“Ah!” the director yelped. They stood from behind an ornate desk, steam emanating from a fresh cup of tea, and they brushed cake crumbs from their lapel. They moved to cover some of the documents spread in front of them. “I wasn’t expecting you to ever return.”
“We need to have a little chat,” Mal said. The little girl had fallen asleep in her arms on the way over—she was strong, and reminded Mal of a younger version of herself. Mal wanted to be the person she wished had come to save her when her future was stripped away, and drew the Lantern. She pointed it at the director and sneered. “You sit here back in your office, embezzle any funds that come to help the kids, and leave them to struggle in squalor. If any of us knew better, we would have slit your throat in your sleep.”
“You dare to levy such serious accusations while pointing a gun at me?” the director asked. Their eyes glowed blue, and an automated turret dropped from an alcove hidden above. “I’m certain I taught you better, Malory, but you’ve always been a damned fool. It’s no wonder they wanted your sister instead. Now, allow me to teach you one last lesson: no one delivers such a threat to my face and walks away.”
“Cute,” Mal said. For the second time that day, the God’s eye hummed as she sent her hack and stripped away control of the security system. If she was a merc, that would have been enough to make it her signature move, and compared to the setup at the rundown VR cafe, it was child’s play. The little girl’s mom was skilled, and the director was not. The turret swung around and pointed at the director. “But I didn’t come here to litigate the past or the fucked up things you put us through.”
“Then why have you come?” the director asked. They tried to regain control of the security system, and when it failed, they took a step back. The director was used to being in control, used to lording over people without the ability to fight back, and had deluded themselves into believing they were a member of high society. Being so thoroughly challenged sent them into a panic spiral.
“I’m just here for her,” Mal said. She motioned to the sleeping girl, then placed her in one of the chairs against the wall. She was out cold, and Mal didn’t think she’d wake even if she had to shoot the director. “Things are going to change around here.”
“You need to leave immediately, and take that filthy bastard with you,” the director said. They tried to project authority in the same way they had when Mal was a child, but the panic in their voice betrayed them. The words came out in an unsteady mess. When they saw the attempt was a failure, they took a step backward and knocked over the chair behind them.
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Mal said. She darted forward, leapt over the desk, and slammed the butt of the Lantern into the director’s mouth. She felt teeth give way, but didn’t stop there. As the director reeled into the wall, Malory followed and closed metal fingers tight around their throat. “That right there is a little girl who just lost her parents. She is a person, dealing with a lot of pain, the same way I was when I got here. She is not a thing, or something for you to take advantage of or abuse, and she will be staying here at the orphanage. You will do your sincere best to take care of her, or I will make you beg for death.”
The director tried to speak, but the barrel of the gun interrupted them as it was shoved crudely into their mouth. Their eyes went wide.
“This isn’t a discussion,” Mal said. She pushed the barrel in until she felt the director gag, and then squeezed their neck tight enough that their face went bright red. “The only reason you still breathe is because I promised myself I’d try not to kill anyone today. If you keep resisting your new reality, I will break that promise in a heartbeat. This is now more than your job—you will take care of these kids like they’re your own damn family, and I’ll be watching. Do you understand?”
“Mmh!” the director grunted. A faint scent of piss wafted up in the space between them, and the director shook their head up and down and started crying.
“That’s good,” Mal said. She let go of their neck, pulled the pistol from their mouth, and clapped them on the shoulder like an old friend. “Simple, right? Oh, and just in case you’re only agreeing to get me to leave, just remember your security system is mine now. I’ll have it turn you into Swiss cheese the moment you step out of line.”
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The director nodded, but wasn’t able to speak. They pulled out a handkerchief, held it to their ruined mouth, and tried to stop the bleeding. They continued to cry as they watched Malory head over to the sleeping girl.
