Marie spun the prisoner around and frog-marched him around the desk, keying her throat mic as she went. “Bodine? We’re done in here. Get our casualties evac’d. Call as many vics as you need.” Casualties? I thought. I hadn’t seen any of us get hit, but I suppose it was never going to go perfectly. I just hoped nobody was dead.

“Come on, people. I’m gettin’ powerful thirsty, so why don’t we get this show on the road?” Marie got moving back down the hall. Pengyi and I glanced at each other and followed, along with the rest of her people. She led us all back into the main warehouse area. A few minutes ago it had been filled with deafening noise and the chemical tang of gunpowder. Now, it was silent except for the tinkle of brass disturbed by feet. I could still smell the smoke, but the reek of blood and human waste was beginning to overpower it.

Marie let go of the guy in the middle of the floor, and he immediately fell to his knees on the concrete. I noticed a trail of blood running down his leg below his baggy shorts- he must have caught a bullet at some point. He was short, maybe five-foot-eight. The arms sticking out of his wife-beater had the lumpy, unbalanced musculature of someone who did too many growth stims and not enough actual exercise. There wasn’t a hair anywhere on his head, but his whole face was tattooed with the blank, black mask that featured in many depictions of Inrè. Kind of stupid, considering the expressionless visage was inked onto his own very scared face. He had no bionics that I could see, just the gun and knife he’d already been relieved of. The only mod I noticed were that his irises were pure black, same color as his pupils. It was meant to be sinister, I guess, but right now it made him look even more scared.

Marie faced him, carbine aimed vaguely in his direction. “What’s your name then, son? You’re gonna have a conversation with someone, it’s polite to introduce yourself. I’m Marie.” There was a sly smile on her face, the same kind she might wear before playing a prank. Her soldiers watched impassively from behind her, along with Pengyi and I.

“Shank,” the Killer leader coughed out, hands still on his head. “I’m Shank.”

Marie bent down and slapped him fast as a B-block maglev. “Come on, now. None’a that play-pretend shit. Your real name, the one your mama gave you.”

He grimaced in more than pain, sweat greasing his inked-up face. “…Horace. Horace Juansson.”

To her credit, Marie barely cracked a smile. “Horace, then. Now, I’d bet a case of good liquor you know why we’re here, Horace.”

“Yeah, yeah, but-“

“But you know what? It was Sawyer you messed with, really, so I’ll let her talk to you instead.”    She stepped back, winking at me where Horace couldn’t see it. Was this some kind of test? I mostly suppressed my surprise and went up to take Marie’s place in front of him. His face had gone pale around his tats at the mention of my name, and when I crouched to meet his eyes it got even paler. The saw hung from my hand between us, an unspoken threat.

“Aw, shit,” he whispered. “So it was your place we-“

“No. But close enough,” I interrupted. That slow, icy anger was back in me now that I was face to face with this guy- with this idiot who’d had the gall to try and hurt my friends- and to send somebody else to do it, too. “So you admit it was your people who shot up that house I was in.”

He swallowed, eyes darting back and forth. “Yeah. Yeah, it was us.”

“And I’m guessing you didn’t just decide to do that out of the black. Who hired you?” That was the million-denar question.

His face screwed up into a grimace. “Come on, man, you know what they’d do to me if I told you?”

I did my best to stay calm, to act like I cared absolutely nothing for the man in front of me. The first was a bit difficult, the second not at all. “Look at where you are, man. Who’s your bigger problem right now? Them or us?”

“I-“

“Listen. You sent your guys to shoot at me and shoot at my friends. So me and my friends,” I jerked a thumb back at the crew, “Came to shoot at you. Whoever hired you? I promise, they aren’t your friends. In fact, I bet they’d be here in our place if we hadn’t shown up. Keeping you quiet.” I wasn’t sure about that to be honest, but it sounded logical. “Point is you fucking lost. All that’s left is to decide how hard you take it.” Still he hesitated, not meeting my eyes. “Listen, you don’t want to negotiate with me, maybe Marie can take over. Marie, what kind of deal would you make with this guy?”

She squinted at him like he was a piece of bad lizard meat, playing her part to the fullest. “Mmm…I warrant he could decide if I scalp ‘im live or wait ’til he’s dead.” Kings. The way she said it she might have been serious.

I turned back to Horace, shrugging. “There you go. Personally, I like my hair where it’s at. Now, you gonna talk or what?”

