“Would we be having this chat right now if I did?”
She smiled, because in truth, they wouldn’t. His hippy comment made her giggle, and it was her giggle that fueled a strange yearning to know more about her, especially what it was that made her smile, so he could use that thing and make her smile all the time.
On the screen, Arianna used her free hand, lifting the flower crown off her head, the other still holding onto her phone. Ray grimaced, his eyes noticing the bandages wrapped around her arm.
“What happened to your arm?” he asked her.
“This?” Arianna looked down at the bandages. Her grin faded, as did the positive mood the two were sharing. After a five-second pause, she said. “Just an accident.”
“You okay?”
She remained silent, grimaced, then looked away from the arm, back at him via the screen. “Yeah, I’m good. Hey, I gotta head out.”
“Oh—”
A buzzer sounded. To Ray’s right, was the hovering delivery drone outside his balcony glass door. Twenty minutes went by fast. Ray’s food was awaiting him.
“Sounds like you do as well, Ray,” Arianna said. “You got food waiting for you. Soy-based protein I hope?”
He grinned and stood from his chair, walking to the balcony door, keeping the phone in his hands at his face. “We’ll talk again later. I love you, Arianna.”
She blew him a kiss. “I love you, Ray.”
A call end notification flashed. Ray pocketed his phone, freeing his hands to slide the balcony door open and greet the delivery drone. The robotic device opened, and he felt a rush of warm air hit his face as he reached for the contents within, a small thermal box full of the food he ordered.
The drone spoke with a pre-recorded thank you for your business message, and then flew off into glowing neon and tapering rain. Ray returned inside and prying off the lid of the box, his nostrils twitched with excitement: fresh steak, and fries, grown from the finest selection of stem cells. It was the closest to the real thing you could get, and it wasn’t soy-based, his little secret from Arianna as she was away from home.
And he couldn’t wait for her to get back home too. If she was here, and knew about the grilling he got from Stevens, she would have rolled a fat blunt and shared it with him. They’d get high watching movies together, munching on snacks, before falling asleep in each other’s arms, with a big grin. His heart reminded him how much he missed her.
As he sat and ate, his eyes remained on the engagement ring in its box. His mind drifted for a moment, wondering how she’d react when he puts it on her delicate fingers, attached to her slim hand and arm, a bandaged arm at that.
How does a businesswoman like her get a bandage like that on her arm?
Eleven
Estrella
Within the bowels of the LAPD HQ a frustrated Estrella stood looking at a glossy map of the city pinned to a wall. Behind her were the desks and computers of various personnel at the station, the blue and white glow from their screens illuminating the back of Estrella’s body.
In the background, she heard a few street cops drag in the walking human trash from the city for processing. Cyborg RWs with their silver NC gauntlets carried in the walking IW trash from the IW districts, most of them unregistered IWs, according to her facial scans, though she did spot several registered IWs brought in with cuffs. Even registered IWs had to obey human laws, sometimes.
An RW Estrella couldn’t scrub from her thoughts approached her from the side.
“You’ve been looking at that for a while,” said Piper in her kiwi accent.
It made Estrella grin. She needed it after identifying where her new pad was. “Trying to hope this is a joke …”
Piper moved closer, fixing her stare on the map that had Estrella’s attention. She grimaced. “What?”
Estrella handed Piper a torn-off piece of paper. It had a quick handwritten address on it. “They gave me the keys to this place,” she said then pointed at the map. “It’s right in the middle of the …”
Piper’s synthetic eyes zeroed in on where Estrella pointed on the map. She beamed. “Ha! The IW district!”
“This is a joke.” Estrella looked at her. “Right?”
“The IWs there are all registered, so you’ve got nothing to fear.”
“Except for the unregistered ones hanging out there.”
“Rent is cheap in the IW district. That’s probably why they assigned that place to you.”
