There were no stars around Nancy, nothing but an endless black space. She knew she’d been here before, somehow she could feel that. Nancy called out desperately, “MOTHER, HELP!” That’s the first thing she thought to do. But there was no sound, not even an echo of her own voice, in the place Nancy was now. She was all alone, floating through the darkness. God and Holy Mary, thought Nancy, not this again.
The cold had already started to fill up her mouth, her nose, and her lungs, slowly killing her. Am I in that dream again, she wondered, my dream? She couldn’t know for sure, but she did feel weak, like a regular girl. In her dream, Nancy was not a US social agent, and not on advantage formula. The terror in her grew, as her body filled with the cold, consuming every inch, all the way from her fingertips to her toes. This is my dream. It has to be. It’s always like this.
She couldn’t see the moon yet, which was always there with her. But she suspected it was mocking her by deliberately hiding. The moon would show itself eventually, as it always had. Ever since that day she had fallen under those waves in Florida and her mother had to save her, it had been her and the moon forever. It had been hiding that day too, for sure, behind the sun, or a cloud, or underneath the sea, somewhere, but it was there. The moon controlled the tide, as she knew.
Nancy began to panic. I gotta get out of here. I know this isn’t real, but I hate being alone in this place. She thrashed around, grasping at what might be there, even though she knew that was pointless. There was only nothingness, as always. Oh no. No... Nancy kept on floating by herself.
For the dream to end, she knew what she had to do, just let go. Don’t fight it. It’s just a dream. You’re not dying, not really. Let it take you. She’d had been through this all before. Nancy told herself that girls died alone all the time, it’s normal. The best girls, the toughest girls, like her mother, died where no other girls could see them, or hear them, cry. Her mother had died alone, being a hero. Nancy missed her mother.
She slowed her breath down and let her body go limp, just like her mother must’ve done. It’s okay. You won moon. You got us both. Soon, the cold took her body, turning it numb, until she felt strangely at peace. The sounds of waves rushing and of girls cheering began to rise in her ears. I wish… I wish I could go back to Florida with my mother again. I ruined everything. She should’ve been mad. I didn’t follow the rules. Her thoughts wandered more and more as her mind started to go totally. I’ll never be good enough, I can’t be her… but I know they all expect it. They see her when they look at me, I know it. But I’m really just a… copy, a bad one. I mean, I don’t know what I am. I don’t know…
Far away in the black, a silvery glint appeared. It grew larger, as it came closer, barreling straight towards Nancy. Here she comes. When it was near enough, the silvery thing became an open metallic hand, the same one she had seen every time before in her dream. My hero is here. Thank God and Holy Mary. Nancy imagined that the girl behind the hand might be a firefighter, or an astronaut, or maybe even a social agent. But she knew who it was really; somehow, it was her mother, saving her again. That’s impossible though, thought Nancy, it can’t be her, because she’s gone.
The shining hand was the most memorable part of her dream, and it had come every time. But sometimes, there was a face too. It was always hidden from her though, behind a smoky, white mask, if there was a mask. But usually, the face came as a shadowy thing, and was indescribable. She wasn’t allowed to see her hero’s face for some reason, but she’d always come.
She worried for a second, waiting in the black. The shining hand might not make it to her this time, it might be too slow, and she might actually die. But if she did, and this all wasn’t a dream, she hoped her cap-badge would be found, at least. She wanted to rest forever with her sisters in Athena’s fountain, slowly turning green, then to black, as her corpse would do. A social agent knew her day would come eventually. Nancy let her eyes close.
To her relief, the hand grabbed hold of her, as it had always done, and just in time too. She sighed to herself. Her mystery girl pulled Nancy away, hugging onto the social agent, rushing her up and out to somewhere. Then, with a sudden splash, they escaped, and Nancy's eyes opened. She was up in the open sky, in her hero’s arms, high above the waves, again. She saw the moon now as well, bright, full, and ugly, hanging over the endless dark ocean.
