“What? How?” She leans in, once again looking past the shutters. “I don’t see anything.”
“That’s because you’re not augmented. You’re not programmed to see what I see. But you’re programmed to do something else though, aren’t ya? Who sent you here?” Then I hold up her hand, the spectra still pinched between her fingertips. “You’re doing this, aren’t you? You’re powering it somehow.Howare you doing this?”
Clara shakes her head at me, denying it as she renews her attempts to wriggle out of my grip on her hand. “I’m not, I swear!”
“It’s not her.”
I turn, and Clara gets loose, dropping the spectra into my hand so the hologram disappears, and with it goes the veil and the overlay and the waterfall of data.
Anneeta, who I had forgotten about, steps into the room still looking very much like an unreal little girl.
“What?” I ask her.
“It’s not her. Not all of it, at least. It’s me, Tyse. I’m the one powering this.”
The silence is thick after Anneeta says these words. Mostly because Clara and I are both very confused, though for different reasons. I take another deep breath, trying to slow my heart rate, and then point to the chair. “Sit.” I’m looking at Clara. She doesn’t even object, just does as she’s told, perching on the edge of the cushion in an upright position. Though I think if she wasn’t so confused and had her wits about her, she would definitely object to my commanding tone.
Then I turn to Anneeta and point at the bed. “Close the door and you sit too.”
Anneeta sighs, but doesn’t resist. She closes the door, then walks over to the bed and sits down, looking up at me with those big, brown eyes of hers.
I pace the room, still trying to even out the rhythm of my booming heart, and then, after a couple seconds of this, I stop between the bed and the chair, looking back at them.
Clara has no clue, so I direct my first question to Anneeta. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything. I can’t help it if the spark lives inside me and comes out whenever it wants.”
“Spark did this?” I pan a hand to the room, which is now empty of all evidence of what just happened, of course. Because I am holding the spectra and for whatever reason, I can’t power it up the way Clara did. “How, Anneeta? How did spark play the hologram on my fuckin’ Sweep discharge spectra when Clara touched it?”
“Well…” Anneeta does a little shrug here. “She’s…” Her eyes roll up, like she’s thinking. “It says she’s a conductor. But I don’t know what that means.”
“Who says that!” This comes out way too loud and both girls jump.
“The… god?” Anneeta’s voice is small now. Like I scared her.
I exhale in frustration, then rub both hands down my face, trying to stay calm. When I look at her again, I’ve got more control over my tone. “There is no god in this tower, Anneeta. You and I both know this.”
“You keep saying that, but you see all the evidence of him. It’s all over the place. You heard the generators in the lower levels. You saw the power, remember?”
“I do, and I did, but there’s still no god here. If there was, don’t you think he’d be a little pissed off that several thousand uninvited guests are living in his fuckin’ tower?”
“Don’t you think heis?”
Anneeta and I stare at each other as these words of hers sink in.
I break away first. Then turn and look at Clara. “Tell me what happened.”
“I told you. I found that disc by mistake. I picked it up, it shocked me, so I dropped it. And the next time I picked it up that picture appeared. The… hologram, or whatever.”
“You can’t blame her, Tyse. It’s your fault too.”
I turn to look at Anneeta. “Explain.”
“You’re the augment. Without you, I can’t make a veil. And without her”—she points to Clara—“you can’t see the veil I make. So.” She shrugs. “It’s all of us.”
I stare at her for a few moments. Then my gaze travels down to the floor where the footstool is still overturned. My eyes dart up to meet Clara’s and she pleads innocent with her hands.
“I told you, Tyse. It was an accident. I didn’t mean to see that stuff. Your… that… hearing, or whatever.”
