Gunwitch: Rebirth

by Niall Teasdale

  Louise reached out to scratch Mickey between the ears. ‘Worried you were going to lose another owner? Sarah would have taken care of you.’

  ‘Yeah, but who’d have taken care of me?’ Sarah whined. ‘And you didn’t answer the question.’

  ‘I need a shower. You can stand outside and listen to me chatter while I wash what feels like a week’s exercise off me.’

  Sarah threw up her hands. ‘Oh, sure. Tease me with showering after worrying me half to death.’

  Grinning, Louise climbed to her feet and set off toward the bathroom. Both Sarah and Mickey followed, though it was doubtful the latter would get much out of the conversation aside from the reassurance of being near to his mistress.

  ‘I feel like a new woman,’ Louise said as she started the shower.

  ‘Well, there’s always something to be said for novelty,’ Sarah replied, leaning against the doorframe. ‘I’ve had some good times with a new woman, or man, but I liked the old Louise.’

  Louise giggled. ‘My personality hasn’t changed. Well, not much. I might turn into a hypochondriac and I’m probably going to be giddy about not having headaches for a while. But the old Louise was really Annette.’

  ‘Oh. You changed your name?’

  ‘Sort of. I was born Annette Louise Barrington. Now my ID says I’m Louise and… I kind of feel more like I’m really her.’ Louise stepped into the tub and under the stream from the showerhead, sighing as the hot water washed the sweat away. ‘I’ve replaced my entire immune system with nanomachines. They’re tiny, tiny robots that can do… Well, they can do just about anything you like, really, but in this case, they’re doing the same job my normal immune system did, just better and without the problems I had when my body rejected my cybernetics.’

  ‘Okay…’

  ‘And there are a few other improvements. Additional oxygen transport in my blood, replacement of the cellular replication system and mitochondria.’

  ‘Mito-what?’

  ‘Mitochondria. They’re the parts of your cells that, um, make energy. With the upgraded oxygen transport, I’ll tire less quickly.’

  ‘Stamina’s always good. It, uh, sounds like you’ve changed a lot.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Believe me, it wasn’t something I did lightly. I’ve had this solution in planning since I realised there was a problem. If it fails for some reason, I’m basically a walking corpse. I’ll have weeks to live. But some diseases could do the same to you and without this, I was going to die. I was lucky yesterday, Sarah. I was pretty close to a stroke. I could’ve been dead, or a vegetable. It kind of put the risks into perspective.’

  The shower curtain was pulled aside and Sarah paused for only a second to look before stepping forward to hand Louise a towel. ‘Well, I guess if you’ve considered all the risks…’

  ‘And the benefits. I considered the benefits too.’

  ‘Well, yeah. Not dying is a fairly major one.’

  ‘The major one.’

  ‘Right.’ Sarah paused again, watching Louise dry herself with the warm towel. ‘Why haven’t we ever had sex?’

  Louise’s drying stalled and she looked at Sarah with widened eyes. ‘Way to derail a conversation.’

  ‘Sorry. But why haven’t we?’

  ‘Well, I’m not really into girls–’

  ‘But you’ve taken girls as clients.’

  ‘Yes, but… Well, I guess the job has opened my eyes a bit, but then there’s… um… Do you want to have sex with me?’

  Sarah’s face scrunched into a concentrated sort of frown. ‘Yes. No. I did, but now… Whenever I see you naked I want to, but then I think about it and it’d be a bit like…’

  ‘Kissing your sister?’

  ‘I was thinking of more than kissing, but yeah.’

  Louise nodded, lifting a leg to the side of the tub to dry it. ‘I think I feel the same way. I’m sure we’ll survive without.’

  Sarah sighed. ‘I won’t if I keep watching you doing that. I’m going to start on my homework. It’s math. I might need some help later.’

  ‘Oh, sure. I’ll get my “strict schoolmistress” outfit ready.’

  ‘Oh… Now I’ll never be able to concentrate!’

  21/4/2117.

