**********

I see the world through bloodshot eyes

Streets filled with blood from distant lies

Dogs of War never compromise

No real time for rearranging

"Help me Jesus, help me Clean My Wounds"

He said he cannot heal that kind

Bleeding soul becomes a bitter mind

He said it happens every time...

(Knock it down!)

That's how the story goes

(Knock it down!)

In the land of a 1000's no's

(Knock it down!)

In all over you

In time my mind is changing

Oh, Knock it down

Black on black gives me a heart attack

And the silence makes it deadly

Some choose to kill with simple will

I've seen 'em fall fast and steady

"Help me Jesus, help me Clean My Wounds"

He said he cannot heal that kind

Bleeding soul becomes a bitter mind

He said it happens every time...

(Knock it down!)

That's how the story goes

(Knock it down!)

In the land of a 1000's no's

(Knock it down!)

In all over you

In time my mind is changing

Twist of fate won't give me a break

And myself I'm slow and tired

I've got to rise with these bloodshot eyes

But I keep falling when I'm higher

"Help me Jesus, help me Clean My Wounds"

He said he cannot heal that kind

Bleeding soul becomes a bitter mind

He said it happens every time...

(Knock it down!)

That's how the story goes

(Knock it down!)

In the land of a 1000's no's

(Knock it down!)

We are bleeding sins

But our sins are always fading

Oh, fading

Oh, fading

Oh, fading

Oh, knock it down, knock it down

Oh, knock it down, knock it down

Oh, knock it down, knock it down

Oh, knock it down...

**********

Chapter Two

**********

The red and blue lights of the regular police force sirens were flashing across the expanse of Cactus Jack's Amusement Park. It was the CSMB that took care of private investigations and black ops operations in Junk Town but the grunt work was down to the largely ineffectual regular police force. Rune stood leaning against the long wire fenced that sectioned off the park from the rest of the street by large. The young woman sighed and reached into one of the back pockets of her CSMB armour and pulled out two things – a cigar and her gold lighter. She jammed the cigar between her lips idly and flicked the lighter aflame underneath it. Once the cigar was lit she took a deep breath and exhaled a fresh plume of Cuban smoke into the cold night air.

More than six armoured trucks from the regular police had arrived from the East New Coast department in the past hour or so. Apparently the busting of Coconut was big. And it figured. The analysts had surmised that between Beth and the remains of all the other girls found in that underground dungeon, Coconut had killed around thirty-six young girls since the 2071 Food Riots. She had tried to tell them that Beth had been killed by Eileen... but there weren't going to believe her about that anyway. Rune thought back to that. That girl called Eileen was a psychokinetic. Psychokinesis, Psychometry, ESP and all related fields had seen serious refinement for military use during the Cold War on the part of Russian and American research agencies. However, once the Soviet Union fell, and the threat of nuclear war was eventually replaced by a paranoia concerning Islamic terrorism, the majority of the research projects into a psychical military cultivated over that period all fizzled out. The general theory remained the same but the knowledge of the existence of psychokinetics was retained as a secret amongst governments and private military companies – and largely new age myth amongst common people. Yet it was still estimated however that more than 600,000 psychokinetics could exist on Earth at anytime. Eileen appeared to be one of them. But unlike the rest of them she was aware that she had those capabilities and fully capable of using them with an amazing degree of control. She had been the one to kill both Coconut and Beth. From the way Eileen had been speaking it was no surprise that she's killed Coconut. Apparently she had some old score to settle with him. But it was Eileen's murder of Beth that concerned Rune the most.

Why would she have done that?

To like, show off her powers or something?

That didn't make much sense either. That cold stare of Eileen's was proof that she was no braggart or self-promoter. There had to be some kind of reason for it. Yet Rune couldn't think of anything. Mostly because at this point in time she was concerned only with what Eileen had called her.

`Anti-Existence'.

Rune grimaced when she thought about that. "...Was she talking about Project Gethsemane? But how in the hell would a kid like that know about-"

"Rune!"

Her words were cut off when she looked up and saw someone calling after her from across the street. It was Zophie. And behind her was the large armoured CSMB truck she had arrived here on. Rune straightened up and exhaled another wave of smoke, this time through her nostrils, as the blonde data analyst approached her.

"Are you okay...?" Zophie stopped and took a moment to breathe after the running. "...After I secreted the Overdrive drug into like you asked I got worried. I didn't think that clown psycho was such a big deal. Plus the nanomachine colony is needed to break down the microbes of the drug after it wears off to, you know, prevent blood poisoning. And since you haven't used Overdrive in a while it that can be tricky... so... are you okay...?"

The ash of Rune's cigar lit up. "I'm fine."

"But are you sure?"

"I said I'm fine, all right? Now will you just drop it?"

Zophie blinked, taken aback. "...I... I'm sorry. I... I-I didn't mean to upset you..."

"Forget it," the taller CSMB agent said. "I'm just not in a good mood right now."

Zophie faked a smile and pushed her spectacles back up the bridge of her nose. "...I understand. It's been a rough night for you. Well I, um, I told Commander Kinborough what happened here. It's obvious the police aren't actually aware of the existence of psychokinesis so there's no way to prove that it was that little girl who killed Beth and Lambert Simnal."

"Who cares? They're both dead now, lets leave it at that."

Zophie frowned. "...Sometimes I don't think you realize how cruel you can be."

At that point yet another vehicle pulled up at the pavement area in front of the amusement park. It was a small green car, pretty beaten up. A middle-aged woman shoved the door open from the inside and charged out of front passenger seat yelling `I have to know what happened to my baby!' as she did. Another person, a middle-aged man, got up and out of the driver's seat to pursue her, shouting, `Honey, come back here!' at the woman. That aging woman, most likely Mrs. Evans, ran up the scene of flashing lights and cops buzzing about the new serial killer case that had been busted wide open. She was familiar with none of them. But her teary and hysterical eyes widened when she caught sight of Zophie in her militaristic gold and green CSMB uniform.

Mrs. Evans ran up to Zophie and gasped for breath. "You're working for the ones we hired, right? Please tell us what happened? What happened to Beth? Is she alright?"

Zophie looked away, sadly. "...Mrs. Evans... I..."

Mr. Evans came up from the curb and wrapped his arm around her. "Honey, you're going to catch your death of cold like this. Let these people do their jobs and-"

"I have to know what happened to my daughter, Charles!" She said to him. "I need to know!"

Rune removed the cigar from her mouth. "Your kid's dead."

Mr. Evans was stunned. "W-what...?"

"Rune!" Zophie balked.

"...She was killed before I could save her," Rune didn't get off on lying to these people... but there would be no way for them to swallow the fact that a child psychokinetic had actually killed their daughter. "That man paid the price. But your kid is dead."

A haunted look crossed Mrs. Evans face. "N-no... it's not true... it's not true..."

Just then two regular police officers came out of the amusement park. Wedged between them was a plastic stretcher. A blanket had been thrown over it and beneath that blanket was the body of a decapitated young girl. On top of the corpse was an airtight bag that contained the head. Mrs. Evans shrieked at the sight and buried her face in the chest of her husband. Mr. Evans shut his eyes and held her in kind.

Rune breathed out another plume of smoke and turned on her heels, completely indifferent to them. That was until Zophie grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of earshot. "Rune, what the hell's wrong with you?"

"What's your problem?" She asked, unfazed.

"Those people have just lost their daughter! Can't you show a little more compassion than that? Haven't you ever heard of tact for God's sake?"

"Their daughter's dead," she told the younger one. "I told them about it. That's it."

Zophie's face contorted with anger. "But there are much better ways to say these things! You're acting like a complete bitch right now! How would you feel if you'd lost someone you cared about like that, in the blink of an eye? Can't you even understand that?"

Rune took the cigar out of her mouth, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it, extinguishing its tiny inner fire. She then shoved one of her hands into her pockets and smirked dejectedly. "I can't understand that. But if they were to lose every single person they've ever loved in moments... maybe they'd be able to understand me."

Zophie froze. "...What's that supposed to mean...?"

"Get out of my way."

Rune pushed passed her radio liaison and marched across the dusty stone curb to her car. She unlocked the door with her keys and got inside, ignoring Zophie's calls out to her, and then switched on the ignition. Rune put her foot down and drove off without anything more needed of her there. She drove and she drove and she drove, not even knowing where she was going, muttering `damnit!' repeatedly as she did, until finally she screeched to a halt beside an abandoned software factory. The auburn-haired girl winced and ripped the material of her CSMB armour just below her shoulder to reveal her flesh. Emblazoned on her upper left arm was a tattoo... or more accurately a branding... that read,

`GETHSEMANE'

NUMBER-OO3

Rune stared at it and slammed her fists against the inert wheel. "Dammit!"

Not so suddenly memories of the Civil War came back to her.

**********

No movement was swift now, only sudden and forceful and as fast as possible. There were no longer any thoughts of completing the mission, just escaping what had rapidly descended into hell. Number 003 bounded over a little sparkling stream of water so as not to make any more noise than they already were. As her light steps came to land on the soft soil again she turned her head whilst running and made sure the few left in her team were still flanking her. And they were. #087, #227, #117, and #091 had managed to survive along with her. Everyone else from her team was dead. That man... that man whom she had felt so darkly about... who she and the others had felt such an urge to eliminate... had murdered the rest of her team. But what was the fate of the other teams?

As she ran #003 opened up burst communication via NNTL. "This is Number Three, leader of Team Three. Can anyone receive me...? Is there anyone left? Someone answer me! Come on...! Number Two...are you out there? Number One? Number Four? Anyone?"

Then all of a sudden she got a reply. "...Hawwa...?"

"Someone's alive! Who is this?"

"It's N-number Eight of Team Eight! It's just horrible...! We were on our way to provide logistical support to Team Twenty-Eight when these damned cyborgs jumped us! We managed to finish them off but as soon as we got away a sniper ambushed us! Whoever it is knows what they're doing! He's picked off Numbers Two-Hundred-and-Eighteen, Sixty-Six, One-Hundred-and-Two, One-Hundred-and-Ninety-Eight, Two-Hundred-and-Twenty-Eight, One-Hundred-and-Thirty-Nine and Seventy-Three! Only Number Ninety-Seven, Number Two-Hundred-and-Fifty-Four and me are left! What the hell's going on?"

"More rebels?"

"No way!" Shouted #008 mentally. "This sniper is too well trained for that! He's gotta be from the outside! Right now what's left of my team and I are pinned by an alcove due southeast of the Communications Tower. We make another move and that sniper's got us as good as dead!"

"Just relax, my team is on its way! Meanwhile, have you been able to make contact with any of the other teams?"

"I got a report in from Number Nine. She said that her team was on its way northwest from the ammunition depot they were supposed to secure. But that was about an hour ago. I haven't heard from her or anyone else since the fighting started. Do you think...?"

#003 frowned. "Don't count us out yet! We're still alive... that's all that matters. Number Eight, stay put and don't you make a move! I've got Number Two-Hundred-and-Twenty-Seven, Number Ninety-One, Number One-Hundred-and-Seventeen, and Number Eighty-Seven with me! We're on our way to help, okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Hawwa."

He signed off. #003 then ended communications and continued running across the damp jungle floor. The others reared up to run alongside her, in particular #087, who turned to her whilst running the distance. "What happened? Did you make contact with anyone?"

"Yeah. Team Eight. Though they're being pinned down to their position by a sniper, they've managed to survive. Unfortunately neither of us can get in contact with the others. We need to gather up as many of the remaining team members as possible and get back to the paramilitary base outside of Pietermaritzburg. Commander Kinborough might have a better idea of what's going on when we get there. The mission may have been a failure but we can still pull through. We have to save as many of the Garden as possible."

#087 smirked. "Gethsemane isn't done yet, right?"

