I almost shoved Victoria into the lift while glancing back toward the docks. The Fotuans might have been tall, but I still managed to lose them in the crowd as the doors closed behind us.

Victoria leaned against the wall, both of her hands bracing against the metal accessibility railing. The lift didn't start moving, so I started punching in the floor where we'd come from. She owed me an explanation, but I'd avoided people long enough to know that standing still wasn't the solution.

"Not there," she managed as I typed in the first two numbers. That said, she didn't offer a number of her own, so I simply switched the last floor number. The lift shuddered and decoupled. We were likely headed to a random residential deck that we wouldn't have access to, but it was better than nothing.

I crossed my arms and turned to Victoria, who was still staring at the floor instead of looking at me, her hair that had been perfect and prim a moment ago but had managed to fall over her forehead and spray out at some random angles. I gave her time to speak up and offer the information, once it was clear that she wasn't going to I leaned against the door across from her.

"So what kind of job is this going to be?

She continued her staring contest with the floor.

"Because if I'm going up against armed Fotuans that came out this far, whatever you've got in the cargo hold has to be-" I stopped. There was a weird feeling when you were moving between floors in a space station. Artificial gravity barely touched the lifts, so it was impossible to tell whether you were going up or down, but there was always a general feeling, your body understanding that it was was moving.

It wasn't enough but it was at least enough to know when we'd stopped moving.

I bounced between 'shit' and 'curious' and ended up spitting out, "That's not good," as I turned back to the console I'd put the residential deck in. According to it, we were still headed there, but the ETA was frozen.

"What's going on?" Victoria asked after I'd been staring at the console for a second too long. She pulled herself off of the wall and stood up, smoothing her hair back into place as she did. It wouldn't quite sit the way, but she threw away the 'dishevelled panic' look faster than a politician.

I motioned to the screen, and she took a step forward and leaned to get a close look.

After a moment, she continued, "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything."

"Clearly you-"

"Okay," I cut her off, and she, somehow, actually respected that. There was a lot to say; I could tell her that she could vent out the airlock. That she should be thanking me for being with her at all. I should tell her to stick her stupid pride up whatever organ they had for an ass. Instead, I just took a deep breath. "Alright."

"It's not alright."

"Yeah, no-" I stopped there for a second. Translators were good, but it was hard to have someone shoot back a response to a turn of phrase. That just wasn't how translated language worked, unless she was running some new, top-of-the-line shit.

"See, you're worried."

"Just," I pressed one of the many prompts on the lift. The planetside weather came up for the provinces directly below the station at the moment. The screen wasn't frozen. "Not sure what to do here."

"Let me," Victoria placed her hand on my shoulder to move me aside. I didn't get a chance to resist before she added enough force to make the decision for me. It took a second for me to catch my footing after getting shoved to the side. She leaned down to look at the screen, but didn't press anything.

If she had the confidence to shove me to the side she could answer questions. "What am I smuggling?"

"Pardon?"

"What am I carrying for you?" I asked, "I-"

"I didn't think asking was part of the contract."

"Well, you and I," She poked another prompt on the screen and also confirmed that the electronics of the elevator weren't broken. "-we just had a discussion about how you couldn't find a Fotuan mercenary out here."

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"Yes."

"And then there were three."'

"You saw the Fotuans then." Victoria took a half step back from the console in the wall and almost frowned at it.

"Weren't trying to hide."

"Unfortunate," she half whispered to herself, but we were in an elevator, and nothing was going to be quiet enough here. She continued considering the console but didn't answer my previous question.

"Well?" I eventually offered. I would have tapped my foot, but I didn't think she'd understand the gesture.

Victoria turned her smoke-coloured eyes to me and, for the first time, looked me over. "What's your name?" she asked, bringing up one wrist to pull up her PA.

"Kingston?""

"Isn't that a human city name?"

"Also a person's name."

"Kingston, what's your transfer code for the contract?" Victoria turned her wrist enough toward me that I could see the empty text box on her PA's holo.

I offered it and held up my PA, a moment later, it chimed.

"I've transferred you an advance on the contract," she explained. "Separate from the number we agreed upon," she added, predicting my question.

"Thanks, bu-"

"I believe humans are aware of the concept of 'hush money.'"

