Solo

Kenji is sitting on a crate enjoying a snack of some fried baby mice when he hears a strange gurgling noise coming from the next room. As he stands up to investigate, Akiko slips noiselessly through the makeshift doorway of the suspended metal shack. She is carrying a katana dripping in blood and wearing brown robes covered in deep red spatters.

For a second, they just stare at each other. Then Kenji says, "Akiko..." and Akiko charges Kenji. She brings her blade up to shoulder level and points it straight out in front of her as she nears him, and it sinks into his shoulder, sliding out his back, and into the thin metal sheeting behind him serving as a wall. She puts her face directly in his as she clamps his mouth with a hand before he can scream as she holds the katana in his shoulder with the other hand.

Akiko says quietly, "I'm going to unclasp your mouth, and then before I kill you, you are going to answer one question. If you scream or fail to answer my question, I'll just kill you, anyway. Then I will hunt down your clone and kill you again. I will do this forever, haunting your soul from beyond the grave, killing you even in death, because pain simply isn't good enough for the likes of you. If you agree, nod." Kenji nods emphatically as sweat begins to pour down his brow and blood starts to soak his shirt. Akiko whispers an inch from his face, "Why?" She slowly takes her hand off his face.

Kenji winces in pain as he tries to speak. "I... I didn't know until it was too late. After I called..." He gasps in pain again. "I found out. They bugged my deck. They did everything without my knowledge. After that, I was surrounded by..." He winces as he tries to inhale. "Men with guns. They took my phone. I would..." Fat tears roll down both his cheeks. "I would never betray you, Akiko. I love you."

Akiko stares at him, gripping the katana in a death strangle as she stares deeply into his eyes. After a second she says, "Shit!" She puts one foot on his chest and braces against it as she yanks on the katana. The blade slides out with a sickening sound, and Kenji stifles a scream by clasping his hand over his mouth as he slumps to the ground. "SHIT!" Akiko spits through clenched teeth. She grabs the thin blanket off the bed and tears a long strip off it, which she wraps around his shoulder and under his armpit, binding it tightly. "Come on!" She says and helps him to his feet as he tries not to cry out in agony.

Kenji hisses, "Wait!" and turns around to grab a backpack which he tosses to Akiko, then grabs a deck off a crate and throws it in the backpack. Akiko zips it up and puts her arms through the straps. Kenji nods and points to the door.

Together, they head out of the room, past the dead body, and towards the doorway leading to the catwalk. Once outside, Akiko pulls a hand-sized carabiner from her belt, which pulls out a thin rope. She hooks it to a cable supporting the catwalk and looks over one edge, then the other of the catwalk to the street below. "Hurry! Trust me," she says to Kenji as she climbs over the makeshift railing, then helps Kenji to do the same. Just then a burst of automatic gunfire rings out, and pings into the railing next to them. Without waiting to figure out where it came from, she wraps her arms around Kenji and steps sideways off the ledge of the catwalk. For a few seconds, they scream at the top of their lungs as they plummet in freefall to the ground. Then the thin spool of rope catches and increases the friction on the spool and slows their fall. Eight feet above the roof of the New Rose Hotel, they come to a stop. Akiko does her best to let Kenji slide through her arms to minimize the impact of the fall, then takes out her katana and cuts the rope, falling in a heap next to Kenji. She helps him to his feet as another burst of automatic gunfire rings out, this time much more distant, and embeds itself in the tarmac next to them with a rapid series of thuds. A third burst follows them as they race for the door and burst into the stairwell.

As they start down the stairs Kenji stumbles, then trips and falls headlong into Akiko. Together they go tumbling down the stained carpeted stairs, landing in a heap together at the bottom of the staircase with Kenji on top of Akiko. They just lay there for a second, then Kenji moans quietly, "You stabbed me."

Akiko groans, "You betrayed me."

Kenji says, "You only thought that. Do you have any idea how much this hurts? My arm doesn't work."

Akiko sighs and says, "You're bleeding on me. Get up. We gotta go."

Kenji yelps in pain as he drags himself to his feet, then helps Akiko up. They descend the stairs and take the exit into the alley, keeping up against the wall to block the view from above as they continue onto the streets. A few blocks away they catch a SpeedyTaxi, and Akiko tells it to head south to the Astro Chicken on Clark. The car asks for payment in advance, and Akiko hastily swipes a credchip, causing the car to lurch into action. Akiko reaches over to examine Kenji's wound, and blood spurts on her hands. She curses repeatedly as she tries to tighten the blood-soaked dressing, finally giving up and tearing off a piece of her own robe to tie a new knot around the old bandage.