“Now I know why you guys are understaffed,” Estrella said, with arms crossed, facing the wall map of Los Angeles again. “I mean if you make all your new RWs live in the heart of enemy territory.”
Piper’s elbow playfully nudged Estrella’s synthetic arm. “Ah, someone afraid to go home for the night?”
Estrella was silent. Living within the IW district only brought back the feeling of ants crawling at the back of her neck. When the Bald Skulls gang was busy with her as a child, back in Buenos Aires, she was living in an IW district. Those weren’t happy times, and she doubted living in LA’s IW district would be better, even with her RW powers.
“Why the fuck would they have me live there?”
“They didn’t have much of a choice,” Piper explained. “The humans living in districts like that are getting fed up with witches, and vice versa. The humans upped and left for less witch-populated areas, meaning rent prices dropped since vacancies skyrocketed. As for elsewhere—”
“Let me guess, the cost of living went up as the availability dropped.”
Piper shrugged, lifting her exposed shoulders beneath her lace robe. “Pretty much. Almost daily we had RWs killed when they were called in to detain an unregistered IW, or a registered one acting stupid. Say, how are you getting up there anyway?”
“Was hoping Marcus would give me a ride,” Estrella said. “Still haven’t gotten my wheels. I got off my flight and came in for work.”
“He went home, love.”
Estrella sighed loudly, tilting her gaze to the ceiling, facepalming. “Of course he did.”
“Do you know the transit system?”
“Not very well. I guess my AI, Geoffrey, will have to guide me.”
That I could, Geoffrey offered. Would you like me to do so?
Piper’s synthetic arm split apart, and she reached for the car keys stored inside it and a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. The arm contorted back to its original state, masquerading as flesh, bone, and blood. It was much better than Estrella’s arm. At close range, you could tell Estrella’s arm wasn’t real. Piper’s arm looked like the real deal until it opened. She wondered what it would feel like to run a finger across it.
“I’ll give you lift,” Piper said. “I’m done here anyway.”
“You don’t have to.”
“But I’m going to, so get in, new girl.” Piper smiled again, the Mona Lisa-like one from the meeting. Estrella couldn’t say no anymore.
The RW duo left the police HQ with Piper leading the way, her black lace robe waving about in the winds that stopped blowing the rain from earlier. Estrella never realized how much effort RWs went to dress like witches until that moment while looking at Piper’s figure, wearing the black leather skirt, bodice, and lace robe. Even the other RWs she saw at the station were dressed like that, not that it mattered, there was no dress code for RWs.
Estrella splashed through the puddles in the parking lot, and Piper’s heels clicked through it while she pulled a single cigarette from the pack and lit it, took a puff, and smiled. Piper placed the cigarette pack and lighter back inside her synthetic arm. The sound of water splashing below made the kiwi RW stop and look down.
“Oh blast, I forgot I was wearing these,” Piper said. Her NC gauntlet brightened, spraying a small nanite swarm over her high heeled shoes. They turned into gray goo and remodeled into flat shoes. “Much better!”
Piper drove an expensive sports car so eye-catching Estrella had to pause for dramatic effect when she saw it. They lowered themselves
into her car, Piper taking the wheel, and Estrella sitting shotgun. The holographic form of a black cat flicked into existence on Estrella’s lap as the car’s computer powered on, confirming Piper’s identity.
Piper set the car to autopilot after inputting the address into its dashboard screen. The car sped off, leaving the parking lot, merging into the wet streets, kicking up fallen rainwater behind it, carving a path to the freeway alongside hundreds of vehicles on the road. The auto-pilot feature gave Piper ample time to indulge on her lit cigarette cradling between her index and middle finger. An overwhelming blast of advertisements floating in the skies kept Estrella’s attention, as purple and pink neon glow shined on her face during the Los Angeles night drive.
“I hope you don’t mine the smoke,” Piper said, then took another puff. “It’s been a long day.”
Estrella’s nose twitched when the smoke neared her face. “Your body might.”
