Tempered

by Britt Ringel

  Tabitha attempted to nod. She shivered violently on the table and wept.

  Teki watched the spectacle with doleful eyes. Finally, she said, “Bowen is going to climb out of that wreckage soon.”

  Kat snatched Tabitha’s handheld off the table and put it in her pocket. “Will he go right back to looking for us? Will he come here?”

  Teki’s mouth parted as her tongue ran against her teeth. She shook her head slowly. “I think he’ll report in. He’s lost three disposal teams and at least two operatives.” She folded her arms across her chest. “He might even think you died in the collapse.”

  “Won’t he wonder where you are? Won’t he be suspicious that you didn’t shield him?”

  The woman sighed. “Damn. You’re probably right about that although that’ll make him even more anxious to report back.” She lifted her eyes off Tabitha and locked on to Kat. “I mean, one, maybe two of the five psi-positives they sent to Waytown were defectors. He has to get word of that to our keepers.” She shifted her weight to lean a hip against the table. “Plus, the odds have changed. I’m not sure even Bowen would want to fight the two of us alone. He has to be exhausted after the gunfight and then the collapse. What he does takes a lot of energy.”

  “How about you?” Kat asked.

  “I’m drained too. That punch against the aircar and then keeping the building off of us took everything I had.”

  “I don’t have much left either.”

  Teki snorted. “I can’t believe you were able to apportate that aircar and then take the support column. Tears swore that you’d exhausted yourself escaping the tenement.”

  The rumble of an aircar sounded overhead. Teki jumped away from the table and peeked through a bullet hole in the service window. She angled up to look skyward. “It’s okay. It’s an ambulance, not one of ours.”

  Moments later, a pair of medics rushed into the clinic with a hover stretcher in tow. Reynolds conveyed her triage to the responders as they injected Tabitha with various drugs. They removed the leaking towel and liberally sprayed a coagulant on both sides of her body. Reynolds trailed them outside, still barking information and orders.

  Inside the clinic, Kat stared at the crimson table. It wasn’t the first time she had watched a pool of red drip from its edges. The stained table had drunk more than its share of Shantytown blood, a veritable lake’s worth in the brutal land that was The Blight.

  “It’s not over, Kat. Bowen might be content to call today a draw but he’ll come back,” Teki promised. “With help. At the very least, he’ll send the agents left in Waytown to this market to search for us tonight.”

  Kat shook free from the table’s bloody trance. She pushed away from the gore. “We’re not going to be here when they return.”

  “Where can we go? Your safe house?”

  Kat rolled her eyes. “Why would both you and Tess think I’ve got some secret safe house?”

  “Because you’re Pre-Cat.” Teki winced when she used the name. “I mean Kat.”

  Reynolds pushed open the side door and the rumble of the departing air-evac filtered in with her. She brought a hand up to smooth her grey hair. “Well, she’s off to the hospital.”

  “Will she make it?” Teki asked.

  “I think so,” Reynolds answered, nodding once. “They’re pushing fluids in to stabilize her and Waytown can handle the gunshot wound. It won’t be overnight but she should make a full recovery.” She stared at the grisly scene on her examination table and sighed. “Kat, Tabitha asked me to tell you that she’ll keep quiet. She said she was sorry about what she said in her apartment and that she wouldn’t rat you out.” She moved to the bookshelf used to store tattered linens and picked up a large cloth. “I better get this cleaned up,” she mumbled to herself.

  Kat grabbed a second towel to help. “Teki and I have to go and you should probably find another place to spend the night. Can you stay with a friend somewhere else in the market?” She began to wipe the bloody tabletop.

  “I figured as much. I know a few people who will offer me a floor. Where will you go?”

  Kat tossed her towel into a bucket. It was the same bucket that she used to clean dirty bandages her first day in the clinic. “I think we can stay at—”

  “It’s better not to tell her, Kat,” Teki interjected. “Em is in Waytown and while she can’t read thoughts like Lolz could, if she finds your friend she’d be able to tell if the doctor lied for you.”

