Page 50 of The Fall

“Why do you dye your hair? Why not use DocPods.” Lusa noticed Kerr’s strawberry blonde roots starting to show. She thought it might be something rude to say, to keep a wall between them, but it felt like she was trying to keep the conversation going instead.

Kerr looked up, even though it would be impossible to see her roots. “Not many of them left in good repair, remember? The ones we have are base models and we can only modify them so far with override chips.”

“What can they do?” Lusa shouldn’t be feeling this much empathy, but she couldn’t help it.

“Cuts. Fractures, that sort of thing.” Kerr pointed to her good arm. “The modded ones can repair tendons as well. You need a newer model to do limb regeneration. And the Styx control those.”

“Not hair colour?”

Kerr ran a hand through her lotioned hair. “It can, actually. But I’d be taking up space from someone else who needs to use it. The ones we have run constantly.”

Lusa turned away. She needed to focus on something other than Kerr. However selfless Kerr might be, she still had Pinga. And Lusa still had a job to do. “You were about to tell me where Pinga and Chalice were. Before we…” Lusa couldn’t say had the best sex of my life, not only because that would be terribly depressing, but it would tell Kerr that having sex with her was still on her mind. “Got interrupted.”

Kerr swivelled her head, looking for a place to sit. She righted a chair with a broken back next to a pile of small boxes. “This,” she picked up one of the boxes that read Memories of Hawaii Jumbo Coconut Oil Lube. “Is where we are.” Kerr put the box in front of her. “And over here, is the nearest access hatch.” Kerr placed a BYO Pussy kit a metre away.

“So, we have to go there.” Lusa reflexively checked her knife belt.

Kerr shook her head and reached for another object. “There’s a Styx-controlled industrial park they’d have to cross to get there.” She placed a FLAMING DRAGON COCK box where the Styx base would be. “And if it was the Styx that were here looking for them, they wouldn’t go anywhere near there.”

“Then where would they be?” Lusa was getting tired of hearing about where they weren’t.

“Over here.” Kerr picked up another box but pulled it back before she placed it. “Ooh, I have this one. It’s a much newer version though.” She waved the box so Lusa could see.

Lusa knew she shouldn’t look, but Kerr had practically begged her to with that comment. The box read GudVibz XXL Strapless. “Seems a bit big for you.”

“I’ve never had any complaints.” The edge of Kerr’s lip twitched upward.

She should drop it, but she couldn’t let something this ridiculous go. “It’s the size of your forearm.”

Holding out her artificial arm, Kerr twisted it this way and that. “Sure. But I wear the other end.”

Lusa turned so Kerr wouldn’t see her flush. Now she had to think about Kerr wearing a silicone cock and it was her own damn fault because she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. She hadn’t even known she was into that. “What’s over there?”

“ScripDominion’s old vault. There’s no access hatch that connects it, but if they needed to run, there’s no better place to hide.” Kerr did not sound as optimistic as she should.

“There’s a catch, isn’t there?” Lusa skimmed her fingers across the tops of her knives faster.

“We’re near the edge of town, remember?” Kerr shifted her weight like she was apologising. “The old part that wasn’t worth paving over. If they went there, it’s because there was no other way to go. And if they shut the vault, there’s only one way to open it.”

“Which is?” Lusa counted her breaths, keeping herself calm.

“Convince Model 2 to do it. It used to run everything here.”

“And if they didn’t go there, where would they be?” Lusa hoped for the best, despite Pinga’s reputation for making the worst decisions. And given the situation they were in, Chalice’s decision-making capabilities didn’t seem all that great either.

“Back in the tunnels with the other Chargers.” Kerr took a deep breath, “We should head there first.”

“Isn’t the vault closer?” Lusa needed this situation resolved as quickly as possible. She had no desire to head into a nest of Chargers just to come all the way back here if Pinga wasn’t there.

“Yes, but the longer we hang out here, the more likely we are to attract attention from the Styx.”

Lusa had heard stories from her aunt Alana about the inner workings of the Styx, at least back when she had been a member. Arms, drugs, extortion. The trafficking was new. Gangs filled the holes that society left and corporations were only too happy to wash their hands of the unwashed. They could police themselves with whatever baubles they could afford or scrounge together. Lusa doubted they would have any incentive to let her retrieve Pinga and be on her way, regardless of who her parents were.

“Is there any way we can get there undetected? I know the system of access tunnels ends near that hatch.” Lusa pointed to the BYO Pussy box. “But isn’t there a system that runs in this area?”

Kerr wobbled her head. “Not really.”

“What do you mean by not really?” Lusa narrowed her eyes.