by Zach Winderl
Hither’s off gun drifted towards the woman.
“No, I don’t think so.” The woman’s mind spun. “I have the child of one of the deadliest guns in the Fingers. There is no way I let this chance slip away. You will give me the child and you will return to your master. Explain the situation to him, his people have accrued a debt that he will need to pay off.
“Yes,” as she spoke something popped in her mind and a grin split her face. “I will hold his daughter as a marker for that debt. Now that I know who she belongs to, I will use that to the han’s advantage.”
“Mistress.” Blatt held up his hands in deference. “I don’t know that continuing to hold the child is in the best interest of any of us. You have seen first-hand the lengths his crew will go to protect what they see as family. How much greater will the father’s wrath be?
“To what lengths will the father lion go to protect his cub?” Blatt dropped to a knee. “I humbly advise against making this mistake.”
A burst of gunfire erupted outside the door.
The woman flinched at the sound so close and unleashed a torrent of vivid green blaster fire across the room.
Sensing, more than seeing, the indiscriminate spray, Hither dove to the side, her guns skittering away as she tried to cushion Margo’s impact. She hugged the floor, seeking what little shelter she could muster from the heavy ash conference table. Keeping her body between the woman and Margo, she tried to scoot on her side towards the smashed courtyard door.
A cry of anguish brought her up short.
“You will pay,” the woman screamed from the desk.
Uncertain as to the meaning of the woman’s words, the courtesan ducked her head to peer between the legs of the tables and chairs.
Sprawled a few yards away, Blatt gasped for air, clutching at a gaping blaster wound in his chest. The guard turned his head to Hither and even as his eyes glassed over he pointed to the open door behind her.
A final breath rattled from his throat and he lay still.
“Blatt?” Margo asked with concern, even as the gunfight continued in the hallway.
“Get up,” the woman cried, panic driving her from the cover of her desk. “Get up before your companions come in here and murder me.”
The woman fired another burst that scorched deep gouges into the wooden tabletop. “Get, up,” she screamed with hysterical urgency. “So help me, I won’t let you be the one to take the message to your captain. I’ll send him your head in a box to let him know not to take me lightly.”
Margo and Hither watched the woman’s feet as she stalked around the table. Hither scrabbled on hands and knees to match the woman’s stride, keeping the table between them.
Just as the woman stopped and ducked to grin at them through the legs of the table, Hither heard a metallic tinkling behind her.
“Help is arriving,” Kozue said in a calm, efficient voice. “Byron has stabilized Daisy. Using his machines, he was able to pull Daisy from the hallway. He has pulled most of his machines back and has hunkered down in a room near the entrance to this building. He has sent four of his mechs to help you.”
“Last chance to back down,” Hither said to the woman.
The woman stared at her, a maniacal grin distorting her features.
Just as she lifted the rifle and aimed at Hither’s face, the far door slipped open and Shi entered with a silent step. In an instant, she assessed the situation and snapped off a shot from the hip.
The bullet caught the woman in the shoulder, spinning her around and knocking the rifle from her hands.
In that same instant, the four metallic centipedes swarmed from beneath the table and slithered up over the woman. In a flurry of spidery limbs, they carved into the screaming woman.
Hither turned her back and climbed to her feet, leaving the woman to her fate. With the table shielding Margo from the carnage, she retrieved and holstered her fallen blasters. Rubbing the sweaty crust of battle from her face, she wandered to the wooden walk outside and sat, waiting for the cold sweat that always followed the adrenaline of a fight.
In the room, the woman fell silent with a final gurgling croak.
“Fancy timing,” Hither cast a weary look to Shi as the gunslinger joined her on the veranda.
“I aim to make an entrance,” Shi growled.
“What’s the rest of the house look like?’
“Quiet. I think I eliminated all the real threats.”
Margo began to squirm, trying to unclip herself from the harness. “Tanny,” she called out, craning her neck to look back into the building.
