The Significant Read online

  The

  Significant

  by

  Kyra Anderson

  For information on future works, please visit:

  www.kjamidon.com

  Copyright © 2016 by K.J. Amidon

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher

  Website: www.kjamidon.com

  Published by K.J. Amidon

  ISBN: 978-1522730118

  Cover Art by K.J. Amidon

  Printed in the United States

  Introduction

  Kailynn had to use all of her self-discipline to get out of bed that morning, scurrying across the room to grab her clothes, cringing when she felt how cold the garments were after being strewn about the floor the entire night. A groan behind her caused her to turn, though she lost her balance as her head spun. She pressed one hand to her face and quietly cursed herself for drinking so heavily the previous night.

  “Where ya runnin’ off to?” a voice, gravelly with sleep, mumbled from the bed.

  “Some of us gotta work,” she said, pressing her clothes to her chest in an effort to warm herself. “It’s freezing in here…”

  “Heat’s out again. What’d’ya expect? I live in a dump.”

  “Raffy,” Kailynn groaned, “you could get a job and pay for stuff to work.”

  “I work,” Raphael defended irritably.

  “I wouldn’t call lifting credits from tourists work,” Kailynn murmured, throwing her clothes on the bed to search for her panties among the tangled mess.

  “Got you out of trouble with those loan sharks,” Raphael said into his pillow.

  “That was my brother’s shit deal, not mine,” she growled, snatching up her panties and pulling them on hurriedly. “I gotta go home and change,” she muttered, pulling her pants on, jumping when she could not get them over her hips. Raphael glanced at her and laughed.

  “Jump some more.”

  “Shut up, prick,” she snapped, finally succeeding in donning her pants.

  “You’re getting a nice ass,” Raphael noted, turning on his side and propping himself up to look at her. “I guess all that lifting at work has done some good.”

  Kailynn pulled her shirt on, leaving her bra slung across the bed.

  “I’m so late. Brad’s gonna kill me.”

  “No, he ain’t.” Raphael shook his head, flopping back to the bed. “He’s got the hots for you. Just smile and show some cleavage and he’ll forgive you.”

  Kailynn grabbed her jacket from the back of the door to the one-room flat and swung it over her shoulders.

  “Hey!” Raphael called quickly as she opened the door. “Am I gonna see you tonight?”

  “Don’t you always?” she chuckled, ducking out the door and closing it behind her, shivering as she huddled into her coat. Winter was having difficulty leaving that year. Tiao was generally a cold planet to begin with, but it had been getting worse the last few years, each winter lasting longer than the one before.

  The street became dark in the early morning hours. Every night, the street lit up with neon signs and scrolling advertisements, enticing tourists to the Walking District. Even though tourists who came physically to Tiao and visited the capital city of Anon were part of high society, there were still few curious enough about the darker neighborhoods, looking for drugs and prostitutes.

  The Walking District was known for catering to those with salacious appetites. It was considered part of the slums of Anon. Those with money were very conspicuous and were often the targets of mugging and pickpocketing. Anon residents who frequented the bars and brothels knew how to keep their money safe. Tourists were not as fortunate—Kailynn never cared about the tourists. The money Raphael stole from them had always been welcome.

  She left the Walking District, crossing the district border through an alley into the district of Trid—the non-citizen district that Kailynn called home. While Raphael, her close friend from childhood was lucky to live in the Walking District, despite being a non-citizen Trid as well, Kailynn was never able to scrape enough money together to keep rent on a place in the flashy Walking District.

  Border Patrol was sleeping, as usual. The one conscious guard, who had likely lost a bet with the others on his shift, was nursing a beer, grumbling about his job and the cold winter. Kailynn slipped by him easily, slinking into the shadows of Trid as naturally as the winter breeze.

  She passed a few underground bars where Trids sold products they managed to lift off transport vehicles going in and out of the Walking District. Of course, with the Trids being so broke, nothing was paid for in credits, but in services or sex.

  That was the way of Trid.

  Kailynn greeted a few friends as they stumbled home, numb from alcohol and drugs. She squeezed through the broken doors of the building she had called home for six years and ascended the stairs, being sure to avoid the large hole in the third step. There were a few others who shared the building with her, but they never spoke to one another. They would look at each other nervously, never sure who was coming into the building and never exchanging words with the other squatters.

  Kailynn fought to get the door open that led to her room, where she had an old mattress with every blanket she had ever collected—the number totaled eleven. Kailynn knew that she could always get a warm place to stay and a decent meal by cozying up to someone who clearly had money in the Walking District, but after a childhood friend was killed by Officials fighting arrest for illegal prostitution, Kailynn decided it was not worth the risk.

  While prostitution was extremely common in Trid, the Walking District was still part of the illustrious capital, which meant all prostitution had to be regulated. Many Trids had been imprisoned or killed in the Walking District for pretending to be legal prostitutes.

  Instead, Kailynn spent her nights with Raphael. He may have lived in a dump, but at least under the covers with him, it was warm.

