I’d picked out my outfit carefully, wearing a nondescript grey hoodie and yoga pants. I was never one of those girls who wanted to grab attention or anything, but today, I was looking to like, totally avoid it. As if I could.

But as I looked up the ratty stairs of splintered, rotting wood, and the rusty metal door at the top of it, hoping, despite the sign on it, that I was in the total wrong place, I thought I was still totes overdressed.

Maybe if I wore a sack. Filled with lice and rats. I hated it. Hated being here. It made me feel gross.

The door banged shut behind me when I entered, a flimsy metal echo, and the man at the cheap wooden desk glanced up from his tablet to look me up and down in a way that totally just like, doubled up that feeling. I clenched my fist on the chit in my pocket and hesitated too long. I felt stupid by the time I finally forced my feet to step up to him.

“Well hello there little girl. Welcome to Legit Loans. Are you looking for a little pocket cash?”

“I’m here to pay off my mom’s debt,” I told him, slamming my palm against the desk. It was a move I’d practiced in my mind a zillion times, but he didn’t even like, blink. Which wasn’t how it was supposed to go at all.

“Sure thing, little lady. Come with me into the conference room and we can get the two of you all sorted out.” His chair screeched across the vinyl as he stood, and he held a door for me that lead even further into his nasty, grody den.

I tightened my grip and stepped through. And then had to wait for him to show me which way to go. It was the room just on my right, which was…totally not what I’d call a ‘conference room’.

Like, it had all the pieces of it, but they were all just garbage. I couldn’t imagine Mom coming in here and signing paperwork under the cheap, ratty unframed posters of smiling families and the little moldy-looking carpet holding up a folding table and chairs. But this is where the bills were return-addressed. This had to be the place.

“Have a seat,” he said, as he sat in the one closest to the door. To the exit. I threw myself into it and he gave me a wry smile before pulling out his tablet again.

“Account-holder’s name?”

“Harper Olsson.”

“Relation?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “She’s my mom, I told you.”

“You know,” he said, like leaning forward carefully and speaking slowly, like he was patiently explaining an important life lesson to me “you can get a lot more done by being pleasant than rude. Can you be pleasant for me, little girl?”

“I’m not a little girl.”

He smiled and leaned back. “What are you? Sixteen?”

“Seriously, dude? I’m twenty one.”

“Good age,” he said. He licked his lips, staring without blinking, and I felt a shiver go down me. Seriously, had Mom talked to this same creep and decided borrowing money was a good idea? I knew she was desperate, but nobody should be, like, this desperate. After like, forever, he turned to his tablet and read it at me. “Says here your mother has quite the debt. Only barely making minimum payments. How are you proposing to settle this with us?”

“With money,” I said quickly.

“Well of course, sweetie. I meant how with money. We can put you on a payment plan that you’ll be able to manage. If you’d like to save your mother the heartache, I might be able to pull some strings for you and get it transferred out of her name even.”

“No,” I told him. “Lump sum payment of the rest of the debt. I’m not signing any more weaseling bull of yours.”

He smiled patiently again and glanced down at the tablet. “I don’t think so sweetie.”

“I’m not your sweetie either.”

“I’m just trying to be nice. Don’t feel you need to bite my head off, love.”

“And I am definitely not your love. Just call me Rito.”

“Whatever you say, little girl,” he said. “Are you aware just how much money your mommy owes us? It’s a little more than I think you’d save up from allowance.”

“I told you already. I’m a grown woman, and I make my own money. I’m paying it.”

“Is that so? What do you do?” Again, his eyes roamed me in a way that made me feel sick. I felt nausea rising in my throat. It was like, everything in this office was designed to be disgusting and off-putting, and the guy most of all.

“I work. That’s it. Just tell me the number so I can pay it and go.”

“You said you were twenty-one, hmm? But your body is so small, so fit, and your face is like a child’s. Or an angel’s.” He smiled at me again. “That’s a compliment, little girl, you can take it as one.” I didn’t respond, but I did dig my fingernails into my palms so hard it hurt. “Thing is, little girl, your mommy came in here plenty of times with a sob story when she couldn’t make her payments. Talking about her little daughter, Rito, who was chasing her dreams going to art school, and if we were just more patient with the payments, she was supposed to graduate soon, and she’d have a job making good money, and it was some kind of investment.”

“My mom would never sell out my future to you,” I spat at him.

