She unbuttons my shirt. I pull hers over her head. My fingers run across new scars on her, here and there, a healed scratch, an old raised bruise. She is older, as am I, and we are different now than we were. I love her more for it, wish I had been able to share in all of it with her over the last few years. She kisses my cheeks as I fall into her. Her hands slide down my back. I shudder at her every touch.
The rest of the apartment is silent. Outside, I hear the passing of airplanes. Somewhere in the distance, music is playing. Millions of lights twinkle beyond the windows and against the night, each one a different life, a different moment from ours.
But tonight, we let ourselves stay entwined together, as if everything will remain as perfect as this moment. As if this could be our future.
EDEN
I don’t know when Hann plans to unleash the real signal. All I know is that Hann finally comes to see me again in the makeshift chamber that he’s offered me at the estate.
I jump a little as he enters the room with two of his guards.
“I don’t mean to startle you,” he says to me now, holding up both of his hands. Then he nods at the guards. “You’re no longer needed,” he adds. “I’d like a word alone with Mr. Wing.”
The guards do as he says. They step out, and the room is suddenly just me and him.
Hann sits down in a chair across from me and leans his chin on his hand. “Word is that your brother is now safely back with the AIS,” he says.
“Thank you for keeping your word,” I reply.
“Do you know why I’m here right now?” he asks me.
I just stare warily at him. “Why?”
He reaches into the pocket of his suit jacket, then pulls out what looks like a heavy purse. With a careless gesture, he tosses it in my direction.
I fumble with it as it lands against my chest with a chunky clink of metal. “What’s this?” I say.
“Your payment, of course,” Hann replies. He nods at me. “I only pay in real gold corras. Soon, this place’s virtual currency will be useless after the Level system is disabled. I figure you’ll want real money instead.”
I glare at him, then peek once inside the purse.
There are hundreds—thousands—of gold coins in here. Each is worth a thousand corras. This entire purse must contain at least a million.
I look sharply back up at him. He’d promised a handsome pay for what I did, but this level of money is an amount that I hadn’t guessed at.
Hann smiles at me. “Surprised?” he says. “I’ve made enough of a fortune doing what I do. It’s a worthy investment for me to spend that money on talent like you.”
This kind of money is beyond what even most of the Sky Floor citizens can earn. It’s money that could pull Pressa and her father completely out of the Undercity. It’s money that could buy you the kind of Level that would make you safe forever.
It’s also the kind of money that’s dipped in the blood of people who have paid dearly for crossing someone like Hann.
I close the purse back up and toss it to the floor between us. “How long are you going to keep me down here?” I ask quietly. “Until my brother comes to find me? Until the AIS descend on you? Just because you disable the Level system doesn’t mean they don’t have a way to hunt you down.”
Hann smiles, unconcerned about the way I’ve rejected his money. “I’m not going to keep you anywhere,” he replies, nodding toward the door. “You’re free to go, whenever you wish. My guards are ready and waiting to escort you back to the surface of the Undercity whenever you want.”
Now I know he’s messing with me. I laugh, shaking my head at him. “What kind of game do you want me to play?” I say.
“I don’t play games with people I respect,” Hann replies. “Or have you just lived in a gamified society for so long that you don’t even know how to react to people outside of its system?”
“Why would you let me go?” I demand. “I’ve been a proven asset to you. I know where this place is. I’ve seen you, and I could go straight to the AIS the instant you release me.”
He shrugs. “I know.”
I spread my hands wide. “So—that’s it? You’re setting me free?” As if to test him, I stand up from my chair and walk toward the door. Everything in me tells me that this is a trap, that the instant I try to step out into the hall, they’ll clap me in chains or shoot me dead.
But Hann just watches me. “Go.”
When I still don’t budge, he leans forward in the chair and regards me with a focused expression. “Do you want to know why I’m letting you go? Do you want to know why I’m willing to give you millions?” He smiles. “Because you’ll be back.”
“What?”
“You’ll return to find me again. I can see the fire in your eyes, the way you try to hide the satisfaction of seeing that machine work with your engine attached to it. I know that you believe in the same things I believe in.” He narrows his eyes. “It’s haunted you the entire time you’ve lived in Antarctica, hasn’t it? The way this place runs its Undercity? The way the government handles the poor? The Level system that is as corrupt as it is innovative? You hate it all, just like I do.”
I shake my head. “Once I step out of here, I’m never coming back.”
Hann leans back in his chair and heaves a sigh. “Yes, you are,” he replies. “You will, because when you see the chaos that will reign in this city after the Level system is disabled, when you see the change it can bring about in the upper-class people you loathe … you’ll realize that what I do here is the noble cause. You want to be a part of something significant, don’t you? All people with your talent desire to make a difference. And I can help you get there. You can go from obscurity in your brother’s shadow to becoming one of the most prominent disrupters of change that the world has ever seen.” He nods at the purse on the floor. “And think of your friend Pressa. You can change her life forever with that. With a new job at my side.”
I start to shake. “You’re offering me a job,” I repeat incredulously.
He nods. “Yes. I’m offering you the chance to come work for me, permanently. Think of the things you could do, Eden, without restrictions placed on you. Think of not having to cater to anyone else when it comes to your schedule and your life.” Hann laces his fingers together. “You’re free to come and go as you wish. Should you need to contact me again, you can use this.”
A series of six numbers appears in front of my view. I stare at it for a second, memorizing it, before it vanishes.
Hann smiles briefly at me. “I never intended for you to be my prisoner, Eden, and now I want to prove that to you in the most obvious way.”
I don’t trust him. I don’t believe him.
And yet, I think he’s telling me the truth. Somehow, this killer—the most-wanted criminal in all of Ross City, someone whom Daniel fears and hates, a person who has ruled the Undercity with an iron fist—is the only person I’ve ever known who seems to see me straight to my core.
Now he’s offering me a chance to work with him.
“I can’t do this,” I tell him. “We aren’t the same person. We don’t have the same beliefs.”