Ghoul’s response caught Juliet by surprise, and her eyes opened wide, but it was Ghoul who looked away first, her pale skin flaring pink. “Sorry! I don’t know where—” Her response was cut short as Juliet grabbed the sides of her face and leaned in to kiss her gently. Her heart was racing, her mind exploding with thoughts, too many to make sense of. A sound like a waterfall pounding over a cliff roared in her ears, and still, she pressed her lips into Ghoul’s, tasting a minty tang that reminded her of lemon-lime soda. An energy drink?
When she pulled away, Juliet, too, was bright red, flushed, and a little breathless. “I . . . I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Neither was I!” Angel cried.
Juliet laughed, and so did Ghoul, and they both looked away, embarrassed or shy, or both. Juliet was trying to make sense of things in the light of their friendship, and Ghoul seemed similarly perplexed. After a minute, Ghoul frowned and shook her head. “I can’t leave.”
“I . . .” Juliet didn’t know what she wanted to say. The words, “I don’t expect you to,” had been on the tip of her tongue, but was that cold? Clearly, she and Ghoul had feelings that went beyond friendship. She tried another angle, “I wouldn’t ask you to. I get it. When . . . when I’ve dealt with this corp, when I’ve tracked down the people who put the daemon in your PAI, I should have more freedom. I can visit. I can help . . .” she trailed off, feeling like she was babbling.
“I’d like that.” Ghoul reached out and gently gripped Juliet’s hand in both of hers. “Is this real? Is it really you? You’re different . . .”
“I’ve been through a lot.” Juliet shrugged. “I’m glad you recognized me. My eyes, my hair. I’m not the same.”
“It’s more than that. You carry yourself like a warrior. Can you really use that sword?”
“Yeah.” Suddenly feeling warm, Juliet shrugged off her coat, letting it fall onto the stump behind her. She turned her wrist to show Ghoul her tattoo. “My mentor gave me these. You know, in case someone tries to challenge me for my sword.” Did she really just call Tanaka her mentor? She almost laughed at herself.
Ghoul squinted at the kanji, eyes widening. “Is that a fucking monoblade?”
“Yeah.” Juliet couldn’t stop the wide, prideful smile as Ghoul’s eyes widened in surprise.
Ghoul looked back at the tattoo. “Red wolf?”
“My mentor.”
Ghoul nodded, understanding clear in her eyes. “I get it. Those nuts who try to duel will understand the reference. Shit! You really have grown up, haven’t you?”
“Come on.” Juliet looked down, suddenly embarrassed. “I wasn’t a kid; I was just new to the operator scene . . .”
“Yeah.” Ghoul took her hand again. “I know, okay? I’m sorry about that. I think I’m just a little intimidated.” Her words faded into a raspy giggle as she gave Juliet a playful punch. Suddenly, her eyes opened wide, and she jumped up. “Shit!”
“What?” Juliet was on her feet in an instant, her hand on the hilt of her sword.
“No, no,” Ghoul chuckled, eyeing her warily. “Nothing like that. I just had something I was supposed to do with my niece—an appointment. Will you be in town a while?”
“Depends on what we can find on your PAI.”
“Shit! Right. Let’s go back to the commune, and I’ll get it for you. Promise me you won’t leave town without seeing me again, though, right?” Ghoul grabbed her hand as she waited for a response.
Again, Juliet felt that familiar warmth spreading through her chest. She nodded, squeezing Ghoul’s fingers. “Yeah, promise.” They walked back down the trail to the dirt road, and when they got there, Juliet was surprised to see a group of women and a couple of children riding E-bikes toward the commune. Ghoul was surprised, too, letting go of Juliet’s fingers and clearing her throat nervously.
“Hey, Cassie,” one of the women called. She was probably in her thirties with dirty blond hair tied in a ponytail. Like all the women on the bikes, she wore a backpack that looked stuffed full.
“Erin, hey.” Ghoul waved, nodding and smiling—only with her lips—as the women rode past.
“So you do have some friends in there, huh?” Juliet playfully nudged Ghoul’s shoulder.
“Sure,” Ghoul chuckled. “I get along with most of ‘em.” She nodded toward the backs of the women as they rounded the bend leading toward the gate. “We have a group who ride around making trades with some of the locals. That one, Erin, is really sweet. Talk about a rough story; she and her sister showed up here a couple of months ago, running from some megacorp out of Detroit.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. The sister . . .” Ghoul shook her head, looked down at the road and spat. “You should’ve seen what they did to her—wires sprouting out of her skull. They did something so she doesn’t grow hair anymore.”