"Right." She replied.

The two of them, along with #227, #117, and #091, rushed along that jungle path in the direction of the alcove from which #008 had been called. At that point the five of them came into a new part of the jungle. What could be defined as a clearing, consisting of a more sparse layout of trees, higher grass, more rocky formations and a large stream of crystal blue water that cut straight through it. There was very little in the way of woodland or jungle in South Africa. It had already started to thin out at this location. It meant that they were getting closer to Pietermaritzburg.

Then #117 spotted something. "Hey, what's that?"

#091 looked in the direction that #117 pointed. The others looked too, but he kicked off his heels and jumped from point to point until he landed beside what they saw lying in the grass. And he gasped at what he saw. Ten bloodied corpses of his fellow Garden of Gethsemane soldiers. Numbers 001, 299, 113, 019, 101, 278, 219, 047, 076 and 083 were all dead. Some of them had had their bodies burned by what looked to be some kind of throwing explosive. The rest had taken powerful slashes to their throats judging by their semi-decapitation. Yet not a single bullet hole lay on any of them.

This definitely was not the work of the rebel militia.

"What is it?" #003 called out to him.

#091 frowned. "It's every member of Team One. They've been killed... but definitely not by the rebels."

"...What...?"

At that point a violently powerful laughter echoed throughout the spaced clearing as loudly as the distant sound of gunfire at edge of the jungle. Then suddenly a form, moving so fast as to appear a blur, pounced down from one of the tall trees of the clearing and bolted for #091. He gasped at something and the sound of metal cutting flesh broke the brief silence. The others quickly reacted and took aim with their M16s, only to see the figure come to a stop in the grass just in front of #091. He started gargling blood from the mouth. But more glaring was the slash across his throat. The figure had cut his neck so deeply that it dangled backwards – slicing straight through the jugular in a single aerial blow. By the time #091 dropped into the grass with the rest of Team One he was already dead.

#003 growled angrily. "Fire!"

Numbers 003, 117, 087 and 227 immediately opened fire. A golden shower of bullets and a dissonant chorus of gunfire cracked through the clearing at the shadowed being that had killed #091. It bolted to the right with more of its superhuman speed and dashed speedily behind a rock. The team stopped firing. #003 kept her aim up at the rocky formation and roared, "Who the hell are you...? Are you working with the rebels?"

"Heh, heh, heh, heh!" By the timber of that person's voice it was clear that he was male. "I am Venomous of the US Jungle Corps..."

#003 and the three others of her team were taken aback. The US Jungle Corps, or more formally known by the acronym JTTEAAT (Jungle Terrain Tactical Espionage and Assassination Team), was a secret division of the US military established during the Cold War. It took on covert operations in woodland and jungle topography that for normal soldiers would simply be impossible, such as the gathering of top-secret information, the killings of guerrilla squad leaders or even infiltration into jungle-based compounds like the Communications Tower. Since a disastrous mission in Botswana in the year 2051, there were only three members left in the US Jungle Corps... the Melee Guerrilla Venomous, the laser sniper Doomshot and its leader, Ark-Angel. But they were all the cream of the American crop when it came to this kind of war.

"If you're a member of US forces then why are you attacking us?" #087 yelled. "Don't you know who we are?"

Venomous sniggered. "I know exactly who you are. You have been marked, kids."

"What?"

"You failed," he reiterated. "All of you failed. One mission you had was to secure the Pietermaritzburg Communications Tower before the rebels took it over – that was to be the key staging point for the push of the 23,000 regular military troops of the SANDF (South African National Defence Force) against the rebels. More importantly... your other mission was to kill that man... which you failed to do... didn't you?"

The remainders of Team Three thought back to that man they had all had such an urge to kill.

Venomous thus continued. "That was the true goal of this operation, you failures. Your genuine mission was to kill that man... the leader of the rebel forces threatening the South African Government... that bastard Ekard Merham... and you failed. And as you should already know, your deployment in KwaZulu-Natal was to be a secret. Get in, secure the tower, kill Ekard, and get out. Since you've botched both missions there is no way we can defeat the rebels before the UN get involved. And since the AU and SANDF soldiers have been thoroughly rounded by the rebels until now... there's going to be a far larger world military presence here than wanted or expected. Do you think we could allow you, one of our country's most secret black projects, to run free when the UN gets here? It cost billions of dollars to create and train the Garden of Gethsemane and the one true mission you've been given... you've bungled. There's no safe way to get you out of the country now that the rebels have taken over the Communications Tower and the territory surrounding Pietermaritzburg. The only way to stop the world from learning of the existence of you failures... is to kill you right here and now. Hence the need for us..."

"We've been screwed!" #117 shouted. "They're the ones who've been ambushing the other teams!"

#003 was shell-shocked. "...This can't be..."

"I've slaughtered more than a hundred of your Garden thus far," Venomous sneered. "You will be next."

Then he jumped up. Everyone saw him as he vaulted into the air. He was dressed in green and brown army guerrilla gear that helped conceal him in this jungle. All four of his limbs had been replaced with bionic prosthetics that allowed him more than 3x the speed and strength of an average human being. Venomous grinned confidently and bounded over the rock he'd used as cover, until his feet rammed into the bark of a tree. The green leaves were knocked down from its branches when he used that merely as a springboard to launch into another, parallel tree. Then he bounced from that point upward until he'd managed to obscure himself amongst the sky-high foliage of the trees.

#003 looked up at the branches that Venomous had disappeared into. "Where did he go...?"

A shadowed figure bounced out of the tall grass to the right. #117 jumped and immediately fired. Venomous landed again and darted from one point to the other in a zigzag pattern that danced around the bullets of the M16. Then, just as the Melee Guerrilla reached attack proximity, the magazine ran out. #177 clicked the trigger but nothing was fired. Venomous cackled at him and somersaulted backwards, striking #177 across the face with both metal-plated boots. A pulpy mix of blood and saliva was knocked from his lips and he toppled backwards into the damp tropical soil. A groan escaped him as he tried to raise his head -- the second that he did Venomous landed with both boots into his stomach. #177 screamed and felt his head forced back into the dirt. Venomous smothered the boy's face with his wiry metallic hand. And weakened #117 was helpless to do anything but writhe and choke on the industrial stink of its steel.

An eastern wind blew into the clearing. It ruffled at Venomous' spiky black hair and added to the animal aura about his presence. The others all aimed at him... but none dared shoot. And no one seemed to be more aware of that than him. Venomous kept his prey pinned to the ground but turned and studied his other victims. "Now would be the best time to attack me."

No one did anything of the sort.

"F-forget about me...!" #117 declared hastily. "Just s-shoot him...!"

#003's finger hesitated at the trigger. "But... we..."

Venomous frowned at all of them. "Even in a life or death situation... still taking the moral high road. You're not cut out to be soldiers... no wonder you failed your mission."

It was then that #117, #003, #087, and #227 noticed the weapons that Venomous had strapped unto his back; a ten-strong assortment of straight edge fourteen-inch long combat knives. Each one sheathed in russet leather covers sown into the harness over his back. Venomous pulled out one, revealing both its moderate gleam in the moonlight and the name `Reuben' that was carved into its blade. There was a pause. Then a few moments later screamed the sound of metal cutting tissue once more. The next thing anyone knew, Venomous was back flipping into the air and #117 was spluttering up blood from the gruesome laceration running through his throat. #003, #087 and #227 watched Venomous disappear into the branches of the tress again, like a phantom.

#003 reloaded a fresh cartridge into the feeding ramp of her M16 assault rifle. "You son of a bitch!"

"You had your chance to stop me..." Venomous' voice echoed. "...And now you die..."

The sound of a pounce rang out. #003 quickly saw leaves unsettled from their branches and up bolted the blurry form of Venomous, obscured by both his tremendous speed and the darkness of the night. As he jumped from one tree to another she saw him fling down three metal objects at them. #003 waved her arm to one side and ran. "Everyone, take cover!"

The Garden agents scrambled across the clearing and ducked behind rocks and trees as the three canisters thrown by Venomous exploded in a furious bang of white, illuminating the trees. The blasts echoed throughout the jungle and caused the local wildlife to flee for their lives. While at the blast points roaring flames shot up from the charred soil. Pillows of sulphurous, grey smoke rose into the dark sky along with it. #003 scowled and remained fixed behind the rock she had taken cover with. She had no idea where on the field her allies or Venomous were. But she could at least pick up on her friends. #003 concentrated and opened NNTL with #087, thinking, "Number Eighty-Seven, are you okay? I can't see you anywhere."

"I'm fine. I got behind a tree just a few metres ahead of you and Number Two-Hundred-and-Twenty-Seven. I think he's okay too. But that Jungle Corps bastard is packing some really powerful white phosphorous grenades there. And now that there's a fire in this clearing it'll pretty much put up a `come-and-shoot-me' sign to the other two in his team."

"Let's just hope that the other Units are keeping them busy for now," the girl told him. "Team Eight said that a very good sniper was pinning them at an alcove. My guess is that that guy must be Doomshot, another member of the US Jungle Corps. But for now... we'll concentrate on Venomous."

"So how do we handle this guy?"

#003 thought for a second. "Well, he's fast. He's faster than all three of us put together, if you can believe it. And I know his attacks look random but he's striking methodically, picking us off one by one. He could have attacked us the very instant we got here but he waited until we let our guard down inspecting what happened to Team One. But we have the edge in numbers. So I'll make myself a target. I'll go out and confront him. Then the moment he appears to attack me, unload both M16s on his ass. Got it?"

"Got it! I'll tell Number Two-Hundred and Twenty-Five."

#003 broke communication and re-gripped her M16. She closed her eyes for a second and allowed herself to catch a breath. Then she stood up and bolted into the open, the tongues of one of the nearby fires highlighting her body. Aside from the crackling of that fire things were quiet. So #003 raised her gun into the air and opened fire into the skies above.

"Get out here you little motherfucker!"

Venomous' echoing sniggers sung out and around her, consuming her. "You fool!"

Then out of the corner of her eye #003 saw a flicker of metal. Instinctively she rolled to one side, only to feel the tip of it slash at her upper arm. She winced, her sweaty auburn bangs dancing around her eyes, as the metal object staked the grassy soil below. It was one of Venomous' knives, inscribed `Zebulun'. #003 gripped the wound at her arm and blood began to ooze from it.

"Shit...!" She seethed.

Venomous cackled once more and materialized in a blur just ten or so metres ahead of her. He dropped to the ground in a crouched position and reached behind his back to pull out two more of his deadly long knives, `Gad' and `Asher'. #003 scowled, released her wound, quickly took aim and yelled, `Fire!'

The sound of three guns offloading ran rampant into the night and silence of the immediate jungle. Venomous was already in the air and diving at #003 by the time they'd pulled their triggers. She looked upward and saw him descending so speedily for that aerial jugular cutting attack that he was so proficient at. So she growled and launched her assault rifle up horizontally. The blade of Gad clacked against the `shield' mid-slash, as did the following slash with Asher. Venomous snorted and dropped straight into the ground, pressing both metal hands down onto the jungle floor and sweeping his leg around in a full three hundred and sixty degree motion. #003 was swept off her ankles when the Melee Guerrilla's foot hooked behind it, and she was thrown backwards into the grass. Her back slapped against the ground with a powerful thud that caused her to jerk up blood in a cough, just as Venomous launched himself into the air and rotated his whole body only to descend at her. The brunette quickly opened one of her eyes and thrust up both her feet. Venomous gasped. Both of her boots rammed into his stomach. He wheezed when the force of his descent hit the force of her kick and toppled backward. #003 dropped her rifle and backward rolled away from him, flipping up onto her boots.

"Fire!"

