I walked bay truck calmly, climbed into the driver’s seat, theedly smashed the steering wheel with my fist in frustration. “Nyx, what are the ces of you ving a higher up to disect Helen’s AI?”

  Without having a valid reason? None. She is doing her part iing the antithesis from spreading, aerminating them when she finds them. By Protector standards, she has just as much right to be a samurai as you do.

  “Wonderful,” I replied, pung the wheel o time. “I know I started this pissing match, but I figured I could ha as long as I didn’t give Helen an easy target. I was hoping she’d back down once I proved my bears could hold the line.” I rested my head against the steering wheel. “Now that she has An, I’m running out of options… why the fuck did he leave the house?”

  I tracked his movements, and he visited the home of Sandra Miller. She’s fourteen, and trying to provide for two younger sisters. It appears like he dropped off a care package for them.

  I felt one of my eyes twitch. “The little shit has a girlfriend? That’s why he got kidnapped?”

  I ot determihe full nature of their retionship.

  “Fuck it, doesn’t matter. He always judges me for being too reckless, I’ll chew him out for his double standards ter. Assuming I save him,” I pulled out the piece of paper and stared at it, while I got my mind in order.

  “Helen wants to meet me at five, that’s less than two hours from now, ihty-six. I could ignore her, but there’s always the ce that she might kill An before I do anything, so it’s best to py along for now,” I muttered. “I should also call for backup, try ahings today.”

  You actually expect her to show up?

  “She’d be stupid to do so, but anything is possible,” I replied. “It’s more likely that she’ll send one of her minions to keep an eye on me, and tact me through some voluted bullshit instead.” I sighed. “Two hours doesn’t give me much time to prepare, so I should get started.”

  I started the truck, a moving towards the shelter. I should have tacted the family, but I had something else to handle first. “Nyx… tell me what’s in my css III catalog.”

  —

  I could barely believe how busy secthty-six was when I flew over. There were several street markets, pletely packed full of people, and even the side streets were busier than I was used to. People evidently felt safe when the local gangs were w together to protect the citizens, instead of fighting over territory.

  Rather than parking, I had my truck hover just above ground level so my squad and I could jump out. As soon as we hit the ground, I sent a signal to my truck, having it rise to the roof level and idle there, just in case I .

  Once I stepped out onto the main street people gave me a really wide berth. They obviously reized me, or at least the bears, and no one warouble, and that was just fih me. My destination was the interse at the dead ter of the district. It didn’t have any significe, as far as I could tell, beyond being a ndmark, and that suited me just fine.

  It only took me a few mio arrive at the location. It was fairly empty, besides the squad of bears I’d statiohere earlier, and a small group of gangers keeping an eye ohe gang members’ eyes went wide when I walked up with a sed squad. One of the kids scrambled off, probably to report to the gang’s leaders. Sihere was only a few minutes until the meeting, I didn’t have time to stop them, or expin right now.

  I used the time remaining tanize my troops, and use my augs to prepare for our frontation. I kind of expected something to happen right when the clock hit five, but despite my expectations nothing did.

  I had to stand there for a couple more minutes, before someone tacted me. “Scuse me, miss samurai dy? A man paid me to deliver this to you.” It was a young kid, not much older than Jennifer. He was holding a crumpled paper bag and he looked terrified.

  “You leave it there,” I told the kid. He gently put the thing doromptly booked it. I gnced over at Bandit, who was busy iing the package from a distance, and only when he gave me the all clear signal did I go over and pick it up.

  Ihe paper bag was a small regur brick of pstic. As soon as I had it in my hand, it started ringing. I nearly dropped it in surprise.

  “The fuck is this?” I muttered, poking the s on the front. After a few seds, I mao ahe call.

  “Teddy, you were quite prompt, I like that,” Helen’s voice said, through the box.

  “Yeah, well, I notice you’re not here,” I replied. “You didn’t even send one of your ckeys this time.”

  “We both know that would have been a bad move. You probably would have taken them hostage and tried to force a prisoner exge. I don’t want that.”

  “So what do you want, Helen?” I asked. “To evacuate secthty-six?”

  “I want you to stay out of my business, and stick to our deal, Teddy. Dropping troops iy-six was a cute attempt to head off my pns, but I’m not here to py games. Leave me to my work, so I protect this city!” Helen said forcefully.

  I didn’t say anything for a mieddy, are you there?”

  “I’m here,” I replied simply.

  “Then why aren’t you saying anything? Do you not care about An’s well being?”

  I audibly sighed. “I care, Helen. He may be an idiot, but he’s family. I was just w on something in my augs,” I said.

  “What the FUCK could you be w on that’s more important than your brother’s life?” Helen growled.

  “Structural analysis,” I replied. As soon as the numbers fit together, I sent the and to execute. “Helen, I give you some advio matter how good your tech is, you should never assume it’s infallible.”

  The li quiet for a moment. “What?”

  “You know what the problem with ynal jamming is? If your oppo has enough surveil doesn’t quite make you uable. What it does is create a giant dead spot in the surveilhat’s almost as easy to track as a specific person, or vehicle.”

  I could hear a faint crash echo out of the phone, followed by shouting. “Say hello to Bob, and the other samurai will you? I’ll be over to see you soon. I just o expin my bears to the local gangs first,”

  “Teddy…” I didn’t bother listening to Helen’s reply, I just hung up and chucked the pho a nearby street kid. The parts were probably worth a couple of bucks anyways.

  As I sent a signal to my truck, calling it to my location, I waved at the slowly increasing mob of gang members f up across the street. “So, has someone in charge shown up yet?!” I yelled. “I expiuation to you, but I have pces to be so let’s make this quick, ok?”

  The mob split up, revealing a younger man, and a scarred older woman. They approached me slowly, a couple of toughs at their backs. I really hoped this didn’t take long, because I really wao get over to Helen’s pound. An wasn’t going to berate himself.