Page 271 of Light Leech

I looked at her, tried to take it seriously to respect that odd little organism, but neither of us could help but laugh. “I hope so.”

“Why are we laughing?” She couldn’t suppress a grin.

Because maybe we Imps feel the same way and this is some sick irony. That thought ended the humor for me. I shrugged, kept the smile for her, and focused back on Boyband.

“Can I leave?” Akna asked, looking anywhere but at David.

“This might be important.” Abbas patted her on the back, his disgust apparent as he looked at David.

“Try him out,” Denji said.

“What do you mean?” Boyband asked.

“He’s got your parents’ research uploaded to his mind, ask him anything you want.”

“Wait,” Ralia asked, covering David from her view with an outstretched hand. “Why did you have to upload their data into that crawling meat pillar? You could have just given it to me.”

“Look, I don’t know you all yet–”

Boyband interrupted Denji. “Yeah you do, we’re right here.”

“I mean… we just met. I’m sure you’re a good person, Ralia, but I can’t just toss all of this data–most of which is Luxist research–to someone I hardly know. Not only that, but I can’t be sure that your internal storage is secure. You even said one of your mods is down, which entails that your security is not infallible.”

“So you trust a meat pillar.”

“Yes. David is mine. I created him and therefore trust is automatic.”

“You’re trusting a meat pillar over me?”

He held his hand out. “I started creating him before I knew you were going to come and settle here–which I must add, I don’t mind. It gets lonely around here when all the others want to do is meditate, but maybe that’s my problem. Again, Ralia, it doesn’t mean I won’t trust you. I think I can, but that isn’t the only reason I uploaded everything to David. I didn’t even trust myself. David is his own entity. No neurospace, no neuronet access. While you can access him to extract files, it’s all done with light lines. David is a safe storage and if he falls into the wrong hands, I doubt they’ll think anything of him.”

“How can you be sure?” I asked.

“Please, bowl-cut boy, end my life.”

Denji smiled and pointed at him. “Would you want to steal that? I love him, but he’s not the most attractive spoil to take.”

“I gotcha, I gotcha,” Ralia said.

“Why did we have to bring him back again?” Akna asked.

I gave them a brief explanation of our time at Water Hills but deferred their questions about Kalacia to focus on my theory concerning Boyband’s enrollment. Ralia could explain the neurocore thing later

Akna furrowed her brow. “So you think his parents wanted him to find a job as a celebrity to escape the weight of their empire?”

“I don’t know, but I think they had a purpose in sending him to a school that feeds corporations with lackeys.” I looked at David.

“And you think that thing might have an idea?” Abbas asked. “Again, I get that this is important and all, but if we’re just going to toss aside our Reef and Haven connection discoveries, why did we go in the first place?”

“To make sure we’re not being haunted by Haven,” Ralia said. “We already have too many assassins out for us, but that might change soon. Pet and I are working on that. We also don’t want to cut our ties with the presidency. If we are going to try and end these ten Beacons and the tide, we’ll need connections to the elite. So far, three of the Beacons have been among them.”

“Was Deleon really an elite?”

She laughed. “You’re an invaluable resource right now, Abbas.” She continued to speak through his smile. For once, he looked like he felt valued without the sting of his betrayal. “And if this provides a route for Naoma to use her Reef connections without reaching out to them out of the blue, all the better. You gotta remember, the network the elite use goes beyond the one on the neuronet. You plug?”

He nodded. “I guess so.”

“Good, because we’ll need you and Aknie to keep an eye out while we vermin work in the sewers.”