#227 and #089 opened fire on him while was he down. Milliseconds before a chain of bullets bombarded him, Venomous acclimated himself and vaulted away from the shallow crater his back had made in the ground. Clouds of dust arose as the gunfire hailed the position he was formerly in. #003 sneered and ran toward the corpse of #117. She grabbed his M16 and fired before he could ascend back into the safety of the treetops. A stray bullet nailed him in his right shoulder plate. The older man cried out and quickly jumped up the length of a tree to temporarily retreat. Everyone stopped firing. And yet very suddenly #003 felt different about the situation.

"Not invincible, are you?" She grinned.

...It was then, in the briefest way possible, that she discovered her powers. The powers every member of the Garden of Gethsemane was supposed to have, the powers that had, until this point, remained quite elusive and silent.

Then she turned to her allies sternly. "You two stay out of this!"

Neither soldier said anything. They only watched on when #003 tightened her fists and bent her neck backwards to look up in the air and the treetops parting it. There was a tense moment of waiting and momentum before she crouched down and jumped. So hard and so fast that a plume of dusts spread out from her leap point. #227 and #087 stared in awe when #003 vertically jumped twenty-three metres into the air and latched onto the moss-covered bark of a tree. The brunette then scampered up the length of that tree until she reached its concealing upper foliage high above ground level. The reeds and leaves rustled when she entered them. But with both feet against a sturdy branch and her hands holding on tight she looked around for Venomous. Her bright emerald eyes moved from one corner of her sight to the other in search of him. She closed her eyes and focused. Her sight was not her only sense. She also had her hearing. She had her sense of smell.

And she heard something move leaves ahead of her.

Was it he?

No... it was too light a sound to have been caused by a man. That was probably a bird or something.

#003's mind adjusted to listening. All the sounds of the place became clearer than ever. The distant yet palpable rattling of gunfire between the SANDF and the rebels, the chirps of the night crickets in the safety of the grass, the crackling and popping of the fires caused by the white phosphorous grenades, the leaves and the branches of the trees being pulled and caressed by the east winds, the dripping of the blood that poured from the bodies of her fallen comrades' necks, the trickling of the thin babbling brook that cut through the dell, all the sounds and all the noises she could pick up on.

That was until she heard one that didn't belong, one of movement through the air. Judging by the velocity and the speed it was Venomous, coming in from behind. #003 waited until she could hear him getting close enough to attack. Then she cracked opened her eyes and turned around on the branch. The two met in the air. Venomous swung his left knife-wielding hand at her. #003 haltingly caught his wrist before the Gad knife reached within an inch of her face. Venomous scowled and swung Asher for her. She trapped that wrist with a slap with even greater ease.

#003 and Venomous came face to face for the first time as he struggled to free himself from her surprisingly strong grip around his metal wrists. She inspected his face, his slopping brow, and his dark brown eyes, his chiselled jaw, his sharp gap-ridden teeth, and his big hooked nose. He was an ugly son of a bitch but a dangerous one.

And a contest of strength ensued between them. Venomous fought to be released, tugging at his arms, while #003 held on as tight as she could, breaking his confidence by locking with him and grinned darkly as his situation. "That right arm of yours is moving a bit slower. Must have damaged some of the muscle sensors in your shoulder plate when I shot it, right?"

"Little failure...!" He seethed. "Let go!"

#003 smiled and pushed forward at the same time Venomous pulled. They were thrown off the branch and set into the air on a descent course for the ground, thirty or so metres below. In the momentum of her action, #003 rammed her knee into Venomous' stomach. She watched him break his own concentration in that second and acted accordingly. She quickly let go of his weaker arm, the right one, and chopped its wrist as they fell together. The Asher knife was knocked out of his grip. So #003 grabbed that free hand twisted it around his back. She dug her knees into his back and dropped with him into the ground in a heavy impact. #227 and #087 winced at the sound. When the dust surrounding the two soldiers settled however... they saw Venomous lying face down in the grass. Blood was dripping in little rivulets from his ear canals. #003 stood up woozily from his back and snatched the Gad knife from Venomous' unconscious grip. She raised it up and ran it back down through the cranium of the US Jungle Corps soldier, killing him.

She dismounted his body and staggered over to her comrades. "Lets get going... before the other Jungle Corps member, Ark-Angel, finds us."

"Wait a minute-!" #087 declared. "How did you do all that stuff up there? You guys were moving so fast I could hardly keep up with it!"

"I don't know..." #003 started at her hand, ignoring how dizzy her head was. "...When I saw that I could hurt him then... something just clicked inside me. It felt weird. A lot like the first time we saw that man... `Ekard Merham', as Venomous called him. Then I just sort of `exploded' I suppose."

"But are you all right?" #227 asked.

#003 nodded. "I think so. But we can't think about these little things right now. America's deserted us. We failed to kill that Merham guy and now we're paying for it. But I'm not gonna... die like a deer in their crosshairs. We're gonna save as many of our friends as we can and then get the hell out of this place. From now on... we only have each other. Got it?"

Both #087 and #227 bobbed their heads in agreement.

"Now. Let's start by finding Team Eight and saving them from that sniper."

**********

So many years had passed since those days – but she'd never forgotten them – no matter how much she wanted to. Rune stopped recalling those memories, the memories of her savage times as a soldier during the Civil War, to start up the car again and drive home.

**********

The next three days went by without much fuss.

After the Coconut/Lambert Simnal case had been unravelled a lot of work was spent on identifying the remains of all the victims that had been uncovered in the Cactus Jack Amusement Park. Needless to say the Civil Stability Maintenance Bureau's forensics department was quite busy right now. Suddenly many of the cases of missing children in recent years were being solved. The identities of at least eight of the children had been confirmed from a list of missing kids and their respective parents and guardians had been informed. It was all very tragic for them but at the end of the day it brought them some peace to know that their long years of doubt and suffering could be brought to an end.

For Rune the work was just beginning.

The young woman sat behind the desk of a room she didn't like to spend much time in... her office at the CSMB HQ. It wasn't a place that she frequented often so it wasn't place she took time in decorating. All it had was a grey plastic desk with a personal computer, a cushioned chair resting behind the desk, a little water cooler in the corner, and a couple of file cabinets to keep personal and case records from her work. It was all quite boring really. But with her job as a special agent of the Civil Stability Maintenance Bureau came this, paperwork. Rune's fingers glided over the keys of her PC's keyboard and typed up a full double-spaced report concerning her account of what happened at the amusement park, including times, dates, weapons uses, the amount of burst transmission performed, the deaths and actions and behavioural patterns of Coconut and Beth and so on. After that she would have to type up her report on the LeCroix/Clarence case. The disk was still being analysed and until that was completed she couldn't finish it – she told Polly that and got the bioandroid off her back about it – but once the analysis was completed she'd need to write up the report quick. It was all dull and monotonous work but there was no alternative.

At a point Rune took a break and exhaled. Although she had a few cigars on her she couldn't smoke in the office (another reason she couldn't stand it there) so she made do with coffee. She sipped from the cup next to her keyboard and tried to relax a moment before she continued. She was right up to the point at which Coconut died, explaining how she'd broken free from captivity by requesting an Overdrive secretion from Zophie. From there on she had to talk about how they'd died. This time she would have to tell the truth. Just thinking about that whole business brought back the memories of that girl Eileen and what she'd called her, `anti-existence'. And as miserable as it made her to think of that... it was at that point of irritation that she started picturing that girl from Pulsa diNura.

Jenna.

To be honest, that wasn't a fond night of memories for Rune, not after sleeping with that thieving slut, Louisa. But it was all the better from thinking of Jenna. And it occurred to her that this wasn't the first time she had found herself thinking about that girl. In the past few days, in the stress of the filing and office duties that came with field operations, Jenna's image had been coming back into her mind again and again and again. Rune couldn't help herself from doing that, no matter how embarrassing it was. Jenna was beautiful. So beautiful in fact, with all that long dark hair, those soft aquamarine eyes, and those cute pouting cheeks... it was practically impossible not to think about her.

Just then a knock came at the door.

"Come in." Rune told them.

The door opened up and standing in the doorway was Zophie, with bashful, sheepish frown on her face. Rune paused for a moment with the coffee mug at her lips just as she saw that. Despite her intelligence she had a very ditzy way of carrying herself out... at times Rune mistook how seriously Zophie took things.

Zophie adjusted her glasses nervously. "...Hi..."

"Hey."

"Are you...?"

Rune shrugged whilst putting down her coffee. "What?"

"Are you still mad at me...?"

"I wasn't mad at you," the brunette corrected. "It was just a long night."

Zophie brightened up a bit. "...Oh. Okay. I can live with that."

"So what did you come here for? I'm working on my reports for the LeCroix/Clarence and Coconut the Clown cases."

"Yeah, Polly told me about that. But I'm not here to check up on you or anything. Actually... we have a new mission. But from the nature of the mission you'd think it was old... sort of."

Rune squinted. "Excuse me?"

"It's another kidnapping case," Zophie told her. "And another little girl."

"Is it under the same circumstances?"

Zophie shrugged. "I don't have all the details. You'd better talk to the Commander first."

Rune heaved a sigh and stood upright. Before she did anything more she saved what she had written thus far in her reports on the two most recent of her cases and logged off. Then she walked with Zophie from her office and down the hall to Commander Kinborough's. They knocked and he called them in from the inside. Both women entered and saluted the older man as he sat beside his own desk awaiting them.

"Good, you're here." He said. "Has Zophie told you?"

Rune nodded. "Just that there's another mission for me."

"Yes and this its quite similar to your previous one... eerily similar in fact. About six and half hours ago five armed men kidnapped a twelve-year-old girl called Mimi Pritchard in the East New Coast district. You know better than I do how tight security is there so this is more alarming than it sounds. Her parents contacted us three hours ago and gave us what little information they had. And for her recovery they've agreed to pay us a sum of $50,000."

"That's more than twice what we normally charge for private work." Zophie stated.

Frank nodded. "Exactly, Zophie. I don't think that they trust the regular police on this one. That's probably why they went through the `back door'. But despite the similarities between the Beth Evans case and this Mimi Pritchard situation, the key difference here is that we have little in the way of a lead."

"Nothing?" Rune questioned.

"Nothing but a location and a time. You'll have to do your own investigative work. And it'll be tougher this time because there doesn't seem to be any sense to this one."

"What do you mean by that?" Asked Zophie.

"Think about it. Neither the girl nor her family have any collateral worth and there's been no talk of a ransom demand thus far. They're not celebrities or political or even military figures, just an average middle-class family with very little to offer. The only reason they were able to afford the costs of hiring us was because they've re-mortgaged their home, or so I'm told. And somehow I don't think that the people who kidnapped the girl did so for a sexual reason. There's no need to hire and mobilize armed troops for that when you can just buy a Sex-Model bioandroid for a fraction of the price."

Rune frowned. "You mean to tell me there's no motive here?"

"Of course there has to be one," Frank answered. "But at the moment there isn't enough to go by to formulate it."

"What about her parents? Can I talk to them?"

"They're here. If you wish to question them so be it. I don't imagine they can tell you anything more than what we've been able to gather in our dossier for the case but do what you feel is necessary."

Rune saluted him and was handed the dossier after that. While Zophie went about preparing Mr. And Mrs. Pritchard for some questions by Rune, she went over the case file back in her office. Half an hour later she'd read through it twice. And through NNTL Zophie informed Rune that Mimi's parents were ready to talk to her. So she left her office with the dossier in hand and went two floors down the tall Civil Stability Maintenance Bureau's HQ into the interrogation rooms. This wasn't an interrogation but sometimes it was easier to get distraught people to talk when they had some privacy. Rune came to one of the many doors on that floor, the sixth one, and opened it, walking inside. It was a pure white room with a painted-white wooden desk in its middle and four chairs surrounding that. Mr and Mrs. Pritchard sat on one side of that table, holding each other in wait.

