Swarm by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti

his shoulder, “local constabulary.”
    â€œDon’t sweat it. I got this.” Ethan inclined his head toward Sonia. “Get her in a cab and pay. Okay?”
    â€œLeave it with the Craig.”
    As he went toward the police car, Sonia tried to follow, but the Craig stood in her way. Ethan didn’t bother looking to see who won that contest.
    Two officers were getting out of the police car, adjusting their duty belts and looking over the crowd.
    Come on, voice. Whatever it takes to get rid of these guys!
    One of the officers swept his flashlight across the departing Dish patrons, who looked dazed and terrified, like their whole world had come undone. Exactly the kind of expression cops loved to take an interest in.
    Ethan moved in, thinking about how much he wanted them to go away.
    â€œOfficers.” The voice sounded so casual, like all three of them were drinking buddies.
    The first cop looked Ethan up and down. He was tall, with forearms like hams. “You know anything about this club, kid?”
    â€œClub? It’s more like a private party.” Ethan recognized Nate’s line from before. Nice of the voice to keep it consistent.
    The other cop sidled up to join his partner. He looked mean and tired. “Either way, seems kind of like a disturbance of the peace. Underage drinking, from the looks of it. And some bad trips?”
    To Ethan’s surprise, the voice took a simple route. “Officers, what’s it gonna take to make this go away?”
    â€œGetting straight to business, huh?” the short one said.
    Ethan shrugged. The voice always knew what it was doing.
    â€œHow about one gee for the inconvenience?” it said.
    Shit, that was a lot of cash. Also, Nate was going to be pissed about bribery. And if Ethan’s mom ever found out . . .
    The tall cop turned to his partner. “He serious?”
    â€œHow about two grand right now?” the other one said.“Cheaper than taking the rap for causing grievous bodily harm, say.”
    The voice didn’t even try to haggle. Which meant there was no point. “Two grand it is. You stay right here, officers. I’ll be back.”
    Ethan gave them a conspiratorial wink and spun on his heel.
    He felt sick. A thousand dollars had seemed impossible, and now it was two ? There was no way the Dish had that kind of money lying around, not this early in the evening. Nate could get it, but not out of his pocket.
    But the smaller cop was right—it was cheaper than lawyers and bail. And there was no telling what these guys were capable of if they didn’t get their money. Ethan had to get rid of them before they changed their minds.
    Inside, the crowd had thinned out. Ethan elbowed through the stragglers toward Flicker at the bar.
    â€œEthan. Have you seen . . .” Her voice trailed off.
    It took him a second. “Teebo? Nope. But, long story, I need money to bribe some cops. Like, two gees?”
    Flicker straightened slowly. “Um, did you talk to Nate about bribing cops ?”
    â€œNope. But it’s kind of too late for Glorious Leader to weigh in. They’re already waiting.”
    â€œShit.” Flicker sighed. “Normally, you’d be screwed. But some guy bought for the whole bar.”
    â€œSweet,” Ethan breathed. At last something was going well tonight.
    â€œMore like weird. Felt like he did it to be mean.” Flicker shook her head. “It didn’t make sense.”
    Ethan didn’t want to know. “So give us two gees of it?”
    He lent her his eyes, dutifully watching as she scraped the cash drawer into a paper sack.
    â€œNo idea how much is in there,” she said. “Think it’s enough?”
    He let the voice answer, pleading with it for the simple truth. “It’ll make them go away.”
    Hmm, that wasn’t completely reassuring. But at least it meant the cops would be okay with the money for