“Why are we back at this stink river?”

  Althea followed Erie and her small collection of drones as they struck to the bank of the mottled yellow and orange river. Fumes made her eyes water and made her concerned about the kind of damage the toxic gasses could deal to her organic parts.

  Erie skipped ahead and looked back at Althea,

  “Because most people avoid this place like it’s filled with toxic waste!”

  Gas settled the thickest over the sludge of the river. Watching the river’s flow made her feel uneasy. She settled on the bank of the fetid river as the main reason. Althea had seen real rivers on vacation in Colorado with her parents, good AR games simulated them well. This river did not really ebb. Instead the edges seemed to bow up to connect to the red dust of the shore. Where the fluid — no way was it water — touched the occasional appliance it seemed to produce more of the noxious gas. Such appliances were rare, the water made quick work of anything left in it.

  Althea followed Erie and tried to ignore the terrain, the filth of the banks nearby.

  “I mean, do we have a destination in mind?” She glanced behind her at the seven drones hauling Walt’s body through the air. “And what are we going to do with him?”

  Erie hummed to herself as she picked up a small cylinder with wires and tubes protruding from the exterior like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Then she clucked and tossed it back in the massive pile of junk that formed the high walls of the remediation river.

  Then Erie turned and said,

  “Of course we have a destination. I just don’t technically know what it is yet. Following the river will get us there, though. Just be patient, okay?”

  Althea felt a part of her rise to balk at the brush off. Then she reconsidered. Erie would fill her in when and if she decided to. As wary of strangers as Althea felt, she could not bring herself to suspect Erie of duplicity. If she intended to hurt Althea, she had ample opportunity. Pontikos supported the conclusion.

  Drones that looked more like children’s reconstructed toys began to hum into view. One floated from the trash-covered bank and took up a position overhead.

  “What is that?”

  Erie had slowed to a normal walk and she checked the perimeter as she turned to Althea. SLIDE forced Althea into a higher state of alertness. Over the hum of flying drones and the hissing sound of the river, she thought she heard static.

  Three drones rose from the debris and flew in the direction of the static as Erie mouthed her reply. Pontikos translated,

  “We are about to be ambushed. You should be ready. All of the drones should be mine in about thirty seconds.”

  Althea blinked between Pontikos and Erie. The AI’s wings undulated like a fluke through the water. With a sigh, Althea activated her battle protocols and prepared to kill again.

  They both kept moving, now on high alert. Though Althea doubted anyone could hide from her, with the way Erie’s drones covered the field, Althea knew no one could hide from them.

  Unless they had an implant like Althea’s.

  Who knows how many of these they made.

  Despite her Persona shift, the tension built as the force just outside of her view mounted and readied to attack. Where her flesh had been removed in the front and back, her skin itched. Impossible and infuriating, still her missing skin tingled and begged for the release of a good scratch. Using a modified Persona configuration made her feel edgy this fight and could not say why.

  “I need a gun.”

  As she spoke, Pontikos giggled and pointed. Near a mound of broken autocars, she spotted a figure. Their clothing blended into the shadows around them, but Althea had seen both their figure against an opening and the brief glint of something metallic in its hands.

  She could feel her combat protocols readying her for… something, but did not know what until a shot rang out. Muzzle flash from the cloaked figure briefly revealed their position. As soon as the shot fired, they followed it with two more and stood to run.

  Amazingly, Althea was unharmed.

  She felt three impacts, but even Pontikos confirmed there was no damage. Her body charged toward the ambushers while she reviewed the three shots. Sure enough, her arms had moved to match the shooter’s aim. Three bullets and three quick movements later and Althea had caught the bullets on her arm’s hard points.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Fantastic! I can catch bullets!”

  The shooter rolled as Althea jumped to tackle him. Slamming against the autocar remains sent the stack crashing away, screeching as it did. Althea twisted around and raced after the shooter, who barely lost time dodging.

  A static-filled voice spoke into Althea’s ears,

  “It’s fine. I got all of the rest of these guys. Don’t even worry about me. How are you doing?”

  The interruption made her grin, but she lost no time in her footrace. Althea gained on the shooter as she said,

  “Chasing down this sniper. How are you?”

  Erie’s voice cleared and she said,

  “I am doing great!” An explosion sent a column of red shooting into the air as Erie giggled into her open mic. “You might come back sooner rather than later. But I have more explosives than they have people.”

  Althea stayed on the ground this time as she swiped at her shooter. Landing a blow on his hip, Althea lifted him off of his feet and tossed him almost two meters to the side. He landed with a gut wrenching series of cracks.