Rune greeted them. "Hello. My name's Rachelle Maye McNeil. I'm the one who'll be investigating Mimi's disappearance."

"I-I see," Mrs. Pritchard stammered. "I'm Maggie Pritchard. This is my husband, Stephen. I know that we've said this to everyone else who's spoken to us... but I'm begging you... we're begging you. Can you please find our daughter and bring her back to us?"

She didn't want to pretend to care about this kind of thing again but she needed information. If for that reason alone, Rune suppressed any ill feelings she felt and said, "I'll try my best to bring your daughter back. But right now I need to know more about her and this situation. First of all, what can you tell me about Mimi?"

Mr Pritchard reached into one of the pockets of his coat and pulled out a picture of Mimi. He handed it over to Rune and she took a gander at it. She was a cute little thing, freckles and all. Mr. Pritchard ran a hand through his hair as he spoke, visibly tired. "That's Mimi. She is attending Shandon-Coleman High School in East New Coast. We adopted her one year ago."

"She's adopted?"

"Yes," He confirmed. "My wife and I had problems conceiving and so we applied for a child through an adoption agency. We were blessed with Mimi when she was eleven. Since then she's been such a happy, tranquil girl. Even the loss of her memories doesn't seem to concern her."

Rune scratched her cheek. "What was that? Loss of memory?"

"Mimi has no memory of her life beyond the past two years," Mrs. Pritchard said. "He is aware of her year with us and the year she spent at her old orphanage but other than that, she can't remember anything. But despite that Mimi has never had a single problem with us... or anyone else. She's the perfect angel. I can't imagine why someone would do this."

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Rune said. "Is there anyone who might have wanted to use Mimi to get to someone else... possibly either of you...?"

Mr. Pritchard shook his head vigorously. "Of course not! We are not criminals or rich dealers like the rest of the scum in this city, we're ordinary people. I'm just an English teacher and my wife is a nurse... no one we know would have done this to us. I just can't understand what someone would gain from it..."

That was what was puzzling Rune right about now. "What about the kidnapping itself? How did it happen? What did you see?"

"We saw nothing. We were both at work at the time. Mimi was walking home from school and then those vile men came along and snatched her up. The only reason we know this is because we were told... by man who saw what happened."

"A witness?"

"Yes, a liquor-store owner by the name of Ronald Peterson. Apparently Mimi was walking past his store when those men came and kidnapped her. The police spoke to him when he reported her kidnapping and they in turn phoned her school. By his description of her they concluded it was Mimi and after getting that information they spoke to us about what went on. We then talked to Ronald about it."

"I see. I guess I'll start with him then. Try and... take it easy for now. I'm on the job."

**********

Almost as soon as she had finished talking with Mimi's parents, Rune went about preparing for her investigation into the girl's disappearance. The first thing she did was to get her Desert Eagles reloaded and recalibrated by some of the eggheads in the ballistics laboratory. Once she collected them from the lab she grabbed her tall-collar black trenchcoat from the rack in her office (there was no need to wear her CSMB armour; it would just intimidate anyone she needed to question). And thereafter she exited the Civil Stability Maintenance Bureau HQ building, walking out into the parking lot. Then she got in her car and drove off down one of its ramps into the surrounding roads of the West New Coast district.

The destination this time was East New Coast, specifically Westhampton Street; the road in which Mimi had last been seen. It was on that road that Shandon-Coleman High School and Ronald Peterson's liquor store was on. It was a longer drive than usual because of the need to traverse most of East New Coast to get there. But eventually she got past all the late afternoon traffic and through all the maintenance checkpoints until she reached Westhampton Street. The climate of the immediate area had changed for bustling, skyscraper-addled nucleus of Junk Town's trade and commerce to a white bread suburban neighbourhood that lay in comfortable tranquillity only because of the work that the CSMB put into guarding the district.

They obviously hadn't been doing a bang up job where Mimi was concerned.

Rune pulled up by a side road in the quiet Westhampton Street, which lay nestled between a grocery and the liquor store in question. She got up and out of her car, locked it, shoved her hands into her pockets – but not before adjusting her dark sunglasses. It was pretty bright out. The silence of the street was only broken by a few passing cars as Rune walked from the back street she'd parked in and around to the front pavement to the liquor store. She pushed its glass door open and walked inside, a little bell ringing as she did, and surveyed the small shop. All the alcohol was stored up in refrigerator coolers that lined three of the walls. Most of them were pressed against the walls either side of Rune while the others behind the sales counter at the back of the store. Those were obviously the more expensive ones. Also standing behind that counter was a very old crown-bald man... probably in his late seventies. It was Ronald Peterson.

Rune walked to the sales counter and nodded to him as he sat on a stool behind his cash register. "Afternoon."

"...Afternoon," he replied in a frail voice. "How can I help you...?"

She took out her badge and showed it to him. "I'm an agent of the Civil Stability Maintenance Bureau. As I understand it you were the last person to see one Mimi Pritchard prior to her kidnapping this morning. Right now I'm looking for some information to help find her. I need you to tell me everything you can remember concerning that incident."

Ronald nodded. "Okay. Even though the police have already asked me everything I'll tell you what I remember. I was just opening my store at the time I usually do, little lady, about eleven. I was putting up some new bottles of French wine in one of the coolers over there when I saw that little girl passing by the window. She was an adorable little rugrat too. But just as she did... a truck reared up from down the road and about... five men jumped out from its back doors."

"What did they look like?" Rune questioned. "Height, sex, ethnicity?"

"They was all wearing balaclavas so I couldn't make out what their faces looked like. But I remember that they were all quite tall. By the way they were yelling I think they'd be about thirty or so in age. They were wearing casual clothes... like jeans and tee shirts and slacks and stuff. And they were carrying guns."

"What type of guns?"

"I don't know what type of guns they were. I'm a liquor store owner not an arms dealer."

"Well, what did they look like?"

Ronald paused a moment to think. "They had silver barrels... is all I remember. They weren't pistols at all they were some goddamned machine gun kind of thing. One of them grabbed the girl and then lugged her into the back of their truck, but I couldn't get their registration number before they drove off."

"Hmm," Yet Rune was already knee-deep in thought. "Silver barrels, huh? Sounds to me like a Groph-Hauser 49-B assault carbine. But how on earth would a bunch of roughneck Junk Town civilians be able to get their hands on contemporary firearms like that?"

Ronald shrugged. "I don't have a clue. And that's all I know."

"...Oh. I see. Thanks for your time."

"Sure. Oh, and if you see that girl's parents, be sure to give them my condolences."

Rune nodded on her way out. "Yeah. Sure, sure."

The brunette exited the liquor with that same bell jingle following her. As soon as she left Peterson's store she headed for her car and got back inside to think. There was a clue here. Groph-Hauser was a highly modern German armaments development company that had begun designing firearms and ballistic weapons systems specifically for private military companies and governmental armies since 2052. Only Groph-Hauser models had silver barrels on them, for ornamental and decorative purposes rather than anything else. But all the same... such firearms were hard to acquire unless you had a lot of money. Five Groph-Hauser 49-B assault carbines alone would cost about $18,500 on the black market (3,500 each). Older models from older gun companies cost far less so most people bought those kinds of weapons, used in the early 21^st century. Yet most important of all was a simple fact. There was only one man Rune knew of who sold those kinds of firearms in Junk Town.

Vance Wilson of Gun-Tek Inc.

If she were going to find out whom it was that Mimi's captors were; she'd have to start with him. So she fished out her keys from one of her trenchcoat pockets and slotted them into the ignition and the engine kick started. Before long she was driving off Westhampton Road and heading north via the back streets towards the Northeast New Coast district. Of all the eight districts with the epithet `New Coast', Northeast New Coast was the one that was most associated with business corruption and industrial fraud. In other words it was a haven of white-collar crime. This was an underground and subversive knowledge that only a few people knew about. Gun-Tek Inc was a rather shining example of the ethic that the people in Northeast New Coast did business with. It was an arms company that sold weapons into and out of the city along the trade routes and deals that the Wong Trading Company had established with them. But Gun-Tek Inc was still its own company, not pandering to the influence of the Mahrem Conglomerate no matter what the connections to the Wong Trading Company, one of the subsidiaries of Mahrem itself. While most of its activities were legal in nature, for example there was nothing criminal about the way they sold weapons, the weapons they did sell often broke rules. Biochemical and Germ weapons (for instance) were illegal in America. Since Junk Town had its own independent system of government brokered between the state and the CSMB, those weapons were legal in the city. Yet it was completely illegal to export them into mainland US since the North American outlawing of them in 2063's UWF (United Western Front) Treaty. Gun-Tek Inc had frequently broken the tenets of that treaty by shipping biochemical weapons into the mainland.

However the Civil Stability Maintenance Bureau couldn't stop it... Gun-Tek's CEO, Vance Wilson, was a relation to a member of the US Senate. Nepotism was as potent now as ever it had been. And so, somehow, every time pressure was placed on that man and his company for their illegal weapons exportation, he'd managed to wriggle his slimy way out of it. But that didn't matter now. This time the only thing Rune wanted was any and all information concerning Mimi's captors.

After a short drive north she entered into the Northeast New Coast. She noted so once more by the rapid change in her surroundings. East New Coast was a mostly residential area. This place was a seedier version of West New Coast. For as many skyscrapers and business cafes as there were, there were an equal number of beggars prowling the streets for some change. There was more litter on the floors and less armed police patrolling the streets. There was something about this place that reeked of a taint. Not so much as other districts in Junk Town, like the Slums, but in its own way.

Rune soon was driving past the glassy windows and doors of the Gun-Tek building. But there was no parking up front. So she drove around a long road that curled around the building toward a fenced open-air car park at its rear. Once she found a good space again Rune got out and locked the car door behind her. From there she proceeded on foot to the revolving front doors of the Gun-Tek building and pushed her way inside. And like all big buildings of any big businesses, its interior wasn't telling of its occupation. It had just as many water coolers, potter plants, paintings, security guards, desk, chairs, and computers as any normal office would. It was hard to believe that this place regulated the sale of firearms.

Rune walked across the reception area to the front desk, her boots clicking against the floor's marble finish, and pulled out her badge just as the cute black receptionist said, "Hello, may I help you?"

"I'm Agent McNeil of the Civil Stability Maintenance Bureau. I'd like to arrange a meeting with your company's CEO, Vance Wilson, as soon as possible."

The young woman fiddled with her fountain pen awkwardly. "Um... Mr. Wilson isn't in right now."

"I see," Rune put away her badge. "Do you know where he is?"

The receptionist flushed visibly. "...I'm not... at liberty to discuss that."

Rune sighed. "...Alright, listen here. I know for a fact that weapons sold by Gun-Tek Inc were recently used in the kidnapping of a young schoolgirl. Now I may not care about what happens to that kid but there are two people out there, her parents, who do. And every second I waste talking to you is another second that girl is in danger. And since the only way I can find anything out about her kidnappers is if I speak to the one who supplied them with their guns, your boss, I'm going to have to ask you to be bit more goddamned cooperative."

The receptionist winced and looked over her shoulder for anyone else standing around. There were a few people walking up and about with files and clipboards, but no one was watching her explicitly. With a sigh she pulled a blank sheet of recycled paper from her desk and started writing something. Rune stood and watched while the girl speedily wrote a blurb onto the paper, folded it, and presented it to her bashfully. So Rune opened it up and it read,

`Vance is at a Japanese brothel on Akasen-Chiku Street in Little Nippon right now. It's called Crimson Fire and has a troupe of bioandroid male Geishas in it that Vance likes to... get `freaky' with. I think you'll find him there. But PLEASE don't tell anyone I told you. If it gets out that I informed you about his private life I'll be fired.'

