Page 103 of The Fall

“I thought we got rid of the Natalists.” Talia called, but Mashö was smart enough to keep her eyes trained on Alana.

“Is that you, Talia? I should have guessed. Who else is married to their knives?” Lusa took a step toward Kerr, only to have Mashö aim the pistol at her. “Are you still willing to make that trade?” Mashö sang.

“You’re outnumbered,” Alana stated the obvious. “Give us the girl and you can walk away in one piece.”

Talia would do no such thing, but she wasn’t going to blow whatever Alana was negotiating quite yet.

“Oh please.” Mashö swung the gun back to Kerr’s temple. “If I die, the girl does too.”

Alana flicked her eyes toward Lusa. Lusa gave the barest hint of a nod. “Fine. Here’s what you want.”

She shoved Lusa, hands still bound, toward Mashö, throwing her off balance and forcing Mashö to catch her. Alana raised her gun to fire. Talia realised her horrible mistake.

Alana’s gun discharged just as Talia’s knife hit her hand. The bullet sliced through the air toward Mashö making as much of a turn as it could in the short distance.

Hitting Kerr squarely in the neck.

Whether Love Lead Fortune

Kerr’s eyes fluttered. They felt sticky, like they’d been glued shut. Not even an offline signal when she tried to focus on her Opti.

“About time you woke up.”

Kerr didn’t recognise the voice. Nor could she turn her head to see to whom it belonged.

The naked woman came into her field of view, considerably less naked this time. Filtering the light, her blonde hair created a halo effect, making her appear even more ethereal and beautiful than she had the last time Kerr had seen her. Rage, but her body wouldn’t respond. Only nausea as the cortisol dumped into her stomach.

“You.” Kerr managed to force her mouth to shape the sounds. They came out like speaking through frozen rubber.

“You probably shouldn’t do that. There’s a bunch of wadding in your mouth.” The woman made to remove it, but paused. “Don’t bite.”

Kerr tried to scowl. She probably looked ridiculous, squinting at her captor. The woman laughed.

“If I told you your girl behaved in your absence, will you promise not to bite?”

Her face relaxed and the woman plucked sopping cloth from Kerr’s mouth.

Kerr rolled her jaw. It still felt frozen and thick. “Wha happened?” she managed.

“You got shot in the neck. Now you’ve got some decisions to make.”

Kerr vaguely remembered being held captive, but not being shot. She instinctively focused to access her Opti before giving up. “You’re Model 2.”

“Mackenzie,” she corrected. “We removed your Opti. And most of your other cyberware.”

Eyes feeling like sand, Kerr tried to sit up. None of her muscles responded.

“We stemmed the bleeding and brought you here. You’re alive, but the bullet destroyed your central processing array. Even if we hadn’t removed your cyberware, none of it would work without that. Also, your spinal cord. The DocPod pieced it back together, but it’s not going to be the same. Like I said, now you have some decisions to make.”

Kerr heard a door open and another woman entered wearing a lab coat, mousy brown hair in a simple ponytail. “She’s awake! Can you go get Lusa?”

Mackenzie left. Kerr heard the door click. Her eyes travelled back to the new woman.

“I’m Jenni. I run the medical centre here.”

“Where’s here?” Kerr’s mouth moved a bit easier, but still not without effort. A dull ache started at the base of her jaw.

“How much did Mackenzie tell you?”