I’m going to need weapons, real clothes, gear, and a place to crash. All of that means hard money. I’m also going to need information. The place to get all of that is Sharron’s. I’ve pit fought there before, and she owes me a few favors, still.
Even if I didn’t know the way by heart, it’s easy to find Sharron’s. The lights are brighter, and up ahead, holographic figures dance and beckon as they glow in the foggy air. Laser lights flash and strobe, drawing in marks to be separated from their money. There’s a long line waiting at the doors, with a pair of big, Terran, boosted guys in monkey suits to keep order. Not a bad gig, actually.
“Garth.” I nod at one.
He nods back, lowering his flash glasses. “Brandt.” He grunts. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Long story.” I nod at the glitzy doors. “I need to make some cash. Is the Pit open?”
“For you? Always.”
“Good.” They step aside. “Let Sharron know I’m back.”
The fake gold doors part, and I step into Sharron’s. It’s Luna’s black hole—people, money and dreams go in, and they don’t ever escape.
* * * * *
Chapter 31
Sooner or later, everything in Hades flows through Sharron’s, and she always gets a piece of the action. Everything forbidden above can be found here. Naturally, this vortex of temptation is packed at all hours.
The air is heady with a mix of chemicals being inhaled, and the deep booming of the music and flashing lights make it hard to focus. Over there, the brightly lit gambling halls provide most of the money for this place. You can gamble on Luna, but people come here to gamble on the few things you can’t wager on. Here, anything, including lives, is up for a bet. Across from the bar, people watch with rapt, sweaty attention the current floor show. There are some interesting modifications on tonight’s performers. Down below is the Pit.
People roar and hoot like animals over the deadly battle. In the sunken and barred pit arena, two are going at it with attached blades, bouncing about the arena in the low gravity. Looks like they are using an “L” fighting style. It’s visually impressive but hard to master. The crowd gives a hungry roar as blood is shed.
I thought I’d left this life behind me, but here I am again. I tell myself it will only be for a while. The monster seems to be laughing.
I get a lot of stares from the crowd. Yeah, there’s a lot of freaks here, but they dress well and don’t look like war refugees. I focus on the two boosted guys cruising through the crowd, parting the human seas and leaving a wake behind them. Sharron’s men.
“Sharron wants to see you,” rumbles the first booster.
I nod.
Soon, the three of us are parting the crowd and making our way up the stairs to the upper levels. I’m sure she’s watching the whole thing.
My name got me back into this place and to Sharron. Word will be spreading, soon. Actually, word probably began spreading as soon as I hit the tunnels of Hades again. The same name that got me in trouble with the murder-lab will lead them back to me down here. This time I’ll be ready for them. The only question is, did Sharron sell me out?
* * * * *
Chapter 32
This is the office where the deals are made that move the Lunar underworld. Here, lives are bought and sold, futures are made and lost, and everything is for sale for a price. Wealth from around Luna is on display here—a temple to greed and avarice. Sharron sits in the middle of it all, at least until someone else knocks her off the way she got rid of her rival. Most people never get to go into this office, and those that do often go pale. I get brought right in. Sharron and I go way back. Some good times, some not so good times. Still, I doubt she’ll have me killed. Today, at least.
She’s everything I remember. Amazing curves and the face and voice of an angel. She’s boosted alright; no one looks that good. Makes me wonder what else was changed under that amazing chassis. I’ve built up resistance to the synthetic pheromone she’s putting out, but that does not make the temptation go away.
The monster lets me pick up her scent with detail I’ve never known. She’s surprised to see me, but not angry or afraid. She wasn’t the one who set me up before, and she’s not setting me up now. That doesn’t mean she won’t sell me out later.
She looks me over as I walk up and grab a chair.
“Brandt.” She raises an eyebrow. “You look like you kissed a tunnel driller.”
“I had a little trouble, but I’m working it out.”
“Any heat?” She leans forward.
“No cops.” I shrug. “I don’t think any of it will spill over down here, as long as I don’t stay too long.”
“I see. You’re on the run from whoever did this to you.” She gestures at my bloodstained, torn clothes.
“I did this to them; it’s not my blood. If they’re smart, they’ll be on the run from me.”
“So? What do you want?” she asks. It’s got to be driving her crazy. Her spy network and search programs didn’t tell her where I went or why I’m back. I can use that.
“I need to hole up for a bit. Make some money and get some decent gear. Also, I need information.”
“We’ll, at least, get you into something better.” She waves a hand, and one of her staff disappears. “As for money, you’re working for me again?”
It’s the invitation I had been dreading and hoping for. She’s looking me over. The full invitation is there. Money, power, and her. I can have it all back. God, it would be so easy to dive back into the corruption and live in a world of violence with my brain afire with a dozen chemicals at once. I know if I take that step, I’m never coming back. I have to get away from this siren, this place, this life.
“Sorry, I can’t stay,” I manage. “With the heat on me, it’s best this way. Can you fix me up against the champions of the Pit? With the usual winner’s take?”
“I don’t know…are you going to win?”
“Sharron, it’s me. Yeah, I’m going to win.” I lean back, taking a green glass of something illegal on Mars.
