Kiara stopped talking and looked toward the horizon, her expression closed off.
Joy lit up inside me as I listened about Maia.
So many things made sense.
She disappeared during that lunation because of Trix?
Ah…
The more I came to know her, the more impressed I became.
She was incredible.
I was so lucky to…
My eyes stung.
The memories brought longing.
No.
Later.
"Thank you."
I swallowed the urge to cry.
Kiara smiled.
Together, we watched nightfall sweep across the sky.
Blackness took over, shadowing the atmosphere.
"By the way, you and Trix…"
I cleared my throat.
"I mean…"
Her aura shifted. Alert.
"What do you mean?
She was just having fun.
It's only a joke."
For a moment, Kiara's gaze drifted away.
It was an almost imperceptible movement, but enough to betray a thought she seemed unwilling to have.
I arched an eyebrow.
Hid a smile.
A side of her I came to know there.
"You make a good pair, even if she seems so different from the one I first met."
Kiara shifted, uneasy.
"That place changes people. Nobody's Land."
I nodded in understanding.
"Anyway, it's time.
Let's go over the strategy."
The freezing wind blew between us, but Kiara stayed still.
She only clenched her fists for a moment before relaxing them.
"Are you sure you're going to do this alone?"
"I'm hoping everything happens the way it's supposed to."
I tried to sound confident.
"Always be ready for things to go wrong.
You'll follow the map to that entrance.
Two members of the Vorovskoy mir will be inside.
You'll identify yourself to one of them and get the key from the floor chief.
Do you know what to say?"
I nodded yes.
"It'll be hard to get Trix out of there.
But just follow the plan.
The two guards operate by quadrant.
You'll find a window to leave with her while I rescue the princess."
Kiara picked up the revolvers.
I'll Devour You was in the back seat.
"Ready?"
I tried to stay calm.
"Y-yes."
"We're going to make it."
Kiara looked at my trembling hands.
I smiled with my eyes.
"I-I'll do my best."
She raised an eyebrow.
"I know, I know."
I swallowed hard.
I had to be my best.
"Right.
Keep the gun hidden.
Time to go. Bye."
Kiara got out of the car and vanished into the white landscape.
Now it was my turn.
I looked at the clock.
Three. Two. One.
When I opened the holomap of Khalmer-Yu, the locations lit up.
I touched the steering wheel.
Such a strange feeling.
Good thing Kiara had taught me how to drive.
Without her, I wouldn't even have known how to start the car.
The blizzard made the vehicle unstable.
That was expected.
Almost an hour later, I arrived.
I had never imagined I would drive a car.
It had even been fun.
I walked to the frozen lake.
Maia had been here before.
I smiled at the thought.
I followed the pixels gathered in the snow.
I dug with my hands until the hatch lock appeared.
I gathered my strength and pulled.
Shit.
I was weak.
I needed to exercise more.
I tried three times.
The metal groaned.
Then gave way.
When I entered the dark channel, the darkness swallowed me whole.
Without the mask, the smell of blood, sewage, and death hit me.
My stomach twisted.
The scurrying of rats bothered me even more.
Well… at least I wasn't alone.
I avoided touching the walls.
Kiara had said: twenty minutes walking.
I had done ten. Fifteen, maybe.
A faint light.
Cracks around a door.
I smiled.
I felt for the lock.
Opened it.
I blinked.
The brightness hurt my eyes.
A cramped room.
Walls hiding everything.
Two doors.
The pixels pointed left.
I followed them.
"Who are you?"
A deep voice behind me.
I froze.
Cold ran through my bones.
I took a deep breath and turned around.
Tried to keep an indifferent expression.
In front of me stood a member of the Vorovskoy mir,
Dmitry, wearing a Russian military uniform with the Russian flag crossed by a red X, holding a rifle.
Young.
Twenty cycles at most.
The heavy rifle contrasted with his still-boyish face.
A boy wearing the uniform of violence.
The patriarchy had always done this:
turned boys into soldiers.
"I'm the doctor sent by Pakhan Mikhail Morozov.
I'm here to check on the prisoner Trix," I answered in Russian.
It had to work.
"Hmm, the doctor they said was coming.
Why are you in this area?"
He raised an eyebrow suspiciously.
I lifted my chin.
"A guard informed me that someone would be waiting for me down here.
Is that you?"
His eyes lingered on me a second too long.
One second more than was prudent.
But then he nodded.
"Y-yes, it's me."
Dmitry looked away.
"Follow me."
He turned.
I sighed in relief.
Smiled discreetly.