“Wires?”
“Yeah. Tons of ‘em, long, thin wires all hooked into this thing on her head—poor girl. We offered to get a chop doc in here to try to remove ‘em, but the sister’s not right; she freaks out if you get close to her. Says they hurt. Erin has to sedate her, and she never comes out of their trailer.”
Juliet frowned, her mind running down paranoid paths. “What if it’s a transmitter?”
“Nope. We’ve got some real gearheads in the commune. They’ve got a sensitive scanner pointed at her trailer; she never transmits anything. Telling you, Juliet, we get some seriously sad shit through here.”
“Hey, about that,” Juliet cleared her throat awkwardly, “don’t tell anyone my name, all right? Not until I give you the all-clear. I gotta get this corp—”
“Situation handled. I get it.” Ghoul took her hand again, and they started walking. When they rounded the corner to the gate, Ghoul tried to let go of her hand, but Juliet gripped it tighter.
“Let these jerks see. What do you care?”
“Uh . . .” Ghoul’s ears reddened, but she nodded, gripping Juliet’s fingers again. “Sure. Fuck ‘em.”
“There’s my girl,” Juliet laughed. When they were close to the gate, and the two guards were intently staring, Ghoul stopped and turned to face her.
“I’ll go grab the PAI so you don’t have to wear an inhibiter. When you’ve got more time for a real visit, I’ll show you around, okay?”
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Juliet nodded, narrowing her eyes and staring through the gate at the trailers and small buildings. “Nobody in there has any wireless?”
“Nobody. We have one terminal connected to the sat net, but it’s firewalled.” Ghoul shrugged as if to apologize, but Juliet shook her head, smiling.
“I like it. Better safe than sorry, and I think corps are too damn nosy. It’s kind of cool to be able to get away from all that.”
Ghoul nodded, looking into her eyes as if trying to read her thoughts. “I hope we can sit down and talk while you’re here. I swear I’m not usually this busy. I have most of tomorrow free. Can you send me a message on the commune’s message board? Just make it a DM. My username is g1111. I can check it with the terminal. Give me an encrypted address to message you at, all right?”
“G1111? Like Ghoul, but with 1s? Creative!” Juliet laughed.
“I was kind of in a bad mood when they made me take out my PAI and sign up on that damn thing.” Ghoul shrugged and then, after a second, added, “Be right back.”
As she hurried through the open gate, glaring at the guard until he backed away nervously, Angel said, “I don’t know where to begin. What an exciting visit!”
Juliet chuckled and turned, walking a few meters away and subvocalizing, "I didn’t expect that! I’m still kind of perplexed.”
“Do you love her?”
“I care about her, Angel. I don’t know what I’m feeling beyond that. I think I was mostly caught up in the moment.”
“Your physiological response to that kiss was close to orgasmic!”
“Oh my God, Angel!” Juliet slapped her hands to the side of her head and squatted down, mortified.
“You good?” the wispy-bearded gate guard called.
Juliet waved a hand toward him. “Fine.”
“Sorry about that,” Angel said softly, “I’m just excited.”
“It’s fine.” Juliet stood at the sound of jogging feet on gravel and turned to see Ghoul hurrying through the gate, holding a small black plastic case.
“Got it!” She handed it to Juliet. “That’s the case for my new one. Don’t worry, it’s totally off.”
Juliet held it close to her chest like she’d just been handed a holy artifact. “Thank you, thank you!”
“Sure. I just hope you can find what you want on there. I hope it leads you to the assholes who’ve been chasing you.”
“I hope it’ll do more than that. I hope it lets me set a nice, juicy trap.”
“Promise you’ll leave me that contact info? Promise you’ll see me again before you go?” Ghoul held up her pinky, and for the first time since she was a teenager, Juliet interlinked her pinky with someone. The tiny connection sent a thrill of electricity up her arm, straight into her heart.
It was a gesture wholly incongruous with her memory of the tough, hard-case operator she’d built up in her mind. It made her wonder just how much she had to learn about Ghoul’s other facets.
“Promise.” She wanted at least to hug her again, but Ghoul just grinned those shiny, sharp teeth, then turned and jogged back through the gate. Juliet tucked the little black case into her pocket and started to turn but paused, locking eyes with the guy who’d laughed about Ghoul having a friend. “What?” she growled.
