8. Blue and green

Kira.

My eye still aches. And it's aching really badly. A searing heat running down my eye socket and deeper into my head. It ramped up even more as soon as I got to the top of an apartment building just in front of the river. The white eye of the moon looking down on me, the stars shimmering and the water sloshing a stone's throw away. If it was under any other circumstance I would have been looking up at the moon and all the ships buzzing around it like moths to a lamp, at the stars and the satellites and everything left behind by the old generation from a thousand years ago.

But the circumstances were different. The Gatekeepers had finally made their move. People blew up as soon as they ate food, and not everyone at that, only a few at a time. Which makes it even riskier for everyone else.

Dan would have had a stroke hearing that everyone was on food pills.

I shifted my rifle to the right. I'd had to grab another one – I liked this one – matte black with a silver line running down its barrel. Lara had bought it for me on my eighteenth, it wasn't the best gun on the planet, but she had spent her first ever pay check on it so I used it as much as I could.

The housing units blocked most of the view of the Island. Anyone with normal eyes would have found it a pain the in the ass trying to see anything over there, but I could see shadows rushing across darkened windows. I glanced at the old warehouse we'd perched on the night we'd gone to scope the place and find out if Jin was playing for the other team. It was empty. The man with the blonde hair wasn't on it. I'd checked for almost three months straight every night but came up with nothing. He was some sort of ghost, nothing in the Bounty Book, nothing on the black market, and no one knew who he was.

I caressed the trigger and kept scanning. I was only authorized to shoot if any of them broke the wall of houses and went to the other side of the destroyed bridges. But none of them graced my bullets so far.

The rusted metal door to the top of the apartment groaned open and shut. Heavy boots thumped against the old concrete followed by green hair falling down next to me. Saia put her arms on the ledge and then her chin on her forearms. Probably couldn't see anything, but she was a good pretender.

"Hey, K," she said.

"Yeah?" I shifted and glanced at her. I picked up the same thing from her as I did earlier.

"Were your parents nice?"

"Kira report," Hera said through my ear piece.

"Nothing so far. Still scanning."

"Understood. Watch the river banks or any rush of movement through the city."

"Copt that." I switched off the ear piece for Saia's sake. Her brown eyes were distant, this was something she needed to know. "They were protective. We didn't have a ton of cash so we didn't live in the good part of the Gray. When the Gray had bad parts." Sweep of the river banks: nothing. "Home by three every day. Bed time by ten thirty."

She nodded. "Did they ever have the talk with you?"

"The talk?"

She shrugged and put her face into her arms. "You know, the talk. About boys and girls and that crock pot of fun."

Wait a minute. "Saia. Did Draco do something? Did you guys break up?"

She shook her head. "I just need an answer, K."

"No I never got the talk." I drew away from my rifle and looked at her. "Where's this going?"

She bit her lip and began fiddling with one of her silver rings. "I…" She exhaled – shaky and choppy like she was on the edge of tears. "I, uhm, you know-"

The door groaned open and Sergeant Ryan appeared at its arch. Rifle in his arms and crouched like he was ready to fight. His eye brow climbed his forehead as he searched the rooftop. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and spoke into his earpiece.

Saia straightened up. "I gotta go."

"It sounded pretty important," I pushed.

She shook her head and began walking backwards. "I was just going to say I'm working on new bombs." She smiled but it wasn't a Saia smile, it was a thin smile. Hollow. "They can blow up this side of the west coast if I mess up." She chuckled to herself as she passed Sergeant Ryan. "Might be doing all of us a favour."

Sergeant Ryan brushed his hair back. "I worry about the boys and girls the LC keeps around."

"She won't blow up the West Coast." I went back to my position – rifle pressing against my shoulder and eye scanning the Island. "But its Saia, so there's about a fifty-fifty chance."

He chuckled and leaned against the ledge. He scanned the Island and shook his head. "Can't believe you can see that far. Back in my day you would have been put on the special ops squads."