Astro Chicken is a relatively new franchise in the dome that has rapidly grown in popularity. Female-owned and operated, Astro Chickens tend to have unusually large parking lots, and their around-the-clock security is exceptionally well equipped with auto-turrets, LawBots, and scanning systems to link it all together. To even come on the property, you have to either be in a vehicle, or in motion, as loitering is considered trespassing on corporate property and will be swiftly dealt with using deadly force, if necessary. Provisions are made for paying customers who want to use the dining facilities or restrooms, but pity the person who doesn't bus their own food tray to the trash, or fails to wash their hands after visiting the restroom, as harassment by the LawBot will ensue. It is designed to offer people a sense of security in what could otherwise be an unsafe city, and they tend to employ teenagers, especially troubled ones, and provide them with excellent career opportunities. They also have a very relaxed policy towards genetic modifications and non-binary gender types, and make harassment and hate speech of such topics an offense that is deeply frowned upon. Astro Chicken: Clean, safe food for the whole family, guaranteed. Or else!

Ruby's big rig is parked near the entrance, with its large light rack, tow winch, and custom paint job in pearlescent purple easily recognizable. Kenji follows Akiko as she sprints to its cab and pulls open the door. As she climbs inside, a gun is pressed into her forehead. Ruby says, "Oh no. No, no chica. The deal was for one person, not two. Besides, you know I don't run with no Yak. Not Ruby Two Shoes. No way! Time to find another ride, sweetie!"

Akiko shouts, "He's not Yak anymore, Ruby!"

Ruby shakes her head and says, "Honey, I don't care who he is. We had a deal!"

Akiko stares at Ruby for a second as she contemplates her options. Ruby says, "Don't make..."

Akiko's hands become a blur for an instant, then the gun is in her hand and pointed at Ruby, and Ruby is jerking her hand back in pain with a sharp cry. Akiko says, "I'll triple my pay."

Ruby looks down at her smarting hand, then back up at Akiko and says, "Well, that's all you had to say, sweetheart! No need to get all violent now! Get in. Shit, that hurts! How the frag did you do that?"

As Akiko helps Kenji up, Ruby explains, "Woah, watch the upholstery there. Kenji, I presume. What happened there?"

Kenji uses his thumb on his working hand to point at Akiko as she closes the door, and says, "She stabbed me with her katana."

Ruby nods as she fires up the truck. "Well kids, best get in the back. We're ten minutes from the gates, which means you got six with how I drive. Ever see a semi pull a power slide? You're about to find out why they call me Ruby Two Shoes!" The truck lurches out onto the road with an ear piercing "HONK HONK" from its air horns and a giant set of neon sneakers popping out as a hologram over the empty trailer. The massive rig takes a hard turn northbound on Sin street at a yellow light, and skids sideways, drifting to point directly north towards the immigration gates as all sixteen wheels burn rubber and launch it forward into the lane.

Kenji is resting on the mattress with Akiko tending his wounds when there are three knocks at the motel door, followed by two more. Kenji looks to Akiko for guidance, but she is already in motion, opening the door, and letting Ruby in. Ruby is carrying a small travel kit labeled "First Aid" and a blanket. She pipes up reassuringly, "It's all right. Doc Ruby's gonna get you stitched up. Unless, of course, you bleed out first. He still alive?"

Kenji speaks up, "For now."

Ruby sits down on the mattress and gets a needle and thread out of the kit. "Shit. I was sure hoping! Well, let's see if I can't change that. This is gonna hurt, honey. You got a bottle of anything?" Akiko grabs a half-empty bottle of brownish clear liquid from beside the mattress and hands it to Ruby, who pulls the cork and takes a swig. "Whoooo! That's the stuff. All right, Ki? Keep him from screaming. Use a pillow. And keep it there until he stops breathing, yeah?" Akiko does as directed, getting ready with the pillow. Ruby puts the thread and needle on his shoulder, then pulls the makeshift bandage aside and pours the bottle on his shoulder. Kenji spasms erratically as Akiko does her best to cover his mouth and muffle his scream with the pillow, then Ruby quickly threads the needle and starts working. "Holy shit, Ki, how fucking deep is this?"

Kenji grunts through grit teeth, "All the way through."

Ruby talks quietly as she stitches the gaping wound in Kenji's shoulder. "Have I mentioned it serves you right? I don't know what the hell you kids were thinking, but if it's Yak you are running from, you got a day, maybe two, to get on the other side of the planet before they come looking for you. This place will not be safe, and frankly, I'm not sure what is. Maybe Jupiter? You kids got any family off world? No? Well, I hear the trip out there is murder, anyway. Three years in low gee? No, thank you. Not for me. I almost got sick when the hover towed me back to Horizon. I wouldn't kick the pilot out of my passenger seat, though!" She works in silence for a bit. "Alright, turn over. Let's see this. Ooooh, yes child, she stuck you good. Brace for impact." She pours more alcohol on his shoulder, then gets his other side sewn up and the wound bandaged. Kenji turns back over and gingerly tries to sit up with the help of Akiko, propping himself up on the wall in a sitting position. Ruby says, "Alright, that's at least slowed the bleeding enough to keep you from draining out. You'll need to see a surgeon if you want to use that arm again. I don't know what you are going to do, but Horizon City is out of the question. At least you got what you need out of there. Good riddance to that place, right?" Kenji and Akiko exchange a look with each other. Ruby looks at them puzzled. "What? What did I say?"