The moon had taken so much from her. Nancy cursed at the thing, that she hated so much, but it just smiled back at her, like it had always done in her dream. The coldness in her body soon left. I’m alive, she realized, thank God and Holy Mary… again. Then, right as she started to relax, Nancy heard voices in her head.
“She needs to be dumped,” said a girl’s voice, husky and impatient.
“Oh," said a different voice, much smoother, “I like her.”
“Yes, general, but you’ll get over that. She’s trouble. They all are.”
A third voice piped up, this one tiny and raspy, and commented, “I like her too. She took some serious hits, unbelievable.” Her throat sounded strained from over yelling.
“I saw,” said the smoother voice.
Nancy felt a single finger run against her naked leg. Nancy squawked “eh,” as she sat up and pushed the finger away. Her eyes opened.
In her waking haze, she could see three female figures hovering over her, coming into focus gradually. All of them had regulation military haircuts, and each had on the same navy blue pants and sleeveless white tops. The shortest one, the one with the widest hips, had a hairdo with bangs. The cut was the longest you could keep your hair, and still be within regulation. Her slender eyebrows and hair were a platinum blonde. The tallest girl, in the middle, had her head shaved down close to the skin. She glared down with a hard face, angular and tight.
The last one sat relaxed in a chair, right next to Nancy, and she had the darkest hair, nearly black in fact, with a standard crew cut. Her eyebrows were thick and wolf-like, nearly merging with each other over her eyes. She looked warmly at Nancy with her unusually colored eyes. The irises had a dark amber swirled in with a reddish brown, making them look like the fringes of a flame, and were obviously modified. For military girls, it was not unknown for them to get their eyes fixed by genetic enhancement, usually to reduce their natural deficiencies, but sometimes it was for improvement beyond normal eyesight. Strange eye colors were the common side effect of eye modification. The fiery-eyed girl dangled Nancy’s diamond ring necklace from her fingers, playfully. The tall girl had called this one general.
“Welcome back, safety maid,” said the general, as she toyed with the necklace.
“She’s a tight girl, for sure,” said the raspy blonde, “but a true girl?”
“She’s seen our faces too,” said the tall girl, still not pleased about the situation.
Nancy took a second and reached up to feel her own nose; it was throbbing in pain. Her nose had been busted just as she suspected, and it felt slightly crooked. That was a little trophy from her lost fight against the girls in the achilles suits. Nancy snapped the nose back in place with a crunch, and gave out a little sniff.
“Tough as nails, too,” said the blonde, “she took a lot of punishment before she went down. I nailed her right in the nose, wearing armor too, and she kept on fighting.”
Nancy cleared her throat, and then with contempt said, “Thanks for the nose job, sweetie.”
“Hey.” The short blonde puckered her lips and blew a kiss.
“It's fine,” said the general, “nothing too important was broken.”
Looking over her body, Nancy realized that she had been stripped of her uniform, all the way down to her underwear, and had been placed on a mattress on the floor. Her gun and other gear were nowhere to be seen. The military girls must have been watching her the whole time she was out, Nancy figured while debating about what to do with her. I should make a move soon, before they make that decision. Nancy hugged her legs tightly up against her chest. But I need to know what’s going on first.
Summoning her social agent voice, Nancy asked the girls directly, “What’s the military doing in the condemned sector?”
“Our duty, safety maid, like it or not,” answered the tall one.
“I don’t. It’s illegal. That means something wrong is going on, and you need to tell me what, now.”
“Safety maids,” the tall girl spoke again, “always telling girls what to do. Worse than a sister in church school.”
The general smiled, “It’s their job, lieutenant. The Department of Safety just wants to keep us safe… even from ourselves.”
“Yeah,” said the blonde, “they’re just trying to help us, to be good girls.”
Nancy scanned the room, looking each military girl down, and then continued, “This is not a joke. You’re in serious trouble if you don’t cooperate with me.”
