Chapter Eight

Kay almost ran over Rei, so suddenly did he stop after exiting the small laboratory and hospital. “What’s wrong Rei? You don’t normally let yourself care that much. Especially not for a woman you just met.”

“It’s not the woman, Kay.” Rei sighed, his dark eyes scanning the cavern. The lab sat on one end of the cave, near the elevator and at the top of the gentle slope that dominated the otherwise flat floor. He could see dozens of homes, little one and two room huts, with people milling about on their daily business. “It’s just… it’s getting worse up there.”

“Talk to me, Rei. Tell me what’s wrong.”

He sighed, and walked over to a small bench someone had built next to the clinic door. He gestured for Kay to sit next to him, as he gathered his thoughts.

“We’re all of twenty four years old, Kay. By Kitsune standards, we’re only adults because we can reproduce. I’ve been on the surface since I was sixteen, well before even the Expeditionary forces allow Kitsune to join the field units.” He said. “I was pressed into service, while still a child or something like that. I learned to lie, cheat, steal and smuggle just to survive.”

“You chose to go, Rei. Mother and Father didn’t make you.”

“And they didn’t make you, either.” Rei smiled, looking at his sister with a rare softening of his often angry expression. “You went up there at that time too, didn’t you?”

“I was different, Rei.” She sighed. “I was going to school. I mean, I know you resented that, but the Deep could only risk creating one fake identity. I know you’d have liked to have gone to university too, but it just wasn’t possible.”

“I know. And I have never held that against you, or been bothered by it.” Rei insisted, not for the first time. “Mrs. Watanabe did okay teaching us the basics, and I did alright on my own learning to hack a computer or con an idiot or three. I even kept an eye on you and that human boyfriend of yours… what was his name?”

“Harrison. Oh god, I haven’t thought about him in years!”

“Good thing, too. He joined InSec right out of college.” Rei shrugged with a chuckle. “Worked out for me though. I just happened to be using the same face I was using when you introduced us one day when I got caught up in a riot… and no I wasn’t part of it. He was in the riot squad putting it down, and managed to convince his partner to let me slip off. Just in time too, they opened up with the sonic hell a minute later.”

“Well… at least he’s doing well.” Kay sighed. Rei just nodded. “Then what’s bothering you? What do you mean its worse?”

“Every year there’s more and more people in Undercity. Not just Kitsune getting thrown out by their parents, but human kids, some of them younger then us when we got sent up there. The City is running out of jobs, and resources aren’t exactly becoming easier to find. Cred, if you can find it, just doesn’t seem to be going as far anymore.”

“All the more reason to keep this place safe Rei. I know you disagree with Alexander…”

“About a lot of things.” Rei growled. “And this place is one of them. Tell me the truth, how long do you think it’s going to last?”

“It’s been here since before we were born.” Kay snapped. “Alexander put it together thirty years ago, shortly after he left InSec.”

“Yeah, thirty years. A fraction of the time the City’s been up there, filling to the brim.” Rei agreed. “And in that time, how many coops full of chickens were killed by some bug, or how many epidemics whittled down the humans and Sirens? Hell, Kay, you’re the one who told me how mom cried when dad died from that flu, before she went herself. The freaking flu!” Rei stood, and began pacing. “They have a freaking PILL for that up there!”

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“It’s called anti-virals, Rei, and you have to take more than one pill.” Kay chided him. “And that’s why they decided to risk sending one of us to medical school, remember?”

“And you did well, too.” Rei smiled. “Managed to work a Genetic Engineering minor into the mix as well. My sister, the double doctor.”

“I’m useful here. The Deep needed those skills.”

“I know. And since then you’ve cloned how many flocks of chickens, genetically engineered to have half the lifespan but to drop twice the eggs of a normal bird?” Rei asked. “Let’s not forget the neo-crocs. You have to love food that will eat you if you move to slow. Although, to be fair, people upside haven’t even seen the animals that supposedly produce their meat so I guess that’s something.”

“The crocs mostly live on rats and garbage, and you know it.” Kay commented wryly.

