handle death? Had things changed so much? "I still want to go. I need to go."
"But that's impossible."
"Why? Why is it impossible? You said I'd been released. Is there any paperwork? Is there something else I need to do? If there is, then let's do it."
"But there are contracts to sign," Kumi said hastily. "I need to explain things to you. Really, you can't just go into the world without knowing something."
A door opened inside Rebecca that had been shut for twenty years. Inside the door was a room filled with all the fury, consternation and disappointment that she'd once aimed at her world. The emotions had been locked away all this time, but no more.
She grabbed Kumi by her wrist and leaned close enough to see the pores on the younger woman's nose. "If I'm as free as you say, then let me go. If there are things that you need to tell me, then do it on the way, because there's one thing that I know and it's that the only way you're going to stop me from getting to my brother's house is if you kill me."
Kumi glared back at Rebecca for a moment, and then jerked her arm free. She backed away and ran a hand through her hair. "Listen, I don't know what to do. This is highly irregular. Let me confer with my supervisor." Before Rebecca could react, Kumi spun and ducked out the door.
Rebecca once again stared at the dog picture as she tried to control her breathing. The image swam in her tears. This was more than coincidence. There was no way that her brother had remained alive only to die on the day she was released. An hour before she was released, she reminded herself. Rebecca refused to believe it. Even so, she could hardly say the word to herself, so she whispered it. "Murdered." There it was. She'd said it. But it still didn't seem real. Had he really been murdered? Things like that only happened on the vids.
Kumi returned to the room, clearly upset.
Rebecca wiped her eyes, turned and placed her hands on her hips. "Well?"
"They said we can go. We still need to finish this, but we can do it later."
"Excellent." Rebecca started for the door.
But Kumi blocked her path. "Listen, we're not far from his place. I designed it that way so that you could go see him when we were done. We thought you deserved to see the face of someone you loved." Kumi let the words die in the air, and then began again. "But you can't go running off out there. Things have changed. This is not the Los Angeles you knew."
"I could always take care of myself."
"That was when you knew what to be scared of. Here you don't. Trust me, Rebecca, there are things out there that will blow your mind."
This did make Rebecca pause. She reminded herself that her brother was already dead. There was nothing she could do. The best she could do was find his killer. But as soon as she thought it, she dismissed it. This wasn't TV. Things just didn't happen like that. She swallowed a sob and nodded. "You're right. I'll follow your lead."
Kumi was visibly relieved. "Good. Then let's go."
They stepped through the door and found themselves in a small space, definitely not the outside. There was a door in front of them and a narrow hallway that bent back in the direction they'd come from. Without hesitation, Kumi opened the door and stepped out onto the street. Rebecca followed and discovered that they'd never been in an apartment or hotel room at all. They'd been inside an immense tractor trailer. And even as she watched, the trailer pulled away, leaving them behind on the streets of Los Angeles.
And what a strange place it was.
The night sky was alive with light and sound. Cars flew above her in ribbons of light, as if the busy 405 and 110 had been moved to the sky. Not a ribbon of light, Rebecca noted after getting a better look, but individual cars moving so fast that the lights merged. A smaller number flew at angles to the traffic. An awful hiss grew louder. Kumi jerked her from the street just in time to let a long, wheelless skateboard skim through where she'd just stood, the contraption apparently levitating. A man wearing red shorts and a yellow muscle shirt turned and gave her the finger. At least some things