“You did this to him,” we both say at the same time.
2
James
When my pager goes off for the third time, I unearth it from my pocket and chuck it angrily into the ocean.
Kenji looks up, stunned.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he says, his heavy boots kicking up sand as he rushes toward the shoreline. He shields his eyes against a cool glare of sunlight. “That’s government-issued tech. You can’t just throw it into the nuclear-infested waters—”
“Too late,” I mutter, glowering at the unsorted test tubes before me. I’m perched on one knee, sinking slowly into cold, damp beach. Judgmental shorebirds stare at me. Crows caw rudely overhead. I’m tired and hungry. My head hurts.
It’s possible I’ve never been so pissed off.
To be fair, I’m not sure anything could’ve made this day better. It’s wet and blustery and smells like sewage. Nests of seaweed, jetsam, and decomposing fish surge in and out with the tide. I slot the sand and sea samples into my kit and listen to Kenji curse colorfully into the wind.
Over the past decade we’ve dedicated great resources to reviving natural bodies of water, monitoring and rehabilitating marine life. It was one of the many reasons we decided to leave the landlocked middle of the continent andmove back to a temperate, coastal area: Juliette, my sister-in-law and revolutionary icon, wanted to be able to keep a closer eye on the ocean.
Obviously there are entire departments dedicated to this work, but once every quarter Warner sends some poor bastard out here to make sure the samples we collect match up with the samples we receive. That’s just like him: always checking everyone else’s work. Looking over everyone’s shoulders. He can’t trust people. He needs to micromanage everything—
“All right,” says Kenji, stomping unevenly toward me through the sand. “Enough of this shit. You’ve been in a pissy mood for over a week now, and I’m tired of it.”
“I’m not in a pissy mood.”
Kenji’s pager goes off, blaring with a sound I’ve lately begun to associate with rage. He glances at it, sighs, and silences the notification. “Look, I’m sorry you went and fell in love with a psychopath—”
“I’m not in love with her,” I say sharply.
“Oh, great, what a relief,” he says, faking a smile. “Here I was, worried you’d developed feelings for a professional mercenary of The Reestablishment—”
“Jesus.” I drag a hand over my eyes.
“—after she’d effortlessly scammed you into bringing her into the heart of the resistance—”
I look up at the sky, exhaling.
“—in order to execute your family and potentially massacre the population”—he holds up a finger—“but onlyafter she slaughtered a few of our people and tried to killmefirst—”
“Stop.” I glare at him. “I’m sick of this conversation. I’ve heard enough of this shit over the past nine days.”
“Oh, wow, you’re counting the days, huh?” Kenji raises his eyebrows. “Tell me something: Are you counting the hours and minutes, too? Measuring your life against the last time you had a Rosabelle hit?”
“Shut up.”
“I will notshut up. You think I don’t know what it’s like to be this pathetic? Iamthis pathetic. Why do you think I agreed to come out here in this shitty weather to babysit you while you do a job a worm could do?”
“What?” I frown, forgetting my anger a moment. “Bro, worms don’t even have hands.”
“Rude of you to hold that against them,” he says, crossing his arms. “Worms turn garbage into compost. Worms do more for the world than you do. Worms just eat dirt and mind their business. Worms need a better marketing campaign.”
I peer up at him. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Do I seem okay?” he snaps at me. “Are you not hearing me? I’m freezing my ass off on this gross beach talking about worms. No, I am not okay. I’m hiding from Nazeera.”
“Right.” I give him a loaded look. “Because she tried to say hi to you.”
“Yes, because she tried to say hi to me, and don’t you dare take that fucking tone with me, as if you have any rightto judge. There’s only enough room on this planet for one of us to be acting like a hormonal teenager right now, so I suggest you pull yourself together. This is my time to shine.”
