Sweat and Blood

by Jack Stornoway

curiously.

  "Can't tell you yet," Artemio replied.

  "You can't tell me?" Carey pouted. "Since when do you keep secrets from me?"

  "Did you land that bar-tending job?" Artemio asked.

  "Of course," Carey answered. "There was no question of it."

  "Good. I'm leaving town," Artemio stated. "You can't come. I'll be back before the fight."

  That statement prompted an argument, at least Carey was arguing, Artemio was just in the vicinity of the argument. Later that night Artemio left. He booked a flight on an airship headed west to Hesperia. Airships were used for cargo, while passengers generally flew on shuttles. A suborbital shuttle flight could have gotten him to Hesperia in an hour, the airship would take days. But he'd have to register his passport to book a shuttle flight, while the airship companies weren't required to register anything.

  Airships had been used on Mars since the earliest corporate colonies had been setup, first for prospecting, and later for cargo. The combination of the low gravity environment, and cold carbon-dioxide rich atmosphere allowed heated hydrogen airships to be economical in a way that they never had been on Earth. Before the war a few Canadian and American airship companies had operated airships as passenger liners, but few of those airships had survived the war. Artemio was flying on a freight airship, billeted in a vacant crew cabin. It was cramped and there was nowhere else he could go on the airship, so for several days he stayed in the cabin, and meditated.

  He had been billeted in worse conditions during the war. He had learned to avoid going cabin crazy by focusing inwards. For days he went through every combat technique that he knew, picturing every move and and counter move, remembering every fight he'd ever been in. It was as much about remembering his combat knowledge as reconditioning his mind for what lay ahead.

  Artemio disembarked in the city of Èkó in the Amenthes Fossae region where the highlands sank down into the lowlands. Èkó was one of the five largest cities on Mars, originally a Nigerian rhenium and copper mining colony, it had one of the largest populations before the Mars Treaty. After the Sudaméricans gained control of the Hesperia Planum they had organized the eight mining colonies in the region into single colonial territory in order to dilute the influence of the Nigerians.

  Èkó was a city of over a million that sprawled out of the crater the mine was located in. The rhenium mine was one of the most profitable mines on Mars during the Corporate Era. During that time hundreds of the thousands of workers immigrated and the Nigerian Mars Corporation invested a great deal building up the local economy. Greenhouse farms had been built for soybeans, sesame, cashews, cassava, cocoa, Bambara groundnuts, acacia, corn, melon, millet, palm, plantains, rice, rubber, sorghum, soybeans, and yams, giving Èkó the second the richest agricultural base on the planet. Unfortunately the rhenium had run out before the Mars Treaty was negotiated, and by the time the Sudaméricans gained control of the area, Èkó's primary exports were copper, foods, and people.

  During the Colonial Era Sudamérican corporations built greenhouse farms across Hesperia to capitalize on the seeds already imported into the region, and the abundance of light in the equatorial region. Artemio had been born in the colonial capital Tercero Mexico, the son of Argentine immigrants. When his parents died Artemio had found himself homeless, and made his way to Èkó, the city of opportunity. Unfortunately the only opportunity he found was the opportunity to be raped regularly. He quickly became an angry, violent person, and then found out about the Junior Hesperian Fight League. He joined under the name Chico Violento, Spanish for the Violent-Kid. For the first few years he didn't care if he won or lost, as long as he was paid enough to have a place to live. Then he realized he was winning, that he was actually good at something, he had become Violento. Now a decade and a half later he was returning to Èkó to become Chico Violento again.

  The HFL had been officially shutdown when the Arean government banned professional fighting, but continued to operate as the Underground Fighting League, moving from city to city throughout Hesperia, Vallis, Morpheos, Nouvelle-Quebec, Ascraeus, and Ceraunius. The UFL had been a major issue for the Arean MPs as the Confederacy wanted the league shut down, but local authorities generally looked the other way. UFL fights brought tourists and money to their cities. UFL fights were also very popular, and none of the elected officials wanted to be the one to shut them down.

