Windvane book1

Bk 1 Ch 3 Windvane

The bus ride out to her new home showed Llatoya one thing... the bus was probably not going to be viable. It did a great loop out to the north before swinging east towards what was effectively its return journey. Forty Five minutes... to make a trip with maybe twenty.

Getting off the bus onto East Street immediately revealed what Jared had meant... though perhaps the word 'wind' was too gentle. At some point in the distant past a great bastion had been built into the corner of Sorrento... tucked into a corner of the sweeping wall that wrapped the city in a hexagon... except here. Here the wall had been brought down on two sides leaving a hundred meter space for sandblasting gales to scream through from the east and salty storm fronts from the west.

This was the district of Windvane.

East road would have once continued straight to the bastion but now it ended in the rubble of its demise. Llatoya adjusted her hair as best she could, the strength of the flurries was pulling locks out of the braid and into her eyes... a simple twist bun would do a better job. her hair was long enough to hold itself up. It wasn't hard to find Windvane Overlook.... it was the only building on the street over three storeys tall. It wasn't hard to find her door ... it was the only one freshly painted on the floor.

Llatoya took a deep breath, prepared for the worst and slid her ID into the lock. The door opened in silence, freshly oiled, to reveal a blank canvas. Nothing waited for her. Not cutlery, not a chair, not even a mattress... not a bar of soap... The place still smelled like fresh paint and flea bombs.

The unit had two things going for it... a whole three rooms to herself and what would surely be a good view... nope.

Llatoya opened the curtain to find herself looking at an on-ramp. It would have been lovely once upon a time before GoFast technology led to anti-gravity stabilisation. She could make out a slither of the ocean through the break in the wall. Flicking back the door lock and cracking it a few inches revealed the war-din of the city as offensive as expected. She looked along the narrow balcony to the white blisters of salt corrosion.... yeah, the balcony is definitely off limits.

Jared had said that step one was to get settled... time to go shopping. Using the travellers map she was able to find a shopping centre... it would be a fair walk but manageable.

Llatoya was half way there when some rather loud music caught her attention. some epic, hard rock... the sort that only sounds right with the volume up. she looked down the alley as she passed and saw the blue bike from before. "Interesting", she said to herself as she kept walking... but... three steps later she backtracked and turned down the alley.

Almost immediately the air began to buzz with the sound of many many GoFast engines.

They came around the corner into the alley recklessly fast and would have hit her if she had been actually in the street rather than pavement beside it. Nevertheless, one came close enough that she could have reached out and touched his shoulder. The gang drew up at the open garage near the blue GoFast bike. One of the riders dismounted and took his helmet off straight away.

"Hey! It's the Hi-Vis chick."

the one called Hal or Matthew was the fastest to react. His head swiveled sharply. He then began to walk over to where Llatoya had been left standing. Most of the others went inside. Kurt came out a moment later but by then Hal or Matthew was more or less upon her

"Leave here. Forget what you saw."

"Why?"

His tone dropped, "You are not welcome, Outsider. Go. Home"

"Listen, Jerk," Llatoya stepped forward, "This IS home for me now."

He made a deep growl and she could see him calculating against a violence threshold. He tensed as he heard Kurt coming up behind him.

"She's harmless, Matthew, Leave her be."

He spun on her rescuer,

"Don't call me that! I have a designation, use it."

"I will when you are worthy of it."

Llatoya watched Matthew's fist ball up and release. He walked back to his group through Kurt. Kurt continued to watch Llatoya instead.

"Aside from that, How can I help?"

"I saw your bike and was curious. I didn't mean to cause a scene."

"YOU did not create a scene... he did."

"What's his problem?"

"Classic territorial behaviour... they all have a small slice of his pie. That said ... If you are curious about the GoFast bikes,I'd recommend you buy a magazine."

"Why is that?"

"Seeming as you're already OUT, better to stay that way."

"You mean the gang?"

"Not necessarily... this is an expensive pool to be swimming in... and there are plenty of sharks you'd be sharing the waters with."

"You're blue GoFast tells me you are not affiliated with those guys."

"Correct"

"So why would I need to be affiliated, why can't I just have a GoFast and enjoy it?"

"You've been in Sorrento... how long?"

Llatoya knew where that question was going to take her.

"I arrived this morning."

"if you are still curious in a month, THEN we will talk about it."

"I saw GoFast skate boards... is that off limits too?"

A deep smile crossed Kurt's lips.

"Now... that is a much better question. That one I CAN help with. What do you need?"

"How do I get one? do they require a licence? a permit?"

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen next month... why?"

"Yea, you'll need a permit to use a GoFast board... until you are actually seventeen... until then stick with a normal skateboard. For the sake of a month it's not worth the paperwork.

"So I am waiting anyway... I left my board behind,with my parents... not enough hands to bring it along with me."

"I can lend you one."

Oh... Llatoya liked this guy very very much suddenly.."Really!"

He waved her over to go with him.

Llatoya was suddenly aware that Matthew was watching her. The others were congregating around the open shutter.

"If his name is Matthew, why did you fall him Hal?"

"You misunderstood. HAL. H . A. L... High Attribution Legacy..." Kurt paused and looked at her, hazel eyes with a blue streak in each... "Who do you work for?"

"What sort of question is that?"

"Indulge me, just for a moment."

Llatoya turned to go but he stepped around to block her... he was gentle about it. "I promise it's related to my explanation."

She eyed HIM this time, then, "City council"

He nodded, "Right ... working for the city is about WHAT you know... working for one of the Tech-Giants is about WHO you know... being a HAL is about lineage... genetics... WHICH family you belong to."

Kurt wrapped his arm around her shoulder and gently guided her back to the workshop. As he passed Matthew he paused.

"You need to stop scaring off the customers." His voice softened again, "She works for council, you'll be fine."

Matthew mounted up and made a point of being noisy as he left.

"Is he like that with everyone?"

One of the others answered for him,

"Actually... no. There's something about you specifically that seems to bother him, usually he's a bit of a flirt" He held out a workman's hand, rough and calloused, "Call me Falcon".

She took it... properly, "Llatoya."

"Damn Girl that's one helluva shake."

Whilst Kurt rummaged through storage boxes Falcon introduced the others... "Those two ladies are Vixen and Vie... don't worry about which ones which, we get it wrong all the time," The two teenagers were immaculately identical but Llatoya could pick on subtle differences in their build.

"Logan has a yellow stripe." Turning to the next person in line, "You already know Kurt.... Jamie is the tall one, James is the ... beefy one."

"That's a lot of names at once. I will try to remember." Llatoya was smiling.. did she just make a heap of friends? on her first day? Life just got more interesting.