Hearts and Stones - Robin D. Owens Page 0,6
under observation. As long as Levona hadn’t been recognized as a mutant.
Whee! Pizi gave a hop and shot Levona a happy look from clear eyes and trotted to the yard of what looked like an empty house and back to the alley and north and … thirty-five minutes later Levona entered the darkened coffee shop and Pizi slid in.
Levona glanced around the dim place and figured only those with psychic power that heightened their sight would be able to see well. Several couples groped each other and two pairs sexed in different corners.
I feels him! The one We is to meet! Pizi sent excitedly, and a 3-D room-map flooded Levona’s mind, along with dim sparks and one large yellow glow fading and brightening. Levona pinpointed the table, nearly sighed as she recognized the man by the flickering of a candle in glass, Bartek Coval, a contact for the psi mutant resistance. About a decade older than her, once he appeared wiry, now he looked skeletal.
He is sick and dying, Pizi stated matter-of-factly.
Levona flinched. Grief and pity and anger surged through her. Life hadn’t been easy for Bartek.
After ordering at the counter, and inwardly grumbling that she had to spend money on a second coffee, and more here than previously, she took a circuitous way to Bartek’s table. She noticed nothing unusual in the dark and smelled coffee and a whiff of weed, and human sweat and sex.
“Hey, Bartek,” she said, slipping down in the chair opposite him, waiting for a shock if he didn’t want to talk.
Skinny black brows went up. “Levona Martinez.”
She clenched her teeth that he’d said her full name, even in such an undertone it came over more telepathically than through actual breath.
“You haven’t been around lately,” he said.
“Can you talk quieter?” she mumbled.
A brief smile showing gleaming teeth. “Gov cops and military can’t listen in. Rats take care of any spy bugs.”
Levona got the impression of a psi-gifted person running those rats.
“Just like your cat is dribble-pissing on a new ankle-height camera dropped off an hour ago. Cameras go bad in here for a number of reasons. Though, if I were you, I’d run a zip-zap for bugs or spells when I leave.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Why’re you down from the mountains?” Then he lifted his hand. “No, don’t tell me, I can guess. You saw the starship.”
“Yes, I want on.”
“You and nearly everybody else with a hint of psi.” He paused, then shook his head, and his black hair nearly as long as hers swung. “Can’t do it. Our starship that’s sitting in our ghetto can be staffed — crewed — by our mutant psi community here in the city. Seven hundred positions, and they filled up in a week. Should have come down from the canyon eight months ago, sweetness.”
She found herself grinding her teeth, desperation to get off the planet swirling inside.
“And we’re lucky we got a starship. Was supposed to go to the mutants in the AfriqStates, but they’re down for the next wave of colonists.” His words ended on a mocking note.
Their gazes met. A next wave wouldn’t happen.
“No room aboard the starship.” She forced her own words through stiff lips.
“No. Especially not since the ship really showed up and landed.” He sent her a narrowed gaze. “The folk in the barrio have been clearing the whole upper half of our land for the ship for months. Those who did the work, an’ those who’ve strong links in our resistance, and those who have—” he rubbed his thumb and fingers together in the old gesture of money — “all those are in. Also anyone Geek Class. The rest of us are OUT.”
“But you’re—”
“—more useful here, on the ground, in the resistance, talking to freaks like you than on their precious ship, they told me.”
Something in his tone rang like he’d heard words not like the ones he reported, but statements he couldn’t accept, so his mind twisted them. Probably words about his health.
“I’m sorry about that,” she murmured.
He stared. “I believe you’re sincere. I’m sorry about me and you and your little cat, too, sweetness.” He paused and curled his hand around his thick pottery cup, steam rose. “Don’t suppose you found lost treasure in the hills, a gold mine, perhaps? Made your fortune, got rich?”
“No.”
“Might have found space for you and me and the cat, if you had. Perhaps even a cryonics tube.”
“Cryonics tube.” Levona’s mind scrambled to fit an image and definition to the phrase.
“Those who bought the ship are traveling