“Um, what?” He shifted his eyes from Juliet to his partner as if looking for backup, but the other guy suddenly had something on his boot that needed a thorough inspection.
Juliet took a couple of steps toward him, resting a hand on her sword, shifting her posture, and letting Lacy Blake settle in behind her eyes. “If I were you, I’d be more careful about talking shit around people you don’t know.”
He swallowed and lifted both his hands as if in surrender. “Hey, sorry. No disrespect.”
Juliet stared at him for another second, then turned and stomped over to the SUV. “Little punk,” she muttered.
“Yeah!” Angel replied. “Little punk!”
Juliet laughed and slipped into the driver’s seat, suddenly in a very good mood. “Message Dora Lee and Tanaka. It’s time for her to show us what she’s got.”
“I could probably do it faster.”
Juliet started the car rolling, motoring down the gravel road. “I know, Angel, but let’s give Dora a shot. It’ll mean a lot to her and the team if she can get what we need off this chip.”
“I noticed you never tried to read Ghoul. With the lattice, I mean.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t, Angel. I just couldn’t. Not on purpose—the same way I couldn’t do that to Aya, Honey, or Bennet. You know what I mean?”
“Of course. Slow down!” Juliet hit the brakes and looked around, puzzled.
“What?”
“You almost missed the turn to pick up Barns!”
“Oh, shoot! Barns! I almost forgot about him!” Juliet laughed, then turned toward the old strip mall. She was very wired up, excited to move toward the next step, excited to get to WBD and put them behind her, and excited to move onto the next stage of her life. Along with the many other reasons she had to remove that specter from her past, she’d added another: What would it be like to spend more time with Ghoul?
Barns was already off the roof and jogging over the pavement toward her when she pulled up. Something about his grin sent Juliet’s good mood into a downward spiral. After he put his rifle case into the back and then slid into the passenger compartment, he confirmed things by saying, “Well, that was an interesting show.”
“Oh, brother,” Juliet groaned. Of course, the guy had the optics and the vantage to see pretty much her entire encounter with Ghoul. What about the trees, though? “What do you mean?” she fished, starting the SUV rolling.
“Well,” he quipped, “let’s just say I almost ran to your rescue when I thought that chick was biting your nose off. I mean, thermals don’t really show the details, but I was pretty sure normal people don’t talk with their faces pressed together.”
Juliet sighed and leaned her head against the window. “All right, let’s hear it.”
“What? Think I’d tease you about something like that? Give me a little credit!” Only a heartbeat later, he added, “Just a little surprised, though—didn’t think you went that way.”
“Went what way?” Juliet arched an eyebrow, looking back at his grinning face.
“You know, for the ladies.”
She punched him in the shoulder, producing a nice meaty thwap. “I go for people, not ladies.”
“People? As in everyone? Where do I fit on that list—Oof!” He grunted as Juliet pounded her knuckles into the same spot.
“People, as in individuals. Now lay off it, okay? Honestly, the whole thing caught me by surprise, too, and it was just a kiss. I doubt it means anything.”
“Oh, touchy subject?” he asked, rubbing his arm. “Right. Well, I’ll lay off after one thing.”
Juliet rolled her eyes and looked back at the road. “What’s that?”
“This,” he grunted, slugging her in the thigh, producing a painful charley horse. “I mean, I owed you at least one!”
“You prick!” Juliet laughed, rubbing the spot and trying not to swerve off the road.
“You started that toxic behavior, ma’am,” Barns chuckled. He touched the lever to lower his seat while he threw his arms behind his head. “Anyway, was all that snogging worth it? You get what you came for?”
“He’s surprisingly witty,” Angel said, eliciting another strained giggle from Juliet.
“You’re a traitor,” she subvocalized. Then, more loudly, “I got what I came for. Things’ll be in Dora’s hands now.”
“Right. You think it’ll take a while?”
“Not sure. I need her to get some spy daemons off an old PAI without alerting them. I’m afraid they’ll self-delete if they notice her. Once she does that, we’ll use the daemons to set up a trap.” It sounded simple when she framed it like that. Once they controlled the daemons, they could get them to report anything. Juliet figured it would be something along the lines of Ghoul putting her old PAI back in, going looking for Juliet, and setting up a meeting somewhere. Of course, it wouldn’t be Juliet meeting Ghoul—she and her team would be waiting for whatever WBD goons they sent to nab her. With control of the spy daemons, they could take all the time they needed to set up the perfect trap.
