Juliet and the team had a relaxing evening, or so it would seem, but she couldn’t stop her mind from spinning down different scenarios, wondering the best way to approach Ghoul. She’d liked the idea of a neutral location where Ghoul wouldn’t have the eyes of everyone in the commune on her, but then she began to worry that springing herself on the one-time hardcore muscle operator was the wrong move. Especially while she was in the middle of an escort job—that’s what Juliet assumed she was doing for the commune. She worried it might not result in a warm welcome. So, while the others ate, drank, and smoked things they shouldn’t, she was only half present as she worried.
Throughout the night, Hawkins and Barns took turns keeping watch outside, and Juliet knew them all well enough to see that they weren’t really letting loose; they were just making the most of a slow evening and their first time on terra firma in a long while. She also knew they all had decent nanite batteries that could sober them up in seconds. A couple of times, Dora and Pierce tried to get Juliet to open up about what was keeping her so quiet, but she’d shrugged it off, saying she was tired, and attempted to prove it by turning in relatively early. Surprising herself and probably Angel, too, she fell asleep almost immediately.
When she woke an hour before dawn, Juliet realized her subconscious had made up her mind for her; she was determined to head out to the commune and put an end to the stress of not knowing what would happen. She didn’t want to wait two more days to try to catch Ghoul at the co-op. She wanted to get things moving and see Ghoul face-to-face. As she finished brushing her teeth, she said as much to Angel.
“I figured that was the case; your mood is very different this morning.”
“I needed that sleep. I think I’ve been banking too many long nights.” She pulled some clothes from her duffel and threw them onto the bed. She chuckled as she debated a T-shirt and her motorcycle jacket versus a pullover hoodie. “I think half of my problem last night was that I’m nervous about seeing Ghoul again. She left. You know? She might take it all wrong when I show up out of the blue.”
“Oh, I’m nervous, too! I totally get it, Juliet. It would be one thing if that message had been real, but it wasn’t. She never reached out. As far as she knows, you’ve forgotten all about her, and as far as we know, she’s tucked you away in a box in her memories and would rather not open it.”
“Oh, God, Angel!” Juliet cried, slumping down on the edge of the bed. “Way to make it worse!”
“Oh, come on!” Angel sighed. “I didn’t say anything you weren’t already thinking.”
“Yeah. I guess.” Juliet leaned over to pull on her boots, her good old brown work boots with thick, cleated soles. She’d left her riding boots on Luna with her motorcycle. These gave her confidence, probably because they were comfortable and sturdy, and gave her another half-inch of height. With that in mind, she pulled on a black T-shirt with a smiley face who’d suffered a bloody bullet wound in his yellow forehead, then shrugged into her jacket. It was like snuggling under her favorite blanket. “Still not as good as my old jacket, but at least this one’s bulletproof.”
“It looks good, too,” Angel was quick to add.
Juliet smiled as she put on her gun belt and rounded out her ensemble by clipping her monoblade to its well-worn spot on the left side. “Message the team for me. I’m heading to meet our contact, and I’ll need one of ‘em to watch my back.”
“Only Dora is awake. Should I still message them all?”
“Yeah, Angel. We’re on the job.” Juliet walked down the hall to the kitchen, her heavy boots noisy on the wooden floors, and found that Dora had already started coffee. She poured a cup, dug around in the fridge for some creamer, and then sat at the island counter while she waited.
“Dora is currently in her rig, keeping watch via a drone. She wants to know if you need her to get out.”
“No, tell her that’s perfect. Um, also tell her that when I get back, I’ll hopefully have a target for her.” Juliet sipped her coffee, and then a vid-call opened on her AUI, and Frida’s freckled face appeared.
“Lucky! Heading in? Anything I can do?”
“Not yet. Everything will depend on what I can get out of my contact. How’s Leo?”
“Ornery. At least he’s being a pill and not moping—made it easy to leave last night and get some sleep.”
“What happened with the girl? Belinda, I mean.”
“Oh, the boss got her lodging for a month. She’s keeping her head down, still afraid there’ll be some fallout from that club, um, massacre.”
“Yeah, but I mean, what about Leo and her? What did he say?”