  For the first time since moving to Queens, Louise walked down Industrial Avenue with no intention to pick up men. She still wore her skirt and corset, with her arming pod attached at the back, but now it was there as camouflage. That was how she liked to think of it anyway; one of the girls in short skirts you usually saw there was not going to attract attention, right up to the point where she dropped you for doing something you should not be doing.

  It was a reasonably good plan, but it was the only plan she had right now. Alison had left her to work out for herself how she was supposed to handle her duties as a deputy. The paperwork had gone through without even the slightest comment, and she had passed the evaluation with flying colours thanks to her weapons system and having all the legal documents she needed available on her internal computer. But neither Louise’s mysterious patron nor the LIPD had passed any opinion on the best use of her abilities. She had decided to patrol the area around Industrial Avenue because the Black Widows had a more tenuous grip on the area, she knew there was more crime there, and she could do it on the way to and back from her workshop. She was still not sure how well it was going to work.

  And she was still wondering about that when she heard the gunfire. Near the main gate through the Factory Wall, a group of Black Widows had taken exception to a group of Cyber-Kings who, if the bags they were carrying were any indication, had just managed to pull off some sort of raid in the industrial zone. It might have been a matter of waiting until the noise died away and then checking for survivors, but there were civilians pinned down by the gunfire and the Kings were using a guard post for cover. It was cover which was beginning to look the worse for wear.

  Louise reached back to collect a pair of seeker grenades, programmed them, and threw them out toward the combatants. As the devices split, each heading for a different side of the road, she reached back for her pistols and checked the loads. Full magazines of the new tranquiliser rounds. This would be their first combat test, but she was confident. There were twin bursts of light, a few shrieks, and Louise started firing. The spread was a little wide for the grenades to fully affect everyone. The EMP had effectively taken down the largest of the Kings and blinded a couple more. Similarly, there were three Widows fumbling around wondering what had happened, but there were others unaffected. Louise focused on the ones who seemed to be still functional, picking off one on each side before selecting more targets. She was pleased to see that the drug appeared to be working exactly as advertised and the confusion her grenades had sown was doing the rest. A few seconds later, there was no one standing up except for her and various non-combatants who were cautiously stepping out of whatever cover they had found.

