Page 100 of Anarchy Missing

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX - CASE

I am not actually booked in, but I am relieved of my phone, my wallet, and the little bottle of pills and then walked towards one of the new updated holding cells at the police station.

Molly witnesses the whole thing, not saying a word to me, but talking frantically on her SkyEye phone in whispers. I can only assume the person on the other end of that call is either Lincoln or Thomas.

I stay calm. Say nothing. And when the holding cell door clicks closed with an electronic beep and there is nothing left to do but look through the bars,I take a seat on the concrete bed and stare at the SpyGlass built into the wall. It keeps reminding me of my rights on repeat, in between general updates on food and how the jail will deal with any health issues I might have.

That’s great. I’m being lectured by my own tech. Last time I do a fucking favor for the city and give them my products early.

I don’t know how long I sit there on the concrete bed before the SpyGlass begins to call out instructions for medical checks.

I can’t see any other cells. Each of us in this new part of the jail has the pleasure of staring at stark white cinderblock walls. But I can hear them yelling and murmuring about… whatever.

When the medical check alert sounds, they get loud. Like caged animals.

I just sit on my bed to wait it out.

“Prisoner 823417—Case Reider,” my SpyGlass says in an automated female voice. “Stand in the red box and put your hands in the red circles on the wall.”

“What the fuck is this?” I ask no one. “I don’t remember Lincoln writing this as part of the jail program.”

“Prisoner 823417—Case Reider,” my SpyGlass repeats. “Stand in the red box and put your hands in the red circles on the wall. This is your second warning.”

“Better do it, man,” some guy calls out, unseen, from the cell next door. “They don’t fuck about after the third warning.”

“What is it?” I ask the guy, walking over the to front of my cell, trying my best to peek around the corner.

“Prisoner 823417—Case Reider. Stand in the red box and put your hands in the red circles on the wall. This is your final warning.”

“Quick, dude,” the guy in the next cell says. “Do it!”

I turn to comply and take an ElectroDart to the chest. The shock drops me instantly to my knees, and half a second later, I’m writhing on the ground as two armed guards come in my cell and point their ElectroGuns at me, while two health workers hold me down by kneeling on my arms and legs. One says, “Open wide,” with a sneer as he dangles a pill over my face.

“What the fuck are you doing? I don’t take medication.”

“According to the prescription bottle you had in your pocket this morning, you sure do, motherfucker.”

“You assholes! Those are—”

But the pill is dropped into my mouth and both sets of hands clamp my jaw shut, pinching my nose so I can’t breathe. I writhe, mostly with anger, but also from the complete and utter lack of respect for my status as a suspect and not a convict.

I thrash around wildly, knocking one health worker off me and into the concrete frame of the bed. The other one goes next, but then the guards are there, pressing their ElectroDart guns into my chest.

I freeze, almost put my hands up.

And they shoot me again. Both of them at the same time.

The jolt in my body is more than I can take. The lights go out and my grasp on reality quickly slides away from me like water sloshing over the sides of a boat until it sinks completely.

“Case?”

Something is wrong with me.

Heat consumes my body. Snow melts under my feet, pooling into a puddle of water until small tendrils of steam swirl their way up my bare legs, surrounding me in a mist that disappears somewhere around my torso.

The city is calling.

The blue-black clouds hanging low in the sky are crowning the mountains, proclaiming them kings and queens. And the new cathedrals, which Thomas started building last spring, and which mark the four points of the compass, stretch up like they are reaching for those clouds.

A sharp pain shoots through my head and I have to close my eyes, shut the world out, and take a moment.

“Case?”

I want that voice to be Lulu’s so bad. I just want to go back in time to this morning when everything was perfect. I want to feel her pressed up against my chest, my arms tightly circling her body. Our heartbeats matched and even. The day just a possibility.

“Lulu?” I hear myself say.

“No,” the voice says.

I knew that. I know this voice. It visits me every night out on the roof.

“You know who I am?” It’s half question, half statement.

“I need the knife,” I say, coming out of the stupor. “It’s so fucking hot.”

“Be calm, Case. I will take care of everything. Just wait until you get new instructions.”