It was hard not to notice her red and white patterned outfit. Tight-fitting, it was partially open along her scarred side. Thin straps crisscrossed under her arm, forming small X's down her side. They stopped just above her hip with a solid panel of fabric that quickly gave way to a wide slit continuing down her leg.

  The opening exposed just how extensive the scarring pattern was, placing it on deliberate display down the entire length of the slit. While the scars were subtly styled by the intricate tattoo work, the variability in their length and width suggested that they were not the result of a deliberate choice.

  Sophia pulled behind her an extra-large, hard-sided suitcase that matched her mauve coat in color. It was damp from the light rain, so she laid it down on the kitchenette floor and opened it. Inside, the oversized black-and-grey laptop with its shattered-glass stencil I’d requested called to me, and I picked it up eagerly.

  Sophia grabbed two items from the suitcase. The first was a mostly full, medium-sized hiking backpack with the word Huskies in yellow letters. The second was a black and white Sephora bag. She handed the backpack to Luanda first.

  “How’d you get my go bag?” asked Luanda, taking the backpack.

  “Griss left it on the counter when he rushed out to save you.”

  “Why were you even in our apartment?”

  “It's Griss's place, honey. I've had keys from before you moved here.”

  Sophia reached out and offered the Sephora bag. “Here is ‘the whole pharmacy’ you asked for. I’m so glad you finally decided to do something about that hair. You should’ve chopped most of it. If you ever want to be an operator, you have to leave vanity behind.”

  Sophia's expensive outfit made her comment about vanity seem hypocritical, but I was not interested in voicing the thought.

  Luanda snatched the bag and gave Sophia the middle finger with the same hand before turning and marching upstairs.

  While Sophia took food from the suitcase and put it in the fridge, I took a bootable USB stick out of my wallet and set up the computer. When we heard the sound of water from the shower, Sophia came over and sat next to me at the table.

  “Trey, why do you think these assholes came after you so hard?”

  I had thought about that a lot and didn’t have a great answer. “I don’t know for sure, but my best guess is that those transactions are tied to something they don’t want anyone to know about. Otherwise, it just seems like overkill.”

  She paused, waiting for me to explain more. I ran my hand through my hair, trying to contain my feelings into words. “I feel like the rat in the trap, but it didn’t just catch me. It caught all of you, too.

  “Every bullet we fired in that shootout, I don’t know where they went. Was someone on the other side of that wall? When we almost ran over that kid, what did he do? When you rolled your car, did you really know you would be ok, that someone unseen wouldn’t walk over and get pancaked? All of that is my fault.”

  Sophia put her hand on my arm, and I flinched involuntarily. I could feel her start to withdraw it, then let it settle gently back.

  Her voice started soft, rising with each word. “That guilt you are feeling. You need to let it go. Men like that, and trust me, I know them as well as I know my own skin; they want you to feel that guilt. But everything that happened is on them. Accepting guilt robs you of the power you need to fight back.”

  “I don‘t know…” I started to say.

  Her hand grew firm around my wrist. “You do know. What did you do to them? Did you take money from the mouths of their starving children? What is the great harm that you did?”

  “I hacked their system and stole their money.”

  “Oh, so you used your bits and bytes and picked their little electronic pockets of some pennies? What a bad, bad boy.

  “You sent them bits. They sent back bullets. They’d torture and kill a girl they don’t even know, just in case.

  “I say you didn’t take nearly enough. Not one-thousandth of a part of enough. People who will do that need everything taken from them. Everything.”

  As my mind chewed through her argument and my own guilt, I watched the computer scroll updates as my custom boot system cleaned and inspected the new machine. I could feel her gaze on me, trying to read my thoughts.

  She removed her hand from my arm and continued, “Maybe you’ll decide to just run and leave this mess behind. It’s what Griss wants Luanda to do. He has hidden her before and will think he can hide her again, but she’s not a child anymore. But running is the last thing you should do. Running makes you prey.

  “If you don’t want to run, what will you do next?”

  I had given this a lot of thought as well: “There are three vectors, and I have to pursue them all. The first two are Meridian and the lawyers, BLH. These will be hard targets, but I want to start with intelligence: finding out everything I can and looking for vulnerabilities. The third vector is the police. The police are a loaded gun pointed at Luanda and me, but they could just as easily be pointed at someone else. If we redirect them at Meridian, connect the dots for them, it becomes our gun.”

  Her mischievous smile grew as I spoke, and by the end, it was on dazzling display. “Excellent. We can show them we have teeth. If you want to follow that path, the path of attack, I can help you. I’m not a soldier like Griss or even Luanda, and I don’t know anything about your hacking world, but I have my own contacts and resources, and I may be able to bring Luanda on board as well. If she joins, Griss and the rest of the team will follow.”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  This last bit surprised me. It was clear that Griss didn’t think much of me, and he’d abandon me as soon as possible. The idea of having him and Luanda on my side, not to mention Sophia, was game-changing, but I didn’t see how she could make that happen or why she would want to.

  “How could you get Luanda on board? The two of you don’t seem like best friends. And why would you even want to? How is this a fight you want to take on?”

  “You leave Luanda to me. As for why: It’s the reason I wake up every morning and put on this costume life I wear. Luanda will tell you that I’m just seeking danger. Maybe she’s right, but if I only wanted that, I could jump out of planes or race motorcycles. No. I fight because I know the dark things that happen in this world. I know them because they have touched me.”

  Her gaze turned distant momentarily, the Cheshire smile replaced by something hard, her nose flaring. It didn’t feel like a practiced speech; it was more like an internal confession given outward expression.

  “Meridian is like so many before it; sociopaths coming together for power and money, but also because they seek their own. Griss says, ‘like seeks like, and takes pleasure in the company of its kind.’ Snakes huddled together for warmth. I will place a dagger in the heart of these vipers for each one of these,“ her finger pointed at the scars on her face, ”and after I lose count, I will keep doing it.”

