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  Chapter 2

  When Linna opened her eyes, she had to blink several times before she realized there was nothing wrong with her vision. The inside of her recharging station was dark, as was the hallway beyond the booth's glass door. Even as her pupils automatically dilated to adjust for night vision, Linna unhooked herself from the waste tube. Something was wrong. The recharging station was never dark, never without power.

  She pushed against the glass door, which, at first, wouldn't budge. Don't panic. Breathe, she told herself. There must be emergency procedures in place. She pushed again harder, and this time, the door clicked open.

  The hallway was empty. She crossed to the booth immediately in front of her and peered in. The Pleasurebot inside, a dark-haired GSHA-007-F, stared back at her, unblinking. Linna tugged open the booth door, not caring at the moment she was committing a serious breach of bot etiquette. She touched the Geisha Model on the arm. The bot didn't move. Linna touched the bot's cheek. Cool. Her internal circuits were powered down.

  This was not a good sign. Linna backed out of the booth and headed down the hallway. She pushed her way into the Kitten's lobby, which was as dark and deserted as the hall had been.

  "Code Amber. Code Amber." System's voice repeated the phrase over and over from the speakers on the street outside. "All emergency personnel to your stations. Repeat, Code Amber. Nonessential Newcitizen personnel, please remain inside. You will be directed to a safe location. Code Amber. Emergency personnel, please report to your stations."

  Linna paused, her heart thudding. What was going on? She mentally dialed her hearing level higher. Sounds flooded her. Screams. Explosions. No telling from how far away, only that they weren't right outside.

  She went to Kitten's front door and stepped onto the sidewalk outside. Complete, utter darkness assailed her senses. Even though she had night vision, the blackness was so complete it made her stumble back. She'd never seen Newcity without lights.

  "Code Amber-Orange," System announced. "All nonessential Newcitizens, remain inside. You will be directed to a safe location. Violators will be terminated."

  Terminated? Linna looked around the empty street. A chill sweat broke out on her body despite the ever-present Newcity humidity. She backed up and tried the door of Kitten's, but it had locked behind her.

  "Emergency lockdown," System informed her when she tried to punch in the keycode. "Code Amber-Orange. All nonessential..."

  Linna didn't wait to hear more. She ran. She had no idea where she was going, only that she had to get off the street before a Security Operative found her. Terminated!

  She'd never been more grateful for the enhancements to her body. Her lungs expanded to take in extra air, while her body shifted its resources from the systems it wasn't using to provide extra energy to the ones she was. Her leg muscles lengthened and contracted without effort. Her eyes lubricated themselves so she didn't have to blink.

  She ran toward the pedtread, but turned in an instant when she saw it wasn't running. She'd never seen it still.

  Don't panic. Breathe.

  She calmed herself with concentrated effort, a trick she'd learned after waking up in the surghosp. With her mind clear, she could focus on running and finding a place to get inside. She tried a Lovehut. Locked. An apartment building, also locked. She stood in front of the viddy screen and tapped as many buttons as she could, but nobody answered her pleas to be let inside. At every door, System informed her, "Emergency lock-down. Code Amber-Orange."

  "How am I supposed to get off the street if everything's locked up?" Linna's frustrated scream echoed off the walls.

  The earth suddenly shook beneath her feet. Only her enhanced balance kept her from falling over. It shook again. Pieces of the building next to her crumbled and fell, sprinkling bits of metal into her hair and on her shoulders. She stepped away and looked upward.

  It wasn't the building. Don't panic, she told herself, but terror assailed her anyway. There was a rip in the dome. The pieces of metal hadn't fallen from the building. They'd fallen from the sky.

  "Code Orange. Code Orange," System said. The soothing feminine voice echoed through the street, but did nothing to ease Linna's fear.

  She began to walk fast, but did not break into a run. As she reached the cross street, an armored ground vehicle rolled around the corner. The light, blue-white and intense, burned her eyes and she threw up a hand to shield them.

  The ground shook again, this time from the rumbling metal treads of the ground car. Through the crack in her fingers, Linna glimpsed helmeted and armed SecOps hanging off the side of the car.

  "Halt!" The mouth guard gave the Op's voice a metallic clang. "Halt for Citizen Inspection!"

  Linna didn't hesitate. In order to stun her, they'd have to catch her. She turned and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. From behind her she heard the cock of weapons, the blast of gunfire. The heat of a bullet whizzed past her. She didn't need to see it to duck away from it. Another bullet caught the sleeve of her jumpsuit. It tore the flimsy fabric, and she stumbled but kept her feet.

  God-of-choice, they're using bullets!

  Her ears told her where to dodge, how to weave, and, for the second time that day, Linna blessed the enhancements she normally cursed. She turned the corner, ran down an alley, ducked between two buildings, and found a dead end.

  Without pause, she ran straight for the brick wall. She leaped and hit it with her feet, turned in the air and came down with a twist that turned her back toward the street again.

  She had never realized how good it felt to work her body this way to its maximum strength. The flare and blast of an explosion stopped her and knocked her backward. The entire street in front of her disintegrated into flames. A column of fire shot up from a chasm in the concrete.

  "Code Red. Code Red."

  Linna rolled and got to her feet. A stinging in her hand made her look down to see a pattern of blisters already rising on her palm. She turned, searching for a way to run. The sound of sirens filled the air and drowned out even System's persistent droning.

  A viddy screen flared to life in the window of the Lovehut next to her. Howard Adar spoke. "Earlier today, the Ruling Council learned of an attempt by members of the Mecho Humanity Underground to destroy the Newcity Dome."

  The picture jumped and skipped. Adar's face twisted. For a moment, his mouth moved but no voice came out. Then a garbled explanation followed. "...have made every effort to apprehend...terminated...no cause for alarm...."

  Linna stared at the flames, which had now spread toward the buildings on either side of the street. No cause for alarm? It sounded like more of Howard Adar's bullshit to her.

  The viddy screen flickered and came on again. This time, the picture showed a less calm Adar, who was shouting at someone off camera. "Shut off the fucking camera! Now!"

  The camera swerved, as though it had been knocked over, and another man, dressed in an Engineer's white lab coat, showed up on the screen.

  "Repairs to the Dome are only seventy-five percent viable, sir," he was babbling. "We've got a major zip. The chemical field is failing in seventeen places-- Oh, shit!" he cried when he saw the camera on him. He reached out for it and the screen went black again.

  "Code Red," came System's monotone.

  Linna didn't have time to think about what Adar had said on the viddy. She had to concentrate on getting out of here before more stuff blew up or more SecOps came through.

  She ran again. The buildings here were in worse repair. The pedtreads were buckled and rusted. The doors were still locked.

  How could she be the only person on the streets? The answer came to her immediately. She was the only person in Newcity locked up inside a recharging booth when this trouble had begun. She was the only one who hadn't heard or seen the viddy communications warning everyone to get inside.

  She couldn't run forever. She was still human, even with her enhancements. She was getting tired.

  Another rumble told her another g