“Social Agent Rose…” The general’s neatly manicured fingers began tapping on the top of Nancy’s bare knee. “You have lots of questions, I’m sure. You are wondering why you’re here. Why I brought you here.” Then the general’s hand gently smoothed down Nancy’s leg. “I wanted to meet you. That’s the only reason.”
Nancy held back a cringe on her face, and responded back to the black-haired girl, “If you don’t want an extra citation. Keep your hands to yourself, general.”
The general pulled back, “Of course.”
The blonde-haired girl spoke up, forcing her strained voice louder than before, and said, “I told you. She’s not a true girl. She’s been brainwashed like them all.”
“All of us were like that before too,” said the general. The girl casually hung Nancy’s diamond ring necklace around her own neck. “No girl is ever born true. Social Agent Rose just needs a chance to wake up. She’s been sleeping her whole life and doesn’t know it…”
“Stop. Hold on,” said Nancy, holding her palm up. “This sounds like I’m about to hear a pitch for your dirty little cult. You are all, now, under arrest. I order you to turn yourselves into me, peacefully. If you refuse, you will be treated as being purposefully belligerent, and negligent, and you will suffer all the penalties associated with that.”
Laughs then erupted in the room, big and stupid sounding, and annoying enough to make Nancy grimace. The general didn’t laugh though, she kept her cool. A few seconds passed of the other two going on, before the general snapped around and glared at the others with her fiery eyes. Stunned, the blonde and tall one immediately stopped laughing and stood there awkwardly waiting for the general to say more. The general took her time, moistened her lips, and then barked at them, “Get out.” The soldiers nodded respectfully, and then stomped out the room in their synthetic leather boots. She really must be an officer, guessed Nancy.
“Social Agent Rose,” the general whirled back around. “I’ve got a crush on you, I confess. I’ve read all about you; the girl who only misses once in a full moon. Your mother a Marine and a national hero too.” She then held a finger upward. “Patriotism runs in the blood. I know, my own mother had it, and so do you, I bet.”
The dark-browed girl rubbed intensely on Nancy’s diamond ring hanging from her neck. “Let me explain a simple idea to you. In life, there will always be those on the top, and, those at the bottom.” The general breathed. “And there will always be those, the ambitious ones, that will try to knock those at the top, down. So they can be on top, and get to call the shots, and be known as the strongest. It’s the way of the world, natural selection in action. It’s normal, you see, we must all admit that. And, that’s exactly, exactly, what will happen when men get older, and there are too many of them. Rose, we’re going to be knocked down if we don’t stop them.”
“Thank you for that lesson.” Nancy stood up off the mattress. Her legs were a little wobbly at first, but they held up. “Now, I need to ask, did you or your friends, kill Social Agent Jasmine?”
“Have you met many girls who admit to murder?”
“Girls don’t have to admit it to be arrested. They can be sent to prison all the same, even military officers, general.”
“You can call me Iris, if you like, Rose.”
“How ‘bout the Queen of Spades?”
Iris responded with a small chuckle, and then gestured over to a dark corner of the room. Nancy looked to see where the girl was directing her to, and she spotted her handgun atop some folded laundry on an old chipped burgundy chair. Okay, thought Nancy, there’s my gun.
There was no chance she’d find bullets in it, she believed. The general must have had it placed there on purpose for her to find. They can’t be that dumb, can they? Probably not, she had to confess, but she had to walk over towards it to get it anyway. The weapon was issued to her after all.
As Nancy padded her bare feet across the cold floor, the general didn’t seem bothered; it was as if the dark-browed girl wanted Nancy to get her weapon. At the chair, Nancy only glanced back once, before lifting her own nine-point-nine up and checking it. The magazine was empty of course. That’s a shame, thought Nancy. I can’t just shoot my way out. That would be way too easy.
“It was all a mistake.” Iris continued to talk, casually. “The world doesn’t know it yet, but it will, for sure. In time, men will turn on their sisters, like they did before. We’ll hear their lies again, about love and many other things. We’ll be back stuck at home with a white picket fence, watching our shows, growing fat, waiting every day for our husbands to come home. Which he will do, when he’s good and ready and drunk if he feels like it... Yes, I found out the truth.”
