The naked bodies of the Exterminators lay sprawled across the enormous bed that had once belonged to the leader of the Drokis. The bedroom occupied nearly the entire floor of the gang's headquarters. The walls were adorned with bladed weapons, photos, and punk-style posters, along with a sixty-four-inch cyber-television and the emblems of the Drokis and the Pisonous Snakes. Scattered around the room were numerous worn-out pieces of furniture filled with clothing, a few firearms, a cube computer, and, above all, drugs. Most of the drugs, however, had already been consumed by Brako, Tania, and several other gang members who had taken part in the celebration that culminated in an orgy.
But their achievement had been monumental. Thanks to the simultaneous, coordinated attacks of the three groups into which the gang had divided (plus another that had remained to defend the base), they had, in barely a week, dismantled most of the gangs in the southeastern section affiliated with the Pisonous Snakes and occupied their bases. Their message had been clear: the reign of the Pisonous Snakes and their affiliated gangs in the Hive Zone of El Cobre had come to an end.
“What’s the matter, grump? Already out of ammunition?” Tania teased, touching herself lasciviously to Cuervo’s left.
“Yeah, I’m done. I’ve never seen a woman so insatiable,” Brako replied, gesturing with his hand as he got up from the bed. “I’m off to get high. Boss, they´re all yours.”
“Come on, big guy. You barely lasted two rounds,” Cuervo said as he felt soft breasts press against his back and slender fingers trace the scars on his chest with sensual precision.
The leader of the Exterminators didn’t need to turn around to know it was Arithya, an Ankhelar renowned for her expertise in espionage and assassination. Her kind, like the Egils, originally hailed from the continent of Dunea. With their graceful build, elegant demeanor, and average height of two meters, the Ankhelar exuded an innate nobility that bordered on the divine. Their skin, ranging from golden to dark tones, was nearly hairless, and their sharp, regal features were accentuated by their large, pointed ears and slightly almond-shaped eyes that shimmered with vibrant colors like gold, emerald green, fuchsia, cobalt blue, or, in rare cases, deep purple. Their hair also varied: white or gray for those with dark tones, and red or orange for the golden ones.
The young Ankhelar, with green eyes and soft curves, had led one of the groups that assaulted the southeastern section of the hive. More than one rival gang had fallen without even realizing they were under attack.
“Screw you,” Brako said as he left.
“That’s what I want!” Tania shouted.
“Well, it looks like you’ll have to double your efforts,” Arithya whispered to Cuervo. Her ebony skin contrasted sharply with her silver hair.
The leader of the Exterminators brushed aside Arithya’s delicate hands and turned to face her. The beautiful Ankhelar, who usually kept her hair tied back, now wore it loose, falling freely to her shoulders. A pendant depicting a hooded figure holding a knife hung around her bare neck. A thick X-shaped scar crossed much of a tattoo on her forehead. The tattoo was vibrant blue, almost as if it were alive.
To Cuervo, as well as to any other inhabitant of the Hive Zones, it was simply a blend of art and violence decorating her skin. But to Arithya and all the residents of an empire called Ankunari, it represented something deeper, something more ambiguous.
“You can count on it,” Cuervo said as he pounced on her.
“Hey! Don’t you dare leave me out!” Tania exclaimed, desperate to have something hard inside her again.
***
After the third round, Cuervo got out of bed, dressed, and grabbed his weapons. No matter where he went, he always carried them with him. In the Hive Zones, you never knew when you might need them. That was something everyone in the Hive learned sooner or later.
He had learned it at the age of nine, when a rival gang fired submachine guns through the glass window of the small diner where they were. Unarmed, Cuervo, Ilian, and the other The Dispossessed present were forced to defend themselves with broken glass, utensils, and chairs. Covered in blood and with multiple wounds, only he and Ilian had survived. That day was just one of many that had forged their bond into something stronger than blood or love.
Like his own shadow, Arithya rose from the bed and began dressing with the subtlety possessed only by assassins and thieves. When she was finished, she tied her hair back.
