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Sebastian paused to look him up and down, and then nodded decisively. He could speak again and didn’t look injured, so he was the best Sebastian could do at the moment. Sebastian pulled off the glove of his right hand and cupped the back of the man’s neck, his skin still freezing cold to the touch.
“You’ll find out in a moment.” Sebastian smiled grimly, and the man blinked up at him. “Your day’s about to get a lot worse, I’m afraid.”
Chapter Three
Sebastian unhooked his barbs from his body’s brain stem and raced down his arm toward the freezing cold beacon against his palm. He burst out of the wrist and tore through the man’s thin skin on the back of his neck. Just as the man started to generate a scream of pain and surprise, Sebastian hooked into his brain and shut the cry down, fighting the instinct that wanted him to crush the man’s center of consciousness and take this body all for himself.
Sebastian wriggled into place, tightened his grip, then opened his eyes.
It was really, fucking cold.
Really fucking cold, and his chest was still heaving from shock and the lack of oxygen outside, and the ground looked very close, and his arms were too thin. Sebastian rolled his shoulders and then wriggled his fingers and toes. But at least it all worked.
“What did you do?” The little ball of fear in the back of his mind shivered as hard as the man had when he was in control of his body.
“I think you know,” Sebastian replied silently as he turned to his old body lying on the floor. He pulled out the data strip from his old body’s front pocket and then patted around on his new body for a new pocket. The only option was a front pants pocket. One had a hole, but the other was still structurally sound, so Sebastian tucked the little strip into it. There was nowhere to hide his knife, so Sebastian reluctantly left it on his old body.
Then he heaved himself up, immediately went dizzy, and braced himself against the wall.
“That’s what happens when your brain never got all the proper nutrients growing up.” The man seemed to have reconciled with his predicament remarkably quickly. Perhaps that was another thing that happened when you eked out an existence under the thumb of others without a day of hope.
Once the world stopped spinning and the blood finished rushing to and from Sebastian’s head, he grabbed hold of his old body and dragged him toward the door.
He was weak as all hell, too, though he should have seen that one coming.
“Yeah, that too.”
“Well, this sucks.”
The man didn’t add any more commentary while Sebastian threw open the door to the cold—so, so much colder without protection—dragged his old body into the dim, icy wasteland, and left him in front of the door because it was too damn cold to drag him all the way around behind it, but Sebastian sensed his unease.
“Don’t worry.” Sebastian let himself sigh and slouch for a few moments against the door once he’d finally closed it on the horrible outside. “He’s been dead a long time. And he was a bastard when he was alive.”
“You gonna do that to me when you’re done with me?”
The frank question surprised Sebastian. Most people couldn’t bring themselves to mention the horrible. “Not if you’re helpful.”
“And what do you need help with?” There was no trust in that trapped consciousness, but Sebastian wouldn’t expect there to be any, so he didn’t take it personally.
“I need to get into the factory.” Sebastian glanced left and right and found neither side to look any different from the other. “We’ll start with, which way do I go?”
“Are you going to destroy it?”
Sebastian scowled. “I asked which way do I go?”
Hesitation and obstinance leaked out from the trapped consciousness, and Sebastian forced himself to release his mounting tension. He was in. He could breathe. He could take a moment to be kind to another person struggling against the all-powerful species states and their allies.
“Look, hard as it is to believe while I’m wearing you like a meat suit, I’m not here to hurt you.”
“But you wouldn’t care if you did either.” The man was stubborn, and did Sebastian detect a hint of nobility as well? “Me or anyone else.” Ah yes, he did. “You know, no matter how hard it is for you to believe, we working men are actually capable of caring about other people, and we don’t just sell them out for ourselves.”
“People like the owners of this factory?”
“No, fuck them.” Sebastian felt the sudden urge to spit on the ground, as must have been the man’s custom whenever the factory owners were mentioned. “I mean the people that work at the factory. That need this job.”
“I hear you.” Sebastian nodded. “I—”
A pair of guards appeared around the corner to Sebastian’s left, and he turned quickly to start walking to his right, that decision made.