“Life support nanites will remove all the cancer-causing shit.”
“And drain your battery faster.”
When Piper’s smoke was finished, she flicked the cigarette butt out the window. The AI cat on Estrella’s lap caught her attention when she saw its reflection on the driver’s side window. “Cute AI you got there.”
Estrella grunted. “So does your AI appear as a black cat?”
“Nope.” Piper waved her NC gauntlet right hand. A black raven appeared and perched itself on Piper’s shoulder.
The holographic raven spoke to Estrella, its voice played through the car’s speakers. “Pleasure to meet you, my name is Akane.”
It made her look down at the black cat, then up at the raven. Estrella grimaced. “I wish I had a badass raven.”
“They’re just holograms,” Piper said, “Doesn’t matter what they choose to appear as.”
She shrugged. “Still, you know, aesthetics.”
Piper grinned, and if she wasn’t looking at the urban sprawl move past the window, Estrella suspected it would have been directed at her. “You’re got all the aesthetics needed for your duo.”
Estrella flushed. “Wha’?”
“Don’t mind her,” the talking holographic raven, Akane, said. “She is always like this with new people she wishes to—” The raven paused while computer code rained down its eyes. “Piper, you have an incoming call, do you wish to pick it up?”
Piper let out a groan and with one hand reached for her vibrating phone. “Hands-free me.”
Akane nodded. “As you wish.”
Piper’s AI remotely accessed her phone, setting it to hands-free mode. There were no video interactions, just audio.
“Ni Hao,” Piper said. The woman on the phone replied with the same words. A long conversation in a language Estrella guessed was Chinese ensured.
What are you thinking Estrella?
Estrella let out a soft exhale amidst Piper’s phone conversation. Kiwi woman, mid-thirties, limited facial scan data, and speaks Chinese fluently. Piper’s not from around here.
Indeed, I have been running scans of her—
Why are you scanning her?
I have yet to encounter an RW like her. There is something strange about her I can’t quite identify. Her cyberware is vastly different too. I do not believe Yoshida manufactured them.
Who were they made by then?
Unknown. It is possible she is a new RW model, or perhaps a unit in testing. It may explain the errors when running facial scans.
Yoshida doesn’t want anyone to identify her.
That could be the case.
If she’s a new model, or prototype, then why the fuck is she being leased out to the LAPD?
Unknown.
“Sorry about that,” Piper said as she finished the phone call. Her face had turned sour, “that … that was my ex-wife with some bullshit reason why I can’t visit our daughter.”
Estrella snorted. “You don’t strike me as a family woman.”
“Now why’s that?”
“Because moving from the Federation to the Alliance isn’t easy.”
“What makes you think I’m from the Federation?”
“Your kiwi accent, your AI has a Japanese name, and you speak Chinese fluently.” The car was on the freeway at that point, driving under raised highway overpasses between the space of monolithic buildings dotted with lights from its windows. “I’m going to assume your ex-wife still lives in the Federation with your daughter?”
Piper smirked, keeping her eyes forward. “You’re a smart girl, new girl.”
“Meh, I try,” Estrella said, shrugging. “Guess you two got a divorce over differences?”
“Maybe.”
“Most people from Australia and New Zealand were opposed to the idea of paying taxes to Beijing, especially during the war. I guess you were part of the resistance, and she didn’t want any part of it, and kept the kid.”
“As I said, you’re a smart girl, new girl.” Piper’s tongue glided across her upper lip. “Except, you got one thing wrong.”
“And that is?”
“She kept the kid because we had her egg fertilized. When I lost that rock, paper, scissors match, I didn’t just lose the chance to go through the pregnancy, I lost my …”
Piper never finished those words.
