He flipped it between his fingers thoughtfully and held it up to the light. A faint pattern glimmered on its surface, and then, as he tilted it just right, bloomed into a hologram. Spiraling curves of burning, electric green wrapping around one another, just discernible as an S enfolded within a stylized G. GeneSys.

Hyper glanced at her, one eyebrow cocked. “Mind if I keep this and look at it later, when I’m done with Robo-Mime?” he asked.

“I don’t know, what if she wants it back?”

“Then I’ll give it back.”

Chango shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”

oOo

Chango nudged Mavi’s screen door open with one toe and slid through, dumping the hemp fiber grocery bags on the kitchen table.

Mavi was at the stove, whispering over a simmering saucepan. The roiling steam perfumed the kitchen with sage and goldenseal. Her words faded, and she looked over to see Chango. “You bought groceries.”

“Yep.” Chango reached inside one of the sacks and drew out a package of spaghetti. “‘Pasta a la me’,” she said with a flourish of the box. She drew out three eggs and juggled them.

“Ladies and gentlemen, she cooks, she climbs, she produces groceries out of thin air, she’s Changini the miraculous.” Mavi pawed through the bags, “how did you get all this stuff?”

Chango took a bowl down from the shelf over the sink and cracked the eggs into it. “Through the idleness of fools.”

“So that’s what you were doing in Greektown last night,” said Mavi returning to her mixture on the stove.

“What else?”

“Oh, I don’t know, show girls, maybe?”

Chango snorted, stirring the eggs with a fork. “What would give you that idea?”

“Your friend.”

She laughed, “Oh no. No. A dancing girl afraid to show her body? I think not. Mavi, you’ve got to get out more.”

“Then how did you happen upon her?”

Chango shrugged uncomfortably and began beating the eggs with a fork. “Actually, I’d been following her.”

“Following her? But she’s not a show girl.”

“Would you stop? Jeez, I can’t perform an act of good samaritanism without you trying to turn it into some tawdry little scenario.”

“I know you, Chango. Why were you following her?”

“When I tapped her for her cash card, she freaked out and ran. I was curious. There was something about the way she looked. She was terrified. Now I know why. She told me she hasn’t let anyone but her father see what she is for the past ten years.”

“Oh my goddess, that's... that’s weird.”

“Yeah. If she goes out, she wears the raincoat. I guess I brushed against her arm when I tapped her, she felt it. She thought I knew.”

“Does she know you followed her?”

“No, apparently not.”

“Then I take it you haven’t returned her cash card,” said Mavi, pouring her tincture into a jar.

“Well, that’s a bit awkward, isn’t it?” Chango put the dripping fork in the sink. “‘Oh yes, I’m glad I could help you, and by the way, here’s something I stole from you.’ No, besides, it isn’t a cash card. It’s data, from GeneSys.”

Amber tinted liquid spilled on the stove. Mavi set the pan down and looked at her. “GeneSys?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s hers.”

oOo

That night Chango brought her spaghetti in bed. Helix sat up, bolstered by pillows. She kept her lower hands under the afghan, balancing her plate in them and wielding a spoon and fork in her upper hands. Chango sat cross-legged at the other end of the bed, holding her plate in her lap.

“So, do you live here?” asked Helix around a mouthful of food.

“Not really,” Chango shrugged. “Sort of. I stay here a lot, and sometimes I sleep in my car, or at another friend’s house.”

“Oh,” Helix nodded, trying to think of something else to say. “So how did you find me?” she asked.

Chango stopped chewing and stared at her. “I followed you.”

“Followed me?”

“Yeah, you’re going to find out about it soon enough anyway. No one around here can keep their mouth shut. I followed you from the casino because I’d been- I’d been trying to scan you.”

“Scan me?”

“Yeah, you know, rip off the code for your cash card. Brokers pay good money for those codes.”

“Oh. But I don’t have a cash card.”

“Yeah, I know now, but I didn’t then. When I tried to flush you for your uh, wallet, I brushed one of your arms, one of the lower ones, remember?”

Helix remembered going inside the casino to get out of the rain, and then being overwhelmed by the crowd. She remembered the touch against her arm that had frightened her, and then that sharp little face, saying something to her as she fled.

“It was you,” she said. “You’re the one who touched me.”

“Yeah, and you freaked out. It made me curious, so I followed you.” Chango was watching her anxiously, as if she feared her reaction to this news.