Barns grinned and stretched obnoxiously, arching his back until the passenger seat creaked with the strain. “If anyone can do it, it’ll be Lee. Sounds like we should be celebrating!”
“You just want an excuse to buy more beer.” Juliet lifted an eyebrow and looked at him sideways. When his grin only widened, she slowed and turned back toward the center of town rather than heading straight for the highway. “I’m game. How about we grill some meat? I saw an actual butcher shop in that co-op.”
“Oh, shit! You’re speaking my language.” Barns straightened his seat, pushing himself upright as his optics swiveled toward her. “You report the good news to the boss?”
“Sent a message out. Dora should know by now, too; wanted to give her time to set up. She and Hawkins good with steaks?”
“Hawkins probably wants something vat-grown.”
“Right. Not a problem.” Juliet turned onto the road leading to the co-op’s warehouse and slowed. There were a dozen big, chrome, and plasteel road bikes lined up along the street, parked so their front tires faced the road. A few guys wearing entirely too much leather stood nearby, while she could see others standing near the entrance to the co-op.
Barns sat up and grinned, pulling a cigarette from his pocket. “Hey, I think your buddy had some friends.”
“My buddy?”
“The guy you had me watch the other day. He rides a bike like that.”
Juliet slowed further and pulled into a parking spot half a block from the co-op and the motorcycles, running her eyes over the people milling about outside. Angel flashed ID pings all over her AUI as she identified each bike and each person, highlighting a few with red “unknown” labels, meaning their PAIs ignored the ping. “Most of ‘em are operators. Doubt this has anything to do with us.”
“Yeah. Not like he knew we were coming back here today.” Barns opened the door and climbed out. “Anyway, I’m going in with you this time. You know, just in case.”
“In case what? There’s a dozen of those bikes. If they want a fight, it’ll bring corpo-sec running.”
“Civil police force,” he corrected.
“Whatever.” Juliet climbed out of the SUV, straightened her jacket, adjusted her gun belt, and closed the door. “Come on, they’re not going to mess with us in broad daylight in the middle of town.”
“Sure.” Barns rested a hand on his bulky sidearm—a military-grade needler with a full-auto option. She’d seen him utterly destroy targets at the range with it. They walked together up the street, and Juliet began to get a sinking feeling in her stomach as the leather-clad mercenaries lingering by the bikes intently watched her. “I’m starting to have second thoughts,” Barns muttered.
“Yeah.” Juliet slowed, still a couple of dozen meters from the co-op. “We can find another store or, shoot, let’s get some takeout from one of the local restaurants.”
“Now you mention it,” Barns said, turning and walking back toward the SUV with her, “I’ve been craving Mexican food.”
They only managed a few steps before a strident voice called out behind them, “Hey! Kenshi!”
Juliet felt her spine tingle, knowing a lot of eyes were on her, as she slowly turned around. “Get ready to run, Barns.”
“I’ll run when you do,” he muttered, and Juliet saw his thick, heavy-duty needler in his hand. When she looked toward the source of the voice, she saw the guy she’d run into the day before, and he was hopping down from the warehouse's loading dock. The rest of his leather-clad buddies were swarming out of the co-op, along with at least a dozen other onlookers.
“Been waiting for you. All day,” the guy said, shrugging out of his black leather jacket and handing it to a friend. He was built a lot like Tanaka—broad shoulders, wiry muscles, and not an ounce of fat. He wore a plain black T-shirt over faded jeans and old-school motorcycle boots. Honestly, Juliet kind of liked his style. He continued toward her, resting a hand on the hilt of his katana while the rest of the onlookers also converged, lining the street.
“Jesus,” Barns sighed. “You want me to blast this guy?”
“I mean,” Juliet subvocalized into comms, looking left and right, noting the many hands resting on gun grips. “I guess we might be able to shoot our way out of this, but it sure would make a mess. Let me talk to him.” She cleared her throat and stood up straight. “What’s the story, Charles? I thought we had an agreement.”
“What, after you used a cheap move to get your sword out after I already backed down?” He was only ten meters away now, so his voice was hardly raised.
“So, what do you wanna do here?”
“I want a duel. You’ve got a tatt says you’re a sword master taught by the Red Wolf. Everyone knows he’s dead, and you’re too damn young. You got two options: hand me that sword and let me shave off that lying tattoo, or duel me.”
“Welp,” Juliet sighed, shrugging out of her motorcycle jacket. “Can you hold this for me, Barns?”