“That would explain why you sold your humanity to Yoshida,” Estrella said. “You came across the pacific to the Alliance, broke as fuck like all Federation refugees, and got that offer: sell your body to Yoshida. You remind me of a close personal friend of mine, Yumi. She came from the Federation, Korea. We became roommates. Taught me a lot about the Federation and what you people have to deal with. She wasn’t broke as fuck though, she became an RW because she wanted to.” Piper grimaced. Estrella went too far. “Eh, don’t tell me your story, it really isn’t my business.”
“So enough about me, what about you, new girl? What brings you to sunny LA?”
“Take a guess,” Estrella grunted. “Let’s see how much of a smart girl you are.”
“You requested a transfer to chase love.”
“Guess again.”
“You came here for family?”
“All dead, except my aunt and uncle and their kids.”
Piper gasped. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, I killed the IWs responsible in the end.”
“You mean the gang that’s back and followed you here?”
“Don’t know if they followed me.” Estrella shrugged and noticed the signs on the road. They were nearing District 666. That can’t be the fucking name of the place.
It is, Geoffrey revealed. They originally called it District 6; someone defaced the sign and added the second and third six. It got both IWs and humans laughing, and so they kept it.
That’s funny as fuck—
A pause made her face become still. She was in the middle of a chat with Piper and then jumped into one with her AI.
Estrella continued. “But it’s strange that they suddenly came back from the dead, then came to LA of all places when I get off the fucking plane.”
Not to mention targeted an IW family living in secret.
Shut up, Geoffrey!
This is a secure connection. Piper’s AI cannot access it.
“Guess I’m not as smart as you,” Piper said. “So, what’s the reason?”
“I tried putting a bullet in my old boss.”
“And so, Yoshida sent you here hoping an IW put a bullet in you. I bet you’re regretting becoming an RW now, aren’t you?”
“Not really, I needed cash when I signed up,” Estrella said, as she reclined on the chair with her hands behind her head. “You know how it is? Got money problems? Depression? Out of work? Scared of losing your job? Sell your humanity to Yoshida; let them jam it with cyberware.”
“You’ll never have to worry about money, paying taxes, or aging,” Piper spoke like she was a salesperson. “Yep, I got that same pamphlet. Now, here we are, getting pimped out like whores.”
“How so?”
<
br /> “Think about it? Yoshida’s the pimp. Private security, military, mercenaries, LAPD, and other groups that have problems with rowdy IWs, are the paying clients. You, me, and the other RWs? We’re the working girls, gotta make those clients happy so we get whatever cut the pimps, Yoshida, gives us. Makes you wish you’d just become a dancer instead doesn’t it?”
“Not really.”
“Why not? You got a nice body for it.”
Another flush changed the tone of Estrella’s face, right when it had returned to normal. She kept it to the passenger side window and then sighed at the signs hanging from the overpass they were poised to drive under. District 666 keep right.
“Remember those scars I got?”
Piper bit her lip. “Oh.”
“Who wants to pay top dollar for a lap dance from a cut-up girl? And like I said earlier, I had unfinished business with the IW gang that did this to me. Can’t kill them as an eighteen-year-old human girl, I could as an RW.”
“You’re eighteen?”
“Nineteen now, been at this for a year.”
A half-hour later Piper’s car drove through what looked like a maze of high-rise apartment units via zigzagging streets. The buildings were like walls keeping the car and others lost, some roads led to dead ends, while others went deeper into the district full of IWs. Every structure around had to have been at least a hundred stories in height. Air conditioning units hung from every other window, lights from the units made the apartment buildings glow yellow, green, and blue colors. Balconies had hanging laundry drying in the warm air, and THC smoke blew away from others. A homeless warlock wearing tattered clothes sat at the sidewalk lifting cupped hands for a change. The two witches walking past kept their eyes forward.
Piper’s car came to a stop in front of the address Estrella directed her to, the front entrance to her apartment. Graffiti on pipes raged about RWs not being real witches and that they should all die. They were not comforting words to greet Estrella on her way to her new pad as she got out of the car. Piper joined her.
“Uh, I’m good from here, you know?” she said.
Cyber Witch Page 9