Rune finished reading the note and gestured to the woman. "You've got cute handwriting."

"...Um... okay, but... uh... you won't say that I said anything, will you...?"

She shoved the note into a jacket pocket. "Of course not. Thanks for the help."

With that she left the Gun-Tek building and let the receptionist get back to her work. Rune strode around the building again and got into her car. Once she slammed the door closed she gripped the leather fabric of the wheel and exhaled at the situation. "This is turning into a goddamned Odyssey."

At the very least she was getting somewhere (however slowly). But this time it meant more driving. Little Nippon was a district more or less populated by Japanese immigrants or Asian-Americans of Japanese descent, hence the name `Little Nippon' (as opposed to Chinatown). As far as crime went it was dominated by small-time Yakuza syndicates. But Little Nippon was a small district and they really didn't have much influence outside of it – essentially they were nothing to be deeply concerned with in any non-rational sense. Unfortunately she'd never been there before so she'd need directions. The young fighter leaned back in the driver's seat and flicked on the small and computerised navigational mapper a top of her dashboard. When it turned on the little green screen displayed a schematic map of Junk Town and the borderlines of its districts. It was touch-sensitive so she pressed the one marked `Little Nippon'. Immediately a much larger map arrived on screen, one of Little Nippon itself, and showed all its streets and the roads that led to them. Rune quickly figured out a route there and started driving.

Less than an hour later she was driving through the streets of Little Nippon, down Akasen-Chiku Street. It was a nice place in the way it looked, actually. Much of it was a modelled mixture of Japanese and Western architecture, blending in tofu, ramen and soba stalls with hamburger joints, boxing clubs with kendo training halls, woodland parks with cherry blossom gardens, etc. However this particular street, Akasen-Chiku Street, was lined with nothing more than Japanese style sex parlours. It stood to note that it wasn't even dark yet, and yet for some reason most of them were open, their pink and red neon lights illuminating the faces of many an Asian man (and a few whites and blacks) ready to spend their money on whatever strip teases took their fancy.

Rune kept her eyes trained on all of them until she found Crimson Fire. It was close to the fork at the end of the road. So she drove up to one of the open parking spaces across the road from it and swiftly got out of her car. Rune wasted no time in jogging over the street and coming up to the multicoloured string-beads that acted as a door into the Crimson Fire brothel. She pulled them out of her way and came into a kind of `greeting' area. It was small but had a few doors behind the counter. Thus far Rune was the only `consumer' there. But she balked when she looked across the room and saw another person there.

A bioandroid boy designed to look about fifteen, dressed like an actual Geisha in tight purple clothing, pale white make up and bright rouge lipstick. To his credit though he did look like a girl, even though the permanently erect bulge in the crotch area of his kimono said otherwise.

He graciously waved to Rune and said, "Konnichiwa! Welcome to the Crimson Fire! My name is Yukito `Yuki' Sakamoto of the Seiteki na Shounen troupe. How may I be of service to you...?"

Though she hated to talk with bioandroids, work was work. "Vance Wilson. Is he here?"

"Yes he is."

"...Well can you get him out here?"

Yuki beamed brightly at her with a wide smile and closed eyes. "And what, may I ask, is this regarding...?"

Rune took out her badge. "I'm a CSMB agent. And I don't care if the pervert's in there getting better suction than a damn vacuum cleaner – he's gonna hear my questions."

"No need to worry," Yuki said with that dopey and oblivious bioandroid smile. "He doesn't mind having visitors during his private times. He's with Momoya right now. Would you like to speak to him now?"

"Fire away, pseudo-human."

Yuki pointed over his dainty shoulder and minced behind one of the velvet red curtains that concealed a door into the back rooms. Rune walked around the counter and followed him. Yuki led her through a semi-narrow corridor lined with pretty pink throw pillows and erect walls scrolls with much haiku written on them. Had Rune been able to understand the Kanji of the Japanese language, she would have been made aware of the highly sexual nature of each poem. And as she strode down the length of the pillow-covered corridor she started to hear them. The mixture of light and forceful moans coming from each door that they passed. In the background she could hear the feminine whelps and moans and whimpers of the Seiteki na Shounen troupe, each one of them in a different room, alongside the grunts and thrusting of their older, human customers. The bioandroid thing alone freaked her out but this...?

Yuki stopped at the last door at the end of the corridor. "Mr. Wilson is right through here, Agent McNeil."

"...How did you know my name...?"

He pointed at the badge she hadn't put away yet. "From that, Ma'am."

"Ugh," Rune slotted it away in one of her pockets and frowned. "Make like Houdini and disappear."

"Yes, Agent McNeil." Said Yuki, who then walked back to the front counter.

Once he was gone Rune paid her attention to the door. She pushed open the wooden article and stepped inside, and was immediately bombarded with sights and sounds she'd rather not see. The nude Vance Wilson, save for his socks and shoes, lying back across a flat Japanese-style mattress bed. Bouncing up and down on his vividly and rigidly erect cock... was another of the Seiteki na Shounen troupe, `Momoya'. The bangs of long black hair, tied up in part with oriental hairpins, flopped back and forth, along with the loose folds of his kimono and own little penis, as his ass cheeks slapped repeatedly against the hips of Vance. The older man tilted his hairy body to one side of Momoya, looking past his back at the door. He smirked when Rune frowned with disgust at him.

"And you would be?" He asked, still maintaining his flamboyant fuck of Momoya.

Rune looked away, hearing only Momoya's giddy feminine moans and the sound of smooth flesh slapping against hairier flesh. "...An agent of the CSMB."

"And what do you want with me...?"

"Could you...?" Rune shut her eyes. "...Stop playing with your fake-human fuck toy while I'm here...?"

Vance chuckled along with his vigorous thrusts into Momoya's asshole. "Any reason I should, officer...?"

"...Ugh. Your company, Gun-Tek Inc, has at some point sold Five Groph-Hauser 49-B Assault Carbines to a specific set of men that I need to track down. And since you're the only person we know of who's had contact with them I need you to give me as much information as you can about them. Who they are, what they want, why they are here."

Vance sniggered between grunts. "Any... ugh! Reason I should... ugh! Do that... ugh! Agent... ugh!"

"If you don't, I'll-"

"You'll do what? Ugh!" Vance's sweaty grin widened as Momoya got louder. "The CSMB can't... ugh! Touch me... ugh!"

But she was way beyond that kind of reasoning. Rune reached into her jacket and whipped out Liquidus.

Naturally, Vance stopped fucking Momoya.

"The Civil Maintenance Stability Bureau can't touch you, but a bullet certainly could." She told him.

"...You're bluffing."

"Hmm," Rune took aim at his rapidly deflating penis. "I wonder if your dick would say the same."

There was a slight tense pause... and then...?

"...Alright," Vance turned to his bioandroid lover. "That's enough, Momoya."

He replied effeminately, "Yes sir."

So he crawled out of that position and straightened out the folds of his kimono, right before busying himself with twin cups of sake on a small table at the far corner of the room. Vance growled irritably and stood up. He grabbed his briefs and the trousers of his suit and fitted them on. Momoya then came over with a glass of sake. Vance whispered a thank you and faced Rune.

"So what do you know?" She asked him, lowering her gun.

Vance gulped down his sake. "If you're expecting some encyclopaedic knowledge about your targets then forget it. I don't know very much."

"Just tell me what you do know. That's all I need."

"It wasn't too long ago that we got the order for the Groph-Hauser 49-Bs. It was a significant one because we don't normally get people willing to put up that much money for a carbine that's only minimally better than your average M4. It was just a couple of days ago in fact. A man called Jackson James footed the bill on behalf of his gang. I don't know what he or anyone else in his gang looks like... but I have the address he asked us to deliver the guns to."

He reached into the one of his trouser back pockets and pulled out a filofax. He flipped through its pages until he reached the J's, and then tore out the one that had Jackson James's address on it. Vance handed it over to Rune. "That there's the address we were given."

"Thanks," Rune slotted it away into another of her pockets.

Just as Rune started walking away, Vance called out to her. "Wait a minute."

"Yeah?"

"We have an understanding, right? Don't tell anyone about what I do here."

Rune felt a chill down her spine. She didn't even want to think about what Vance was doing here, let alone talk about it. "...Yeah. Lets do that. You don't tell anyone I pointed a gun at you... and I won't tell anyone that you get your rocks off by fucking these little cross-dressing bioandroid boys."

She could feel him sneering at her as she closed the door behind her but she didn't care. Rune had her lead. So she swiftly made her way out of Crimson Fire and crossed the street over to her previous parking space. She unlocked the door, got inside and settled down she activated her NNTL.

"Zophie."

She replied through her brainwaves again. "Hey, Rune. Something up?"

"I've just gotten a lead in the Mimi Pritchard case."

**********

It was a long day.

So long in fact that Rune just didn't feel like going back home or to the office. She needed to unwind a bit. And of course that meant Pulsa diNura. There were plenty of reasons why she shouldn't go, one of them being the possibility of running into Louisa... but right now Rune couldn't think of anywhere else. The young woman drove quietly with a little light 90's rock in the background. Since she had passed on the information of Jackson James' arms request point, the regular forces of the Civil Maintenance Stability Bureau could handle the rest of the operation. So Rune drove from Little Nippon all the way over to Willow Hill. She rolled into the normal parking lot and locked off her car, got out, and locked the door behind her. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her trenchcoat and strode over to the street in which Pulsa diNura was. It was already dark by that time. Yet when Rune came to the stairwell leading down to Pulsa diNura, she noticed that the two burly security guards and the red velvet rope were not there. The door itself was locked. There was a large sheet of paper fixed against that door which declared,

`Closed due to flooding'.

Rune scowled. "Great. This is just great."

Then she heard someone yelp. Someone with a very beautiful voice, someone she'd been thinking a lot about in the past three days. Rune ascended the stairs once more and looked into the darkness of the back alley. As she had thought, it was her, Jenna. Just as beautiful as she ever was. Yet this time there was fear in her big aquamarine eyes. Three men huddled around her. Three thugs who all looked out of place in Willow Hill surrounded and jeered at Jenna, eyeing her up, and the girl herself was clearly terrified. That thought alone made Rune angrier now than she'd felt in a long time.

Thug #2 scratched the underside of his meaty, stubble-covered jaw whilst staring lewdly at Jenna's abundant chest. "Heh, heh, heh. The boss turned up with a good job this time. I don't mind taking you at all..."

"Please..." Jenna sobbed. "...Please let me go."

She whimpered as Thug #3 grabbed her roughly by the arm. "You don't give the orders. You're coming with us. Make a scene outta this and I'll rip off your goddamned knee caps."

Absolute terror settled into Jenna's eyes. Then that terror melted into astonishment when a powerful hand gripped Thug #3's wrist out of nowhere. The muscled yob winced. Rune stood alongside him, tightening her grip, causing him to release Jenna and stagger back. Rune quickly stepped in front of an increasingly confused Jenna, muttering `get behind me'. Then all three of the thugs marched up and faced off with her. Thug #1 slotted his beefy, hairy fingers into two golden-plated knuckledusters. Thug #2 pulled out a knife from his overcoat. And finally Thug #3 picked up a nearby lead pipe and slapped it against his free hand threateningly.

Rune remained still. "Don't make me have to kill you."

"He! He, he, he, he, he, he!" Thug #1 cackled. "Get in our way, bitch... and you're dead!"

"Just try it."

Thug #1 grinned. "You don't gotta tell me twice! Ha!"