His eyes flicked madly around, lighting on the torn corpses of his friends. Then he let out a ragged sigh, seeming to collapse into himself. “Fine. Fine, you fuckin’ murderers. It was the Blues. Kings-damn-mother-fuckin’ Blue Division.”

I looked up at Marie for a moment and we both cracked up. Even her crew started snickering, though Pengyi just stood there watching.

“Did you think we couldn’t figure that one out?” I managed to say, turning back to Horace. “I’m big but I’m not stupid. Which Blue, man? You gotta give us something to work with.”

“…Okay. It was this skinny albino chick with black bionics. She’d hired us a few times before. Never gave her name, but one time she picked up her slab and the person on the other end called her Nazira.” Horace was breathing hard, now. I imagined his position was pretty stressful, but somehow I had a difficult time feeling bad.

“Sound like anyone you know, Marie?” I looked up again to see here squinting into the ether as if in thought. Korobov leaned in and whispered something in her ear.

“Oh, yeah, that’s it. Gotta be her.” she muttered. “Yeah, I think I know who he’s talkin’ about.”

“Good. Anything else for us, Horace?” I hadn’t meant to rhyme, but Marie still snickered. The man in question shook his head.

“S’all I know. Swear.”

“Well then.” I gave him a frosty smile. “All that’s left is figuring out what to do with you.” Before he could move I twitched the saw up to touch the side of his neck. He went stock-still as diamond needleteeth pricked his skin, and I smelled urine. “Kings. Drink more water,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “Easiest and cleanest thing would be to kill you and have done, right?” I noticed he was leaking up top too, tears streaming from clenched-shut eyes. They reflected the iris of my Thayer eye, little purple sparks rolling down his face. I didn’t much care. It really would be easy. I wasn’t just here for petty revenge, though, and I had Pengyi and Marie’s crew watching me besides. I made my decision.

“That’d be letting you off lightly, though,” I said, moving the saw away. Horace’s eyes shot open, mad and hopeful. “You’re not a gang leader anymore. Can’t be, not without a gang, so you work for me now.”

“Wh-what-“

“Listen. Your new job’s easy. You know people in similar lines of work, I bet. Other bottom feeders. All you gotta do is spread the word of what happens when you fuck with Sawyer or fuck with the Holy Bones. Tell them if anybody makes a move on us, we’ll make what we did to your guys look like a Pact Day dinner. The Bones are off-limits.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Kings, just cut my head off instead!” he moaned. “You got any idea what the Blues’ll do to me?” He lurched forward like he was going to grab at my legs, but the barrel of Pengyi’s shotgun extended from behind me and gently pushed him back. It was still hot enough to leave a red ‘O’ on his forehead.

“That’s not my problem,” I told him, not smiling anymore. “And if you decide to run or hide instead, run far and hide well- because there will be consequences.” I stood, stretching, and he tentatively joined me.

“Okay. You’ve fuckin’ killed me anyway, but okay. Kings and Praetors save me both.” He let out another gasping sigh. “C-can I go?” I watched him, and I almost slugged him in the face out of pure spite. But then I really looked at him, saw the defeated posture, the terrified dread in his eyes. Hitting him now would do nothing but make me look less in control. I waved him away and he hop-skipped out of the warehouse as fast as his hurt leg would take him.

Marie sidled up beside me. “You’re really gonna let ‘im go like that?” She didn’t sound critical, just curious.

“I figure we made our point.” I waved a hand at the corpses all around us. “And he’s right. If the Blues pick him up they’ll do something worse than anything I could come up with.”

“Mm. ‘Spose you’re right.”

“You said something about casualties before. How bad did we get it?”

“Not bad a’tall,” she answered, shaking her head. “A few grazes, couple guys that’ll need a sawbones but turn out fine.” She snorted. “Boukari fuckin’ ran into a conex and knocked himself out. Probably got a concussion. Only one dead, which lemme tell you: for an op like this, that’s good.”

A wave of emotions I couldn’t describe ran through me. Academically, I’d known something like this could happen, but the reality was different. Maybe this mission would’ve gone down even if it was someone else in the Bones getting shot up, but I still felt like that casualty was on me. I felt the death in a way I rarely did when it came to the enemies I’d killed myself.

“…who was it?” I finally managed.

“One of your extras. I didn’t see it happen. Not sure which.”

