The chamber that Stinger allowed us to use was both bigger than I expected it to be, and fucking dangerous. He’d clearly designed it for two forces to take each other out. Presumably for him to hold off attackers, but who knew really.

Either way, we’d barely made it down the ladder to the next floor and into this room, when the door at the far end sealed and the handful of small barriers rose.

“You’ll not be permitted to leave the room,” Stinger had told me before we entered. “Not until either Lucky and his people are dead, or you are. Whoever survives, I will deal with as I see fit, be that by permitting you and your people to leave by the small emergency exit, or by flooding the room with gas.”

“Lucky and the others might have masks on,” I pointed out.

“I intend to set fire to the gas.”

“Okay, yeah, that’ll probably work,” I agreed, wincing and moving swiftly on. “Still, you’re asking for a lot of trust from us.”

“I’m giving you a chance,” Stinger corrected. “I don’t know you, and of the two of us, which one came to kill the other? Prove you can be trusted by doing as you’ve said you will, and I’ll permit you to leave. Attempt to backstab me? You’ll find that my paranoia is a tool not to be underestimated.”

“That’s…not filling me with confidence.”

“Tough,” he said. “Take the ladder down and face your foe, or try to run and all deals are off. Whatever happens, happens.”

With that, the conversation had ended, and I’d been booted back to my body, blinking and disoriented. I’d forced myself to my feet and filled the others in quickly on the plan, as well as the deal that Stinger had offered.

There’d been some grumbling, some outright cursing and name-calling. But after thirty seconds or so, they’d all agreed that when you had the choices we had, it was the best we were likely to get, especially with the two additions I’d gotten Stinger to agree to.

First and foremost was to prove to ourselves and him that Lucky was just that much of a shitbag, and second was to make sure that when the end came, it was poetic.

Now, we were trapped in the room, waiting, along with a dead body on the floor—we asked no questions about where the body appeared from so quickly—and even though we damn well knew it wasn’t Stinger, our mods were identifying it as him, thanks to some Aug-World trickery.

“I swear, I don’t know how the hell this works, but…could we claim it as a kill?” Luna asked, and even Reign seemed to consider it.

“Probably not…” Reign said after a brief pause. “I mean, maybe? It might work. After all, the system queries the net address and Keystone for the user. And if there’s no answer, and there’s proof of death, then maybe. But when they tried to use their augs next? To, I don’t know, buy a coffee?” She shook her head, and I nodded slowly.

First of all, the bounty would be taken back and we’d be marked as attempting to fuck over the bounty system. They’d request the recordings of the fight, etc., and when we couldn’t provide them? They’d know we’d attempted to rip them off.

The bounty on our heads would be insane. The banks and more would all chip in, and we’d be dead in a matter of minutes.

No, the best choice here was to stay as we were, follow the plan, and hopefully, fucking hopefully, it’d all turn out well in the end.

The room was narrower than it was long, sort of squarish, and tapering in slightly at the end we stood at, around the body, with the ladder that led in at the far end of the room, leading to a hatch which, in turn, led to the next level.

At our end of the room were several low walls, clearly movable, and locked into place currently as if after a hard firefight. We’d contributed to that look by firing a handful of rounds each into the barriers. Reign had taken the rifle we’d found with the body, and she’d fired several of the specialist needles downrange, letting them hammer into the ladder and around it, raining shattered sections free to add to the illusion of a close fight.

I took a deep breath, and made the call, even as Gessh climbed onto Luna’s shoulders, sliding the drone we’d gotten from Lion—covered as it was in explosives—into a small cavity in the ceiling, hidden among the pipes and ducts right next to the only barrier on the far side of the room.

The plan was complicated, and yet as simple as we could make it. No matter what we planned for, the fuckers would do something else.

Once the drone was in place, the girls were backing away and Reign had finished drooling over the loaned rifle, I put the call through, the connection deliberately cutting out and losing visuals.

“Kabutt?” came Lucky’s voice. “That you? Where you at?”

“Under the security center,” I replied in a curt voice. “It was a bastard of a fight. He nearly got away.”