The women exchanged a questioning look.
“Who’s Tanny?” Hither asked.
“Sister,” Margo stated.
“Wait, she has kin?” Shi stepped back to the door and looked into the study.
“She had two older sisters.” Hither furrowed her brow in thought. “Neither of them was named Tanny and I don’t recall any nicknames of the sort. I only met the family a couple times, Atom tended to keep his private life away from the court as much as possible. It’s like he didn’t want his children to be tainted by what happened there.”
“Well, I reckin if he has kin here, it ain’t no good to leave her behind,” Shi drawled and pulled her pistols as she swept across the study.
Margo managed to unhook one of the clips and found herself sagging at an odd angle.
Hither unfasted the rest of the clips. In one fluid motion, she swung her young charge around and set her on the floor. As her feet hit the ground, Margo flew after Shi.
Hither closed her eyes and sighed. Then she hauled herself up and followed.
“Tanny,” Margo hollered into the silence of the abandoned battlefield. She looked up to Shi, who stood scanning the hallway with guns drawn.
“Careful, Go,” Shi said as Hither joined them. The gunslinger stepped out towards the rear of the house. “These bokes’re dead, but I ain’t speakin’ fer anything beyond this hall. Why don’t you stay back’n tell me which way to be headin’?”
Margo trailed along behind Shi. The gunslinger paused at a branching hallway leading deeper into the rambling mansion.
“Shi,” Hither said in a hushed tone. “I’m going to head back to help with Daisy.”
“Smart. We’re gonna have a hard burn gittin’ outta this town with our heads held tight. As soon as Go finds ‘er sister, we’ll float yer way and burn for the Ticket. Think he’ll be ready to move?”
“I’ll find a way to get him moving.” Hither’s dark chuckle gave Shi pause. “Although, I don’t know that you and I will be able to carry him, at least not far.”
“The man weighs as much as the ship he flies.”
“Well, maybe as much as Lilly’s ship,” Hither’s tone lightened as she turned and trotted back down the hallway.
“Just figure a way, and I’ll be along to help,” Shi called after her.
Shi turned back to the hallway in time to see Margo scamper away. The girl stopped by the first door and slid it open just enough to peek through. Shaking her head, Margo trotted to the next door and inspected the interior in the same manner.
When Margo approached the third door, Shi hissed a warning. Something drew the gunslinger’s attention, sending warning flags. She motioned Margo back from the door. Only when the girl had slipped past the door and crouched down against the wall did Shi move.
Ghosting with silent steps, the gunslinger slid up and leaned her shoulder against the outer edge of the door jamb. She pressed her head against the wood and listened.
Her eyes moved as if tracing a map of the room’s interior.
Margo watched with childish amazement as the gunslinger readied one of her pistols and pressed the barrel against the door. Shi listened and shifted her gun.
Then Shi waved Margo away. The girl looked at Shi, at the door, and then fixed the gaunt merc with an understanding gaze. With exaggerated care she tip-toed away. She made her way to the next room and cracked the door.
; “Tanny,” Margo exclaimed. She looked back to Shi as her face lit up with radiant beauty. “Tanny inside.”
Shi fired. Margo jumped.
Inside Shi’s room a man cried out in pain and began shooting holes in the wooden walls in a haphazard manner that drove Shi back from the door. Cursing, the gunslinger stumbled back down the hall, moving away from Margo with her head tucked low. Shi took cover at the corner and held up a hand, signaling for Margo to stay and crouch low.
The shots continued to rip through the wall.
Down the hall a hand reached out and pulled Margo into the room. Seeing her charge disappear, Shi waited half a breath for the gunman to reload before charging. She kicked the door off its track.
The Markinhan guard froze like a startled deer. The energy pack slipped from his fingers and dinged the wooden floor. Shi waited just long enough for him to register his looming fate before putting him down with three tightly grouped shots.