He shuffled forward and swung a knuckleduster-headed fist in her direction. Rune sidestepped the blow with immense speed and thrust a punch into his stomach. Thug #1 gasped at the sheer velocity of the punch and went wide-eyed. He groaned and lurched, before dropping over in a heap. Thugs #2 and #3 came up towards her with more gusto thanks to that. Rune pressed Jenna further behind her and pulled her fists up into what can only be described as a fighting stance. First came Thug #2 with his long knife. He made a quick lunge with the knife. Rune smirked and slapped his hand out of the way in she rejection. Fortunately he was nothing like Venomous when it came to proficiency with knives. The moment he was distracted by that, Rune thrust a kick up with a pounce, knocking against his jaw. Jenna winced at the cracking sound. And the saliva gushed with droplets of blood when he fell over, whimpering. Last came Thug #3. He growled in animalistic ire and swung the pipe. Rune ducked under the blow and reached for his arm as it retracted. She dragged in her arm and turned her back to him, throwing him over her shoulder and forcing him into the cold stone floor. His back slapped the ground so hard that he coughed violently and dropped the pipe. All three men had been downed in the space of a minute or two.

And she wasn't even out of breath.

Rune turned back to Jenna. "Are you okay...?"

She said nothing.

It didn't take her long to read between the lines. So she went into one of her pockets and took out her badge. "...Don't be scared of me. I'm a... cop, I guess."

"You're a member of the Civil Stability Maintenance Bureau," Sighed Jenna. "...I see."

Rune slotted away the badge. "Why were they after you...?"

"...I really don't know."

"Hmm. I guess these guys were just a couple of joy-seekers. Look, it's probably not a good idea for you to stay here. I'll tell Tia to keep a look out for those bastards when I next see her."

Jenna blinked. "You know Tia...?"

"She's an... old friend, I suppose."

The young woman pulled a stand of her long black hair behind her ear. "...Uh... I'm Jenna. Jenna Woodworth."

Rune allowed herself to get a good look at the face of this woman. God, she was too beautiful for words. So Rune looked away, pressing her hand into her hip. "I know who you are. I saw you in the club four days ago."

"I see."

"Let's go." Rune said, throwing her thumb over her shoulder.

Jenna looked at her. "...Huh? Where...?"

"I think you need to calm down a little. There's a coffee shop I know of near here. So lets go."

With that she started walking away. Jenna paused and took a moment to glance at her three assailants. They were all out cold. When Rune reached the end of the alleyway she looked back over her shoulder and yelled `are you coming or not?'. Jenna shook off her reverie and replied `I'm coming!' before following her. With the CSMB agent leading the way the two women walked down the length of Willow's Hill's main high street and down an offshoot road towards the little café that Rune had been talking about. A small and gentle place on the corner of the high street, it was called `Little Elm'. Before its glass doors were a few white plastic tables and chairs with open parasols hanging over them. It was the middle of the night but a few people had already taken a few of the tables, sipping tea and chatting amongst themselves. It actually had a very nice atmosphere.

Rune led her to one of the tables and pulled out a chair. "Have a seat."

"Thank you," Jenna said, sitting down.

"What would you like to drink?"

Jenna took a short moment to think. "Could you get me a latte? I'd love that."

"Sure."

Rune slapped the table for affirmation and walked into the coffee shop. A minute or two later she was walking back out of it with two warm drinks in her hands -- a latte in her left and a cappuccino in her right. She handed the latte to Jenna (who thanked her with a nod) and sipped from her cappuccino whilst sitting down. Jenna smiled and reached for her purse.

"How much do I owe you for this?"

Rune narrowed her eyes. "What...?"

"I mean how much do I owe you for the latte?"

"You don't me anything."

Jenna fiddled with her purse. "C'mon, it's the least I can-"

"I said it's fine." Rune said forthrightly.

Jenna's smile weakened a little. "Oh. Okay..."

Something of a silence settled between the two of them. Rune didn't seem to notice or care. She merely sipped on her drink and lazily stared at the streets around them. Jenna sat with her head bowed; only from time to time did she drink from her logo-inscribed polystyrene cup. That silence maintained for a while until...

"How long have you been singing...?"

Jenna looked up; seemingly almost surprised they were talking. "...At the club? At Pulsa diNura it was just that one night. But I've been singing at other clubs in Willow Hill for... I guess... nearly two years now."

"Two years? I don't remember seeing you before that night."

"W-what night...?"

Rune stared at her for a minute, not saying anything. Maybe her appearances on the stage in Pulsa diNura weren't as infrequent as Tia would have suggested. So the auburn-haired woman exhaled and put her cup down. "I don't remember seeing you before this week."

"How many clubs in Willow Hill do you go to?"

It pretty much hit Rune then. "...Not many."

"Well there you go," Jenna smiled again. "I have to say though, I like Pulsa diNura the most. It's a nice place. Tia really takes good care of me. Some of the women there were pestering me after my song and she had some of her bouncers deal with them."

Rune's fist tightened. "...Someone was bothering you...?"

"Yeah. And Tia handled it."

"Well... that sounds like her, all right."

Jenna sipped a little more of her latte. "Are you and she close?"

"I told you, we're just old friends." For some reason Rune felt the need to stress that point to Jenna. "Besides, she told me she's engaged or something. You have to be a special woman to get her to settle down, that's for damn sure."

The smile on Jenna's face evened out a little; taking on a hint of what Rune could only describe as light melancholy. The very fact that it didn't suit that sweet face of hers made it stand out all the more. "I think it's wonderful when people are able to find love. I always think of it as the very opposite of loneliness. But... anything's better than that."

Rune looked away. "...Some people like to be alone."

"That's not true," Jenna said seriously. "They like to think that. That being alone makes them strong. But that's wrong. It's totally the opposite. It's cowardice to want to live like that."

"And how do you figure that?"

Jenna exhaled. "People can't hurt you when you're on your own."

Again Rune found herself pausing and staring at this girl. "But... that's not something you have to worry about, is it?"

"..."

"...I suppose... someone as good-looking as you..."

Jenna beamed that childish smile of hers. "You think I'm good-looking?"

"You don't actually need me to tell you that."

"But how else would I know?"

"Know what? That you're good-looking or that I think you're good-looking?"

Jenna shrugged. "Both."

"Maybe you should ask your boyfriend that."

And at THAT, the singer pouted. "...What makes you think I have a boyfriend?"

Rune pulled a grin. "...You just have that `right angle' look about you, is all."

"I'm single, thank you very much. And for your information I'm not attracted to guys. Why else do you think I'd be performing in clubs like Pulsa diNura?"

"To sing?"

Jenna pouted. "Very funny."

By now the cappuccino was finished. Rune shut her eyes and removed a cigar from her inner coat pocket. She watched with subtle humour the stare of disapproval from Jenna as she put the cigar between her lips and pulled out a lighter. Rune flicked the lighter on and lit the cigar through the flame that was produced. She closed it with a metallic click, put it away, then pulled the cigar from her lips and breathed out a cloud of smoke that lingered in the gap between herself and Jenna.

"You're a smoker."

Rune leaned back. "Bingo."

"And you're comfortable about that?"

"Any reason why I shouldn't be? I am the one who's smoking here."

Jenna frowned. "Wouldn't it be quicker to just chuck a cup of tar down your throat?"

Strangely enough, Rune actually found herself smirking a little at that one. "I take it you don't approve."

"Correct," She said directly. "And cigars aren't very effeminate, either."

"Jeez, now you're starting to sound like Zophie and Nana."

Jenna tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "...Zophie? Nana?"

Rune dropped some of her ash in a nearby ashtray. "...Friends of mine. Well, one of them is. I've known the latter for years but the former is basically just one of my co-workers at the CSMB."

"They sound like nice people." She admitted.

"Well, maybe. If you ever met them I dunno how long you'd keep thinking that though."

Jenna smiled again. "But you still seem to care about them, right?"

"...What makes you say that?"

"I could hear it in your voice."

There was another silence after that. But this time, for some reason, it didn't feel awkward for either of them. And Rune made an effort not to blow her smoke in Jenna's direction, in a way because of it. But after a while it became apparent that it was getting late. And Rune herself wasn't very partial to hanging around rapidly quieting streets in the late hours of the night. She worked her cigar between her index and wedding ring fingers and used that hand to pull down the sleeve of her trenchcoat. Rune glanced at her watch.

Jenna saw her and asked, "What time is it?"

"11.47," she replied. "I think I'd better take you home now."

Upon hearing that Jenna winced in her seat.

"What's the matter with you?" Rune asked.

The singer frowned awkwardly. "...I... well..."

The cogwheels didn't take long to start turning in Rune's mind. "After what happened tonight... you probably don't want to be alone right now... is that it?"

"...Kinda..."

Rune chucked what was left of her cigar into her empty cappuccino cup. "...You can spend the night with me."

"...Are you sure...?" Jenna's eyes enlarged in her gratitude. "I don't want to impose."

"It'll just be for the night and I have plenty of room. Let's go."

**********

"Your place is very nice."

Jenna stood at the open doorway into Rune's apartment and stared at its layout. It actually was quite a lovely place and it was located in a very pleasant area, Kentish Town. Rune followed her inside and closed the door behind them. She yawned a moment and then pulled off her sunglasses and trenchcoat, revealing the harness around her body that held up her Desert Eagles and their holsters. Jenna turned around and saw that for herself, blinking. It took a second for the CSMB agent to realize that Jenna was staring at her guns.

"What is it?"

"Nothing." She shook her head, whipping that thick and lush black hair along her shoulders.

Rune sighed. "Do they make you uncomfortable?"

"...A little."

Nothing more need be said. Rune reached behind her back and undid the straps that tied the harness around her upper body. She pulled it off and strode into her bedroom, right before opening one of her many closets and placing it inside, out of Jenna's way. Whilst in her room she took off her boots and her shirt and threw on a large hooded sweatshirt. Yet as Rune stepped out into the corridor, Jenna was still there, standing silently, looking as adorable as ever, and nervously not knowing what to do or what to say in the situation. Yet she merely stood appreciating the décor, as if to suggest herself unfazed. Jenna was definitely unique. She was the only person Rune had ever met who could seem both confident and insecure at the same time.

"What are you doing?" Rune said leisurely. "Take off your coat and relax."

Jenna bobbed her head. "Okay."

She peeled off her short cobalt jeans-jacket and hung it up on the coat hook next to Rune's trenchcoat. Rune eyed her for a brief moment and then gestured with her head towards the one of the other doors down the corridor. Jenna followed her into what turned out to be Rune's kitchen. The officer went into one of the overhanging white cupboards and pulled out a large and rather expensive looking bottle of Irish Cream from within it.

"Do you drink?"

"In moderation." Replied Jenna.

Rune twisted the cap. "Do you drink Irish Cream...?"

"Never had one. Do you like it?"

"It's just about the only kind of alcohol I do like." Rune then walked over to the stainless steel sink and opened one of the cupboards that hung over that. From that she pulled out two short, wide-rimmed glasses. Both of them were made out of a very well polished crystal. She walked back to the counter where the bottle was and poured two samples of the drink into either of the glasses. After she put the bottle away she presented Jenna with one glass and kept the other for herself. The raven-haired woman took a whiff of the thick brown liquid before drinking some of it. Rune stood back and watched with focus the sight of Jenna's sylvan throat bobbing up and down. That action alone turned her on. Maybe it wasn't the smartest idea to offer Jenna a place to stay for the night.

Jenna pulled the glass from her lips and stared at the rim. "Hmm. That's not bad."

"...Come on."