“Who?” Lucky asked grimly. “Stinger? Where the hell are you, Kabutt? How do I get down there?”

“In the corner of the security office,” I told him. “There’s a storage unit. The hatch is in there.”

“Hold right where you are. I’m coming,” he snapped. “Don’t report the kill yet…”

“Why not?” A little knot in my stomach uncurled slightly as he went on.

“He uses body doubles. You report the death and claim that bounty, and it’s not him? You don’t need that shit.”

“And you never thought to goddamn mention that before! You better not be fucking with me, Lucky,” I growled. “He had the rifle and everything…”

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“Send me an image,” he ordered.

“Fuck, no. What’s to stop you claiming the bounty?”

“Idiot. If I did that, you’d send the recording of your kill and then the bounty guild will hunt me. I’m not that dumb…”

“Yeah, well, you can wait,” I said, getting a grunt as the image dropped out again.

“I’m on my way. Just hold off until I get there,” he demanded, before cutting the connection, and I grinned, wondering how pissed he’d been getting, trying to figure out where I was when the tracker must have been giving him a general location and that’s all.

Two minutes later, the hatch opened at the far end of the room, and I waved to the others to assume their places.

“Kabutt?” a voice called down, notably not Lucky.

“Yeah, who’s that?” I called back.

“Irena.”

“Irena who?”

“You want my bio?”

“Not really.”

“Then shut the fuck up with the stupid questions!” she snapped. “Is it safe?”

“It’s a lunatic assassin’s home—of course it’s not fucking safe!” I called back. “He’s got the far end of the room locked off. We’re trying to figure it out.”

“You’ve got his body?” Lucky’s voice echoed down.

“Yeah, it’s here.” I kicked the body in the middle of the room, as Irena—apparently one of the girls who was usually sprawled across him—climbed down the ladder, looking around the room.

“Bring it here,” Irena ordered, and I snorted.

“Fuck, no. I’ll loot it once we’re done here. You want to look at it? You can come down here.” I turned and walked away.

Luna and Gessh sat by a barrier at the end farthest from the ladder, with Luna supposedly injured, and Gessh tending to her.

We’d actually taken some of Stinger’s distinctive rounds, the armor-piercing ones, and had attached them to Luna’s armor, making it look as if she’d basically been riddled.

Reign was at the far end of the room, Stinger’s rifle now leaned against the wall as she supposedly attempted to bypass the lock into the next area.

I turned my back and walked over to her, paying apparently far more attention to the lock than Lucky and Irena.

We stood there, Reign playing with a handful of wires, as we argued about the inner working of the doors. Both of us watched through the link that Stinger had shared as Lucky and his people slowly made their way inside.

That they were there to take advantage was never in doubt, but that Lucky brought seventeen people with him, on top of himself and Irena? That wasn’t just overkill; that was a blatant fucking execution party.

I turned, seeing the group and the way they spread out, guns not pointing directly at us, but damn close, and I made a point of hesitating.

“Lucky, what the fuck is this?” I asked. “This doesn’t look like you’re coming to help a partner, not even close.”

“You’re really that dumb then?” He sneered and stood straighter. “You just wandered into my territory, and you looked down your nose, sneering at us poor dumb gangs, acting like you were so different, so smart. Well, you ain’t.”

“You fucker,” I growled, acting as outraged as I could. Inside? I was filled with relief! This had been the worst part of all of it, for me at least. The worry that the army had driven me to seeing bad guys in every shadow.

I liked being an APS operator, because I didn’t need to worry about the details: I got to plow straight in and fuck people up. If they tried to backstab—which they inevitably did—we replied with superior firepower.

For me, the situation with Lucky had been made far more irritating because although I thought I knew what was coming, that he’d betray me, I also hadn’t known.

I didn’t know for sure that civilian life was going to be like that, and of all the goddamn doubts I had racing around in my mind, the biggest was simple:

Was I going mad and paranoid?

After the shark had taken our helo down, after the guild had beaten and disposed of me—hell, after that motherfucker had literally mugged me on the way out of the goddamn clinic?