I looked at my PA and nodded at the amount she'd just transferred me. No need to negotiate a better rate last minute if she was willing to toss around those numbers. "Understood."

"I'm paying you to shut-" she began to hammer home the point, but the lift hummed back to life.I couldn't tell what direction we were moving in, but we were once again in motion. A quick glance at the tablet told me that we were going to our original, admittedly, random destination. "A sunshield issue," Victoria stated like it was a fact.

"Conveniently timed," I pointed out, but it was a reasonable explanation. I'd spent a enough time getting shot at that I struggled with assuming that happenstance was just happenstance. Once enough guns had been pointed at you, it started getting harder to imagine situations where you weren't headed for one.

Maybe good luck would just be good luck.

The lift shuddered to a stop, locking in place as the digital announcer wished us a safe trip home. The doors opened out into a dark hallway. Both Victoria and I stared out the open doors waiting for the lights to come online. They didn't, and combined with the shuttered sunshield it left us with an exit into almost total darkness.

That was right. I had terrible luck.

The announcer started telling us that we could head back to the main shopping deck, where there was a massive sale on home defence systems. Obviously I'd picked a good floor.

Instead of walking out of the elevator, I turned to the console and typed in the floor address where we'd met at the sports bar. At least I knew where I was going at that point.

"I'm sorry! This lift has been chosen for maintenance. Please wait for it to undock. Another lift will come shortly," the voice chimed before the elevator made the 'doors open' sound again, prompting me to take a step out.

There were two options here. The first was that, as was typical, I was having a string of bad luck, and I was fortunate that it was just the 'annoying' kind. The second option was that I had bad luck, and I was a genius for packing heat to a bar earlier today.

Only one way to find out.

I stepped out of the elevator with my hand at my side, just above where my holster was hidden by my jacket. As I stepped out into the darkness, I looked up at one of the myriad overhead lights in the hallway just in time to see it spark and reveal the shots through the glass. Fun.

At least I hadn't been shot yet, so whoever had done this either wasn't around or wouldn't shoot on sight.

The elevator chimed again, prompting Victoria to get out. Luckily I didn't need to hold a hand up for her to understand that wasn't a good idea.

"Okay," I called out into the darkness as I reached into my jacket pocket with my hand that wasn't threatening to pull my gun, "don't know what you guys are up to but," I pulled my AR Glasses out of my pocket and flicked them open, "I'm just here to say hi."

No response. I put on the glasses, and they started filtering detail through the darkness, pulling light in from every direction to let me see.

"Just gonna introduce myself. I'm Kingston. I'm a Kali Class Merc registered in this sector." There wasn't legal standing to anything I was saying, it wasn't like explaining that I was OpSec, but the classification was the most polite way to ask someone if they really wanted to do this.

My glasses came properly online, and I could see clearly down most of the hallway, albeit with a green tint. Aside from stains and glass on the floor, it was empty; though there were a lot of entryways into apartments someone could slip into and disappear.

"Glad we're on the same page," I announced to the empty hall, "just need to call a new lift, and I'll be out of your hair." I turned back to the lift and continued to myself, "if ya have it."

Victoria was inside the lift with her arms crossed, she cocked her head at me, and I shook mine. It was 'clear,' but I wasn't to guarantee her safety without sweeping the entire place.

The lift chimed again, prompting her to get out, instead, she pressed the screen several times, but the announcer responded. "I'm sorr- I'm sorr- I'm sorry-" getting cut off each time she repressed the prompt. "I'm sorry. This lift has been chosen for maintenance. Please step out of the lift and wait for it to undock. Another will come shortly, thank you."

I took the gun off my leg, I'd gotten the Hammerhead years ago and every time I'd chosen to bring it along it'd been the right call. I motioned for Victoria to step off the lift and ensured that I was flashing the gun to anyone watching from the hallway. That was probably inviting a fight.

Something or someone moved down the way, shifting weight, a boot sliding across the tile.

I clicked the safety off, and the Hammerhead spun to life, the rail acceleration system kicking into gear as a shot of coolant vented out the sides.

I'd been paid, which meant that Victoria wasn't just an annoyance. She was a client and I had a rep to keep.