Page 10 of The Fall

She watched him jerk his head to the left, making eye contact with a woman on lookout. Tiny. Strawberry blonde hair and completely covered in freckles. She looked barely older than herself. Seventeen, Eighteen, maybe? Lusa had a feeling she’d be seeing that one again.

“We only need limb repair,” he grunted.

Sesi tilted her head this way and that, inspecting his hardware. “For now.”

Cinder cracked his neck. “One negotiation at a time.”

Sesi kicked a tin can in their path, sending it skittering. Cinder flinched, the noise adding to his growing pile of annoyances. Her mother wore an impish smile. “And what are you offering the Styx?”

“Services.” Cinder said with a certain amount of pride. He looked past Sesi, scanning for who might hear him. “They took over EosTech, but without Model 2 and NovAITech’s databases, they don’t know how anything works.”

“And they’re selling access to the remaining Pods.” Sesi concluded. Lusa could practically see the wheels turning. Did she miss the mental exercise? Seeing all of the moving parts and mapping out contingencies?

Cinder nodded. “Only some of them. The latest gen stuff they keep for themselves. They showed up in force and broke all the modded Pods, cornering the market.”

“I heard they took over trafficking from the Harpies.” Sesi casually inspected her fingernails, as if they were only discussing the weather.

Cinder scoffed. “Are you holed up in The Glacier?”

Lusa wondered how much anyone really knew about The Glacier. Or how much they knew about the outside. Part of her was curious to see. Another part of her felt claustrophobic just thinking about it.

“Humour me.” Sesi smiled in a way that said she wouldn’t be answering his question.

“No-one has the scrip to make trafficking profitable and the Natalists disappeared.” Cinder narrowed his eyes. “Around the same time you did, actually. You wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with that, would you?”

Sesi breathed a laugh and kicked the snow off her boots. “Ask Talia. If you see her.”

Cinder held himself together fairly well, but Lusa noticed a little colour drain from his face. No-one in their right mind asked Talia anything. Her reputation preceded her, even after all these years. Lusa couldn’t help but feel a little proud.

Cinder led them to a row of buildings that appeared to have been posh storefronts long ago. Lusa spotted the remains of awnings over spacious, but broken windows. She wished she could have seen it in its prime. To wander through its endless options and revel in the illusion of infinite choice.

Cinder paused before going further and attempted to scan Lusa and Pinga, coming up blank. “Your infamous scan-jamming tech,” his derision caught in his throat. “Who are these two?”

“Looks like your DocPods aren’t the only thing that needs upgrading.” Sesi grinned. Lusa knew full well no upgrade would make his Opti capable of scanning them, but the longer they could keep people from learning the truth, the safer they all were.

“They wait outside.”

“You know that’s not how this works. Piston gets two, I get two.” Sesi’s chin drifted upwards. It was the same look Lusa remembered dealing with a particularly irksome group of traders. She hadn’t known how close she’d been to killing them all until she overheard a conversation on the way home. Sesi held her impulses on a much tighter leash than either her or Talia.

Cinder laughed off the implied threat. “They have to be scanned first. You’re welcome to do the same with Piston’s”

Lusa caught Pinga staring at her nervously. She tried to convey as much calming energy as she could through her eyes. She might be annoying, but Lusa was still her big sister – by size, at least. Pinga was technically a few minutes older.

“And you did. It’s not on me if you can’t do it properly.” Sesi’s chin righted itself. Lusa knew she’d won.

“G’wan then,” he grunted. “I doubt ours will have any trouble handling you and your fancy jackets.”

Sesi made no indication that she’d heard the remark, but Lusa’s spine stiffened. She was more than capable of handling herself in close quarters and Pinga was an excellent shot. Forcing herself to relax, she followed her mother’s lead. Cinder was only trying to get under her skin.

Broken Hexaline bricks hummed, flashing sporadic images of long forgotten corporate logos. Cinder led them through a short alley, covered in ice and refuse. Crunching under their boots, refrozen snow alerted everyone to their presence. It was a far cry from the oppressive silence of the trap lines, where a heavy blanket of white would suck all sound from the air.

First Sesi, then Pinga stepped through the crack in the wall. Her sister shuddered. A moment later, she understood why. The low voltage of Hexaline brick wasn’t enough to produce a spark, but the static field made the hair on her arms stand on end. Lusa took her cues from her mother and suppressed the urge to react.

The gap led into an old high-end fashion shop. The large windows Lusa had seen from the outside seemed much smaller with sheets of rusted iron and chain link piled in the gap. Any clothing had long since been looted. The once-regal front desk had been partially disassembled. Lusa spied parts of it among the scrap blocking off the windows. Accumulating in the back corner, next to a steel fire door was yet more rubble.

Sesi’s hand found her shoulder. “Take the gap.”

Lusa nodded and stood just inside the crack in the wall. Her monocle needed a line of sight to Sparx waiting somewhere hidden outside, but it still felt like a slight. She would be better at close range if things went tits-up. As the two of them moved deeper into the room, Pinga looked back at her nervously.