Frida’s eyebrows shot up, and she spoke in a conspiratorial tone, almost a whisper, “What’s this? Are you, like, jealous?”
Juliet rolled her eyes. “Curious, Frida. The word is curious.”
“He says he just felt sorry for her. They might have had a thing, but I don’t think it’s anything that would last. I’m telling you, he has a soft spot for people like that. I think before Tanaka found him, he might have had some family or friends in that kind of work.” Frida’s eyes darted to the side, and this time, she really did whisper, “He won’t even talk about it with me, so, yeah, that’s between us. Anyway, I’m outside his room, so . . .”
“Yeah, don’t worry. We can change the subject. Hopefully, I’ll have a target for us in a few hours. Just hang tight, and don’t forget to take care of yourself, all right?” Juliet smiled, finding it easy to show concern for the plucky redhead; she reminded her a lot of Aya—always helping others and not looking out for herself enough.
“I’m good, Lucky. Thank you, though.” She reached up to scratch her chest, a few centimeters below her neck.
“How’s your, you know, condition?”
Frida stopped scratching and dropped her hand almost violently. “Ugh! I’m such an open book! Don’t worry, it’s just a little flare-up. I’m fine. I promise! I’m getting enough sleep and good food.”
“Don’t make me sic Tanaka on you!”
“You better not. He already calls my doctors too often as it is.”
Juliet heard noise from the hallway leading to the bedrooms and decided to wrap things up. “I think my escort is waking up. I’ll contact you with any news.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Sounds good. Talk soon.” Frida cut the call, and Juliet had enough time for two more sips of coffee before Barns stumbled out of the hallway.
“Sun’s not even up, you nutcase,” he grumbled, rubbing his forehead as he walked over to the coffee machine.
“Sorry, sunshine. I want to get this over with. I can’t contact my, uh, contact, ahead of time, so I want to get there early before she goes somewhere.”
“Does that mean I get to know where we’re going, at least?”
“You’re my escort again?”
“Yeah, Hawkins likes hanging around in the trees. He’s itching to shoot a trespasser.”
Juliet snorted. “Okay, well, that’s cool. We’re heading to the other side of town to a kind of commune built on some reclaimed public-use land. I’ll have you drop me a half mile or so away, and I’ll walk in.”
“Public-use? Is this whole Protectorate some kinda communist society?”
Juliet snorted a short laugh. “Didn’t you read any of the briefing material? It’s not communist, but it’s not exactly capitalist, either. I don’t know enough to explain it, but what I do know is that when they run that big building-munching machine through old, abandoned factories and stuff, the land becomes ‘public-use,’ and people can sign leases for it.”
“Fair enough.” He shrugged, gulping the steaming coffee. Juliet’s eyes bugged out, and he shrugged again. “Spend enough time in the trenches breathing unholy gasses, and you can gulp hot liquids too.”
Juliet narrowed her eyes at the big, scarred veteran merc. She knew some of the more significant scars she’d spotted on his shoulders, back, and chest during combat drills had to go deep. She wondered how many of his organs were original and how many he’d had replaced over the years. His only obvious cybernetics were his ocular arrays, but she could attest that that didn’t mean much. As she smiled and nodded, chuckling at his comment, she subvocalized, “Angel, can you scan him without him knowing?”
“Not with those optics; he’ll pick up active scans, and passive scans don’t show much.”
“All right, hold off. I’m just curious. I bet he’s got a lot of non-factory parts, if you know what I mean.”
“Why not ask?”
“I don’t know. He’s funny about things. We’ve been getting along, and I don’t wanna blow it.”
“Talking to someone?” Barns asked, rubbing the stubble on his chin as he contemplated his mostly empty cup.
“You could tell?” Juliet was used to her conversations with Angel being undetectable.
“Nah, but you get a kind of blank look on your face when you’re not present.”
Juliet snorted another laugh and stood up from her stool. “For a guy whimpering about the early hour, you’re awfully observant.”
“Whimpering?” He set his empty mug on the counter, shaking his head in disbelief. “I’ll remember that the next time you’re whining about how the rope in the training room chafes your thighs.”
