The Beam: Season Two by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant Read Free Book Online Page A

They’re harder, more honest workers than your connivers and criminals.”  
    Micah gave another small laugh. “Okay.”
    “You have to stop Natasha, Micah. It’s not just insulting to the party. It’s insulting to me personally.”  
    “Exactly. To you personally .”  
    “As the perceived head of the Directorate.”  
    “Perceived. Personally. What really matters here, Isaac? The good of the union or your precious feelings?”
    “Please, Micah. It’ll ruin me. They’ll oust me.”
    “Who will oust you?”
    “The Directorate Party. I’ll lose my position.”  
    Micah’s head turned slowly. He watched his brother, pushing down the urge to comment on his abject weakness.  
    “Let me be honest with you, Isaac. If it was possible to lose your position, you’d have been kicked out already. But the quarreling Ryans are too big of a draw to lose. They keep you because you’re my brother, and that means that your job is safe.”  
    “Micah…”  
    “What, Isaac?”  
    Isaac’s pleading eyes bored holes into Micah. He looked like a lost puppy. It made Micah want to kick him.  
    “Just…do it as a favor. Okay? A non-political, non-strategic favor I’m asking of you. As a brother.”
    Micah sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”  
    “Just get her to reframe it. Have them deny her permits for a few days. Suggest that she position it as a career reboot rather than an escape from slavery. She’s not just a high-profile defector, Micah. She’s my wife . The press will eviscerate me. Nobody will ever take me seriously again. She’ll stay with me, too, so every day I’ll have to sit there and take it, and the entire NAU will get to watch as she crushes my nuts in a vice. Isn’t it enough that she’s leaving? Do we really need her to rub it in my face, Shift or no Shift?”  
    Micah exhaled, his breath heavy. “Fine.”  
    “Thanks, Micah.”  
    Micah nodded.  
    From across District Zero, Isaac logged out of the simulation. His avatar blipped out of the library, and his little brother was left alone in the big chair against the bookshelf, fingers drumming on high-thread-count upholstery.

Chapter 4

    Dominic was acutely aware of the armrests under his forearms. He couldn’t get comfortable. Fabric kept sticking to his skin. He was also aware of his sweat, but he didn’t want to speak aloud to the mag train’s canvas to request cooling. He felt as if he were engaged in a silent quarrel with the canvas and didn’t want to be the first to break the silence. Cracking first felt weak even though the canvas wasn’t human and didn’t care…and even though the train’s canvas didn’t touch the dirty one back at the NPS station where he’d made his deal with Agent Austin Smith.  
    Fuck technology, thought Dominic. Let that bitch speak first.  
    He fidgeted, feeling his arms stick to the armrests. He watched the countryside glide by outside the windows. The trick on a mag train was to never watch anything closer than a half mile away. You had to look into the distance and ignore the flashes that your brain might argue were trees, old utility poles, livestock fences, and houses. If you stared into the distance, the train’s breakneck pace was visually tolerable. You might be able to dupe yourself into believing you were on a conventional train pulling out of a station, its metaphorical sails set for romantic, far-off destinations. That was better than feeling like human cargo, expediently shuttled off into the Appalachian Mountains. Because after all, weren’t the mountains where Dominic had always disposed of his problems?
    Crumb.
    Chrissy.  
    Agent Austin hadn’t cared about either of Dominic’s earlier human transgressions. They’d started as troublesome remainders, and then were simply forgotten. It didn’t matter that Chrissy had never been sent to Respero as she should have, and apparently it didn’t matter that Crumb hadn’t either. The data theft at DZPD two weeks ago must