FURTHEST FROM THE ENTRY to the valley, the South End was the village’s dark side. Dimly lit bars, clusters of stacked trucks, trailers, and containers, inhabited vehicles, industrial sheds and shacks, this was where people would go, often in secret, looking for all the things they weren’t supposed to have.

Off grid comms, cheap booze, lax and unlicensed entertainment, unCert pharmaceuticals, even some code, and kit were all on sale for whoever knew who or how to ask. Anyone looking for shady pleasures found their way to the South End. The most affordable accommodation tended to be found mainly in the South End.

Joel lived in a trailer on top of a container with the woman he called his mom. Theirs was one of the few homes with internal ladders. That was their ‘step up.’ Mom had the container. She always said she wanted Joel to have the upstairs space because it had air and light.

“But you’re always behind a visor in a virtu. You have the blinds shut most of the time anyway.” Which was kind of true.

It was nice of Mom to let Joel have the space in the trailer and he was grateful to her. Mainly for the elevation. It was practically the highest up space in their Edge. Being so near to the hillside, he got the one of the strongest comm signals in the whole valley floor.

~~

Joel still had the glove he’d uprated for Dale Cartwright with the Neuromesh, and the pyrotechnic spinners. He’d forgotten about giving them to him. The day got so messed up, he didn’t even notice whether Dale was at the hoist or not.

Before he made his virtual way to H A, Honey’s virtual kingdom of the terminally weird, Joel calibrated his jacket and headband for the Ghost Ops scenario of Vulcan’s Finale. He had a saved level with an armored sandbuggy and a screaming village of Wahaab fighters. He wanted to try the run with shudder, shake and temperature control.

The frame had particles of a shatter grenade frozen and the sandbuggy hung with its fat tires in mid-air. Joel had the jacket coded for rumble and shock responses. He’d co-ordinated the temperature controls to make a synthesis of heat when the player passed by fire as well as cold and vibration for a rush of wind outside the vehicle.

It all looked good. Now he’d see if Honey was at her geeky hangout. If he could even find it.

~~

Political slogans greeted him.

Resist

Don’t believe the hike

The Reset was a heist

He reached the entrance sign. Hopes.’ There was a space underneath the word, like there was more to come or it wasn’t finished. A clown’s face appeared and asked him,

“And who might you be, lost and alone, out of your way here?” Joel took a slow breath as he gave it his throwaway username and address. Then a password. Then the clown said, “Things can change.”

The ritual annoyed him but he gritted his teeth to say, “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

~~

“Aww.” Honey was waiting, just inside and ready for him. Her avatar was a nineteen-eighties pop star in a ninja costume, but with a blue belt and yellow edges on the jacket. “You gave the proper creed response. Well done.”

“Be the change,” he parroted another part of the creed. He wore his usual avatar, the vintage red and black costume of a snarky superhero.

“Be the change,” she grinned as she said it back. Or at least her avatar did. “Joel, you’d be for it. You’d be a part of it if you only gave it a chance.”

When he didn’t say anything she said, “I was sorry we were late and it meant we couldn’t work together this morning.”

“Your mom has ESP about where I’m going to be. What is it about her? She’s happy enough for Kier to be hanging around you.”

“I think she understands Kier. She says that you’re more of an unknown quantity.”

“Really? Is that it?” He had never asked her about it before but it was starting to get to him. “She acted like I was to blame for Hannah dangling on that ladder.”

“She went up there because she wanted to see you.”

“Hannah did? You’re kidding me.”

“She idolizes you. You know that.”

“I don’t.” He blinked. “Does she?”

“Joel.”

“Okay, okay. I believe you.” He said it, but he still had no idea if it was true. “Still doesn’t explain why your mom acts like I’m the Gabriel’s evil gimp.”

“His what?” her chuckle was music to his ear.

“You know, like Doctor Frankenstein’s dwarf, Igor or something. Some evil thing that goes around evilling everywhere.”

Her voice lowered. Teasing again. “I thought you didn’t believe in The Gabriel.”

“I thought nobody really believed in him. Do they?”

“I don’t know.” she said airily.

“Really?”

“No, I really mean ‘I don’t know.’ I have no idea about any of it.”

“Oh. Okay. Well, I think your mom feels like she should have kept a closer eye on Hannah. That’s why she wants to put the blame onto me. I still can’t believe that she wants to blame the guy who risked his life for her, though.”

“I saw what you did, Joel.”

“Yeah,” he tried to walk it back, “It wasn’t that big of a thing.” He shrugged, “I was just surprised to get a slap in the face for it. That was all. Really.”

“Yeah.” She smiled. “Have you seen the drones?”

“Not since this morning.”

“They’ve been all over the East Edge.”

That was where Kier lived. A lot of other people lived there, too. Probably half the people in their year at school were from the East Edge. Joel carefully avoided wondering how Honey was so up on the East Edge

~~

Cool morning air fanned Joel’s face and his chest on the road to school. Honey’s voice was high in his headset mix as he leaned to sweep the air board around the tight downhill bend in the road. Shadows of the kite collectors high above striped the side of the hill.

The board glided smooth and fast as he swayed through the turns. In his pack was Drake Cartwright’s high end glove and his throwing spinners. Joel lined the glove with nuromesh for him. That was juice, too, even though Drake had tried to chisel him on the price.

With all the juice that Drake had, trying to penny pinch for high-end kit, Joel didn’t see how the kid could hold his head up. Probably just because there’s nothing to weigh it down, he thought, leaning in the turn toward the highway, where the road flattened out. Joel should definitely not have the explosive spinners.

Now he was going to have to walk into school with them. His backpack had anti-surveillance lining but so far, nobody knew that. Which was kind of the point of stealth tech. When he gave the spinners to Dale, he’d know that Joel got them into school undetected.

With a sigh, he realized, his only option was to keep hold of them and not give them to him at all at school. Hold them until that evening and arrange to meet. And spend all day with weapons in his pack that would be super illegal, even if they weren’t unCert tech.

It felt to Joel like the board was making about sixty six miles per hour. There was no way to know for sure without instruments on. If he put on the dials, gauges and navigation, he wouldn’t have enough juice to get him all the way to school. He’d have to skate the last few hundred yards with wheel trucks down.

For Joel it was a point of pride to sweep into the schoolyard and still be on air when he flipped up the scuffed and battered board. He would know the average speed from the timer on his tablet, but he didn’t have a tracker set for speed sampling.

As he stopped in the schoolyard, he said, “Honey have you left yet? You’re going to be late, aren’t you?”

“Mom says I have to wait.”

“Wait? What for?”

“Joel,” her voice dropped. “The drones. They’re here.”

“You don’t think…” he couldn’t think of a way to say it. They couldn’t be here for her. Surely not. That was impossible.

“Joel, I don’t know. First mom says I have to wait. Now this.”

“I have to go in to school.” He heard the crack in his voice. He wished he’d spoken to her just a minute earlier. He would have detoured and gone straight to her place. Now he was already in the yard. He’d been seen.

She sounded calm, “I know. It will all be fine. I’m sure it will, Joel. Don’t worry.”

“No. Sure. I’ll connect at first break.”

“Don’t worry, okay?”