Silver Part 4

2002

When I came to, slowly, the first thing I was aware of was people talking. I could tell it was two men but everything they were saying just sounded like gibberish to me. After my head cleared some more I could make out their words but what they were saying made no sense to me and I do not now remember any of it. All I knew was that my mouth and throat were incredibly dry, I felt like I hadn't eaten in days, the cut on my forehead itched, and my arm—I assumed it was my arm—felt like a dead weight strapped to my side. I didn't have the energy or the inclination to ask what was going on.

". . . When should we expect him to wake?" one of them was asking.

"Any time now," the other answered. I wasn't going to tell them that I already was awake. They continued talking, about the same thing they'd been talking about before, something technical or scientific that went right over my head, and their voices got farther away. The light went off just before I heard the door open and close and their voices were gone.

Now that it was quiet—and dark—I noticed a few more things. I was on some sort of gurney or hospital bed, I didn't have my jacket and the temperature was a little too low for the undershirt I was wearing, and I could hear the low hum of some sort of machine nearby. I raised my hand with some effort and rubbed at my forehead. The cut had been glued and I at least had the presence of mind not to rub it too hard (the fact that it was sore helped).

I moved my hand over my left arm and was somewhat surprised to find it was all still there. I had no sensation past my shoulder. I could feel several smooth places where cuts had been glued together on my shoulder and around my elbow and down along the inside of my forearm, many more than the wound I remembered Jake giving me. The arm was strapped to my side, and there also seemed to be . . . things attached to it. One, on the back of my hand, felt like an IV, but there was also some other, thinner tube or wire or something at my elbow and another at my shoulder.

I forced my eyes open but I couldn't see much except a little red light on the machine to my left and a thin strip of light under the door off to my right. Everything else was just vague grey shapes, but I could tell that there were no windows and no other doors, and I was the only one in the room. At this point, I was trying very hard not to panic, and I was slowly losing the battle.

I tried to sit up and was immediately hit with a wave of dizziness and nausea that forced me to lie back down. It felt like there was nothing in my stomach and I didn't want to know what would happen if I actually threw up. So I lay there for awhile, wishing I had some water, and trying not to think about the fact that I was in some strange room with strange things attached to my arm and that my arm felt dead.

I must've fallen asleep because I startled awake when the light came back on.

"Finally awake, I see."

I turned my head to find a woman in a lab coat and a man in plain clothes standing by the door. The woman was the one who'd spoken. I pushed myself upright and managed to stay there this time, even though my head started pounding. I groaned and dropped my head into my hand.

"You really shouldn't be trying to get up right now," the woman said, sounding annoyed rather than concerned. "You're still recovering from the anesthesia, not to mention the surgery—"

"Fuck you, lady," I said hoarsely. Not the best thing I could have said, I admit, but at the time I was too upset and scared to care. Her callus tone hadn't helped any.

"Ah. Of course." I heard her walk over to my left and I raised my head to see her taking notes from the screen on the machine my arm was attached to.

"What the hell did you do to my arm?" I demanded.

"We . . . fixed it," she said, calmly pushing a few buttons and taking more notes. I waited, but all she did was scribble on her computer pad.

"Fixed it?" I said when she didn't seem likely to explain. "I can't even feel it!"

"Yes, that was to be expected, given the amount of nerve damage in your shoulder. You may find you have not lost feeling entirely, but I wouldn't count on it."

I'd been hoping she'd say it was because they'd numbed it. I looked down at what was attached to my arm. The wires at my shoulder and elbow seemed to be just stuck onto my skin. They looked like those sticky circles that are used to monitor a person's heart. I couldn't imagine what they were doing on my arm, so I reached over and tore them off. Even though my arm already felt dead I was startled and more than a bit disturbed when I didn't feel the adhesive pull off my skin.

"What do you think you're doing?" the woman snapped.

"Fuck you," I said as I threw the ends of the wires at her. My temper was about as frayed as it could get and was completely crowding out my good judgement. She watched with annoyance as they bounced off her sleeve and fell to the floor, still dangling from the machine. "What the hell is this place? And who the hell are you people? And what the fuck did you do to my arm?"

"Doctor . . . ?" the man standing by the door spoke up for the first time.

The woman gave him a wave of dismissal, still focused on me. "I told you," she said coolly, "we fixed it. If all goes well you should regain about eighty percent mobility; if you're lucky, maybe even as much as ninety or ninety-five percent. However," she continued, pushing the wires aside with the toe of her loafer, "if you insist on undermining our efforts, we cannot guarantee anything."

"You haven't guaranteed anything anyway! 'If all goes well,' 'if you're lucky'—you're sure covering your ass, aren't you?"

"You would be wise not to be so antagonistic toward us."

"Go to hell."

"Of course. Perhaps I should continue this some other time."

The two of them left, locking the door behind them but at least leaving the light on. I groaned again and rubbed my eyes, and then took another look around the room. This time I noticed a sink against the wall and was reminded just how thirsty I was. I swung my feet over the side of the gurney and slid to the floor. Actually, I more like collapsed onto the floor, or nearly. My legs buckled under me and I had to catch myself on the gurney. I pulled myself up and leaned against the gurney until I thought my legs would hold me, then I stumbled over to the sink and stuck my head under the faucet.

