Enders(43)

“Still the same,” I said over the music.

“I can see why Hyden sat this one out,” Michael said.

Hyden couldn’t handle the crowd. But it wasn’t for Michael either. He’d rather have been sketching this crowd than be part of it.

A server of indeterminate gender passed carrying a tray of drinks that glowed blue and left a trail of white smoke. Off to the side, a girl in a bathing suit crawled out of a fountain against the wall. The water looked like gold oil, and when she emerged, her skin was covered in it, making her look like a gilded statue.

We headed past the astrobar to the lounge. It wasn’t as packed as the main hall, but it was still pretty active. The antigrav chairs were filled with gorgeous Starters. But they could have just been born that way.

“See anyone you recognize?” I asked Michael.

“No. And no one I want to know.”

We’d decided that in addition to looking for clues as to why my father would have been there, we’d also pick up any good Metals that we found. Would we just be collecting them for Brockman again? We hoped not.

We walked around the lounge.

“What about her?” He nodded in the direction of a stunning, willowy girl with straight blond hair.

She leaned up against one of the mirrored columns. I remembered her face. She was one of the donors who had come in when we were shutting down the body bank. Of course, it was really her renter then.

“You talk to her,” he said to me.

“Come with me.”

“It’ll be easier if it’s just you. Less chance of scaring her.”

He went over to the bar. I walked closer to the girl. I peeked at my phone in my purse. It identified her phone as belonging to Daphne. I moved closer and smiled.

“Hey, Daphne,” I said.

She sized me up with a bored expression. “Am I supposed to know you?”

So she wasn’t the nicest Starter in the club.

“Sort of. We’re body bank sisters,” I said.

“Oh.” Her eyes widened. “There. Man, I don’t want to think about that slimy place.”

“I know.” Then I decided to press a bit. “But I do think about it sometimes. I can’t help it. I have memories. Do you?”

“Of my renter? Yeah,” she said, and sipped her bottle of sparkling water. “I keep getting these flashbacks I’m walking a tightrope over a canyon. I’m a gymnast, not a tightrope walker. Can you imagine they let her do that? My renter obviously didn’t have a fear of heights, but I sure do.”

“Not good,” I said. “Maybe someday we’ll get the chips removed.”

“I’d take a knife and do it myself if I thought I’d live through it.”

A gymnast and gutsy.

“How are you doing since you finished Prime?” I asked. “Living okay?”

“I was smart. Saved my money.”

Her clothes looked new, she looked healthy, and she managed to pass the inspection to get in the club. Whatever she was doing, she was all right.

“How long have you been coming here?” I asked.

“A few months. I learned about it after working for Prime.”

She wasn’t going to be much help to me in terms of finding out about my father, since she’d only started coming here recently. But she was one of the few remaining Metals we could maybe rescue.

“Let me introduce you to my friend,” I said.

I brought her over to Michael and left the two of them to talk. I went to the one person who usually knew everyone in a club—the bartender. Like all the employees, he was a white-haired Ender. He was tall and slender, wearing an earring. His friendly face looked so familiar. Maybe from my first time at the club, when Helena was renting me? No, more recently. From Helena’s memory. The memory she had of showing the bartender Emma’s holo.

I ordered a soda and showed him the holo-frame of my family that we’d pried off my front door. “Do you recognize this Middle?”

“Hard to forget a Middle,” he said as he wiped a glass. “We get so few.”

My heart started racing, but I tried to keep calm. “You’ve seen him?”

He took the holo from me and stared at it a moment. Then looked at me. “You’re his daughter?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your name, sweetheart?” he asked.

“Callie Woodland. His name is Ray.”

The bartender leaned closer and examined my features. “I see it in your eyes.” He put down the towel. “I’ve been waiting for someone to show up. Come with me.”

I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I waited while he came around from the back of the bar. I wasn’t sure I should be following this Ender I didn’t know.