“And here I thought you had a grand plan,” Oto said from across the metal table. The handcuffs scraping as he leaned in his chair. “Now what are we going to do? We’re fucked. Raif is going to be pissed. Probably cancel the whole payment and we’ll have to live in the wasteland outside Chicago.”

  Chatter rolled his eyes. “Relax. Just a hiccup, and a small one at that. I didn’t think that fucking AI would scream for everyone to hear. I was going to bribe the officer, cute little thing she was too, but looks like the next one took all her money.”

  “How can you be so calm?” Oto shook his head as Chatter balanced his chair on the back two legs. “I’m fucking overloading over here.”

  “Well the antianxiety mod helps,” he laughed, “but I’ve been in worse situations. Survived all those. This is a piece of cake, old timey, spongy cake. Easy to eat.”

  The door slammed open into their small box of a room. It reminded Oto of a shipping container. Probably repurposed for the wall. An officer with a half metal body put his hands on the table. One flesh. One metal. His human eyes stared at Oto while the other eye was reading something coming across the cornea. “Old name Catherine,” he looked at Chatter, “why the change?”

  “Why not?” Chatter smirked.

  “And you,” he pointed a metal claw at Oto, “have no name in our database, and your little bodmod getting rid of your fingerprints doesn’t help. Makes me think you’re up to no good.”

  “Look up Lucas Frision.” Oto said. His nose ached from a scratch he couldn’t get to.

  “Ahh,” the officer said as new data poured into his eye. “from SLC? Long way from here. And you two met how?”

  “Montana,” Chatter said. “Oto here was in a bit of a bind and needed some help. I knew some modders and viola, here we are.”

  The officer’s left eye seemed to shut off, he masked the optic mod with a hologram that looked like a normal human eye, but it flickered just slightly. “So C.O.P. noticed you’re carrying a bomb, Chatter. Illegal. Very illegal.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Tell that to the boys in Dakota. It’s a minefield up there.”

  “But you’re in the Free City now. We don’t care for bombs or weapons.” The cop said. Oto cleared his throat as he looked to the holstered sidearm of the officer. “We don’t like weapons in the hands of civilians. Better? After the war and all that mayhem we decided it best to keep those for ourselves. You want to shoot? Go west.”

  “What’s your name?” Chatter asked.

  “Officer Elijah Smith. Better? Does that fill the civil rights requirement?”

  “Elijah, if I can call you that, what I have isn’t a bomb for the city. I promise you that. So if you let us go, you and your kind have nothing to worry about.”

  “Spare me,” Elijah laughed. Oto shook his head at Chatter’s stupidity. Is was like he wanted them to be detained and disappeared. “I’ll let you go then you’ll find the governor’s house or whatnot and bow it to smithereens. I’ll get thrown into Lake Michigan and the U.S. will decide it’s time to take back Chicago and the other free cities. We don’t need terrorists here.”

  “What political motive would I have?” Chatter shrugged. “You’ve seen my files.”

  “And in it I see a scoundrel who’s made more money than me by lying, stealing, and murdering. Use all that dough to buy bombs? And what about that illegal bodmod you got? Huh?”

  “What bodmod?” Oto asked.

  “Look,” Chatter looked at the floor. “This is a big job, and we just need to get through Chicago. We’d go around, but it’s a wasteland out there. Let us through, forget you ever saw us, delete us from the files, and I can make you very happy.”

  “Am I gonna have to add bribery to that list of charges?”

  “I have over 500,000 to give you. No more, no less. That seems like an ample amount. More than you make in a year.”

  Elijah’s metal fingers tapped the table, making a cacophony of pings and pangs. “500,000 isn’t near enough for all the charges and illegal mods.”

  “500,000 yuan. Go buy yourself some of that nice Chinese electronics. Maybe get the other side of your body modded. I hear they have nice chrome in Tianjin.”

  “If,” Elijah squeezed his real fist, “if I let you go, then you can’t stay here long. I want to see your exit pictures within three days. I don’t want you to cause any trouble. Get arrested and I’ll have no choice but to make you two gone. Forever.”

  “Go to the Bank of China site and let me input my cred. The yuan is waiting for a lucky cop.” The officer took some fiber and connected a port in his finger to a port in Chatter’s wrist. The handcuffs unlocked, falling away. It took less than a minute for the corrupt cop to be richer than he ever dreamed. The human half of Elijah’s mouth smiled while the other half did nothing. Oto shook his head at modded cop.

  “We’ll need our guns too,” Oto said.

  “No guns allowed in the Free City,” Elijah’s smile dropped. “You get them back when you leave.”

  “The thing is,” Chatter sat forward, “we’re not leaving through the gate.”