Rune walked out of the kitchen and down the corridor. Jenna followed her. They strode out from the hall into a room at the other end, the largest one in the whole apartment, Rune's living room. Its layout consisted of a set twin set of very lush ebony leather sofas, a love seat resting in one of the corners, a central but large glass coffee table stranding on top of a patterned and maybe somewhat embroidered Eastern European carpet. There was a standard 33-inch flat screen television set on one end of the room and next to it was a cabinet that contained a very expensive stereo system. The walls were like those of the rest of the house, painted in a very faint eggshell brown. Considering how neatly kept the whole thing was, and how lazily Rune seemed to act when she was here, it was clear to Jenna that Rune didn't spent a lot of time in this apartment. For some reason that got her curious as to what Rune did in her spare time.

Rune flopped down onto one of her leather couches and gulped down a bit of her drink. "You can sit down."

"Can I turn on the TV?"

She shrugged. "If you like."

Jenna put her glass down on the coffee table and strode up to Rune's set. She crouched down and switched it on. A news channel popped up and displayed a young Asian-American woman sitting behind the desk of a newsroom. On screen there was a video feed of a twenty-strong East African militia. They were riding around in the back of a truck, which cut through the sands of a windy desert, each of them dressed in face-concealing black scarves and dusky desert camouflage combat gear whilst wielding very archaic AK-47s.

The newscaster started off, saying, "In other news, conflict has been renewed in the Central Republic of Unkulunkulu after peace talks between President Kadekagume and the leaders of the Oubangui Separatist Militia dissolved this morning. The leader of the rebel movement, Edward Edu Kyoga, has expressed defiance at the Prime Minister for what he referred to as `an offending peace agreement that spits in the face of ethnically native peoples who wish for equality in the face of the Arab-aligned government'. Representatives in the government have expressed `sorrow' for the failure of the peace talks but also insisted that it will not bow down to `unreasonable pressure' and `unfeasible demands' from the militia. Thus far more than 62,000 people have died in the Unkulunkulu conflict with hundreds of thousands more injured or displaced."

Jenna exhaled. "Another war. Seems like it happens everywhere these days."

"That's the way the world works," Rune said matter-of-factly. "In some nations you can get an old AK-47 like that for the equivalent of $20."

"That doesn't make it right. When will the fighting stop? There are so many more things people should be worried about, like global climate change, poverty in the Third World, even crime rates here. So why can't people see that? It's like being swallowed up by quicksand and yet worrying about getting sand in your eye."

Rune frowned at her. "Is everything that black and white to you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You might not be able to understand why they're fighting," she began. "But for all you know, there could be a good reason for it. It's easy to sit back and watch as people are killing each other in Africa and the Middle East and say `Oh, that's ever so unnecessary'. But it's their world, their situation, and their rules. You can't judge what they do based on the way you do things."

Jenna shook her head. "There's never a good reason to kill people."

"Maybe from your angle it might seem like that. But not everyone feels that way. You can't expect them see everything on your terms when your lives are so different."

"Wars aren't noble or necessary. Everything can be resolved through diplomacy. You might think of me as some naïve little girl for believing that. But I don't think I'm wrong. The only things left after war is emptiness and loneliness. The sadness of people who lost loved ones, the damage it does to their world... none of it is right. Maybe it's stupid to want to see the back of that sort of thing... but I don't think that it's wrong. Everything beings with hope... even the impossible."

Rune smiled at this woman both smugly and warmly. She could tell without asking that Jenna had never seen a real battlefield in her life and yet she spoke of her ideals towards war so frankly. In a way it was a little arrogant. But at the core of it all she was so genuine and heartfelt about it – it was hard to begrudge her.

"You sound like an anti-war activist."

"Maybe I would be if I could get out of Junk Town."

She had goals. That was an oddity in this town. Most people resigned themselves to the fact they'd never be allowed to leave the city and thus went out of their way to enjoy the situation. Hence all the depravity and crime that elsewhere would not be tolerated. Rune finished the last of her Irish Cream and sighed. "I need a smoke."

Rune stood up and walked across the room to one of the large window-doors that stood before the balcony. Rune pulled it to one side and walked into the small gravel floor of the balcony. It was nice out there. >From that vantage point she could observe all the other apartment buildings along the streets, the many cars beeping and revving down below, the bright stars that sparkled in the night sky and feel the cold winds blowing into her and eliciting goosebumps across her flesh. This balcony alone was her favourite part of the apartment. Rune came up to its metallic railing and leaned against it to look out at view. Then she pulled out a cigar from one of her trouser pockets, placed it between her lips and lit it with her lighter, shielding the flame from the wind with her free hand.

By the time she was finished, Jenna came out and joined her at the balcony. "Nice view."

"Yeah."

Another silence. Jenna ran a hand through her bangs. Rune breathed out smoke. People honked their car horns down below. More silence. Until...

"I want to leave this place one day." Said Jenna, abruptly. "And see the world."

"Might not be as wonderful as you think."

"That doesn't matter. As long as I can see it," she replied. "Anything's got to be better than this place."

Rune drew in more smoke from her cigar and breathed it out through her nostrils. "I've already had my fill of this place."

"Then why are you still here? If you're working for the CSMB then I'm guessing that you're probably quite well off, financially speaking. I know that if I had enough money to pay the security authorities for freedom I'd do it. So why do you continue to be here if you don't want to be?"

She tipped her cigar's ash over the railing. "... Because I don't have a choice."

"...Huh?"

"Don't worry about it," she said. "It's not your concern."

Jenna paused briefly. "I... I guess not."

"This town isn't too bad when you have money, anyways. The people here in Kentish Town are living it large most of the time, just like they would in any other city. It's only when you lack money that this place becomes hell on Earth. Of course poverty also has its advantages. You don't find yourself surrounded by pseudo-humans every day."

"God, don't tell me you're a bioandroid hater?"

"If you wanna call me that, then I am."

"What is it with people like you?" Jenna uttered. "Why do you treat bioandroids like aliens and lepers?"

Rune's rosy lips puffed out a hoop of smoke. "Because they are."

"That's prejudice talking. You're as bad as Tia."

"You don't know what you're talking about," replied the CSMB agent. "You haven't seen the same things I have. They may look harmless but those things are dangerous. I've seen so many common bioandroids doing the boring work we're too pompous to do. Then I've seen them have their encephalon gears neuro-hacked by cyber criminals, and they turned into ruthless killing machines. I've had countless cases of BA owners being injured or killed by their bioandroids when they've gotten viruses and malfunctioned. Why should real people have to live in fear of those fakes?"

Jenna shook her head. "We're the ones who replaced their brains with encephalon gears. We're the ones who use them that way. If anything happens because of that... then it's not their fault. Bioandroids are people too. They have rights."

"Bioandroids don't have any rights."

"Not legal ones, no. But they should. Every generation has some group in society that they feel the need to look down on. You and I are both lesbians, right? Lots of people would have disagreed with that at the beginning of the century. Things are a lot different now. Yet we still feel the need to look down on something. Why is that?"

Rune turned around and leaned her back against the railing. "I'm not looking at bioandroids as a scapegoat for my issues. I don't need to be told any different, either. Those things aren't human. They're just biological computers. They don't think, they don't dream, they don't even have a will of their own. They just `operate'."

"That's a horrible thing to say..."

"Yeah, well..." Rune ran a hand through her hair. "...Zophie always says I'm a cold person."

Jenna smirked in counterblast. "I don't think you're cold – you're too opinionated for that. You're just bitter."

"Well... you're refreshingly earnest."

She shrugged. "Most people like me this way."

And honestly Rune could see why. As naïve and childish as she was, Jenna didn't seem hesitant to put out her opinions when she had grounds to express them. There were twin layers of innocence and confidence with her that seemed to counterbalance each other to such a degree that they actually complemented each other. It was no more obvious than in Jenna's overt disposition. She was delicate and soft in the way she spoke, but forceful in her devotion to her words and the views they expressed. Though Rune couldn't have said why – be it her looks or her personality or both – she knew that she liked this girl.

The rest of the night went by without any hassle or fuss. Jenna had a shower while Rune ordered out and the two of them had a late night meal. Then a few hours later, well into the early morning, they slept. Though she had a huge bed that could have easily accommodated the two of them (much to Jenna's insistence) Rune slept in some blankets on one of her sofas. She didn't know how comfortable she was with the idea of lying so close to someone she was so obviously attracted to, and it was especially bad if you considered the fact that Jenna was only here because she been frightened by those thugs at Pulsa diNura.

Those were the sleeping arrangements.

And by the following morning, high into the brunch hour of eleven, both women woke up feeling far more refreshed than they had been the previous night. Rune fixed together some breakfast for the pair of them (as it turned out, delicate little Jenna had a very healthy appetite) and before either of them knew it... it was time to say goodbye.

Jenna found herself at the door of the apartment, fitting her jeans jacket onto her shoulders. Rune leaned against the wall from her, cross-armed, watching her prepare to leave. "Are you sure that you don't want me to drive you back to your apartment?"

"I've imposed on you enough." Jenna said. "I couldn't ask for anything more."

"I don't mind."

The younger one grinned. "Well I do! But... despite what happened last night... I'm glad it let me meet you. You're clearly a difficult woman, but... the difficult women are almost always the more interesting ones."

Rune smiled a little, genuinely. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Well, that's what's intended," she said. "But I... I don't think I can thank you enough for what you did for me. You saved me from those men, you let me spend the night with you, I just... I don't know what to say. I can tell that you're not the type of person who would do this often. So I know it might seem a bit... inadequate, but... would you like to go out for dinner with me?"

Honestly Rune wasn't expecting that. "You and I?"

"Yeah. And I'm not a living bank or anything, but I'll pay."

"I don't know if..."

She cut herself off when Jenna reached for one of her hands and rubbed it with her thumb. It was such a simplistic little action but so sweet in its nature. And when Jenna's touch was complimented by those big, tender aquamarine eyes of hers... how could she say no? How could anyone? Rune smiled at Jenna and felt something swell in her heart that hadn't been touched in a long time. "...I'd love to."

Jenna's smile broadened. "Good. How about tomorrow night then? I know a cute little restaurant near me that I'm sure you'd like. Here's my number."

She took out a piece of paper and put it in Rune's hand. It had her phone number on it.

"Call me and we'll hammer out the details, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good." Yet, just as Jenna turned to leave, it suddenly occurred to her. "Wait. How stupid am I? What was your name?"

Rune blinked. "...We spent the night together and I didn't tell you my name?"

"Nope."

"...I'm sorry. My name is... Rachelle. Rachelle Maye McNeil. But I'm not a big fan of that name... so everyone I know, except Nana, calls me by my nickname; Rune."

Jenna cast those eyes at Rune with renewed curiosity. "Alright then, `Rune'. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," She replied, seeing Jenna out. "See you tomorrow."

Once the singer left Rune slumped back against the door and sighed. She'd never met anyone like Jenna. Now the two of them were going out on what could very easily be called a `date', Rune couldn't even think of how she was feeling. She was both nervous (a feeling she didn't experience too often) and hugely expectant (again something she didn't experience very often) at the thought of it all. Soon however, the light neural buzzing of an incoming NNTL communication changed her focus.

Zophie's voice followed the buzzing. "Rune? Are you there?"

"Of course I am." She replied mentally. "What's the problem?"

"We've followed up on that lead you gave us. We know where Mimi Pritchard is. You gotta get moving."

**********

It didn't take long for Rune to drive from her apartment in Kentish Town to the Civil Stability Maintenance Bureau HQ. When she did she quickly suited up in her CSMB composite armour and had her Solidus and Liquidus adjusted and loaded by the weapons repairs teams. She took two normal bullet magazines for them she also took two armour-piercing bullet magazines for her guns, too. After Rune hooked them against the belt of her gear she put her reloaded guns into her twin belt holsters and made her way to the car park of the building. Waiting for her there was a reinforced truck and six soldiers of the CSMB's UTCB (Urban Tactical Combat Battalion). Five of them were armed with Heckler & Koch G36 automatic rifles and lighter, less tough version of the CSMB armour and the according helmets. The remaining one of them carried a GM-94 grenade launcher rather than the H&K G36. Rune and the squad had gotten inside the back of the truck and seated themselves while it drove from headquarters and out into the streets.

