"Sorry, kid. I think you're on the wrong shuttle. This goes to the Academy, not elementary school."
Laughter exploded from the cadets on board and waiting behind us. I ignored it, focusing my stare on the bully in front of me. I wanted him to see the truth. I wanted him to understand that I would kill him if he continued to bar my way.
His grin faded, replaced by unease as the realization dawned on him. He stepped to the side when I advanced. Natalie followed like a shadow. I felt her approval without even looking.
The cadets on board continued to laugh and jeer, but their derision was directed at the boy who now looked around with a face reddened by shame. No one bothered Natalie and me when we chose our seats. But I knew they felt it too. Maybe not even consciously, but somewhere inside the understanding spread. We may have looked young, but we weren't children. We weren't soft and weak, and we weren't innocent. We were something beyond any of them.
We were the future.
Welcome to New Haven
1
It took everything I had to get into New Haven. I mean everything. I literally begged, borrowed, and stole to front the Transit fee. Okay, I didn't beg. Had too much pride for that. But I definitely borrowed and ran quite a few sniffing programs to funnel stolen crypto into my account. It was a risky gambit, but I needed to get the cash quickly. I had the Feds chasing ghost signals all across the country to evade detection. It's easier to do if you pay attention and don’t get greedy. Greed will get you killed quickly, and I wasn't ready to die.
I was ready to get paid.
The heist job was posted on the Black Logs. High seven figures for someone proficient in hacking, intensive surgery, and evading capture. I was good on two of the three. I figured I could wing the surgery aspect along the way. There wasn't a problem I couldn't solve if I studied it long enough.
The main thing was the job was the type to retire on, and I was ready despite being only twenty-two. I'd lived long enough to know that my kind of life wasn't living. I was a transient hacker, moving from Haven to Haven and everywhere in between. My profession wasn't the type you got old and retired from. It was the type that eventually caught up to you and put you away, whether in the vault or six feet under. I was already wanted by the HSSC, dupes with grudges, ex-boyfriends, and a few bad ex-partners. It was time to get out. And the New Haven job was gonna do the trick.
I chewed a toothpick and looked at my wrist for the fourth time. My contact was late, which usually meant trouble. Sitting in a dive bar on the Florida coast wasn't how I wanted to spend my time. It was humid as hell, and the mosquitos were thick as storm clouds. I set down my fifth bottle of Horse Piss lager and motioned to the rusty android at the counter to total my tab. Looked like the trip was a bust.
"Jinx La Fox. The best in the business."
A bald, skeletal man in an oversized Hawaiian shirt slid into the seat opposite me. His nose was too long, his eyes too big, his mouth too little. A thin smile creased his cheeks. Shadows hugged his eyes like bruises.
I gave him a hard stare. "You Sandman? You're late."
"I was on time. Just waiting. Watching. Seeing if you were followed."
"By who?"
"Secret Service. Local law. Rivals. Who knows?" His pale eyes roved as he spoke, looking me over. His tongue flicked out, providing no moisture to his chapped lips. "You're a heartbreaker, aren't you? Chocolate skin. Perfectly shaped Afro hairstyle — so retro, so stylish. Curvy in all the right places. Didn't expect the famous Jinx to be so… yummy."
"Hey." I snapped my fingers in his face. "Eyes up here, creep. Don't let the good looks fool you. We talk business, or I'm ghost."
"Business, yes." He rubbed his long fingers together. "My employer wants to meet with you."
"That would be Newman, right?"
A girlish giggle escaped from his lips. "Of course."
"In New Haven."
"That's right." He grinned like a shark. "New Haven. What do you know about it?"
"What does anyone know about it? The place is a legend, like El Dorado or Atlantis. Built by exiles, governed by criminals, invisible to any detection. The HSSC doesn't even admit it exists. But off the record, they're as desperate as anyone else to find it."
Sandman nodded. "Few get inside. Few still make it back out. You understand the importance of secrecy when it comes to transport into such a place, don't you? The situation is quite delicate."
"Yeah. Top secret. I get it. When do we go?"
"Just as soon as the sedatives in your system go into effect."
I blinked, shaking my head as the bar blurred around me. "Wait… what?" My voice grew syrupy, the words thick and slow.
"I'm afraid your drinks had a little something… extra. A special ingredient. Think of it as a gift from yours truly." Sandman's narrow face grew hazy. "You didn't think I could take you into New Haven fully conscious, did you? I'm afraid you'll have to sleep the journey away. Sweet dreams, beautiful Jinx. When you wake up, you'll be in a new world."
Everything went dark.
The hotel room is so seedy it may as well start sprouting. The neighborhood is an area called the West Docks, known for being the worst in New Haven. Fog creeps on the streets, ghostly spider legs that shroud the degenerates that shamble around like horror-movie zombies. I'm here because I figure the locale might scare off my pursuers. It's a fool's dream. There's nothing in the world I can do to shake off my pursuers other than leave the Haven.
And that's proven impossible.
I haven't slept in thirty-six hours. I know I've been followed on multiple occasions, and I can't even trust any other woman in the city. Selene has spies everywhere; any female can be part of her Gutter Girls organization. I can't trust anyone. There's no way to contact anyone outside of the Haven. This place is a massive jailhouse, and if I'm not careful, it'll be my tomb.
The holoband on my wrist vibrates. I activate the screen, quickly taking in the situation. It isn't good. The sensors I placed in the hallway and outside the room indicate multiple incoming threats. Four in the hall, three circling the building toward the window.
Well, a girl ain't lived this long for nothing. Been through worse odds and I'm still breathing. I have the room entrance tricked out with a few surprises, so I sling my pack on my shoulder, pick up my KA-blade, and leap out the window to take my chances with the three outside.
I land on the railing. The rain is light for once, and the thick tread on my armored boots compensate for the slickness. Beams of light slash across the darkness of the lower city, roving lamps on autopilot that try their best to provide some illumination. I slide my goggles on. Nightvision automatically activates as I peer down.
My enemies are all women, dressed in snug-fitting black stealth combat suits. Wildcats, the infantry of Selene's Gutter Girl organization. One carries a techno staff, another a pair of stun batons, and the last has a stun gun. They want to capture me, not kill me. That's good. Makes it all the harder for them.
A flashbang explodes from inside the room, indicating that the other Wildcats tried to storm in from the hallway. They're now temporality blind, deaf, and completely disoriented. A small smile spreads across my face. You gotta appreciate the little things.
With the others out the picture, I can concentrate on the assailants coming up the fire escape. Bo Staff comes at me first. The staff is awkward in the cramped environment. She tried to attack, but the staff rebounds off the railing. I activate my KA-blade, keeping it medium length as I easily swat her aside. An electric arc flashes when the flat of the blade strikes, rendering the woman instantly unconscious. As she falls, I scramble up the fire escape with the other two hot on my heels.