Code Enforcement: Wetware

Staring down a barrel of a weapon is never a good position to be in. The plasma blade at my neck, a confined violet arc between curled metal prongs jutting from a hilt in Baldy's hand, seems like overkill. I step back lightly, careful with the tank in my arms. "Alright, we're green across the board, but let's not do this here and now-"

"No? What's wrong, Dame? Running out of time?" she asks wryly, making Baldy snicker.

"Yes," I admit, taking a deep breath. "The League's mercs are about to pour through that door, armed to the teeth," I say, nodding back at the arc of the plasma torch. It's maybe a third of the way through the frame, dribbling molten metal as the cut turns laterally.

Trinity's grin only widens. "Well, it looks like you're the lucky one, Dame. I have someone higher than you on my list today, and I'm feeling generous." She lowers the barrel a hair, tilting her head. "Here's my offer; surrender the squid and leave our moon. If you do, we'll spare you."

My mouth works silently for a moment. "My partner goes with me," I stammer out urgently. "And the Code Enforcement officers," I add, wincing as a weapon cocks behind her.

She pauses, glancing over my shoulder and running a hand through her pink half-shaved fade as she considers. "I'll throw in those two cops, as long as they don't make an issue about us painting the walls with Gaian blood," she finally offers, her smile turning brittle.

My heart hammers in my chest as I think, biting my tongue. Holy void-spawned fuck. I mean, as far as unreasonable demands go, that's pretty reasonable. If they take out the Gaian's for us, I could live with it. But wait... "What about Jessie Clearfield?"

The grin vanishes. "She picked the wrong side. Worse, she sold out locals to outsiders for a payday." There are some mutters, and I hear a growl from a heavyset man with synthetic limbs. Goosebumps rise on my arms, but Trinity snaps her fingers and silence falls. "There's a code here, governing the black-hat work. It's just the lay of the grid, Dame. Blood was spilled, and there has to be an accounting," she says quietly.

Cartwright isn't going to accept that, and neither is Alex. "Listen-"

"Nope." The weapon rises to my eyeline again, and I stare down the barrel with wide eyes. "I've done enough listening. Time to choose, Dame."

Clearfield's not worth it. She wouldn't hesitate if our positions were reversed. But if the boys dig their heels in... I swallow hard as I look up from the weapon and meet her eye. "Take the squid. I can't give you the captain."

Trinity frowns for the first time. She reaches up, touching one of the metal piercings at her temple. "What's the call, chief?"

I blink as she waits, nodding her head, and the realization hits me a moment later. She has implants among the piercings, hiding in plain sight. She's augmented, and she's linked through her channel right now! Someone is listening in, maybe even watching this go down.

After a moment, her eyes widen, then she purses her lips. "Understood." She tilts her head, and the bald man beside her disengages the humming blade. "It truly is your lucky day, Dame. You've made a friend who prefers that you didn't die here."

A friend? That can't be TooBee, right? And Remembrandt said he wouldn't get involved. "Who? Is-"

"Hand the tank to me, now," the heavyset man demands, elbowing his way through the door. His synthetic arms are covered in thick braided cords of what look like carbon fiber. If that's synthetic muscle, he could probably tear me in half. I grit my teeth, but I don't protest when his wrenches the tank from my arms. "I'll run it to the client," he says to Trinity, to a simple nod.

Well, fuck. You're a chrome-licking moron, Mel. There goes your only leverage. "Green across the board," I mutter, stepping back as Trinity and four others saunter confidently into the dock. I give the clicking, speckled squid one last glance as it disappears through the north door. Turning around, it's a mess.

The smoke from the flashbang is clearing, probably red-lining the atmospheric scrubbers in the process, but more pours from the door. The blue-white plume of the plasma billows acrid smoke. They're perhaps two-thirds through the frame, making it sag in the bulkhead. Sparrow is still nowhere to be seen, but the airlock to the Chimera is open. Good. Board and take off, Sparrow. You can come back for me when it's safe.

My equilibrium is better by the time I reach the boys. Alex holds Clearfield's cuffed arms tightly with one hand, the other touching the edge of his implant and looking frustrated. Cartwright scowls at the Daughters, plasma rifle in arm but pointed at the floor as they saunter through the open dock.

