Kiara sat at the other end of the window. "Get any sleep?"
I pushed thoughts of Maia aside. Returned to reality. Exhaustion weighed on my eyes. Blood overflowed from my collapsing womb. "No. But it's okay."
"Figured. We're leaving soon. Ready?"
I grimaced uncertainly. "Can I say no?"
She shook her head, smiling. "C'mere. Our little princess is throwing a tantrum."
I frowned and followed Kiara downstairs. As I drew closer, I heard the shrill shouting:
"You're just gonna leave me in the hands of those… those BRUTES?!" Anichka raged.
Trix's anger filled the room. "You yawned through the whole discussion. Now you're saying you wanna stay?! Our lil' princess had every chance to say that."
"I didn't understand what you were saying." She pouted, eyes wet.
The mercenary planted a hand on her hip. "Good. You're back. I'm outta ideas." Trix clenched her fists. "About to shoot this girl." Nothing in her tone suggested a bluff.
Kiara rolled her eyes. "I'm here for the mission. I'm no fucking babysitter. Now, if you need help hiding the body, count me in." She gave Anichka a terrifying grin.
The girl shuddered. "STOP IT! You're the worst bodyguards ever."
Teeth clenched, Trix closed the distance between them. Anichka stepped back. "Lis-ten here, svoloch'. I've lost my patience. I'm not your fucking bodyguard. Neither are they." The mercenary pointed toward us. "We're here because nobody in this fucking place does what we do. Now shut the fuck up and obey. Either that, or I'll make you disappear." Trix's eyes sparked with fury.
Anichka shrank back, her whole body trembling. Her eyes filled with tears, not daring to blink. As though she feared that the second she closed them, she would already be dead.
Even I felt a chill.
"Got the nanomalware ready?" Trix turned to Kiara.
"Duh. What'd you expect? It'll work for five days, but we need to get out before then."
"Khorosho. Gonna install it on yourself and her?" She gestured toward me.
"Right, while—"
"I can handle way more than five days." She smiled charmingly.
"If you say so. I'll find and disable the nanofirewall connected to her." Kiara meant the princess.
"Okay, gotova?" Trix asked.
Anichka wiped her tears, sobbing.
"Yeah…" Kiara gave a sinister smirk. "To make it more convincing… I should shoot you. In the shoulder, maybe?" Her satisfied expression was so familiar.
A faint shiver crossed my spine. Was she serious? My heart fluttered.
Trix narrowed her eyes. "Really know what I like, huh? Wanna have a little taste?" She uncrossed her arms and handed Kiara a revolver.
The android took the gun and ran her tongue over her teeth. "We both know a shot to the shoulder would be unrealistic. I'd never miss that badly."
She shot Trix in the shoulder and leg. Blood ran down her arm, dripping onto the filthy floor. Yet her gaze stayed fixed. Impassive. As though her body were irrelevant.
What the fuck was that? My heart raced. A metallic taste rose in my mouth. My stomach churned. Still, I had to hide my discomfort. I put my trembling hands behind my back, trying to contain a panic attack on the verge of breaking loose.
Anichka's eyes were wide. Mouth open. Clearly terrified.
Trix stayed still. Hadn't even flinched at the shots.
"Now we're ready." Kiara handed the gun back.
Trix applied a sloppy bandage.
S-2879 • L10 Tramaluna • D20 Teceli
"Tramaluna weaves the sky in a deep thread. Teceli weaves a step in silver descent. The tide draws a route in a living curve. The story carries on steadily, in gentle radiance."
At nightfall, we traveled to the old ghost town of Khalmer-Yu, Vorovskoy mir's headquarters.
Kiara explained how the Russian Brotherhood was divided: an elite group, the highest rank; a security group that ensured harmony with other organizations and internal loyalty; a support group responsible for collecting money and recruiting members; and a work unit, the lowest group. Robbers. Extortion. Street gangs. Petty crimes.
Above everything, the supreme authority: the Pakhan. Khalmer-Yu was home to Vorovskoy mir's most powerful Pakhan.
"I installed Cloakify on Anichka," Kiara reiterated.
The princess fidgeted with trembling fingers.
I felt the urge to hold her hand and tell her everything would be okay. But… I couldn't even tell myself that. Things would go according to plan or go terribly wrong. What awaited her was a mystery.
Trix and Kiara had put the plan together calmly. I assumed the princess would remain protected. Kept that in mind. My Crone sharpened my perception. Perhaps that Egyptian soldier had been right. Perhaps I worried too much about others. If something goes wrong, the sixteen-cycle-old girl will be the least of my problems.
Outside, only the vast expanse of snow. Endless. Silent.
I tried to think of something else. Impossible. With every kilometer closer, the feeling that something would go wrong grew. As though… I were returning to Burj.
The silence was dense.
Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt we were being watched. Like prey approaching a predator's territory.
I shook my head. No. I had to push those thoughts away.
Five Hours Later
Vorovskoy mir's military fortress, Khalmer-Yu, appeared on the horizon.
Modern nanostructures contrasted with old buildings reduced to steel and dust—out there, a Soviet mining town had once stood.
Ghosts of the evicted inhabitants still haunt the ice. Rusted towers marked what remained of the military testing ground. They said the Russian army had even detonated vacuum bombs here, crumbling concrete and human bones into the same dust. Nature reclaimed nanometal and concrete. Relentless snow. Merciless cold.
Every breath burned my throat. Ice seeped into my bones.
Winter reigned absolute.
"Stopping here. Close enough. Any closer, and they'll track us. Their identification radius is wide." Kiara slowed down.