  Kat shrugged helplessly. “I guess that’s that then.” She stepped to Reynolds and wrapped her arms around her.

  “Be safe, Kat, and remember you always have a friend here.”

  “Thanks for everything, Maggie.” She squeezed harder and enjoyed the feeling of security for a moment longer. Finally, she took a regretful step back and looked to Teki. “Let’s get moving.”

  Chapter 25

  Dark clouds spat on Kat and Teki as they trudged through muddy streets. The worst of the storm had passed east toward the mountains and all that remained was a lingering drizzle that kept them wet and cold. In the waning light, the pair left the Beggar’s Market through the security gate without trouble. The sparse traffic at the checkpoint flowed only out with the gun battle chasing away any remaining customers hardy enough to have braved the afternoon thunderstorms. The guards monitoring the exit barely noticed the outflow as they kept their eyes glued skyward, more concerned about sudden attacks from the air than potential market thieves.

  When Kat stepped onto the Strip, she looked down the thoroughfare. With the inclement weather’s grip broken, Shantytown’s natives were coming out in force. After a moment’s indecision, she turned toward Eastpoint.

  “Where are we going?” Teki chased after her while scanning nervously for the Society’s remaining agents. “What’s the plan?” She hopped over the larger mud puddles even as Kat strode through them.

  “It’s essentially the same plan as Bowen’s. We need to regroup, gather resources and find somewhere we can dry off and regain our strength.”

  “Okay, that makes sense but where exactly is that?” Teki stuttered to a stop. “I don’t care how tough you are, you can’t go back to your tenement. I guarantee that they’ll have it under surveillance. I’m not dying for you.”

  “Relax, we’ll detour around it on our way to the gate. I have a friend from the mine named Reneta. I’m hoping she’ll let us stay at her place.” Kat maintained her unflagging pace, splitting a couple walking in the opposite direction.

  Teki ducked around the man and woman to catch up. “I wasn’t briefed on that name. I don’t think the Society knows about a Reneta.” She shrugged her shoulders while struggling to match Kat’s bullish pace. “We actually weren’t given much at all. They just deployed us here the instant they fixed your location.” Her mind jumped tracks. “But we can’t stray too far from the market. We can’t let the Society dig Tess out.”

  Kat growled before grabbing Teki by the sleeve of her muddy blue shirt and yanked her several steps into an alley. “What’s on her FLAT, Teki?”

  Teki balked at the question. She struggled for an answer before finally intoning, “Something important.”

  Kat snarled, “Be specific.” She shoved Teki against the alley wall.

  Teki’s expression turned savage. “Are you going to kill me, Pre-Cat?” she asked loudly while glaring directly into Kat’s eyes. “Then just do it already!” she screamed.

  “This ain’t your alley!” called an angry voice from deeper within the backstreet.

  “We’ll only be here a minute!” Kat fired back with equal heat.

  “It’s my alley!”

  Kat cursed and let go of Teki before twisting to face the darkened alleyway. “Then come and claim it!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. She coiled back to Teki. “How many psi-positives are in Waytown? How many agents are here?”

  “They sent Lolz and Peecho first,” Teki answered quickly, taking a step away from the wall. “Initially, the Society spread us o
ut to the places they thought you’d run. They didn’t even say you were running. They said you were ‘missing’ and our orders were to locate you but not make contact.” She wiped grime off the back of her neck and tried to clean her hand on her filthy shirt. “When Lolz and Peecho failed to report, they sent Tess here with her own D-team. The Society discovered your alias not long after that. That’s when Bowen, Tears, Em and myself got recalled from The Shores and deployed to Waytown. Each of us had our own disposal team. There are more support agents and staff at the TriLink Conference Auditorium now. We’re using it as our command center.”

  “Who is Em?”

  Teki tilted her head to one side and narrowed her eyes. “Kat, if you scorched yourself, how can you still have your abilities?”

  Kat gritted her teeth.

  “Trust runs both ways,” Teki added after seeing the set of Kat’s jaw. “I let Tess die for you.”