That had been an hour ago.

The truck by now was closing in on the target area. Rune sat beside one of the UTCB soldiers and paused with her arms crossed. Before long she felt the buzzing in her brain from an incoming NNTL message. She knew without doubt that it was Zophie. "...Zophie...?"

"Hey, Rune," She said, as sweetly as ever. "Are you on your way?"

"Can't you see that through Canaan-3?"

"Come on, you know I can only see you when you're outdoors."

Rune nodded. "Right, right. Anyway, tell me what happened."

"Basically after we got that address from you concerning Jackson James, we sent a team of officers there. It turned out to be his actual apartment. He wasn't there but after going through all his crap our teams found an e-letter with the place he and his cronies had taken Mimi Pritchard to. That's where you're going now."

"What were you able to find out about him?" Rune asked.

"He's just some common punk off the streets. From the records we have on him, he used to live in the Slums and has about twenty or so criminal convictions, mostly for theft and assault. Apparently he got out of the Slums four years ago and since then he's been living in West New Coast. We don't know where he was getting his money from... but it doesn't matter now. Mimi is the important one in this case but if you can kill him... I'm sure the regular police would thank us for it."

"Understood. I'll do what I can."

Then Rune signed off. At that point she felt the truck begin to slow down into a complete stop. She commanded `lets go' to her back up team and launched herself off her padded seat, forcing open the door and jumping out. The streets became alive with the thumping, repetitive sound of fourteen boots rushing along the stone ground as Rune and her six-strong team marched into position. Their target was this large abandoned and dilapidated warehouse in which Jackson James, along with his gang, had been hiding Mimi. It was broad daylight but the CSMB couldn't put off action any longer. Regular police forces had sealed off the entire block, the flash of their red and blue sirens signalling their presence in the distance. The group were pinned down as they were... but that didn't mean that James couldn't try something drastic.

Rune pulled out Solidus as she stood with her team at the sidewalk. "Cover me."

The six other men nodded and grunted to her in acceptance and let her stride off down the length of the warehouse. She pressed her back against the crumbling brick wall and leaned against the window, peering inside. She could see from that point four men. One of them was white, two of them South Asians and the other a black guy. Ronald Peterson had been right about them too. Though they weren't wearing balaclavas they were all casually dressed; torn blue jeans, tee shirts, sweatshirts, sneakers and the like. As before they were carrying those Groph-Hauser 49-B assault carbines. Some of them sat on the wooden crates left behind by the old storage company that used to run this place. One other, the white guy, crouched underneath a window at the back end of that large hall, his boots tapping nervously against the dusty wooden floorboards.

Mimi was nowhere in sight. And as for the gang there should have been five of them. There was only four she could see. Somehow she could guess that none of those men were Jackson James himself. So Rune turned and gestured to one of UTCB soldiers in particular, the one carrying a grenade launcher. He nodded back to her and removed a cylinder-shaped grey shell from his backpack and loaded it into the launcher in his hand. The man then took aim at one of the dirty, unwashed windows of the warehouse and paused briefly. He pulled the trigger and the shell was shot like a bullet straight through the window. The shell dropped to the floor and cracked against it, immediately releasing a huge plume of CS gas. The four men all stood up and gasped, while Rune motioned for the remaining five soldiers to follow her. They ran to her as she turned around the corner of the building until she came to its locked doors. Rune cried out and furiously kicked at them. The lock broke from the inside and the doors swung open. As soon as they did, she yelled to her team,

"Fire!"

The five UTCB soldiers opened fire on the four men inside. The first of the South Asian men was killed in the gunfire. The other three all shouted and scrambled behind the cover of the nearby creates and heavy shipping equipment. As the UTCB did the same, Rune ran directly right of them. There was a door on the other side of the room. The three remaining members of Jackson James' gang opened fire on the UTCB position and they returned fire moments later, descending into a cover-based gunfight. Rune ran across the room while the two groups were occupied with each other until she made it to that door. She walked inside with Solidus at the ready. It only led to separate corridor with three more doors along it. Rune took careful butterfly steps down the hall, keeping Solidus in a firing pose, stopping only at each door to check if someone was inside. When she came to the second one she heard gentle, frightened whimpers.

So the green-eyed woman nudged the door open a tad and peered inside.

It was an office that had had all its furniture cleaned out other than a single chair. Tied to that chair was the eleven-year-old Mimi Pritchard, with her wrists bound behind her, her mouth stuffed and tied and her eyes blindfolded. Walking around her was an anxious-looking black man in his late thirties. He was clothed in an ebony leather overcoat, deep black trousers, clicking brown moccasins and sporting much in the way of gold. Each of his fingers had a gold ring on them. Dangling from his rather muscled neck was at least eight different types of gold necklaces. Hanging from the right side of his waist was a large brown buckskin pouch that contained something heavy and unidentifiable. That had to be Jackson James.

The criminal flicked a 8mm knife out of his pocket and rushed it over his small chemical-addled Afro, before flicking it closed and smirking at his captive. "Sounds like the cops are already here, bitch. And my `employers' ain't even come to collect you yet. Looks like we're gonna play this game hard, don't it?"

"Wrong!" Rune kicked the door fully open and marched in with Jackson in Solidus' sights. Both he and Mimi looked up with a start, though Jackson quickly acclimated himself.

He stepped back, raising his hands into the air. "Heh, heh, heh...! So I was right, huh? How'd you find us?"

"You don't cover your tracks well," Rune told him. "Next time don't buy guns so rare that only one man can sell them to you. But I'm not gonna get all Pollyanna and bubblegum about it. I can tell just by looking at you that you're more for style than substance, right?"

Jackson smirked grimly. "Vance. Goddamn fag. I'll get him for this."

"You aren't gonna live that long."

"We'll see!" Jackson dived out of the way and rolled toward a crate at the back of the room. Rune opened fire and Mimi squealed in fright, the bullet hitting the wall. Jackson sniggered behind the wooden box and picked up something, and by the sound of its cocking, Rune could tell it was a firearm. When he stood back up he had a long barrelled, snub-nosed Groph-Hauser MX-22, a `pump action' shoulder-held energy shell cannon. They ran on ES or `energy shells' that carried a highly condensed form of superheated plasma within them. The shells that this type of weapon ran on were made of metal alloys that were subjected to constant electrical treatment to allow it a resonant magnetic field – one strong enough to contain the plasma – while the metal of the shell itself was weak enough to dissolve during the impact of its payload deliverance. Shoulder-held ES cannons like these were extremely rare and hard to make, only special military divisions of certain countries (like the US army) and international organizations (like NATO) had them. The very fact that someone as insignificant as Jackson James could have gotten one showed how many connections Gun-Tek Inc had at its disposal.

Rune frowned and kept Solidus ready. "This place is rickety as it is. Don't be stupid."

"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh!" Jackson grabbed the sliding forearm handle and pumped it. "I've been looking offload this motherfucker on someone ever since I bought it from Gun-Tek. Looks like you're gonna be first, bitch!"

Rune quickly sheathed Solidus and darted back out of the room into the corridor. A moment later Jackson fired, the huge echoing bang of the shot causing Mimi to scream in terror. Rune reflexively got down. The ES bullet exploded loudly and destructively against the wall. The rending sound of a superheated plasma explosion burst through the entire corridor, the thunderous shockwaves shattered each of the windows one by one as they emanated from the blast point. Debris and dust was blown either way from the flames that reared up in place of the wall, smoke seeped out like dried ice, and the crumbling brick of the far wall now had a glaring 1.2 metre hole in it. Through that smoking hole Rune could see the CSMB truck that she had come here on.

With Mimi still tied up and whimpering, Jackson came out of the doorway and grinned enormously at his handiwork. Then he turned to Rune and raised the gun into another firing position. He reached into that buckskin pouch of his and took out one of what it had contained all along, ES shells. He loaded the new one into the MX-22 and pumped its handle aggressively. "Whoohoo! This here is one badass motherfucker! What'd you think of it, eh?"

Rune got up onto her feet, taking out Liquidus this time. "...Pretty good. It's wasted on scum like you."

"Oh yeah? Well, I tell you what, sister. I hope you believe in the devil `cause you're gonna meet him. I'm sending you on a one-way trip straight to hell!"

Jackson fired once more. The screaming noise of the ES rang out as Rune quickly dove out of the way, around the corner of the path that led into another corridor. When she hit the ground another blinding explosion thundered in that confined area. The brick and glass of the adjacent wall was spat out from the explosion like darts. More flames sparkled up from the incinerated wall and carpet, its smoke mingling with its predecessor. Rune got up onto her feet and turned around with Liquidus, only to hear Jackson loading another ES into his weapon. He turned around the corner with his cannon and gave a powerful, gold-toothed smirk at her, hoisting the gun up into another firing position.

"I didn't think you'd be this much fun," he said, grinning. "But I'm gonna enjoy watching you die..."

There was only split-second thought when Rune saw another door. Though it would corner her, she had no choice. The instant Jackson curled his hairy finger around the trigger she had thrust herself through the doorway into the room. A second later the third ES bullet was fired. It careened straight down the corridor and smashed into the far wall, causing yet another dynamic detonation. Flames spat up from the ruins of the wall; smoke started to spread all along the walls, while debris was thrown every which way. Jackson coughed and winced from the smoke, but just took out another shell and loaded it into the MX-22. He then walked down the corridor and entered the room that Rune had dodged into.

Yet it was empty.

"Hmm. No windows in here," Jackson pumped the handle. "Where the fuck are you, girl?"

A voice came from above. "Right here!"

Jackson gasped and looked up only to feel Rune punch him squarely across the jaw. He went reeling from her and dropped the MX-22, while Rune landed from the rafters above and quickly mounted him from the waist. While Jackson groaned, a trail of blood running from the corner of his mouth, Rune took out Liquidus again and pressed it against his left temple.

"It's beyond over for you, asshole," Rune seethed. "But I wanna know something first. Why did you kidnap that girl?"

Jackson grinned that golden grin, albeit weakly. "Why should I tell you anything, bitch...?"

"There are things worse that death. For starters... how would you enjoy a bullet up the ass, my friend...?"

His grin faded when Rune's got bigger. "N-no, wait..."

"Yes?"

"We were... paid to take her..."

Rune's brow furrowed. "Paid? Paid by who?"

"...I... I don't know what his name is..."

"Sure you do! Who the fuck are you trying to kid?"

He shook his head. "N-no, honest... he didn't give us a name. He sent me an e-letter three days ago and asked my gang and I to take the girl. He even sent us bank details for a Cayman Island account he'd created just to pay for the whole thing. We got $17,500 upfront for weapons and equipment... and he promised us at least $530,500 when they come to collect her."

"And then what?"

"Who knows...?" Jackson coughed again. "We didn't ask questions. We couldn't ask questions. All we cared about was the money. Nothing else mattered."

Rune frowned. "Why did this guy want her?"

"I told you, I d-don't know... that's all I got..."

"Sure about that...?"

"...Yeah..."

Rune put her gun to his skull and fired. "Good boy."

As blood spread out from the head wound, Rune got of Jackson James' dead body and walked out. She put Liquidus away and walked out into the smoke-filled corridor. She shielded her face from the smoke of the previous explosions and flames until she walked around into the room in which Mimi was. She has passed out. Rune coughed a little and went about untying her from the chair, bit by bit, until she was free. Then she heaved the little girl up into her arms and stepped back out into the smoking corridor. She walked down its length, away from the fire and rubble; until she made it to the door she's entered the corridor by. But as she came to it she noticed that there were no l