JanePtinum

  “Ivy.” Mara’s voice brings me out of my sleep.

  Five minutes. She let me sleep for five minutes. That’s the most she’s allowed me since I melded with Vince. My brain is going to explode if I don't get a chance to rest it.

  I can’t stop myself from gring at the camera.

  “A traveler is going to be passing through our territory soon. I want him alive. Meet Morgan in the garage.”

  Fucking great. Looks like I’m sacrificing another person to her wrath for Vince. I’m just living for the day I get to put a bullet in whatever's left of her head.

  I throw on some dirty clothes, hold my belongings in one hand, and my rifle in the other.

  On the bright side, I look too pissed off for anyone to risk getting in my way. Even the most fucked up, out of their mind addicts step to the side.

  God, I’m sounding like Cassie. Get control, focus on the here and now. I’m exhausted, and it literally doesn’t matter. Maybe if I do a good job I’ll get six minutes of rest this time.

  I step into the central elevator and the door slides shut behind me. I rest my eyes while I ascend.

  “Look who’s te again.” Morgan’s voice is like a cheese grater against my ears.

  I reluctantly open my eyes and step past her, heading for the car with the already open door. I colpse in the passenger's seat and rest my eyes again.

  “I’ve been told you’re not allowed to sleep.” I feel the car shift as she takes the driver’s seat.

  I flip her off.

  “I will break your finger if you do that again. Keep your eyes open.”

  I don’t doubt it. And I also don’t doubt Mara wouldn’t give me a single second to recover. I reluctantly retract my finger and force my eyes to open.

  The syringe weighs heavy in my bag. I recognize the drug, oblivion, portioned out to the exact right amount for an entire day. True to its name, it’d obliterate my conscious mind, leaving it in a state of near non-existence for 24 hours. My subconscious would take control, leaving me as an obedient puppet without reducing my capabilities. One injection and I could skip this whole mission, leaving me rested and ready for whatever’s next.

  Mara is trying to push me into using it, and as tempting as it is, I can’t let myself do it. I lost a year of my life to this shit, I’m not doing it again.

  If I’m so sure of that, why can’t I toss it into the ravine?

  “Are you even listening?” Morgan asks.

  I look over, my bnk expression making it clear I wasn’t.

  “You’ll figure it out.” She says. “Just don’t kill him, and don’t damage his cargo. Nothing else matters. Here.” She holds out her hand, dropping three bullets and a pair of handcuffs into my p. Two car stoppers and one hollow point.

  I immediately load one of the car stoppers into my rifle. That already feels much better, less exposed.

  Life would be so much easier if I could just put a bullet in Morgan, but I’m certain Mara would instantly know she’s dead and drown Vince. Also probably explode my colr, but that’s a smaller concern.

  I rest my forehead on the window and watch the world pass by. Morgan breaks the silence to make sure I’m still awake occasionally, and I give her a thumbs up. She can’t be mad about that.

  We drive for twenty minutes before Morgan parks the car just below the crest of a dune.

  “He’ll be passing this way in about twenty minutes. Bck truck traveling alone.”

  I step out and use my boot to write a question in the sand.

  Number? I ask.

  “It’s just him.”

  Just one guy traveling alone through raider territory? I don’t like that, something’s up. It’s not like I can compin about it though.

  I y atop the dune, revealing as little of my body as possible, and wait.

  It’s hard to not fall asleep now that I’m ying down. I set my eye to send an alert to my ear every 30 seconds, that’ll keep me both conscious, and annoyed.

  A tiny amount of sand on the horizon is starting to get kicked up, that’s a car moving far faster than they should. If someone is risking shredding their tires, there must be a reason.

  The bck truck crests a dune, throwing sand behind it as it goes. The driver is wearing a familiar outfit. Oh shit, so that’s what’s going on here. A duster covers bulky armor, a rifle discarded in the passenger's seat.

  He’s a fucking ranger.

  No idea where he’s going, or what he’s transporting, but I know he won’t make it. I release a small amount of adrenaline into my system, just to clear my head.

  I let him crest a few more dunes, making his way closer. When he’s only a thousand feet away, my eye begins to run its calcutions.

