ABC - Penance

Alvarez Apartment, South Bank District

January 12th V27 (2047AD)

A strange noise woke me, my eyes snapping open to see a shadowed form lit by a soft yellow light prowling in my kitchen space. I could see from the digital display on my microwave oven the time was 5:47 AM, which meant the sun was up outside but here in my apartment it was still dark.

I had paid good money for my blackout curtains so it had better be dark until I opened them!

Minke was poking around in one of the kitchen cupboards, that yellow light drifting around over her head, seeming to move without any obvious signal or command that I could see. She found what she was looking for, drawing out the cardboard box and snagging one of the protein bars from within.

I let her go through the whole process of putting the box away and closing the cupboard door, smiling to myself as she then started to tip-toe back towards the bedroom. Her glowing ball of light followed her, shining from over her left shoulder.

“So you like those things, hey?” I called out to her. She startled like a child caught stealing a chocolate bar but she didn’t run. Minke stopped and turned towards me, holding out the stolen prize.

“I’m sorry, Luisa” she said, eyes downcast. “I was really hungry when I woke up. I didn’t think you would miss one of these”

“You need to pay for it, then you can have it” I said, sitting up and pushing my feet onto the floor. I was still zipped into my sleeping bag, only my face visible so I probably looked like a strange green caterpillar. I nodded to the space beside me on the couch. “Have a seat and I’ll tell you what I want”

Minke looked about ready to throw the protein bar at me and run for the bedroom. I met her eyes as openly as I could, hoping my usual bitch face looked a little friendlier than usual. It must have worked, because she came and sat down next to me, still clutching the bar.

“What’s the price?” she asked and I could detect the note of worry in her voice.

“Just answer me two questions” I replied easily, leaning back in my green cocoon to put my spine against the couch. “First off, how the hell are you awake right now? Those blue pills knocked me out for a solid 24 hours”

Minke smiled a little, I could see it from the side of her face.

“I have always been resistant to most drugs and stuff. My body seems to flush them out of my system pretty quick”

“Hmm, Okay” I responded. “I don’t know if that would be a positive or negative ability”

Minke shrugged her slim shoulders.

“Makes it hard to get drunk” she admitted. “I keep sobering up”

“Definitely a negative then” I said with a laugh and she joined me.

“Okay, Question Two” I cut into her subsiding snickers. “Why are you alone in the Wash? What are you running from, Minke?”

She froze, then slowly and deliberately laid the protein bar on the coffee table that was in front of us both.

“Sorry about taking the food, Alvarez” she answered me flatly. “I’ll get my clothes and be out of here as soon as possible” She stood, her glowing Will o’Wisp rising with her. By the yellow light I could see her face and the tears that were threatening to be spilled.

“Don’t be fucking ridiculous!” I yelled and stood up too, tottering slightly in my sleeping bag. “You have nowhere to go and no fucking money, am I right?”

Minke snarled and lunged at me, pushing hard with both arms extended. I did what anyone else would do in the circumstances. I fell over, crashing onto my coffee table then sliding painfully to the floor, my arms and legs entangled in the sleeping bag.

“Fuck that hurt!” I yelled and then Minke was on top of me, holding me down with one of my kitchen knives against my throat. I got very quiet then, seeing the desperate look in her eyes over the top of my favourite paring knife.

“If I tell Sam I cut your throat, maybe I can go back” she breathed into my face, her mouth twisting into a sneer. “She really hates you, Alvarez. She’s always talking about how she wants to get back at you, to humiliate you like you did to her”

I lifted my head, exposing my throat to the girl.

“I know I hurt her, Minke” I said honestly. “I hurt you all, doing what I wanted with you and the rest of Sam’s crew” I swallowed and closed my eyes, feeling the sharp blade tremble a little against my skin. My inner bitch, Punching Judy, was asking me in very impolite terms what the fuck I thought I was doing!

“Who named you Starlight Razor?” I asked her, my throat touching the knife precariously as I spoke.

“Victor” Minke replied.

“I thought it was the Arena host” I responded. “You are normally a knife fighter, right?”

“Yeah” she admitted, shifting her weight a little as she straddled me. One hand was pushed against my chest, the other gripping the little knife that lay against my throat. “I had picked out a pair of knives for the fight, good long curved ones with single edges and a stabbing point. Bastard host told me to lose them before I got into the arena, said they would toss them in later. Should’ve known then I was just a piece of Arena meat”

She leaned back and tossed the knife onto the floor with a clatter.

“I’m such a dumb cunt” she said and rolled off me, sitting to one side as I unzipped the bag. She stayed sitting there on my kitchen floor, or living room floor since it was the same space, while I got out of the entrapping bag. With only a mild groan I picked the knife up from the floor and dropped it into the kitchen sink.

