Read Guardian for Free Online Page B

ever had. Why should Syd care for them now? Was something wrong with Liam that he didn’t?
    He glanced over his shoulder to a gap in the curtain. He saw through the sliver Syd’s broad brown back, its muscle tight as wire underneath the skin. Along the side of his rib cage, there were burns and scars from a young life that had been filled with wounds, but the untouched places were smooth and almost shone gold in the afternoon light.
    Liam had a view of four letters behind Syd’s right ear that made the word “Yovel,” the mark that branded him the savior. The story was legend now: Syd’s long-dead father had implanted baby Syd with a computer virus and sent him off to the Mountain City, an anonymous orphan, his name assigned by a database. He was networked and tracked, his debt was purchased, and he was in the system. But hidden inside the official programming in his blood, his father’s virus grew.
    When it was ready, when it was mature enough to tear apart the network, erase all the records, sever all connections, it showed a symbol on his skin, that four-letter word just behind his ear,
Yovel.
Jubilee: the day when all debts were forgiven. But Knox, Syd’s patron, had been infected too by a blood transfusion, and when they arrived in Old Detroit, he also bore the word behind his ear.
    An accident of fate.
    So Knox stepped into the machine that spread the virus from Old Detroit to Mountain City and all the wastelands in between. He let it irradiate him, vaporize him as that bit of code overwhelmed every transmitter, every datastream, and every system. The network went down.
    When it was done, Knox was no more than a toxic bit of ash, and Syd’s symbol remained, a scar, an echo of the name he’d had and the future he’d been spared.
    Liam could only imagine what it felt like to carry that mark and all the rest that went with it. He himself had never been networked, never had biodata installed. He’d been born apart and raised to fight. Having no data made it easier for him to slip in and out of Mountain City undetected. There were times he wondered what it might be like to have access to the datastream, but now it was gone; he was one of the few alive who didn’t miss it. He wondered whether Syd missed it.
    Liam lost his hand for the revolution, but loss was easy. Addition was hard. How do you become something more than yourself? Inspiring others. Manifesting their dreams. It was a burden Liam was glad not to carry, knew he wasn’t strong enough to carry. He preferred his role in history to be small, narrowly defined. Keep Syd safe.
    Dr. Rahat ordered Syd to turn and Liam caught his breath as the sinewy chest came into view, the scar across his collarbone from a childhood knife fight, the small trail of hair rising to his belly button, the soft skin of his neck, the dark obsidian shine of his eyes staring back at—
    Liam turned away quickly. Studied his boots. He felt himself blushing. Had he been staring? Had Syd
seen
him staring? Why was he staring? Syd was just an assignment, and a difficult one at that. Liam had to remember: an assignment.
    Syd mattered to the Reconciliation, so Syd had to be protected. Liam didn’t have to feel anything about Syd beyond that.
    Shouldn’t
feel.
    Shouldn’t. Shouldn’t. Shouldn’t.
    Maybe Syd hadn’t noticed the look. Or maybe he figured it was just Liam being cautious, making sure the doctor didn’t harm his patient. Machinist assassins everywhere; one can never be too careful.
    What an idiot,
Liam cursed himself.
Focus on the job. No emotion.
    Waterfall. Waterfall. Waterfall.
    He sighed and looked up.
    And he met Marie’s gaze. Lying on the cot, she looked at him with just the faintest hint of purple still in her eyes. And on her lips, the slightest smirk forming around the edges.
    In a moment, Syd stood beside Liam.
    “Take me to the Advisory Council,” Syd said. “I need to speak to them immediately. And someone should bury the Guardians we left in that