Siri and Finn were long away from the side room off of the marble lobby about an hour after she had awoken from her dream. She never said what she dreamt of, but she was left with nothing but conviction that Finn was correct in every word that he had said about Rennan and what was happening.
“So, now what?” she asked once she had regained her composure, almost a mile and a half by foot away from the hotel. The trip with Compound X Y Z had left her with shaky legs and an upset stomach, but now, in the fresh air and the slight chilly humidity that the inlet had carried between the buildings into the city, she felt much better.
Finn looked both left and right before he led her across the street on the crosswalk with the rest of the pedestrians that were waiting for the traffic to stop long enough to cross. “Now, we need to stay one step ahead of our friend Rennan. He is a danger to both of us. We should probably leave Geneda as soon as we can, maybe head for Catalonia or somewhere nice like that.”
“We could head back for Earth. We would be safe there. I have family. They can harbor us and mask our movements long enough to keep a few steps ahead of him.”
Finn stopped and held her by the shoulders and looked deep into her eyes with a look of sternest disagreement on his face. “Do not ever again mention that you are from Earth. Not here. Not anymore. That is a bad idea and you know it, Siri.”
Siri broke eye contact with him and blushed, her mouth agape with wordlessness. “You’re right, Finn. Sorry. I don’t know…” Why had she said that? She knew full well the dangers of mentioning her heritage, especially here, in this part of the galaxy.
Finn loosened his grip on her shoulders. “I’m sorry. That was a little harsh of me. Sometimes people coming down off of the compound lose their common sense. It happens. Just be careful from now on, okay?”
Siri nodded and apologized again. “I’m sorry.”
They took off quickly along the street, busy with lunchtime pedestrians in business clothing. A group of thyers watched them pass with suspicion, but Finn seemed to pay no mind to them so neither did Siri, even though she knew he had noticed them. The world was in a state of stasis; it was that period of time right after summer had left and right before winter set in upon them and would keep everyone inside and make them resort to using the set of tunnels and indoor bridges to navigate the urban landscape. Winter on Geneda came on fast, and cold, and then would promptly leave as suddenly as it would come.
Finn turned suddenly and took them into a station. Its doorway was a soaring gothic arch, with a metal door beneath it from which many people poured in and out of the station’s platforms, trying to get to and from their desired places to spend their lunch break. Siri was not sure of the name of this station; she had not spent too much time on this side of the city before. In fact, this so far was the longest period of time she had spent on this side of the inlet. Rennan’s apartment was on the other side, the lower side, the more gritty side. Here there lived the richer businesspeople, the ones who wore all Earth-made clothing even to take out the trash or go to the grocery store, just to say that they could. Those kind of people disgusted Siri now, but she could not help but admit that she used to be one of them.
Finn purchased a quick pass for both of them with a swipe of a magnet card and pulled her through the turnstile. He seemed to know exactly where they were going, and apparently they had a schedule to keep because he kept checking the time on the holographic billboards that lined the terminal above them.
“Where are we going?” she called at him, but he either ignored her or did not hear her over the din of the station. After a few minutes of pulling her down the busy platform, he hung a hard left and boarded a train that was relatively empty. He sat down quickly on the bench and pulled her down with him.
“Where are we going?” she asked again.
“I heard you the first time, and decided not to tell you. If I don’t tell you, then you don’t know, and then you can be less dangerous,” he explained, looking her deeply in the eyes.
“What’s dangerous about me knowing? I won’t tell anybody, you know that.”
“Do I? I don’t know you well enough to assume that of you. I also don’t know if he will be watching us through you or not.”
“Through me?”
“With the drug. Compound X Y Z.”
Siri’s breath caught in her throat. Her own dream had taken her through the eyes of somebody she had never met, during a time that was very obviously in the past—they were talking about the Tuvian Revolution as though it had just happened, which only made sense if it had just happened. But she had never considered that other people could dream through her. She suddenly felt very naked and exposed. She pulled her jacket tighter around her body. Rennan would of course dream of her, if he had control over such a thing. There would be no reason to dream of Finn. Even so, Finn probably had safeguards in place to prevent anybody from dreaming through him. He was too smart for that, Siri could tell.
Defeated, and seeing the logic in his argument, she nodded and tried to relax into her seat as best she could.
“Just trust me,” he said. “I won’t hurt you. I promise.”
His smile was very sincere.
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