  “I guess I got what I wished for.”

  With a shift of her Persona, she could look at the man without feeling like a predator or worse. The old fashioned rifled he carried fired 7.62mm rounds and even had a faux wooden stock. When she pulled his mask off, the Althea that hid in the segregated part of her mind threw up. He looked fifteen, maybe sixteen. Acne and uncertainty made his death mask into a glare of accusation.

  Despite the horror at her core, her Persona ignored the Empathy and pulled the boy’s clothing off. Althea was still naked and his pants and boots might fit. She dumped a small box of ammunition into her pockets and slung the rifle over her shoulder as she went to look for Erie. Feeling sick and vile, she tried to assuage her guilt with the reminder that the boy shot at her three times. Without the cybernetics, he would have killed her with his first shot.

  All that really did was reinforce the image of the boy’s face in her mind.

  Erie howled and laughed as she rode around the river bank on a liquid metal drone. She fired a small pistol Pontikos identified as a “custom weapon,” and seemed to be having an earnest good time.

  At least half a dozen people lay dead around Erie. Almost a dozen more crawled away injured, but unarmed. Another dozen people crest at nearby hill as Althea observed. Her combat protocols sent her back through the broken maze of autocars, so she stayed hidden. Loading a Ranged Combat protocol in, she identified her weapon as a replica SKS or self-loading carbine.

  The moment the protocol hit, she loaded the clip into the box magazine and chambered a round. Her speed astounded her as she took sight, breathed and fired. Her first shot with the unfamiliar rifle went low and to the right. The second shot hit her target in the eye, so did her next three shots. Drones fired small rockets into the advancing line and the attackers broke.

  Erie rode her molten nightmare pig over to Althea’s position.

  “Good work trooper!”

  Erie bowed from atop her drone.

  “If you can ride that thing, why not ride it all of the time?”

  Pontikos identified the drone as a highly restricted military combat drone. Even her executive systems could not tell her the specifications for that drone. The implications of even accessing the information worried her.

  Erie patted the chrome monstrosity on the side and slid off.

  “Percy is my friend, not my ride. We only work together like this when our lives are on the line.”

  As she spoke, Percy flattened into a disk of liquid metal and sank into the red earth. Althea watched the whole disturbing process start to finish. In part, she needed a reminder of how dangerous Erie was, and because this was something worth nothing. As much as she had lost her right to call herself a knight, she could still be an explorer. And few people could honestly say they had seen a Silver Class hunter-killer drone.

  The moon rose and the gases from the river seemed to contract as if the cold made them huddle in and conserve their warmth. Althea giggled, high school physics had something to say about that. Then the thought of high school sent her into a spiral.

  High school, just like where the kid she killed should have been.

  Erie seemed in high spirits, humming and skipping as Althea followed. But after the ambush, their already sparse conversation had essentially died. Althea’s new Persona did not care for talking, Socialization was low, and if she spoke, she might tell Erie what happened, where she got the rifle.

  Althea still wanted to know where they were going.

  “Okay. This is the spot!”

  Erie ran away from the river at an angle. She pointed toward a massive pile of rubble and beckoned for Althea to follow her. Large sections of concrete and sheet metal gave the horizon a mountainous quality. Erie walked to a section of the rubble and snapped her fingers. A large plate of sheet metal fell, revealing an opening in the garbage. It almost looked like a short hallway.

  Then the lights came on and Althea was wrong. This was more like a living room.

  Passing through a short anteroom of wired and bound scrap metal brought her into the main room. Erie skipped by, twirling.

  “Now if you bring some crazy guy here, I will be mad. So let’s not do that.”

  Althea sniffed as she stepped into the room. Unlike the outside, this place almost smelled neutral. Maybe the stench had coated her nostrils now and she would never be free from it. Or maybe this place held just the faint rotten tang of refuse.

  Dozens of drones, Pontikos counted almost fifty before Althea stopped her, floated through the large main room or hobbled along at some task. Many of them performed construction tasks: spot welding or cutting, reinforcing, and general maintenance. But other just seemed to be kind of idle.

  Erie collapsed onto her couch and let out a massive sigh.

  “It’s good to be home.”

  “We were coming to your home this whole time? Why not tell me?”

  Erie blinked at Althea, bleary-eyed.

  “That’s easy. I don’t totally trust you yet, silly…”

  She mumbled a few more words and fell asleep.

  Althea returned to using her baseline Persona and had Pontikos force her into a sleep state before her conscience could commence torturing her. At least her implants had one major advantage not related to killing people.