Nancy turned back to Iris. The soldier girl was looking down, examining the calloused and scarred palms of her hands. She started to speak again, but in a cooler, lower, tone this time. “It was survival of the fittest. Women were stronger, after all, it had been proven during the Great Calamity. Natural selection chose us. We were meant to be free from them.” Iris looked up, narrowed her fiery amber eyes at Nancy, and then said, “That’s the hard truth, Social Agent Rose. And no one’s ever going to tell you that, not the sisters, not the Department of Safety, only us. The world was meant for girls alone, forever.”
“Yeah,” said Nancy, returning back to the clothes stacked on the chair. “Sounds like you need some time in prison, being medicated by a sister-doctor. I can help you with that.” She searched through until she found her tech-phone, or what was left of it. Someone had torn it apart and then re-assembled it, poorly, making it worthless now. The device wouldn’t even power on.
“Rose, you know the Department of Safety doesn’t let girls become too educated about the past. We’re never told the whole truth, you have to know that. Do you really believe the world will be a better place because men are in it? That’s naïve.”
“The education program is for keeping girls safe and boys too.”
“You really believe that? To keep us safe? Sure it is.”
As Nancy got to the bottom of the laundry, she realized that her uniform and her cap-badge weren’t there. Damn it. She had a hunch though on who might have taken the badge. Miss Narcissus. The little liar with black-teared tattoos probably took it as a souvenir. Nancy remembered that the girl seemed infatuated with the badges in Athena’s Fountain. The thought of the girl with her short blue-tipped fingers on the badge irritated the social agent. I’ll have to deal with that later though, she thought.
Standing there in her underwear, with her badge and uniform gone, Nancy began to really feel the chill in the room. She figured she was still below ground, and still in the subway tunnel somewhere. Likely, the folded clothes were placed there for her to wear, so she picked up a pair of navy blue pants, ones that appeared the right size, and began to dress. But before she could get the pants on completely, the general spoke up again. The girl’s voice had gone back to being smooth. “Rose, you should shower first, darling. You’re still dirty.”
Nancy had to take the shower offer. She was still their captive, after all, so she was forced to play along for now. At least, she thought, it would give her a little more time to think about her next move. The so-called shower room, to which the general had directed Nancy, was just a makeshift area that had been constructed inside an old subway bathroom. A single lamp hung from the ceiling, lighting the room. The floor tiles were all discolored and dirty, except where water had run near the shower. In-between the tiles and in the cracks a dark red color had formed, that looked like old blood to Nancy, but she wasn’t certain. She hadn’t smelled any blood, but her nose had been busted up, and barely functioned. She hardly smelled anything. The red color could also have been from collected rust or dirt or anything like that. Blood? She knew she shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
Yet the idea lingered in her head, bothering her, and she had to wonder to herself: Could this be Jasmine’s blood? Did they murder her here? Dead and naked in an alley, that was how Jasmine was found in the Condemned Sector. The poor girl had the ace of spades glued to her forehead with a bullet hole through it. That was the warning, thought Nancy, and I ignored it. She shook the whole idea off though. I’m just spooking myself. She stepped into the shower area and began disrobing.
As she slid off her bottoms and tossed them, she had another uncomfortable thought. The general might be watching her secretly. There were enough holes in the walls to make it easy if that’s what she wanted to do. Get over it, she told herself. It doesn’t matter. She didn’t have the luxury of worrying about Iris’s spying on her while naked, not right now. She needed to focus on finding out what the general and the Sicarii were planning, and then make her own escape. Let the girl see what she wants. Nancy could add another citation to the long list of crimes to arrest the military girl for later.
