Waking up the next day wasn’t fun. It would have been rough even if I hadn’t stayed up too late researching and scheming. If I wanted to get to the Kitten’s HQ for a decent breakfast before work, then I had to set my alarm for a truly depressing hour.

  I forced my eyes open with a groan. All of a sudden, I knew exactly why most active Kitten members chose to live in the HQ. Way more convenient that way.

  Still, between running there and then running a good distance to one of the outer district entry checkpoints, I got a pretty good workout in. And it was worth it. Feyo ignored my halfhearted attempts to convince him that no, he didn’t need to send me off with three lunch boxes. By the time I finally slowed down to a stroll near Catill’s shop, I was too busy stuffing my face with gloriously delicious food to care any more about my lack of sleep.

  Feyo had opted for some kind of very munchable mini sandwich thingies that day, with a decent spread of various flavors. Honestly, if the Kittens ever decided to kick me out, I would miss the food most of all. Safety and community I could do without, but Feyo… I’d probably have a breakdown.

  Of course, my good cheer and appetite did suffer a little when I realized I’d have to face Catill soon, but I pushed through. After all, I wasn’t going in unequipped. I’d yielded to Feyo’s insistence for one reason and one reason only: the extra sandwiches would make fantastic emotional blackmail.

  Keeping this ammunition firmly in mind, I stepped into Catill’s shop.

  “Hello, boss! I can’t put into words how good it is to see you again. I’ve missed you so much!”

  “Wat do you want, ‘uman?” Catill immediately demanded. I know I was laying it on a little thick, but the way he looked at me, you’d think I chopped his limbs off and then forced him to watch as I looted his store. “You’re lucky I didn’t fire you for missing so many days. Stupid little ting, refusing to leave de slums.”

  My smile turned plastic.

  Well. More plastic.

  “I don’t want anything, boss. Really! Can’t I be happy to see you after all that chaos? I was looking forward to a normal day.”

  He tried to do his patented stare-down, but I refused to flinch. Honestly, I wasn’t even lying. The promise of a regular day’s work and a return to familiar, safe routine had been a siren song when I was stuck in the HQ, and doubly so when I thought we were all going to be killed by Zerx.

  My boss must have picked up on my sincerity, because he scoffed and looked away.

  “Get in der and start working. De books aren’t going to fix demselves!”

  He tried to sound harsh, but I noticed the way the way he was inspecting me from the corner of his eye, the bugger. He could pretend all he wanted, but he definitely was looking me over for injuries.

  I smiled as I traipsed past him, put my backpack and its precious cargo in the coldest corner of the shop, and then got right down to work.

  Work that I suddenly realized would be more time-consuming than I’d expected. Apparently, Catill had really gotten into the habit of letting me deal with the administrative side of things. I had to go over all the business logs for every single day I’d missed.

  It wasn’t tough work, far from it, but it was monotonous. I soon found part of my attention drifting. I’d picked up the habit of pulling up something to look at on my eyes’ feed when I got into a mood like that, so I decided to indulge and continue my research from the day before. It wasn’t like dealing with Catill’s numbers required much brainpower.

  Unfortunately, I can’t really say that helped. I only got annoyed again by how little you could find online about runners and their skills. At least that annoyance further crystalized my decision to take the risk of chatting with Catill when lunch rolled around.

  Funnily enough, I then sank so deep into the work funk that I lost track of time. Only when Catill popped his head into the store and grunted at me to take a break did I finally snap out of it.

  Fetching my backpack, I ventured over to the little area where we always ate.

  “Had lunch yet yourself, boss?”

  “Wat kind of stupid question is dat? Can’t you see my lunch?” He gestured at his own lunchbox, which was full of the nutrition packs typically favored by outer district residents.

  My smile wavered, but I pushed down the rising nerves.

  I’d get nowhere if I didn’t try.

  “Sorry, sorry, just asking. I met a few people who helped me get through the whole mess in the slums. One of them loves to cook, and he kind of forced me to take extra with me, so… I was wondering if you’d like one of the lunchboxes?”

  I tentatively raised the see-through plastic container, showing it off to Catill. He narrowed his eyes at it, then looked at me, then back at it, then at me again, not speaking.

  After several long seconds of this, I was starting to sweat. For all I knew, Catill actually liked the nutritional packs. I was hardly an expert on alien taste and physiology. What if offering him the sandwiches was a grave insult? Or if he couldn’t even eat them? Or —

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Catill snatched the lunchbox away from me with startling speed.

  “Now I know you want someting, for sure,” he ground out, already opening the box. “Speak, den!”

  I flushed. “Listen, I do need help, but the lunch really is just a gift. You don’t have to help me.”

  My boss snorted even as he bit down onto the first mini sandwich thingy. His eyes went wide, and the next bite followed with much less hesitation.

  I hid a smirk behind my own sandwich. Feyo’s cooking strikes again!

  “Someone gave dis to you?” Catill finally snapped at me after going through about half the lunchbox. “You lying to me now, boy?”

  “No lies. Honest. As I said, I met a couple of people while trying not to get killed. I tried to lay low in my apartment when the whole thing was going down, but… eh, that didn’t really work out. I swear, I barely got out of the whole mess in one piece.”

  Was that a flash of genuine concern I saw in his eyes? Whatever the emotion was, his typical mixture of apathy and suspicion was back too quickly for me to tell.

  “You’re a fool for staying der. You can look for a place to live in dis district. Less chance someone knifes you in de back, idiot boy.”