  Kailynn tossed her blankets aside, desperately trying to find the jumpsuit she had to wear to work as well as some clean panties and a bra. She was able to find her stash of clean underwear, but the jumpsuit was not around the bed. Cursing and hoping she was not too late to work, she tore the bed apart one more time, finally finding the jumpsuit tangled around one of her blankets.

  She stripped quickly, pulling on the new panties and then grabbing her jumpsuit, shoving her legs in and zipping it up to her waist before trying to find a bra. That was when she remembered that she had a habit of leaving her bras at Raphael’s place, because she was always late for work after staying with him.

  Kailynn rolled her eyes and put her jumpsuit on completely.

  “Fuck it, bras are stupid.”

  She dashed out the door, hopping to put her boots on again as she reached the top of the stairs. She ran out into the cold and used the well-known route past another Border Patrol station to return to the Walking District and to the warehouse where she worked.

  “Kailynn! You’re late, again!” a voice bellowed from the check-in desk. She waved briefly before running into the back and finding her supervisor, Brad.

  When the tall, brown-haired, green-eyed man saw her, he sighed heavily and shook his head.

  “Kailynn…”

  “I know, I know.”

  “…we’re working on school rations today. Transports Three, Four, and Five.”

  “Thanks, Brad,” Kailynn said, running to join the rest of her team at the loading bays.

  Kailynn had been lucky to get a job at the Hunter & Leo Packing Warehouse. She was not educated enough to work in the actual
plant, where they made the food rations, but had managed to talk her way into the distribution center. If a crate would break open, Kailynn would sneak a few of the silver-wrapped bars for herself, even though she hated the chalky taste. She never understood why the Hunter & Leo Rations were distributed so widely over the planet when their ration bars tasted like cement compared to Kieble Rations—of course, those ration bars were more expensive because they used ingredients from the food they harvested in their greenhouses rather than just putting the proteins and nutrients into a mush and heating that into a bar form.

  Kailynn hoped that she would get an assignment soon to go with a transport team to another part of the planet. She had never been out of Anon, but had a very strong sense of adventure and had always dreamed of getting out of the capital, or even off of Tiao to visit the other planets of the Altereye System.

  She was disappointed that she was, once again, not on a long-distance transport. She had been on the Anon Schools Route at least one hundred times. It was boring.

  Kailynn helped move the crates onto the transport vehicles, sorting them based on type and school, working methodically, laughing at Jenn’s story about her sister giving a lap dance to a rich tourist and slipping seven hundred credits off his account when he paid for her time. Of course, Jenn’s sister also owed a shark nearly three thousand credits, so the seven hundred was only a small dent in the amount keeping her dancing tables in the Walking District’s club.

  As the group was loading the final crates onto the transport vehicles, Brad’s voice caught Kailynn’s attention.

  “Kailynn, you got a visitor!”

  “What?” She poked her head out of the transport.

  “I said you got a visitor!”

  Kailynn was surprised to see a very familiar sandy-haired man standing next to Brad.

  “Theo?”

  She began walking to her older brother when Brad caught her arm.

  “Look, I don’t mind if you wanna chat with your friends while you work, but I don’t pay you to stand around talking to Johns.”

  “Lay off, Brad,” she groaned, pulling her arm out of his grasp. “He’s my brother. I’m gonna take a smoke break.”

  Brad rolled his eyes and watched her walk to the side door of the warehouse, her brother in tow. When the door closed behind them, Kailynn pushed her hand into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

  “What the hell, Theo?”

  “Nice to see you, too,” Theo laughed brokenly.

  “What do you want?” Kailynn asked. “I’m already on thin ice with this job. I can’t have you comin’ here and pissing off my boss.”

  “You keep not wearing a bra and he won’t mind,” Theo chuckled, nodding to her jumpsuit where her nipples were clearly visible, hard from the cold outside air.

  “Don’t be an ass. What do you want?”

  “Lynni,” he smiled excitedly, “we’ve got a great plan.”

  “Oh no,” Kailynn groaned, rolling her eyes, her entire frame slumping. “No. I’m not gonna be part of any of those half-baked schemes you and the Heart of Trid gang come up with. I had to beg Raphael to pay for what happened last time.”

  “No, this is different!” Theo insisted. “Look at this.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out an identification card, handing it to Kailynn. She sighed, holding the cigarette in her lips as she took the card and looked it over. When she saw the emblem on the card she groaned and tried to hand it back.

  “Yeah, right, you got one of the Elite’s ID cards.” She sighed. “You’re a fuckin’ moron, Theo. It’s fake.”

  “Did you even see which Elite it was?”

  “Theo, it’s a damn fake!”

  “No, it’s not!” Theo protested sharply. “You know Liam?”

  “The twitchy one?”

  “Yeah, he got a temp job working in the Syndicate Building. He was doin’ janitorial and workin’ in the securities office where they were redistributing Elite ID cards because there was some kind of security breach, or whatever. The point is he was around when Golden Elite Isa’s card was being printed and he took the new one and swapped it with the old one.”