With my throat not feeling quite so dry I stumbled back to the gurney and sat down, resting my head in my hand again.

I froze, and then pressed my fingers harder against my cheekbone. It wasn't nearly as sore as it should've been. I tested my mouth and my nose and everywhere else that had been bruised and found it to be the same. The only real sore spot on my face was the cut on my forehead. I looked around for some sort of mirror so I could check the bruises but couldn't find one. I rubbed at a bruise on my jaw. I had also found I needed a shave.

I gave up on that for the moment and looked down at my arm instead. There was some blood on the back of my hand and I realized the IV was gone. It must have been ripped out when I fell or when I went over to the sink—I'd been so focused on getting some water that I'd forgotten it was there. I hadn't felt it pull out at all. I pressed the edge of my undershirt against my hand to stop the bleeding. At least if it bled I knew my arm was still alive, even if it didn't feel like it.

I looked down at the IV, now lying across the gurney, and then up at the machine. It occurred to me then that if I'd kept my temper with that doctor I might have gotten something useful out of her, instead of just vague answers like "we fixed it." Or at least gotten her to raise the temperature of the room. But it had been either lash out or get really, really scared, and I don't like being scared. I especially don't like feeling scared and helpless, which was exactly what I was starting to feel now that I didn't have a target for my anger.

I rubbed my arm, hard, trying to find somewhere that had feeling. Nothing. I called Jake a couple of really creative names and bent over to put my head in my hand.

I can't say that Jake and I had ever been friends, but we had usually gotten along all right, and there's a certain unspoken pact that forms in places like The Pit. It was nothing so hard and fast as what you might find in a gang, but in places like this you just didn't betray each other. It wasn't done. If the others knew they'd drive Jake away, or worse.

If the others knew. Silver knew, if anyone. I had to hope he didn't have a run-in with Jake as well, although, when I thought about it, I had to admit that Silver would probably come out on top if he did. So maybe I did hope that they ran into each other, so Jake would get his due if for no other reason.

But none of that would help me at the moment. I had to hope Silver knew what had happened to me and had made it back to The Pit, but even if he did, there was no guarantee anyone would listen to him. Jake had been there for years, longer than I had, and Silver was still relatively new, and from what I'd seen, still friendless. If it came down to Silver's word against Jake's, I was afraid that Silver would be the one driven away. But even if it didn't come to that, I couldn't see what anyone could do.

By now I was almost shaking from trying not to break down and cry. I rubbed my eyes and lay back down. I kept going over different ways I could get out of here, and each way seemed more impossible than the last.

Maybe an hour went by before the door opened again. This time there was a man in a lab coat along with the doctor lady and the man in plain clothes. I sat up when they came in.

"I hear you've been giving Doctor Conner a bad time," the man said. He was an older guy with salt-and-pepper hair and beard and a face that could easily be either stern or kind. At the moment it was stern. The woman—Doctor Conner—looked younger but was still a good deal older than me. They went over to the machine and he unplugged the wires and started coiling them up. "We understand that you're confused and undoubtedly upset, but we can't allow such behavior."

"Maybe I'd have an easier time 'behaving' if I knew what was going on," I said as I watched him warily. He put those wires into a drawer and pulled out some others. I didn't like the look of them, especially not the thin metal probes at the ends. I edged away, over to the opposite side of the gurney.

"I'm afraid it would be beyond your understanding. Now if you would kindly cooperate—"

"What are you planning to do?" I had my feet on the floor and was starting to back away when the plainclothes guy grabbed my shoulder. I don't know when he had gotten behind me. "Shit."

The doctor frowned. "There's no need for such language. Now if you would come back here and lie down, there are some tests I need to run."

"Uh. . . ." I looked back and forth between the doctor and the plainclothes guy, who must've been some kind of guard.

"Do you want us to restrain you?" Doctor Conner said as she looked over from the machine's screen.

When she said that I noticed the wrist restraint hanging off the side of the gurney. "Shit," I said under my breath.

The male doctor—Doctor Travis, I saw on his badge—made a face at my swearing and gestured toward the gurney. The guard pushed me forward, and I decided it would do no good to protest. I hesitantly sat down on the edge of the gurney and eyed the two doctors. Doctor Travis reached over and unstrapped the sling holding my left arm and examined my arm, making remarks to Doctor Conner. Something about a reaction having stopped.

"Now I need you to lie down," he said.

"What are you going to do?" I asked again.

"Simply run some tests, but I need your arm to be supported and to be moved as little as possible, and that is easiest if you are prone. It shouldn't hurt."

"No shit, I can't feel that arm at all," I muttered, but lay down like he asked.

"You need to learn to watch your language," he told me, sternly. I wanted to tell him to fuck off but thought better of it. He pt my arm on a small table that was lined up with the gurney and put some sort of monitor or sensor over my elbow. He marked a spot on my skin, and then did the same on my shoulder. I was so busy wondering what it was for that I almost missed his nod to the guard.

The guard grabbed my right wrist and started putting the restraint around it. I reflexively tried to jerk it back but his grip was too strong. "What the hell? What are you doing?"