A tongue click of disapproval echoed through the room.
"Can’t Cuervo even go to the bathroom without his watchdog?" Tania said, leaning against the headboard. She waved dismissively and added in an even more mocking tone, "You’re pathetic."
Cuervo turned to look at her. If not for Tania’s many sexual encounters and her unstable, mocking personality, Cuervo might have thought the fair-skinned, freckled girl was jealous.
"Don’t worry, Tania," he said with a smile. "I’ll send someone to finish satisfying you."
Tania rolled her eyes and gave a brief mocking smile before responding, "Just make sure they do it better than you."
The leader of the Exterminators didn’t take it as an insult. He left the room with Arithya following behind and opened one of the doors in the antechamber. He walked a few meters down a hallway and opened another door leading to a different floor, which, along with the one above it, had been molded into a duplex-like lounge. In the middle stood a massive L-shaped couch, scarred with numerous cigarette burns.
Reclining on it was Brako, still savoring the effects of the drugs. The fiery drauo often used substances to quell the constant rage caused by his "fiery curse," though his addiction and a certain event in his past had led him to abuse dissociative drugs to escape it all.
Cuervo was no stranger to drugs. His parents had been addicts for as long as he could remember. He hated them, and at first, his disdain for them had been palpable. But by his early teens, he had learned that in a place ruled by violence, betrayal, and despair, the strange thing wasn’t that someone used drugs but that someone didn’t.
On the other side of the couch was the aehul Thefuil, his gaunt face focused on an RPG game on a cutting-edge virtual reality console operated by neural impulses. In the back, at a table, the drauo Stalos played cards with three other members while they drank and smoked. In a corner by the staircase leading upstairs stood an old model of a female service robot, deactivated. Cuervo preferred flesh and blood, but he hadn’t been able to resist the allure of the service robots either.
A little farther away, on the balcony overlooking one of the tunnel streets inside the Hive, Atho smoked while staring into the horizon. The watchful face of the former soldier, hardened by years of service and the fruitless search for his brother, bore a melancholy that went beyond mere sadness.
Cuervo had neither been able nor willing to promise that they would find his brother. But he had assured him that the Venomous Snakes would pay. In truth, his promise of vengeance had little to do with Atho’s loss and was more a strategy born of mutual sentiment to gain a new ally.
He had told himself that. Deep down, Cuervo knew it had been a promise born of unspoken empathy, an act of solidarity in a brutal world.
Without saying anything, the leader of the Exterminators grabbed one of the empty chairs and placed it near the low table in front of the couch. He sat down and poured himself a glass of whiskey from a nearly empty bottle. With the corner of his eye, Cuervo saw Arithya lean against a nearby wall.
“Always silent and expectant,” he thought.
Cuervo took a rolled-up map from the table and spread it out. It had numerous annotations about the different neighborhoods of the hive and the gangs that controlled them. From names and affiliations to the number of members and business dealings. Elio had spent months researching the criminal underworld of the hive. And even with the help of Arithya's informant network, he hadn't managed to uncover everything hidden within the endless tunnels and streets of the hive. Even though people were born in these zones, the hives were so vast, changing, and dangerous that most residents never truly got to know even a quarter of what it harbored within. In fact, there were many inhabitants who never even left their own micro-neighborhoods.
The sound of heavy, mechanical footsteps caught his attention. A human with cybernetic arms and legs was coming down the stairs. Part of his skull was metal, and one of his eyes was cybernetic. Like the other mechanical parts, his metal eye seemed like an amateur job, put together with scraps. Old, worn-out single-lens glasses made his brown eye appear larger. His messy hair covered part of his face.
It was Elio, the brain and co-founder of the Exterminators.
A brief, melancholic nostalgia took over Cuervo. He and Elio had been born in the same neighborhood of hive ZCE 04, also known by its inhabitants and many Catlon citizens as "The White Hive" because it was the hive that produced and distributed the most drugs in the city. Unlike him, and most hive inhabitants who got lost in the spiral of destruction and misery these places bred, Elio had taken refuge in books and education, and had even dreamed of leaving the hive to attend university.