“Oh don’t worry, she didn’t. Didn’t promise us anything but what we’re owed. I was just being conversational. Though…since it comes up, it isstrange that you’re, what, third year at art school, your dear mommy is shouldering your student loans on top of everything else, and somehow, you’ve been working to save up enough money to pay it all off? I’d think if that were the case, mommy dearest might have let it slip when she was talking about your bright future we’re all working very hard to produce.”

He laced his fingers at me and leaned back, giving me a look of complete serenity. I wondered if he did a lot of drugs.

“It doesn’t matter,” I told him. “I have the money, you want it or not?”

“No, not really,” he said. “I think your mommy and us have already got quite a mutually beneficial arrangement going on here. I wouldn’t want to sour it by accepting dirty, illegal money from her daughter. Earned doing who-knows-what kinds of dangerous things. It’d be irresponsible of us.”

I seethed at him on the inside. This…this jerk just wanted to keep Mom in the poorhouse forever. I wasn’t stupid. I knew how much interest he charged. I felt my blood boiling its way right up into my brain and I stood and glared down at him…well…level with him…with all the fury I had burning inside me. This absolute friggin’ jerk. I hated him so much.

And he just sat there and smiled, and I really blew my lid. I didn’t know what I was saying or doing, but I slapped my hand on the table and shouted. “I’m here to pay off my mom’s debt!”

“You already said that. But it doesn’t change our responsibility to our clients–“

I slammed the table again, and again. “I’m here…to pay off…my mom’s debt!”

He sighed heavily. “Look honey, maybe if you were willing to meet us halfway on this, I could figure out a way forward for you. I really shouldn’t be, but if you were willing to assume some of the debt yourself, or could pay at a higher rate…a little extra can carry us a long way, you know?”

Finally I’d had it. I slapped the table again, but this time, with the chit in my hand. “How’s that for extra?” I jeered at him. He peered at it, twisting his head like the snake he was, to try to see between my fingers.

I looked down and all I could read on the display was a lot of zeroes. A disgusting number of zeroes. More money than anyone had any need of or right to. And if I could make it all go away for this, I’d do it in a heartbeat. For the first time since coming here, he seemed off-put, and I felt superiority fill me right up as this little maggot struggled to read between my fingers.

“How’s that?” I said. “That should cover it, and all your ‘extras’, shouldn’t it? So are we done here?”

He gently pried up one of my fingers, finished reading, and then sat back in his chair again, his face impassive. And then, after a minute, started to laugh. Which I didn’t like at all.

“Where would a little girl like you get half a million credits?” he laughed. “Please, do let me know. Selling cookies?”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I earned it, and that’s what matters,” I shouted at him, totally pissed that he could even try to take that one moment from me. “So do you want it or not?”

“Like I said little miss, I’m not sure we can accept your money. If this is stolen or traced back to something untoward, the chit gets deactivated, and then what am I left with?”

“The same thing you have now,” I told him. “Threatening Mom every week.”

“Well, when you put it that way,” he smiled, and extended his arm. I hesitated, loathe to touch him, but this was like, what I’d come in here for. I took a breath and then shook his hand. It was just as gross as I thought.

“Charming,” he said. “But hand over the credit, please.”

“Oh, right.” I did, and he immediately rechecked the balance. I felt that satisfaction again, even though I remembered the hundreds of times I’d done the same. All the months I’d been stockpiling whatever credits I earned, digging through Mom’s files to figure out what money needed to go where…that whole time, I’d checked and re-checked this chit until I was worried I’d wear it out.

“This is a lot of money,” he said, standing. “I’m going to go deposit it and finalize your paperwork. Stay right here.”

“Oh I’m not going anywhere,” I told him, crossing my arms. He smiled again.

It was a few minutes later when he came back and sat down with his casual air reclaimed, which clashed with the first words out of his mouth. “You know, counterfeiting is a serious crime.”

I blinked at him. “What?”

“You honestly expect me to believe that a little girl like you just happens to have half a million c’s in their pocket? After all we’ve discussed about your prospects already.”

“That chit was genuine! You checked the balance yourself.”

“And it was a very well-made fake, too. But when you work in the industry as long as I have, you get an eye for things.” He smiled his condescending smile at me. “I’m so sorry you had to find out like this. Where did you earn it? Is there any chance it was just a simple mistake and you could demand recompense?”

“It was a real chit!” I shouted. “It wasn’t fake, you saw it yourself!”

