Our Lady of the Ice

“Why do you care?”

Sofia rarely allowed emotions to cross her face, and this moment was no exception. “You’re damaged.”

“Araceli tended to me.”

Luciano slipped off the table and disappeared into the shadows. Marianella sighed. She would have liked him to stay there, to ground her.

“Did you do this for Alejo Ortiz?”

“No.” A sharp burst of anxiety erupted in her chest—Alejo. He needed to know what had happened. They needed to decide what to do about Ignacio. Marianella surged toward the door, stumbling over her feet.

“Where are you going?” Sofia’s voice was sharp. “You can’t leave. You need to eat. To get your strength up.” She took a few steps in Marianella’s direction, her face darkening with concern. “You’re behaving rashly,” she said.

They stared at each other. Marianella was still weak from the repairs and trembling with anxiety. She kept remembering the times when Sofia had visited her at Southstar, always in the summer when Hector went away to the mainland for business. The memories made her warm; they made her ashamed. Everything about Sofia was confusing.

Her thoughts buzzed. Yes, she needed to eat. But she needed to formulate a plan, too, her next series of steps. And the first thing wasn’t even to warn Alejo anyway; he could take care of himself. He had the strength of the AFF behind him.

She needed to secure her documents.

“What happened?” Sofia’s voice was hard and commanding. Marianella wished Araceli would come back.

“I was thrown out into the cold.”

“By whom?”

Marianella sighed. There was no point in playing coy; Sofia was unrelenting when she wanted an answer.

“One of Hector’s old associates,” she said. “Ignacio Cabrera.”

Something shifted in Sofia’s expression. A glint flashed across her face and was gone. Marianella wasn’t certain she’d even seen it.

“The gangster?” Sofia said.

“You’ve heard of him.”

“Yes.” Sofia glanced at Luciano. “Why was he trying to hurt you? Does he know what you are?”

“Not at the moment, no. But when it becomes clear that I didn’t die out there—” If only it weren’t winter, if only she could book passage aboard one of the icebreakers and escape. Get away from Ignacio and the danger of the city. But it would mean leaving the ag dome behind too. Her proof that she wasn’t a monster, that she wasn’t entirely a machine.

Marianella closed her eyes and took the deep breaths that reminded her that she was human.

“You should stay here, then.” Sofia’s voice was calm. “Until you decide how to handle Cabrera.”

Marianella went still. When she had gone into Our Lady of the Ice to pray, she had asked God to tell her what to do next, not knowing why she was asking. Now she did. She’d been asking God to help her formulate a course of action. And maybe He’d brought her Sofia. It seemed strange for God to use Sofia as His vessel.

“Yes,” she said softly. “I think you’re right. At least for the time being.” She wouldn’t warn Alejo in person, but she could program a drone to send a message to him. The park drones would all be secure. The same for Southstar—she could use the call station in the park to contact her estate drones and activate their protocols to make the house look occupied, turning on music and lights and the television set at programmed intervals. Her society friends would assume she’d returned to her old reclusive ways. They were too fickle to come looking for her beyond a phone call.

That left her documents.

Marianella faced Sofia. “I need a change of clothes and my documents. They’re back at Southstar.”

“I can fetch them for you.” Luciano stepped out of his place along the wall. “I’m familiar with the house.”

“No.” Marianella shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. Ignacio is probably watching the estate—”

“We know how to hide from humans,” Sofia said. “Luciano will be fine.”

“It’s true,” Luciano said. “You needn’t worry about me.”

Marianella looked back and forth between them. She didn’t like this, but she hated the thought of her documents lying vulnerable in the house.

“I took them out of the safe after the robbery,” Marianella said.

“Yes, you told me. You moved them into the hidden panel behind the refrigerator.”

“Good,” Sofia said. “You can stay here until it’s safe.”

Marianella ran her hand, still shaking, through her hair. “Until it’s safe,” she murmured, knowing she couldn’t stay in hiding forever.

The door opened, and Marianella’s heartbeat skittered, but it was only Araceli and Inéz, weighed down with canvas sacks.

“Got you food!” Araceli called out. “Oh, hello, Sofia.”

“Hello.” Sofia gave a brief smile. “I’m glad you were able to repair her.”

Marianella closed her eyes at the word “repair.” Sofia knew she didn’t like it.

“She’s all fixed up.” Araceli dropped her bags onto the table and turned to Marianella. “But she needs to eat.”

“I know,” Marianella said. The scent of roasted meat wafted through the control room, and the back of Marianella’s mouth watered. She needed to activate her estate domes, she needed to contact Alejo about handling Ignacio, she needed to hold her documents close to her heart and know they were safe.

But first, she needed to eat.

*  *  *  *

Alejo responded to Marianella’s message within the hour. The drone found her easily and zipped through a hatch in the wall of the room where she sat reading that day’s newspaper, looking for any mention of her name and, thankfully, not finding any. The drone was an older model, retrofitted to work with atomic power rather than steam, but still possessing a burnished bronze exterior and now-pointless release valves. Marianella watched it roll across the floor, her heart fluttering against her chest. She didn’t know what Alejo would say. She hoped he’d say something, hoped the drone hadn’t been intercepted by Cabrera or the city or someone worse, a phantom enemy looking for cyborgs.

For a moment, Marianella didn’t move. The old park decorations piled in the corner lurked on the edges of her vision, and she felt as if they were alive, as if they were watching her.

She reached down and pressed the playback button.

Immediately, the drone began to glow beneath its bronze shell, a pure white light that could never have existed when the drone was made. There came a hiss and crackle like on record speakers, and then Alejo’s voice, distorted by the recording.

“I am so glad to hear you’re not dead.” Even filtered through the drone’s ancient recording devices, his worry sounded sincere. “I heard from Cabrera last night—the asshole sent one of his goons out to my house. My house, can you believe it?”

“Of course I can,” Marianella muttered, thinking of the moment when she had first sensed Ignacio lurking in Southstar’s hallways.

“He told me what had happened with you, that I’d be next if I didn’t back down.” Alejo laughed. “But I could tell they didn’t know what you were. I’d hoped you’d found a way out of that scrape, and it looks like you have.”

The forced joviality in his voice jarred against Marianella’s bare nerves. Get to the point, she thought.

“I agree it’s probably good for you to lay low,” he said. “I assume you’re hiding out in the park right now. You sure that’s a good idea? You know I can put you up in a safe house. In fact, I think that’d be the better idea all around.”

A safe house. Marianella knew he meant an AFF safe house, something shabby and worn down and guarded with heavily muscled men in sealskin coats. She didn’t like the idea. Alejo didn’t understand the park, or the extent of Sofia’s protection. Marianella knew she was safer here.

“But we’re going to need to get this sorted out as soon as possible,” he went on. “The Midwinter Ball is coming up, and I’m not about to back down on that. Ignacio Cabrera isn’t going to push me around. Or you.”