Shit. Rossi or Plehve. “You know where-“

“Out around the side,” she said with a jerk of her thumb. “Ain’t your fault, Sawyer.” There was a surprising amount of sympathy in her eyes. Guess she’d probably lost men under her command before. “We all of us know this ain’t the safest line of work.”

“Mm.”    She wasn’t wrong, but right now it didn’t really help. “…Thanks, Marie.”

She nodded and I turned to leave the building. Pengyi fell into step beside me. “She is not wrong, Sharkie,” he murmured. “Warriors fight, warriors die. All warriors know this. Is way of world, sure as sun does not rise.”

I squeezed his shoulder but stayed silent. I already knew his attitude toward violence and death was very different from a typical light-dweller’s. He was trying to help, though, and I appreciated it. We walked outside past Marie’s crew- who, the fighting over, had reverted right back to being the gangsters I knew. They coup-de-gras’d the few wounded Killers and looted the bodies with practiced efficiency.

Out on the street, I looked around and spotted a lean figure standing over a body on the sidewalk. Rossi. Oh, no. I walked up and saw what I’d been dreading. Plehve lay there on the crumbly concrete, a single bullet-hole right in the middle of her forehead. I’d hardly known her, had even found her kind of annoying, but…this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. There was a tight feeling in my chest now, like straps cinched tight around my ribs. Plehve’s face was relaxed, and someone had done the courtesy of closing her eyes. She could almost have been sleeping. She’d always looked young, but lying here limp and dead on the street she almost seemed a kid.

“She insisted on comin,’ y’know.” Rossi didn’t look at me as he spoke, sounding utterly defeated. “I told her there weren’t no need, it wasn’t the kind of thing they sent our kinda soldier to do. I shoulda argued more.” He fell silent. Beside me, Pengyi watched the corpse, standing completely still.

“Rossi, I…” I’m sorry, I’d meant to say, but the word wouldn’t come out. It seemed pointless, worthless compared to a dead friend. I settled for putting a hand on his shoulder, expecting him to shake it off. He didn’t, and we stood there both churning with guilt and grief. Pengyi stepped closer, a comforting presence at my side.

Finally Rossi spoke. “She looked up to you, y’know.”

“Why?” I said on instinct, immediately realizing it was rude. I just felt like even less of a role model than usual right then.

He sighed. “She saw a young woman like her join the gang, rise up outta nowhere to work for Naudis Walker. Saw her get herself a hell of a scary reputation, make more deng than a Guild pimp on Nydd’s Eve. No shit she wanted to be you. Not that she ever could’ve.” He was right. She’d been strong, but not my kind of genetic-freak strong. Not to mention I’d be dead five times over if not for being made out of space metal- “She was too nice. Too nice to everyone. She couldn’ta hacked the guilt,” Rossi continued, derailing my train of thought. “You, Marie, a lot of those shooters she brought…y’all can just turn it off when you like. Kill ten people a night and not lose a wink of sleep. That’s what it takes to succeed in this fuckin’ place. Why you think I’m sixty years old and still workin’ the street? I couldn’t hack it, and I could tell neither could she. I’m snaky enough to run from a fight, at least, but not her. Seems like its always her type doin’ the dyin,’ though. I was gonna talk to her. Tell ‘er there ain’t no shame in leaving…” He trailed off, seeming to shrink into himself.

I stood there like a dumb tower of meat. Not much I could come up with to respond to that. Pengyi took my hand and squeezed it, but I hardly noticed.

“I ain’t tryin’ to blame you, Sawyer. Coulda happened to anyone, and we woulda responded the same way. Maybe if I hadn’t fucked up watchin’ your place…Hell. Can’t change it now.”

“I…” I didn’t know. “Will she…Would you let me know when the funeral is?”

Rossi glanced up at me. “Yeah. I can do that.” It wouldn’t do anything for Plehve, of course- but I still felt like I ought to go.

“Thank you, Rossi.” I hesitated a moment then walked away, Pengyi by my side. “Hey, I’m not mad at you or anything, but you think you could give me a moment? I just- I don’t know.”

He squeezed my hand again before letting go. “Is fine. I get it. But I am here for you, Sharkie. Remember that.”

I pulled him into a tight hug, smelling blood and gunsmoke on his hair. “Thanks. It means a lot.”

