As soon as Ghoul said her name, Juliet noticed a flicker of static on her AUI, and then Angel said, “Jamming.”

“Hey, Ghoul,” Juliet said, smiling a little tremulously.

“No, seriously. Am I dreaming?” Ghoul took another tentative step closer. Juliet couldn’t help noticing she hadn’t holstered her pistol. She was on edge, but not enough to signal she didn’t like being jammed. Juliet knew Angel wouldn’t be jamming outside a dozen meters or so, so she wasn’t surprised no one back at the gate had reacted. Still, wasn’t it a little odd that Ghoul hadn’t said anything?

“Not a dream. At least I hope . . .” Juliet trailed off, realizing only she and Angel would understand that joke. She tried to diffuse any tension by leaning an elbow on the hood of the SUV. She nodded toward Ghoul’s plasteel arm and the hand cannon dangling in her fist. “Shooting left-handed these days?”

Ghoul looked down at her gun, then back up at Juliet, blinking, still appearing confused. “I got an aiming coprocessor for the arm.” She took one more step closer, her frown deepening. “Juliet, you’re supposed to be dead.”

“Supposed to be?” Now, it was Juliet’s turn to look confused.

“Your operator ID went dark. About half a year ago, I paid a sniffer to look around for you. He picked up some rumors from some folks at your old dojo. Said you took an undercover gig and got iced.” She was only a few meters away now, and Juliet could more easily see her nervousness; her eyes twitched to the sides frequently as though an ambush was about to be sprung, and the muscles along the side of her head were tight, flexing with each clench of her jaw.

“I didn’t, though.” Juliet shrugged and sighed. “I changed my ID and ditched the corpos who were tracking me. I sent you messages, Ghoul!”

Ghoul took another step closer, slightly to the side, almost as if she wanted to see if Juliet had more than one dimension. “It seems like you.” She cocked her head. “Something’s off, though. You’re too smooth, too goddamn hard. A sword? I’m not buying it, corpo spook!” She jerked the pistol up and bared her sharp, chrome teeth in a grimace. “Think I was born yesterday? Where’s the rest of your little kill squad?”

Juliet quit leaning on the SUV and lifted her palms, narrowing her eyes, looking into Ghoul’s sky-blue ones, and then over her shoulder at the compound. The gate guards were watching, their rifles half up, but they weren’t moving. Apparently, they trusted Ghoul to handle herself. That, or they figured this was Ghoul’s problem, and they should stay out of it. “Stop it. It’s me. I can prove it a hundred ways, but if you’d just come over here and give me a hug, you’d know it was true.”

“A hug?” Ghoul spat the word. “The real Juliet would rather see me dead! I betrayed her! I left her!”

“You really think that? That’s what you were afraid of, but it’s bullshit! You left me with a lousy note and a sob story about feeling sorry for yourself, but that doesn’t mean I stopped caring about you!” Juliet found some anger edging her words, and she took a step forward, lowering her hands. “Shoot me then! Go ahead!”

Ghoul’s grimace intensified, and Juliet could see the strain behind her eyes as she contemplated doing just that. Her hand might as well have been cast in bronze, so little did it move, and the big bore of her pistol’s barrel was leveled straight at Juliet’s chest. She took some small comfort, knowing her bones would probably stop that bullet, but she also knew it would hurt like hell. “Prove it, then!” Ghoul rasped.

“Prove it? Prove what? That I care about you? Or prove you tore a piece out of my heart when I woke up, thinking I’d saved you, that we were going to recover together, spend time together, only to find you took off?” Juliet took another step forward, lowering her hands. “Yeah, I was raw, Ghoul. I had to talk to a damned simulated shrink about it for months. I never blamed you, though, not for the stuff you did or didn’t tell me. Not for your ‘betrayal.’” Juliet made air quotes. “I only blamed you for leaving. For slipping out of my life like anyone else I ever cared about.”

“I . . .”

“You’re human! I’ve seen things, Ghoul. I’ve done things. I get it, that feeling in here,” Juliet pounded a fist in the center of her chest, “that says you don’t deserve something. It’s bullshit.” Tears welled in her eyes as she spoke and broke free, sliding down her cheeks.