Before the body had time to hit the floor, she moved on to the next room. Without taking time for caution she slid the door open hard enough to rattle the frame. In the dim interior, a group of servants huddled behind several metal shelves of supplies. As one, the group recoiled from Shi’s violent intrusion.
With pistol raised, the gunslinger entered the darkened room. Her military training drove her motions as she cleared each narrow aisle and pressed into the back of the room, each step closer to the terrified group.
“Margo.” Shi lowered her pistol, but kept it out. “It’s time to git home. Grab yer sister and let’s skiddle.”
“Sister?” asked the girl holding Margo in her lap.
“Tanny.” Margo looked up to the girl as if the subject had already been discussed and concluded. “Tanny sister.”
The girl stared at Margo. Sensing Shi’s brooding power, she glanced up at the gunslinger and shrank back. “Honest, Miss,” she stammered. “We aren’t really sisters. I just said she looked a touch like my little sister back home. I felt bad for the lass and was trying to offer her a touch of comfort when there was none to be had.”
“Go, we need to git,” Shi commanded.
“Tanny, come,” Margo said as she rose, tugging the girl’s hand, willing her to join them.
“So, your name is Margo.” The girl remained seated, but cupped Margo’s hand in both of hers. “It’s a mighty fine name and you do remind me of Micro more than you will ever know.
“But.” She cast a worried glance up to Shi. “I can’t be going with you. I signed on to this job and if I welch, I’m an outlaw with a bounty on my head. Then they’d shift the debt back to my family and they sure can’t handle that.”
“Come on, Go,” Shi appealed to the girl. “We need a trail behind us before han reinforcements arrive. We caught them by surprise the first time, but I doubt we could handle even a small contingent, if they came expecting us.”
Margo looked at Shi, heartbroken. She looked back to Tanny.
The girl smiled and nodded, dropping Margo’s hand and pointing to Shi. “Go with your family. You have them now. Take my advice, don’t let them go, ever.”
Shi rested her hand on Margo’s head.
“Family?” Margo reached up to take Shi’s hand.
“I know we ain’t blood, lil’ miss, but we’re kin. Thank you fer lookin’ out for her, Tanny. What’s yer family name?”
“Hyde, Miss.”
“I’ll pass that along to the captain.” Shi scooped Margo into her arms and settled the girl on her hip. “I’m sure he would be happy to know of your kindness to his daughter.”
Shi nodded once and swept from the room as if the hounds of hell bayed at her heels.
***
The klaxon fell silent as the elevators disgorged them at a lower level.
Atom and Mir made their way towards the main hub of the station. Despite the alarms sounding, nothing appeared to be locked down, which surprised Atom.
“I feel like nothing good ever happens aboard stations,” he said as he covered a corner for Mir to dart for the next cover. “The past couple visits have brought me nothing but trouble. Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I actually set foot aboard a station and someone didn’t die.”
“That’s comforting.” Mir chirped a light laugh that seemed as out of place coming from her mouth as it did echoing down the empty hallway.
“I’m hoping this is just some sort of drill to keep our people on their toes.”
“You can hope, but you know as well as I that there’s not a situation in the book where we run a drill like that in a hostile theater of operation. If I had to toss my dice, I’d say there was some sort of sabotage and they are locking everything down as precaution. The station is a natural choke-point for the ore.”
She trotted ahead of Atom, her gun out and down at her side. She jogged without moving her arms, which seemed unnatural to Atom, but also seemed to conserve movement. “We didn’t see anything down on the surface because it wouldn’t have served any real purpose. Up here, they could hypothetically eliminate the orbital stockpile with a couple well placed explosives.”
“I didn’t feel anything like an explosion,” Atom said in his hushed tone as Mir covered another abandoned crossroad, allowing him to leapfrog her position.
“Hostage situation?” she asked and trailed along, hugging the far wall.
“Seems more likely.” Atom halted as a hatch slid open to reveal the main concourse. “I sure wish our coms worked.”
