The officer shook his head. “Keep in mind that driving without your license counts as a violation. Are you sure?”
“Yes, I understand. I’ll pay the fine—”
Echika fell silent there. Through the windshield, she could see an investigator clad in a down coat approaching. A Russian with curly brown hair.
You’re joking.
The officers at the hotel did say the London branch had ordered a search, and Totoki did say she’d turn to the London branch after the problems with the Alliance…
Still, this was the worst possible timing.
“Have all the share cars move here,” Investigator Fokine said, then placed a hand on the roof of the car before leaning in to talk to her. “Excuse me, miss, could you pull over at the junction there—?”
Echika’s eyes met his.
No.
Just as Fokine reached out his arms, Echika stomped on the accelerator.
“Hieda!”
Ignoring his order to stop, she drove the share car away from the lane full of vehicles. Knocking away the cones, she slid out from the inspection lane and made for the junction’s exit. A few officers leaped out of a couple police cars pulled over at the side of the road. No good. Echika turned the steering wheel, slipping by narrowly without running over anyone.
“Chief Totoki really is brilliant,” Harold commented, looking behind them. “I think you should give up already.”
She ignored him, driving out of the junction into a one-lane, narrow country road. She heard sirens blare. In the rearview mirror, she saw police cars giving chase, warning lights flashing. The drivers seemed to be local police, not Fokine.
“Echika.” Harold raised his voice, losing his patience. “Stop it already!”
“I told you to stay quiet!”
The Amicus reached over to grab the steering wheel, but she slapped his hand away. She drove down the road, relying on the dying streetlamps’ light for guidance. The road was so narrow that if a car came from the opposite direction, there wouldn’t be enough room to drive past it. She drove by a barn, the warning lights of the police cars still flashing in her rearview mirror. The officers were shouting some kind of warning at her through their loudspeakers, but she ignored it.
Echika drove through the snowy pasture, no destination in mind. She took the occasional turn, losing track of where she was going. The warning lights gradually became distant, distant but the police were still doggedly giving chase. They had no intention of letting up.
Just go away! Please, just leave us alone!
Forty minutes had passed since they’d gotten out of the junction. The next thing she knew, the car was almost out of battery, and it let out a series of loud warning beeps. But Echika kept driving. She couldn’t afford to stop. When the charge finally ran dry, the share car was in front of a mountain community. A nearby sign read CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK. She glanced at the rearview mirror, but there were no warning lights in sight. Still, it was only a matter of time until the police caught up to them.
“Get out.” Echika said, taking off the seat belt. “We need to find another car.”
“I doubt we’ll find a share car in a small village like this one.”
Echika and Harold got out of the vehicle, and she walked off while pulling him by the sleeve. The snow covering the ground was beginning to freeze in conjunction with the dropping temperature. The lights of civilian homes in the distance were the only sources of illumination in the dark. Once the police arrived, they would no doubt start questioning the people here. So the best course of action would be to remain unseen.
As they walked, trying to avoid any civilian homes, they wandered onto a road surrounded by deciduous trees, now covered in white. Like Harold said, there wasn’t even a parking lot in sight, to say nothing of share cars. After a while, they found a sign announcing they were on a footpath, and the road split off in two. Echika went right. The snow fell nonstop, its flakes fluttering down ceaselessly, even coating her eyelashes. The fallen snow on the ground grew deeper, reaching as high as her calves. Everything was getting hazy. She couldn’t tell if it was because of the cold penetrating her entire body or if she’d pushed herself past her limits.
This feeling of being beaten by the snow and dazed was something she’d experienced once before. At the time, she’d been under an illusion produced by her Your Forma, and she was all alone, at that.
Before long, they were walking on an unpaved trail. The avenue of deciduous trees opened up, and the trees nearby were all tall larches. The peaks of the mountains lording over the scenery looked down on her, black like the shadows of the night clinging to them. She could hear running water from somewhere nearby. Maybe there was a stream close by that wasn’t frozen.