"We can't have you moving," Doctor Travis said as he secured my left arm to the shelf.

"I won't!" I insisted. "I'm not gonna move—you don't need these!"

The doctor shook his head. "We can't chance it. No need to get so agitated," he added after getting a look at me, "this is for your benefit."

I doubted that. It was all I could do to not pull at the restraint. I didn't want them to know just how frantic I was getting. The two doctors calmly went on discussing settings and output and other things I didn't understand while I tried to get control of my breathing. I'd never been so frightened, even on the night I had come home to find my parents had been murdered. I'd had my older brother with me then; here I had no one.

Doctor Conner turned back to the machine while Doctor Travis took the metal probes and stuck them into my arm where he'd made the marks. Even in my panicked state I couldn't help but be intrigued by the sheer strangeness of everything.

Doctor Travis reached over and pressed a button on the machine. I watched as my hand clenched and my whole arm tensed, straining against the straps that were around my wrist and upper arm. When he let go of the button my arm relaxed. They made some adjustments and he pressed the button again, and this time only my hand clenched. They did a number of these tests, making adjustments and seeing how my arm responded, while Doctor Conner took notes of everything.

Eventually they removed the probes and coiled up the wires, putting little bandages over the spots on my arm where the probes had been, which were now bleeding. They plugged the first set of wires back into the machine and positioned the sticky circles on my elbow and shoulder. From the way they were talking they must've been pleased with how the tests went. They kept saying something about "implants," which made me take harder look at the cuts on my arm.

I suddenly realized they were halfway to the door. "Hey!" I said. "Aren't you going to let me up?"

"No, we need you to lie still for awhile longer," Doctor Travis answered.

"I will—but let me out of these restraints!"

"We can't have you tearing the monitors off again," Doctor Conner added, sounding a little too pleased.

"I won't!" I insisted. "I won't even touch them. Let me out of these, dammit!"

Doctor Travis shook his head. "Lie still now and get some rest. We'll be back in to check on things in a couple hours."

"Fucking hell," I said as they left, turning off the light before they shut and locked the door. I didn't see why they bothered to lock it; I obviously wasn't going anywhere. I yanked on the restraint a couple of times but quickly gave that up as useless. I clenched my fists in frustration—and to my astonishment, I heard my left hand moving against the table. I relaxed and then clenched my hands again, but this time didn't hear anything. I wished the light was on so I could see if it moved.

The realization that I could move my arm wasn't enough to distract me for long. I pulled against the right restraint again, more in frustration than in any real hope of getting free, and squeezed my eyes shut against tears I had no way of stopping. I was completely helpless; I couldn't even get them to tell me what was going on, much less do anything about it. Knowing that I had all but walked into this by going after Erin didn't help my mental state any.

That led me to wondering where Erin was and what had happened to her. Most likely, I decided, she was in a room similar to the one I was in, having God-knows-what done to her. The only thing I could hope for was that now that they had Erin and me they would leave the others alone.

Less than an hour had passed when I heard noise at the door again. My first thought was that Doctor Travis and Doctor Conner found something in the test results that prompted them to come back early, but then the door didn't open right away. It was almost a minute before the door finally opened and a familiar voice said "Eddie?"

I raised my head and stared in disbelief at the figure in the doorway. "What? How the hell?"

Silver came over to the gurney and quickly undid the restraints. "Later. It'd be too hard to explain right now. A-a-are you all right?"

"Uh . . . kinda. . . ." I said as he tore the little monitors off my arm.

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah . . . especially if it's to get out of here."

Silver looked dubious as he helped me to my feet and I tried to assure him I'd be fine. He didn't look convinced but he headed for the door, motioning for me to follow.

"Erin should be off this way," he said as he led me down the corridors.

"Okay," was about all I could think to say. My mind hadn't quite caught up with events yet. The corridors were very long, with clinical-looking doors that all seemed the same, and I soon lost track of how many turns we'd taken. For all I knew we could be going in circles. Silver's pace had started slow but kept getting quicker. I don't think he knew he was doing it. It wasn't long before I had to stop and lean against the wall to catch my breath. "Hey, Silver," I said between gasps, "do you think we could slow down a bit? I know we're probably in a hurry, but. . . ."

"I-I'm sorry," he said as he turned, looking at me with concern. "It's this room just down here." He pointed. "You can rest a bit while I take care of the lock."

I pushed off from the wall and made it over to the door he indicated before I leaned against the wall again and slid to the floor. I leaned my head back—

—And found myself looking at a security camera. I tensed. "Holy shit—"

"It's deactivated," Silver said calmly as he worked the point of a switchblade under the edge of a keypad and pried off the faceplate. "I hacked into their computer system and deactivated all the cameras in this section. I've also shut and locked the entrances. These locks aren't on the same system, though."

I relaxed and watched him. Somehow the fact that he could hack into a computer system and do all that didn't surprise me as much as it should. Not while I was watching him rewire a security lock. Maybe I was getting used to this kid. Or maybe I was just too tired to be surprised.

Before long the bolts slid back and Silver pulled the door open. "Erin?" he called.

"What? Who's there?" She sounded frightened and like she'd been asleep.

I scrambled to my feet. "Erin? It's me. Are you all right?"

