Dreams in the Tower Part 2 by Andrew Vrana Read Free Book Online Page B

skyscrapers by the thousands, but they weren’t creating chaos just yet. It was as if they were waiting for something, more like a siege than an assault. Will it hold off through the night? Jason wondered. It would make their job much easier.
    Sabrina returned from the travel stop bathroom and leaned on the car beside him; she stretched her arms until both her shoulders popped audibly. “Corsicana went by fast.”
    “It did,” Jason agreed. The car was charged and ready to go, but Jason didn’t feel like moving just yet. Apparently Sabrina didn’t either. They went on leaning against the car, watching the people going in and out of the store. They had chosen a relatively small town to stop in to avoid any possible confrontation, but it seemed like this travel stop was the one place everyone in the area went to. Watching them go on about their lives was strange and somehow soothing, like being reminded that everything hadn’t gone to shit just yet.
    After a few minutes of their ongoing reluctance to acknowledge the flow of time, Sabrina said, “We should probably get back on the road.”
    “Yeah, I know. But…” He trailed off when he noticed a faint mumbling sound coming from the car. “You hear that?” Sabrina stepped away from the passenger door, and he opened it and grabbed his tablet from the floor, where it had fallen at some point.
    “Finally,” said a voice that sounded like a duck speaking through a web of static and fee dback. Jason lifted the tablet facedown from the car and flipped it over to see a smooth, silver-skinned ellipsoid face with tiny black eyes and a misshapen mouth. The vid-call was showing up through a communication app that Jason had never had on his tablet, one that he sometimes saw Seito using when he talked to AC people.
    “ Joans,” the alien-thing buzzed. “It’s just you and cop, right?” It spoke with a strange accent that didn’t quite seem foreign.
    “Yeah.”
    “This’ll be quick,” it said. “I’m Skexka, with Anti-Corp. I’m giving you orders from now on. I put our com app on your tab. Use when you need me. I think you designed original.”
    “I guess I did.” He looked at the window around the video; it did seem to faintly remind him of his original creation from years ago he’d been using to talk to Seito. This confirmed his suspicion that Steph had brought the non-E stuff over when she joined the movement. It made him feel a weird sense of pride.
    “Great to have you in the ranks,” Skexka said.
    “In the ranks?” Sabrina looked at Jason, puzzled.
    “I’ll explain later,” Jason said to her. “So, why isn’t Seit—Sei-kai giving me my orders anymore?”
    “Reassigned,” Skexka said, his lopsided mouth flopping as he spoke. “And you’re more important now. Wanted you dealing with someone high up. Me.” Sabrina moved over right up against Jason to get a better view; the stale odor of long travel clung to her, just as it did to him. “I have orders,” Skexka continued, “for both of you. Joans, plan for you has changed; you are to drop Sorensen at rendezvous then head to safe location—the extraction point—and await further orders there. You’ll receive directions at rendezvous. Sorensen: nothing changed. We will send exact location for rendezvous when you enter city. Everything clear?”
    They both said it was, Jason with an immense feeling of relief. So far he hadn’t had an o pportunity to feel afraid about what was coming, being focused on the danger closer to them. But the dread had been growing in him, coming on stronger with every mile that brought them closer to Houston; he wasn’t a cop or a soldier, so how could he possibly help infiltrate a secure prison facility, one probably crawling with armed private police? Now that he knew he wouldn’t have to he could breathe the night air without feeling like it was trying to choke him to death.
    “Good,” Skexka said. “I’m out. Be in touch.”
    Once the alien face was gone