“There’s my boy! Glad you’re waking up.” Juliet jerked her head toward the door. “Ready? Get your long gun.”
“Oh? I get to play overwatch?” He walked over to the stack of gun cases beside the garage door and pulled out a long, hard-shelled rifle case.
“Yeah. You can give me cover if I have to run for it.” Juliet grabbed the SUV keys off the counter and walked to the door. She eyed the team comm channel so Angel would activate it and said, “Barns and I are heading out. He’ll give you his location when he's in position in case we need backup.”
“Roger,” Dora replied immediately.
A few seconds later, Hawkins said, “Got it.”
When Juliet was halfway over the gravel drive to the vehicle, Barns called, “Can we stop for something to eat?”
“We can grab something, sure.” Twenty minutes later, they were driving through Boulder, and Barns was noisily munching on a massive breakfast burrito. The commune was situated on what used to be the outskirts of the city but had mostly been “reclaimed.” There were still occasional buildings and several decent roads through the area, but the landscape was primarily covered with high grass and dotted with young spruce trees. An occasional farm broke things up, big robotic combines and tractors already hard at work in the fields.
Barns swallowed a bite and cleared his throat. “Not a lot of cover out here. Where you gonna leave me?”
“According to the satellite data I got from Tanaka, there’s an old strip mall about a half kilometer from the commune that hasn’t been torn down yet. I’ll park there, and you can get up on the roof. You should have a clear line of sight over most of the ground between.”
“Sounds good,” he mumbled around another big bite. “What is this contact of yours, some kind of religious nut?”
“No,” Juliet chuckled, trying to imagine Ghoul in a church. “It’s not that kind of commune. It’s more like a shelter for people on the run.”
“Ah. Well, they’ll probably be jumpy, then. Especially with you showing up on foot. You better drop me off and then drive the SUV in.”
Juliet thought about it and then nodded. “Yeah, I guess that would look weird, wouldn’t it? Jeez, Barns, I didn’t know you were hiding such a big brain behind those goggles.”
“Goggles?” He sounded mortified. “There ain’t no goggles that can compare to these optics, sweetie.” Juliet grinned and let him have that one. The truth was, a little banter with Barns was preferable to letting her mind run wild, imagining how things were going to go with Ghoul. She found her left palm was clammy on the steering wheel, and she brought it down, rubbing it on her thigh and letting her jeans dry it.
“Nervous?” Barns asked, again proving he was a lot shrewder than he seemed.
“So damn weird when only one of my palms sweats, you know?” She held up her right hand as if to prove it was dry.
“Shit, I wish that was my only problem. I once went a week without eating. Got focused on a job we were doing and totally forgot.” Juliet looked at him sideways, trying to understand the comparison, and he clarified, “Oh, it was after I had some synthetic intestines and a new stomach installed. Things weren’t working exactly smoothly, and whatever the body does to tell you you’re hungry, well, it wasn’t turned on.”
“Ah!” Juliet’s eyes widened. “An injury?”
“Yep. Walked into quite a booby trap.” He chuckled, shaking his head ruefully at the memory. “Hawkins lost his hands in the same bomb.”
“Turn off here, Juliet,” Angel said, afraid she’d gotten too distracted to follow her map. It was a good thing because Juliet was experiencing a horrifying thought, wondering if Hawkins and Barns had gotten hurt when she’d blown up the “kill squad” chasing her, Honey, and Lilia on Titan. It couldn’t be, though, could it? She knew some of Tanaka’s mercenaries had died in that trap, but she’d gotten the impression the surviving crew had been out of work since then; Barns wouldn’t have been “focused on a job” for a week, forgetting to eat, after that . . .
“There’s your strip mall.” Barns gestured to the left, and Juliet snapped out of her weird guilt trip. “Dump me by the store on the end, the old mattress store. I’ll get up on the roof.”
“Got it,” Juliet said, suddenly relieved he was about to get out. It was very strange how different it was to imagine the people she’d blown up were faceless killers as opposed to Barns, Hawkins, Dora, and Leo. Even if they hadn’t been part of that team, those faceless people had probably been just like them. Mercenary operators—people with histories and lives, loved ones, secrets, quirky habits, favorite foods . . .
