Ill Met By Moonlight
Sparx lowered the transport outside of the city tower radius. “Don’t get too comfy. Geosats can see us.”
“Who has access to the system anymore?” Sesi fiddled with her earpiece before checking on the twins. They were both a mixture of nerves and excitement, but so different in the way they showed it. Pinga wore a cocky smirk, while Lusa remained stoic and stone-faced.
Sparx shrugged. “Anyone who used to work the comms array. I don’t know who would want to pay for those encryption keys though. They’re only useful for monitoring weather systems and routine status updates from mineral towns further south.”
“What about hacking?”
“Might as well be air gapped. The large models controlled the security on those.” Sparx shook his head. “Model 2 locked down its Ruskov chamber after we powered down 21. The stories about people who try to break in are urban legends now.”
“Not positive ones, I’m guessing?” Sesi asked.
Sparx gave a look that indicated he didn’t want to discuss what he’d heard in front of the girls. Lusa hated not being in the know, but being here at all was a privilege she wasn’t about to jeopardise.
Nodding curtly, Sesi leaned back to hand Lusa the gift the Chargers had made for her. “Talia added an audio channel to it last night.”
“Why does she get that?” Pinga looked offended.
“Because I hung around and you faffed off,” Lusa stated flatly. “Also, I’m more responsible.” She fitted the device to her left eye.
“That looks stupid. Like a monocle.” Pinga mimicked drinking tea with her little finger raised.
Sparx ignored the girls’ bickering. “She set the frequency to a narrow beam. I’ll have to have a line of sight on you, but it can’t be intercepted.”
“And if things go pear-shaped, you gather the transport and pick us up at the rendezvous point.” Sesi finished Sparx’s lecture. “No need to scare them.” She pointed a warning finger at Lusa. “Don’t turn that on until we get into the city.”
Lusa moved her finger away from the on switch. “Why?”
“We’re meeting in Newmarket.”
“Sounds fancy,” Pinga said. The look on Sparx’s face told a different story.
“Unfinished part of Rhea district,” Sesi explained. And they didn’t give us a precise location, which means there’s likely another tracker on your monocle.”
Lusa decided she didn’t care about the derisive name for her gift. Her thoughts were interrupted by the jostle of the transport landing.
“Out we go. On foot from here.” Activating his Thermabulle, Sparx threw four sets of snowshoes out the transport. Sesi and the girls raised the hoods on their sealskin coats.
“You look ridiculous, Uncle.” Pinga knocked into Sparx.
Sparx sucked his teeth. “How times have changed.”
Sesi laughed. “Did you know your Uncle thought I was a skrae the first time he saw me?”
“What’s a skrae?” Pinga screwed up her face.
“I don’t fuckin know,” Sesi nearly fell over laughing. “But he was convinced.”
“It’s not my fault!” Sparx whined. “That’s what I was told.”
“Which goes to show that you should never accept what someone tells you without fact-checking yourself.” Sesi wiped away a tear before it froze to her face.
“How was I supposed to check? Scour the entire Arctic?” Sparx whined.
Shaking her head in pity, Sesi trudged on, leaving him behind. “You could have asked me.”
The moment of levity passing, Lusa blew a thin stream of vapour to calm herself.
This wasn’t a trading camp and she wasn’t familiar with the terrain.
Keeping vigilant, she scanned the horizon.
Tyton’s dead corporate towers loomed like cursed monuments.
Cracked and dirty Hexaline, repurposed bricks and corrugated aluminium populated the lower street level.
Her mother and Sparx did not appear to feel the same unease.
Lusa checked on her sister. Pinga stared agape at an ad featuring a woman with a dog face and multiple breasts to match before the screen switched to a bowl of algae ramen with mosquito flakes.
Sesi kept the mood light. “It tastes better than you’d think.”
“Noodle shops were never able to afford ad space before.” Sparx added. “Now I’m hungry.”
Sesi shrugged. We can pick some up on the way home. Just don’t tell Callie.
“Can we have some?” Pinga asked.
Lusa curled her lip. “Leave me out of this.” She may have longed to disappear into the crowd of people. To become anonymous, seen and forgotten like a million other faces that passed by that day. Free to reinvent herself. But she doubted she could handle the food.
“Rhea certainly has gone downhill.”
Lusa assumed her mother was talking about the market, a path carved through piles of rubbish, lined with stalls made of rubbish selling slightly fancier rubbish. Instead, she pointed to an old Adlets tag painted over. Lusa spotted a bare-breasted woman with an equally bare skull.
“Styx,” Sparx whispered to the girls. She swivelled her head and then added, “Looks like your mom was right.”
“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show.” Pinga spun around at the strange voice.
Sesi only gave him the satisfaction of a backwards glance. “I knew you had a tracker in that gift, Cinder.”
Cinder pretended to look ashamed. “You found the phantom power source.”
“Did you think we wouldn’t?” Sesi crossed her arms. Hidden by her coat, Lusa knew they were larger than Cinder’s.
She had also been warned about judging based on appearances here.
His strength amplifier patch was visible, the latest gen on the market before BioNTech shut down along with the other implant manufacturers.
“You should know we’re also in contact with the Styx.” Cinder tilted his head toward the graffiti. “If you can’t make a deal, we’ll be going to them.”
“Hmm.” Sesi flexed her shoulders. Even if Cinder was stronger, she still looked impressive. “You know what my mother told me?” She pitched forward slightly. “Don’t chase men.”
Lusa knew that Sesi’s mother had said no such thing. She disappeared when Sesi was six. But she doubted Cinder knew that.
Only hesitating a moment, Cinder conceded. “Fine.” He walked away. “Come with me.”
Sesi and the girls followed. “I’ve got eyes on you. All clear so far.” Sparx’s voice sounded underwater through the bone conducting mechanism in her monocle.
