Divided Worlds Trilogy 01 - Disconnect Read Free Page B

.”
    “Is that it?” Zachary stared at the device. It’d been years since a female spoke to him without running her fingers through his pockets. He cursed under his breath. She wasn’t talking to him.
    Patch fiddled with the Intercom. “Irreparable. Did you gain what you sought?”
    Excitement dried Zachary’s mouth. He forced his back into the hard chair, glancing up at the rusty pipes in the ceiling, imagining the polished floors of another world above them. “Why don’t the girls around here talk like her?”
    Tilting his head, Patch stammered, “I c-c-cannot comment.”
    The skin above Zachary’s ears pulled back. He bolted up, facing the generator. One LED flashed. Using Patch had sucked away two days’ worth of energy.
    “Zach-ach-ach-ach.” The Haulage-404’s eye sunk into darkness.
    Frozen, Zachary’s limbs shivered as the door opened.
    Only one other person had a key.

Chapter 3 - The Job
    Zachary feared the knowing glare fixed on his dad’s face.
    Marcus Connor’s weathered brown eyes scanned the room as he dropped his bulging sack. “You been powering that rust-bucket again?”
    Eyes dropped, Zachary winced at the invisible choke.
    “How many times must I tell you?” Marcus’s hand scraped over his formidable chest under his black-tarred vest. “I slave for us, every day, and what do I find when I get home? This? Two more days, Zach … two more days until I have enough to buy more.”
    “It was only meant to be for a minute,” muttered Zachary, wishing he had at least reattached the coiled-tube to the stove in time. He could have blamed an anomaly for sucking the volts in one go.
    The lantern glowed close to his dad’s bald head. “Is that uncooked rabbit?” An overlapped tooth jutted from his snarl. “So, son, tell me what was so important that you had to ruin dinner?”
    The Intercom! Zachary exhaled at the droid’s closed grasp.
    “I was trying to repair his eye.” His own rolled at the stupid suggestion. He’d be caught and suffer another tirade if his dad asked to see the parts.
    “He’s fine with one.” Marcus walked to his room. “It’s time you gave up on treasure-hunting rubbish and joined the Wallers. I’ll have a word to get you apprentice status.”
    Zachary mouthed his groan. The Far-Wallers, the largest employer in District Two, sent men to batter sludge along the distant hydro-wall where circulating fans operated. To many, the preservation of the oxygen supply exceeded the need to scavenge. Not to Zachary. He was the wrong build to start with, and the common scars of acidic leakages didn’t appeal to him. Zachary didn’t consider himself to be handsome, but he wasn’t ugly either.
    “I could haggle with upstairs to use their stove,” suggested Zachary. Half of the rabbit as a trade should be enough.
    Marcus emerged pushing padded gloves into the front pocket of his murky-green sweatshirt. “I got a job for tonight with Gerry.”
    Gerry Brennan, his dad’s old friend, lived in District One, known as IOTA, which stood for Invited Only, Trespassers Annihilated . Cordoned off from the unwelcome, it was the only zone in Underworld with a bay to outer space.
    Zachary’s hands dropped to his side. “What kind of job?”
    “There’s been some damage on the upper port side of Galilei . Pirates tried to take out an ex-ambassador’s home. Full-on assault or something like that.”
    “In Overworld?” Zachary asked, his fingers restless. “What else?”
    “The pirated shuttle exploded onto the hull. External sensors bombed out and the engine’s belly spilt into the shell. Gerry needs me to dig out the gunk.”
    “But why would they contact Gerry?” Didn’t the mighty Overworlders know how to deal with a breach themselves?
    “Everyone’s off doing something else.” Marcus sniffed with a tense screw of his lips. “Anyway, I don’t care. It pays well.” His eyes faded with the decreasing wick of the candlelight.
    “How much?”
    “Thirty