But life in the hives was cruel and merciless, and those who tried to escape were often considered worse than traitors. So, when Elio finally tried to leave that life behind, some members of the Hard Fists, a gang affiliated with the Venomous Snakes that controlled parts of the entrances and exits of his section, beat and mutilated the co-founder of the Exterminators, leaving him on the brink of death.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Seeing that merciless scene somehow reminded Cuervo of when he and his most loyal group of The Dispossessed were gunned down by Ilian and his gang. Blinded by months of pent-up rage, Cuervo had come out of the shadows and dismembered the members of the Hard Fists with his claymore. Seeing Elio half-dead just because he had wanted to escape that cruel place where he had never asked to be born, Cuervo decided to take him to the same person who had saved him: Old María. Of course, compassion—if it could even be called that—had not been the only reason. Cuervo knew that someone as smart as him could be very useful in carrying out his revenge.
After that, Elio had become the first member of his gang and, in turn, one of the people Cuervo trusted the most.
“You should’ve joined the party” Cuervo said.
“I prefer not to waste my time on trivialities” Elio replied with a serious tone, but not judgmental. “I have better things to do than destroy my neurons and give in to primal impulses.”
“Let me doubt that” Cuervo added with a smile and took a drink.
Elio stood in front of Cuervo and sat rudely on the armchair. A creak was heard.
“While you were wasting time rolling around like a pig, I’ve contacted Zhekog.”
“A what? Anyway, never mind. How did our wild friend do?”
Zhekog was another of the Exterminator captains who had led one of the attack groups. The wild one, whose thirst for battle surpassed everything else, had preferred to continue attacking gangs affiliated with the Venomous Snakes instead of returning to celebrate. That insatiable thirst and his innate brutality, combined with his combat skills, were the reasons why Cuervo had decided to recruit him. It was as if his most merciless side had taken humanoid form.
“They’ve wiped out the Rolilotis and taken over the last buildings in the two-piece neighborhood. Now they’re heading toward the Black Shadows' territory.
The Hive Zones, considered by some as districts, were divided into several areas, and the buildings within them formed "neighborhoods" that contained homes, businesses, and even illegal clinics and educational centers. Each of these neighborhoods, whether horizontal or vertical, could be controlled by one or more gangs.
“Any dead?”
“We lost two members” the semi-cybernetic human checked the cyber-table integrated into his arm. “That makes a total of thirty Exterminators since we stormed the area”
“Anyone important?”
Despite the lack of sensitivity in the question, no one seemed to be disturbed.
“Yeah, fuck you! This hand is mine!” yelled one of the Exterminators sitting at the other table.
“No,” Elio threw a disapproving glance at those at the table. “Most of them are rookies, and some have a bit more experience. But no one important.”
“Alright. Send Luro and Nalia with some of the guys to look for new recruits. Let’s see if this time they find someone decent.” Cuervo looked again at the map Elio had written. “With this, that just leaves the Pen-Vulvas, The Black Shadows, and the Brugo Boys. How’s the drug situation going?”
That had been the main reason the Exterminators had attacked the southeast area of the southern Copper Zone; that was where the largest number of gangs manufacturing drugs in the hive were located. No matter how much he hated it, Cuervo had learned that to reach the top of the hives, you had to take control of them. In a place where more than eighty percent consumed drugs to some extent, taking control of the drugs meant taking control of the majority of the population.
The mere word “drugs” seemed to break Brako from his trance. In the back, Atho used the scope of his rifle to check something.
Elio pulled a cable from the cyberpad and inserted it into a port on the back of the book resting on his lap. He then opened it, and the smell of paper spread throughout the room. The content of the book's pages was projected onto the screen of his cyberpad, and with a flick of his fingers, it expanded above the table. He then gently adjusted his single-lens glasses and skimmed the pages.
“When did you get here, boss?” asked the drauo, still half-drugged. Seeing the screen filled with numbers and letters, his eyes narrowed. “Are we going to watch a movie?”