"Eddie?" She came into the light from the doorway and stared at me for a second. She looked traumatized, but physically didn't seem any worse for wear. She rushed over and threw her arms around me. "My God, are you all right? I heard them talking—"

"I'm fine," I lied, hugging her with my right arm. "You?"

"I'm okay."

"We need to hurry," Silver reminded us. "It's not going to be long before they get past the block in their system."

Erin looked at Silver with surprise and disbelief and didn't immediately follow when he started down the corridor. She shot me a questioning look and I shook my head.

"Later," I told her. "Let's just get out of here."

"You—you trust—" she hissed at me.

"Yes, dammit, now let's get out of here!" I snapped. I wasn't in the mood to discuss it. I turned to follow Silver and Erin followed me.

We turned the corner and found him waiting a little ways down the corridor. He was focused on one of the doors. "I was planning to go out this way, but it sounds like there's someone on the other end of that hallway," he said. Erin and I both turned to the door. "There's another exit down this way." Silver continued down the corridor.

Erin frowned at me. "I don't hear anything."

Neither did I, but I was remembering the night at the docks when Silver heard the hovercars long before I did. I didn't say anything, just turned and followed him.

I barely made it to the exit before I had to lean against the wall again.

"Eddie, are you sure you're all right?" Silver asked me just as Erin had started to do the same. She didn't look happy about being interrupted.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, I just need to catch my breath." I was also dizzy, but I didn't want to tell them that. "Hey, Silver, I thought you said you locked these doors."

"I did." He took a computer pad out of his pocket and typed in a string of numbers and letters. "This is hooked into the system remotely so I can unlock it from here."

"How can you—" Erin started to ask when we all heard the door unlock. Silver opened the door and went through without answering. She turned to me. "How can he have done that?"

I sighed and pushed off from the wall. "I don't know and at the moment don't care."

I started to follow Silver but froze when I heard a shout from the other end of the short hallway on the other side of the door. It was quickly followed by a dull thud, and then the thump of something large hitting the floor.

"Oh my God," Erin whispered.

"It's all right," Silver called. He came around the corner at the end of the hallway and beckoned us forward. "There was a guard at the fire escape, but only one."

The guard was now lying next to the wall, clearly unconscious, which Erin and I saw when we followed Silver.

It turned out we were on the fourth floor. I was almost to the second floor landing when I got dizzy again. I caught myself on the railing and sank down to the steps, closing my eyes and leaning against the cold metal bars.

I heard Erin come down beside me and then felt her hands on my shoulders. "Christ, Eddie, what's wrong?"

I shook my head. "Just tired."

"I don't think so," Silver said in his usual expressionless tone. I opened my eyes and looked up at him. He was squinting down at me, with his hand up next to the bill of his cap to shade his eyes from the late evening sun. "When was the last time you ate?"

"What?"

"You don't seem to be sick, but the way you keep getting shaky and dizzy—when did you last eat?"

I guess I hadn't done as good a job of hiding the dizziness as I thought. "I dunno—sometime before we went out to look for Erin. . . ."

"What?" Erin sounded incredulous.

"That was three days ago." Silver took my arm and pulled my to my feet. "Try and hang in there a little longer, okay Eddie?"

"Th-three days?" Now it was my turn to be incredulous. "It's been three days?"

Silver only nodded and then started down the ladder.

The ladder was slow going for me, as shaky as I was and with only one arm working reliably. I could move my left arm, I discovered, but it didn't move like I expected. When I got to the bottom Silver had to steady me as we waited for Erin.

He led us over about a block and then into a parking garage. There was already starting to be commotion from the building we'd just left so we were moving fast. Silver ditched the computer pad along the way.

Tori jumped off the hood of one of the cars and ran over to us. "Eddie—Erin—thank God you two are all right." She gave us both a quick hug then turned to Silver. "Anyone follow you?"

"Not yet," he said as he opened the door to the car Tori had been sitting on, "but it won't take them long."

Erin and I got into the back seat and Tori got behind the wheel. I didn't ask where they'd gotten the car. I was just glad to be able to rest for awhile.

"Just pray we don't get pulled over, because I don't have a license," Tori said as she started the car. Hotwired, I think, but I wasn't really paying attention. "Jimmy's fine, by the way, Erin." I heard Erin sigh with relief. "He's with Mike and Surge and Jess." Tori continued. Jess was Tori's eight-year-old sister. "We're not staying at The Pit anymore, though."

"Good," I said.

"So what happened to you guys, anyway?"

"Beats me, they wouldn't tell me anything. I just woke up a few hours ago, anyway."

Tori glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "What do you mean, 'just woke up'?"

"I mean I seem to have missed the past three days. I know they did something to my left arm but. . . ." I looked at the cuts in the fading light. "I have no idea what. All they'd tell me was 'we fixed it.' "

"All they did was run tests on me," Erin said. "All sorts of tests, but nothing more than that. At least, I don't think so. I mean, they didn't keep me out for three days like they did you."

"Why would they do that?" Tori asked. "I mean, why would they mess around with your arm and not do anything to Erin?"

Silver had twisted around in the front seat and was looking at my arm thoughtfully. "Was your arm already damaged, Eddie?"