Kept going.
We reached the cell block.
When he stopped in front of a desk, an android handed him a nanokey.
"Is that the doctor?"
"Yes, she just got here."
"Alright.
I'll get the wheelchair ready to take the prisoner to the medical wing."
Good.
Everything according to plan.
I followed Dmitry to Trix's cell.
He opened the door.
Bile jammed in my throat.
"Can you leave us alone?" I said sharply.
"Let me know when the chair arrives."
He nodded, closing the door.
"I'll be here if you need me."
They should have left that place a while ago.
Trix was bleeding from her wrists and ankles.
Nanocuffs buried in the flesh.
Her head lowered.
Her mouth smeared with blood.
I lifted her face.
Strangulation marks on her neck.
Her gaze cut through me, half-conscious.
Trix widened her eyes.
Smiled.
Red.
How did they go through all that and still smile?
I wanted to care for her.
But I held myself back.
I gave her a knowing look.
"Doctor? The chair's here."
Another guard pushed the door open.
I turned around.
"Excellent.
She needs more sedation."
The two exchanged glances.
"She'll remain cuffed."
One of them insisted.
I walked slowly toward them and smiled with my eyes.
"She may be a prisoner.
But from this moment on, she is my patient.
So the nanocuffs are unnecessary.
I'll have to examine her from head to toe.
Bring me your strongest opioid analgesic and a nanogram of botulinum toxin."
"T-toxin?"
"Are you questioning my methods?"
"No, not at all, it's just…"
"It's just what?"
I tilted my head.
"Do you want Mikhail to hear about this?"
Dmitry cleared his throat.
"No, no, please.
That's unnecessary."
He elbowed the other guard, who hurried off.
His stare weighed on my back.
The truth was:
inside, I was a playing card standing upright.
At the slightest touch, I would collapse.
Calm.
Breathe.
I had to pretend.
Do what they taught me.
I'd done this so many times in Zenith.
The assistant came back with the vials.
I put the liquids into the syringes and waited for them to settle.
I pretended to clean Trix's forearm while she lay unconscious.
"You can put her in the wheelchair.
Her resistance is gone, she's fully sedated."
After they positioned her, I followed close behind.
In the elevator area, it was just me and Dmitry.
I confirmed the shift change.
No other guards.
The floor had no nanocameras.
Empty.
Like my mind.
"What a delay, isn't it?"
I broke the silence casually.
"Yes, many floors."
He smiled kindly.
I approached his back.
"What's that on your neck?"
He kept his back turned.
Touched the nape of his neck awkwardly.
"A birthmark."
"Are you sure?
A stain like that could be something else."
I stepped closer.
"Really?
What do you think it cou—"
I injected the syringe of toxin into his jugular.
The boy tried to lift his arm.
Too late.
That amount of natural poison was lethal.
I could have neutralized him with 0.4 nanograms, but my intention was different.
In Kiara's words: no witnesses.
I caught him before he dropped to his knees.
"Easy… easy…
It'll pass soon.
Your muscles are hurting, right?
Soon they'll relax…"
His face turned pale.
His eyes open and glazed.
A spasm ran through his fingers before they went still forever.
I wished a blessing of passage for his soul while checking that we were alone.
I dragged his body into the tunnel.
The weight made it difficult.
I left him in the darkness, at the edge of the doorway.
Went back for Trix.
I pushed the wheelchair, tipping the wheels over the boy's body.
I turned to close the door.
Almost there.
"Hey, what's going on here?!"
A guard coming toward me pointed his gun at me.
My heart raced.
Cold sweat broke over me.
My palms grew damp.
I touched the revolver at my back.
Time stopped.
I swallowed hard.
Eyes wide.
Motionless.
He was going to kill me.
I would have to…
I would have to shoot…
A force pulled me backward.
PFFF
I flinched at the silent shot.
Trix had taken the gun from my holster and shot him in the forehead.
She groaned in pain and clenched her jaw.
"Shit.
Take his body.
I'll clean the blood.
Move!
What are you waiting for?
Do you want us to get caught?"
Everything happened too fast.
Adrenaline took over me.
I was yanked back into reality.
I dragged the guard's body by the shoulders into the canal.
I fought back the urge to vomit.
I had to endure it.
My thoughts blurred as I breathed shakily.
The insane pounding of my heart throbbed in my ears.
I stood there in front of the two dead bodies.
Trix finished cleaning the blood.
She shoved me toward the exit.
"You looked like a real doctor."
Her voice seemed distant.
I answered with a grunt.