“True… and isn’t it strange no one ever had to genetically engineer rats.” Rei commented, before shrugging it off. “Of course, as far as I can tell, no one ever needed too.”

“But that’s just it. People up there…” Rei waved vaguely at the ceiling. “They aren’t going to survive. Not the way they are, at any rate, but is it really all that better down here?”

“Of course it is! We might not have much, but at least it’s ours. Not the states.”

“Except that most of it is stolen from the state.” Rei scoffed. “And besides that, how big is the average hut we call homes down here. One room, maybe two, with a few dozen meters of floor space? Even the crappiest apartments up there have more room, especially when you have kids and get the dependent's bonus to your housing credits.”

“Yeah, Credits that seem to be less if you happen to make the mistake of having a Kitsune child. Let’s not forget what they’re doing to Siren children up there!” Kay snapped back.

Rei sighed. “I’m not sure that it’s just the Sirens they’re getting ready to kill en-mass.” He said softly.

Kay looked at her brother, her eyes wide. She put her hand on Rei’s shoulder and shook him firmly. “What do you mean?”

“They’ve started recruiting soldiers, Kay. And I’m not talking out of the schools. I’ve been seeing posters going up in the Undercity lately. Join the Army. Defend the City.”

“But there’s no one left to defend it from.” Kay stated, though her tone was unsure. “The Lunar and Martian colonies have no reason to want to return, and the City is the only large settlement of humanity… of any kind… left on Earth!”

Rei shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they plan on giving those kids rifles, and having them kill off mega-salties and mutant dingo packs. Maybe they’d like to expand the boarders of the City faster then the Expeditionary forces and penal work gangs have been managing. Either way, they’re going to get those kids killed, be it by some mutant animal or a lingering bio-weapon just waiting for someone to walk through its dust.”

Kay considered that, a pensive expression on her face. Her thoughts were interrupted when the baby nuzzled her, or more accurately her breast, causing the sharp eyed Rei to laugh out loud. “Oh, you think that’s funny, do you.” She demanded, closing her eyes as she sat back down on the bench, and beginning to concentrate.

“Hilarious.” He replied softly, knowing she wasn’t listening to him anymore. He watched absently as his twin’s breasts swelled. He didn’t bother to look away when she opened her eyes and pulled open her shirt to let the small albino child latch onto the newly exposed, and lactating, nipple.

“Pervert.” She accused.

“Card carrying.” He agreed. “How many families are down here, anyhow?”

“We’re back up to a thousand total people, mostly Kitsune and Sirens with a few human relatives mixed in.” She replied, looking out over the settlement herself.

“What if something does happen Kay? How do we get all these people out if that army is meant to deal with groups like us?”

“There’s… evacuation plans.” Kay admitted. Rei raised an eyebrow, having not heard of any, but shrugged it off as just another thing Alexander didn’t think he needed to know.

“And where do we run?”

Kay sighed. “You don’t want to know.”

“Somehow, I knew you were going to say that.” Rei admitted tiredly.

Kay chuckled softly. “So what are you going to do now? The kids would love it if you’d stay with us, especially since they miss their favorite uncle.”

“I’m their only uncle.” Rei countered. “I’ll come back to stay for a few weeks in a while. For now, I just need to get out of here. If I see Alexander again to soon, I might just put my hand through his face.”

“I think he noticed.” Kay grinned. “He slipped out the back while we were talking.”

“I know. For an assassin he walks kind of loud.”

Kay shrugged. “It’s not like he can increase the pads of his feet like we can.”

“True.” Rei grudgingly admitted. “But I’m going to go up side at least one more time. Is there anything you want me to grab while I’m up there? For the Deep, or you and the kids?”

“I doubt you can get me that gene sequencer I’ve been wanting so… how about a few toys? There’s about twenty sets of Kitsune twins, and five more Siren children running about, and none of them have anything other than sock dolls to play with.”

“Rob a toy store, no problem.” Rei nodded. “You know, that’s something I’ve always wanted to do.” He admitted.

“I’m surprised it took you this long.” His sister commented wryly.