They stared at each other for several seconds, which felt like they stretched into hours. Juliet’s stress mounted, but when she saw answering moisture welling in Ghoul’s eyes, she spread her arms and said, “Come here.” Ghoul lowered the gun, and her steady, icy demeanor cracked. Her lips trembled as they twisted like she wanted to speak, but nothing but a choking sob escaped. Then she darted forward and slammed into Juliet, wrapping her hard arms around her and squeezing like she was afraid she might float away. “Hush.” Juliet pulled her close, gently cradling Ghoul’s head, pressing her cheek into her chest.

“I’m sorry,” Ghoul choked, and it was clear to Juliet that she was apologizing for a lot more than just holding her at gunpoint.

Juliet sniffed, adding more tears of her own to the mix. “If you would have stayed around, I would have told you there’s nothing to be sorry about.” Ghoul choked out another sob and squeezed her tighter, making breathing challenging. Sniffing, taking shallow breaths, and letting her upgraded lungs earn their keep, Juliet zoomed in on the guards up the road, ensuring they weren’t reacting badly to Ghoul’s sudden show of emotion. They were standing still, mouths agape, apparently stunned into inaction.

She gently stroked Ghoul’s head, enjoying how the short blonde hair tickled her fingertips. “Have you been feeling guilty this whole time?” Ghoul didn’t answer, but she loosened her squeeze a little. She didn’t look up, leaving her face buried in Juliet’s chest. Juliet could feel the moisture of tears on her chest, and she chuckled, reaching up to dry her own cheeks. “You’re lucky this shirt is black. It’s one of my favorites.”

It was strange how small Ghoul felt to her. Of course, she’d always known she was shorter, but somehow Juliet had built her up in her mind—she was the epitome of scary muscle to a neophyte operator, and she’d remained that way in her memory. Now, though, she was still strong, still wiry, still mean-looking when she wanted to be, but Juliet had seen worse. She’d been worse. She grabbed Ghoul’s shoulders and gently pushed her back until they were separated by just a dozen centimeters or so. Ghoul didn’t look up, so Juliet moved her left hand to her chin and tilted it up.

When Ghoul’s eyes finally latched onto hers, Juliet felt an electric tingle run through her, and suddenly, their close proximity felt different than it ever had. It felt charged and full of potential, and the sensation made her look at her affection for Ghoul in a new light. “Hey,” she whispered.

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“Hey,” Ghoul sniffed. “God, what a prissy bitch I’m being.” She roughly wiped her tears and snot away with the back of her hand.

“Nothing prissy about feeling things. Wanna get into my car so we can talk without those creeps watching your every move?” She jerked her chin toward the gate.

“Better idea,” Ghoul said, lifting her right hand up to grasp Juliet’s left. “Walk with me?”

“Yeah, sure.” Juliet smiled and let Ghoul tug her down the gravel road further from the gate.

“There’s nothing out here. I mean, no power to speak of in any of the old buildings and barely any satellite coverage. We can talk without worrying about those dipshits back there trying to eavesdrop or record our faces.”

“You don’t get along with your coworkers?” Juliet fished.

“Coworkers? That’s a stretch. I help out around here, but that’s ‘cause I care about the women. I have family in there.”

“Your sister?”

Still clutching her fingers loosely in hers, Ghoul looked up at her with bleary eyes, and Juliet didn’t hold back; she looked right into them. She wanted Ghoul to trust her again. “Are you here for something bad?”

“Not for you!” Juliet squeezed her fingers. “I would never hurt you.”

Ghoul nodded and smiled, but she was back to her old habit of trying not to show off her teeth. “It took me a while, but I found my sister and her little girl here after leaving Tucson. Since then, I’ve been helping out; my sister’s one of the co-founders of this place.” She gestured to the left and led Juliet off the road onto an old dirt trail that followed a gently climbing grade between ancient pines.

“I’m so glad you haven’t been alone!” Juliet’s sincere relief surprised her. Had she really been so worried?