“You’re right. Seems like they should’ve replaced them when we got up here.”
“I didn’t think to mention it to those two bokes at the desk.” Atom waited for Mir to flank the far side of the hatch and then he poked his head out, darting like a lizard as he quick-scanned for anything out of place. “I mean, they were so busy anyway, I doubt they would have had time to sort that out for us.”
“Above their grade,” Mir said with a smirk. “How we looking?”
“It’s completely empty. No patrols, no people.” Atom searched his gut, trying to isolate anything that stood out in the fleeting glance.
“Just empty?”
Atom pulled his second pistol from the holster at the back of his belt and stepped out into the open area, guns relaxed, aimed out into the nothing. Mir slipped behind, mirroring his movement to the flank.
The concourse sat eerily empty and silent. Two stories, with shops lining both floors, the common area stretched out to disappear at the distant curve of the station. Kiosks lined the center, alternating with wide, square planters full of atmo-scrubbing hybrids that stretched to the curve like dotted lines along a moonless back road. The shops lay shuttered. The small restaurants, bistros, and pubs sat dark and empty.
The synth-sky above radiated a beautiful dusk that illuminated the central track of the concourse, but left the periphery in shadow. Atom swept the area, careful and cautious as his guns slid across the dim storefronts, searching for any sign of life in the tomb-like stillness.
With concern furrowing his brow, Atom holstered his weapons and straightened his coat. He glanced to Mir and said, “I feel like we should be concerned by all this, but realistically, there’s nothing that I can see that could potentially constitute a threat. It feels wrong putting my guns away, but there’s no reason to keep them out.”
“Sometimes you have to trust your gut.” Mir dropped her gun to her side, but kept it in hand. “But sometimes you just have to play the odds.”
“Statistically speaking, there should be minimal threats here.” Atom thrust his hands in his pockets and with a self-assured nod, he sauntered down the ring. “If all viable threats have been removed, what you are left with is a façade of security.”
“Façade?”
“Just because you can’t see the threat doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but it means you’ll spend more time looking than preparing.”
“It’ll kill you if you don’t root it out.”
“It could kill you if you do.” Atom
glanced over his shoulder as Mir trailed along in his wake. “I’m good with it either way. If you live your life afraid of death, it will seek you faster, but those who accept that they are already dead will find life.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Mir picked up her pace and trotted next to Atom. She took one last nervous glance around before holstering her own gun.
Atom laughed. “People are too busy trying to stay alive. They try to find happiness in money or success, but they’re already dead in that life.” He pulled out his rail-pistol, flipped it to present the grip to Mir. “I expect the bullet, bolt, or explosion with my name on it has already been produced. But what happens if I fixate on it?”
“You stay alive?” Mir took the offered gun and appraised it.
“No,” Atom shook his head and closed his eyes. “You miss being alive.
“Take right now, for instance.” He took a deep breath, reaching out with his ears. “I could focus on the probability that something is cooking and we’ll most likely be caught up in whatever is happening. But if I kept that in my sights, I would miss the soft cadence of your words, the familiar rhythms of your breath, the lifting nature of your laugh.”
He opened his eyes to catch Mir studying him with her eyebrows arched in confusion. Her words came soft and short, “And that gets you what? It doesn’t keep you breathing if something pops.”
“Maybe nothing.” Atom smiled and held out his hand for his gun. “Or maybe it buys me a moment of lightness in the Black. Or maybe it helps me notice something I would have missed if I was trying to find some boke looking to jump out of the shadows and end my days. Either way I’ve filled the void with a moment of beauty.”
Before she could respond, Atom held up his hand to halt their steps. He cocked his head like a hound and took the gun from her hands.
“Someone’s coming.” He holstered his gun.
Mir listened. “Sounds like a patrol,” she said, her eyes darting as her ears worked. “Too uniform and heavy to be scouts or spec-ops. Patrol squad in skirmish armor….”