“So I owe my life to the fact that you tried to rip me off, huh?” Helix smiled. “Thanks.”

Chango laughed with relief. “I’m glad you’re not mad.”

Helix shrugged. “It’s not like you knew me or anything.”

Chango pursed her lips. “Do you play cards?”

“What?”

“This kind.” Chango brandished a deck of playing cards. “Gin, hearts, poker? No?”

Helix shook her head.

“Then you’re going to have to learn. You can’t be laid up in bed for days on end without at least learning gin rummy.”

About halfway through their third hand, Helix brought her lower hands out from under the afghan and started holding her cards in them.

It felt like something that was wrapped very tightly around her heart was starting to unwind. She couldn’t help it, she kept staring at Chango’s eyes, one blue, one green. They were the visible proof. She wasn’t alone.

She liked Hector, she’d been grateful to him, but she’d never felt this comfortable with him. There’d always been some unbreachable distance between them. Each knew the other was different, and somehow she’d always felt he was watching her from the other side of a polyglass window.

Chango discarded the eight of clubs. Helix picked it up with her upper right hand, and lay down the rest of the set with her upper left. She looked to see Chango looking, and their eyes met, and they smiled at each other.

“You’ve got five hands,” said Chango. Helix looked down at the cards she held and laughed, which made her wince.

Chango stepped out into the cool night air, her ancient jean jacket clammy against the gooseflesh on her arms. Helix had gone to sleep, and she was restless. She left the Chevy where it was, parked by the curb in front of the house, and walked to Josa’s.

Hyper and Magoo and Pele were hanging around outside the bar. “Hey, what’s going on?” she said, joining them.

“Not much,” said Hyper, “same old, same old.”

“Hey, I heard you’ve got a houseguest over at Mavi’s,” said Pele.

“Yeah,” Chango glared at Hyper, who shot Pele a look.

“She’s got four arms,” continued Pele, oblivious or more likely, unconcerned. “Is she cute?”

“Yeah,” Chango admitted, “she’s fucking gorgeous.”

“Oh, so it wasn’t pure altruism, eh?” said Magoo.

“I saw her, she needed help, I helped. Why is everyone trying to twist this around into some sort of bizarre pickup scenario?” she protested.

“Well, you did follow her,” said Hyper.

“Oh, oh thanks a lot, buddy.”

“You followed her?” said Magoo. “I didn’t know that. It doesn’t look good for you, Chango.”

“Screw you, pink boy.”

“Not lately,” he said loftily.

“Oh, girl,” Pele told him.

“Anyway, you guys have to meet her. You know, she’s never met any other sports before.”

“Really?” said Pele.

“Well, think about it, she was in this orphanage, where she was the only sport there, and then she got adopted,” she looked at Hyper, “by this guy that works for GeneSys. She hasn’t been out of the Fisher Building for ten years.”

“Ouch, maybe getting knifed in an alley was a good thing for her,” said Magoo.

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but at least now she’ll get to know some of her own people.”

It was only ten, but Josa’s was already crowded with divers off shift for their weekend. The four of them snaked their way through the crowd to the bar. It was still Josa back there, pouring and polishing as she had for the past twenty years.

Chango leaned over the bar with a mylar bill rolled up in her hand. “Josa, a round for me and my friends here, draft.”

Josa cast one jaundiced eye in her direction, took the bill and grunted when she unrolled it. “Four drafts,” she said briskly, and went off to pour them.

“Oh look,” said Pele, “There’s Monkey with Oli, I heard he took Jan’s mother’s china with him when he left.”

“Yeah but that was after Jan threw his couch out of the window of their third floor apartment.”

Hyper laughed, “Coral told me she saw it go down. Jan had been screaming all morning about throwing that couch out of the window, so by the time it finally happened, there was a little crowd outside, waiting. Can you imagine? That lime green velour atrocity tumbling through the air and then splat, like a huge upholstered bug.”

“That’s entertainment,” said Magoo.

Chango spotted a lean figure with short dark hair and sideburns come in the door. “Hey, Benny!” she shouted, waving him over.

“Hey, what’s going on?” said Benny slapping her on the shoulder, “I heard you have a houseguest,” he said.

“She’s from GeneSys,” offered Pele.

His eyebrows went up, “GeneSys?”

“She is not, Pele,” said Chango, and then to Benny, “she’s not.”