“I haven’t! I don’t deserve them, Juliet. I really don’t, but they’ve been so good for me. Doing this work, helping people caught up in messes bigger than they can handle, well, it’s made me feel like I’m slowly scrubbing away the stains on my soul.” She snorted. “Corny, huh?”

“No, Ghoul! Cassie? Which do you go by?”

“Either. Both. Can’t escape my rep out here.” She sounded resigned, accepting.

Juliet shifted her arm to the shorter woman’s shoulders, pulling her close as they walked. “I wish we’d stayed in touch. Like I was saying, I’ve seen—done—things that make me understand you a lot better. I would have . . .” Juliet found new tears forming in her eyes as a hundred images flashed through her mind—putting the dreamer program into the Grave execs, killing more people in gunfights than she could count, shooting down ships in Jupiter’s atmosphere, slaughtering most of the crew on the Red Betty, slicing people up with her monoblade. She knew the parade of guilt could play on and on, but she choked it off. “I would have loved to talk to you so many times.”

“I was a coward to run like that. I’m sorry.” They stopped, and Ghoul turned into her, pulling her into another hug. They stood together that way, under the trees, just feeling the warmth of one another for several long minutes. “I needed this, too. I really did. God, I was a wreck when I thought you’d died. Even when I took off, I had the idea in the back of my mind that we’d reconnect someday. Someday I’d make myself worthy of your friendship, your . . .”

Her words trailed off, but Juliet, without trying, heard a raspy, whispery echo of her voice drift into her mind: love. Juliet backed off a step, surprised. She exhaled slowly, nodding, trying to keep a calm expression. What was happening here? She felt a kind of excitement in her chest that reminded her of Jensen and the first time they’d kissed. Was she getting her emotions mixed up? Did she think of Ghoul as more than a friend? Did Ghoul feel that way about her? She still held her shoulders, and Ghoul’s hands were on her waist, the touch tingling like electricity.

As her mind raced, she tried to respond to Ghoul’s words, “I’ve told you before I don’t care about your past. I care about what’s in here.” Juliet moved to lay her palm on Ghoul’s sternum, feeling the thump of her heart and her quick inhalations. Was she excited? “The things that happened in the war can’t all be laid at your feet. Ghoul, I’ve met bad people. I’ve seen the aftermath of their impact on the world. You aren’t a bad person.”

“I-I think I’m starting to believe that. That’s what I was trying to say about this place. I’ve helped a lot of people here.” Her eyes suddenly filled with tears again, instantly streaming down her cheeks as she said, “My niece looks up to me, Juliet! I’m her fucking hero! Sometimes, it makes me smile and helps me sleep, and sometimes I lay awake feeling guilty like I’m impersonating someone.”

“Well, you’re not. You’re you, and you’re good. I looked up to you, too—I still do. I got through my first job as muscle by pretending I was you!”

Ghoul laughed, shaking her head. “I’m not some kind of saint. I didn’t chase you up to Phoenix ‘cause I thought you were a good buddy after only one job that went horrendously wrong . . .”

“Hmm?” Juliet arched an eyebrow. “Oh, really? You were just using me for my many connections?”

Ghoul’s cheeks reddened, and she shook her head. “More like I was chasing after that smile of yours, those eyes, that sweet, stupid, big heart . . .”

“Hey!” Juliet shoved her shoulders, a lot of things clicking into place.

Ghoul laughed and sighed, and it seemed like her confession had relieved her of a burden. “At least I said it. Look, seriously, thank you for coming here. Thank you for being brave enough to track me down and force me to face you after . . .” Her eyes narrowed, and she took a sudden step back. “Shit! How’d you find me? My PAI doesn’t even have wireless ports! I never look into cams—”

“I’ll show you the camera that caught your face, but you don’t have to worry. It took a very powerful computer to find a couple of grainy images. Even then, I don’t think we’d have gotten a match if I hadn't saved so many images of you. I don’t think anyone you’re worried about will find you.”