I scoffed. "Yeah, Jake did a number on it."

"They probably—"

"Jake?" Erin interrupted. Silver just stopped talking and started at her. "What does Jake have to do with this?"

I rubbed at the cut on my forehead. "He ambushed me. He knew I'd come after you when you didn't come back so he waited for me. He's working for them, I guess."

"He's . . . why, that little. . . ." Erin got into some pretty creative name calling then. "I never did like him."

Silver was still staring at Erin (she seemed to be avoiding looking at him). I waited for him to continue what he'd started to say and was getting annoyed that he wasn't. I finally said "They probably what, Silver?"

He looked over at me. "They probably couldn't resist the opportunity your arm gave them, especially if there was damage to the joints."

"They said something about nerve damage in my shoulder, and Jake's switchblade got me pretty bad above my elbow."

"I found something in their computers. I couldn't find anything specific on either of you, I didn't have the time, but I came across some specs on a kind of implants. They're not legal—technically they shouldn't even exist—and they've never been tested. That's what you were for, I assume. This is putting it simply, but they're supposed to enhance joints by replacing existing ligaments and tendons. I'm guessing that the damage to your arm gave them the perfect excuse to try them out."

I had to remind myself that I was listening to a thirteen year old. He certainly hadn't been acting like one.

"Just how can you know all that?" Erin asked, suspiciously. I'd been wondering the same thing but I wouldn't have asked it like that.

Silver's eyes took on their usual hard, distrustful look as they shifted toward Erin. It struck me then that that look had been absent. "I told you, I found it in their computers."

Erin met his eyes at first but her gaze shifted away before long. "That's an awful lot to just stumble onto. Wouldn't something like that be protected? Like, under layers of security?"

"Yes."

She started to say something more but apparently thought better of it and turned to look out the window instead. Silver watched her a moment longer, then turned forward in his seat.

"Um, we're almost there," Tori said into the silence. "It's not as good as what we had in The Pit, but it's not bad either."

"At the moment I don't think I'd care how bad it is," I commented. I didn't have the energy to care about much of anything. There was something that occurred to me, though. "Hey, Erin," I said. She turned away from the window. "You said you heard them talking. What did they say?"

"Not much," she said. "They said they'd gotten another test subject, and I remember one of them saying it was an Asian guy. I figured it had to be you. Hoped it wasn't, but. . . ." She shrugged. "I didn't hear much after that. Just one of them saying you had a mild reaction or something like that. They didn't talk much where I could hear them."

Unfortunately it was nothing I didn't already know; Doctor Travis had said something about a reaction. But then I hadn't really expected Erin to know much.

Tori stopped the car just then. "Last stop, all passengers disembark," she said cheerfully. She'd stopped in front of an old train station. "I'll go stash the car somewhere," she continued as we got out. "Be back soon."

When we got inside Jimmy looked up from where he was playing with Jess and ran right over to where Erin had knelt down to catch him. Mike came over to Erin, of course. I headed for a bench. Surge sat down next to me and asked me what happened. I told him very briefly what I knew and asked if there was anything to eat or drink around here.

It was while I was eating that I realized Silver wasn't around. I knew he'd come in with us, but I'd missed when he'd slipped back out. I wanted to ask him if he knew anything more about those implants he'd talked about.

The food wasn't much but I did feel better afterwards. I was testing out my left arm when Tori came in and sat down where Surge had been about ten minutes before.

"So how is your arm?" she asked me.

"I don't know," I said truthfully. "It's . . . not moving right." I would try to make a fist and my wrist would bend instead, or I'd bend my elbow and my forearm would move to the side instead of just upward; things like that. "This is really wigging me out, Tor. I feel like I'm in the middle of a bad sci-fi novel. Do you know where Silver went, by the way?"

"He's outside smoking," she said. "I passed him on my way in. I think he gets nervous around a lot of people."

"He told me the other day—geez, I guess that was almost a week ago—that he didn't like being around people." I gave up on my arm for the moment and just cradled it in my lap. "He first said he didn't like people, but I don't think I buy that anymore. So what happened while Erin and I were gone? How'd you guys end up finding us?"

"You'd have to ask Silver that, I'm not sure how he did it either." She pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them. "When he came back that night he was really upset. He just ran in and started grabbing a bunch of his stuff—did you know he has a blaster?—and ran back out of the room again. I practically had to chase him down. I got him to tell me what had happened but he seemed really nervous about it, like he didn't expect me to believe him. I guess he got there in time to see you being put into a van by some guys, and he saw Jake there.

"I wasn't really sure I believed him until Jake came back in. He was acting really pleased with himself and kept sing-songing something like 'he's gone' over and over. I think he was drunk. Maybe just still high, but he was acting more drunk. He didn't see us. He headed off to his room and Silver headed for the inside stairs, and I followed him—Silver, I mean. He made me promise to be quiet and not to touch anything, and he went up to the back offices. I watched him do it and I still don't know how he got past the alarm. He took the front panel off and rewired it and all he had for light was what was coming in the window, which wasn't much. It's like he wired it all by feel or something.