  A projection of the probable internals of the car are dispyed from my eye, projected onto the side of the car. It then points out the best location to hit to break as much as physically possible with a single shot.

  The tiny shifting of the sand gives away a crosswind that I need to adjust for. Plus at this distance, how far the car moves before the bullet nds is going to be a problem.

  The calcutions finish only a moment ter, I aim, and fire.

  The familiar, comforting kick of my rifle hits my shoulder. The bullet rips through the engine, my eye automatically keeping track of shrapnel and what probably broke in the engine compartment. A small glimpse of fmes can be seen through the brand new hole, perfect.

  The ranger reacts instantly, jumping out of the car and taking cover behind the door.

  I’m reloaded and ready to fire again before he even raises his rifle.

  His rifle peaks out of the door, and I fire again. The bullet connects with the receiver, shattering into shrapnel on impact. The gun and his hands are both ruined.

  I load my st bullet, a hollow point, into my rifle and step into the open, walking towards him but never dropping my aim.

  The pain disappears from the ranger’s face, some kind of internal pain dampener kicking in. His hand isn’t bleeding as much as I would expect either. He must have some kind of automatic artery cmp installed, and it’s just the smaller veins and capilries that are still bleeding. That works for me, less a chance of him bleeding out.

  He searches around the car for any way out of this. Don’t be dumb, please. All the hollow point is good for is removing his torso or an arm. His armor might let him survive a gncing hit with just a few broken bones and serious internal bleeding, but that’s not a risk I’m willing to take.

  He reaches into the cabin, probably grabbing a radio transceiver, and starts whispering something I can’t hear. He’s absolutely calling for reinforcements, and that’s fine. If they want to attack Mara’s trench to get this guy back, I more than welcome them.

  A few seconds ter a medkit appears on the ground, getting ripped open, and a tourniquet removed. Looks like his right hand is less damaged than I hoped, but is still dripping blood from several locations.

  I take a wide berth around the car, leaving him with no cover. He’s still clutching the remnants of his left hand, unable to stop the bleeding.

  “Who are you?!” He yells across the empty desert. “What the fuck do you want?”

  I wish I could respond.

  I toss the handcuffs to him without getting too close. The faint glint of a knife up his sleeve gives away his pn.

  I remove my hand from the foregrip, make a slicing motion across my throat, and tap my lips. That, plus an apologetic look on my face, will hopefully get across the fact that I don’t have a choice.

  “I’m going to need help putting these on.” He says.

  I sadly shake my head and pull on my sleeve with a single finger.

  I can see the recognition in his face, no matter how hard he tries to mask it.

  “I’m telling you I can’t do it!” He yells.

  I’ll wait until he colpses from blood loss if I have to. Mara wants him alive, not necessarily without brain damage.

  He pushes to his feet and draws his knife suddenly, desperately trying to close the distance.

  His working hand disappears in a cloud of blood.

  I pretend to reload while he recovers. He’s a ranger, some part of his brain is still going to be working, hopefully recognizing I’m still ready to fire.

  Morgan finally bothers to bring the car over after the third shot, now that there’s no risk of just ending her. She parks next to me, staring at the man desperately trying to stem the bleeding.

  “Now I see why Mara keeps you around.” She steps around the man, knowing he’s no danger, and opens the trunk of his car. She pulls out a rge lock box, moves it to our back seat, and returns to the man. “Go ahead and stem the bleeding.” She draws her pistol zily and gestures to me.

  I crouch down next to the man and grab his medkit. Maybe if he stabs me, I’ll get a break while I recover. The thought of it would make me ugh if I could.

  The medkit has another tourniquet in it, and I quickly apply it to his other arm. From there I just wrap the stumps tightly with some gauze. I doubt he’ll live long enough for anything more to be worth it.

  I help him to his feet and walk him to the car.

  “Just toss him in the trunk.” Morgan commands, and I follow.

  I mouth the word sorry to him as I close the trunk. I think we both know this is the st time he’ll see the sun.

  I return to the passenger’s seat and close my eyes.

  “You did good today.” Morgan says.

  Only a moment ter she gently hits my arm.

  “Wake up, we’re home.”

  My eye says I’ve slept for twenty minutes. I’m not sure if I feel better or worse after that.

  Mara’s trench is just now coming into view. At least the pressure on my skull has lessened a tiny bit.