“All right. Stay safe. I’ll be watching.” Barns grunted as he climbed out and pulled his big rifle case out of the back.
Juliet shook her head, trying to banish the sudden macabre, guilty contemplations, and said, “Thanks, Pierce. I’ll message you when I’m about to go in and when I get out.”
“Roger.” He slammed the door, and Juliet backed up, watching as he shoved an old, graffiti-covered dumpster up to the side of the building. It had to weigh a couple of hundred kilos, but he drove it over the debris-strewn asphalt like it was nothing. Juliet sped out of the parking lot, following her map down the empty, quiet road with the morning sun in her eyes. At the turn-off leading to the commune, she saw an ancient gas station and realized it was where Athena had accessed the camera that had led her to Ghoul.
Two minutes later, Juliet pulled to a stop before a tall, chain-link gate where two men stood guard, both armed with semi-automatic rifles. Tall pines lined the road on either side, and she could see the fence continued in both directions. Beyond the gate, she could see semi-permanent structures—converted cargo containers, camping trailers, and a few pre-fabbed, plasteel buildings. There were even tents pitched on the grassy ground, and kids played in the open areas in between. Juliet was taking it in as the guard on the left walked forward and tapped on her window.
She rolled it down and smiled. “Hey there.”
He was a young man with sandy hair and a thin, patchy beard. He wore a baseball cap that said “Low-Life” but seemed friendly. “Hey there. Looking for someone?”
“How’d you know?” Juliet tried to project calm, pleasant energy.
“Too early for the craft store, and I don’t recognize ya.” He leaned to the left and spat, but Juliet didn’t think it was an insult; his lower lip was distended, and she thought maybe he had some kind of tobacco product stuffed in there.
“I’m looking for an old friend. Um, I didn’t know people couldn’t go in . . .”
“Oh, nah, you can go in. Just a few protocols we gotta follow first. For the safety of the folks inside. First things first, who’s your friend?”
Juliet had thought about how she’d answer that question. Should she say Ghoul? Should she say Cassie? She’d decided just to be honest. “Well, when I knew her, she was operating under the handle ‘Ghoul.’ Anyone here like that? She’s about five-five but built like a concrete stanchion. Spiky blonde hair, chromed teeth—”
“Sheeyit! You’re friends with Ghoul?” He slapped the top of her SUV enthusiastically. “Yeah, she’s here! Shit, Paulo! She’s friends with Ghoul! I didn’t think she had any friends!” He laughed like he’d just said the funniest thing ever, and Juliet glanced at the other guy to see he was smiling along, though perhaps a little nervously. “Well, park over there, and we’ll check you in.” He jerked his thumb to a dirt lot about fifty meters back down the road, where a few other vehicles sat in a haphazard row.
“All right,” Juliet said, a little taken aback by his enthusiasm. Something about his line about Ghoul not having friends had struck her as mean-spirited, and she didn’t like it. She put the SUV in reverse and backed up to park, keeping her eyes on the guard as she maneuvered into an empty area. He watched her for a minute but then turned back to the fence, slipping through the gate. Was he going to get Ghoul? Juliet’s left hand began to sweat again. “Here we go, Angel,” she hissed, turning off the car and stepping out. She closed the door, took a deep breath, and turned toward the gate.
She froze after one step. Ghoul stood there. She wore faded jeans and a white tank top. Her blue, plasteel hand gripped a big, chrome semi-automatic pistol, but she didn’t raise it. She stared at Juliet for several long seconds, and then she haltingly stepped through the gate. She started forward, and the two rifle-toting guards began to follow, but she turned and said something to them. They fell back, and Juliet could see irritation on the face of the guy who’d greeted her.
She couldn’t focus on him, though. Her eyes snapped back to Ghoul, and she watched as she approached. Juliet’s heart began to race, and she felt sweat trickling down her ribs under her jacket and T-shirt. Ghoul moved slowly, her eyes squinting under her white-blonde eyebrows. As she got closer, maybe five meters away, she slowed and stopped. She licked her lips and spoke, in her scratchy, rough voice, that Juliet hadn’t realized how badly she’d missed, “Am I seeing things? Juliet?”