The shower head, itself, had been affixed to a metal rod bolted near a pipe on a wall. When she pulled on a small lever, the shower head spritzed, choked, and then finally poured down water over her body. Surprisingly, the water felt warmer than she expected, that was certainly nice, but the general had said earlier that Nancy would enjoy it. Nancy worried about what that really might mean. There was no soap available, that she saw, but Nancy made do with a rag she found clumped on the floor. Streams of red ran down her stomach, over her hips, down her legs, and then off her toes, settling into the cracks and the areas between the tiles. The dark red was getting refreshed with her own blood.
That much blood loss meant her body had been injured more than she had thought. Oh lovely. I must look a mess too. I bet my nose is completely wrecked. The achilles suits had pounded her brutally in order to take her down. She couldn’t remember much of the beating actually, in fact, she couldn’t recall much of the fight at all, but the girls in armor had definitely done some damage to her. She felt it for sure. Nearly every part of her body above the waist, especially the nose on her face, ached. If it wasn’t for advantage formula, as Nancy knew, she’d probably be dead now, slowly turning to green, then to black. She closed her eyes, and let herself enjoy the warm shower for what it was, as the water spray cleaned her body.
Not long passed in the shower before Nancy heard something coming from behind. The sound of bare feet smacking on the tiles echoed throughout the bathroom. She spun around to see who it was, but her arms got caught in a grip. The dark-browed general stood face to face with her, holding the social agent’s arms firmly. Iris was strong, as much as Nancy was, but that was expected. Most active duty military girls were on advantage formula, the same as social agents, and Iris was obviously on it.
The soldier girl stood completely naked. Her skin looked clean, head to toe, without any tattoos, or other identifying marks. Nancy figured that meant the Sicarii tattoos, she had seen, must be only for the lower-class girls. The general’s toenails were colored blue though, a familiar shade too; it starkly reminded Nancy of the little liar’s blue fingernails. In between Iris’s average sized breasts and their dark nipples, hung Nancy’s diamond ring necklace. It was the only item the girl wore. If Nancy had to bet, Iris must’ve kept the necklace on in order to tease Nancy.
“Rose,” said the general, her fiery eyes wet from the shower. “I thought we should talk more.”
“General,” Nancy responded, “It’s getting a little crowded in here, isn’t it?”
“Well,” Iris spoke softly, “I needed to shower too.”
Iris released Nancy’s arms, and then eased herself under the shower spray, moving within a breath from Nancy’s face. “No use in wasting all the hot water on just one girl.” The military girl began massaging the water over her own skin, and eyeing Nancy as she did it. Just play along, thought Nancy, for now.
“You know,” Iris spoke, rubbing her hand over the ring on her chest, “who’s the real criminal here?”
“You, general. Matter of fact.”
“No,” answered Iris, “the real criminal is you. And you know it too. You’re boy crazy. It’s an illness… a weakness…. But I can cure you.” Iris touched Nancy’s inner thigh with a finger, gently, making the skin flutter. Nancy gasped.
Iris asked, “Never been with a girl before?” Water ran between her amber eyes and off her pale pink lips.
Nancy didn’t answer and shut her eyes. She pictured him, her him. She imagined his sky-blue eyes peering down at her in bed, his muscular shoulders that she liked to hold on, and she heard his voice, the sweet one he used whenever he would call her. “Nancy,” he would say to her, “I need your help. Please come.” He always said that too, because he knew she would. It was her duty. Did they know about him? Nancy worried. They’ve got to. The Sicarii had taken her phone, twice. All her contacts, including his, were on there. The black-teared girl had teased her before, and even the general seemed to be. They know. That meant he was in danger… again. And it was all her fault.
A smooth voice whispered into Nancy’s ear, “Who needs men?”
Just play along, thought Nancy.
Nancy plucked up Iris’s hands, entangling their fingers, and pulled the general so close she felt the water running off the girl’s face. As their lips brushed up against each other, Nancy tasted the rose-wine flavored chapstick the girl wore. Nancy asked the general, as their lips fumbled against one another, “What are you doing in the condemned sector?” Iris ignored the question and kissed Nancy, engulfing her mouth, and taking in her tongue deeply. Their wet bodies slipped and twisted on each other in the shower, as Nancy struggled for some breathing room. Nancy pulled away and asked another question, “What are you planning, really?”