Akiko says, "About that..."

Ruby's eyes go wide and she says loudly, "No... fucking... way! What, you want to go back there?"

Akiko just stares silently at Ruby. Kenji says, "I don't see another way."

Ruby demands, "Do you have a death wish or something? What the hell could possibly be so important that you need to go back?"

Akiko doesn't move a muscle, refusing to blink and break her gaze.

Ruby holds her hands up and says, "Absolutely not! I don't even want to know what you are thinking about asking me to do now, but the answer is no!"

Akiko is timeless, unhinged from the spacetime dimension responsible for change itself. Ever so slowly, an eyebrow creeps upward; a thin line plotting the intensity curve of her gaze that slowly ramps skyward.

Ruby crosses her arms and says, "Sweetheart, you could tell me the world will end tomorrow if I say no and my answer still won't change. Scan?"

Kenji says very slowly, "Well... not tomorrow..."

Ruby glances at Kenji, then back at Akiko. "Ki, what is this baka on about exactly?"

Akiko says, "Ruby, I'm going to need you to trust me on this one. This one is much bigger than any of us. You said Plague had been arrested?"

Ruby nods slowly. "Yeah. Almost two weeks ago."

Akiko says, "Well, we're going to need him. Sinners, too."

Ruby stares down Akiko with absolute disbelief. "Didn't you blow up the Orifice? And now you think they're just going to say ok, no problem, you can work for us again?"

Kenji takes a swig from the bottle and says, "No. They are going to be working for us."

Ruby shakes her head and says, "Ya'll have lost your ever-loving mind. This is a suicide mission. If either of you so much as set foot in the dome again, it's going to be the end of you! You won't make it 10 feet past the gates, let alone get a meeting with the Sinners!"

Akiko just sits there, staring at Ruby. Kenji says, "We're aware."

Ruby stares back for a second, then explains loudly, "You don't... Oh no. There's no way you are getting me to do it! No, no. No way!"

Akiko says nothing as her eyebrow reaches new heights.

Ruby says, "Honey, there's no amount of money you could pay me..." She pauses for a second as Akiko continues her silence. "You are going to tell me there is, aren't you? That's what you expect me to believe, isn't it?"

Kenji says, "Ruby, this is bigger than the Yakuza or the Sinners. It's bigger than Horizon."

Ruby looks over at Kenji incredulously and asks, "What the fuck does that even mean? Bigger than Horizon? What are we talking about here, a nuclear bomb?"

Akiko says, "Ruby, yesterday I thought there wasn't something bigger than that. I also thought corporate greed had its limits. Minimal as they may be, I thought there were just certain things people wouldn't do to make money. One of those things was destroying the planet. And when I say destroying it, I don't just mean making it uninhabitable for the next couple million years."

It's Ruby's turn to remain silent.

Kenji explains, "When we tried to frame Johnson, we got some technology out of Genetek Revival called Constant Cloning, which would put an end to updates of clones. We wanted Johnson to trade it for some other paydata for a job offer. We told him his future employer had the data stolen, and he needed to get it out of a ToxPower data silo. He hired Plague for the job, and I subsequently hacked his deck. The Yakuza had bugged my deck, so they ended up in possession of both pieces of paydata. I got it from them, and it's on my deck. I left a few other surprises up in Paradise, too."

Akiko continues as Ruby looks over at her, "Genetek Revival and ToxPower paid the Yakuza to get their data back. They expect both pieces are out of play, never to see the light of day again."

Kenji says, "Both corporations would like to pretend the incident never occurred. Genetek Revival plans to shelve the Constant Cloning technology. It would disrupt the revenue situation they have built with the Judges, so everyone is invested in burying it. The Yakuza included."

Ruby says, "And this concerns me how?"

Akiko says quietly, "It's the ToxPower data. It wasn't what we thought it was."

Kenji takes a deep breath and says, "It describes a device for generating power by shining a laser at a tank of fluid to vaporize it and turn a turbine. This makes little sense because whatever power you used to make the laser can go directly into heating the fluid. You will not get out more than you put in."

Ruby says, "Thermodynamics. Is this going somewhere?"

Akiko says, "They are. They're getting a lot more than they are putting in. Almost 60% more."

Ruby says, "So they're defying the laws of physics. Good for them."