Mal didn’t wake her to say goodbye. She ran her fingers through the girl’s dirty hair, smiled, and headed for the door. When she was outside again, she waved at the playing kids and listened to their whispers. A new feed had joined the one of Faraday in the corner of her vision, and Malory watched the director back in their office—they were weeping quietly at their desk to avoid waking the sleeping girl, and Mal took it as a sign they’d taken the threat to heart. Everything had been solved without adding another life to her growing tally, and she’d done an act of kindness in a city that seemed custom-built to destroy anything held dear. Mal waved to the kids again, and then walked away. She tried not to let the lack of sleep overwhelm her because there was one more thing she needed to do before she could rest, and it was the most important. She had someone to meet. As she headed deeper into the city, she spotted a karaoke bar that used digital gremlins with their eyes crossed out as its logo and knew that was the place she wanted to see Nadia. A few more drinks and listening to the person she loved try to sing was just the thing she needed to unwind while waiting for her planned revenge to come to fruition. She called her girlfriend.
“How’d it go?” Nadia asked. She was fresh from the shower, her hair still wet, and she’d been waiting to hear from Mal since setting up the meeting.
“It’s all good,” Mal said. She entered the bar, paid for a room, and sat down on a soft leather couch. “Should hear about the bounty being called off in an hour or two. Come and meet me, and we can celebrate together.”
“Hell yeah!” Nadia yelled. She jumped up and down in the living room of her apartment, and toppled over a bunch of her inventions. “Where should I go? Do I need to bring anything?”
“I got us a private room at the Dead Gremlins karaoke bar,” Mal said. She scrolled through the screen and browsed their list of songs. She smiled. “You being next to me again is more than enough.”
“Fuck, karaoke?” Nadia asked. She went silent for a moment, then cackled like a maniac. She sprinted to her room to finish getting dressed and stubbed her toe on one of the stands that held a dozen reconstructed hand implants. She yelped, and then continued to laugh. “That means I get to hear you sing something. You know you don’t have to try so hard to seduce me, right?”
“Shut up,” Malory said. She hadn’t thought about having to sing as well, but Nadia being so excited to see it was worth all the embarrassment in the world. “I’ll see you soon.”
“I’ll be there in twenty,” Nadia said, and let the call drop.
Malory killed the time by singing songs to no one but the ghost inside her head, and avoided anything her sister liked. She didn’t want to be sad on the day that meant she could see the people she loved without worrying about them being caught in a crossfire of her own mistakes. She gravitated toward power ballads, the slow rock songs that focused on love and feeling whole. It was something the world had always tried to take from her, and she refused to let it. She poured her volatile emotions into the deliveries while distorted guitar riffs reverberated in the air around her. She wasn’t very good, but that didn’t matter. There was vocal chrome that could turn the most talentless and tone-deaf into a virtuoso, and it was one of the pieces on her list of dream implants. While she was belting out the last few notes of a song about killing a corporation to impress a girl, the door to the room opened, and she choked on the words in her throat. Standing in the doorway was Nadia, still just as short as she’d always been, with a shit-eating grin plastered on her face. Malory tossed the cheap microphone onto the table, ran over, and scooped the maniac into her arms as tightly as she could.
“It’s been way too long,” she said. She relished the warmth, the smell of coming home. Electricity shot through her spine at the feeling of skin on skin. “I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to see you in person again.”
“Alright, alright. Don’t be so dramatic,” Nadia said. She squirmed under Malory’s bear hug, but wasn’t able to get free. “I missed you, too, but your new arm is crushing me to death.”
“Sorry!” Mal let her go and took a step back. She looked down at herself, unsure of how she looked in her girlfriend’s eyes. “So, what do you think? Have I changed too much?”
“I think you should order us some drinks on my tab,” Nadia said. She took a step forward to close the gap, but she was too short to kiss Malory on her own. “Get us both nice and sloshed while we sing a few songs, and then I’m going to take you to one of the hotels nearby and get a much better look.”
“As long as you sing first,” Mal said. She cupped Nadia’s doll-like face in her hand, bent down, and kissed her. It was a gentle one, but there was enough passion hidden underneath to remind her that life was still worth living.
“Deal,” Nadia said. She broke away and then snatched the microphone from the table. When she queued up the song she wanted, she turned around, bent into a provocative pose, and gave a little wink. “I’ll make sure to give you a show to remember.”
