I peeked out the metal door of the small maintenance closet. Many doors ran along the dark hallway.

“These are all doors to little closets just like this one, leading to those generators,” I said under my breath.

Hinote started, “How we gonna—”

“Shh,” I said, putting a hand on the big man’s chest. I didn’t look at him, but I was sure he was scowling. Three men were walking out of a door down the hall. One of them was bigger than the others. It’d be a tight fit, but it’d be better than Hinote wearing the ripped-up infantry outfit that he was wearing when the cameraman filmed him.

“You see them?” I said.

“Yeah. You wanna go get ’em?” Hinote said. His whisper was louder than mine, but I allowed it.

“Let’s wait and see what they do,” I said.

I felt the pressure of Shun pushing past me, and before I could stop her, she was halfway down the hall, somehow maintaining a sensual saunter in her baggy maintenance jumper. I closed the door to a tiny slit.

“Hey guys?” Shun said.

The three men turned around, startled. They took a moment to gather themselves. I nearly laughed. Shun was hard to simply pass over with your eyes. She didn’t always admit to it, but right then, she showed that she knew it and was taking full advantage.

“Um … yes? You work on the floor?” the big man said.

“Yeah, new. My two trainers just went down onto the platform and left me with a soldering iron, but I, uh …” she paused for effect, “I’m sorry, it’s embarrassing.”

The men smiled. All three.

“Go ahead, hon,” said the big man.

“Can’t get it to turn on,” Shun said.

“Which room are you in?”

Shun pointed toward me and Hinote. We backed away from the door.

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“Stan’s room?” I heard the big man say outside the room. “He left you alone? Doesn’t seem like Stan.”

“He said something about a funky connection. Said he’d be right back,” Shun said as the door opened. Hinote struck first, driving the butt of his gun into the big man’s forehead and pulling him into our closet room. Shun moved faster than me, twisting the neck of her own victim. I took the last with my knives across his chest. We quickly pulled the bloody mess into the room before it could spread far into the hallway. Shun took a roll of blue towels meant for cleaning up oil and wiped what had leaked out into the hallway.

“Hey!” a voice called from down the hallway. Shit.

“Hinote, you gotta get dressed. Fast,” I said.

“I was just cleaning up a mess. I—I’m sorry,” Shun attempted.

“You don’t look familiar. Who are you with?”

“Um. I’m an intern. My trainers are Stan and Billy.”

“I am Stan. And I don’t take on interns. Now who the fuck are you?” Stan paused. “And why is there blood on my floor? You better start talking, and—”

I pushed Shun out of the way with a foot, I saw no other way, then my knee met Stan’s groin. He pushed me off hard. He was strong. He pulled out his own knife. I jumped at him, slamming him into the opposite wall of the hallway. He gripped my neck with thick arms that smelled of soap. He squeezed. I strained to get my knife around to get at him, but he kept me away with ease. I saw that underneath his great maintenance jumper, there was a slick black carapace-like material covering his arm. Sachiarmor? But he was a maintenance man. Why would he have a suit?

Hinote hit Stan over the head, and he fell to the floor, rolling and getting onto his feet, his knees bent and his knife ready to fight backhand.

“Chudo?” I asked.

“No. I’m the maintenance man. No more, no less. And now—”

Hinote hit both of us at once; I’m sure he only meant to hit Stan, but I don’t believe Hinote was too familiar with using Sachi gems. Stan and I both collapsed, but Stan recovered relatively quickly. I saw that Stan was shocked in the exchange, a fate I was spared by the Sachi powder I snorted earlier, making me resistant to lightning-invested Sachi, but I was still frozen on the ground. My suit had taken its last bit of abuse with the lightning blast, and it was out of charge from its last Sachi bath. It wouldn’t move unless I retracted it into the spine, which would leave me vulnerable to Stan.

“Arashi,” I whispered. I had no other choice. My suit retracted into the spine attachment on my back. Hinote attempted the lightning Sachi again, but Stan evaded, coming at me. With no suit, I felt weaker, my muscles spoiled by the assistance it gave me. Though my muscles were larger than those of a normal man my size due to my Chudo Sachi treatment, they were nothing next to the muscles of a working Sachi suit. Stan threw me into the wall, and I fell down, a crumbled heap on the floor.

Shun screamed and rushed Stan, but all of her training availed to nothing. Stan threw her as easily as he threw me. Hinote pulled his gun around, backing away from Stan, trying to re-slot the lightning Sachi gem into the gun, but Stan was too fast. I was fading. My Sachi had worn off, and without the aid of the drug or my suit, my body demanded I rest. I lost consciousness as Stan, the maintenance man, slammed Hinote to the ground.