Kenji shakes his head vehemently. "There is no defying the laws of physics. Something is adding power to that laser in between the origin and the fluid. There's only one thing capable of adding energy to a laser in mid-flight, and that's gravity."

Ruby shrugs. "So they point the laser down. So what?"

Kenji shakes his head. "No, that wouldn't do it. Not even close. Maybe if you put the laser at the surface and the fluid at the core of the Earth, you might pick up one percent. ToxPower initially was geothermal interestingly enough, but demand has outstripped supply for a while now. No, whatever they are doing, they're doing inside of thirty feet, using gravity, and it's generating power for the entire city."

Ruby blinks. "So..."

Akiko says, "So there's only one thing capable of generating gravity, and that's mass."

Kenji says, "They have a contained mass of something capable of generating gravity, Ruby. I don't know what that is, but whatever it is, it's definitely on the banned list of weapons by the UN."

Ruby thinks in silence for a second, then says breathlessly, "And you are going to blackmail them."

All three of them sit there in silence.

Judge Preston sprints out of the Hall of Justice elevator the second it reaches the 18th floor, flies down the hallway in a full run as fast as his black suit of armor will let him, and bursts into the situation room, panting breathlessly. Chief Justice Pratt is furiously barking orders at a subordinate while waving a cup of coffee around, "...I told you. Now Benny, bring me everyone."

Benny asks, "What do you mean, everyone?"

Pratt looks Benny straight in the eye and shouts, "EVERYONE! I want the head of cyber down here, I want every Judge regardless of if they're scheduled today, I want special weapons ready, I want hovers gassed and pilot butt in seats, and you better get lunch up here, and Benny?"

Benny says meekly, "Yes Chief Justice?"

Pratt shouts, "I want it fucking yesterday! Can someone get me a better cup of coffee? This tastes like paint thinner. Fuck! Preston! Get over here." He sets the cup down and points at the holo on the wall. An extensive network of hallways and rooms Preston recognizes as a section of the Hall of Justice that hosts the jail cells are being displayed. Three of the rooms are throbbing with a glowing crimson. Pratt shouts, "Someone has hacked us!"

Preston asks, "How? I thought it was air-gapped. No way in unless you were inside. Was it one of ours?"

Pratt shakes his head and folds his arms across his chest. "No! Somehow, they got connected through the main infrastructure. They started sending orders using the administration account. Made it look like these three prisoners were being transferred. The system took over from there. They were supposed to get on a hover, but the hover is still there and they are gone."

Preston says, "And the cameras?"

Pratt sighs and says, "Are looped. They show nothing."

Preston demands, "So we're under attack. You said someone tampered with the infrastructure?"

Pratt nods.

Preston asks, "So that's either HCS or..."

Pratt turns to look at Preston. "HCS or... who?"

Preston says, "The Ancients. Yakuza."

Pratt looks wide-eyed at Preston and says, "They are under the Hall."

Preston nods. "So who did they release?"

Pratt says "Our John Doe from Sin street and two Sinners."

Preston says, "So that's who they want it to point at?"

Pratt shrugs helplessly and looks at the HoloVid. "I can only imagine."

Preston says, "We have a play here, Chief."

Pratt looks back at Preston. "What's that?"

Preston remains silent as his boss stares him down. After an intense few seconds, Pratt says, "Office one. Now!," and turns towards one of the doors.

Preston starts to follow him when Benny bursts through the door. "Chief! Chief!"

Pratt snaps at Benny, "Not now!"

Benny says, "No, Chief! You are going to want to see this!"

Pratt screams, "NOT NOW, BENNY!"

Benny yells, "Chief! We got a ransom note!"

Pratt looks like he's about to absolutely lose his shit in Benny's direction as his face turns red with a mighty inhale. He suddenly stops in mid-gasp and exhales slowly. "Did you say ransom note?"

The HoloVid is audio only. The room is dead silent as the message plays on the HoloVid speakers. "This is Akiko, the butcher of Red level. I am now in control of your city. I have released three prisoners to show you what I am capable of. If you do not comply with my instructions, the city will experience another systematic failure. This will continue until your city collapses, so I suggest you follow my instructions to the letter. Any attempt at trying to recapture the prisoners will be met with consequences. Any attempt to come after me will be met with consequences. If you agree, you will have Judge Preston sentenced to clone death on the official HJF screamfeed. You have one hour from when this message was sent."

Preston and Pratt look at each other as if they had just seen a ghost. Pratt says, "At least we have an hour."

Preston says, "What, you aren't seriously thinking of doing it, are you?"

Pratt snaps back, "I'm thinking of protecting the city, which you are sworn to do."

Benny pipes up, "Chief, it..."

Preston interrupts him rudely. "And giving them what they want? Chief, since when is the policy to negotiate with terrorists?"

Benny says, "Actually there's..."

