Read The Burn Zone for Free Online Page B

about where I should go, or what I should do when I got there. I just pushed my way, shell-shocked, through the haze of human funk while doing my best to shelter Tānchi from it.
     
    Off to my left a vendor yelled something at the neon displays that loomed over the street above his kiosk, shaking his fist at a buglike haan construct that was dancing across the support frame. It stopped and swiveled its head toward him, sending a red laser bar flickering across his face.
     
    “ Go ahead and report me! ” the man shouted, and threw his shoe. The construct jumped in surprise and gated away, vanishing as the sneaker arced and then flopped into the street.
     
    Ahead, a stand displayed the ghoulish faces of festival masks staring from beneath a canopy of floating cellophane lanterns. Stacked up around them were fireworks and gaudy souvenir snow globes made to look like the haan force field dome with the ship inside, complete with the ring of wired balls, the government ’ s failsafe graviton lenses that surrounded it. The kid working the register there had a girl in his lap and his fingers stuffed down the back of her low-riding shorts. He opened one eye and broke his lip-lock to watch me go by while her hand worked rhythmically at his crotch. He stared as we passed. Everybody stared. A bloodstained girl hobbling down the middle of the sidewalk, a screaming haan child clutched to her chest.
     
    The foot traffic parted grudgingly in front of me while the kid bawled himself hoarse. On some level it registered, but the cries sounded like they were coming from underwater. Everything did. It wasn ’ t until his little hands grabbed fistfuls of my shirt that his fear cut through the fog. I touched the side of his face with my fingers, and the smooth skin felt hot.
     
    “ It ’ s okay, ” I said. “ You ’ re okay. I ’ ve got you. ”
     
    Keeping stride, I hoisted the kid to one arm so I could adjust the surrogate kit ’ s strap. For the first time, I noticed the eyes around me weren ’ t just staring at me, but at the rations I carried. Greedy, desperate eyes followed us, and broke off only when they saw the black Shiliuyuán stamp on the side of the canister.
     
    Dragon ’ s in trouble. The thought bounced around in my head like a fly inside a jar. I have to help him. I have to do something.
     
    I made myself stop and catch my breath. There were plenty of cops around looking to clear out the square before the sweep made its way here, but they wouldn ’ t help me. Soldiers had attacked us and everyone knew what the pecking order was. Hangfei had been under martial law since before I was born, and the local cops had zero clout with the military. Telling them would be the same as announcing that I was still alive, and where I was. I tried to tune out the chaos around me and think. I needed help. I needed someone who had some clout, who I could also trust.
     
    Kang.
     
    Jake Kang worked security, but he was an expat like Dragan and they went way back. His lawyer wife had even helped clear the paperwork through when Dragan made my adoption legal. If there was anyone in security I could trust, it would be him.
     
    Ahead, scaffolding had been set up over the sidewalk and covered in sheets of plastic. A row of black-and-red posters sporting Military Governor Hwong ’ s profile were plastered at sidewalk level, urging citizens to join the United Defense Force. I stopped next to one of them and dug out my phone, then thumbed in Kang ’ s contact.
     
    “ Hello? ” a woman ’ s voice answered—Kang ’ s wife, Lijuan. She sounded like she ’ d been asleep.
     
    “ Um, hi, ” I said, raising my voice over the street noise. “ I ’ m looking for Jake Kang? ”
     
    “ Jake isn ’ t here right now, ” she said. “ Who ’ s calling? ”
     
    “ Do you know when he ’ ll be back? ”
     
    “ Who is this? ”
     
    I paused for a minute. She sounded mad.
     
    “ I ’ m sorry, ” I said. “ I ’ m sorry to