"Anyway, once we got into the offices he went through a whole bunch of papers. He'd just glance at one and then flip to the next and then the next, and he was always careful to put things back exactly like they'd been. Then I guess he found what he was looking for because the next thing I knew he was pulling me out of the offices. When we got back to the stairs he finally told me everything that had been happening and what he thought was going on. I was kinda mad that he hadn't told the rest of us, but, y'know, I guess I can see why he didn't. I don't know if any of the rest of us would have believed him.

"It took him a while to figure out exactly where you guys had been taken. He'd narrowed it down to three buildings from what he'd found in the offices but then he had to figure out which one. Meanwhile I was telling everyone I thought would listen to me that something weird was going on and maybe The Pit wasn't such a safe place to stay anymore. Helen and Red and some of the others also left, including a bunch of the littler kids, but they didn't come with us. So that's about it." Tori shrugged. "I really couldn't tell you how he got into the building to get you guys. I was just the getaway driver. I really do keep wondering how he did all that."

"So do I," I admitted. "But I'm not sure it's worth asking him. He doesn't seem all that willing to explain."

"No, he doesn't. He's such a strange kid. I'm starting to kinda like him now, but he's still really weird."

I had to laugh.

Tori stood and stretched. "Well, I'm going to go see how Erin's doing, if I can get past Mike and Jimmy."

Erin and company had moved to a bench on the other side of the platform. Tori sat down with them and started talking to Erin. Erin seemed much calmer now that she was with friends and had her son in her arms. I wondered what had happened to her, what sort of tests they had run.

My thoughts drifted. I don't know when Silver slipped back in, but after a while I realized I could smell the cigarette smoke that was still clinging to him. I turned and found him standing behind the bench, looking over at Erin and the others.

He turned when he saw I'd noticed him. "How're you doing?"

"I'll be okay," I said. "I just need to figure out how my arm works now."

"How's Erin?" he asked as he nodded toward her.

"Afraid to go over and ask her yourself?"

Annoyance at my question flashed across his features before they settled into their usual neutral expression.

"I don't think she means anything by it, she just doesn't know how to take you," I said.

"She dislikes me." A statement of fact. I couldn't tell if it upset him or what.

"You make her nervous. Honestly, Silver, you're not always the most comfortable person to be around."

"I know."

I waited, but that was all he said. He could have been a statue, just standing there and staring across the platform. I finally reached over and tugged on his sleeve. He hardly moved, just turned his hard, silver-grey eyes back to me. I thought I had gotten used to him but found he could still give me the creeps. I had to force myself to hold his gaze. "Sit down awhile," I suggested. "I want to talk to you."

His eyes went the slightest bit suspicious but his tone was still flat. "About what?"

"About what you said in the car. About this." I gestured to my left arm. "You know more than you said then, don't you?"

He just stared at me with those odd metallic eyes. I wished he would move, or speak, or something. It was getting harder and harder not to look away but it was like he was daring me to meet his eyes.

"Look," I said, pitching my voice low so it wouldn't carry to anyone else, "it's my arm, and I need to know what's happened to it, and they wouldn't tell me anything. I know you know more than you've said already. I'm not going to wig out on you like Erin did, okay? So please tell me what you know."

He stared at me a moment more, but finally sighed and moved around to the front of the bench and sat down, resting his elbows against his knees. I was very glad that he'd broken eye contact.

"All right," he said quietly, looking down at his clasped hands. "I do know a bit more. I couldn't find anything specific on you, remember, but . . . there's not much else they could have used. Like I said, the implants replace existing ligaments and tendons, but they also augment muscles. Theoretically, they're supposed to enable the joints to withstand greater stress and enable the muscles to perform more efficiently. In other words, they theoretically make the limb stronger." He paused, then looked over. "They're supposed to pick up the body's natural nerve impulses and respond accordingly. The nerve damage to your shoulder would have allowed them to test the implants' ability to not only pick up the impulses but carry them along an artificial network. That would be why you have these," he pointed to the cut running the length of my upper arm and the one on my forearm, "instead of just the ones around your shoulder and elbow."

I stared at my arm. "What, you mean that's like wiring or something?"

"Basically. At the core of each implant is a tiny computer chip, and those are the wires connecting them."

"Holy shit. . . ." At least I understood more than I had before, but it was still a bit much for me to take. And Silver was talking like he understood it all. I looked over at him. He looked like an ordinary kid, aside from his hair, but he didn't sound like any thirteen year old I'd ever known. He never had. I couldn't help but wonder about his past.

"Please don't ask me," he said quietly. He was looking past me, at the floor.

I blinked, startled out of my thoughts. "What?"

"You want to ask me how I know. Please don't. I-I-I . . ." He stopped, and then tried again. "I really don't want to explain."

"Oh." I sighed and put a clamp on my curiosity. "All right, Silver. I owe you that much, at least."

He turned to me. He looked grateful and somewhat amazed, but also uncertain. It was like he wanted to take what I said at face value but couldn't completely. It was the most open I'd ever seen him.

"By the way," I said, "thanks. For doing all this. This is the second time you've saved my ass."

He lowered his eyes and looked off to the side. He didn't say anything, just nodded a bit and folded his hands again. I frowned, and was about to say something when I heard someone walk up behind me. Then a little pair of arms wrapped themselves around my neck.

