Artwork by Felipe Hahas.
As the last tumbler of the safe falls into place, the lights of the expensive apartment turn on. Behind me, I hear the soft hum of a coilgun spinning up. I freeze in place while my eyes adjust.
“What do you think you’re doing?!? Get away from there!” Her voice is surprisingly calm, but the anger is there. Betrayal does that.
The view is right out of one of those daytime dramas that Essential Enterprises is always broadcasting. All that’s missing is a musical sting and a sudden zoom-in to her face. Ms. Sylvia Hayes, the VP of Brick Lane Realty, a subsidiary of Materials Management Corporation, is standing in the doorway to her bedroom where we’d just spent the past few hours together. The flashing lights from the buildings across the street splash her with red and blue lights. Her silver hair’s a mess, her icy blue skin shines.
In one hand she’s holding the bedsheet wrapped around her body, more from sudden modesty than a need for warmth.
Her other hand is pointing a slim, shiny pistol at me with a slight tremble.
I leave my tools in the lock and move away from the hidden safe, turning slowly toward her. I start to step forward with a smile on my face, “Sylvia, I know this looks bad, but…”
Sylvia pulls the trigger and there’s a quiet compression of air before my shoulder is shoved back against the wall by her shot. I look down at my bare chest and the bruise is already beginning to form. Baton rounds, of course. She’s too proper to have illegal ammo. Still, I’m pretty sure that pistol was a gift, and this is the first time it’s been fired.
“I don’t want to hear about what it looks like, Cody! Is that even your real name?”
“Yes…”
“Shut up!” She’s getting louder now. I barely hear the quick recharge of the gun. “I can’t believe I trusted you! Slept with you! Now I find you trying to steal from me!” She inhales with a shudder, refusing to cry. “I knew it. No one who looks like you would ever actually be interested in me. It’s only about what I have.”
I stay against the wall, letting her process and fill the air with words instead of more rounds. She does have a point. She’s almost 30 years older than me. Our meeting at Sunset Towers was not a mistake. I planned the whole thing after my hacker, Harper, cracked her itinerary. The wait staff got me around security. My suit and fake ID got me through the party and into her line of sight. After that, the seduction was easy. I made it a little more challenging by letting her think it was her idea. Best way to get back to her place.
The hovercar ride here was the tricky part even though it was short. I had to keep her interested but not ask deep questions. She needed to stay excited about what we were going to do when we arrived, not jump me during the ride.
My mind races through my contingencies, but my physical options are limited. Even if I could make it to the door without taking another shot in the back, this isn’t a district where someone gets to run around naked without someone calling security. Worse, their response time in the Gold Ring is fast. Materials Management Corporation security may not be the best trained, but they had the best gear and vehicles. They’d run me down in no time. They might not bother with non-lethal ammo either. At least a streaker isn’t worth calling the Dragoons about.
I turn the tables on her. “Okay, so what do you want?”
She stops short, as if she’s never heard the question before, “I… I want the truth. I want to know who you are, and why you did this to me.”
“That’s funny, that’s what I’m here for too.” She looks confused, but I don’t give her a chance to speak. “You were born when the city was still being built,” it’s a statement, not a question. I did my research. “As part of the Renovation Generation, you never really had to look for work, there was something for everyone to do. You were making a new city from the ground up while learning how the new world worked with magic in the mix. In your case, you even got altered by the Tempest at the genetic level, permanently changing your body. Sure, you worked hard, but you also had a path that led you to this,” I gesture around at the elegant, expensive room. “After the corporate war settled down, you found yourself in the real estate branch of MMC.”
Then I gesture down at myself, “Not all of us were so lucky. Magic skipped over me entirely. No genetic changes, no gifts for casting. I’ve never held a job important enough to get any bionics, cyberware, or other augmentations. I’m just me, and I was born in the depths of Bricktown. My birth parents put me into the system, and I got traded around as a tax dodge for a while. I tried to avoid gang violence, stay independent. Along the way, I started earning money however I could...” I trail off to let Sylvia’s imagination fill in the gaps. Her eyes stay hard, but I notice her jaw shift uncomfortably. Her face is now a paler shade of blue.