Pratt barks loudly, "Benny, stow that shit. Can't you see we're in a crisis here? Preston, a clone death is something we all deal with. You better go update. You can make it back here in forty minutes..."

Benny tries again. "But that's..."

Preston demands loudly, "You think that's what this is about? Not the fact we're giving terrorists what they want? Not the part where we're broadcasting it? What do you think the board is going to say?"

Pratt says, "What do you think the board is going to say if the entire city collapses? Now go update your clone! We're running out of time."

Benny says loudly, "The mess..."

Preston explodes with rage. "You actually believe that fucking drek? They're bluffing Chief! It's a ploy! I'm betting our John Doe is behind all of this."

Pratt shouts, "And whose fault is that? He sure seems to have the dirt on you! For all I know, he's got a shotgun to your head and you are doing anything to get out of it. How can I trust you when you are clearly compromised? Go update your clone! Now!"

Preston says quietly, "I..."

Benny screams at the top of his lungs, "THE MESSAGE WAS SENT FORTY SIX MINUTES AGO! THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TIME!"

Both Pratt and Preston turn to look at Benny. Benny just looks back and forth between them helplessly. "They sent it to the customer support inbox. They don't check their mail that often."

Pratt looks back at Preston. Preston says, "Chief. Let me..." but then falls silent as he glances over at Benny.

Pratt says, "Follow me." And marches off towards a door with Preston in tow.

Preston closes the door to the small office behind them and says, "If this is John Doe calling the shots, then this is playing directly into his game. He wants me to hit the clone tanks, so I'll be out of the picture for a few hours. After that, he can double tap me. We can't give him what he wants."

Pratt growls, "You think he's behind this?"

Preston says, "I know he is. He visited me last night while I was passed out. Left a calling card. Whatever his plan is requires me not being around."

Pratt sneers and says, "So he's right. You're as dirty as he says you are, and he's got your number."

Preston shakes his head and says, "Or he's a genius at playing mind games. Chief, let me try to fix this."

Pratt says sincerely, "I'm not sure I can let you leave this room if you aren't in handcuffs. Normally, you would be in the brig by now. Remember two weeks ago when I talked about losing control of the situation? Well, at this point, that's exactly the length of rope we're dangling from, and I'm not sure who to blame for it except myself. I'm going to make myself very clear right now, Scott. Either this is a hoax, and nothing is about to happen, or you materialize some sort of fucking Hail Mary miracle in the next hour. If this play of yours doesn't produce results, I'll clone death you myself before I eat my steel. There will be nothing for either of us to come back to. Scan?"

Preston nods and says, "I scan chief.," then pulls out his phone, dials a number, and puts it to his ear. Pratt watches as Preston speaks into the phone.

"Hai! Konichiwa!" Preston says with practiced formality. "Can I please speak to Hiro-san?" He listens to the response. "Hai. Hai. Jajii Preston. Hai. Domo arigato. Hai."

He cups his hand over the phone and whispers to Pratt, "She's getting him." He puts the phone back to his ear and waits.

A few seconds pass, then a blood-curdling scream rings out from the phone so loud Pratt can hear it clearly across the room. Preston winces and pulls the phone away from his ear. When he brings it back, he tries to speak, but the woman on the other end is yelling hysterically.

"Hold on..." Preston says, struggling to understand. "Hold... wait... ok, wait..." His expression shifts from confusion to shock. "No no, two? What do you mean by two? Two what? Two people?" His eyes widen. "Two... two Hiro-san? How can there be two..."

Preston suddenly goes quiet, the phone slowly lowering from his face as it continues to blare with the woman's screams. The color drains from his face as understanding dawns. He looks over at Pratt with a horrified expression and says quietly, "He's dead. He killed himself in his home. Twice. Double tapped. He dishonored his family."

"Chief! We just lost the recording studio. Genetek says they don't know what's wrong, but clone updates are not working. Some technical problem, and it's right on time." Benny shouts from across the room.

Pratt frowns deeply, his face developing long lines. "Frag it all to hell. Benny, why isn't Cyber in here yet?" He turns to Preston and says, "Are you sure this is going to work?"

Preston says, "It's the Yakuza, Chief. I've never met him, but he's Hiro's boss. If this really is John Doe and the Sinners, they are going to have an interest in this. Something tells me they will not be ok with the recording studio being down, let alone the dome collapsing."

Pratt shakes his head and says, "Just get him in a room and let me know when you are ready. Benny! I want a sitrep on the infrastructure. What does HCS have to say?"

Preston pushes out of the room and takes a deep breath, trying to slow his heartbeat down. Thirty minutes later, he pushed back through the doors. He says, "Chief, he wants you."

Pratt sighs and says, "This had better work, Scott. I got a wife and two kids, you know."