“Take a fall?”
“Never.”
Anyone else would be dead now. She looks me over. She can sense weakness and fear like a lioness. Add to that the cameras and sensors in the room, likely recording my body temperature, neural activity; all to determine my mood. Looking for a hint of fear and not finding it. Because it’s not there. After what I went through, I’m confident I can walk out of here, if necessary, over her men.
“Look, Brandt.” She sighs. It’s nice to watch. “I need to make money on my side too. If you wipe the floor with everyone again, no one will bet against you.”
“Don’t worry. I know how to play the game. I’ll play it up for the crowd and not humiliate your guys too badly.”
“Then what?”
“Then I’ll need to see your armorer and get some real gear and weapons.” It works out for her. She gets the money back, and all she loses are weapons made on the cheap with no way to trace them back to her.
“And the information?” she asks. I’ve got her. She has to know what is going on Luna, especially something like this. Who did this to me? What is happening in her domain? She needs the answers.
So, I tell her. I lay out the terrible truth of the murder-lab hidden under the hospital, the weird bio-tech, and the boosted guards. She has a laser focus as she takes it all in. No one else would believe me, but Sharron and I go back. She would know if I was lying. Still, I leave out a few crucial details—that I have this monster still inside me and the changes it’s made. I never know when I might need an edge.
She’ll have her people looking into this, and programs will scour and search the databases, while remotes scour the surface. Soon, I will finally get some answers, although I’ll probably also get more trouble. This kind of search will attract their attention. When they come, I’ll be ready.
* * * * *
Chapter 33
The space around the Pit is packed. Scr
eaming hordes demanding their sacrifice of blood. It isn’t just local people from down here, there’s a lot of well-dressed types from the upper levels, here to see life in the raw before they go back home. As for me, I’m here to give them a show.
Sharron had fixed me up with a bunch of new threads; if I am going to be with her in public, I need to look the part. Tonight though, all that is gone. I’m in a spare fighting outfit, and Sharron is up there in her box, taking it all in. I’ll make sure to give her a nice show.
I have worked my way quickly through the preliminaries to the real fighters. There is no point in hiding that I am a real contender; the time to play things out will be in the final matches. I won Pit Boss multiple times before, and that was without the monster boosting me. Now, I might sweep the whole thing. I will need to make it look like I might lose, so the betting that keeps the whole thing funded can flow. Also, Sharron is betting on me, so there needs to be lots of money on the other side.
The thing to remember is the Pit is not just about fighting, it’s entertainment, so a lot of the fighters glow with body art and have bizarre, boosted grafts. Compared to the fighters tonight, I look pretty unremarkable. Sure, as a Terran I stand out some, but there are plenty of Terrans here, eager to use their extra strength. There are even a couple of Martian cyborgs and a hulking, boosted Jovian in the mix tonight. Thank God, there aren’t any Venusians; those guys are weird.
The Pit, itself, is an octagonal ring, and the steep sides rise high up to the barred ceiling. Above, light blazes through the bars in hot, blinding beams, mostly washing out the screaming faces of the mobs above. The air is heavy here, thick with condensation and anger. Sound thrums through the air, and the walls shudder with feet stamping in time for the match to begin. In the middle of the hard, Lunar concrete of the arena, a grim drain waits to drink down the previous match when the pressure hoses go on.
The heat, the stink, the feeling of blood and sweat and pain. It all feels so familiar. I’m back.
A harsh buzzer sounds as my opponent is lowered into the ring on a cable. He is a tall, thin Lunar, with albino skin, long, white hair, and glowing, red eyes. His animated, glowing cyber-tattoos complete the spectacle. He leaps the last ten feet, landing easily in the low gravity. The bars clang shut above, and the crowd assumes a hungry silence, eyes rapt.
He bows, and I return the favor. This is Luna, after all, so politeness, even here. OK then, I won’t humiliate this guy tonight. His arms rise, and he almost seems to float above the ground as he readies his stance. Looks like one of the L Forms.
L Forms aren’t a single martial art form any more than karate is; they are a group of related forms. They were developed back in the early days of Lunar cities to take advantage of lower gravity, with emphases on mobility, reach, and speed. The original L-1 Form emphasizes balance and grappling and close quarters fighting. The way this guy is dancing around, he looks like he’s using the L-5, a showy martial art with emphasis on style, acrobatics, and leaps. While the crowds love it, it isn’t the most effective form in a real fight. Too bad for him.
As for me, I’ll stick with Method Alpha. This functional form of the Terran military is a well-balanced tool that borrows the best from other styles to make a tool designed to take apart other human beings with maximum speed and efficiency. If I need to, I can always switch to another form if it’s a bad match.
I can hear the announcer as a distant murmur as I begin to focus. I’ll need to get inside this guy’s reach and pin him to the walls to limit his mobility. Then, my superior strength can come into play. I won’t be going for any nerve or organ strikes; I don’t want any more death.
A pair of diamond blades slide out of my opponent’s wrists and click into place. I look up, briefly, and see Sharron look back, smiling.
OK, then, it’s going to be one of those.
