Her cry boomed through the vast space, echoing in the blind emptiness. But no answer came.
She paddled water for a moment, catching her breath, trying to listen.
"Hello...?"
A hand grabbed her wrist, and Aya found herself pulled into the air. She hung there, feet dangling, her shivers sending water cascading from her soaking robe.
"What...what's going on?"
A voice answered. "We don't like kickers."
Aya had figured as much: They wanted to kick their own story about how they rode the trains, and keep all the fame for themselves.
Maybe it was time for some truth-slanting. "But I'm not a kicker!"
Someone snorted, then a closer voice said, "You followed me here from that party - or your hovercam did, anyway. You were looking for a story."
"Not a story, I was looking for you." Aya shivered again, fighting to keep her teeth from chattering. She had to convince them not to drop her into the black lake again. "I saw you guys the other night."
"Saw us where?" the closer voice said, and the grip on her wrist adjusted. That one had to be Eden; nobody could hold her up like this without help from a hoverball rig.
"On top of a mag-lev train. You were riding it. I tried to find out who you were, but there was nothing on the feeds."
"That's the way we like it," the first voice said.
"Okay, I get it!" Aya said. "Um, are you just going dangle me here like this?"
"Would you prefer I drop you?" Eden asked.
"Not really. It's just that this is kind of... wrist-hurting."
"Call your board, then."
"Oh...right." In her panic, Aya had forgotten all about her hoverboard. She reached up with her free hand and twisted her other crash bracelet. A few seconds later the hoverboard nudged her feet, and the iron grip released her.
She wobbled for a moment on the board, rubbing her wrist. "Thanks, I guess."
"Are you telling us you're not a kicker?" It was the first voice again, maybe the ugly woman she'd glimpsed. It echoed through the darkness low and growly, like she'd surged her throat to sound scary.
"Well, I've put a few things on my feed. Same as everyone."
"Pictures of your cat?" someone said, then snickered.
"So do you always go to parties disguised as a Bomber?" Eden asked. "With a hovercam in tow?"
Aya wrapped her arms around herself. The soaked robe was clinging to her skin, and her teeth were going to start chattering any minute. "Look, I wanted to join up with your clique. So I had to track you down. Moggie's good for that."
"Moggie?" the mean voice asked.
"Uh...my hovercam."
"Your hovercam has a name?"
Laughter echoed from every direction. Aya realized that there were more of them than she'd thought. Maybe a dozen hidden in the darkness.
"Hang on a second," Eden's voice said. "How old are you?"
"Um...fifteen?"
A flashlight flicked on, blindingly bright in the total darkness.
"Ouch!" She squeezed her eyes shut.
Whoever was holding the flashlight added, "Thought that nose looked big. Even in infrared."
As Aya's eyes adjusted to the flashlight, she began to make out faces. They looked like Plain Janes, the clique for girls who didn't want to be pretty or exotic, just normal - as if that concept still existed. Except for Eden Maru's padded and muscular form, the hovering figures around Aya all looked the same - generic bodies, designed to disappear in a crowd. All of them were girls, as far as Aya could tell, just like the night she'd seen them hitching a ride on the mag-lev train.
"So you like to sneak around at night?" Eden said.
"I guess so. Beats sitting in my dorm room."
"Easily bored?" The other girl drawled the words in her growling voice. "Then maybe you should
have a surf sometimes."
"A surf?" Aya swallowed. "You mean I can ride with you?"
A few grumbles came from the darkness.
"But she's only fifteen," the girl holding the flashlight said.
"Are you still back in the Prettytime?" said the growly-voiced girl. "Who cares how old she is?
She crashed Prettyville and came down here all alone. Got more guts than most of you, probably."
"What about the hovercam?" Eden said. "If she kicks a story, we'll have wardens all over us."
"She could still call the wardens if she wants to." The mean-voiced girl slid closer on her board, until her nose was only a few centimeters from Aya's. "So we either leave her down here for good, or get her on our side."
Aya swallowed, glancing down at the shimmering black lake.
"Um, do I get a vote?"
"No one but me gets a vote," the girl said, then smiled. "But how about this? You do get to make a choice."
"Oh?"
The girl held Moggie at arm's length, and Aya saw the lock-down clamp against its skin. It was frozen, brain-dead until someone removed the clamp.
"You can either take your hovercam and go away. Or I drop it right now, and you get to come surfing with us."
Aya blinked, listening to the cold water still trickling from her robe. Ren claimed he'd made Moggie waterproof, but could she find her way back to this exact spot?
"How important is it to you, getting out of that boring little dorm room?"
Aya swallowed. "Very."
"Then choosing should be easy, right?"
"It's just...that cam cost me a lot of merits."
"It's a toy. Like face ranks and merits, it doesn't mean anything if you don't let it."
Face rank didn't mean anything? This girl was brain-missing. But she was right about one thing: Nothing was more important than getting out of boring, pathetic Akira Hall.
Maybe Ren could help her find the way back here...
Aya closed her eyes. "Okay. I want to come with you. Drop it."
The splash echoed like a slap.
"Good choice. That toy isn't what you really need."
Aya opened her eyes. They stung with hidden tears.
"I'm Jai," the girl said, bowing low.
"Aya Fuse." She returned the bow, her eyes falling to the widening ripples beneath them. Moggie was really gone.