Ultraviolet Read Free Page B

casino? I told you not to waste your time on that crap.”
    “No, nothing like that. I wish it was that.”
    “So what then?”
    “Well… I’ve got a Special looking for me. Shooting at me, actually.”
    “What!”
    “Yeah.”
    “What did you do?”
    “Nothing. I—”
    “Carmen, what did you do?”
    “I…” I paused and glanced around the intersection before crossing. No signs of cops. No obvious security cameras in the street. “You know the holography project I was working on back at Cygnus?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, I’ve been working on it for the last two months on my own.”
    “Seriously? And that’s what they’re pissed about?”
    “I think so.”
    “Huh. So they found your research? Did you post something somewhere?”
    “No. I just… This afternoon I printed a prototype of my holo projector.”
    “Okay.”
    “But I needed some exotic feedstock. Rubidium.”
    “Carmen! Jeez!”
    “I know, shut up!” I rubbed my forehead as I walked down the sidewalk so I could partially shield my face. How long had it been since the rooftop? An hour? Two? If Frost was really working with the cops, then he could have them all looking for me by now. But if he was trying to keep things quiet, keep things in-house, then maybe I had a little more time. “Listen, it works, okay? I turned the projector mesh into a pair of gloves and they can project solid light objects.” Mentally I flashed back to the bullets pinging off the shield. “It works really well.”
    “Great, I hope you have a lot of fun with it. In jail.”
    “You’re not helping, Dom.”
    “I shouldn’t even be talking to you right now. Do you know how long I would last in jail without my meds and everything? Less than a day.”
    “This is a scrambled line, you’re fine.”
    “You’re sure?”
    “Yes, I’m sure.”
    “Okay.” Dom heaved a heavy sigh. “Okay, so where are you now?”
    “Downtown. Crossing Charles at the moment.” I ran between two bikes as the light changed.
    “Okay. So what happens now? What are you going to do?”
    “I need to get off the street and hide for a little while. I just don’t know where it’s safe.”
    “Lexington Market.”
    “Seriously?”
    “Yeah. They’ve got so many drug deals going on down there these days, the dealers have hacked all the cameras. It’s the safest place in the city. You know, if you’re a criminal.”
    I winced. I didn’t want to go anywhere near the market. It was one of those places you hear about all your life as a terrible place where terrible things happen. If there was a violent crime on the news, odds are it was near the market. The only place worse than Lexington those days was Pigtown. But Pigtown’s always been scary, so that hardly counts.
    “How do you know so much about it?”
    Dom laughed. “Where do you think I get my meds these days?”
    “Oh. Right.”
    Yeah, I’m not sick. Like, ever. Yet another thing my friends say is lucky about me. It seems they’ve all got congenital this or early-onset that. All of them take at least three pills a day, and it costs them about half of their take-home pay. And it probably would for the rest of their lives. But not me. I’m fine. Always have been. Allergic to peanuts, of course, but who isn’t?
    “Okay, Dom, I guess I’ll head down there and try to find a shady spot to sit tight. I’ll call you later. Thanks.”
    “Watch your butt, Car.”
    So I turned around and headed back west a few blocks and went into the market. Lexington Market was basically what it had always been, according to my dad. It was one long building with glass ceilings and about a hundred little delis, stalls, restaurants, food carts, food trucks, produce stands, noodle stands, butchers, and everything else food-related you could think of, all in miniature and crammed together like one huge cafeteria to feed the west side.
    And it was crowded as hell.
    It smelled like every food imaginable, all cooking together in every sauce