Page 26 of The Fall

Knowing she wouldn’t win, Sparx gave up and left to get her survival tent. “You’re too much like your mother,” she muttered.

Haphazard chain link surrounded a dimly lit row of flat-top offices, their neon signs flickering occasionally. Whatever remaining power source they were using had been tapped into by more than one group of addicts. The boarded-up windows and lack of footprints indicated that the location was seldom used, somehow even more run-down than the rest of Tyton.

Lusa scanned for electronics before pulling open the door. She waited a moment before going in, hearing the static fuzz of the doorstopper that would have no effect on her.

Mannequins, some in lingerie, lay strewn about the floor, along with disconcertingly realistic dildoes. This shop had probably gone out of business long ago. With DocPods making gender transition or mixing and matching parts cheap and easy, the market for adult toys had diminished considerably.

“About time.” Chalice’s voice came from the back room.

As she suspected, the promise of sex had lured Pinga into a trap. Lusa straightened her spine. Her monocle showed only three heat signatures – not enough to identify anyone like a biosig, but she knew who two of them were and she could guess the third.

Yanking Pinga from someone’s bedroom, dragging her back to the transport and letting her moms deal with her would have been too easy. At least she wouldn’t have to catch Pinga in fragrante delicto.

She scanned a second time for signs of an ambush. They were alone – the one saving grace in this mess.

With years of experience keeping up her mask, Lusa walked calmly to the storeroom at the back. Pinga’s eyes lit up with relief, but Lusa didn’t waver. Dangling uselessly, Pinga’s right arm had been disabled with an EMP cuff, while her remaining limbs hung on ropes to the bars of a go-go cage. Kerr, whose small mouth had invaded her mind just last night, pursed her lips in determination, holding a very large pistol to her head. Too large for her hands.

Between them and her, sat Chalice, dirty combat boots resting on an old table.

“You have my sister in a sex-dungeon?” Lusa moved to circle the table. “She’s probably into that, you know?”

Chalice stuck out her leg to stop her. “It’s not a sex-dungeon. It’s a holding cell.”

Lusa raised her chin. “She’s wearing a ball-gag.”

“Because she wouldn’t shut the fu… You know what? Fine. It’s a sex-dungeon. Happy?” Chalice threw her hands up. Whatever Pinga had said had been annoying enough to earn her a gag and keep Chalice in a mood.

“You know mom’s going to kill you right?” Lusa looked her idiot sister in the eye. “After she kills these fools. And their gang. Hope the fuck was worth it.”

Attempting to say something, Pinga quickly dropped her head in resignation with the gag in the way.

“You’re not taking her anywhere.” Chalice projected bravado, but Lusa caught Kerr’s grip on her pistol faltering a bit. These two were amateurs.

Lusa shrugged. “I’ll take her wherever I want, after I kill you.”

Kerr pressed the barrel of her pistol against Pinga’s temple. “You’re not that quick, yeah?”

Chalice placed a heavy looking ceramic cylinder on the table. “You’re going to take this to Model 2.”

“Why can’t you do it?”

Chalice ignored the question. “Under the floor of the Ruskov chamber is the core. Get it to expose the core and then download it to this.”

“Again, why do you need me to do this?” Lusa pulled her coat tighter.

“Your biosig suppressing tech.” Chalice exhaled like she was exhausted from having to explain herself. “Siku refused. You refused. We had to do it the hard way.”

“Ah, right.” Lusa ran her tongue across her teeth. “Let’s say I do this and get you what you want. They’ll still hunt you down. I don’t think you understand who you kidnapped.” Sesi killing that trader in front of her like it was nothing had left a lasting impression. These two would be lucky if they died that quick.

“That’s not your problem.” Chalice’s voice wavered, her own mask starting to slip, but she refastened it quickly. She pushed the cylinder across the table. “Kerr will go with you and fill you in on the details.”

Kerr looked surprised. This was obviously new information to her.

“Return here with the core and we’ll walk away,” Chalice said.

“You know there won’t be any coming back from this, right?” Lusa picked up the cylinder and tucked it under her arm. “There won’t be a third chance. If you survive.”

Chalice stood, the chair grating noisily against the concrete. “We won’t need one after this. We won’t need anyone.”