“Well you said her father worked for them,” Pele noted.

“That’s not the same thing is it? Besides, I was speculating.” She looked at Benny again, “She’s a sport.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s what I heard.”

“What did you do, Hyper,” Chango turned on him, “broadcast it?”

“No,” he protested, “I didn’t know it was supposed to be a secret, that’s all.”

“Yeah, I mean, what’s the big deal?” said Pele.

“I guess,” she said warily, “It’s just that she’s understandably timid around people, Benny, and when she finally comes out of Mavi’s house, I don’t want people staring and talking about her.”

“C’mon, Chango,” Benny said, “This is Vattown, everyone stares, and everyone talks about everyone else.”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t know that.”

“Then she’ll have a chance to find out.”

“C’mon Benny, at least let her get her bearings. Be cool when I bring her around. No sport jokes, okay? And see if you can’t get Vonda and Coral to be a little less their usual selves.”

“Oh, you don’t ask for much.”

“You know you can influence them, if you want to.”

Benny raked his hands through his thick hair. “But at what cost?” he cried, looking beseachingly at the ceiling.

“Benny,” a young woman with straight brown hair falling to her shoulders walked up to him. Her eyes darted over to Chango for an instant, and then flickered away with a dismissive toss of her head. “Orielle’s coming later tonight, want to go in on a liter?”

“Sure, Vonda,” he said, “Mind if I pay you Monday?”

“Yeah, I can cover it until then. Hey, did you see next month’s production run? They had it posted this afternoon. They must be crazy if they think we’re gonna get all that fiber grown with just the people we have now.”

“Overtime,” said Benny.

Vonda made a face, “How much overtime do they expect us to work?”

“Hey, it’s time and a half.”

“Yeah, it’s also prolonged exposure.” During the course of the conversation, she had slowly turned so that her back was to Chango, who still sat there, staring at her. “Hey, there’s Val, c’mon, he’ll buy us drafts,” she took Benny by the arm and they drifted away. Chango watched them disappear into the crowd and then she turned around, resting her elbows on the bar.

“Shit,” said Hyper, “I can’t believe you guys still aren’t talking, after all this time.”

“What do we have to talk about?” asked Chango, and she drank her beer.

“You used to be best friends.”

“Yeah, well, things change, don’t they?”

“You don’t still seriously believe she falsified Ada’s tests, do you?”

Chango shrugged and shook her head, “Not really. I don’t know. I know Ada didn’t dive blasted, that’s all.” She drank her glass empty, set it back down on the bar, and left.

oOo

For three days Helix sat in “the pink room”, as Mavi and Chango called it. She would have been bored out of her mind if it weren’t for Chango, who remained at her bedside most of the time, playing cards with her and regaling her with stories of the comings and goings of Vattown.

“I saw Hugo today,” Chango said, shuffling the cards. “He lives with Benny, an old friend of my sister’s. She and Benny and Hugo were in a dive team together years ago. Now Hugo has vatsickness. He’s been off work for months. Benny and Hugo are lovers, or at least they were. I don’t think Hugo is up for much but lying in bed nowadays. Mavi sent me over there with some morphine for him. That’s about all he consumes now, morphine and water, maybe a little soup. But today he was having a good day. He was sitting up, and we watched soap operas on the holonet, the interactive ones. I asked him if he’d like to play a character, but he just wanted to watch.”

Helix looked up at the mention of soaps. “Did you see ‘We Are the World?’”

Chango wrinkled her brow. “Is that the one where the two power bitches are fighting it out over this woman whose husband died?”

“That’s it. My character — I mean Natasha, that’s the one I like to play — she’s going on trial for murdering the husband. Did you see her? What happened? Have they set the date for the trial yet?”

Chango shook her head. “Wow, you’re really a freak for that show, aren’t you? We only caught the end of it. Something about a couple stranded on an island in the South Pacific.”

“Carmen and Peter. They’re boring.”

Hugo likes Tears of Joy.”

Helix made a face.

“Hey, I think they’re all stupid. I mean they may have all those fancy settings and stuff, but as far as pure drama goes, they can’t hold a candle to what goes on around here. Why just last week Coral found out that her boyfriend Val was sleeping with her best friend Yolanda. She caught them at it when she went to Yolanda’s house to drop off some blast for her. She was mad at first — she kept the blast - but now they’re thinking of making it a threesome.”

