Fallen

Wednesday, October 28, 2099 Lilia's plan was simple: 1. She would attend the Nuclear Darwinists' conference in New Gotham to present the award to be given in honor of Gid. Renaming the existing award had been her idea, after all, and was the perfect cover for what she really wanted to do. 2. She would discover the truth about Gid's death. 3. She would quit the Society after the award was presented, preferably with some panache. 4. She would stay out of trouble. The last item was the only one Lilia expected to be an issue: she had only added it to her list to keep her mother happy. Her mother didn't need to know how quickly that item had been ditched. Lilia had only been in New Gotham for an hour and she was wearing Gid's second best pseudoskin, idling a rented Kawasaki and considering the best way to enter the old city of Gotham unobserved. Revving the bike and wasting precious canola were the least of the multiple offenses either committed or pending. She didn't idle the bike because she was worried about breaking the law. Lilia did that all the time. Old cities were off- limits, by senatorial decree, which meant those who ventured into them had to fend for themselves. Usually Lilia welcomed that edict-it meant less interference. What troubled her was that the guys in the bike rental place had been joking about the wolves in Central Park. Wolves. Was it true? It was one detail she hadn't planned for. Lilia hadn't given their chatter much credence, not until there was just the muck of the Hudson between herself and Gotham. The sight of the old city was what gave her pause. Gotham was big, dark, and legendary-she'd known that before. In this moment, though, it crouched on the other side of the river, a blackened wreck of what had been a glittering metropolis. It was hard to imagine that once it had shone with so many lights that its illumination had obscured the stars above. Now the stars had no competition. The steady rain and the darkness didn't do the old city any favors-it looked like hell. Maybe it was. Lilia was sure that Gotham wolves would be bigger, more numerous, and more nasty than most. But rumor wasn't going to stop her. This was a one- time shot. She kicked the bike into gear and turned into the darkness of the Lincoln Tunnel. Her geiger was already ticking faster than she might have liked, which meant she was soaking up radiation faster than would have been ideal. As she drove down the curving ramp, Lilia held her breath, hoping that the tunnel wasn't blocked. She turned onto the straightaway and the bike's high beam showed that the snaking length of the tunnel was unobstructed. There was just a couple of inches of water on the roadway and the vehicles-there must have been some-were gone. Pilfered, most likely, and raided for parts. Her geiger settled to a slow tick. Lilia grinned. Her legendary good luck was holding. She accelerated and the roar of the bike's engine reverberated in the tunnel. It felt good to ride, as good as being cut loose from a corset, as good as kicking five pounds of underskirts aside. Even better, the Kawasaki had guts. As the darkness closed behind her, she felt a prickle of fear. Lilia didn't like darkness, never had. Logic, though, had dictated that the tunnel was the best option for entering the city. The tunnel shielded her from the radiation on approach, giving her more range once in Gotham, and it muffled the noise of the motorcycle from curious ears. Had Gid, the king of logic, come this way? The tunnel was long, or seemed longer than it should have been. It said something about Lilia's fear of darkness that she was relieved to emerge into the hot zone of Gotham itself. She burst from the...