  “The scorch didn’t work. It didn’t take my powers but it did wipe most of my memories. Who is Em?”

  “Em. E, M, P, H dash three,” Teki recited the woman’s subdermal wafer. “Empathic. She can take an accurate reading of your emotional state and make deductions from that. She has limited empathic projection as well, meaning she can push certain states on you, make you mad, sad, frustrated and so forth.”

  “That’s not so scary.”

  Teki’s hand tapped her chest. “She’s not like me. I’m an operative, Em just works in Analysis.” She paused before adding, “That’s a fancy way of saying she sat in on interrogations.”

  “Like Lolz.”

  “Yes, but Lolz started in the field like we did. You worked with her more than anyone else. You really can’t remember? She got reassigned to Analysis only after the Society began to question her sanity.”

  “So if you were an operative, what was I?” Kat asked.

  Teki’s mouth twisted into a wry smile. “You were…” She struggled for the right words. “You were a super-operative. Tears, Phok, Mic, myself…, we carry the water for the Pelletier’s Society. But people like you, Bowen and Sam… you move oceans.” She raised a hand and flicked an index finger up near Kat’s face. “I worked with you only one time in my life and you threatened to kill me if I screwed up.” She glanced away to the main street. “None of us got a chance to know you. Growing up, they kept you separate from us. You were the girl who could see the future, for Christ’s sake. Later, they slotted you into the toughest assignments and you always came back, even when your support didn’t. By the time you toppled Lucentia’s RAIFIS squad, we were all petrified of you. Nobody left knows what to think now that you’ve defected.”

  The answers Teki supplied only led Kat to more questions but the woman beat her to the punch.

  “Why did you join us? Why are you fighting them? You’re the poster woman for the Society.”

  Kat felt heat rise to her cheeks as the reality set in. I’m not sure I actually did join you, she thought to herself. I fled the Society because they were going to kill me. Would it shatter this woman’s budding faith in me if I told her the truth? “We’re getting off track. Take out your handheld.”

  Teki scrambled to retrieve the small device. “Why?”

  “You’re going to call Em. She can’t use her abilities over a comm call, can she?”

  “No, but they’ll track the signal right to us.”

  Kat looked down the alley again. Its owner wisely remained hidden. “We aren’t staying here anyway. Plus, she may not know you’re a traitor yet. They won’t know until Bowen can report in.”

  Teki looked at her dubiously. Her unsteady hands began to tap commands on her screen. “What do you want me to say?”

  “Debrief her. Tell her that you think the house collapse killed everyone but you. Find out how many agents are left in Waytown and if the Society is sending reinforcements. See what they know about Sadler’s arrest. That’s the man who dashed out after Tabitha during the firefight.” Kat pulled Teki back onto the Strip. “Come on, we’ve got to get to the gate before Bowen breaks free.”

  The pair stepped into the flow of the street. Behind them, the alley’s owner rallied. “That’s right, you better run!”

  Kat towed Teki down a side street before resuming their way toward Eastpoint. Altering course around the tenement was a necessary use of time she wasn’t sure they had. As they marched again toward Waytown proper, Kat listened to Teki smoothly lie over her FLAT. The young woman was unsurprisingly adept at deception. After reporting a modified version of the gun battle ending with the house collapse, Teki pumped Em for information. Kat caught only pieces of the exchange, keeping her focus on the street. By the time Teki finished, Eastpoint loomed ahead like a barbican to a castle. Kat steered her to a line for an exchange shop.

  Teki disconnected and looked between the sign over the shop’s window and the line for the gate. “We aren’t going into Waytown?”

  “There’s no reason right now. We need to rest,” Kat answered. “You’re going to make a withdrawal from your expense account before they cut off your access.”

  The line moved quickly, most patrons converting Shantytown silver into credits before seeking entry into the desert town. The pair stepped up and Teki docked her handheld into the alloy counter. The screen flashed and she pressed her thumb over it while reciting “Jahnke-Eleven-Nineteen.” The authorization synced with her fingerprint and an accounting screen for a company named Florsorent appeared. “How much?” she asked.

