“Jensen?” Angel asked. “You mean the same Jensen from when you were at Grave?”
“Yeah!” Juliet subvocalized as she started to creep backward carefully. She didn’t know where she was going, but she knew she wanted to think things through before confronting him. She’d only seen him fighting at full speed once, through drone footage Angel took in Madera Canyon, but he’d been scary fast and mopped up some members of a kill squad using only a knife. What the heck was he doing here? Was the world really that small? Could it be a coincidence?
As she stepped back, suddenly far more nervous about making noise, Angel fired the terahertz-scanning mode on her ocular implants. Only having a thin door to penetrate, Angel quickly projected the faintly glowing orange outlines of two individuals on the other side. One was obviously Vicky—leaning back, probably in a chair, with her feet up. She had a feminine form and was much smaller than Juliet remembered Jensen. Of course, that meant the other silhouette moving toward the door was him, and he was seconds from pulling it wide and stepping through.
Juliet turned and bolted for the nearest empty office, trusting Angel to crank up her speed. She slipped through into a dark, sparsely furnished space, wincing at the sound of her feet scuffing on the short, rough office carpeting. She whirled to gently close the door, trying to leave it barely ajar, just as she’d found it. Then, she carefully backed away from the door, keeping her gun trained on the five-centimeter gap, trying hard to regulate her breathing. What was she doing? Why had she retreated? Was she that afraid of Jensen? She wasn’t the same person who’d known him; besides, hadn’t they been friends?
One thing she knew was that Jensen was fast. So, she quietly continued to back up until she was in the far corner of the office with only a beat-up, rolling desk chair between her and the door. The only other furniture in the room was an empty bookcase and a filing cabinet on the opposite wall. Angel fired her terahertz scan again, and Juliet caught her breath when she saw the soft orange outline of a man walking down the corridor. Something about the way he was moving made Juliet nervous—he was like a cat stalking its prey, not a man bored and on his way out for a patrol to kill some time.
Juliet breathed out, lifted the gun to her shoulder, and stared at the silhouette as it paused and shifted slightly, staring at the doorway. She figured she could shoot him through that cheap prefab wall if she wanted to. Could she do that? Shoot a guy she’d once considered a friend because he was working for a woman like Vicky? She revised the question: Could she shoot him without talking to him first?
She knew she couldn’t, so she continued to track him with her crosshairs, holding her breath as she willed him to start walking again. She almost breathed a sigh of relief as he turned back toward the far end of the hallway and took a step. Then, quick as a wink, he turned, pushed the door open, and stepped through the opening, standing face-to-face with Juliet.
“Shit!” he said, reaching down to the SMG he had hanging from a sling by his side.
“Don’t!” Juliet said. “I know you’re fast. Don’t move. Please!” Juliet hissed her words, not wanting to alert Vicky down the hall.
Something about what she said or her voice gave Jensen pause. Was it him being cautious? Worried that, even wired as he was, she might get some bullets into him? Or had he recognized her voice? His words answered that question for her, “Roman? Is that you?”
“Close the door,” Juliet said, gesturing with the muzzle of her gun. With deliberately slow, smooth movements, he nodded and pushed the door closed behind him, keeping his eyes on her. Angel had upped the gain on her optics, so even in the nearly dark room, Juliet could see his face and, sure enough, it was Jensen—short, neat blond hair, pale, ice-blue eyes, and a sly, half smile that lifted a corner of his mouth, hinting at a private amusement, even as she held him at gunpoint.
“It is you, isn’t it? Lydia?” He lifted his arms, folding them on his chest, leaning back against the closed door. If his posture was meant to put her at ease, it only made her more nervous—why was he so cool?
“Jensen.”
“Ah! Yes!” His eyes squinted with amusement as he blew out a soft breath. “For a minute, I was afraid I was wrong. You’ve changed, but you’re still there, in your eyes, your nose, your lips.” He nodded toward the gun she still had trained on him. “What’s the deal? Here for Vicky?”
