Dark Matters - Michelle Diener Page 0,27
her way along the length of the street.
A crowd was gathered in the square, but she slowed down before she reached it, sensing violence in the air. She had the feeling things could turn nasty in a blink, and she wasn't sure which side the security forces were on.
Or if there even was a side represented here.
It didn't feel organized or cohesive.
The security officers, whatever their personal feelings, were much more visible than they'd been earlier. They stood in small groups of two or three, scattered through the square and in the street Lucy was on, for the most part seemingly relaxed as they chatted with the public.
There were other Tecran who, like her, were hovering, avoiding making the decision to step into the square. On the faces of some of them she could read fear, in others, contempt.
Someone gave a shout deep in the crowd of the square, and it decided her. She turned away, but before she could find a group of people to attach herself to for cover, she noticed more than one cafe had now set tables outside, despite the cold. There were enough people sitting at them, watching the unfolding drama in the square, for her not to stand out.
She veered out of the stream of pedestrians, moving carefully between small tables to find one in deep shadow, and sank down.
The tabletop immediately flickered to life, offering a variety of menu options. Nervous that not ordering something would bring her attention she couldn't deal with, she placed an order for grinabo and chose a dish at random.
The credit bank she'd been given that morning worked again, and she relaxed a little, feeling more secure here than she had on the street.
She took a careful glance around, but no one was looking her way, with most of the attention on the gathering crowd in the square.
A few protesters were standing on the benches in the square to address the crowd, and more had made their way up onto the dais in the center of the massive space.
She tuned them out and pulled the handheld she'd stolen from Gugi out of her bag.
It lit up, and she stared at it, perplexed, unsure how to work it.
Before she could try, a server slid a tray in front of her, his attention barely on what he was doing, let alone her, as his gaze fixed on what was happening in front of him.
He walked away, setting a second tray on another table, and then stood, legs apart, arms crossed, watching the growing mayhem.
“How do I find out where the United Council team are right now?” she asked eventually, recalling the scientists often spoke into wrist units at the facility.
She'd never seen any of them with a handheld, had never been offered one of her own, but that was clearly because they didn't want her to understand just how illegal, even in their own system of laws, what they were doing to her was.
She'd spoken in Tecran, but the handheld obviously had trouble understanding her, because suddenly there was a keyboard option, and with a sigh of relief, she began tapping in search terms.
She sipped at the grinabo with one hand as she read the information, although it was a struggle, because she could speak Tecran far better than she could read it.
The food smelled sour, but not disgusting, and she lifted up a spoonful of what looked like black rice and gave it a nibble.
It was okay.
She wasn't hungry enough to chance getting sick, though, so she pushed it away.
She started searching for more information about the Earth women who'd been taken, but nothing came up.
She frowned, wondering why that was when she'd seen that clip of them singing on stage in a magical city, looking both at home and at ease.
A sudden longing swept over her. She wanted to go home.
She'd started to dream in Tecran, and that frightened her.
She tried a few alternative phrases, trying to find the clip, when her screen went blank and then a sentence popped up.
“Who are you?”
She stared at it, feeling winded. As if every bit of breath had been sucked from her lungs.
She wheezed and her hand shook as she reached out a finger to touch the words.
They were in English.
Which was impossible. The Tecran alphabet was nothing like the English alphabet.
The virtual keyboard that came up didn't even have the letters for her to respond in kind.
Carefully, heart thundering, she typed back in Tecran. “Who are you?”
There was no immediate