Page 98 of The Fall

Makenzie smiled wider. “That’s a no, then?”

“You tried to kill my…” Lusa stopped herself. She wanted to say girlfriend, but Kerr wasn’t. Not really.

Makenzie left the unfinished sentence alone.

Lusa didn’t want to continue hoping. What’s done was done and she needed to distract herself until she could fall apart in private. She pointed to the ridges on her arm. “Why make yourself with those?”

Mackenzie raised her wrist, examining the parallel lines running from her knuckles to her shoulder. “They’re electrocytes. Like you, I don’t have a biosig. Or nanites. I modified my body to function in Tyton without them.”

Lusa nodded like she might have the faintest idea what Makenzie was talking about. “That’s how you killed all of those Styx?”

“It wasn’t mine.” Makenzie flexed her fingers. “It’s enough to transmit commands, code, that sort of thing. Not enough to shock people. I don’t have superpowers.”

“Then how…”

Makenzie cut her off. “I told all of the energy stored in the Hexaline bricks to release at once. I designed them, after all. I also gave myself conscious control over a lot of autonomous functions.” Makenzie grabbed one of Lusa’s knives and stabbed her hand without flinching. “See?”

Lusa grabbed her knife back angrily. “Consent. Remember?”

“Sorry.” Makenzie concentrated, wound on her hand healing over. “We have more rapid discharge canisters of glucose, right?” Her voice wobbled. “It takes a lot to do that.”

Lusa rolled her eyes and grabbed an RDC from the front of the van. “Organic cyberware, then?”

“I guess.” Makenzie took the cylinder and jabbed it into her leg. She shivered for a moment before stabilising. “But I’ve been a computer for the last century or so. Processing that much data at once isn’t something most brains would be able to handle.”

“I’m quite happy with my body, thank you very much.” Lusa retook her position leaning against the wall of the van.

“It’s very nice.” Makenzie’s eyes raked across Lusa.

Lusa glowered.

“Sorry.” Makenzie looked away. “It’s a habit.” She leaned in close, forcing Lusa to meet her eyes. “I promise, I’ll make it up to you.”

Lusa’s forehead wrinkled. “Is this another come-on?”

“No. I have ideas.” Mackenzie ran her fingernails over her teeth. “There are limitations; I can only work with what I’ve got, but I think you’ll be happy. Everyone will be. I just need a test subject.”

Slanders Venomed Spear

Black cloth running across her face jolted Kerr from her stupor, but her head still spun. No data from her Opti either. Kerr blinked and refocussed her eyes. Styx graffiti on bare walls. Some old scaffolding and metal fire doors. Sections of the ceiling glowed dimly – new enough to be made completely of Hexaline instead of concrete. She wasn’t in the old part of Tyton, but the Styx controlled dozens of other vacant warehouses. She could be anywhere.

“EMP field.” Cinder’s voice echoed off the bare walls and a fire door shut behind her. “But I’m sure you figured that out already.”

“Brave of you to think working with the Styx will get you anywhere but scavenged for parts.” Kerr tried to face Cinder, but her arms and legs were tied to the chair.

“I merely stepped up to fill the void.” Cinder’s boots fell heavily on the floor. “Chalice is gone. You disappeared. Abandoned us.”

Her venom caught in her throat. “You’ve been hunting Chalice. I heard everything.”

“You were there when that Adlet girl attacked us?” Rolling up his sleeves, wriggling artificial fingers, Cinder stepped into her field of view. “I wondered who led an outsider to us. Traitor”

“Do the rest of them know you want to traffic teenagers?”

Kerr caught the back of his hand across her face. She spat and grinned. “They don’t, yeah?”

Cinder hummed angrily, but restrained himself from hitting her again. “Seems you know the girl pretty well. Lusa.” He drew out the pronunciation. “She attacked me and killed Piston. Were you trying to sell us to the Adlets all along? After he took you in?”

“She also took my arm” Kerr tried to flex her fingers, but her arm wouldn’t respond in the EMP field.