  Kat noticed Teki already had two thousand credits stacked into her handheld. She looked at the teller on the other side of the transaction window. “Six credit sticks, please.” After the teller slid them under the screen, Kat plugged them into ports next to the docking station and turned back to Teki. “As much as you can withdraw without being flagged. Divide the sum among four of these sticks. Split the two thousand in your FLAT onto the last two sticks.”

  Teki inhaled deeply, weighing how much she could plunder from her own operative account. “I’ll try for twelve thousand. It’s pushing the limit but I once withdrew ten during a job.”

  After several tense moments, the credits flowed to the tiny, black sticks. Kat snatched them from their ports and pocketed two while handing the rest to Teki. “Let’s go… and shut down your handheld.”

  “I could just ditch it,” Teki suggested as they walked back to the Strip.

  “No, never burn a resource until you have to. It might be useful later.” Kat cast a sideways glance as she led her away from the gate. “What did you find out from Em?”

  Teki smirked. “She was very relieved to hear that you’re dead. The agents cheered behind her when I reported that. Em asked if I could send her visual confirmation but I said you’re currently under several tons of rubble. She wanted to send an aircar to extract me but I told her I’d go to your tenement to make sure you didn’t leave a dead man’s switch, something that would expose the Society’s secrets even after your death.”

  “Clever,” Kat complimented. “That’s a good lie.”

  Teki’s blonde eyebrow arched upward. “You mean you really don’t have one there? Kat, killing you is only part of the assignment. The other part is containing what you’re presumed to have done, erasing information you’ve leaked and any traps you, Pre-Cat, would’ve left behind. Management is anticipating a few more agent deaths during the cleanup phase.”

  “So they’re sending more agents.” Kat squinted ahead. A group of Trodden waited suspiciously at the next corner. Shadows now filled every alley and gloom covered the Strip but for the islands of light around the lampposts.

  “Yeah, but no current plans for more operatives.” Teki chuckled mirthlessly. “That’ll change as soon as they talk to Bowen.”

  Kat steered Teki across the waterlogged street to avoid the gathering at the corner. As they continued east, the group of men she’d avoided continued their untroubled banter. Kat’s eyes immediately searched for the next potential threat. “And Sadler?”

  �
��That was Sadler Wess, wasn’t it? I didn’t recognize the name at first but Em did immediately. You wrote his name as a recommendation on your job application for Porter Mining. She also said you designated a Maggie Reynolds to receive your death benefits. She’s an ex-citizen who was expatriated for misappropriation of resources. That’s the doctor, isn’t it?”

  Kat cursed softly. The Society was nothing if not brutal and thorough. The two qualities weren’t usually exclusive to each other. “What did Em say?”

  “They have Reynolds’ past but her electronic trail ended with her citizenship and they don’t know about her clinic. Mr. Wess, however, remains in corp-sec custody. We have access to everything they have. They charged him with obstruction, creating a disturbance and resisting arrest. He’s currently in the downtown jail but Em is having Support draw up formwork to transfer him to us. She’ll use a larger security corporation and fabricate a heavier charge against him. They’re going to pick him up in the morning and interrogate him at the convention center.”

  Kat scowled. “And after Em’s finished with him?” She already knew the answer.

  “He’ll disappear.”

  Kat glanced at her wristwatch. It was half past seven. The drizzle had finally stopped and she knew the dropping temperature would make for a dangerously wet and cold evening. She’d spent more than one night shivering in Rat’s alley. Goosebumps were already breaking out on her arms.

  “We’re going to Reneta’s now?”

  Kat nodded. In the distance, a single shot from a corp-sec aircar broke the calm. It was easily half a dozen blocks away but the crowd around Kat seemed skittish. “Yeah. She lives near the outskirts of Shantytown.” A second shot echoed over the brick buildings, followed by a third. Corp-sec was clearly irritable tonight. After the market disaster, she wasn’t surprised.