“Mm. I wait out front.” I let him go and walked aimlessly away from the building, thoughts whirling but going nowhere. I confused myself. How could I kill Blue Division without batting an eye, but Plehve’s death weighed so heavily on me? In the grand scheme of things they were the same. That tight feeling around my chest returned, and I walked faster, breathed deeper, emotional vertigo making my head spin.

“It doesn’t get any easier, y’know.”

The voice shocked me aware and I stopped short. I’d wandered into a narrow alley between tenements, the acid-stained bricks rising high above to either side. The figure ahead of me was shrouded in gloom, but the voice was familiar. I realized why as an arc of electricity jumped between two of her fingers, lighting her cigarette. Nanopathy.

In the cold blue flash of plasma I saw Yera, leaned up against the wall beside a motorcycle. Walker’s rival Rune, the one in charge of the pitched gang battles that had disturbed D-block for the last several days. Shadows lent harsh outlines to her cruel face, the muscles of her arms. She puffed on the cig, the smoke unfiltered and spicy in my nose. “Plenty of people in there fed you excuses, I’ll bet, so I won’t. I’ll tell you the truth. It doesn’t get easier.”

“What do you want?” I asked dully. Whatever the answer, I was not in the right mood or state of mind for it.

She watched me for a second, the burner smoldering between her tattooed fingers. “See you in action, for one thing.”

She’d been watching the op, who knew from where. “Yeah? You enjoy the show?”

“Not particularly. I missed most of it.” Those iron-colored eyes remained impassive, watching me through twists of smoke. “You’re even nastier in a scrap than I heard, lookin’ at the bodies. Walker must be over the Pall he got to you first.”

“You sound different than before.” Her accent had been thicker at the Runes meeting, I was almost sure of it.

“You mean I ain’t talkin’ lahk this?” She snorted. “Bein’ underestimated is often an advantage, Sawyer. Talking like a back-pit yokel every once in a while’s a small price to pay.”

I shook my head. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll go ahead and fuck off, now.” I turned to leave but she kept talking.

“Like I said, Sawyer, it doesn’t get easier, being responsible for other people’s lives. It can sure as hell get harder, though.” I paused and she took it as an invitation to continue. “Why’d you sign up? Money? To keep yourself safe? Some people, those reasons’ll carry ‘em through the rest of their lives. They’ll be enough to anything. Not you though, I’m thinking. Not me either. Some of us need something more. Something to make it worth it.”

“Get to the point,” I growled. She had me intrigued and that fact was pissing me off.

“For Cwyr Smith it really is just money, money and nice clothes.” She kept talking like I hadn’t spoken. “For Venya it’s her daughter, though she’d try and have me killed if I knew the kid existed. For Renfrew it was his boy, and you saw what happened to him now he’s gone. For Walker, well…” I felt a bit of shame as my ears perked up. I wanted to hear, despite the source. “It’s the Bones. The gang. It’s the means and the end for him. Whatever else he is, he’s loyal, a true fuckin’ believer. I’ll give him that.”

“…And you aren’t?” Now I was really curious. “What’s your reason, then?”

For the first time she smiled, raising her chin. The light of the cigarette sparkled on the metallic tattoo around her neck: a collar of chainlinks, each splintered and broken. “Freedom.” She whispered it, almost reverent.

Ah. She was a zealot, then. “For the quarries?”

She met my eyes, grinning still. “For a start.”

Not a zealot, just insane. I laughed, one humorless bark. “Are you trying to cheer me up, or are you actually nuts? Why tell me this?”

She didn’t seem offended. “Maybe I’m wrong. For all I know, you’ll be happy just doing what you’re doing. Keep workin’ for Walker. Keep buildin’ a rep. Keep makin’ money. There’ll be more days like this along the way. Some worse ones, too, but maybe you’ll get used to it. Eventually you’ll get rich enough to quit, if you can make yourself stop. Help your friends, help your family, die in a nice house, leave a nice tall stack of chits for your kids or whoever. And after all that, nothing will have changed.”

I didn’t respond, didn’t know how to. I couldn’t possibly be in a worse state of mind to hear this.

“Just consider your future, Sawyer. Ain’t none of us here forever, so don’t waste your time.” She handed me a business card, blank but for a Net address, and numbly I took it. “‘Night, then.” Without further ado Yera hopped on her bike, fired it up and rumbled away down the alley. I watched the taillight until it reached the opposite end and swerved away into the dark.