Ghoul turned and started walking again, and Juliet followed, part of her wishing they could just stand and hold each other some more. She couldn’t make sense of it, the safe, comforting warmth of being close to Ghoul. Rationally, she knew she’d only really known her a short time. They’d been close for just a few weeks, but those weeks had been so charged with emotion and Juliet’s desperate need for some kind of lifeline, a role Ghoul had filled, that they felt like years in her mind. Putting it in that light, the feelings made more sense. Being close to her felt like coming home.

But now Ghoul had confessed a different kind of feeling, and Juliet wasn’t sure how she felt about it. As crystalized in her mind as those days with Ghoul in the trailer park in Phoenix were, they still felt dreamlike. She remembered when Ghoul had gotten into the AutoCab, taking off to turn herself over to Vikker’s cousin. She remembered being gutted, panicked, and desperate to get her back. Was she really only thinking of Ghoul as a friend? She had to admit that maybe she had. She’d go to any length to protect Aya. Still, the feeling in her heart, the deep ache, when she’d woken up and Ghoul had been gone . . .

“Why?” Ghoul asked, interrupting her spiraling thoughts.

“Why?”

“Why’d you find me? Why now?”

“Can’t I just want to see you?” Juliet sighed and shook her head. “That’s not very honest of me. Of course, I’ve wanted to reconnect with you ever since I got your message, ever since you took off, but, yeah, there’s a reason I’m doing it now.”

Ghoul had guided them to a small clearing among the trees with an old, ash-filled firepit at the center. She gestured to a pair of log stools set up near the firepit. “Take a seat. Tell me about it.”

Juliet nodded and then, trying to choose her words very carefully, began to explain everything. “You remember there was a corp after me, right?”

“Yeah . . .” Ghoul brushed off one of the logs and sat down. Juliet did the same, turning to face her, their knees nearly touching. Why did that matter? Why was there a little thrill about almost feeling her knee touching hers?

“That hasn’t changed. They’ve been looking for me this whole time, but I went a lot further than they were looking. I made a lot of friends, Ghoul.” Juliet couldn’t stop thinking of her with that name, and it felt forced to call her Cassie. “A lot of powerful friends, and I’ve built up a pretty fat bank account. I’m finally ready to deal with the ghosts in my past.”

“Juliet, I want to help, but my niece, my sister, the women here—”

“No, no! I’m not here to get you into trouble. I’m here because, back when we were together, the company tracking me figured out you were my friend. They put something in your PAI.”

“What? How do you know?”

“Because I got a message from you. A very convincing but fake one.”

“Shit! Seriously?”

“Yep. I’d show you, but do you have any wireless?”

“Just plug in.” Ghoul moved decisively, sliding off the log and sitting on the dusty, pine-needle-strewn ground. She scooted back so she nestled between Juliet’s knees, leaned her head forward, and reached back to peel the synth skin away from her data port.

“Um, okay.” Juliet pulled her cable out of her arm as Ghoul hung one arm over her knee and wriggled a little, getting comfortable. The warmth of her pressing against Juliet’s thighs was almost too much. Her mouth had gone dry, and she licked her lips, her mind racing, as she plugged the cable in. “Sending it.”

Ghoul was quiet as she watched the fake video of herself, but Juliet felt every second, every electric tingle, as Ghoul idly drummed her fingers against her calf. “Shit, man. That’s so real! The assholes fixed my teeth.” A few seconds later, “They know about my niece. This really freaks me out, Juliet.” She shifted, turning to look up at her with her pale, almost gray, blue eyes. “They only sent one, though?”

“I only got this one, yeah, but Angel thinks that’s because you took out your PAI. You put in a different one when you started working here, right?”

Ghoul’s eyes widened, and she scooted around, climbing back onto her stool to continue facing Juliet. “I did! How do you know that, though?”

“That was easy; there’s a lot of info about this commune on the local nets.” Juliet delicately, tentatively, rested her hand on Ghoul’s knee. “Tell me you still have that PAI somewhere.”

Ghoul smiled, baring her shiny, sharp teeth. “Sitting in a shoebox under my bunk.”

Juliet sighed, sudden relief washing over her. This whole thing hadn’t been for nothing! “I could kiss you!”

“So? Why don’t you?”