Elite (Citizen Saga, Book 1) by Nicola Claire Page A

special.
    Officially, it was still linked to Selena Carstairs. Unofficially, it was now cut-off and quite safe from Overseer interference.
    It represented my freedom. A freedom that looked very much in jeopardy all of a sudden.
    Cool quiet met my ears and for a moment I just stood there and took it all in. White, black and sleek metal made up my home. Open spaces unadorned with artwork, shelves bare of mementoes and knick-knacks. It was a soulless home, because it wasn't where my soul lived.
    A soft sob escaped as I collapsed onto the plush sofa. My home in Wáikěiton , my real home , was possibly gone. It shouldn't have mattered. Not when the Yehs had just lost their lives. But it was my haven. My heart resided there. This shell was just a front.
    My hand slipped down the back of the couch cushions and found the small anomaly in the stitching, with careful fingers I pried the slot open and reached inside to withdraw my PDA. Sometimes, if your luck holds, our technologically dependent sPol drones overlooked old school techniques. Like hiding something under a mattress or inside a sofa.
    I powered it up and stared at the LCD screen. Pixelated greyscale lettering appeared before my eyes. There was nothing to identify me on its hard-drive, just a perfect backup of various systems found online in the Wánměi Net. One of which was a telephone directory.
    I typed in the phone number Harjeet had given me on the tiny keypad and waited for the unit to process my command. It took so long, I lifted my sore foot up and rested it on a pillow, laying down on the couch to get comfortable while I waited. I should have grabbed an icepack from the freezer, but exhaustion had well and truly taken hold. I considered reapplying the bandage Tan had wrapped around my injury, but even that would have required too much effort right then.
    The PDA screen flickered and an address came up for the number I'd just checked. Hillsborough . As far from central Wánměi as you could get. Out in a Citizen zone, on the edge of our great city. I stared at it. Trying to decipher more information from a simple line of words. There was nothing to tell me who this person was. If they could be trusted. How they had come to Harjeet's attention. Simply an innocuous address in a residential area of Wánměi, nothing more.
    I rested the PDA screen down on my stomach and stared at the ceiling trying to decide what to do next. I could pretend Lena Carr didn't exist. I could cut my losses now and be the Elite I was meant to be. I could forget everything I had learned in the past twenty-four hours and become a model Citizen.
    My fingers traced the outline of the flash-drive inside my bra. Just what the hell had Arthur Chen put in here? And why had it suddenly turned my life upside down? I'd chosen it because it was mentioned in passing by my godfather to his son when I'd been attending his birthday celebration. A simple statement. Nothing that would have stood out if I hadn't have been looking for a challenge.
    "Chen has completed the codes on Sat-Loc. Everything is exactly as it should be."
    I'm not sure why those words rankled. Maybe because nothing had been exactly as it should be for me since my father had been killed.
    And I realised now, I was not alone in that category.
    But for whatever reason I decided my next challenge would be stealing Arthur Chen's Sat-Loc codes. My father had always said I'd been impulsive, reckless. I thought maybe he was right, and I might have bitten off more than I could chew with this latest heist.
    My eyelids became heavier as I futilely tried to decide my next move. Before I knew it I'd fallen asleep, because I woke to darkness and a crook in my neck where I'd slept with my head angled sharply on the couch armrest.
    The air-con unit hummed quietly, the fridge in the kitchen off to the side whirred accompaniment, and the distant sounds of the city as it bed down for the night seeped through the double glazing to reach my ears.
    "Time," I