Preston says nothing as they leave the situation room and walk down the hallway to a large conference room. Inside, a tall Japanese man in a gray suit is standing behind the large conference table. He has short black hair on either side of his head, and a short tail in a rubber band at the top of the back of his head. His knife-tip sideburns and full beard are perfectly maintained, and his blue eyes flow over Pratt as he enters the room with Preston.

Pratt speaks up right away. "Sorry to keep you waiting, I'm Chief Just..."

The man interrupts him loudly, his deep voice a slow rolling thunder as he speaks. "I know who you are, Chief Justice Herman Pratt and your lap dog is not unknown to me either."

Pratt looks over to Preston for guidance, but the man is speaking again. "You did not call me in here to consult with your minion. He is excused." It was Preston's turn to look for guidance, but Pratt just points at the door, which Preston obediently disappears behind.

Pratt turns back to the man and says, "Discretion never was your strong suit, was it, Ren?" He sits down at the desk.

Ren says, "You waste my time with silly games, and expect me to play them with you? Clearly, you do not know what time it is." He sits down opposite Pratt and looks over at him across the table.

Pratt stares at him directly and says quietly, "I want answers."

Ren shakes his head and says, "No, Herman. You want solutions."

Pratt says, "Are you behind all of this?"

Ren raises an eyebrow, then leans forward and says, "While the initial events that put this in motion were our doing, one of the people responsible, Kenji, betrayed us thirty-six hours ago when Akiko came in and killed three of my men. The situation became... dynamic at that point. I understand his father has already done the honorable thing."

Pratt nods and says, "Then this isn't a bluff. This really is an attack on the dome by the Sinners. What's their end game?"

Ren says, "Money, I expect. Given what paydata they are in possession of and the resources they have access to at the moment, I'm betting they will succeed too. They can bring this place to its knees if they want to."

Pratt exclaims loudly, "And you are ok with this? You plan on just letting them destroy the place?"

Ren smiles ever so slightly. "We're prepared to take a wait-and-see approach, and we have very thorough contingency plans in case of disasters of various degrees of severity. The Yakuza have the resources to continue operating long after you have gone out of business."

Pratt bolts upright and shouts, "So you are just going to sit here and let the place burn?"

Ren stares up at Pratt from across the table. "Herman, I suggest you sit down and listen very carefully."

Pratt breathes deeply for a second, then sits back down. Ren continues, "Do you remember what I said when we first met?"

Pratt says, "You said that we're on the same side, that of what's best for Horizon."

Ren said, "Yes. And what else did I say?"

Pratt says, "That loyalty is honor, and without honor, we are nothing."

Ren nods. "I believe you are a man of honor, and you are loyal to your city. You took an oath to protect it, and you take that seriously. This is why when you are offered a solution, you will take it. Am I correct, Herman?

Pratt studies Ren carefully, his eyes searching for some further meaning in his expression. "What exactly are you offering?"

Ren smiles, the edges of his lips upturning as he leans forward. "I just told you a solution, Herman. That's why you asked me here, isn't it?"

Pratt sighs and says, "And what is that going to cost?"

Ren waves his hand dismissively. "Nothing you can't handle in your official capacity."

Pratt stares intently at Ren, and Ren looks back calmly, meeting Pratt's white hot gaze with a cool one of his own. Pratt stares for a bit, then says, "So that's what time it is."

Ren nods. "I'm glad we're finally on the same page." He pulls a piece of paper out of his inner jacket pocket. On it is a neatly printed list in two columns. He sets the paper down and slides it across the table to Pratt.

Pratt bursts through the door to the situation room, bellows, "Benny! Office one! Now!," and heads to the office as Benny scurries after him.

Once Benny has closed the door, Pratt growls, "Do you value your career, Benny?"

Benny looks at Pratt questioningly and says, "Of course, Chief."

Pratt says, "Good. I'm going to tell you to do something, and I need you to do it. I need you to not tell anyone what you are doing, and I need you to not ask me any questions. Do you scan me Benny?"

Benny nods slowly. "Yeah, Chief. I mean, you're the Chief."

Pratt looks at Benny for a second in silence, then says, "Yeah, Benny. I'm the Chief. You know how to use the banishment interface?" Benny nods. Pratt pushes a piece of paper into his hand and says in a serious tone, "I need you to change the banished list for me. Take these names off." He points at one column on the paper. "Put these names on." He points at the other column. "That will change their clone status immediately, right?"

Benny says, "Yes Chief, but..."

Pratt shakes his head and says, "Benny, I'm giving you an order. Go modify the banished list right now and don't talk to anyone about it. Send my phone a message when it's done."

Benny takes a deep breath and says, "Ok, Chief." He turns to walk out, and is halfway to the door when he stops and says, "Chief..." he turns around and points at the list. "Judge Preston? Why?"

Pratt barks angrily, "I said no questions! Now go and don't forget to message me!"

