Page 16 of The Fall

But Talia couldn’t let Lusa leave empty handed, and she could guess why she was here. “I also need an arm.”

“Just fucking go to a DocPod. I’ll pay for it right now if take these two and get the fuck out.”

“No,” Talia sheathed her smaller knife and pulled a kukri from the small of her back. “I need a prosthetic.”

“That’s too bad.” Piston grinned. “Prosthetics are rare. My boys fix up what they can, but there just aren’t that many left.”

“Shame.” Talia raised her eyebrows. “Just stab him already.”

Piston laughed. “She’s out of knives. And even our DocPods can handle those nicks. Without your override chips.” He gestured, tilting his head toward the array of blades protruding from his arm.

“Not that one.” Talia flashed her lopsided smile.

Callie took a moment to register that Talia was speaking to her. She jammed the blade upward into the titanium prosthetic. It broke, but not before discharging its capacitors.

Electricity surged through him, destroying his implants. Sparks spat from his Opti and Piston collapsed, dropping both Lusa and Callie. The pain of several stab wounds suddenly became glaringly apparent without his nerve suppressor.

Lusa alternated between coughing fits and pummelling Piston, helpless and barely conscious. Callie pulled her away, but any reprieve he might have enjoyed was dashed by Talia’s boot. Callie pulled Lusa away, shielding her in her arms, knowing better than to try to interfere.

“I came for my daughter and an arm.” Talia spun a blade through her fingers like a drumstick. Callie covered Lusa’s eyes.

Talia pressed her heel deeper into his neck. “You could have dug up a spare. You might have had to call in some favours, but you could have done it.”

Piston sputtered wetly.

“Instead, you had to act like an arsehole about it. And there are too many arseholes in my life that I’m not allowed to kill already.”

Callie yelled, a final plea for reason. “Talia, if you kill him, we won’t have anyone to trade with in Tyton! Sesi will be upset,” she added.

“Trading with him nearly killed Pinga. Sesi will understand,” Talia said, devoid of even a gram of empathy. Callie recognised the smile she’d seen only a few times, a mixture of every dark impulse Talia struggled to hold. There would be nothing left to do but watch. “She can take it out on me later.”

Callie scrambled backward to avoid the blood splatter. Lusa watched, unfazed and unblinking.

Once the carnage had passed, Talia got to her feet. She towered over the body for a few moments before collecting herself. “You do that?” She tilted her head toward the room with the two corpses.

Lusa nodded.

“Why?” Callie tightened her grip around Lusa’s shoulders.”

Lusa looked to Talia. Talia saw it in the deepest brown, her own demon, writhing and alive.

“She’s here for the same reason we are.”

“What” Callie stared incredulously before she shook her daughter. “What were you thinking?”

“Pinga needed an arm, Mom.” Lusa swatted her away. “Uncle Sparx told me to get one.”

“That was fucking stupid.” Talia said it without the conviction necessary for it to feel like a reprimand.

“You wouldn’t have let me go.”

Talia shared a look with Callie. “She’s not wrong, Cal.”

“So, what, we’re supposed to let her do whatever she wants now?”

Talia put her hand on Callie’s shoulder. They both knew there was no controlling Lusa. Not anymore. Talia held out her kukri to Lusa.

Lusa looked at her for a beat, bruises blossoming around her neck. She took it.