  Artemio had never been placed on the task-force to shutdown the UFL, instead spending most of the previous decade hunting remnants of the Chinese, American, British, and Russian armies that were largely operating as gangs of bandits throughout the more remote regions of the Confederacy. Nevertheless, he had followed the task-forces' investigation. The head of the UFL was a woman named Delia Leach, she had been a promoter in the HFL when he was Chico Violento. They had known each other in passing. They weren't close, but she knew who Chico Violento was, and who he'd become in the SFL.

  When he'd arrived in Èkó he visited some of the old dojos the HFL fighters had once used, but didn't recognize anyone. The city had changed since the last time Artemio had been there. It used to be all Blacks and Latinos, now there were large minorities of other ethnic groups as well. English was beginning to show up on the signs along with Yoruba and Spanish. On his fourth day in Èkó, he finally found someone he recognized, a former fighter named Leandros Yates. Leandros didn't know how to get a hold of Delia, but was able to inform Artemio that the next fight was going to be in Madhubani.

  Madhabani was in Savitch District, high in the Hesperia Planum to the south, a former Indian titanium and zirconium mining colony. It took Artemio another two days in an airship to get to Madhabani. Like Èkó to the north, the region had a large agricultural sector built up during the Corporate Era. Greenhouses had been setup for rice, wheat, mangoes, sugar cane, bananas, cotton, potatoes, tomatoes, soybeans, onions, chick peas, and okra. The Bharat Zirconium Company had also shipped buffalo, cattle, and chickens to Mars, creating the planet's first meat and dairy industry. The dojos of Madhabani were full of fighters, and it didn't take Artemio long to find someone that could get him in touch with Delia.

  "Last I heard you were an MP," Delia said when they met in his hotel suit later that night. "Didn't think we'd be seeing you again."

  "Got myself into a bit of a bind," Artemio stated. "I need to fight for a few months. Don't have a buy-in, but also don't need pay, just enough to get by."

  "Practice?" Delia asked. "That weasel Yousaf has announced the return of Artemio Torres."

  "Practice," Artemio confirmed, "and a lot of it, under the name Chico Violento."

  "Not many fighters wear masks anymore," Delia observed. "I assume you'll be wearing one again."

  "I'll have to," Artemio confirmed. "Chichi will send someone to take me out if she knows where I am. Besides I'm a retired MP, I can't fight under my own name in an illegal fighting league."

  "Alright," Delia conceded after a few seconds. "I'll make money either way. No buy in. You fight as much as you want. I'll cover your costs. And no one finds out who you are. But I keep the profits."

  His first fight was a few nights later, against a titanium miner that had bought into the fight hoping to take the prize money. The fight was being broadcast online pay-per-view, and Delia had informed Artemio before entering the cage that they had good sales with over 100,000 subscribed viewers. A cut of that would go the miner if he won the fight. The miner was a local, a brown-skinned descendant of the original Indian colonists. He was taller than Artemio, and obviously a body-builder. Artemio wasn't exactly out of shape, but he hadn't taken steroids or growth hormones since joining the army. Artemio took a shot of taurage before stepping into the cage.

  Across the cage the miner stepped in and the doors locked behind them. Then the miner ran at him. He swung a quick left, and Chico Violento dodged inside and slammed two good shots to the miner's solar plexus. The miner was winded, but punching his abs were like punching a cement wall. The miner stepped back for a few secon
ds, and then pushed back in, lashing out with both hands. Artemio caught a right and was slammed back into the cage wall. The miner pressed in, slamming his left knee into Artemio's body and smashed another right fist into his head. Artemio couldn't seem to land anything and leaped up away from him, caught the cage roof bars, and then propelled himself to the cage floor on the far side. The miner turned to charge again, but Artemio spun a roundhouse kick up into his mouth and the miner stopped in his tracks with a surprised look.

  The miner dropped into a half crouch, he clearly had some martial arts training, likely yuddha kalā, which was popular in Hesperia. Then the miner rushed in again, pushing Chico Violento back to the cage wall. The miner unexpectedly kicked Artemio's right knee, knocking Artemio down briefly. Violento was angry, this miner was strong, but not that good a fighter, yet he was pushing Violento around the cage like he'd never been a cage before. Violento rose in a rage, slamming a left to the miner's mouth and hooked a right to his ear that spun the miner's head. Violento pushed in stabbing