Chapter 1
Selena picked her new home for no better reason than the dog laid down on the porch.
The dog was a middle-aged black Lab, though her Labrador-ness had been diluted by a fence-jumping father of questionable ancestry. Whatever he had been, his genes had helped temper the breed’s boundless energy. She still worshipped chasing tennis balls as the highest form of canine endeavor but wanted a long nap afterward, and ideally a long nap beforehand as well.
Selena named her Copper, which Walter said was a stupid name because there was nothing copper colored about her. Selena felt guilty when he pointed that out, but Copper had already learned her name by that point, so she put a collar on the dog with bright copper tags. Walter rolled his eyes, but Selena was pleased with herself for having set things right again.
The dog, it must be said, never seemed to mind either way.
Selena had ridden out on the train, two and a half days to get there, and she’d been afraid the whole time that somebody’d tell her she couldn’t have a dog on board. She didn’t know what she’d do. Fortunately Copper had excellent travel manners and mostly lay under her seat and let out the long sighs of an old dog at peace with the world. The rocking of the train seemed to agree with her. She squatted obediently at every stop and was extremely pleased to share the sandwiches that Selena passed down to her.
At the second-to-last stop, the conductor bent down and scratched Copper behind the ears, and Selena was so relieved that she nearly cried.
When they reached the final stop, Copper stood up and stretched. Her muzzle had begun to go white, but her eyes were clear. She glanced around the train platform and then up at Selena, as if expecting orders.
Quartz Creekwas painted on the platform wall, in faded blue. The train platform was cinder block and adobe. It could have been ten years old or two hundred.
There were no gates or turnstiles, no ticket takers. Also no taxis. Selena knew that the area was a historic zone, which meant that you couldn’t put developments up all over the place and drones were banned, but she hadn’t expected a lack of taxis. Or maybe there just weren’t enough people around for taxis to make any money, which was a somewhat alarming thought.
“I guess we just go?” Selena asked empty air. She wrapped the leash around her right hand and gripped her suitcase handle in her left.
The station was nearly deserted. Two men in faded jeans unloaded several boxes from one of the cars into the back of a battered pickup truck. The conductor went over and had them sign a sheet of paper, then said something that made the others laugh.
Selena stole a glance to make sure that they weren’t laughing at her. They didn’t seem to be.
There was a drinking fountain against one wall. The water came out lukewarm and tasting of metal. She filled her water bottle and let Copper drink her fill from the little metal dish in her backpack.
There was hardly anything else to the station. Two small shelters with benches, the drinking fountain, and a list of timetables under glass. The stairs down from the platform ran directly to a rutted dirt road. Selena stared down the road in mild disbelief, then slowly lifted her eyes.
The town was visible a long way in the distance. There was a hill behind it, or maybe a mountain. Between town and station stood two or three miles of desert, full of scrubby little bushes and big gray-green saguaros, and dozens of plants that she didn’t know the names of. Onelong, serpentine thing might be ocotillo, but then again, it might not. Whatever it was, it had thorns. So did most of the other plants.
The dirt was bone white and the sky was hard blue. It was only midmorning, but heat was already making long squiggles in the air.
She’d expected the town to be closer, or for there to be taxis or buses or something. She hadn’t expected a hike from station to town. Aunt Amelia would probably have come out to meet her, except that Amelia didn’t know that she was coming. They corresponded by erratic postcards and neither had ever included a phone number.
Even if she’d known the number, she didn’t dare turn on her phone. The location tracker that had seemed like such a sensible precaution when Walter explained it would give her away, and she just wasn’t ready to deal with that yet. Which also meant that she couldn’t use a rideshare app, assuming there were any way out here.
Selena picked up her suitcase and let the dog lead the way.
Behind them, the train let out a long whistle and began to chug away.
The black dog kicked up little puffs of dust as she trotted along, occasionally reaching the end of the leash and pausing for her human to catch up. Selena studied the verge of the road. She had expected deserts to be full of sand, but the earth here looked more like talcum powder mixed with rocks. The shrubs along the road had gray bark and grew sideways, split, grew sideways again.
There was so much sky that it was hard to think. In the city, there were walls you could put your back against, doors to shut, places to hide. To hide out here, you’d have to crouch down and worm your way under one of the scrubby little bushes, and you’d probably get a faceful of spines for your trouble. Even the shadow of the Scottsdale arcology had faded away into the endless blue.
Selena wiped her forehead, where beads of sweat were already beginning to form. She was very tired. Unlike Copper, she hadn’t slept well on the train. Dragging her suitcase wasn’t helping. The wheels on the bottom were made for flat surfaces, not dusty roads with washboardruts. The rattling went all the way up her arm and into her skull, setting her back teeth clattering against each other.
I shall invent an all-terrain suitcase and make a fortune. With giant wheels, and a handle that doesn’t try to twist out of your hand when you hit a rock.
She had dragged the suitcase perhaps a quarter of a mile when the battered pickup from the station rumbled up alongside them. It stopped by the side of the road.
“Need a ride in?” asked the driver. He was an older Latino man with a lean, angular face covered in narrow wrinkles. “It’s a short drive but a long walk.”
Selena’s first instinct was to refuse. You didn’t take rides from strange men—that was asking for Bad Things to happen. They could kidnap you and dump your body somewhere in the desert where you’d never be found.
Then she had to laugh at herself. There were no other people around and nowhere to hide. If they were planning on kidnapping her, it didn’t matter whether she climbed into the truck or not.
Besides, if I have to walk the whole way, my body may end up somewhere in the desert anyway.