“You’re aware of the limitations of your DocPods, even with the override chips, right?” Sesi said. “You won’t be able to give yourself green eyes and fangs.”
Lusa watched attentively. She loved seeing which mask Sesi would wear for different traders. Polite. Haughty. Ingenue. Finding just the right buttons to press. Cinder’s shoulders bristled, but he didn’t respond. Subtle actions became a lot less subtle. Cinder became an open book.
She watched him jerk his head to the left, making eye contact with a woman on lookout. Tiny. Strawberry blonde hair and completely covered in freckles. She looked barely older than herself. Seventeen, Eighteen, maybe? Lusa had a feeling she’d be seeing that one again.
“We only need limb repair,” he grunted.
Sesi tilted her head this way and that, inspecting his hardware. “For now.”
Cinder cracked his neck. “One negotiation at a time.”
Sesi kicked a tin can in their path, sending it skittering. Cinder flinched, the noise adding to his growing pile of annoyances. Her mother wore an impish smile. “And what are you offering the Styx?”
“Services.” Cinder said with a certain amount of pride. He looked past Sesi, scanning for who might hear him. “They took over EosTech, but without Model 2 and NovAITech’s databases, they don’t know how anything works.”
“And they’re selling access to the remaining Pods.” Sesi concluded. Lusa could practically see the wheels turning. Did she miss the mental exercise? Seeing all of the moving parts and mapping out contingencies?
Cinder nodded. “Only some of them. The latest gen stuff they keep for themselves. They showed up in force and broke all the modded Pods, cornering the market.”
“I heard they took over trafficking from the Harpies.” Sesi casually inspected her fingernails, as if they were only discussing the weather.
Cinder scoffed. “Are you holed up in The Glacier?”
Lusa wondered how much anyone really knew about The Glacier. Or how much they knew about the outside. Part of her was curious to see. Another part of her felt claustrophobic just thinking about it.
“Humour me.” Sesi smiled in a way that said she wouldn’t be answering his question.
“No-one has the scrip to make trafficking profitable and the Natalists disappeared.” Cinder narrowed his eyes. “Around the same time you did, actually. You wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with that, would you?”
Sesi breathed a laugh and kicked the snow off her boots. “Ask Talia. If you see her.”
Cinder held himself together fairly well, but Lusa noticed a little colour drain from his face. No-one in their right mind asked Talia anything. Her reputation preceded her, even after all these years. Lusa couldn’t help but feel a little proud.
Cinder led them to a row of buildings that appeared to have been posh storefronts long ago. Lusa spotted the remains of awnings over spacious, but broken windows. She wished she could have seen it in its prime. To wander through its endless options and revel in the illusion of infinite choice.
Cinder paused before going further and attempted to scan Lusa and Pinga, coming up blank. “Your infamous scan-jamming tech,” his derision caught in his throat. “Who are these two?”
“Looks like your DocPods aren’t the only thing that needs upgrading.” Sesi grinned. Lusa knew full well no upgrade would make his Opti capable of scanning them, but the longer they could keep people from learning the truth, the safer they all were.
“They wait outside.”
“You know that’s not how this works. Piston gets two, I get two.
” Sesi’s chin drifted upwards. It was the same look Lusa remembered dealing with a particularly irksome group of traders.
She hadn’t known how close she’d been to killing them all until she overheard a conversation on the way home.
Sesi held her impulses on a much tighter leash than either her or Talia.
Cinder laughed off the implied threat. “They have to be scanned first. You’re welcome to do the same with Piston’s”
Lusa caught Pinga staring at her nervously. She tried to convey as much calming energy as she could through her eyes. She might be annoying, but Lusa was still her big sister – by size, at least. Pinga was technically a few minutes older.
“And you did. It’s not on me if you can’t do it properly.” Sesi’s chin righted itself. Lusa knew she’d won.
“G’wan then,” he grunted. “I doubt ours will have any trouble handling you and your fancy jackets.”
Sesi made no indication that she’d heard the remark, but Lusa’s spine stiffened. She was more than capable of handling herself in close quarters and Pinga was an excellent shot. Forcing herself to relax, she followed her mother’s lead. Cinder was only trying to get under her skin.
Broken Hexaline bricks hummed, flashing sporadic images of long forgotten corporate logos.
Cinder led them through a short alley, covered in ice and refuse.
Crunching under their boots, refrozen snow alerted everyone to their presence.
It was a far cry from the oppressive silence of the trap lines, where a heavy blanket of white would suck all sound from the air.
First Sesi, then Pinga stepped through the crack in the wall.
Her sister shuddered. A moment later, she understood why.
The low voltage of Hexaline brick wasn’t enough to produce a spark, but the static field made the hair on her arms stand on end.
Lusa took her cues from her mother and suppressed the urge to react.
The gap led into an old high-end fashion shop.
The large windows Lusa had seen from the outside seemed much smaller with sheets of rusted iron and chain link piled in the gap.
Any clothing had long since been looted.
The once-regal front desk had been partially disassembled.
Lusa spied parts of it among the scrap blocking off the windows.
Accumulating in the back corner, next to a steel fire door was yet more rubble.
Sesi’s hand found her shoulder. “Take the gap.”
Lusa nodded and stood just inside the crack in the wall.
Her monocle needed a line of sight to Sparx waiting somewhere hidden outside, but it still felt like a slight.
She would be better at close range if things went tits-up.
As the two of them moved deeper into the room, Pinga looked back at her nervously.
She must be terrified if she was acting like this. It’s okay, she mouthed. The juxtaposition wasn’t lost on her. Normally it was Pinga urging her to do something new and dangerous.
Cinder banged twice on the door and leaned against the wall. “Now we wait.”