“With the last raid, we’ve taken control of about sixty percent of the drug production in the hive,” said Elio. “However, we hardly have any cooks to make it, since we took out the old ones, and not many are willing to go up against The Pisonous Snakes. I still think it was a stupid move to kill the cooks too.”
“It wasn’t, and isn’t, negotiable,” Cuervo said firmly. “We’ll kill every single one of those who serve The Pisonous Snakes.”
“Now that’s what I like to hear, boss,” said Tania suddenly, entering the room in her underwear. “Those bastards only deserve lead. By the way, weren’t you supposed to send me someone to finish the job?”
“Right, I forgot.”
Tania’s face suddenly grew sad. Her blue eyes seemed on the verge of tears.
“Why does everyone leave me?”
“I’m sorry,” Cuervo said, turning his gaze to The Exterminators who were playing at the table. “Guys, who wants to play with Tania?”
No one answered.
Tania's face suddenly changed again, as if the other side of the same coin had appeared.
"What's up, you sons of bitches? Did they cut off your balls or what?" Tania headed towards Stalos and the rest, slamming her hand on the table. "You know what? Forget it. I’m done with all these fucking fags." She walked over to the sofa and sat between Thefuil and Brako, her legs spread and her arms crossed.
Elio looked at her with disdain, then turned his gaze to Arithya. The ankhelar had made a living for many years not only as an assassin but as a spy and informant. She knew how important it was to set feelings aside in order to achieve a goal.
Cuervo also looked at her.
"You know my opinion," Arithya said, the pendant hidden under her shirt. "I think Elio is right. We would've saved a lot of time and energy if we'd left them alive. It's not going to be easy finding cooks willing to go against The Pisonous Snakes. And even less so after we've taken out many of their colleagues."
"Oh, come on, babe," Brako intervened. "That's why we call ourselves The Exterminators."
"That's right," Tania mocked. "Otherwise, we would've called ourselves the Saye Girls or something. You know?" She made a farting noise. "Dumbass."
Arithya rolled her eyes. Elio scoffed. Cuervo took a drink.
"And what about the drugs they already made?"
Elio adjusted his glasses.
"Leaving aside the waste made by our members," Elio's cybernetic eye focused on the drug-addicted drauo, "we tried selling them, but most people are hesitant to buy drugs from us."
"Why?" Brako asked. "What's the difference who sells them? Drugs are drugs."
"Fear, distrust," Cuervo said without waiting for Elio's response.
"Exactly. Most of them have spent nearly their whole lives buying directly or indirectly from The Pisonous Snakes. They know the power and influence they have in the Hive, so they think that sooner or later, The Pisonous Snakes will take back what's theirs. That's why they prefer to endure the withdrawal and survive rather than risk buying and facing retaliation."
"Cowardly rats," Tania said.
"Of course, there are those who don't care who they buy from as long as they get their fix," Elio glanced at the fiery drauo and then scanned Tania and Cuervo, "but those are few, and they’re generally not reliable customers."
"Kid, are you trying to tell me something?" Brako said. The minerals on his face gleamed.
"Damn circuits." Tania slapped Elio's remaining flesh shoulder and stood up to look down at him.
"Are you insinuating we're a bunch of junkies?"
"Please, I beg you. Give me more Herkuna. I promise I'll get more clients."
The image of his degraded mother begging a member of The Pisonous Snakes for more drugs flashed through Cuervo's mind. For a moment, he felt his facial muscles tighten. Even the taste of whiskey turned bitter.
"I'm not insinuating anything, I'm just stating the truth."
"You arrogant piece of shit..."
"Enough!" Cuervo's voice rang out firm and imposing. His face showed that he wouldn't tolerate any more comments on the matter.
"So what can we do to fix it?" Thefuil asked, having removed his virtual reality helmet.
Tania looked like she was going to make one of her usual comments to Thefuil, but Cuervo's gaze instantly made her change her mind. Her face turned into that of a puppy.