Juliet eyed him, noticing his slim-fitting, black tactical pants, his boots, and the sleek, long-sleeve shirt that hugged his frame like a second skin. Just as when she’d met him at Grave, none of his augments were visible, but she knew he was wired. He might look relaxed, but he was ready to move. She had to remember that. She had to keep her guard up. When she hesitated to answer his question, he kept speaking, “That was a hell of a number you pulled on Grave. You know you put them out of business? Every department was sold off at auction. I think WBD gobbled up most of the Phoenix operation.”
“Did you get your mark?” Juliet wanted to know if she’d messed up his job or if he’d finished it before her fireworks went off.
“Oh, you figured me out, huh? Let’s just say I got a nice rating and a fat payday, which brings me back to Vicky. You know I’ve got a rep to protect. I can’t just let you get to her because we worked together once.”
“Well, I don’t want to hurt you. Isn’t there a way to work this out?” She sighed and added, “Really? Vicky? A guy like you playing bodyguard to a low-level stolen goods distributor?”
“I’m not really here for her, but yeah, she hired me and paid for my shuttle ride, so I can’t just roll over for you.” His smile spread to the other side of his mouth, and he shrugged, adding, “What would you think of me if I just walked out on a paying client? Even if I didn’t want the reputation hit, I’ve got some honor, you know.”
“Things aren’t looking good for Vicky, Jensen. I’ve already taken out all her muscle and sent her workers home. LCS is waiting for my call to come in with tactical units. I might have a solution to your rep problem, but I’m not sure how I can help you clear your conscience.”
“Tell you what.” He held his hands up, palms out, and slowly squatted down. “I’m going to remove my gun and set it down.” Juliet watched him gingerly lift the strap over his head and, without ever touching the weapon, lower it to the floor. “If you can, uh, I don’t know, knock me out or something, Vicky’s all yours, and I won’t hold a grudge. I mean, I’m not going to stand here and let you do it, but I won’t try to kill you. How’s that sound?”
“What?” Juliet cocked her head sideways and started to smile at the absurdity. “You want to fight?”
“Sure. Vicky’s talking to her dealers, and she’s oblivious.”
“What’s stopping me from blowing your knees out or something?” Juliet moved her barrel down in illustration.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
He shrugged. “Kind of a dirty move for an old friend.”
Juliet’s smile turned to a frown as she thought it through. She was fast, for sure, but so was Jensen. Back at Grave, he’d also been one of the best fighters in her squad when it came to practice drills, and he’d proven it wasn’t just for show. He’d probably been fighting for years, if not his whole life. Juliet was decent and had learned a lot, but she wasn’t a master martial artist. Still, she had Angel. Thinking of the friend in her head, she abruptly subvocalized, “What do you think?”
“I think you’ll likely be able to move as fast as he does, and I’d bet our bit vault that you can do it for longer. I also think the smart thing to do is shoot this man while you still can, but I’m afraid of what you’ll think of yourself. He did just disarm himself.”
“No blades?” Juliet asked.
Jensen smiled, holding his hands out to his sides, palms out. “I won’t if you don’t.”
“You know you could beat me back when we were at Grave. How am I supposed to see this offer as anything other than you wanting to knock me around?”
“C’mon, Roman. I don’t like beating up friends. Think it through.”
Juliet frowned, but Angel must have picked up something in his words. “Juliet, he’s trying to ‘lose’ without surrendering. He said he won’t ‘stand there and let you do it,’ but he’s offering you a hand-to-hand fight, and, as you said, he should be aware that he could easily beat Lydia Roman in that sort of contest. I think he wants you to win.”
Juliet sighed, trying hard to keep her expression neutral. Why was she playing these games? She could tell what Jensen had in mind if she’d just open up her mind, if she’d just trust the lattice and quit treating it like a live electrical wire. As the thought struck her, her mind flashed through the last few times she’d used the lattice liberally, back on Callisto and later on the pirate base. Had she been shying away from it for that long? If she hadn’t accidentally done so, would she have read Tanaka at all?
“Look into my eyes, Jensen,” she said, her voice firm and determined.
