Nestra grabbed two EMPs from her breast pocket. Using the shortest timer, she threw one at her back, towards the entrance and the second in front of her. “Cover me,” she told Shinoda. She didn’t check. She knew he had her back. And she would have the front. Nestra’s human mask might be… not the most adequate, but that was fine. Just another challenge, just another hunt. She would win against the augs and she would do it with her barely-above-baseline shell and that would prove she was simply better. Better trained, better prepared, better made. Adrenaline pumped in her veins. Excitement filled her chest. Her legs propelled her forward as the door finished opening. An aug arm wielding a Bright Tech 10mm sweeper with a datalink pointed its muzzle. The aug didn't have to see her in person. The embedded camera would feed her flushed face directly into his retina and he would merely have to pull the trigger, then Nestra would be Ex-stra. The first EMP detonated. The aug gun shook, resetting. Three seconds to restart, give or take. Nestra sprinted by the door and landed in shooting position. The aug was cursing and tapping his gun. His optics glitched. He was a tall man with messy hair and a stubble under the helmet. She calmly lifted Gorge’s hand cannon and lined it up center mass. A second aug behind the first swore. Kim’s voice rang in. She was not amused. “Mr Xun, you will refrain from suggesting illegal activities to our agents, thank you very much. The footage of this incident is now classified and you WILL not distribute it or I will personally make sure you are sent to the Red House for the next ten years. Am I making myself perfectly clear?” “Yeah yeah. Calm down already.” Nestra still checked the corner. No presence but… there was a tiny trail of blood. Nice, an opening… for later. Meanwhile Shinoda reloaded. He looked unhurt. “You in one piece, oji-san?” “No need for sass Palladian-san. I regret to say that my adversary was too armored for a fair fight. Your EMP helped. It was enough to teach her caution, but not enough to neutralize her.” “We’ll get you a better gun,” Nestra said, and she meant it. “What’s that thing called anyway?” Flash asked. “Oh, is it the Wallfucker?” “Why do you breeders always link everything back to sex?” Nestra grumbled. But she had to admit she liked the wall idea. “I’ll call it the Window Maker.” “We are not done,” Shinoda said. He was covering the corridor, more specifically the storage room which they had not secured yet. Nestra nodded as she finished reloading. Taking great care not to trigger the trap, they went to the last door. A quick camera check showed the place wasn’t booby-trapped. It also looked empty. Shinoda picked the lock under Nestra’s befuddled gaze then they got in. The storage space was mostly empty and quite dusty. No one had been there in a week. “Clear. No hostage,” Nestra said. “I had to make sure, although I suspect Kim-san was correct. We were baited by one of the gangers.” Nestra wondered if she should say something. Shinoda was standing there, waiting for her judgment. The truth was that if it had been any other cop instead of Nestra, this could have turned into a disaster. Flash had the right to it. Not everyone could just stop four augs without dying, even bottom of the barrels junkies like those guys. It was clear Kim expected Shinoda to pull some stupid shit like going in for honor in defiance of his screaming brain cells. It was also clear to Nestra that she wasn’t bound by the same suicidal tendencies. But she didn’t really mind. “Your, ah, Window Maker? It does not look like a regulation gun,” Shinoda observed. “Hmm. Omoshiroi. Interesting, that is.” “Neither are the drones or my armor set.” “Hmm. Your preparedness is impressive. I think I owe you my life, Palladian-san.” “Hey, we are partners, right?” “Aibo? Yes. You are the best bad cop I have ever worked with.” Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. “Ok, good, enough of that you’ll give me diabetes. Let’s go.” But they didn’t go because they had to secure the scene and fill online reports and do a shitload of other procedure things normal cops had to do that MaxSec teams just left to their admins, and in the name of all that was holy did Nestra miss those little scribblers. With the adrenaline leaving her, she was also crashing down hard and on top of that, she was getting hungry. And she was tired. It was getting close to six out there. Ten minutes after the pair got in and while Kim’s techs were busy loading the bodies, a trio of gleams finally strutted down the tunnel up in full gear. Compared to augs, gleam armor looked more medieval than modern but they were more resilient anyway. Nestra unfortunately recognized the assholes before they could even speak. Those were the twats who’d met them in the garage. “It took you eight minutes to arrive,” Kim mentioned in an arctic voice. The gangly anglo gleam shrugged, vibrant iris twinkling with amusement. “We were on the other side of the area of operation. All records will show that we moved immediately. It’s just that…” “Traffic,” the thickset gleam said as he nodded to himself. “This place was hard to find, ajumma,” the Korean gleam added with a sly smile. “underground, not on the map. You know how it