I began to feel panic edging in, making my lungs feel small and useless. Stupid, improbable thoughts dashed through my head. Lia had duped me? She was just a girl, even younger than I was. This guy was a skeeze but he was right that was no amount of money I should ever own…so how could she?

I shook my head, mad at myself for how easily he’d made me doubt myself. This guy was a grade-A jerk and I already knew it. He was just lying to my face!

“I’m calling the cops,” I told him, mobile in my hand. “You took my money. The biometric logs will show that.”

“I already called them and explained the situation,” he shrugged. “Not pleasant when someone’s trying to pass off counterfeit money at an honest establishment.”

“But it wasn’t counterfeit,” I shouted. “And when the cops get here, they’ll see, and they’ll take you to jail for all the shady garbage you pull around here! And I’ll sue you for every credit you’ve ever fleeced from Mom!”

“Is that so?” he said, with a wry smile. “When it comes to the chit’s history, the police will probably be wondering where you got it from, even if the biometrics do hold up. Tell me, did you pay taxes on it? Do you have work statements? How would your ’employer’ feel about suddenly having their finances investigated? And you, right in the middle of all of that, dragging your poor mother even lower.”

I didn’t know my heart could feel any colder or fall even lower, but every word he said was like he knew exactly what I was and what I’d done. His eyes looked right through me, past my hoodie and my face struggling to remain calm, right into me. And I just froze.

His fingers danced, and between them, I saw a chit — my chit — spinning. I made a grab at it and he easily pulled away with arms twice as long as mine. But when it wasn’t moving anymore, I could see…it wasn’t my chit. It was…it only had a couple hundred creds on it…but more…it just looked off. The color. The holo didn’t float in exactly the right place.

My heart plummeted and I felt the blood leave my face.

“So you understand,” he said, calm and cool and cruel as anything. “What will the police think when they get here and see what you’re trying to pass off? It’d be a real blow to your prospects if you had a criminal record. Oh…and what would Mommy think?”

I stumbled backwards into the chair. No…

“Now,” he said, turning the tablet around for me to examine. “We can make this all go away if you just sign here–“

It was later that night when I woke up…though I’d hardly like, call what I was doing sleeping. Just kind of like, passed out from crying too much. My mobile was blowing up like crazy though, and since I was already up, I thought I’d take it.

> top priority — absolutely urgent, evacuate everyone from Vegas residence

> will pay whatever you want

> please help

From AEGIS.

I shook my head at the little square of yellow light. Pay whatever you want. What was the point in that? What did money even mean? It didn’t do anything. It was just a set of numbers that could ruin you. Just something you traded your life for, until someone took it away from you.

I thought long and hard about just ignoring it and going back to sleep, or back to crying, really. She sounded desperate and pathetic, but so was I. I wished more than anything for today just to have never happened. That me and all my stupid ideas and mistakes would just disappear. I was such an idiot, all I’d done is make everything worse.

But AEGIS had also said please. And that was the first decent thing anyone had said to me all day. As much as I wanted to pretend I didn’t exist, the fact was, people like her who could be decent were counting on me. It made sense that if I really was just stupid garbage, I should be helping out those people who weren’t. At least I’d have done something with my day other than screw up.

I could only hope that the universe dug my karma and decided to pay the loan shark in kind.

I blinked a little as I reappeared, but to my eyes I’d just gone from one dark room to another. Lia’s bedroom was a little bigger and a little messier than mine, and at first, I thought I was just creeping on her, showing up in her room in the middle of the night unannounced.

And then I heard a faint roaring and booming outside. And saw her stir. Saw what I thought was her, I realized.

“Rito?” she asked, the same surprise I always heard when I moved stuff. “Oh my God, what are you doing here? How’d you find out? …Never mind, just get us out.”

Her voice was a bit distorted and I could hardly make it out as hers, coming from a plain white mask that covered her whole face. “Lia?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s me.” She pulled up her mask and I saw the familiar face glowing in the dark.

But what was making it glow was what really caught me. She was propped up against a wall, lying on her back on the floor, facing the bedroom door like she expected it to fly open any second. And across her body was a gun…if you could even call it that, easily six feet from barrel to stock, the fancy scope of which illuminated her face in the dark.

“Rito, get us out,” she pleaded. “Everyone. Tem too, if you can.”

I was about to ask what was going on when I heard something…I’d never heard before. It sounded like metal scraping on a chalkboard, but I heard it with my whole body. And then a boom, a big one, and I felt that with my whole body too as the house shuddered.

“What was that?”