"Hi Jess," I said, smiling and reaching back to squeeze her shoulder.

"Hi Eddie." Jess linked her hands above my chest and leaned over my shoulder. "What're you doing?"

"Just talking." I glanced over at Silver as I said it. He was watching Jess, his face unreadable again. Then abruptly he stood and started heading for the door, shoving his hands in his pockets as he walked.

"Where's Silver going?" Jess asked, sounding hurt.

"Just outside. Probably to have another cigarette."

"Oh . . . what were you guys talking about?"

"Nothing much."

"Ed-dieee. . . ." she said with an exaggerated sigh.

I laughed. "All right. Nothing you need to worry about, okay?"

"Oh, fine."

"So how've you been? Keeping out of trouble?"

"Yeah. I helped Tori find this place, y'know. We went out looking while Silver was looking for you and Erin. Where were you guys?"

I sighed. "Somewhere I hope to never see again. It doesn't really matter anymore."

"I guess not." She sighed thoughtfully and rested her chin on my shoulder. "I wish Silver hadn't left. He talks to Tori sometimes now but he still doesn't talk to me. I know he was busy the last few days, but still. . . . He's not busy now, is he?"

I gave her arm a squeeze. "I think he's just uncomfortable around people he doesn't really know."

"But how can he get to know me if he keeps walking away?"

I chuckled. The girl had a point. "Maybe I'll ask him next time I talk to him, okay?"

"Okay." She gave me a quick hug and then trotted off to join her sister.

Jess was a sweet girl. A lot like I imagined Tori was at that age. Not for the first time, I wished that the two of them could find their way off the streets, before Jess lost too much of her childhood. I also wished the same for Erin and Jimmy.

I lay down on the (uncomfortable) bench and dozed off, trying to forget for the moment that my left arm was no longer solely flesh and bone. I think I slept for maybe an hour or two. I was startled awake by the sound of a gunshot, and several startled screams.

I bolted upright and saw Jake standing in one of the doorways, lowering a gun from where he'd shot it into the ceiling.

"Jake?" Erin sounded as startled and scared as I felt. It looked like she might've also been asleep. Jimmy was clinging to her as she tried to stand, his face buried in her shirt. "What—what're you—how—"

"Shut up, Erin," Jake interrupted. "You and Eddie need to just keep quiet and come with me—"

"Like fucking hell, Jake," I said as I stood. "Why are you doing this? What's in it for you?"

"What do you care?" he snapped. His hands were shaking so bad he could hardly aim the gun. "Perfect Eddie, everyone's favorite. You make me sick. You're going back to that lab, where you can't mess up my life anymore."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

Everyone had moved over to this side of the platform, away from Jake. Jess was hiding behind the bench and Erin put Jimmy down beside her. He wasn't willing to let go at first but Erin finally got him to stay behind that little bit of cover.

"What do you think you're going to do, Jake?" I continued. "I don't think they'd be too happy if you shot us."

"You? No." Jake slowly walked toward us, stopping about halfway across the floor. "But they only want you and Erin, don't they? You wouldn't want to see Tori get shot, would you, Eddie? Or Mike? How about one of the kids?"

"You leave them alone, you fucking bastard," Erin growled.

"Then do as I say." He was looking wildly around the platform. "Where's the freak? I know he went with you guys. I knew there was something wrong with him first time I met him. They wouldn't mind having that little metallic-haired—Agh!"

Jake was interrupted by blaster fire hitting his gun. The gun went skittering across the floor and Jake pulled his hand to his stomach, covering it with his other hand. He turned to look—we all did—at the side door, where Silver stood, calmly holding his blaster in his left hand.

"You—little—fucking—freak!" Jake hissed.

Silver didn't say anything, just walked into the room, keeping the blaster trained on Jake. Jake looked from Silver, to us, and then to his gun, lying several feet away.

"Don't think I won't," Silver said evenly when Jake made a move toward the gun.

"What? You'd shoot me? Kill me?"

"If you give me a good reason." Silver stopped about five feet away from Jake. His calm, emotionless focus was ten times more frightening than Jake's irrational anger. I was just glad he was on my side.

"You're the one who did all this, aren't you." Jake's hands were shaking worse than before. "You're the one who ruined everything. They warned me about you, you know. Little silver-haired freak."

Silver didn't even move. I was beginning to wonder how long he could keep his arm out straight like that.

Surge was the one who spoke next. He took a long look at Jake and then laughed. "Man, they cut you off, didn't they?"

Jake's eyes darted over to Surge and narrowed.

"I always wondered where you were getting those drugs. They're not common on the streets. You went to get your next fix and they sent you out here to find us instead, didn't they?"

Jake hissed, crouching slightly as if thinking about jumping Surge. He might have tried it if Silver hadn't spoken up.

"Tell me, Jake," he said, his tone flat as usual, "how does it feel to be owned?"

Jake growled, and then rushed Silver. "You would know, you—"

Silver neatly sidestepped and brought the butt of the blaster down on the back of Jake's head. Jake fell gracelessly to the floor and lay still.

