Page 92 of Sparktopia
“If you come out of the health center pronounced perfectly fit, I’ll help you. I don’t know what that means, but I’ll help you.”
“Why?” She’s squinting at me. “I mean, what’s in it for you? You literally just said, like thirty seconds ago, that I’m no one to you.”
“You are no one. That’s not a lie. But… I’m curious.”
“About?”
“Your story, for one. But also… you. Because nothing adds up.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. Who cares if nothing adds up?”
“I just feel a compulsion of curiosity.”
“That’s it?” She side-eyes me. “You’re not even gonna mention that I’m pretty?”
“What?” And then I smile.
“I mean, that would make more sense.”
“What would make more sense?”
“That you want sex.”
“That’s not it.”
“I’m just saying, if itwere, it would make sense. But you’re sticking with ‘curious,’ huh?”
I force the grin down. Make myself serious. “Yes. I’m sticking with curious.”
“Suit yourself. Which way to the health center then? I’m ready.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Do you have a last name?” We’re walking again, just entering the district, when I ask him this. It’s not crowded here at the edge, but it will be very soon.
“Saarinen.”
“Where do you come from?”
“What makes you think I’m not from here?”
“You sound different.”
He smiles, but doesn’t look at me. His gaze wandering over the people around us. “I come from Delta.”
“Where’s that?”
“Long, long way across the sandy sea. On the edge. By the Alphas.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
He stays quiet for a moment, maybe trying to come up with a way to explain it, and I take this moment to think about him.
Nothing about Tyse Saarinen is anything like Finn Scott. And I do meannothing. He’s very tall, for one. Finn is not short, in fact they might even be the same height, but something aboutTyse comes off as looming. He’s got a lot of tattoos. Finn does not. No one up-city gets tattoos. That’s something they do down the canal. And he’s not clean-shaven, like Finn.
I’ve never seen a soldier. We don’t have a military in my version of Tau City. There’s no need. There’s no one coming to invade us because we’re the last ones left.
But of course, I’ve seen illustrations of them in textbooks when I was learning history as a child and Tyse looks exactly like they were depicted in those books. Almost down to the smallest details, including the tattoos. Even his hair. Which is shaved close to his scalp at the sides of his head, but longer over the top. It’s not tied back today, so most of the time you can’t see that the sides are shaved unless he rakes it all back into place with his fingertips because the longer hair covers it.
