Gennifer Albin - Altered

The tinkle of a bell interrupts my thoughts, and I turn quickly to the door to see who has entered. In my haste, I knock a few books off the shelf, but the old woman has vanished into the recesses of the shop, so I retrieve them quickly before she notices. Jost appears at my side, looking decidedly displeased.

“What was that about?” he demands, not bothering to bend down and help me.

“Valery. I couldn’t let her disappear,” I say, stacking the books neatly. “But I lost her, and this was the only shop open—”

He stops me. “Your earring.” My hand flies to my naked earlobe, but it’s too late to cover it up.

“I traded it,” I admit in a low voice, but inwardly I gather up strength and stand to face him.

“For what?” he says. His voice is soft, but it isn’t kind.

“A book,” I say. “More than one actually. Who knows what we might find out.”

Jost grabs the books and slams them down on the shelf, and as he does he knocks a stack of papers to the floor. “Have some respect,” I hiss as I snatch the brittle pages, but they aren’t just paper. They’re Bulletins full of old news.

He starts in on respect and scaring him to death and throwing away resources , but I only hear snatches of what he says because I’m reading the headline neatly printed in block letters on faded, yellow paper:

HOPE AGAINST TYRANNY:

SCIENCE

OFFERS AN

END TO WAR

May 1, 1943—Preliminary studies termed the Cypress Project indicate the end of World War II is in sight. According to sources within the project, investors visited the laboratories for a presentation on the viability of the looms, which have been funded by twelve allied nations in cooperation with generous contributions from individuals in the private sector. The visit was necessary to secure permission to proceed to human trials of the project.

The war departments of all twelve nations involved with the Cypress Project have issued a call for healthy young women between the ages of sixteen and thirty years to serve as test pilots on the looms. For the first time in American history, chosen women will be considered as enlisted troops in the U.S. Army.

But it’s the photograph that I can’t process: a scientist demonstrating on a loom for a group of men who wear ties and horn-rimmed glasses. Hardly anyone in Arras wears glasses these days, thanks to renewal tech, but aside from the spectacles, most of the men in the clipping could pass as current officials in Arras. One in particular. Maybe Jost is right, and I’ve lost my mind. Maybe I’m seeing ghosts.

Jost shakes me, abandoning his rant to get my attention. “Ad!”

I don’t know what to say, so I hold the paper out to him. He takes it and the color drains from his face.

I’m not the only one seeing ghosts.

“How can that be possible?” he asks me.

“A coincidence?” I offer, but no part of me believes it.

“A family member?”

I nod, because even if I can’t accept these explanations, I can’t comprehend what Cormac Patton’s picture is doing in a Bulletin clipping from Earth that has to be almost two hundred years old. The man looks like him though, right down to his smooth jaw and dark eyes.

“Find anything?” the shop owner asks, hobbling toward us. She bobs her head in greeting at Jost but doesn’t seem excited to see another poor young person.

“Can you tell us about this?” Jost asks, passing her the paper to inspect. Her eyes slit in concentration but then familiarity dawns in her expression and she leans back on her cane.

“The Cypress Project,” she says with a sigh. “That’s all.”

“That’s all?” I repeat. The Cypress Project. I’ve never heard of it, although I know of Cypress, Arras’s capital metro. The name sends a tingle slithering through my skin.

“Your parents taught you to read,” she says, annoyance seeping into her gravelly voice, “but they didn’t bother to tell you how it happened?”

“You remember it, though?” I ask. “The Cypress Project?”

“Of course,” she says. “You don’t forget that. You don’t forget being left behind.”

“Tell us,” I say, taking her hand gently. “I want to know too.”

Her eyes soften, but then they fall to our hands, clasped tenuously together.

“Get out!” she howls, wrenching her hand from mine like I’ve bitten her.

I fall back against Jost in surprise and his arm circles protectively around me.

“Please!” I beg. “What do you mean ‘left behind’?”

“What the Guild of Twelve Nations did was reprehensible,” she seethes, raising her cane and pointing it at us. “But your kind, what you do, that’s worse. Rebellion and violence—an endless cycle. The Kairos Agenda is unwelcome here. I want no part of it. I’ve lost enough already. Get out!”

Jost pulls me to the door, but I can’t tear my eyes from the accusation blazing on her face. It is as though she knows who I am, what I can do, but how is that possible? Bringing my hand up to push Jost’s arm off mine, ready to turn and flee, I see what she saw. The same mark that caught the girl’s attention last week. A mark so I’ll remember who I am. A mark that told her who I was. I raise the hourglass techprint to her as Jost drags me to the exit.

“This?” I ask. “Is this it?”

“You’ve been marked, girl,” she snarls. “And I’ll have no part of it.” We’re out the door now, and as she clutches the entrance’s frame, her shouts echo against the buildings around us. “Give me that paper back.”

Jost shoves it into his pocket, and we dart away. I don’t feel guilty for taking it. She got fair payment. She only wants to keep it from me , but she doesn’t know who I am.

No more than I do apparently.

The shop owner limps onto the sidewalk hurling obscenities at us as we go, and calling, “Thief!” But no one this close to the grey market cares. Not at this hour. Until someone does—a figure appearing from the fog cast about us.

“Hold up there,” he says. “What’s old Greta screeching about?”

STEPPING CLOSER TO THE STRANGER, I REALIZE it’s the same Sunrunner I saw examining the solar lamp before Valery appeared. He’s young, not much older than I am. Even though I know he can’t be Guild—not here in the Icebox—his presence, the dominant way he stands, blocking our path, makes me anxious. There’s something familiar in his stance—maybe his self-assuredness reminds me of Erik—but it feels like more than that. His hair is cropped close to his head, and even though I can’t see them in the dark, I know his eyes are brown.

I’m not sure how I know that.

Greta continues her hysterical ravings behind us, and Jost attempts to step around the Sunrunner, but he holds up his hand.

“What’s this about, Greta?” the Sunrunner calls out to her.

Jost could probably take him, but he doesn’t move. I could use my own considerable skills to get away, but I’m rooted to the spot by the familiarity I feel. The Sunrunners patrol the nicer blocks of the Icebox during the designated commerce hours, but even they’re indoors once darkness arrives.

“They’re thieves and hooligans,” she rants.

“Is this true?” he asks us.

Jost squares his shoulders and takes a step closer to him. “No, we paid her more than what an old book is worth.”

Greta hobbles closer to us, and when she hears this, she shakes her cane again. “No amount is enough when dealing with your type.”

“Hey now.” The stranger stops her. “I’ve never seen these two before, so I know they can’t be too much trouble.”

The only reason he thinks this is because he hasn’t seen us before. I know differently.