Suddenly, her grip on Harold’s sleeve came undone, and Echika stumbled. She instinctively reached out, placing a hand on a tree trunk to stabilize herself. It was only at this point that she realized she was shaking. Yet she still turned around, resolved to pull Harold along by the sleeve again. However—
“Echika.”
The Amicus grabbed Echika by the wrist before she could reach out to him again, stopping her. With his other hand, he pulled off the hood covering his face, revealing his handsome features under the moonlight.
“Let’s go back. You won’t last like this.”
“I’m fine.” Her lips were numb with cold. “We have to keep going—”
“Go where? We can keep pushing on, but we won’t get anywhere.”
Harold glanced ahead, and Echika slowly, wearily turned around to follow his gaze. Past the dark, closed larch forest was only darkness. No roads, no people, no houses. Nothing. Only the entrance to the mountains was there, like a gaping mouth hanging open to swallow them.
It really was, for all intents and purposes, a dead end.
“I understand how you feel,” Harold said, his tone changing completely, growing suddenly gentle. “That’s good enough.”
“No it’s not.”
“Echika.”
“It’s…it’s not good enough for me.”
She mustered strength she didn’t have to shake off Harold’s grasp. She stumbled a few steps back, only to freeze when she heard the echoing of someone’s voice. It sounded like angry shouting. It must have been the police. They were closing in on them sooner than she’d expected.
No. Don’t. Stay away. Just stop. Why? Why does this have to happen?
She clenched her teeth hard, grinding them together. What did Harold ever do wrong? He’d never asked for any of this. The things he was given at the very beginning of his existence just happened to exceed the framework of what was allowed. That was all. Just as Harold had said, how good it would be if he were human. If he were, they wouldn’t need to run like this. And yet—
If he were human, I would definitely…
Something like rage swelled up within her, pressing on her heart. A lump of emotions she couldn’t contain—anger, hatred, irritation, sorrow—threatened to suffocate her. And she wished it would actually choke her—better to drown here and never have to think of all of this ever again.
She knew this was all hopeless. She stumbled back, retreating from Harold.
“Echika?”
He looked at her with concerned confusion.
If we’re going to get caught here anyway.
Echika reflexively yanked off her necklace, forcing the nitro case open. Its lid fell off in the process, but it didn’t matter. She took off the isolation unit from the back of her neck and made to plug in the Mnemosyne-modifying HSB.
“No!”
Harold stepped toward her, hurrying to grab Echika’s arm in an attempt to stop her from plugging in the HSB. But he was too late. The HSB was already in the connection port on the back of her neck. But Harold didn’t stop, yanking it out of her and throwing it away.
“What are you thinking?!” He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook. “Farman and Talbot lost their minds after that HSB was used on them! What if you ended up debilitated, too—?”
But his words didn’t register in Echika’s ears. All she could focus on was the Your Forma pop-up message floating in her field of vision, the finality of its message searing into her mind.
<Empty HSB device detected. Please choose what to do with this device>
What is this?
It couldn’t be an empty device—this had to be the Mnemosyne-modifying HSB Professor Lexie had given her. And yet—
The realization hit her like something cold and slimy had just slithered down her spine.
“I should give this back to you.”
Was it Bigga?
The moment she realized what had happened, she felt all the force drain from her body. Her lips curled despite herself, and a sound escaped her lips, something between a sob and laughter.
I’m such a complete and utter idiot. In the end, I can’t do anything. I’m like a child, disrupting things and throwing tantrums.
“Echika? Hang on!”
“I’m fine.” She couldn’t suppress that self-derisive smile. “The old HSB got switched with an empty one, at some point…”
Harold let go of her shoulders, unable to hide his surprise. Echika couldn’t stand on her feet and placed a hand on a tree trunk to support herself. The hard bark poked against her fingers, but it frankly didn’t matter. The nitro-case necklace dangled limply on her chest, lighter than before and missing its lid.
It’s not like Harold ever asked me for help. The whole time, I was doing all of this just to satisfy my own ego. But even so…