“XPCA. And Tem. And Moon,” Lia said. “It’s war, the whole block is ducked. Get us all out, please. Now. Please.”

She turned her head to the wall and waited. I had so many other questions, but another explosion jolted me into acting, and I just sent her off. And then I realized I didn’t know who all I was getting out here, which was stupid of me. She said Tem and Moon at least. And I knew Chiho and Saga lived here, and Athan and Whitney recently.

I was counting people in my head when I stepped out of the room and just…stopped.

The faint roar I’d been hearing since I arrived wasn’t a far-off car, it was fire. It was everywhere. And silently filling the sky, flashes of white and violet so bright, I couldn’t get the afterimages out of my eyes, streaks of pure white in pure blackness.

The block wasn’t ducked, it was gone. So was half the house. Holes seemed burned right through the ceiling, Athan’s room was completely levelled, just rubble where the corner of the house had been. I spun on the spot, trying to take it in, and everywhere I looked I saw walls torn down or burning up, white flashes making it hard to see in the firelight.

The tree in the backyard that Saga always sat under was burning. There were dozens of vehicles on the street outside, all scorched and blackened, charred refuse surrounding them. Half the house was just gone, I could sort of see into the garage from here, and the once-shiny machines arrayed so neatly were all caked in soot and buried under a collapsing roof.

And then the smell of it hit me, all at once, like I could only take in one sense at a time. There was smoke, yeah, tons of it. Enough to make me choke. And sulfur and ash, or gunpowder or something. But over all of that, a smell that made my heart stop and brought me back to a place I never wanted to be. Back to staring down at a friend’s lifeless body again, Talon, face-down in his own carpet, in his own apartment, in his own blood.

I realized some of the charred refuse around the vehicles wasn’t just refuse. It had a face, half-melted off. Limbs twisted in self-defense, fused in place when they died. As my eyes roamed, I saw it wasn’t just some of the refuse, it was all of it. It was people. Exosuits, military uniforms, men and women, all burned and twisted together into lumps, barely recognizable, just faces and hands here and there, as the fires still burned across their blackened bodies.

I felt my heart literally stop. My lungs just gave up on moving. My whole body seemed to shut down as I realized…there were bodies everywhere. It wasn’t just those. It was everything. Everywhere I turned, suddenly I saw death creeping out of it. I screamed. And then I choked as I threw up while screaming, my scream and the splatter of my sick too quiet to be heard over the fire and the explosions and the sound of the sky tearing with the flashes.

There were more flashes and more explosions, and listening now, I could hear people in the distance crying out as the blasts hit, laser beams as wide as a car, scarring the earth. Making more bodies. Spilling the smell of their blood into the air until it caked every inch of me.

The ground came up at me suddenly, and I realized I collapsed and shuddered, but even the carpet in the hall had blood on it. Like Talon’s. It was everywhere. I had to escape. I had to be anywhere but here. Here was hell.

I was in the dark again, but this dark was cool and quiet. Lia stirred next to me crouching under the schoolhouse floorboards. In the minute it took her to notice me I just trembled. Held myself and trembled and felt my hot tears.

“Rito? Where are the others?” she asked. “Where’s Chiho? And Whitney? And Tem and Moon?”

I couldn’t hear her over the screaming in my head. I just sat and trembled and held myself and knew, as much pain as was in my life, as unfair I found the world, I knew nothing. Nothing in my life could ever ever compare to that hell I’d just seen.

“Rito, I need you to listen to me,” she said, throwing her mask on the ground with her gun. “Listen, please. We need to save the others, okay? We can’t just leave them.”

She touched my arm and I recoiled. It was like fire. Everything was like fire and blood.

She said other things, in a soothing voice, pleading with me. And then she yelled. And when that still couldn’t reach me, she pulled my hair, screamed in my face, hit me, crying.

And then she froze, looking up. There was a cracking sound, and the trapdoor opened above us. Lia dove for her rifle, but something shot into her with a whooshing sound, and then she cramped into a ball and shuddered as it clicked with electrical malice.

“Found ’em,” a man said, landing in the dirt next to us. He levelled something at me as well while another man dropped down. “Are you going to cooperate or do you want to be tazed too?”

I said nothing. I didn’t hear him or see him, his gun or his black XPCA uniform. All I saw was blood and fire and the bodies, so many bodies, and all belonging to Talon.

“Well makes my job easier,” he said, cuffing Lia. “Pack ’em up and keep waiting to see if any more show up. Busy night.”