* * * * *
Chapter 34
Time to stop playing around.
The Lunar starts flying about the Pit, bouncing off walls, doing acrobatic flips and handstands. The crowd eats it up.
I wait and watch. He’s fast, boosted strength and reflexes to go along with those blades. He is showing me his style and timing and giving me a good feel for his reach and reactions. I stand en guard and give away nothing.
When he suddenly comes for me, I’m ready. Since he showed me most of his moves while screwing around, he might as well have screamed out his attack. He comes down in a flying attack, blades sweeping at me. He cuts me as I sweep my forearm across and down. He is coming with a sideswipe with the other arm, and I hit him in the elbow joint. A quick couple of knees to the gut loosens him up for a combination of strikes to the neck, abdomen, sides, and insides of his joints.
He curls up on the concrete vomiting. Stay down there kid; there is a world of hurt waiting for you here. He taps out.
The buzzer sounds, and the hoses turn on to wash us out. Antiseptic stings as blood, sweat, and vomit all go down the drain.
They put some healing gel on my cut arm, sealing the wound together instantly. No need for people to know the monster was already healing the damage.
The next fight is with the hulking Jovian. He’s a hairless monster about my size, but built like a mountain to handle the two and a half gravities of the sky cities of his home. Even with the monster helping me, this guy is going to be stronger than I am. His thick arms are corded with muscle and are longer than his short, solid, pillar-like legs. Lots of genetic engineering and boosting go into letting people live on Jupiter’s floating cities, and given Jupiter’s lead in tech, there’s no telling what kind of boosting he’s got. Good thing he doesn’t have any weapons; he is a weapon.
Even without the monster, I would be able to feel the ground shake as he charges, wide and low. It looks like Jovian Sumo, a mix of traditional Sumo, Greco-Roman wrestling, and a few other styles, all built around the use of strength and weight. I cannot let this guy get ahold of me.
I take to the air, jumping over and behind him. He swings, lightning fast and low, with no chance to dodge as I land. I block it, and whatever changes the monster made keep my bones from breaking as I fly away and hit the hard sides of the Pit.
I come off the sides and leap in, angling past his blurring fast strike. I hit him with full force in the neck and back as I pass. It’s like punching tungsten. I dodge out the way of another attack. I’ve got to finish this fast; I’m using up the thin air quickly, and he’s not even breathing hard. Normally, I admire the Jovians, but this one is trying to twist my head off.
This time, when he comes in low, I match him. I’ll have to take advantage of the low gravity and the fact that he is used to a high-gravity environment. He sweeps his arms at me, and I go under them and force them up, as his weight is not enough here to force me down. I lock his arm and go for the throw. I could never do this in normal gravity, and certainly not in Jupiter’s. His own incredible strength and speed send him flying headfirst into the Lunar concrete wall with enough force to shake the Pit.
He gets up, bleeding from his head and nose. The wall behind him has been cracked by the force of the blow. It had to have shaken him. Even though I can’t begin to damage his skull, his brains must have taken a jar or concussion. There is a brief pause while he consults his cybernetic diagnostics. He bows and concedes the match, I bow back.
“It was an honor,” I say.
My next opponent is one of the Martian cyborgs. He doesn’t return the bow or say anything; he simply stands there in an arrogant pose, with the lights gleaming off his metallic carapace. I’ll admit it; I don’t like Martians. It’s the combination of arrogance and easily offended honor that always does it for me. With his armored exoskeleton, I’ll have to hit with full force. Good. I’ll get to really unload on this guy. This is going to be fun.
The buzzer sounds, and he glides toward me on metallic limbs, tracking me with compound lenses. I’ll have to be careful; he’s armored against the worst environments on Mars and space. It will almost be li
ke fighting a machine. Still, at least I won’t be dealing with any powered weapons.
A hatch opens on the exoskeleton and a power drill emerges, screaming. I really need to stop making assumptions.
He charges at me, his cybernetic limbs blurring into action. I dodge aside, gaining distance and time. It looks like I won’t have as much fun as I thought.
He charges me again with the drill as I come up against the wall of the Pit. I avoid the drill, grab his arm and force the drill the rest of the way into the Lunar concrete. The diamond power drill easily bores into the wall, sending fragments and smoking chips flying. I pull the power leads in the arm, and the drill shudders to a halt, trapped in the concrete.
While he struggles to free himself from the wall, I come around behind and start disassembling him. These wires look important. Yank. I bet you need this tube. Wham. Oh, look, here’s a vacuum-sealed hatch. “DO NOT OPEN.” Pry.
Soon, he’s an immobilized exoskeleton, smoking and sparking. It takes two Lunars to pry him out of the wall and carry him off. OK, that was fun after all.
I let the hoses wash me off. Victory.
There is no question; I have gotten a lot stronger and faster. That should have been much more challenging. The Lunar should have cut me up, the Jovian should have pounded me into nutrient paste, and the Martian was too fast for anyone without boosted reflexes. The good news is everyone will assume I have boosted systems hidden away. The bad news is the news from this fight will spread rapidly.
Warrior- Integration Page 8
