Tina felt chills as the salty night air rolled in off the ocean some ten miles away. She’d once read that the ocean had been twice that distance away in the past, back when the tides were low, and before half of Rio was reclaimed by the sea.

She leaned back against the palm tree, having made sure that it wasn’t the same one she had vomited beside earlier. She brought her knees into her chest for warmth, and stared down at her dirty and calloused bare feet. Her body had finished healing, but had burned through a lot of nanites doing so. The side effects would start soon. She had maybe another day or two, if she was lucky.

Tina stared into the night sky, to where a crescent moon hung low over the horizon, the dark side illuminated by a network of city lights from the Lunar colonies. She often wondered what it would be like to go there, a whole new world free of the chaos and constraints that defined her life here.

She then looked beyond, to the stars themselves; an endless sea of twinkling possibilities. She’d been so out of touch with the world these past few years. She hadn’t even known there were ships now capable of reaching them, and here she was about to go and destroy one.

Her mind rolled back to Doc, to the choice he had offered her. Or the illusion of a choice, perhaps. In less than a day, she could either let him become her new master, or die. Some choice. And what cause did she even have to trust him? He’d admitted to killing Raul so casually it was disturbing. Who was to say he wouldn’t do the same to her after his “job” was done?

How did things get so messed up? With Marcos, she’d at least known where she stood. Who knew how else this Doc might make her repay her debt?

But he had been right about one thing: her plan to get back home to the US was a pipedream. She had to make a better life for herself, that was true, but here and now, and on her own terms.

“Hey, Size Queen!”

Tina glanced up to see the rickshaw kid, Paulo, approaching her, a huge grin on his face.

“Don’t call me that,” she said. “It’s not my name.”

Paulo froze on the spot, clearly taken off guard by her snapping at him.

“What do you want?”

He shrugged. “Nothing. You look sad.”

“You would be too, if you were me.”

Paulo laughed. “Maybe you’re just hungry. You want me go get you something to eat?”

“No, thanks.”

He sat down next to her, his tiny frame dwarfed beside hers. “When I get sad, you know what I do? I go chill with meus amigos.” Paulo pointed to the line of rickshaws down the street.

“We’re like brothers, though not real brothers. You know? Ain’t you got no friends like that?”

Silence hung in the air like the most pathetic answer on Earth.

“I did once,” she said eventually. “And we were close, like sisters. Like you and your brothers.”

“For real? Where they now?”

“Gone.”

“Oh . . .”

Tina sighed. That wasn’t entirely true. “Well, I do have one sister who still lives down here. Gwen.”

“Yeah? She big like you?”

Tina chuckled. “Yes.”

“Where she live? I never seen her.”

“She lives in Alphaville.”

Paulo’s mouth hung open, and his eyes grew wide. “No shit?” he said in English, and then switched back to Portuguese. “With all the rich people? Why you living here? You should go live with her!”

“Doesn’t quite work that way. I haven’t been a very good sister. Haven’t gone to see her in a really long time, so . . .”

“So what? That crap don’t matter when you’re family.” Paulo got up and dusted off the back of his pants. “All I know is you got to be a dumbass to be hanging around here when you got a sister in Alphaville. See you later, Size Queen. I got a job.”

And he ran off, back toward the rickshaws.  

Tina huffed out a laugh. The kid was right. She was a dumbass, indeed. She hadn’t seen Gwen in years, but she did have an address for her. The thought of seeing her again, or rather, being seen by her again, brought on an uneasy anxiety. Of everyone, Gwen had managed to make a decent life down here after the League died. Tina didn’t know exactly what she did, but she obviously earned enough to go the designer drug route for survival.

Modeling, or something. She’d seen her in ads on a billboard once. Tina had contemplated seeking Gwen out before, maybe asking her for help. But Marcos would’ve eventually found her, and she couldn’t risk endangering Gwen like that.

But maybe this Doc guy wouldn’t be able to.

A surge of hope sparked adrenaline as the thought steeped. Doc was from the outside, and if he needed to coordinate with someone like Raul for support, he couldn’t know the lay of the land. If she could get as far away as Alphaville, and fast, maybe she could lose him. Plus, Doc had his “job” to do, and a deadline. He wouldn’t risk wasting time looking for her. He’d have to return home at some point, too. And when he did . . .

“I’ll be free.”

She could make it to Alphaville in less than an hour if she hurried. Tina sprang up from the ground and took off into the night.