Shadow Unit 15 Read Free

'em."
    The TV showed two young guys doing a step-pivot, step-pivot, leap sequence that made his whole lower body ache in sympathy. "Is it...Australian?"
    "Yep. And unlike the Disney Channel equivalent, it's full of teenagers who are butt-stupid in actual teenager ways, rather than made-up let-us-teach-you-this-lesson ways. Ooh, hang on. This is one of Kat's hip-hop routines." Hafidha waved the volume up, and they watched the dancers turn themselves into fierce, angular, graceful geometry.
    "And you know the character's names," Chaz said when the dance ended.
    "Teenagers think you're stupid if you don't know as much as they do."
    "Uh-huh."
    Hafs slugged him in the arm, then passed him the tub of cookies.
    The end credits began to roll. "The way the show came up... Susanna said she had a quiet freakout when one of the characters got injured. She said it scared the crap out of her—that in a matter of seconds, someone could go from having a plan and a life and a shiny future to zip, game over, out of quarters.
    "And I could see it was horror-movie stuff to her. That was when I realized the thing she was terrified of had already happened to me. Twice."
    She bit into another cookie while Netflix settled on its home page for the show. Dance Academy. "So you told her it wasn't that bad?"
    "Hell, no. I told her she was right. I told her what doesn't kill us mostly leaves us seriously fucked up, or words to that effect. When a life-wrecking event happens, it wrecks your life . And you have to try to get a new one, which is a lot harder than replacing a wrecked pretty much anything else."
    Chaz contemplated the piles of wreckage on his own backtrail. But he'd been able to stick with his old life after all. The Relative had broken him, but he'd put himself back together and returned to his work and his friends and his future. "Boy, you sure do know how to give a pep talk."
    "I do, though. It made her feel better."
    "Seriously?"
    Hafidha tossed her head—the braids that would have been flipped off her cheek were gone, but the gesture remained. "If I were standing at the top of a cliff with one of your pretty rectangular parachutes and said I was scared to jump, what would you tell me?"
    "I'd say if you weren't you'd be an idiot. Oh."
    "When you're scared, and reasonably scared, and somebody tells you, 'It's no big deal," you know they're a liar. And being lied to is never comforting." She tucked her feet under her and stood up. "Jammers do not live by cookies alone."
    "Who are you, and what have you done with my Wabbit?"
    She frowned down at him. "Pffft. We need a pile of grilled cheese sandwiches. And maybe some beer. After that, wanna watch the next episode with me? It's only half an hour."
    Teenagers being stupid. And, based on that step-pivot-leap bit, trying to defy gravity on a daily basis.
    As an athlete, he could respect that. "I'll slice the bread.”

Asylum - by C.L. Polk and Elizabeth Bear
     

Act I
     
    Ashton, VA, April 30, 2014
    "So here you are again," Saito says. "Danny-boy. With your trampled-on fear all muddled up. Got anything new for me?"
    "Stubbed my toe this morning," Brady replies.
    "And you had sex, " Saito complains. "Snuggly wonderful dawn-time cuddling. You had a good lunch. You're not even hungry . Must you antagonize me like this?"
    "Unexpected consequence," Brady says. "Desensitization."
    "You're not living up to the deal. Give me something."
    "Doing my best."
    "I hate slow periods," Saito complains. "Waiting for the other shoe to drop. For you to break up with your boyfriend or have a teammate die. That grief felt good, Dann-O. Felt like the first time. But— Not today. You're in a good mood."
    "It's been good lately," Brady says. "Sorry."
    "You have something in there," Saito says. "Something you're covering up in all that fluff. Nobody knows you like I do. How's your monster on work release?"
    Screw you, buddy. "She's fine."
    "For now. Until she isn't fine. And it could happen in a blink."
    "She's