  Her words were like ice and expressed a brutality absent from the friendly and daring Koko I had heard just a few hours ago. Something about Meridian had peeled away the facade of a simple, supportive team member, revealing a driven aggressor.

  She got up and returned to the suitcase, pulling out a few remaining food items. As she walked away, I could see her hands ball into fists and unball, but when she turned back around, the enigmatic smile was in place again.

  I focused on setting up and securing my system while Sophia texted on her phone until Luanda came downstairs. Luanda’s hair was pulled tight at the crown by a tan band, then flared out in loose, distinct curls. The outfit was semi-tight-fitting activewear in white and grey; it was the first time I saw her in something that felt like her: active, purposeful, stylish, and also attractive.

  Sophia came over to the table and sat down next to me. “The hair is nice, Luanda. It almost makes me miss mine. I’m surprised you were able to get the curl so nice.” The compliment didn’t seem to hide any criticism, and was a seesaw from her complaint not ten minutes before. I could see it had thrown Luanda off, too.

  Sophia gestured to the chair opposite. “Sit down, Luanda, we need to figure out the plan before you go.”

  Luanda took the chair on the other side of me, and I focused on my screen, trying to disappear as much as possible.

  Sophia continued, her voice measured, matter-of-fact, without a hint of judgment as Luanda watched her with cat-like wariness. “Sabot and I have been talking, and after we separate, I’m going to help him try to take down Meridian and this law firm, BLH. I’ve had people looking into Meridian, and from what I can tell, half of the people in the company are former Global Initiatives mercenaries. You know they are my main target.”

  It annoyed me to hear her speak for me while sharing new information, as though we had signed a contract, but she was right, I did want her help. Luanda cast me a questioning glance, and I gave a confirming nod.

  Sophia’s voice was calm, supportive, and logical as she continued. “For you, I’m sure you know that Griss wants you to go into hiding, and I agree with him.” It was clear I needed to take social engineering lessons from Sophia; there was such a deviousness to her approach, it made me cringe.

  “People like Global Initiatives or Meridian. They come hard and they don’t stop until you stop them. That’s not the kind of heat you need right now. I don’t know what Sabot and I can do, but I can’t leave him alone against these guys.” Her hand went to my arm again, and Luanda’s eyebrows lifted, her mouth narrowing. “I’m giving him a car, and tomorrow night, when there’s less heat, he can go to my place across the Sound. You can stay hidden here, and Griss will come and watch you when he gets out of custody.”

  Luanda’s fist came down with a hard slam on the table. “The fuck you will. I’m not hiding away while you and Trey take these guys on alone. I’m in this as deep as he is now and can look after my own damn self. You know I can out-snipe anyone on the team except Penguin, and that’s a close thing. My times are better than a lot of them, too. I’m not a kid anymore, Koko.”

  Seeing Sophia's plan succeed made my respect for her manipulation skills rise even as my trust took two steps backward.

  Luanda kept up her counterargument. “I may not be able to hack their systems, but what are the two of you going to do if bringing them down needs infiltration or if we need to go in physically after someone? Are you just going to leave him to die without backup? Is that your plan? Get him to sacrifice himself to make them forget about me? You are so fucking cold, I don’t know how Griss doesn’t see it.”

  Sophia turned her eyes on Luanda, and her perfect American accent disappeared, replaced by something African or perhaps Arab, I didn’t know enough to guess, but it stilled the air in the room. “You hold that tongue of yours, tiny Minnow. We didn’t all get to swim away from our troubles when we were little.”

  Luanda’s eyes burned in a way I hadn’t seen since she was kicking Nick at the crash site, and for a moment, I was glad the tote with her gun was not in reach. I subconsciously leaned back as far away from the cold eyes between them as I could get.

  Sophia continued, “I keep forgiving you because I know this is Griss’s fault. He treats you like a daughter, keeping you safe when you need to run free. Don’t pin that on me.”

  Luanda started to interrupt, but Sophia’s hand was up like a shot, one finger between them in a gesture that commanded silence. “If it were up to me, you would have been on the team long ago. But he keeps you his hothouse flower. Now it is forced, though. Fate has pulled the trigger that Griss could not, so let us focus on now and not waste your flame trying to burn me. I’m not someone who can be burned.”

  That word—fate—dragged me back to Stillpoint. Why that building? Was it just chance?

  Sophia didn’t slow down. “If you want to throw yourself into this mess, then fine. I won’t stop you, but do it with your eyes wide open. It’s not just stories now.”

  Luanda’s anger was visibly restrained, but she nodded and said, “Yes, Auntie Koko.” I could tell there was subtext Sophia didn’t like, but she ignored it.

  Sophia took a set of car keys and slid them across the table to me, but Luanda reached out and snatched them. “Car’s yours until I get back with your gear tomorrow,” Sophia said, her voice almost even again as she pulled out her phone. “My ride’s here.” She glanced towards the door, then gave a curt nod to both of us. Without another word, she put on her mauve raincoat and walked out, closing the door quietly behind her.

  The sudden silence felt heavy, charged with a lingering electric tension from the arguments. Luanda gripped the keys, staring out the back window for police. I turned to my laptop, nerves raw.

  As my Session app came online after the reboot, a single, sharp chime shattered the quiet: It was from Whisper’s investigator, Kestrel, with a file labeled ‘Meridian Risk Mitigation.’ The message read, ‘Dug deep, tripped alarms. They’re bringing in their top capture team from Texas tonight. Luanda’s on their hit list.’ My heart sank as I glanced at her, now alone with me in the too-quiet room.

  “You're probably going to want to see this.” More vipers were coming. What the fuck had I got us into?