Benny shakes his head confusedly but turns back around and heads for the door. This time he makes it to the door before he stops and turns around again, practically shouting. "Chief! You...?" Benny doesn't complete the sentence as he points to the paper. Chief Justice Herman Pratt has turned his back on him.

After Benny leaves, Pratt walks out and turns to Preston. "Follow me." Together they head for the hallway, then take the elevator to the sixty fifth floor, and negotiate the hallways to the Chief Justice's office. Inside, they have a seat, and Pratt serves them both a healthy pour from a bottle in his desk drawer.

Preston says, "So I was right? A solution was available?"

Pratt nods and says, "Horizon City is safe once again. Mission accomplished." He takes a big gulp from his crystal glass. "Damn, this stuff is good."

Preston stares into his glass. "Just like that."

Pratt looks down at his own glass and says, "Just like that."

Preston downs his drink in three big gulps. "I gotta say Chief."

Pratt finishes his own drink and says, "Call me Herman. What is it you gotta say, Scott?"

Preston says solemnly, "It was good working with you, Herman," and puts his glass on the desk.

Pratt nods and says, "You too, Scott." He takes his phone out of his pocket and looks at it, then replaces it in his pocket. "It's time."

Preston nods and sits back in his chair. Pratt opens a drawer in his desk and gets a chrome HJF Enforcer out. He mumbles to it, "Grenade, ranged fuse, 0 meters." And stands up as it responds in a quiet tone, "Anti-personnel grenade. Extreme caution advised." Pratt slowly lowers the Enforcer and points it at the desk between them as Preston stands up. Pratt nods, and Preston nods back, then Pratt slowly squeezes the trigger.

It is a moderately hot day in San Daño, with the temperature reaching well over one hundred twenty five degrees in the desert. Fortunately, the San Daño Motel is famous for its central air conditioning, when it is working, because the small room on the third floor has gotten a little cramped with Kenji, Akiko, Ruby, and Tim packed into it. Ruby has gone to get some bottles of water from the Den o' Thieves around the corner and has returned with ice-cold refreshments, but even with the air conditioning and water, the room has gotten stuffy.

Tim and Kenji are on the mattress decked in with Akiko between them, ready to hard jack them out if necessary, and Ruby is sitting opposite, watching them. Akiko looks at Ruby and asks, "How did you get your truck?"

Ruby grins broadly. "Won it in a card game. The chum thought he had me with his three kings."

Akiko asks, "What did you have?"

Ruby's grin broadens a little. "Nothing. I was bluffing."

Akiko's eyes go wide. "You got him to fold on his truck with three kings?"

Ruby shakes her head. "No, he is set on seeing it through."

Akiko frowns. "I don't understand. How did you win?"

Ruby holds an empty hand out, and says, "Watching?" Akiko nods. Ruby's hand turns outward so you can see the empty palm, then back, then turns again, but this time there is an ace of hearts in her hand. Ruby fans the cards and shows it's actually three aces. She puts them back in her exposed palm, turns it away, then turns it back again to show that it's empty.

Akiko blinks a few times and says, "How did you..."

Ruby shakes her head and says, "Oh no. A mixer never reveals their secrets." She takes her phone out of her pocket and looks at it. "How long have you two been together?" She asks, then puts the phone away.

Akiko looks over at Kenji and says, "Kenji and I? Three..." but she never gets to finish the sentence. The hollow point bullet enters the side of her cranium, smacks into her skull, and blossoms into a mushroom, which tumbles as it transfers the force to her brain. Another shot rings out, and the bloody contents of Tim's head decorates the wall behind him.

Kenji, hearing the noise, jacks out to see Ruby holding the smoking gun and the two dead bodies next to him. He bolts up in alarm. "Holy fuck!"

Ruby holsters the gun and says, "Sorry. Didn't mean to get your girlfriend's brains on you."

Kenji frowns at Ruby, "Well, you could have warned me first. Gross!" He does his best to wipe the blood splatter from his clothing.

Ruby looks up at Kenji. "Seriously? You know how fast she is. Do you think I wanted to take that kind of chance? No way, baka."

Kenji sighs heavily as he finds more to wipe. "Still!"

Ruby chuckles at him. "So I still don't understand how you knew."

Kenji looks down at her sitting on the floor. "How I knew what?"

Ruby says, "How this would work?"

Kenji shrugs and says, "I didn't. We were counting on her being uncontrollably angry about the Yakuza using and betraying her like that and taking away the one person she cared about. We had Rex tell her to go to San Daño, so we knew where she would be."

Ruby holsters her gun and wipes a speck of blood from her cheek. "And that's where I came in. I get that." She looks down at Akiko's body, a flicker of something—perhaps regret—crossing her face. "But why do it at all? Why not just kill her outright and be done with it?"