For a moment nobody moved. Then almost everyone did at once. Erin dropped to her knees and pulled Jimmy into her arms. Jess crept out from behind the bench and buried her face in Tori's shirt. Mike and Surge bent over Jake and I sat down on the bench and dropped my head into my hand. Silver was the only one who just stood there.

"Christ," Tori whispered. "What just happened."

"Hey, lookit this," Mike said. "It looks like some kind of—hey!"

I looked up. Silver was staring at something that he had apparently snatched out of Mike's hands and Mike was glaring at him. Neither one looked happy.

"Shit," Silver hissed. He looked over to me—or rather, my left arm. He almost—almost—looked scared.

"Silver . . . what is that?" I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

"A tracking remote. They must have put a homing chip in your arm."

"They . . . oh . . . oh shit." I put my hand over my arm, feeling very violated and betrayed.

"That's just great!" Erin said, shrilly. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"Now we get the hell out of here before Jake wakes up!" Tori said. "Then we worry about it."

It was the best idea anyone could come up with. We gathered what little we had, mostly food and some spare clothes, and headed out.

Mike grabbed Silver's arm as everyone was leaving. I stopped at the door and turned to watch.

"Just hold it a minute," Mike said, suspicious. "What was that Jake was going on about, anyway? Why would they warn him about you?"

Silver's eyes had gone cold as he looked at Mike. I had to give Mike credit for not looking away. "I don't know what they told him." Silver reached over and pried Mike's fingers off his arm.

"Dammit, that's not what I asked—hey, come back here—" Mike made another grab for his arm but Silver caught his wrist.

"I don't know," he said again, "what they told him. I can't really say what he meant if I don't know what they told him."

"Lay off him, Mike," I said.

Silver let go of Mike's wrist and then walked outside. The bill of his cap hid his face as he brushed past me.

"What's your problem?" I continued to Mike after Silver left. "Silver does this," I gestured toward Jake, "for us, and you start putting him on trial? What's your deal?"

"I know, I know, but. . . ." He trailed off, then hissed to me, "Don't you wonder about him sometimes? I mean, shooting like that—that just ain't normal! And it's not like that's the only strange thing he's ever done."

I wanted to laugh. Mike had no idea. "Yeah, I know he's more than a bit odd, but I don't fucking care. Do you know where I would be right now if it wasn't for him? And Erin would be there, too. So just lay off him. He doesn't deserve it."

I don't know if I actually got through to Mike, but he did leave Silver alone for awhile.

We relocated to an abandoned building several blocks away. I was tired, but while everyone else was settling in, I went up to the roof to find Silver. He was leaning back against a vent, smoking and looking up at the night sky.

"Mike dislikes me, too," he said before I could say anything. "Or do I just make him nervous?"

"Well, you do make him nervous." I sighed and sat down next to him.

"Why don't I make you nervous?"

The question took me by surprise and I looked over at him. He was still looking up at the stars, and in the low light he looked even paler than usual. "You do, sometimes," I admitted. "But maybe I'm getting used to you. And hell, it's hard not to like someone who's saved your life."

"I don't think they would have killed you."

"They might as well have if I'd had to stay there much longer."

"I know."

I didn't know how to take that so I didn't say anything. He took a last drag on the cigarette and ground it out, then looked at me.

"I think I can get that chip out of your arm, if you trust me to," he said.

"Seriously?"

He nodded and looked down at my arm, his cap hiding most of his face. "It's right . . ." he put a finger on the cut running the length of my upper arm and slowly slid it down to a spot just above the inside of my elbow, ". . . here. Not too far beneath the skin."

By now I knew better than to ask him how he knew. "And you think you can get it out?"

"I'd have to reopen the cut right there." He dug his fingernail into that spot. It should have hurt. "I thought so. Your arm's numb, isn't it."

"Yeah."

"Do you want me to?" he asked, looking up.

Part of me was saying how crazy this was. "Get rid of the thing," I said. "I want it out of my arm."

He nodded and shifted into a better position, more in front of me, and took out his switchblade. I watched as he cut my arm open about an inch. It was like I was watching it happen to somebody else's arm. He pulled the edges of the cut apart, then stuck the tip of the blade in and pried something off. The craziest thing about this was that he was doing it all with no more light than the stars and some street lights a story below us.

He set the bloody switchblade aside with something stuck to its tip and tore some strips off the hem of his shirt to use as bandages. I tried not to think about infection.

"Is that it?" I asked, staring at the quarter-inch-wide square on the end of the blade.

"That's it." Silver took the chip and walked to the edge of the roof. I watched as he threw it out toward a manmade creek across the street. "I'm sorry, Eddie, I should have noticed it long before Jake ever got there," he said as he turn back around. "But I wasn't paying enough attention."

"Huh? How would you have—oh, never mind." I pressed against the fresh cut and leaned back.

I looked down at my arm, and for the first time was struck by how much the cut on my forearm reminded me of the scars I'd seen on his. Only he had so many of them.

"You should get some sleep," Silver said, interrupting my thoughts.

I looked up and watched him clean the switchblade and then put it back into his pocket. He'd kept the tracking remote, I saw. "Yeah, you're right." I stood up and headed for the stairs. I decided it wasn't worth asking him. I was too tired at the moment to really care. "Thanks, Silver."