  The gate guard was not doing so well. At least one of the bullets the Widows had fired had penetrated the wall of his post and he was unconscious, but still breathing. Louise tossed a triage grenade into the hut while she put through a call to the local LIPD station. With a bit of luck, the guy would be on his feet before the medics arrived. She looked around at the various fallen gang members and nodded. Okay, maybe this was not the best use of her talents, but there was a certain satisfaction to it and she had probably just saved at least one man’s life. That was not bad for a first day on the job.

  ~~~

  ‘So, they let the Widows off with a warning,’ Louise said as she busied herself in the kitchen. ‘They couldn’t identify who had shot the guard. I guess that was the best they could do under the circumstances.’

  ‘No, you don’t,’ Sarah replied.

  ‘No, I don’t, but I understand why they did it. They need to keep the Widows sweet to keep peace in the district and they were, sort of, stopping a crime in progress. They just endangered a lot of civilians doing it.’

  ‘Which might h
appen if the cops were doing it.’

  ‘I think they take more care, but not actually untrue. Same is true of me.’

  ‘You have those sleepy darts. And you saved the guard that was shot. You are a hero.’

  Louise giggled but decided not to argue about terminology. ‘When I’ve got the rest of the gadgets I’m working on functional, it should be even safer. Uh, for me and any onlookers anyway. I’ve got this gas trap in the works that’ll go off when someone goes near it. Doesn’t really hurt, but it’ll make anyone caught in the gas throw up his guts. It’s really hard to fight when you’re retching.’

  ‘Shouldn’t that be banned under some sort of cruel punishment rule?’

  ‘Probably, but I checked and any non-lethal ordnance is acceptable. I may have to get special clearance for the proximity mines, but I’m really not planning to use those in public places.’

  Sarah looked up from her homework. ‘Proximity mines?’

  ‘Thermobaric mines set to detonate when someone gets close. They’re… um, nasty. But if I’m worried about someone following me… Well, I won’t be worried about someone following me.’

  ‘You do love long words.’

  ‘Thermobaric just means that it creates a lot of heat and pressure. Really big versions can be almost indistinguishable from nukes, but mine will be tiny, in comparison. You still wouldn’t want to be near one when it goes off. I’ll explain the mechanics sometime.’

  Sarah giggled this time. ‘Oh yeah, and I’ll understand it.’

  Louise paused. ‘Yeah, I think you will. It’s not too complex an idea and you’re underselling yourself again. Have you actually needed any help with your homework yet?’

  ‘Well… no. But I’ve barely started.’

  ‘Okay. True. We’ll see.’

  ‘Just you wait. Tomorrow I’ll need your help.’

  Louise smiled. ‘We’ll see.’

  23/4/2117.

  By Friday, Louise was still waiting to be asked for help, but she had something else to occupy her mind anyway. As a cover for the retainer Louise was receiving, Louise was to be employed by a company called Perfect Partners, based out of an office building in Sky City. Other arrangements had been made for a while, but someone from the agency had called to arrange a meeting for that week; basically, it was time for Louise to fully settle into her new life.

  Perfect Partners was a form of escort agency. In fact, ‘escort agency’ was more or less the perfect way to describe it. People, of both sexes, could ring up and hire someone to escort them to whatever function or other venue they wished and the agency prided itself on being able to supply the perfect partner for the occasion, no matter what was needed. It was a legitimate, tax-paying company though it obviously trod a fine line; prostitution was illegal within the enclave, so there was never any suggestion made of sex being available, but it was also understood that some clients expected it. Just so long as no one actually said they were hiring someone for sex, no one had to be arrested.

  Given that Perfect Partners was supposed to be something on the upmarket side of the business, Louise had gone out and got herself a new dress. It was your fairly basic LBD, a tank-style garment with a short skirt and plenty of cleavage, but still fairly decorous. Certainly, it made her street costume look like pasties and a thong. Louise could see more of the same ilk in her future and that was not an unpleasant thought; she had come to sort of like her corset, skirt, and boots, which was another reason she continued to use them for her patrols, but the idea of dressing with a little more style was nice.

  At first sight, the agency seemed something of a let-down, however. It occupied a fairly small office in one of the older buildings in Sky City, not far from the government buildings, but not exactly prestigious. On entering, Louise found herself in an outer office containing a couple of chairs for people waiting and a desk, behind which sat a rather bored-looking woman with long, straight, black hair and a rather drawn face. The latter did not help with the impression that the agency’s receptionist seemed to hold the entire world in disdain.

  Louise figured she had to get things going since the receptionist did not seem to want to. ‘Good morning. I’m Louise, I–’

  The receptionist reached out a hand to the phone on her desk and pressed a button. ‘Sandy, your ten o’clock is here.’ Then she let go of the intercom without waiting for a reply and gave Louise a bored smile. ‘Go right in. She’s not busy.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Louise replied, returning the smile, and walked over to the inner door, knocking once before pushing it open and stepping through.

  The inner office was somehow more friendly than the outer one. The decoration was in a slightly darker but warmer tone, and it had red shades instead of a duck-egg blue. The desk was nothing out of the ordinary, a stock office desk, but it looked like Sandy, the agency’s owner, actually used it. Sandy herself was a pretty woman with a trim body, aside from her substantial bust, a cloud of strawberry blonde hair, and blue eyes bright with intelligence. Louise’s software detected certain immobility in her facial muscles which suggested cosmetic drug use: Sandy was older than she looked, but holding age back quite effectively.

  Looking up from her computer as Louise walked across from the door to the only guest chair in the room, Sandy smiled, and there was a hint of greed in her voice when she spoke. ‘Oh, honey, we are going to have clients lining up to book you. Let me see the eyes. If anything’s going to be an issue, it’s the eyes.’ Louise slipped her shades off and paused, standing beside the straight-backed chair, white eyes on Sandy. ‘Mm… Some will lose interest, but they’re more exotic than anything. Nothing else is artificial? The data I have says no…’

  ‘My immune system, but I don’t think your average person’s going to notice that. Everything aside from the eyes is entirely internal.’

  ‘Excellent. Have a seat and we’ll go over a few things. Normally I’d be conducting an interview to ensure you’re suitable for us, but you’re one of Alison’s…’ Sandy flashed a smile. ‘I’m not going to suggest you try somewhere else.’

  ‘You have more of Alison’s “assets” on your books?’

  ‘One or two. Obviously, it depends on the person. With your looks, you’re a shoe-in here, but I don’t think everyone she, um, employs is suitable. Now, I’m required to point out that Perfect Partners is here to arrange meetings between clients and suitable escorts. What happens while you are on a “date” is purely your business. Perfect Partners does not condone nor engage in any form of procurement for the purposes of prostitution.’

  Louise nodded. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Normally, we charge a fee for the introduction and you would get a percentage of that, plus any tips. However, since you’re with Alison, you’re on a monthly retainer instead. However, you do still get to keep any additional monies the client sees fit to hand over for whatever reason.’ Sandy paused, apparently waiting for questions, and got none. ‘Okay, engagements with clients are generally just for an evening, but we do more extended periods and, in your case, we do “special bookings” which could be for an indefinite period. You may receive those from us or Alison. Generally, if it’s a bodyguard job or something like that, it’ll be handled as a regular engagement through us. Oh, there’s nothing in your file. How are your acting skills?’

  ‘I’m not exactly planning a stage career, but I can lie competently. I can read other people’s expressions very well too.’

  ‘Stick with us and you’ll get better.’ Sandy’s gaze flicked once more over Louise’s body. ‘Oh, you might want to consider some implants.’

  Louise blinked and then grinned. ‘I’ve got a lot of those already, even if most aren’t–’

  ‘No, dear.’ Sandy aimed a long finger at Louise’s chest. ‘Implants.’

  Louise looked down and then back up. She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again. She really had no idea what she was supposed to say to that.