is.” Officer Kim went very pale. Nestra wasn’t too familiar with Korean culture but she was definitely sure the gleam had insulted her, somehow. She might be a baseline but she was also a civil servant and the gleam was a low level security personnel. Definitely lower status. They really didn’t give a shit, huh? “I see. The city appreciates your… efforts. I am sure you have done to the best of your abilities, although you were… inadequate to the task.” Tension rose between Kim and the trio to the extent that the techs stopped working to steal a glance. The barest hint of a sneer twisted Kim’s perfectly neutral persona into one of profound disgust. If condescension could be bottled, that woman would be rich. “You may leave, since we have seen the limits of your usefulness. Thank you,” she dismissed them. Rather than facing them off, Kim simply turned around to work on her report. Nestra followed suit, and the three gleams were left standing around with nothing to do. It still took them a few seconds to head off. By then, Kim was back to her business self. At least in appearance. Nestra didn’t miss the tension on her shoulders. For most baselines, there was something unsettling about confronting gleams. Nestra didn’t know if baselines just felt mana in their subconscious or if there was something in the brain that acknowledged that gleams were just that dangerous, even the weaker ones. “The bodies are ready for transport,” one of the techs said. “Should we move the vehicle to a more secluded area?” “No,” Nestra interrupted. “We carry them back to the marketplace. Let people see.” Kim hesitated until Shinoda intervened. “Palladian-san is correct. We are working with a tribal structure. Let the people know that what we cannot protect, we can avenge. Those are the murderers of Old Lin. Let them see that… justice was done. Of a sort. This will show our goodwill more than any shipments of supplies ever will.” “This is a harsh place,” Kim mumbled. “Very well. We will do as you say. There is not much to learn here anyway.” It was a strange procession that left the utility tunnels, and a stranger one that received them still. Men, women and children of the hab block lined the path to the hover truck in solemn ranks, some dressed in finery and others wearing makeup and, in one instance, face paint. Lin’s body bag was covered in flowers and trinkets and no matter that there were no florists around. Someone had woven a wreath out of colorful ropes and cables and finished the work with carefully applied glass beads. Behind the mass of people, someone sang a mournful dirge. An expectant mood moved the crowd while the tech loaded the bodies, and when they moved in themselves. Kim was the last one to climb in. Under the pale light of early dawn, she looked a little rough around the edges. The signs of mental exhaustion were plain, not in her flawless makeup or the perfect hairdo, but in the pockets under her eyes, the clenched jaw, the details that made her seem more human now, so far out of her element. “Are you sure you want to stay? I’m giving you half a day off. By regulation, you should be out for three days at least while Internal Affairs goes over the details of the shooting.” “We will probably head back early but… we need to hammer the steel while it is hot, ne? Thank you, Kim-san.” “Please be careful,” she replied, then after a blink. “You too, Palladian. I… knew I could count on you.” Nestra nodded. The hover truck left soon after, gliding over the morning air. It started to smell pretty good. “We should walk around, Palladian-san.” “Hey, you! Police girl!” a woman said. Nestra recognized her as the prim lady who’d refused her naan the day before on account of not doing business with pigs. “Oooh I love porridge.” For the next ten minutes, at least a dozen people brought Nestra food just for the disbelief that came with the realization that she would, in fact, eat it all. Skewers, naan, congee, fried dough, fruits, soup, all disappeared down her gullet. She choked midway through the amazing experience when a voice went through her visor. “Ah, angmoh girl, thanks for ASMR but I close the connection now ok? I pick up your dead drones and repair, ok? Half price.” “Fine, now fuck off.” She hated being disturbed while she was eating. Detective Shinoda breathed in the market’s stale air. His visor was blinking with a call notification he could not ignore. Officer Kim. He picked it up and prepared for the worst. “How are you, Yuuji?” the voice said in Japanese. “Really.” “Soo-Young, you worry too much.” “I worry because you charge into an obvious trap. You would have died there if not for the girl.” Her demon self could, however. The first order of business would be to find more of those remnants, and she knew exactly where to start. The survivor of the ambush was bleeding, though Shinoda didn’t seem to be aware of it. Nestra could call the techs and then request a team to follow, which could take some time… but there was another option. It was time for demon Nestra to follow that dribble of blood back to another lair after tonight’s portal world. There was a risk she would be tired but if what the benefactor said was right, she needed to become much stronger, much faster, because something was coming.