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“Gun work out okay for you?”

“Yeah.” I thought it would have a big kick, but it didn’t. It was light and easy to use.

“I picked it myself. Top-of-the-line.”

I thought it might be too small to do much good, but it stopped the dead woman cold. It made me think back to that time the revivor got into my apartment and grabbed me. It was so strong, I couldn’t do anything to stop it. It killed my neighbor, almost killed Karen, and took me away. I was totally helpless. There was nothing I could do. It was different in the alley. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t control the revivor. The gun changed everything.

“Is it really okay to just kill that woman?”

“Who, Calliope?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me tell you something about her,” Penny said. “We looked into her background, and you know what we found? She was raised in a state-run orphanage, but her mother didn’t drop her off there; she sold the fetus off to one of those church-run facilities, where they grew her to term in a jar. That name of hers was randomly generated by a computer. How do you like that?”

“Really?”

“Those places don’t have the room for all the ones that come in. The computer runs a lotto to weed them out when space gets tight. It’s all based on genetic profiles and all automatic, so no one has to feel guilty. You know how many times she got passed over while she was there?”

“No.”

“Thirteen times. Thirteen! That’s beyond luck. She shouldn’t even be alive. She was born to do this.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t sure.

“Look, if it bothers you, think of it this way—she’s going to save a lot of people. Doesn’t that make it worth it?”

“Is she really going to stop it from happening?”

“That’s the plan.”

“Will it work?”

“There’s a chance that it will.”

“So it might not.”

“It beats doing nothing,” she said. “Anyway, it’s not even just about this one incident. Even if the city survives, look around it. It’s rotting from the inside. The people who live in it are sheep who sell themselves to their government, literally. Their votes haven’t meant anything for years. We didn’t make it that way; they were living under the illusion they had any say in what went on for as far back as anyone can remember. Things were never going to change, not until we came along, not until we got organized. All Fawkes and his people can think about is their precious freedom. It’s ridiculous. They’re not free. They never were.”

“I guess.”

“People like Fawkes, they need to be removed. With them out of the way, things will start to get better. We won’t get credit for it and we’ll never get thanked, but things will get better.”

The bubbles and the heat had me sleepy and kind of giddy.

“Anyway, you’d be crazy not to love the perks,” Penny said. “The living arrangements, the clothes, the cars, the food, booze—everything. It beats scraping by.”

“…and you really think I might be this person?” I asked. “You really think I might be the one Ai is looking for?”

“I really think so.”

She grinned, nudging me with her foot under the water.

“You’re like me,” she said. “We’re not just one of them. We’ve got something even a lot of our own kind doesn’t have.”

“We do?”

“It’s like anything else; some people are better at things than others. Not everyone can do what you did to Ted. We’re a cut above, you and me. We’re elite.”

Elite.

It sank in for the first time then. I wasn’t sure if it was the heat or the booze, or if I was just finally coming to terms with it, but right then at that moment, I felt it. I could see it. That woman I saw in the green room all those years ago, the one that looked rich and strong and together …that woman was me. I could see it. It could be my life. I didn’t have to be a pathetic shut-in, and I didn’t have to be a lackey either, getting used while I waited and hoped for a scrap of approval. I could be something bigger.

…but what about the first one? A nagging voice said. What about Noelle? What made her betray them? If Penny’s right about everything, what made her leave?

She messed up. Maybe she wasn’t in her right mind. She was a junkie. I didn’t have to end up like her.

Don’t cross Ai. That was what Penny said. It was one simple rule. Even I could handle that.

Calliope Flax—KM Senopati Nusantara

Footsteps came from the right up ahead. As soon as we hit the bend, something grabbed my number one. A shot went off and it got pulled around the corner, while my second took the lead. Shots boomed down the hall.

They kept them busy to the right. I went left. In the feed, I saw number one facing off with four jacks. The view pitched as it took a few hits, but one of its targets went down.

Two, stay with me; cover the rear. One, keep them under fire. If they get past you, detonate.

I slipped past and kept my head low. A shot clipped my boot and another hit the wall next to me as I banked left and covered the ground to the hatch up ahead. I spun the wheel and opened it, then ducked through. As the jack followed me in, I watched over the feed while the one I left behind took a volley that put it down. One arm ripped free at the elbow and spun to the floor. When it hit, it snapped open and the blade shot out.

I shoved the hatch shut as I looked back and saw its head get blown open, painting the deck behind it black. The feed went out. I locked the door and made for the next one, across the room.

Through here.

I was already down to my last jack. There were more out there, but they were on to me. I was locked out of their network. It was going to have to be enough.

The hatch opened into a big room full of bunks. No one was in them.

Watch the door.

I checked the place out. It was empty. I saw a set of clothes on the deck, shirt still tucked in the pants. They were shot through with holes. Down the rows of bunks, there were more of them.

Some of the crew got caught sleeping, it looked like. There was dried blood on the bedding. One pillow still had the dent from a head in it. A fucking JZI sat in the dent like a big, fat bug.

The lockers hung open. If any of them had guns or ammo, it was gone now.

I checked my route to the med wing; I was close. Bomb or no bomb, I could use the backup. That’s if Wachalowski made it there.

The pain hit again, and I grabbed the bunk frame to keep from going down.

They rigged you with a bomb.

I peeled up my shirt and looked at my belly. Tucked in the crease of my abs were four red dots. I ran my fingers over them. They were sore and scabbed over.

Shit …

I leaned in and used the backscatter. Inside I could see the bottom of my ribs. Lower, under the scabs, something stood out. It looked like wires under the skin.

I followed them under my belt line. There was something down there, down in the bones of my pelvis.

Cal, how long?

Almost there. I was still staring at it. It was just like we used to do with the jacks back in the grind. It was in me. The fucking thing was inside me.

You don’t have much time. Hurry.

Someone knocked me out and wired me up. How long had it been there?

“Goddamn it …” I knew what those things could do. I’d seen them go off. I’d set them off myself.

There was no way for me to shut down a bomb like that, and I knew it. If Wachalowski had a plan, it was my best bet—maybe my only one.

I pushed myself off the bunk frame and ran for the hatch on the far side of the room.

Nico Wachalowski—KM Senopati Nusantara