By the time I realized it, the frozen landscape had swallowed us whole.
"What did you do to that guy?"
she asked.
What did I do?
What did…
It hit me like lightning.
Everything started spinning.
I grabbed my head with both hands.
I killed someone.
I killed somebody.
I killed that boy.
Now what?
His family?
His friends?
Everyone who cared about him?
WHAT DID I DO?!
I took a life.
I took a life.
"Hey, are you okay? You're pale."
Trix's words sounded warped.
The sounds, my vision, everything misshapen.
I killed a person.
I killed a person.
I killed a person.
My throat burned.
My eyes filled.
My hands were numb.
The air felt scarce.
I kept blinking, but the world around me stayed blurred.
"She finally got here," Trix said to a shadow.
"Come on, they're going to trigger the alarm," Kiara said in the distance.
"What happened to her?"
"No idea. Looks like she froze."
"Let's go.
Take the princess.
She twisted her ankle, so I had to carry her all the way here."
Kiara sounded irritated.
"Shit, are you kidding me?"
Trix huffed.
"Come here, girl.
Stay quiet, okay?"
Anichka let out a shrill protest.
"You're covered in BLOOD.
You're going to stain me!"
"I'll punch your face in.
You'll black out real quick."
"Why do you hate me so much?!"
Her voice caught.
"Shut the fuck up.
I'm all fucked up here.
And I still have to carry the little princess."
Trix mimicked the princess's high voice.
The two of them moved away.
A firm but gentle touch gripped my arm.
"What happened?
Ah, no time, c'mon."
Kiara pulled me.
Steady, but careful.
As I stumbled along, tears froze on my face.
"I-I-I k-k-killed…"
"Ah…"
Kiara pulled me into an embrace.
"Take it in.
Take in everything you're feeling.
It's hard, but you need to do it now."
My throat hurt from swallowing back both sobs and vomit.
"It's too much."
"I know, but you're stronger than you think.
Try to stay calm."
"Get in here, stay quiet."
I heard Trix's voice.
"Where's the medical kit?"
She turned toward Kiara.
My bones trembled at every step.
I bit my lips so hard a thread of blood ran out.
The taste of iron flooded my mouth.
I forced myself out of the numbness.
"I didn't know you two had this kind of closeness."
Trix narrowed her eyes.
"Shut up.
The kit's under the back seat."
I pulled away from Kiara's embrace.
Planted my feet.
"I-it's fine."
I wiped the frozen droplets off my cheek.
They burned.
The android nodded.
"I'm just saying, it's the first time I've seen you like this with anyone.
Not even with Maia were you like this."
Trix sounded casual, the medical kit in hand.
Kiara got into the car and immediately started driving.
Her shoulders stiffened, but only for a second.
Then relaxed as if nothing had happened.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Shit, how do you use this again?"
Trix changed the subject.
"Clean it first, you idiot."
I drifted away from the conversation.
I watched Anichka, who seemed untouched.
She was exactly as we'd left her, except for the broken ankle.
The princess swung her legs and cast worried glances at the two mercenaries.
What happened inside there?
Whatever it was, it must have terrified her.
Unlike me, I was strangely calm, as if anesthetized.
My mind emptied.
My heart slowed down.
The bitter taste in my mouth disappeared.
Numbness took over my being.
"Trix," I said, flatly.
"Inject that anesthetic to ease the pain."
She picked up the syringe.
"Great. Do I inject it here?"
She looked at Kiara.
The android glared at her.
"Go fuck yourself if you think I'm going to take care of you.
Figure it out."
Trix threw her head back and laughed.
"One day you will…"
"Quiet or I'll rip your eyes out."
Kiara clenched her teeth.
The two locked eyes.
Silence reigned.
Then they laughed.
I frowned.
"Did you remove her nanotracker?"
Kiara rolled her eyes.
"You're really asking that, for fuck's sake?"
Trix shrugged and lit a cigarette.
"Just wanted to confirm.
Where are we going now?"
"To the chalet.
Then we'll hand the princess over."
I had the impression that that place, that situation, made Kiara uncomfortable.
She hid it well.
Something told me the weight she carried would disappear when we got back to São Paulo.
Well, that's what I thought.
"Can't wait for…" Trix said.
Their voices blended together. Faded.
Holding all those emotions and thoughts inside cost me dearly.
The tension made my blood pressure drop, and my body grew heavy.
The world around me spun.
Someone said something, but it was too late, I was already falling.
My Crone took over in the darkness.
I'm going to faint.
I'm going to fa—