"I only do it for the money."

He shook his head. "That's a lie. I've met people who do it for the money, hell, some of the boys become bounty hunters because they miss the rush of being in the field." He leaned in and the putrid smell of stale cigars and coffee wafted off of him. "My guess is you're searching for someone."

My grip tightened on the gun. "And you know that how?"

"That's an easy one." He put his hands on his hips. "Your eye is bleeding and you're still straining it. There's dedication, but even money can't push people to hurt themselves that much." He chuckled. "And the only thing that can make people do that is another person."

I drew away from the gun and brushed my right cheek. Blood hung onto my fist, just a little, not enough to warrant any worry, but enough for me to shut my eye.

He stuffed his hands in his thick trouser pocket and started towards the door. "Hera once had that same look in her eyes." He paused and looked back at me. "But hers disappeared two days ago."

He disappeared into the dark stairwell before I could press him for more. He was right in a way – Hera's golden eyes were still as sharp and cold as they'd always been. But an edge had been worn down and she'd been happier than usual. Happier meaning she'd allow some sort of talk back from the board members.

She wasn't losing her fight, is she? Because if she jumps ship, then a ton of us aren't going to be able to steer this ship. But that would mean she had learnt something or found something.

She couldn't be holding out on me. I'd taken up her number two spot after Jin left. She would have told me if they'd found his body. And she wouldn't have if he was alive because she'd been thrown off her game and she wouldn't want me thrown off of mine.

I'm overthinking.

But it was also Hera I'm talking about. Always playing an angle, a game, always trying to mislead you until the final play.

I brushed away the dried blood on my cheek and opened my eye again. The damn headache was back, and worse than before. I cradled the rifle again and switched on my ear piece. Sergeant Ryan's words were still ringing in my head, because why did I need to do this? I could just get out my scope instead of straining my eye so much. And the doctor gave me a ton of shit the last time this happened, but the last time this happened Lara was in deep with a few of her drug addicted friends.

That was a rough month. But I'd kept going no matter how bad the headaches got. No matter how much blood. And it was because of her.

He was right. I was still searching for him.

"Kira. There's something going on," Mei said, the hammering of keys followed, "near the third bridge."

I swung to the far right, the sudden movement made my stomach flip. The headache was spreading and making the world sway. I shook my head and focused on the third bridge. Safety catch off, fingerless gloves biting into the metal handle, and steadying my breaths.

It was dark there. Darkness rivalling the sky above me. I zoomed in as much as I could and the headache tightened its grip on my temples. My heart beat racked through my body and fought against my slowing breaths. Stop panicking, Kira.

I bit down and zoomed in more. The river bank was barren and the looming trees behind it made the shadows even deeper. But there was something there. Not an animal: it was moving too intelligently. Not a guard: they were well trained but clumsy. This was someone who knew what they were doing, someone who'd been taught what to do.

Someone who could tell where they need to go and when. Like they were being given instructions. Or data.

"Kira report," Hera said.

"Movement at the river bank." I shimmied for a better angle. "One soldier."

"Activity?"

"They're…just standing there. No bombs placed as far as I can tell."

"Do-"

"Wait," I cut Hera off. "They're strapping something onto their back."

"Oxygen tank," she said. "Engage and retrieve."

"Copy that." I swallowed down the bitterness of adrenaline and forced the blurring headache out of my vision. I readied the rifle and let out a deep breath.

The soldier paused and looked at me directly. But that's impossible, no one would be able to see me from here. The distance and the darkness would be shrouding me, but his eyes were locked onto me.

His green and blue eyes.

"Kira what's the situation?" Hera snapped. "Engage and retrieve."

A break in my headache, my heart beat took its place and hammered my skull, and my breaths caught in my throat. Blue and green, right there, not in my dreams or in the haze of heat in the desert. Right there.

He jumped into the river and disappeared into the darkness.