I ping them both, opening a linked channel. "Alex, were you tased? How bad is-"

"I'll live, but can't talk now," he snaps over the channel, eyes locked on the doorframe. "With Clearfield's CE key off the field, I'm checking in with my team." Clearfield wipes her bloody nose on her shoulder but otherwise just glowers silently at me.

Cartwright elbows me. "Cruz," he cuts in gruffly. "Are they going to turn hostile?" He nods to the five Daughters stalking like leopards and spreading out around the door.

Two position themselves on each flank, with Trinity dead-center. She plants her feet, and her grin sends a chill down my spine. "Yes, but not to you or Alex." I reply on the channel.

His shoulders tense. "I'm not giving them Clearfield." I watch him flip the safety off the plasma rifle with a growing sense alarm.

"Ashton, don't shit silicon! I cut a deal," I plead. "An exchange; the squid for the captain." Baldy creeps towards the half-melted doorframe from the right, his blade disengaged as he fingers the metal prongs.

Cartwright's face is blank, but a little tension leaves him. "I see."

I hang my head. "I'm sorry. I couldn't-"

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"Enough, it's done. We'll stand down for now," he grumbles, backing away from the incipient bloodbath. "And look after my CI; she seems to want you," he adds, looking over his shoulder.

I turn and catch sight of Sparrow approaching hurriedly from the airlock with a pack slung over her shoulder. No, don't come back! "What are you doing?" I hiss as she nears.

She's red faced and panting, blue hair plastered to her face with sweat. "What's the plan for the squid?"

"What?" My train of thought derails for a moment. "It might be our leverage, but they took it."

"Melody." Her voice is tight as she swings the pack around and unzips it enough to reveal the contents. This tank is much smaller. It holds perhaps two liters of clear water. And there's a tiny squid languidly curling its limbs and clicking its beak.

Holy void-spawned fuck! There are two squid!? Or do they reproduce asexually? But they're the same size; did Rusteater get more than one? Wait, there's no magnetic cap on this tank. Is that...

Sparrow closes the bag and gives me a wink. Oh. Mel, you're a vacuum-sucking moron. It wasn't a magnetic cap. Why would they need the cap or the faraday wire after landing? And why leave the Chimera and step into enemy territory with the squid in-hand? Sparrow nods as my eyes widen. "What's the plan, Melody?"

"Hijack Casey's ship," I say, linking into the nearest node. TooBee, lets see if you really came through.

Her jaw tightens. "He's the one that almost killed mom?" Almost.

"Yeah," I murmur, sighing with relief when I find the chassis idling in a hall two doors south. Ah, washbucket. "Sparrow, take the package. I need your help to make my delivery. South door. There's a janitorial chassis; it's got two holes in it. I'm piloting it."

Her brow furrows as she looks at the south door. "Should I wait for you?"

"No, go, I need to ping a contact and cut a deal for some Jovian seafood." I chew my cheek. "You need to move before the shooting starts. Or before someone looks too closely and realizes the other squid is just a holo."

Sending the ping makes me nervous, because I'm going to be doing something incredibly stupid. And Cassie agrees when she answers. "You must be a special kind of stupid, meatbag."

Yeah, I'm on a call with the enemy, waiting for a shootout to start. "Cassandra, listen, I can deliver-"

"Deliver?" She cuts me off, heat bleeding into her voice. "You tagged Aquarius for Code Enforcement! You lit up his local virts like a supernova and Codes raided them!"

I'm overclocked, and it's giving me a headache. "He was tagged during the battle-"

"My conglomerate is furious! He's barely recovered from the destructive decoupling, and now he's trapped on Casey's ship."

"Good, because I need him to drop the security systems on that ship to access Rusteater's backup," I send, biting my tongue anxiously.

"No. This is their last backup. Aquarius will not trust you with it."

"Cassandra, read me," I say, breathing deeply. "Unpack Rusteater's backup. Let them decide; they're the one I killed, right? I'll name them my judge." I lick my lips. "Bring them my pitch; if Rusteater says we're square, it's done." And I hope they agree.

There's a long pause. "You're being serious. And truthful."

"Time is a factor."

"We don't have the computational substrate to run them. We gave Rusteater our only Chassis for the mission to Ursa Miner, and you destroyed it."

"No problem, I've got just the thing."

