Marcus jumped to his feet and turned to the door. He looked back quickly at Lilijoy and urgently gestured to the other door leading from the room, putting a finger across his lips.

Talking loudly to himself, he said, “Well I never! How rude is this, showing up without messaging? Did your bugs eat your brain or something?”

He stomped across the room. The lights came up and the door to the hall slid to the side as he approached, allowing the muffled throb of the factory mine to enter the room. At the same moment Lilijoy flung herself into the adjoining room. The lights were down in there almost entirely, but the light from the door that remained open behind her cast a bright wedge into the space.

Feeling very exposed, she quickly slid to the wall beside the door, getting out of sight, while she appraised the rest of the space she had just entered. A large platform suspended from a wall took up much of the area. The platform was covered by cloths; she figured it was where Marcus slept. There was one more door, all the way on the other side of the room. The only place to hide would be under the bed, but she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t be visible through the doorway. She froze and listened, rather than do anything rash.

Marcus’ voice was a bit forced, “Well, well Mo, fancy seeing you here. And who’s your friend? I would have expected Anda to be with you?”

A vaguely familiar voice answered, “None of your fucking business Marcus. I found another interested party, so Anda can go fuck himself. Just hand it over without a fuss, and there might be a little something in it for you too.”

“Well, um...that is to say...you might want to talk to Anda, you see...” Marcus stammered.

“Fuck him and fuck you. Bring the gob out now, or my good friend here might be inclined to taste whatever bugs you have floating around that future corpse of yours.” Mo’s voice sounded just a bit shrill.

“Oh. I see. Yes. It’s just that the reason you need to talk to Anda...”

“Just spit it out already!”

“Well, Anda might have, I mean, he said it was fine with you and...”

She heard the sound of feet entering the room as Marcus continued with his voice tailing off uncertainly, “...he kind of took her already.”

“Shit!”

The hitherto silent partner announced in a soft hiss of a voice, “I can smell the Gob. It is still...fresh.”

“Fuck man, all due respect, but that’s some creepy shit right there,” Mo replied. “Did you smell it in the hall?”

She couldn’t hear if there was an answer, but Marcus broke in quickly, “It must have been thirty minutes ago. I’m sure that her scent wouldn’t linger in the halls the way it does in here. Look, I’ll just call Anda and we’ll get this all straightened out...”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” said Mo. “By which I mean, don’t even fucking think of calling him. You don’t mind if I look around the place a little, do you? I never get tired of all the fucking variety with the floor plans in this fucking place. Could of been a fucking architect if you ask me.”

The sound of steps approached the door to the bedroom, and Mo’s shadow fell across the bed. Lilijoy held her breath and shrunk into the corner of the room. It was too late to make a break for the space under the bed now. She huddled with her eyes cast onto the floor, perhaps following that primal logic, ‘if I can’t see them, they can’t see me.’

Her heart pounded and her mouth felt dry and sour when his feet entered the room. They were large and black; she realized it was some kind of foot clothing. Her knees began to shake uncontrollably and she could almost feel his gaze.

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“Hey, you mind if I use the john?” he yelled back to Marcus. The door across the room slid open, and the light came on in the room beyond. Mo walked over and stuck his head in, made a sound of disgust, and then walked back across the room and out.

“Not here.” she heard him say.

Her body was overwhelmed by adrenaline, her mind couldn’t grapple with what had just happened. She stayed huddled in the corner, expecting him to jump back into the room and grab her at any moment. From the other room she heard voices, but her jumbled thoughts couldn’t register the words. After another moment, she heard them withdraw and the outer door slide shut. She began to draw shuddering, almost sobbing breaths. Marcus came into the bedroom and shut the door, muttering with a heated voice.

“Stupid bastard thinks he can just come into my space and look around. No one gets to see anything I don’t want them to see in here!”

He looked over at Lilijoy and said, “Now smells are a different matter. We were lucky his ‘friend’ didn’t come past the front door. Nasty type, that one.”

Taking in the sight of Lilijoy’s huddled and shaking form, his face softened.

“Oh my dear, that must have been a little scary for you. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to explain. My bugs let me shape what others see, or don’t see in our case, as long as the other person is using augsight. It works best in a place I know very well, and for one person at a time. Now please forget I told you that,” he said with a little smile. “It’s very important to keep these little abilities secret when we can. I wouldn’t want Mo’s friend to come back for a taste test!”

Lilijoy looked back blankly.

“I’m afraid there are some not very nice aspects to our society, little one. It’s a bit much to explain everything, but you should know the basics about that man, as it seems he has taken a bit of an interest in you. You remember how I told you that almost everybody has some kind of bug system in their brain, and we get them by taking pills?”

She nodded.

“Well, you can keep taking pills throughout your life, adding to your system. Generally speaking the more bugs, the better, although there are some kinds that don’t work well together, and a few that actively compete. Still, there’s plenty of room up here,” he said, knocking on his head.

“Some years back, some enterprising fellow thought to himself ‘Why should I pay for pills, when there are walking, talking sources of bugs all around me?’ Initially, he was mostly interested in blood bugs. Oh yes, we have those too.” Marcus gave a little sigh of nostalgia.

“Lovely little bots that can do all kinds of amazing things. Blood cultivators can hold their breath for hours, can run until their muscles fray. Some of them are immune to poisons and diseases. But blood cultivating is very expensive. It needs to be maintained you see. The little machines are always rushing all over the body, working very hard, and they break down much faster than their cousins in the brain. The luckiest, wealthiest blood cultivators will actually implant little bug factories somewhere in their bodies, but that costs more than someone like Mo might see in a hundred lifetimes. The rest just add more in when they can. So you can imagine the temptation to just dip into your neighbor for a quick fix.” He mimed grabbing and biting an imaginary victim.

“Of course, it’s not quite so simple as drinking blood; it’s quite difficult for free floating bugs to make it through the stomach. That’s why we have pills designed for such things. But through a variety of techniques, these bug thieves manage to steal from other people’s bodies. We call them vampires, after a legendary creature that lived by drinking the blood of others. Some of them have embraced the mythology of the vampire quite proudly, and I’m afraid our new friend is one of those. He’s upgraded his sense of smell, and who knows what else. If he’s a blood cultivator he will be tireless in pursuit. He may have other kinds of upgrades as well, but it’s no use speculating. He’s a nasty character, and we will have to move very quickly now that he’s in the picture.”

Lilijoy hugged herself with her working arm and said softly, “Lilijoy needs to run away from these people. Maybe hide in the Piles again.” Tears began to well up in her eyes.

“Stupid cattails! Stupid Predators!” She paused. “Stupid Lilijoy. Can’t understand what you saying except bad man wants to drink blood. Don’t want bugs in brain!” She looked at Marcus with wide eyes. “Take bugs out?”

Marcus shook his head. “There are ways, but I would need to understand your bugs very well to remove them without harming you. It may come to that, but first, I have one more thing to do. I was really hoping I wouldn’t need to do this.”

He gave her a serious look. “I have some special bugs that I can send to try and find out more about yours. I might even be able to talk to them. It will take a little bit of time, so it needs to happen right away. I’m guessing we have no more than an hour before they return, or somebody else gets wind of the situation.”

“Will it hurt?”

“Not a bit! Probably. Hop up on the bed and we can get started.”