  ~~~

  Louise was pacing. She wa
s stripped down to her panties and walking from the bathroom, where there was a full-length mirror, to the lounge, grumbling all the while. When she got to the mirror, she would stop, stare at her chest, and then turn around for another loop. If she wanted to walk so much, Mickey was thinking, then she should get his lead and take him out to somewhere nice to do it, like the beach.

  She let out an exasperated growl on the next lap. ‘No one’s ever complained about them before!’ Mickey tried the ‘consoling gruff of agreement’ even if he was not sure what he was agreeing with. From the bathroom, he heard, ‘I mean, they’re not exactly perfect, but whose are?’ He waited for her to reappear before trying another gruff. Louise looked at him. ‘You like them, right?’

  Gruff.

  ‘Well, you would say that. You’re too nice for your own good. I am not getting a boob job done for this!’

  Giving up on basic tactics, Mickey employed a technique only the true masters of doggy cuteness could get truly right. He dropped his head onto his paws and rolled his eyes up to look plaintively at his mistress.

  Louise sagged. ‘Okay, okay. I’m letting one little comment get me all worked up. I’m not normally this insecure. I mean, I’m attractive. What’ve I got to be worried about?’ Mickey knew full well that giving up at this point would be fatal. His eyes widened and got more pleading. ‘Ah, damn, okay. I shouldn’t be getting mad about it. I’m sorry. I’ll just work on my self-esteem. I promise. Please stop doing that. I’ll buy you a steak.’

  Mickey lifted his head, his tongue lolling out. Excellent. His work here was done.

  ~~~

  Mostly to avoid starting on another rant about cup sizes and disturbing Sarah’s homework, Louise decided on a late-evening patrol along the avenue that night. It was Friday night, not the best time to be out on the street looking for work, though often lucrative, and it seemed like a good time to be looking out for the girls who had once been colleagues of a sort. In all probability, Louise would be back in the warmth of her apartment before things got really bad, but she felt the effort was warranted.