  The car rolls into the parking lot, where three of Mara’s bodies are already waiting for us. If she’s personally taking care of this, then I just really screwed up. Whatever’s in that box is insanely important.

  One of her bodies picks up the box, and a second covers herself with weapons drawn as she carries it away. The third body opens up the trunk, and roughly grabs the ranger. She keeps him lifted completely off the ground

  “You’re interrogating him.” Mara says as she passes me. She’s too paranoid to let me take him down to the prison myself, but I’m not exactly compining about that.

  I follow behind her into the elevator, and down to the bottom of the raine. I’m not going to say no to a free ride, even if it does get me there faster.

  The doors to the prison finish opening just as Mara steps through, and I have to squeeze through before they finish closing. She carries him through an already open door, locks him into a chair, and leaves without another word.

  I move over to the ptop in the corner and begin to type.

  “Look.” The ptop announces. “I don’t want to be here either, I’m only working to keep someone I love alive. I have no problem making this painless, but I do have a list of questions I need answered before you die.”

  “Fuck you.” He says, blood loss already impacting his crity. If he gets too bad I can always call for a blood transfusion.

  “Rangers have pain dampeners, right? I saw the pain leave your face after your injury. I can call for someone to remove that, but I really don’t want to cause more pain than I have to.”

  “The rangers know where I am. You’re not going to get away with this.”

  “I sincerely hope you’re right.” I type back. “You won’t survive long enough to see that though. If you give me what I need, I shoot you in the head, leaving you to whatever you believe comes next, and y your body to rest. Or, you can be the hero and resist until your body gives out. After that, Mara will mind rip you, and trust me, she does not forgive.”

  He doesn’t respond to that.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Leon.”

  I don’t think Mara even cares about his name, I’m pretty sure she demands it as the first question because it hurts me more to know.

  “Alright Leon, what was in the box?” The question isn’t in the list, but I have to know. I can py it off as going above and beyond.

  “I can’t tell you that.” He says.

  “Look, we have an AI here, I’m sure she already has it open. I need you to be truthful about this, so I know you’re being truthful about everything else.” Mara can’t argue with that reasoning.

  He’s silent for a long time, staring at me. Even I can’t tell what he’s looking for.

  “A quantum AI.” He says quietly.

  Oh fuck. That’s what Mara needs, an unreliable fortune teller.

  The ptop floods with new answers Mara wants. I disregard all of them and instead ask questions of my own.

  “You’re going to have to expand on that.”

  “I don’t know much. Apparently they just budded off another quantum. I was delivering them to another outpost far from here.”

  A lot of the questions on the ptop vanish, I guess she got her answers from that, and I think I can make the connection too. Quantum AI can communicate instantly with each other, as some kind of limited hive mind. If the rangers use quantum AI, that would expin how news about Blue leaving the city got to them so quickly. Which means Blue isn’t the only AI in Arc City. Interesting.

  We exhaust Mara’s questions. Asking for every base location he knows of, people he knows, what the rangers are doing, everything. Apparently they have a bounty out on Blue and Cassie by an ‘anonymous donor’. That’s good, an active bounty means they’re alive.

  It takes hours, but eventually the ptop screen sits bnk.

  “I think we’re finally done.” I type into the computer, to both of our relief. “Do you have any st words?”

  “After selling out everyone I know and care about? I sure don’t.”

  “Alright. I hope whatever you believe comes after this is right.”

  “I don’t.” He gives a dark ugh. “I just want to rest.”

  “I hope you can rest then. Do you want to know when it’s coming?”

  “I don’t.”

  I step away from the ptop, and walk behind him. There’s a small device back here, a ft pte with a rod sticking out the back, maybe the most humane thing in this room. I pce the pte on the back of his head and push the button. The rod drives itself deep into his brain, and fins extend, destroying everything in his skull nearly instantly. It’s quick and painless, at least I hope.

  The door opens, and I leave him in the chair. Even after all this, why give him a peaceful rest when there’s Marrow to be made? At least she’s not making me do it, she’s not willing to risk her income just to py with me more.

  I just need to give Vince his food, get to my room, and hope the AI has Mara distracted enough to let me sleep.

  JanePtinum