“I will only will it’s freedom… for every girl.”
Iris moved in aggressively on Nancy, their legs became wound, and their off-balance bodies ended up against the wall together. A piece of tile broke off and fell. This is going nowhere. Nancy pushed the general away, and said to the soldier girl, “Who needs men?”
“No one, sister.”
But they need us. Nancy took Iris again, wrapping the girl’s hands behind her back. “I just want to know one thing,” said Nancy playfully. “Are you really the Queen of Spades?”
Iris smoothed her cheek against Nancy’s, “Does it matter?”
“No,” she answered plainly enough. Then the water turned cold. Nancy changed to her social agent voice. “Like I told you before, you don’t have to admit anything…” The social agent clinched the back of the general’s hair. “…for me to arrest you.” Nancy then growled under her breath, “ALL OF YOU.”
Nancy swung the general’s head around sharply, tripping the girl’s legs against her own, and smashed Iris into the wall, face first. Shards of tile broke and dropped into the puddle at Nancy’s feet. The general’s body, itself, fell with a wet plop, motionless.
“Sorry, sister,” said Nancy, “I’m not interested.”
The military girl had been rendered unconscious with one blow. Nancy was proud of herself. Reaching down to the girl’s neck, Nancy snatched up her necklace. She would’ve liked to have commented about stealing to the girl, but Iris wouldn’t hear it anyway. Nancy donned the necklace again, and then kissed the ring. She skipped out on her bare feet, looking both ways before she left the bathroom.
Nancy went to grab her gun first by instinct. She didn’t have much time before the other girls realized what had happened in the shower, or the general woke up. Naked and wet though, she had to put on some underwear at least. At the burgundy chair, she grabbed what she could, including her handgun, and was able to pull on bottoms and a sleeveless white shirt quickly. From nearby, she heard the echo of voices coming. Counting seconds, she dashed out of the room.
Taking a corner, she came upon an achilles suit up against a wall. The purple and gold one, she had seen before, and it was meant for a high ranking officer. Nancy hurriedly searched for the suit’s achilles key. She figured she would be faster in armor, than barefooted, and also, she’d have some protection if they came after her. Luckily, the key had been left in a slot on the armor. Thank God and Holy Mary. Piece by piece, she slapped the armor on her body, while listening for the girl’s voices, which were coming closer and closer. It’s always a pinch to fit into armor comfortably and fast. The social agents had their own grade too, but theirs were outdated, even rusty. But, Nancy did have some practice time in armor before. An achilles suit’s robotics could only move when enough force was applied, so a girl needed some personal strength and some endurance to use it properly. Advantage formula helped with that a lot. Civilian girls couldn’t last more than few minutes in one. As she slid the helm on and clicked it in place, the electronic systems activated automatically. “Good evening, miss.” A male robotic voice spoke. “Please give the authorization code.”
“This is US Social Agent Nancy Rose. I’m overriding authorization for this suit. Emergency code: one eight two zero, two one, rose.”
“Thank you social agent.”
Once the approval went through, the internal display started up. Nancy could see her heart rate, body temperature, plus other basic information. The communications also switched on for her. She was tempted to use the radio, but she knew she shouldn’t. There was no way to know who could be listening in. Nancy really didn’t want her escape to be discovered too soon, and not before she’s even left.
Before moving into the main subway tunnel, Nancy scanned the area as a precaution. She switched to infrared then back to normal again. The place looked clear enough for her to make a run. She kicked off in the suit, tearing up dust. It took a few seconds until she hit a nice stride. A girl in armor can move up to fifty percent faster than unarmored if she knows what she was doing. Yet, maintaining that high speed requires a straight path, without any real obstacles. Nancy guessed that she was running about one hundred, twenty percent efficiency on average.
