March City: Rebellion of the Gifted [Book 2 | Complete | Fantasy/Sci-fi]

Chapter 14: Trusting the Untrustworthy

"Don't take this the wrong way," said the man, sliding the deceptively fragile band around Ari's neck. "Everyone gets this when they first join us."

"Everyone from March City, you mean," said Ari, swallowing and grimacing when it tugged against her throat. It was quite uncomfortable.

"You'll get used to it. It's to help us track where you are, so we can give you aid if needs be, and also as a last precaution."

"In case we set you all on fire," said Rale dryly, getting his fitted beside Ari. "Nice to be so trusted."

"We don't trust you," said the woman fitting his neck band. "Who knows what you're all capable of? I sure hope we get out of these desperate times soon so we don't have to work with you freaks."

"Wow, aren't you a ray of sunshine?" said Rale, wrinkling his nose. "Watch I don't accidentally — zap you!"

He threw out a hand like how Fris discharges her electricity. The woman screamed, leaping backwards and almost falling over her own feet in panic. She dropped the e-reader in her hand onto the floor with a clatter. Her face paled as she clutched the wall.

"Don't do that, Rale!" said Shon, sitting on the benches that stretched across the hall. "They're cautious of us as it is!"

"Well, they should be. Treat us like animals and we'll bite you back!" Rale said, snapping his teeth together and guffawing when the woman flinched.

"Those necklaces explode," she hissed, picking up her e-reader. "One twitch that makes us think you're putting citizens like me at risk, and we'll blow you up!"

"You know well we can blow you up before you can so much as blink," said Ari, emulating her best Lira frost. The vitriol in the woman's words lit a fire she didn't know she had in her. The woman froze, terrified. "One twitch that makes us think you're putting us at risk, we'll blow you up. So watch your words!"

The woman swallowed whatever retort brewed in her mind and finished applying the bands to the rest of the students in sullen silence. When the last band went on with a click, she turned on her heels and fled.

"Want me to hack it?" said Rale, flicking the band with his finger.

"Don't!" said Shon, pale. "You don't want to set it off!"

Rale scoffed. "It'll take more than a flick to set this off. This is the sort of signalling you see in the safety mechanisms of Area Two."

"How the heck do you know how the research area safety mechanisms work?" said Shon, looking aghast. "You're a journalist, not a researcher or security programmer."

Rale waggled his eyebrows at Shon. "I wouldn't ask questions to which you don't want to know the answers, Mr. Peacekeeper. I have my ways of obtaining information. Ask the Transformer, there."

"Don't," said Ari with a sigh. Shon's straight-laced personality would struggle with Rale's tendency to cross the line on a whim, even more often than Ari.

"Basically, the kind of trigger needed to actually upset a device like this is on a par with the stuff in Area Two blowing up. Not something a sneeze or a flick can set off. "

"I sure hope you'll spend less time cooking up conspiracies here," said Shon, appearing tired. He ran a hand through his curly brown hair. "We need these people on our sides, not gossipping about how dangerous we are."

"I'll be good, don't you worry. I'm pretty sure I won't get up to much mischief when doing technology maintenance. And from the sounds of things they're giving me old databases to restore, too, not anything current or new. Figures. They don't want me knowing their dirty secrets or spilling them to everyone. I'm sure it'll be fascinating learning how humans first learnt to use contactless screens and nanocarbon mesh units." Rale waved his hand, rolling his eyes. "Where's our mighty leader, anyway? I see she's not joining us plebs in getting our little traitor leashes on."