Trix lit a cigarette. Blew out smoke. Snow covered us as we left the car. Wind cut like blades. Every step demanded tremendous effort. How on earth did Trix look so relaxed without thermal clothing? No biochip could help against this cold.
Kiara sent Trix and me a file: C-kify.exe.
"Ready?" Without objection, Trix declared, "Itak, nachnem."
Kiara restrained Trix and Anichka with nanocuffs. The same kind used on Denden and me. The bitter taste of memory rose in my throat. I took a deep breath. Suppressed the past. The present demanded that I stay steady. I held Anichka's wrists.
Her eyes were distressed, but she tried to smile.
I kept my posture stern. We followed Kiara, who dragged Trix along. Crossed the fortress's first low wall. Heavy air. An oppressive sensation. Surveillance. A bullet could pierce me at any moment.
My legs trembled.
The storage center appeared before us. Two guards approached.
"Never seen you before, but the alarms haven't sounded. What's your unit?" The question came directly in Russian.
The android studied us closely.
"I'm Avtoritet Trinity. I report to Pakhan Mikhail Morozov." Kiara presented a holopass.
"São Paulo unit?"
"They've brought the fugitive Trix and Princess Anichka Alexeyev," the android guard informed him.
The man's eyes widened. "Alarms clear… Parol'?"
Kiara: "Zima."
Guard: "Otvet."
Kiara: "Noch'."
"Follow me."
We walked through the fortress's oppressive corridors. The gazes of Vorovskoy mir's members cut into us.
Tension tightened my chest. Icy wind tore at my skin. Keeping pace against the frost was difficult. I rubbed snowflakes from my eyes, trying to brush away negative thoughts with the gesture.
Inside the prison barracks, the temperature was mild, but gray walls and dense silence made the space suffocating. The air felt heavy, laden with nanometal and sweat. The smell of burnt oil and rust clung to my throat. Boots echoed against concrete. Wind whistled through cracks in the structure. Two iron doors opened onto a long corridor.
We reached the identification area. An android, Yuri, sat at a desk.
The guard spoke to him in Russian.
Yuri stood and faced us. "Welcome. I see you've brought our most wanted targets. Came from São Paulo for this?" Suspicion edged his tone.
I swallowed hard. A thread of sweat slid down my nape.
"Of course. Think I'd pass up hunting Trix? We have history." Kiara smirked. Her eyes menacing. Predatory.
History? Was that a lie too? I lost track of what was happening. My throat was dry. I wanted to ask, but only nodded. Tried to look indifferent.
"Really?" Yuri raised an eyebrow. "What history? Everyone who got involved with her ended up dead."
Kiara held his suspicious gaze. "The kind that ends just like this. Me out here. Her in there."
Yuri walked around the room. "Surprised none of ours caught her first. Had to wait for a foreign division to do the job."
Kiara shrugged. "Sometimes it's all about a fresh perspective."
Silence. Something escaped me. Perhaps it was only my imagination.
"Thermal, olfactory, and heavy-metal checks… everything matches. If this is an act, it's a good one." Yuri's expression hardened. "You know what to do. As for the princess, she isn't a prisoner."
Kiara touched the holoscreen, and the gates opened.
Another android appeared and took Trix away.
She smiled before the iron bars closed behind her. For a moment, our eyes met. Hers held courage. Even audacity. A silent knowledge, as though she already knew the ending before I did.
Their footsteps echoed until they disappeared.
A suffocating urgency to stop them gripped me, but I held back. If I was going to regret it, that would come later.
"Sovet's been notified. The obshchak will log the bounty transaction. Take the girl to the Pakhan." Yuri gestured to the guard. "You two collect your bounty at the other barracks. After that, you're dismissed."
We crossed the fortress. Glacial wind howled, piercing.
Kiara clenched her fists, huffing with anger.
"What is it?" I caught up to hear her.
She gritted her teeth. "My patience is running out. That's one of Saymon's androids."
"W-what?!"
"Argh… fuck. Whatever. Sticking to the plan." Her aura closed off.
Better to keep my distance. Saymon really seemed to get under her skin.
When we reached the transaction building, a petite woman greeted us. "Identify yourself there. The registered account will receive the money."
Kiara completed the transaction.
We left. Wind lashed us. Cold seeped into my hypodermis.
"Gonna send you twenty-five percent of the bounty. Give you account access later. An underworld bank runs it. TenebraCorp. Users and transactions are nanoencrypted."
I stopped. An underworld bank? A bounty? Did that make me a mercenary? "N-no… unnecessary."
Kiara turned to me. "Transferring it anyway. We're talking two million bireais."
The air vanished from my lungs. "T-two million? The two of them were worth eight million?!"
"No. That was just Trix. The princess's bounty is a hundred thousand. We'll transfer that to her."
I licked my frozen lips. Two million… Three solar cycles of my work. I could fund CogniSynth's research for cycles. Could… Could I buy a different future? But… at what cost?
I shook my head. "I-I don't know what to say. It's… it's…"
Kiara burst out laughing. "TenebraCorp handles the obnal for the obshchak. Your dolya drops after the hash."
I hurried into the car. Relief enveloped me as I escaped the wind. I pulled off the mask and breathed deeply.
The android got in after me. Her eyes gleamed. "Now the action starts."
"Will you need to map the place?"
Kiara raised the holoscreen. A holomap. She smiled. "No." A secret shimmered in her gaze. "Been here with Maia."
My breath caught for a second. The cold was already unbearable, but at that moment, a warm shiver traveled down my spine.