Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits Read Online Free Page A

made in a year.
    Zoey forced what she hoped was a friendly smile and said, “Excuse me?”
    â€œYour cat. What’s his name?”
    â€œStench Machine.”
    â€œReally? That’s mean.” He grinned, flashing perfect teeth.
    â€œHave you smelled him?”
    â€œNo, but still.”
    Zoey finger-petted Stench Machine through a slot in the crate. He was a Persian, white except for his face and chest, which were black fading to brown. He looked like somebody had thrown a cup of coffee in his face and the fur around his mouth gave it a downturned expression that made it look like he wasn’t at all happy about it. He wore a black leather collar encircled with silver spikes. It made him look like a punk rock cat, Zoey thought.
    Jacob asked, “Does he answer to that name?”
    â€œCats don’t answer to anything.”
    â€œMy name is Jacob, by the way.”
    â€œGood to meet you.” Zoey realized she was supposed to give him her name at that point, but even when she wasn’t a target for abduction, she didn’t go trusting train strangers that easily.
    Jacob asked, “Is this your first trip to Tabula Rasa?”
    â€œYes, and I’m already a little freaked out. I grew up in Colorado, a tiny place called Fort Drayton. It’s way out in the boonies. Just to give you an idea, at the entrance of the—” She almost said “trailer park” but caught herself in time. “—uh, subdivision where we live, there’s this big statue of an elk, made of concrete. And the whole thing is chipped with bullet holes where over the years drunken hunters have shot it by mistake.”
    Jacob laughed, showing those perfect teeth. Zoey squashed the jealousy she always felt toward people whose parents had actually taken them to the dentist as a kid. She was missing a lower canine due to a skateboarding accident when she was eleven, and had a chipped incisor due to an encounter with a drunken stepdad. She suddenly wished she had more than just the one amusing anecdote about Fort Drayton to share with Jacob. She could tell him about that time the high school basketball team made it to the state finals and one of the players got diarrhea during the game …
    Another person shuffled down the aisle toward the restroom, and they also glanced down at her, an act that was starting to seem intentional—Zoey swore everyone who passed was doing it. Did she still have chili stuck to her face? This time it was a black teenage girl with wired-up glasses like the ones Jacob was wearing, which meant for all Zoey knew the girl had the built-in camera on and was broadcasting a feed, maybe one called The Worst Hair Dye Jobs on Mass Transit Daily (today’s episode: “The Cat Girl in the Back Row with Cyan Bangs”).
    Jacob said, “Well, you’re about to enter a whole new world out here. How much do you know about it?”
    â€œI know it didn’t exist twenty years ago, that it was just an empty patch of desert in Utah. Then a bunch of rich people started putting up skyscrapers and suddenly there’s a city there. There’s no government, right? That’s all I know. Oh, and every picture I see of Tabula Rasa looks like the Blade Runner universe is holding a Mardi Gras parade.”
    Jacob laughed again. “Yeah I’d say you’re in for a bit of culture shock. There is no place like it on earth. Your phone will never die, though, there’s wireless power coils under everything. Charges the cars as they drive.”
    â€œGreat, maybe I’ll get cancer while I’m there.”
    Zoey glanced at Doll Head Man again, and thought she had caught him staring at her—it was hard to tell behind his bug-eye goggles. She watched as the man stuck a filterless cigarette between cracked lips. He then casually lifted his hand, touched the end of the cigarette with his finger, and lit it. With his finger.
    Jacob said,