He shrugged almost lazily, “All right, but the clock’s ticking. How secure are those bangers downstairs? You know Vicky has other crews out and about. Someone might come back any minute.” Even as he spoke, he locked eyes with her, and Juliet opened her mind, inhaling softly, willing his thoughts to come to her. They weren’t the random scattered thoughts that idly filled a person’s mind. He was having a conversation, and it seemed clear to Juliet that it was with his PAI:
Definitely upgraded those optics, eh, Fritz? Mmhmm, she’s holding herself differently. She’s seen a lot in the last year. Nah, don’t message Vicky. I’m ready to be done with this gig, and I don’t mind taking a bit of a hit as long as it doesn’t look like I went down without a fight. I mean, if it weren’t Lydia—if it were another crew or some corpo-sec, I’d probably put up a fight, but, I dunno, something about her. She was always so nice and you saw how she took down Grave. She really got a raw deal on that job. Jesus, do you remember when we saw her in the garage? Was like seeing a ghost! I thought sure one of their kill squads had gotten her. What’s she doing anyway? You’re not getting probed wirelessly or something, are you? Ugh, am I going to have to explain this more bluntly? I really didn’t want any record, from her or otherwise, about me taking a dive.
Juliet smiled and lowered her gun, shifting the sling so it hung behind her right hip. “All right, Jensen, let’s do this.” She lifted her hands, making loose fists and stepping toward him. He returned the smile with a crooked grin and lifted his hands, stepping forward.
“You should know that’s not my real name.”
Juliet smiled. “Shocking.” To Angel, she subvocalized, “Crank me up and help me!” She was curious if Jensen would put up a fight at all. Testing the waters, she snapped out her right hand, aiming for a slap on his cheek. She moved fast, probably too fast for most people to track, but Jensen got a hand up in time to block her at the wrist. His eyes widened in surprise.
“Nice wire-job!” He grinned and asked, “Is it just the right arm?” As if to check, he lunged, lifting his right foot and driving his booted heel at her knee. Juliet smoothly stepped aside, and his smile widened. “Very nice!”
Juliet couldn’t stop the grin baring her teeth as she snapped out her left hand, trying to grab his wrist. He pulled back, but she was already transitioning her weight to her left foot and sweeping with her right leg. Jensen barely leaped back in time. “Do you have to stomp so loudly? I’m trying not to tip off your boss.”
“Hey now,” he chuckled, “I have a feeling I’ll need a new boss soon.” He lunged for a grab of his own, snaking out his left hand for Juliet’s right wrist, and, though she saw it coming and could have pulled away, she let him get it; Jensen didn’t know she had a cybernetic arm. He clearly didn’t intend to go down too easily for her—he yanked her wrist, pulled her off balance, and drove his other fist toward her face, almost too fast for her to react. In fact, he might have connected that driving punch if Juliet hadn’t had Angel helping her out. She felt her nudging her left arm into a perfect block, guiding her movement until she took over, realizing what Angel was doing. Her arm flexed back, and her elbow met Jensen’s fist, eliciting a sickening pop as one of his finger bones snapped.
Juliet rolled her wrist, reversing the grip Jensen had on her arm, powering through his resistance with her much stronger arm. As he shook his wounded hand, his eyes widening in surprise and pain, her cable-strong fingers squeezed and jerked his arm forward while her other hand slapped her paralytic needle into the soft flesh of his forearm. Jensen went limp and collapsed, but Juliet didn’t let go, hauling on his arm, so he fell in slow motion. She gently lowered him until he was lying on his side, then knelt by his face. “That was really sweet of you, Jensen,” she whispered. “Sorry about your finger. Don’t worry; I’m not going to leave you here for LCS. Just give me a couple of minutes to deal with Vicky.”
Juliet stood but looked down at Jensen with narrowed eyes. She pulled a shrink-cord out of her back pocket and bound his hands behind his back. “I’m just doing this so you don’t feel some misguided need to be heroic.” She started to stand again, then leaned down and whispered in his ear. “If you have nanites or something and get yourself moving, please don’t do anything dumb. Also, I’m going to send you an encrypted calling card. Just in case.”
“I’ve sent it,” Angel said. “You should hurry; Vicky might have heard something. I didn’t notice him trying to send any messages on the local net, but there’s always the Luna City network.”
“He didn’t send any messages,” Juliet subvocalized, hurrying to the door. She slipped into the hallway, then stalked to the end door again, noticing a brief flicker on her AUI as Angel scanned again. A second later, she saw Vicky’s orange silhouette through the door, this time sitting on the edge of a piece of furniture, probably her desk, gesticulating with one arm. Her voice drifted through the partially open door.
