little at that. “These drinks aren’t that strong. I’m saying our boss has your back, Tycho. Which means you’re one of us. Which means you can stop worrying and stressing so much. Just—”
“Just don’t jump off any more buildings or get into any more unassigned firefights with giant cyborgs.”
She grinned. “I’m so glad we understand each other.”
“I wonder if we do, though.”
The grin disappeared. “And why is that?”
“Well, I know Andrea likes me well enough. We’ve always been friendly. What I don’t understand is why she would go to bat for me like that. I mean, I did it. The mission was to exfiltrate the package from East Hellas, right? Well, we had him and we were taking him out of there. No one was paying any attention to us right at that moment. The mission was a mess, but we were getting away. And then I threw myself into this firefight on the street. I had no orders to get involved in that fight. So why would she stick her neck out for me? I mean, I had no justification at all for what I did.”
“You’ve got a weird side to your personality, Tycho.”
“What do you mean?”
The lights in The Emerald City were all different shades of green, and the effect was starting to look positively surreal. A monochrome world with little stars and diamonds and triangles, and all those bright shapes spinning around and around while a beautiful woman bathed in teal is telling you you’re weird. What does “weird” even mean in a context like that?
Right at that moment, a new song came over the nightclub’s speakers. Something fast, aggressive, and sexy all at once, and Raven perked up as soon as she heard it. “Hold that thought, Tycho. I love this song!”
Quicker than I could even respond, she slipped out of the booth and headed straight for the dance floor. I turned and followed her with my eyes, sipping at my drink while she started moving. She didn’t need any time to get into the music; she dove in like she’d been there dancing all night. For the three or four minutes the song lasted, Raven was in another place entirely. I couldn’t see for sure from where I sat, but I had the impression her eyes were closed.
Even so, she didn’t bump into any of the other dancers, not even the obnoxious guy swinging his arms around like he was trying to hit someone. She spun away from his fist, bringing an elbow up in the same movement. A moment later, she spun just a little too close to him and messed his rhythm up. The guy tripped and almost fell, but she caught him by the small of his back. Then she turned away again and danced several feet away from him until the song was over. When she came back to the booth, she winked at me.
“That wasn’t an accident,” I commented.
“Of course not.” She picked up her drink, had a long sip, then leaned back and regarded me curiously. “Didn’t you have a question for me?”
“It was more like you had something to say to me. A weird side to my personality?”
“Don’t take it too personally, it wasn’t an insult or anything like that. I just mean you aren’t telling the whole story about what happened on Mars. You know I wasn’t there, and you know I’ve heard everyone else’s version of what happened. Why not tell me your story? The story that’s real to you. Otherwise, all I have to go on is everyone else’s version.”
“What’s everyone else’s version?”
“Well, in the Andrew Jones version, you just like fighting so much that you decided to endanger the whole team so you could get in one extra round. With the biggest cyborg chimeras you could find. And without even warning everyone.”
“That’s not exactly fair. I told him why I did it.”
“You told Jones, but you can’t tell me?”
“Of course I can tell you. Those chimeras were killing the protesters. Regular citizens, civilians. I couldn’t just watch it and do nothing, so I jumped down to help.”
Raven stared at me in silence again, but this time she was smiling at me. “That’s what I like about you, Tycho,” she said. “You’re a killer like me, but there’s this sweet little boy inside and you can’t let that go. The big bad robots are hurting innocent people, so Tycho Barrett attacks the robots. Doesn’t even think about it, just goes right in. Maybe that’s what