As she ran past the old trains, Nancy spotted something from the corner of her eye. Atop a train, the black-teared girl sat, with her short legs swinging, and her boots banging up against the metal hull. A social agent’s cap was on her head, and a cap-badge was in her hands. No doubt they were Nancy’s, but she couldn’t stop now to address that. Nancy pressed on through the tunnel. The girl just stared at the achilles suit running past her with big eyes and a gaped mouth.
Taking a practice leap, Nancy flew over thirty feet into the air, about ten feet from the ceiling. She came down into the dirt hard, but was able to keep on her feet. That was a decent jump, she thought. Nancy continued to run. Up in the distance ahead of her, she noticed a wide crack in the ceiling, and some metal framing hanging from it. If I can get just a little higher, believed Nancy, I can go right out the top.
She got up to speed again, and right before approaching the crevice, she jumped. She leaped through the air, sprawling her arms, and with an armored gauntlet, she managed to clamp down on a piece of dangling framework. Wow. That must’ve been at least a forty foot jump figured the social agent. Oh yes, thought Nancy, the military suits were much better than the social agent grade.
She pulled herself up and climbed through the crack all the way to the streets. The sun had already begun to set for the evening, and only a wisp of light still lingered on the horizon. She hadn’t really considered how long she’d been out. She had lost the whole day it seemed. Well, she hoped it was just one day, anyway.
She sprang off, over a heap of dirt, but this time, she missed the landing, and collapsed face-first into soft debris. Picking herself up, she wiped the dust off her visor as best she could with her armored fingers. She still wasn’t used to the suit yet, or moving this fast, or jumping this high, or feeling this strong. The military grade achilles suits were spectacular though, she had to admit. She would love it if the social agents ever got an upgrade.
Out in the far distance, Nancy saw Magnolia Tower looming over the city. At its pinnacle, a red beacon steadily pulsed. That should be enough to navigate the city without switching on the navigation system, which would make her vulnerable to tracking. But now, she had to decide where to go. Do I try for the US Social Agent Building? There she could warn her sisters about the Sicarii in the condemned sector. Or… do I go to him first? He was in danger, surely, and it was her duty to protect him. I don’t know, thought Nancy, I really don’t know.
The radio suddenly broke with a distress code number, followed by a girl’s voice. “The general is down, repeat, the general is down. The target is in an officer level suit, moving into the city. Orders are to kill target, repeat, kill the god-damn target.”
Nancy sighed. I’m a dead girl now, thought Nancy, I’ve just got a little more time than Jasmine did.
She took off, as fast as she could, running towards the city. Nancy made it out of the condemned sector in less than a minute, much faster than a vehicle could have. In armor, she could launch herself high enough to overcome barriers, land onto rooftops, and crash through wooden doors and glass windows, safely, without slowing down. She’d never moved this fast in armor before. And she was enjoying it.
At the edge of the condemned sector, she slid to a stop on top of an old factory building’s roof. She needed to take a moment to adjust the suit more. The armor felt a little too tight on her in some areas of the body. She wiggled around in the suit until her body felt loose enough. Her handgun shifted too, and fell to a more comfortable place in the suit.
Okay, she asked herself, do I go for him? Nancy wondered that, as she stood and gazed across the dark cityscape. The Sicarii know about him, Nancy believed they had to, and he’s in danger. But, was that the smart move?
The last of the sunlight had finally disappeared, as she witnessed the lights of the city slowly popping on. No, I should go to the Social Agent Building. I need to tell Lilac. The social agents have to know what’s going on. That’s the smart move. But Nancy feared that if the Sicarii got to him first, they would kill him, tear him apart in revenge, and worse, it would all be Nancy’s fault too. Please, God and Holy Mary, not that… please not that.
The waxing moon peeked around from behind clouds over the top of the Magnolia Tower. It felt like it was out for a reason, as it stared down at Nancy, like the moon knew an inside joke, or a secret she didn’t, and it was laughing at her about it. She hated the moon, so much. Nancy couldn’t wait to decide any longer. Okay moon. She breathed in, and then she leaped.