Helix raised her eyebrows. “I guess you have a point.”

“You bet. Don’t worry, pretty soon Mavi will let you out of bed, and you can meet some of these people. It must be really boring for you, stuck in here all day and night.”

“Yes.” Helix admitted. “But maybe its just as well. I’m not sure I want to meet anyone.”

“Oh come on. You can’t stay in here forever.”

That was true. She hadn’t really thought about what would happen when Mavi let her out of here. She thought of Night Hag, who had said almost the same thing to her the day she left Hector’s. “Do you think you could borrow a transceiver from somebody? I have a friend on the holonet. I’d like to contact her.”

“Oh,” Chango said, surprised. “Well, the only people I know who have a transceiver are Benny and Hyper. Benny would lend you his, but Hugo uses it, and I wouldn’t want to ask. Hyper... well he uses his constantly, but I’ll make a strong case for you. Maybe if it’s just for an hour or so.”

“She always takes my calls. It wouldn’t take long.”

“I’ll try.”

oOo

The following afternoon, Chango came into the pink room with a self-satisfied smile and something hidden behind her back. “Catch,” she said, tossing a headset transceiver at her.

It landed on the bed, and Helix picked it up. “Thanks. Did you have trouble getting it?”

“No, but he made me promise that when you get out of bed, he’d be the first person to meet you.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll like Hyper. He’s a sport, like us, and he makes a lot of cool things.” Chango handed her the wrist keypad that went with the headset and stood with her arms at her sides, seemingly at a loss. “I guess I’d better leave you alone, so you can call your friend.”

“Thanks.”

“I promised Hyper I’d have it back to him tonight.”

“That’s okay.”

Chango left, and Helix placed the transceiver on her head, pulled the imaging lens down over her right eye and dialed Night Hag’s number.

“Helix! Where have you been? You haven’t been answering my messages,” said Night Hag, still using the construct she’d had the last time they talked. Hyper had the transceiver set to visuals, and in her haste, Helix had forgotten to check it. She was sitting up in bed, and had made no attempt to cover up her arms. It was just as well, she thought, she was going to have to start letting people see her.

But Night Hag didn’t pay much mind to her appearance. Instead she peered at the peeling walls behind her. “Where are you?”

“That’s why I called. After the last time we talked, I left Hector’s apartment. I’m in Vattown now.”

“Where they make the biopoly. Good. That’s good. Have you found a job yet?”

“Not yet. I — I ran into some trouble. Some men tried to rob me. There was a fight. I got injured.”

Suddenly Night Hag’s eyes focused on her. “Are you alright? How badly were you hurt?”

“I’m okay, still pretty sore, but okay. I had a concussion, some cracked ribs, and a knife wound.”

“Who did that to you?” she asked sharply, as if she would kill whoever it was, as if she could.

“I don’t know. Just some guys, I guess.”

Night Hag stared at her. “You don’t know them?”

“No! I was just walking and...”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “You’re alright now.”

“Yes. I- someone found me. Her name is Chango. She’s a sport like me. she saved my life. She brought me here to her friend’s house. They’re taking care of me.”

“That’s good.” She paused, and then added, “Those men that attacked you? Did you fight them?”

“Oh yeah. There were three of them, but one I bit pretty bad, in the neck,” she said, and pointed at her teeth, still surprised that Night Hag had made no mention of her appearance.

“I’m glad,” said her friend. “People shouldn’t want to hurt you. But for some reason, sometimes they do. When it happens, you must fight them.”

Helix didn’t know what to say to this. “At least I’m with friends now,” she said at length.

“And I’m proud of you for leaving Hector. It couldn’t have been easy for you. Just don’t think that because you were attacked, you made a mistake. There was nothing for you in that apartment.”

“Except my transceiver, and Hector’s money. I didn’t take anything with me when I left.”

Night Hag waved one hand dismissively. “Things. Things you can buy after you find work. Are you going to be a vatdiver?”

“I don’t know,” Helix shrugged. “I hadn’t thought about it, but I’m going to need some kind of job.”

“Maybe your friends can help you.”

“Maybe. But jobs are hard to find, and they’ve already done a lot. Chango borrowed this transceiver from a friend of hers, so I could call you.”

“Everybody doesn’t have a transceiver?” Night Hag looked genuinely shocked.

Helix laughed at her naivety. She had always been the wise one, the experienced one. “No. Everyone does not have a transceiver.”