Read Undercity for Free Online Page B

found my father. Too many of the dust rats from my youth were also gone. Murdered. In prison. Dead by disease, illness, accident, poverty, or poisoning from unfiltered water. The memory of their faces haunted me in the gloom and parched air.
    A few had survived.
    * * *
    I found the Black Mark at the junction of two hidden tunnels. I was surprised to see it in a place I remembered from so many years ago. Jak constantly shifted the location of his casino and he rarely used the same place twice. He could fold it down, pack it away, and vanish as completely as the sea above had done eons ago, under the desiccated sky of Raylicon.
    Gambling was illegal on Raylicon, especially in Cries, a place that defined the bastion of conservative tradition. You couldn’t find the Black Mark unless you knew where to look, and you wouldn’t know unless Jak invited you. He didn’t need a crowd; the expense accounts of his clientele more than made up for their limited numbers. They wanted an exclusive establishment and he was more than happy to oblige. He had the cream of the criminal elite at his fingertips.
    Tonight the intersection was dark except for the casino’s faint glimmer. It nestled in a crevice of the tunnel wall, no windows showing, nothing except sleek black walls. No one intercepted me as I approached, though security was surely monitoring my approach. The building seemed part of the tunnel, just barely visible due the iridescent sheen of its black walls. No entrance appeared.
    “Jak,” I said to the empty air. “Open up.”
    Silence. I waited.
    A wall of the casino shimmered. When the light faded, Jak stood framed in a doorway there. He was dressed in black as always, both his trousers and pullover. His black hair spiked on his head and his coal eyes smoldered with energy.
    “Major,” he drawled. “You’re back in Cries, I see.”
    “Looks like it.” Seeing him stirred up memories I wanted to stay hidden.
    He lifted his hand. “Come in. Improve the decor.”
    I walked past him into a dimly lit foyer with a hexagonal shape. “I never did before.”
    His lips quirked upward. “Good to see you, too, Bhaaj. What brings you to haunt my life?”
    Haunt indeed. We were ghosts from each other’s past. I looked around the foyer as the entrance faded into a solid wall. The only light came from several niches at different heights that gave off a dim red glow. Each held a jeweled human skull inset with rubies, emeralds, or diamonds. The skulls gaped with their glittering smiles and bejeweled eye sockets.
    “Looks like you already have people to haunt your life,” I said.
    “Not like you.” His voice was dark molasses.
    Damn. That voice had always been my undoing. In the dark of the canals, in our youth, he would whisper to me in those dusky tones, calling me a warrior goddess, and I would be done for.
    Stop it, I told myself.
    “I got haunted by Majda,” I said, slipping easily into the terse undercity dialect.
    His smile vanished. “I’ve nothing to do with them.”
    “Glad to hear.” Restless under his gaze, I crossed the foyer and traced a pattern on the wall. Nothing happened. He had changed the combination. I wondered why the Black Mark was here in a place I knew from so long ago. He never used a location for long. Might be coincidence. Might not.
    Jak came up beside me. “Been a long time.”
    I looked at him, really looked. It hurt. I recognized the scar over his left eyebrow, but he had a new one on his neck. I touched it, remembering other scars in places that didn’t show right now.
    “You’ve been busy,” I said.
    He grasped my hand and brought it down to his side. His fingers tightened around mine, clenching. When it began to hurt, I activated my biomech web and extended my fingers, prying his hand open.
    He let go of me with a jerk. For a moment I thought he would say painful words. Instead he leaned against the wall by a skull with sapphire eyes and crossed his arms. “What about Majda?”
    “They