Kenji moves away from the blood pooling on the floor, his expression unreadable. "Ren saw an opportunity to throw the HJF off long enough to get a few tasks accomplished and point the finger at some other problems of his."

"The Sinners," Ruby says, nodding slowly. "Which is why you had me go back and spring Tim, and why you made Akiko think you had their support and you were on her side."

Ruby thinks about it for a second, piecing together the elaborate scheme. Her gold eyes narrow as the full picture emerges.

"So Akiko would lie to Tim," she says, glancing at the two bodies. "That's why you had me take him to Preston's place, then bring him out here after you released him." She lets out a low whistle. "You were selling the story about Tim, and you were counting on him to play along and get Preston and Pratt banished. Everyone had to believe the story if they were going to do what you needed them to do."

Outside, the desert wind picks up, howling against the motel windows like a mourner's wail.

Kenji nods, stepping over to the window and peering through the blinds. "The goal was to get Tim, Big Pappa, Preston, Pratt, and a few others on the banished list while getting a few friends off."

He turns back to face Ruby, the harsh desert light casting half his face in shadow. "Their clones won't activate now, while the previously banished ones will." A ghost of a smile crosses his lips. "As you say, the story had to work if everyone was going to play their part."

He looks down at Akiko's body, and for a moment, something like genuine sorrow crosses his features before he masks it again.

Ruby says, "So that was the actual goal, then? See, I knew there was more to it."

Kenji explains, "Well, that and a change of leadership. Preston was working with the Sinners. He was their muscle upstairs. The Yakuza had been working to eliminate Tim for a while now but had no success. He was well protected by the Sinners. The fact that Preston was the one that arrested Tim would have put him on the outs with the Sinners. It was a conflict of interest"

Ruby says, "Oh, so you needed to lure Tim out into the open."

Kenji nods. "Initially, they had hoped that calling in the anonymous tip on him would do it. They had been looking for his location for a while, but it wasn't until I hacked his deck that they had it. When the opportunity arose to work him into the housecleaning, we did."

Ruby asks, "And the Chief Justice?"

Kenji says, "Was supposedly aligned with us. Ren had been putting pressure on him to fix the Preston situation, but he had become increasingly resistant, and Ren wanted him out. A newer face in the seat will present us with more opportunities."

Ruby nods. "So you planned this whole thing?"

Kenji shrugs. "Ren had a hand in it too. I just worked out some of the finer points of the plan to achieve his goals, so..."

Ruby says, "So why do I have your dad's phone? What was with all that?"

Kenji grins, "Well, you are the actor that sold it, aren't you? It's part of the lie. We needed to make them believe I betrayed the Yakuza, so it looked like I was acting on my own with Akiko and Tim. Preston knows Hiro, and while they're not usually aligned, they share a professional courtesy. When Preston called Hiro, he needed to appear to have committed suicide because I had disgraced him. The Yakuza can't be the heroes when they're the villains, now can they?"

Ruby says, "So you were just using Yakuza resources to hack everything while making it look like it wasn't the Yakuza at all. They control the city, don't they?"

Kenji says, "A good part, given how much of the gold infrastructure they control. More, now that Tim and Big Pappa are banished. It's a matter of time before he dies or gets caught and that'll really put sand in their gears."

Ruby smiles as she stands up. "It's good to be on the winning team. So what about all that stuff you were going to blackmail them with? The gravity stuff? That was all bullshit, huh? And what about your girlfriend? You aren't sad about her?"

Kenji looks over at the body on the mattress. "No. We hadn't been together that long. She wasn't that emotionally available was the real problem. Just something about the way she is wired, you know? She was born to kill, not to love. No, I won't be missing that ice queen."

Ruby shrugs and says, "Well, we should wait until dark to clean this up. Want to grab a drink?"

Kenji exclaims, "Fuck yeah! Do I ever."

As they leave the motel room, Kenji locks it behind him. They drop the decks in the truck, then walk towards the Den o' Thieves. Kenji looks over at Ruby and says, "Don't you think you overplayed your part a little back there?"

Ruby glances at Kenji incredulously. "What? No way! If anyone is the over actor here, it's you!"

Kenji pushes Ruby gently as they walk. "She stabbed me because of you!"

Ruby says, "Oh boo hoo! Don't you have chrome for that?"

Kenji says, "Pain editor? Yeah. Just got it installed. Still hurts, you know. Just not as much."

Ruby looks over at Kenji. "Oh yeah? You feel this?" She punches him in the arm.

Kenji yelps in pain and dances away. "Yes! That's my bad shoulder!"

Ruby giggles. "Tell it to your doctor."

Kenji grins at Ruby. "Yeah, tell Tim, right?"

Ruby laughs and says, "No, I'm thinking his doctoring days are over. What a creep, huh?" Kenji nods and smiles as they walk on to the bar together.