  “Can’t really afford it, boss. Besides, my mother left me that apartment. Not gonna leave it without a fight.”

  I smiled inwardly at how true that was. When I had been forced to leave, only recently, I’d left behind a pile of Zerx bodies.

  Besides, while my original set of belongings was trashed, Mela had really come through with the replacements. Combined with the apartment’s sentimental value?

  Yeah. I’d have to be dragged out of it kicking and screaming.

  “Watever. Missed de important point. Wat do you want from me, boy? Out wit it.”

  “I… Listen, I went through a lot since the last time we saw each other. It wasn’t… I mean, it was tough, okay? And look at me, I’m a scrawny mess. I don’t think I’m ever going to be as tough or as strong as some of the gangers out there, let alone someone with actual training and support.”

  “Dat’s not an answer to my question, boy.”

  “Okay, okay. I need another way to protect myself. I figure, if I could somehow get the learning material on how to become a netrunner, I could —”

  “No.” Catill’s voice was a sharp, wheezy bark. His eyes narrowed in on my face, and the anger in them was palpable. “I know wat you’ll ask next, and I’m not giving you info on ver to buy dat kind of stuff, boy. No.”

  “Boss… Catill. Listen. Please. I just… I don’t have a different way of getting any of that stuff! Have you seen how much info like that costs? How much classes cost? I know you have some way to get… eh, less than legal merchandise, so —”

  “You know dat, do you?” Catill was shouting at that point. “Are you saying you’ll —”

  “I’m not going to fucking rat you out, okay?!” I shouted right back. “Whether you say yes or no, I’m not gonna tell anyone or leave. You’ve saved my life already with this job, don’t think I don’t know that, but I need something! I can’t just sit around and wait for someone to kill me because I can’t even fucking protect myself!”

  I was panting, and I felt like I’d run for my life for hours, but I refused to look away from Catill’s yellow eyes.

  “And you tink dis will ‘elp you? Netrunning?” He said the word with such disdain, it seemed to splatter onto the floor between us.

  “Yes. I could at least do something, then. I’d have a skill. Besides, people protect runners in the slums.”

  “Dey also keep dem like valued pets, boy. Don’t tink I don’t know dat!”

  “They… do,” I admitted, thinking about Mort. How much of his bitterness was down to his natural disposition, and how much of it could be blamed on having his freedoms cut down to almost nothing? The Kittens were a lot more decent than other gangs, but even they wouldn’t risk giving their runner too long a leash.

  I pushed the thought away and forced myself to hold Catill’s gaze.

  “I still need this. It’s not like I can get very good at fighting, looking like… this.” I motioned sadly at myself.

  My boss’s eyes remained fixed on me, but some of the anger I’d seen brewing behind those piss-yellow orbs was draining away.

  “And if I give you de info? Can you even afford it? Dose don’t come cheap, boy.”

  “I have some savings,” I hedged. “I’ll work something out. At least it’s a chance. That’s more than I have now.”

  It was a long while before Catill spoke again. When he did, he sounded like he’d rather be anywhere else than in my presence.

  “Fine. I’ll give you a location. Know dat I don’t approve. Dey’ll probably kill you on sight wen you turn up. Not very friendly, black markets.”

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I managed to keep from vibrating out of my seat, though I could do nothing about the blinding smile that broke out on my face. “I promise I’m not going to get myself killed! You’ll see!”

  Catill grumbled under his breath, but I was way too thrilled to pay attention to what he was saying. All I could think was that I had a solid lead on how to turn my life around, yet again. If I could just fix up my weakness, I could do so much more for the Kittens. I could be an actual member rather than a charity project.

  And that was without even considering the other benefits of becoming a runner. Respect, power, influence, wealth… all words that I’d never once thought would apply to me Now that I was faced with even the slightest possibility of snatching them for myself, I could hardly sit still.

  Of course, Catill wasn’t blind to how I was feeling. Nor was he willing to just let things lie, apparently.

  “Know dis, idiot boy. You’ll need to take a risk just to get wer you want to go. You tink der’s runner shards lying around in de outer district?” He sneered. “You’ll need to ‘ead to de middle districts just to get to de black market.”

  That did, in fact, feel like a bucket of ice cold water dumped on my excitement. The mention of the middle districts brought Jason to mind again, as well as my own family history. Suddenly, I was tempted to call the whole thing off.

  My C class citizenship gave me access to the middle district, but it was risky. No telling what my dear old absentee dad might do to that access, and to me in general, if he suddenly remembered my existence. I had no urge to fuck around and find out.

  On the other hand… if ever there was a prize worth all that risk, this was it.

  Not that I had a choice, really. I’d never find sufficient knowledge about netrunning within the outer districts, let alone the slums. Catill was right.

  Catill…

  My eyes snapped up to meet Catill’s. I saw far more understanding there than I ever expected. My blood ran cold, and I suppressed a shiver.

  Catill knew. I had no idea how, but he knew about my C class citizenship. My boss was aware of the fact that I could venture into the middle districts, and he’d never so much as mentioned it before.

  Then there was that comment he’d made a few days ago, about my mother…

  I wanted to ask. I wanted to ask so badly that it hurt.

  Maybe it was cowardice. Maybe it was that odd desire to maintain what little bit of ‘normalcy’ I could still cling to. Either way, I failed to get the words out of my mouth.

  Instead, I gave him a cocky smile I wasn’t feeling at all. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll handle it.”

  Catill just snorted and shook his head.

  “Idiot boy.”