I felt like the whole world was out to get me, and I’d caught myself watching Reign and the others. Even now, Julius could be waiting outside to fucking mow us down. I’d been expecting Lucky to try to get me on the way out, and when Julius said that he’d bring the guild to protect one of his own in public, he wasn’t going to be rooting around in an arcology to lose people to friendly fire, I’d agreed.

I didn’t blame him. We barely knew each other, and me selling him a fuckload of guns in exchange for a few boxes of ammo, some replacement gear, and a favor was a hell of an ask.

I was grinning inside my helmet as I lifted my rifle. Luna got dragged behind cover by Gessh, and Reign moved up to stand next to me as Lucky smirked at us all.

“Now, that’s hardly friendly,” Lucky said. “I’m just renegotiating our deal, based on the new situation.”

“Which is?”

“That you’re all fucked, and I’ve got the guns.” He shrugged, tucking his thumbs behind his belt. An off-white T-shirt strained to contain his muscles as he rolled his shoulders. “So, this is how it is, people. You now work for me. You’re used to being hired muscle—you’re mercs, after all—so nothing changes. You go where I say, and when, and you all get to live.”

“And if we tell you to go fuck yourself?” Reign asked conversationally, her grazer out of sight behind a nearby barrier, but Stinger’s special rifle, loaded with armor-piercing darts, held ready.

“You could, but you see, Kabutt has a secret, one that even he doesn’t know about.”

“Hell of a secret, that,” I replied laconically.

“You see, you arrogant little bastard, I sent you to my chop shop for a reason!” Lucky snarled. “You’ve got a tracker and a bomb installed, and it’s enough to seriously fuck up your day!”

“Bullshit.” I scoffed, and he lifted one hand, apparently sending a signal as he gestured. I felt the tracker—actually in my pocket now, as we’d confirmed it was literally just a tracker and not a bomb—vibrate.

“You feel that, Kabutt?” He grinned. “You do, I can see it.”

“That something you regularly have to ask your partners?” I asked. “If they can feel you trying to fuck them?”

“It’s a bomb, in your guts, and when I send the signal, you’re fucked,” Lucky growled. “And you still mouth off?”

“What can I say? I think you’ve not got the balls for it.” I snorted. “So come on then, what’s this new deal? Any other minor details you’ve forgotten to mention?”

“No, you little fuck,” Lucky jeered. “You all work for me now. You’re gonna do the jobs I tell you to do, including bringing back my fucking armory that you looted!”

“What armory?”

“Sirisena’s fucking armory!”

“Oh, I sold that.” I laughed.

“The credits then,” he hissed.

“Spent them.” I shrugged. “Got some new mods and—”

“You dumb fuck,” Lucky huffed. “This is your last chance. You give me your credits, you drop your guns, and you fucking pray I’m feeling generous with your jobs from now on. Otherwise, you’re—”

“So you always intended on this?” I cut him off. “You always planned on claiming the bounty on Stinger, and making us either serve you, or killing us?”

“No,” he admitted. “I never expected you to kill Stinger, and I didn’t expect the rest of your team, but that’s fine. I’m claiming the bounty, and you’ll be killing my rivals and hunting specters for me.”

“And what makes you think that’s gonna work?” I asked. “I mean, we walk out of here…sure, you’ve got a bomb in me, but my team? We met a few days back. They’ll just go work with some other asshole.”

“We’ll take you all to the carver,” he corrected. “You’ll all have bombs installed, or you’ll not leave here alive.”

“I’ll say it again.” I smiled. “You’ve not got the balls for this, Lucky, so here’s my counteroffer. You and your little fucking gang surrender. From now on, you work for me, and maybe I’ll negotiate a rate with Oshbob to sell you all back. You drop your guns, you transfer all your creds to me, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll leave some of you intact after this.”

“Intact?” Irena asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah, regardless of the outcome here, I’ll be gelding Lucky. The world is fucked up enough—we don’t need more honorless fucking assholes running around.”

“You brought this on yourself, Kabutt,” Lucky hissed. “Say goodbye, asshole!”

“Bye, asshole!” I grinned at him, as he apparently triggered the bomb, and a massive section of the room vanished in the detonation.