I end the ping just in time to watch Sparrow disappear through the South door. I pull Clearfield's pistol off my hip, then remember the power pack is a dud. Fuck.

Baldy is examining the plasma-cutter contemptuously from the side, the door held by a narrowing span of metal. Cartwright elbows me. "We should pull back inside the Chimera."

I shake my head. "No, we need to guard Sparrow's back. If she gets cut off- shit."

With a twist, Baldy stretches his arm, igniting the violet plasma blade once again. Without a word, he turns and slides it through the gap, and my skin crawls as a high-pitched shriek rings through the dock. The blue-white arc winks out, and Baldy levers the humming purple blade at the remaining metal band until it bends and snaps.

The shrieking continues as the door falls, revealing a thrashing figure in black body armor tugging a welding helmet from his face and clutching at his side. Behind him, I catch a glimpse of a familiar face- Casey- but a second black device flies through the hole as the doorframe hits the floor.

Trinity reacts by leaping, and she must have dexterity tweaks. She snaps an arm out faster than I can follow, catching the explosive in mid-air. Spinning, she whips her arm forward, flinging the flashbang back through the door just in time to catch the screaming merc in the teeth.

This time, I manage to snap my eyes shut before the explosion, but the concussive force still knocks the breath out of my lungs and rocks me back on my heels. Baldy leaps through the hole as he slashes wildly at the dazed mercs, but a bolt of brilliant white takes him in the neck, and another figure grabs his collar and holds his collapsing body up like a shield. Several bolts of white plasma fly through the gap, barely missing Trinity as she dances aside, and the Daughters send a mixed volley back at them, heavy with the bark of compressed gas and projectiles and is that a damn harpoon?

"Hold!" cries a familiar voice from the other side. "There's no need for this. We're not here for any locals," Cid calls out.

Trinity laughs, and a few of her squad join her. If she's bothered by Baldy's death, she doesn't show it. "Too bad for you. Squid's already gone, and Ganymede is ours, you Earth-licking scum," she snarls.

There's a beat of silence and the sound of shuffling. Through the smoke, it looks like at least four of Casey's team are still standing, and I hear Cid's voice. "And where has the squid gone?"

Trinity snorts. "That's a shitty answer, dumbass. It implies you're still making a play for it." She cocks her head, letting the strange rifle slap her palm a few times. "You'd be Cid, right? If you want to negotiate, come out and face me like a man."

For a moment, I'm certain he won't, but Cid steps out of the haze, his ceramic and carbon fiber combat armor scored on the chest and shoulder. "You... ugh, are with the Daughters of Ganymede, yeah?" He tugs his helmet off, face flushed. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, miss." I see the shadows two of his flunkies flanking the glowing hole in the bulkhead.

"I sure hope so," she snickers. I see her motion to the flanks, and the two closest reposition themselves at a wide angle. "Call me Trinity."

Cid grunts, looking from one to the next. "I've heard of you. You run the Daughters?"

There's nothing funny in her grin. "Yeah, though we just lost our chief financier. That makes my job a lot harder; my people are used to getting paid for their work. The squid should help with that."

Cid's cheek twitches, and I can almost see calculus in his head. "If... you're looking for a percentage of the payout, I think we can beat-"

"You the one who shot Cara Morgan? And you led the assault team to Trojan Whores, personally?" Trinity's grin is almost a sneer.

Cid shrugs. "I follow the orders I'm given. Besides, I gave her the chance to say her piece and she lied to me. Is this about her?"

Trinity laughs like a hyena. "Hah! No, Morgan was a half-decent boss; she paid well and didn't micromanage. Losing her and some of the folk running vice is a blow, but I can let that go. It's just business." The grin vanishes. "Except the League also killed some locals just having a good time at the brothel, which leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And Razor may not have been the sharpest, but he was my cousin."

Cid's brow furrows in genuine bewilderment. "Who?"

Trinity's eyes flare wide open. "Shitty answer."

Three things happen in quick succession. First, Trinity puts a recoilless round through Cid's skull and the bulkhead behind it, making a burst of crimson arterial blood paint the broken wall like a work of post-modern art. Second, Clearfield slams her head back into Alex's face and dives forward as he reels back. Third, pandemonium erupts as everyone else opens up with their weapons, and death reigns on Ganymede.