"We have to make them feel safe."
"And how do we do that?" Tania said. "By promising them peace and love?"
"By letting them know we’ve come to stay," Cuervo said with a devilish smile formed from anger and pain. "And that we are the new rulers of this hive."
"Oh! I love how that sounds!" Tania said excitedly. "I think I’m getting wet again."
"Exactly, and for that, we need more members and to form alliances," Elio said. "Even if we finish off the affiliates of The Pisonous Snakes in this section, much of the hive still belongs to bands affiliated with them. So they probably won’t take long to try to recover their main business. Not to mention the Houses of The Unrecognizable and The Masters of the Echo."
“What do we know about them?” Cuervo said as he observed the map with annotations. Neither house had ever had a presence in the hive where he was born.
“The first is famous for their aggression,” Arithya intervened. “So, they’ll likely attack us to try to take over the lucrative business of The Pisonous Snakes. The second, on the other hand, is more pragmatic. They’ll probably want to take advantage of the situation and offer some kind of alliance—or even try to bring us under their umbrella.”
Cuervo clenched his teeth. The scars branded into his flesh with fire reminded him of the moment Nasriel, one of the local leaders of The Pisonous Snakes, planted the seeds of betrayal in Ilian by offering both of them a place in their ranks.
“We won’t ally with any house,” Cuervo said. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake again. “And we definitely won’t join them. They’ll be the ones kneeling before us.”
“By Ibelir, that turns me on!” Tania shivered.
“At the very least, I think we should talk to them to see what they propose,” Elio shifted uncomfortably in his chair under Cuervo’s murderous glare. He adjusted his glasses. “We also have the option of seeking alliances with gangs that aren’t affiliated with any house. Or we could look for smaller gangs that could join us. That would consolidate our power and allow us to remain completely independent.”
“Our own criminal house!” Tania punched Brako. “Can you imagine?”
“Yeah…” replied the drauo, not entirely convinced by the idea.
“Any suggestions?”
“Well, I managed to find some flowers among the weeds.” A mocking laugh was heard, but Elio ignored it and changed the content on the holographic screen. “The Breaker Brothers. They’re made up of humans, drauos, groks, and tralfs, and they specialize in extortion and robbery. They’re a bit uncontrollable and violent, but we could use them to force other, more mundane gangs to join us or,” Elio glanced at Tania, “make them buy and/or traffic our products. Plus, their raw strength and destructive tendencies would be a perfect match for Zhekog and his crew.”
“Violence and destruction,” Tania said excitedly. “Oh yes, they have to be ours. Right, Cuervi?”
“Admit it, girl,” Brako said. “You heard ‘groks’ and got all wet.”
Tania let out a giggle.
“Honestly, yeah, I won’t lie. They’ve got massive guns.”
“Another interesting option would be the Guardians of the Word,” Elio looked at the ankhelar. “Arithya knows them and has worked with them before. They’re a gang made up of humans, gnoglers, aehuls, and tralfs that specialize in surveillance and selling information. As you can imagine, they work for all kinds of gangs and people, so they’re not trustworthy. But if we could somehow bring them under our control, we wouldn’t just take an important source of intelligence away from our rivals—we could also use them to discredit and destabilize other gangs and houses while spreading the image we want of ourselves.”
“Personally, I think they’re one of the best options,” Arithya said. “But also one of the most dangerous. So I wouldn’t rule out eliminating them either.”
“I could handle talking to them,” Thefuil offered. “If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s diplomacy. I get through most RPGs without fighting much.”
“Despite his druggie face and his mood swings,” Elio said as he adjusted his glasses, “I have to admit he’s the smoothest talker we’ve got. Even among the other aehuls in the gang.”
Thefuil smiled.
Cuervo placed the map on the table and pointed to a spot with his finger.
“This is where we’ll go.”
Brako, who had fully recovered by now, looked at the point his leader was indicating and let out a growl.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The sound of a rifle shot echoed through the room.
“We’re under attack,” Atho said.