“What do you mean the road’s closed? The offramp? Huh, wonder what’s going down. Hang on . . .” She turned toward the door as Juliet pushed it open with her gun’s barrel. Vicky took her in, slowly realizing she was looking at someone who shouldn’t be there. She groaned and folded her arms over her chest. “I, uh, I gotta go.”
“Hey, Vicky. Are we doing this the hard way? I’m not really in the mood to beat anyone up. Got it mostly out of my system dealing with your meatheads downstairs.”
“You cheeky bitch.” Vicky shook her head, tsking. She was a lot younger and prettier than Juliet would have guessed. She had no obvious cyberware, her dark hair was curly with a lustrous sheen, and, if Juliet were honest, she looked almost the exact opposite of what she’d imagined. “You realize all you’re doing is wasting my time? I’ll be out when the courthouse opens shop in a few hours.”
Juliet shook her head. “Sorry, but I have a warrant, and your pals in LCS are gone. We’re taking this operation apart tonight.” She flicked a shrink-cord at her. “Go ahead and bind yourself.” Vicky’s eyes widened at Juliet’s words, and she turned, lunging for a shoebox-sized plastic container on her desk. Juliet had been expecting as much, and she, too, lunged forward, snatching her by her left biceps and hauling her back. She swept her feet, dropped her to the ground, and then held her there with a knee in the small of her back. It felt like taking down a child. “How’d someone so soft get herself into a racket like this?”
“Screw you! You’re going to find out I have a lot more friends than you think.”
“Maybe. We’ll see. It's a pretty big shakeup taking place in Luna right now, but I’m not a dummy; I know corruption runs deep. Anyway, this is the end of this little business.” Juliet had let her gun go and used one hand to squeeze Vicky’s wrists together while she wound a shrink-cord around them. As soon as she activated it, she pulled out her data cable and plugged it into Vicky’s port. “If you even think of messing with me again, I’m going to know it. Take this chance to reinvent yourself. Do your time or whatever; if you get off, I don’t care. After that, go away and forget you ever knew me. Next time I have to deal with you, I’ll do something more permanent.”
“I’m installing the watchdog.”
“Thanks,” Juliet subvocalized. “Do me a favor while you’re in there: Backdate a contract completion for Jensen as of yesterday and submit some high ratings for him.”
“Oh!” Angel’s voice chimed with amusement. “I like it. While I’m working, you should know that I checked into it on the local net, and it looks like LCS has this industrial dome on lockdown. I believe Hines has them waiting for your call.”
Juliet nodded, noting that Vicky had gone limp, staring at the wall as tiny lights flickered in her eyes. “Is she all right?”
“She initiated a PAI wipe, but I halted it in time. She’s lost her hearing and vision for the moment.”
“That was gutsy of you, Vicky—gutsier than any of your muscle. I guess you’re a little tougher than you look.”
“She can’t hear you, Juliet.”
“Yeah.” Juliet sighed and waited. When Angel said she could remove her cable, she did so. Then, she looked around the office, wondering if she should do anything more. Angel had access to Vicky’s PAI and the warehouse network; there really wasn’t anything more to accomplish. She looked in the box Vicky had lunged for, found a fat, mean-looking little self-defense pistol, and took it, stuffing it into her front pocket. She walked out of the office and over to the one where she’d left Jensen. She wasn’t at all surprised to find him gone; the only reminder that he’d been there a few minutes ago was the cut shrink-cord lying on the stained industrial carpeting.
“He escaped!” Angel cried.
“Well, I figured he would. He made that way too easy. You gave him the contact card, though, right?”
“Yes. Do you think he’ll reach out?”
“He better. Wouldn’t it be rude not to?” Juliet smiled and started walking to the stairs. “Call LCS and tell them we completed our contract and that there are a bunch of creeps and their stolen goods here to pick up.”
“You know,” Angel said, as Juliet started down the steps, “if you would drive a car instead of a motorcycle, I could remote pilot it to you. I could have it waiting right outside!”
“No need for a car. We can buy an upgrade for the bike.”