I rubbed my side where it had hit the coffee table and circled the aforesaid object to park my butt onto the couch. The protein bar was still where it had been placed, so I reached over and grabbed it then tossed it to Minke.

It landed in her lap and she glanced down at it in surprise.

“It’s yours, you paid for it” I said casually and leaned back into the couch backrest. She gave me an uncomprehending look so I smiled at her. “You answered my second question, so the bar is all yours”

“No, I didn’t!” she insisted.

“You are running from Victor” I stated. “I don’t recall which asshole he was in Sam’s crew, but I am guessing he has been hurting you for some time. Before I fucked up the group dynamics, I bet he kept it all subtle and out of sight. Now that Louis is gone, this Victor has taken a leading role in the camp, right?”

Minke looked at me like I was some kind of mind-reading freak.

“He was out of town when you were at our camp” Minke finally spoke up. “By the time he got back, Sam was barely keeping it together. Victor had always been afraid of Louis, but once he was dead there was no holding him back”

“What about Bandit, or that other asshole, Robbie?” I interjected. “Bandit would have done anything for Sam, that was the vibe I got from him”

Minke nodded her head.

“Yeah, Bandit always carried a torch for Sam” she agreed sadly. “He went missing a couple of weeks ago, not long after Victor came back. As for Robbie, he’ll suck anyone’s cock for a dose of Chem. Victor’s always known how to control the rest of us, only Sam and Louis could keep him under control”

“I see. So it’s Sam and Victor now running the camp” I asked her. “And you were Victor’s toy, except he didn’t have to hide his abuse anymore”

“Uh-huh” Minke breathed out slowly. “I became an Arena fighter because I hoped I would become strong enough to kill him one day. I even tried, a week ago, sneaking up on him while he was sleeping”

“What happened?” I asked softly.

“Sam woke up, saw me with my knife over his heart” Minke answered. “She screamed at me, Victor woke up and I ran for my life. I left everything behind, everything I had ever known”

She crumpled into herself, crying in long wracking heaves, so I got off the couch and knelt beside her. I wrapped my arms around her shuddering body and held her tightly.

We stayed like that for a while, two broken women, until the tears ran dry.

=====

I was lying on the floor, half wrapped in the sleeping bag, with Minke lying on my shoulder and my arm cradling her. Above us her little glowing ball of light was still shining, shedding its soft yellow ambience over the pair of us.

“You’re a Firefly, right?” I asked Minke as she breathed softly into my chest. She moved slightly, her head tilting to look at my face in profile.

“A what?” she responded.

“That’s what they called your Ability back in the Northern Bloc” I replied. “In Europe they call them Will o’Wispers”

“Oh, in the Hole I was called a Shiner” Minke explained. She rolled her head to look up at the glowing light and it drifted down to settle on her raised palm. “The most useless Ability for a useless girl”

“That sounds like what Victor told you” I chided her. “That Ability let you take out a tough Enhanced fighter in the Arena. I know because I watched you do it!”

Minke laughed sourly, making the ball of light dance across her fingertips.

“It’s a good surprise move, using it to blind a target, but once they know the trick they can avoid it”

She moved the ball towards my other hand and I reached out to grasp it. The ball was barely detectable by touch, giving only the faintest tingle of warmth. It passed easily through my fingers, like I was trying to grasp at smoke.

“Hey Luisa, why were you at the Arena last night?” Minke asked me as I played with her ball.

“Chasing a lead on a guy my boss wants to find” I answered her, trying to catch the Will o’Wisp as it slipped through my blunt fingers. “He was known to hang around some of the Arenas to make bets. I thought he had ties to Samuel Thane too, however that is proving hard to verify”

This discussion reminded me I was supposed to contact Ghost today and run through what we had found during the last week. I gently disentangled myself from Minke and hunted for my phone. On a whim, I dragged up one of the clearer photos that Jericho-Three had provided in his data file.

“That’s the asshole I’ve been chasing” I said to Minke, showing her the image on my phone screen.

She looked at it intently, her blonde brows furrowing in concentration.

“That looks like Jake” she declared. “Yeah, I am sure that’s him”

“Jake?” I said in disbelief.

“Yeah, Jake” she confirmed. “He used to come to the meetings with Thane sometimes. We always remembered him as the Protein Bar Guy, because he used to bring us boxes of those Basic Bars they make at the Westborough plant. He would dole them out like he was some kind of big shot at the factory, but Sam said he was just an accountant”

“Holy fuck Minke, I think I love you!” I shouted with glee. “That has to be him. My guy is Jacob Tan and his cover was an Accountant!”

I left Minke sitting bemused on the floor while I called Ghost and told him the news. He was sceptical at first yet he had to agree we had no other solid leads at this point. We set a time and place to meet around midday for a scouting trip to the factory in Westborough.

“What are your plans until then?” Ghost enquired down my phone connection. I looked at Minke and gave her a wink.

“I need to pay back a friend” I answered.