Page 80 of The Fall

Alana paused. Kerr tried to remember whether Alana knew she knew that detail. It didn’t matter now.

“None of them can. Including my daughter,” Alana said. It sounded like regret, but couldn’t place why. “The latest tech and I can’t even use it to erase what your girlfriend did to my daughter.”

Kerr knew she should ask about what Lusa had done, but all she could think about was the word girlfriend. She must have stood still for too long because Alana moved on.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t use one.” She thumbed a fang.

Kerr must have looked confused, because Alana only shook her head.

“I knew the reason Lusa asked for me the minute she told me her plan. You’ll see.” Alana continued toward the docks. Kerr raced to catch up.

A haze of frozen brine obscured the docks, but the scent of fermenting algae protein was unmistakeable. They were at the docks. Kerr was unbothered, but Alana wrinkled her nose.

“There it is, yeah?” Kerr pointed at a filthy cube-shaped lorry.

“You’re sure?”

Kerr nodded. “341 is on the bottom right corner.”

“Your Opti must have better resolution than mine.” Alana handed Kerr her rifle. “How good are your aural processors?”

“I can hear them arguing about which one of them is going to get their fangs for this. It’s a trap. They must have found out about Dimitri.” Kerr should be annoyed at Lusa for killing them, but she found herself biting her lip, remembering the dazzling ballet of carnage Lusa had performed. She only wished she’d been conscious for it. “What if they didn’t bring the DocPod?”

“I know how these deals go.” Alana thumbed her fang again. “The Chargers would have sent two as well. They lure one inside to inspect the merch, kill him quietly and then take care of the other one.”

Kerr blanched at how casually Alana had described the execution.

“There’s good news, though.” She examined her pistol before holstering it. “They have the DocPod. That trick doesn’t work if it’s obvious the moment they open the hatch.”

“How are we going to get it?” Kerr was sure she looked ridiculous holding Alana’s rifle that was clearly too big for her.

“I’m going to talk to them.” Alana started walking toward the truck. “You’re going to hide and use those audio processors of yours to jump in if needed.”

Kerr hid behind a concrete pillar and tuned her aural processors, familiarising herself with the rifle.

Alana rapped on the passenger side door.

“Who the fuck are you?” The voice belonged to a kid so young, she was surprised it didn’t crack. The boy in the driver’s seat eyed her sceptically and drew his pistol. The IntelArms targeting system booted up. Kerr trained the crosshairs on him and waited for the rifle to catch his biosig.

Alana flashed her fangs. “Change of plans, cumstains. Out. Now.” The rifle chimed. Biosig captured.

The boys glanced at each other. “We didn’t hear anything.”

“Does your Opti have reception? When was the last time you updated the firmware?” Alana kicked a hunk of filthy snow off of the tyre. “We sent three messages with no reply, so now I’m here and in a shit mood. You think we want a DocPod sitting on the docks while you toothless nobs suck each other off?”

“Is that what’s in the back?” The driver looked worried. “Shit, we had no idea.”

“You’d better fucking hope it’s still there. Open it. Now.”

The driver leapt out of the cabin. Tall and lanky, clearly undernourished, he scrambled to open the back. Kerr trained the rifle on him next, capturing his biosig as well. “Fuck!” he swore, dropping the keycard in the snow.

Alana scooped it up. “Moron,” she hissed. The back rolled up with a clatter revealing the DocPod.

“Oh, thank god,” he said, just before his head exploded, coating Alana with gore.

“Fecking hell.” Alana drew her pistol.

The other fool hopped out of the cab at the disturbance. He made it about three paces.