  “That’s bullshit.”

  “No, it’s not!”

  “When was this?”

  “Three days ago.”

  “Well, then, if it was true, you would have been tracked and arrested already,” Kailynn said, trying to force the card back into his hands. “They probably have tracers on that.”

  “Did you see that there’s a corner missing?”

  Kailynn blinked twice at her brother, silent, feeling the card become heavier in her hand. Slowly, she turned the card toward her, looking over the information, struggling with the words written on the card.

  “What does this say?”

  “It’s Golden Elite Isa’s ID card, Lynni.”

  Kailynn looked up at her brother, feeling the fear swell inside her.

  “Are you fucking mental?!” she hissed. “You guys have the ID card of the most powerful Elite in the entire fucking system?!”

  “Just listen, Lynni—”

  “No, I don’t want any part in this!”

  “Just hear me out, please,” Theo said, grabbing her arm as she tried to walk back inside. “We’re gonna get her.”

  “What do you mean you’re going to get her?”

  “Venus. We’re gonna find her and we’re gonna shut her down.”

  Kailynn was so stunned she could only stare at her brother’s enthusiastic green eyes for several long moments, her mouth hanging uselessly open. She glanced once each direction and then leaned closer to her brother.

  “You’re going to shut down the computer that runs the entire damn planet?”

  Theo nodded quickly.

  “Davi cracked the codes on the card. He found all the addresses classified under Syndicate and found one that is completely out of character with the rest of the buildings. Golden Elite Isa is the only one who can access Venus, so the card has to open the door where Venus is. We have the location of Venus.”

  “I find it hard to believe that the Elites would be that careless with information.”

  “Everything is computerized. It would make sense that there is no way to get to Venus without coming across some electronic lock. We get in there, we unplug Venus, and the Elites fall.”

  “Along with the rest of the planet,” Kailynn growled. “I hate Venus and the Elites as much as you do, but this is suicidal.”

  “Where is your Trid pride?” Theo hissed. “It was those asshole Elites in the Syndicate that kept us from becoming citizens. It’s the reason we’re all freezing and starving to death, and why the raid teams come and kill anyone they find in the streets of Trid. Don’t you see? If we can shut down Venus, everyone else will have to do what we do just to survive! We’ll all be equal again.”

  Kailynn sighed heavily.

  “Theo…”

  “Please, Kailynn, we could use your help.”

  “What could I do?”

  “The gang needs a distraction while we get into the building. There’s probably guards and we just need them to be a little distracted for, like, five minutes.”

  “C’mon, Theo,” Kailynn whined. “I’ve been working here for seven months. I’m starting to get my life back together. I don’t need to remind you that you’re the reason I fell into such deep shit.”

  “You think they’re going to let you go out of Anon?” Theo hissed, pointing at the door to the warehouse. “I bet, even if you let Brad fuck you, he wouldn’t let you go anywhere. You’re a Trid. Everyone knows it. You need fucking papers to get out of Anon.” Theo shook his head. “This is as far as you’re going to get, Lynni. Unless we find a way to tear down the Elite Syndicate and shut down Venus, we’re going to die in an alley like Dad.”

  Kailynn shied away from her brother, her fear turning cold in her belly.

  Theo sighed and pulled his sister into a hug, kissing the top of her head.

/>   “I’m going to be with the others tonight,” he whispered. “Think about it and let me know tonight if you’re going to help us.”

  Everyone on the team noticed the change in Kailynn as they drove on their route to the schools in Anon. She was thinking over everything Theo had told her, hating that she saw the truth in his words. She would never get any further than the warehouse. She was a Trid—a non-citizen—one of Anon’s Forgotten—the black spot on Tiao’s glittering surface.

  For the first time in several months, Kailynn stared out the small rectangular window in the side of the transport, watching Anon pass by her. As usual, only transports were on the streets in the middle of the day. There was no reason for a well-off citizen of Anon to leave the house. All work was conducted in NCB chairs, devices that allowed people to have a virtual presence for whatever job they worked. There were some lower-class citizens who had to travel for their jobs, but in the middle of the day there was no one on the roads.

  It was very common for people to go days without seeing another live human, or speaking to another person’s face. That was why there were businesses like Companion and Secret Partners Inc. that specialized in providing human interaction—for a price. Kailynn had heard rumors of the companion prostitution in Anon, but she could not tell what rumors had been exaggerated and which were fact. She had heard that those who worked as a Significant—as they were called—were asked to do all sorts of sickening things for the people who paid them, such as acting like the child of their client, or the wife or husband. The work of a Significant was always very secretive, so it was impossible to know what Significants actually did with clients.

  When they returned from their run to the schools, Jenn walked up to Kailynn and put a hand on her shoulder.

  “Hey, you’ve been quiet all afternoon. Y’alright?”

  “Yeah…”

  “Try ta be less enthusiastic,” Jenn teased.