Suited by Jo Anderton Read Free Book Online Page A

from?”
    I thought of cables wiggling beneath my flesh and tiny insect legs kicking between my bones. I resisted the urge to touch the silver notch at my ear, or trace the lines of metal beneath my uniform and clothes. They were all injuries the suit had healed, sewing them together with its wire until there were hard and solid.
    My old scars were ribbed, white skin. My new scars were suited.
    “So, do we have a new quota?” I said, more to hide the sounds of the conversation behind us, and busy my mind, than any real desire to know.
    Natasha nodded. “Sixty jars every sixnight and one.”
    “Not as much.”
    “Not as many of us.”
    “Ah, but they don’t realise how much Lad is worth,” I tried, with false cheer.
    Natasha said nothing.
    “The metal won’t come out.” Disappointment in Aleksey’s voice was clear, even with my back turned to him. “Does it normally work the first time?”
    “For most people, no.” Natasha turned abruptly, and approached the men. I followed her.
    “Tan did,” Lad said. He was tearing the discarded poly wrap into thin, transparent strips. “Hers was big when rocks fell on her and she was all right, even though it was a whole wall.”
    I smiled briefly, not really sharing his enthusiasm for the experience.
    Aleksey’s frustration became worry. His dark, tight uniform stretched over broad shoulders and an even broader stomach that I hadn’t noticed when he was wrapped in layers of clothes. It looked uncomfortable on him, like it wasn’t really designed for someone so large. “That’s not likely to happen, is it?”
    My smile broke into something genuine. “Not if you’re lucky.”
    Mizra snorted. “Don’t take Tanyana as an example. The woman has the worst luck of anyone I’ve ever met.” His eyes met mine briefly. We both knew it wasn’t luck. It was veche machination and an overly enthusiastic Keeper that had dragged me to this low ebb in my life.
    But we weren’t about to explain the actual truth to Aleksey. And in a way, it was nice to pretend that this was all one big accident.
    “Get your clothes on,” Natasha said, collecting a thick shirt from the floor and passing it back to Aleksey. “We have a quota to fill. Can’t stand around talking about Tanyana all day.”
    Mizra and I shared a shocked glance. Natasha actually wanted to head out and start collecting? Maybe the Keeper was right, and the world really was ending.
    Natasha saw us and scowled. “Try not to act too surprised.”
    Lad chuckled softly.
    We left Ironlattice and stood aimless in the street while Natasha locked the door. A few wrapped-up citizens of Movoc-under-Keeper hurried past. Movoc might be poor this far from the Keeper’s Tear River and the city centre but it was not destitute, not shuffling toward death in a haze like the run-down areas at the very outskirts of the city. These were people with some pion-skill, but nothing special: cleaners, factory workers, underpaid and undervalued. We debris collectors rather belonged here.
    “Bro normally works out which way we should go,” Lad said, trying to be helpful, as Natasha peered along the street.
    “Kichlan isn’t here though, is he,” she snapped.
    Lad hung his head, so I took his hand.
    It did feel strange to be doing this without Kichlan. He organised us, he kept us going even when the debris was hard to find and the day cold.
    “Why don’t we start with places that look broken?” Mizra offered. “We can work out a route later. Right now, we should at least get moving.”
    “This way.” Natasha gestured down the street, away from the river.
    Movoc-under-Keeper was built around the Keeper’s Tear River, and spread out from it in a fan. The further you went from the river, the less kopacks its inhabitants earned. The less kopacks, the less the pion systems were maintained. And it was at poorly maintained pion systems that we were most likely to find debris. Without Kichlan’s organisational skills – or Lad and the