ABC - Penance

January 30th V27 (2047AD)

It had been a week since the attack on Georgia’s apartment building and the Society had kept itself out of my way. I had spent the first day at the compound, watching over Georgia until she had recovered and generally making a nuisance of myself. Once the Pre-Cog assured me she was on the mend, I joined Ghost back in Spitfield.

We spent two fruitless days chasing down leads on Tan, Acres and their Darwin Society associates. They had gone deep underground and the scores of busted mechanicals and drones they left behind in North Bank yielded little in the way of clues.

Even Ms September had proven elusive, the hosts from the Hall of Remembrance telling us she had taken leave the same day as the attack on Georgia. She had given no reason other than a “family emergency” and had provided no return date.

It was definite in my mind that she had deliberately warned me about the attack on Georgia to draw me into the fight. Whether that had been on her own initiative or at the behest of the Society was what I wanted to know. Had I been dispatched into the battle to save my friend or be killed alongside her?

September called herself an Observer, yet in science the very act of observation can change the outcome of an experiment. An old saying asks that if a tree falls in a forest and there is no-one around to observe it, does it make a sound? Was she there just to check on my fall or was she helping me topple in the first place?

Either way, when I go down I promise to make a lot of noise.

Smutty innuendos aside, I spent my nights at the apartment with either Minke or Jan and Amy visiting. One memorable and very rowdy night saw all four of us crowded into my tiny apartment, with Jan and I in my bed and Minke sharing the living room with a delighted Amy.

That had been a great night, with girlish giggling emanating from both rooms until well into the early hours.

Trixie had arrived at the start of the week astride a brand new hybrid bike, a slick black model that sat low and menacing to the road. It had variable geometry which meant the front and rear wheels could be raised or lowered depending on the terrain. She was dressed in civilian clothes and a bright yellow wig under her helmet, her sturdy form looking a trifle oversized for the machine.

I fell in love with the black beast as soon as I saw it, pushing the bemused Jill out of the low slung seat as soon as she arrived. My hands were roaming over the smoothly contoured bodywork like it was a new lover, caressing the handlebars and manual controls in sensuous glee.

“It’s fresh from the Honda factory” Trixie told me. “The Boss snagged it from a confiscated bundle of vehicles the Yakuza were trying to import”

“This machine is illegal?” I gasped in admiration at the time.

“Nah, but the twenty kilos of Chem hidden in the battery compartment was” she explained. “I have transferred the registration to you, so you’re good to go Alvarez”

My words of thanks were barely out of my mouth before I had fired up the twin electric engines and squealed away into the traffic. I caught a glimpse of Trixie watching me in the side mirrors then she was lost to sight as I rounded a corner, leaning over hard to accommodate my ridiculous speed.

The rest of that day had been spent showing off my new ride, first to Minke and Papa, then to Jan and my god-daughter Amy. It was a trifle cramped with a passenger sitting behind me, the bike intended for solo rides.

Regardless, I took Minke for a cruise around the sights of Spitfield, pointing out key locations like where I had arrested my first perp or shot my second drug dealer. We had stopped at The Good Food Dude’s place and I introduced her to the Dude, treating us both to a kebab with a beer for me and a Panic Cola for Minke.

He had asked, quite innocently, what had happened to my old partners Bingo and Clancy. I had expected it to hurt, to look inside myself and examine the hole where they had used to be. What I found was a kind of acceptance, happiness in knowing that they were alive somewhere in the world.

I had eventually dropped Minke at Papa’s place then it was Jan’s turn to observe her newest rival. She managed to have a neighbour look after Amy for an hour so I had taken her on the expressway to a low ridge situated north of Spitfield. This was part of the Central Highlands and a mom and pop operated diner had some excellent views over our home city.

With a coffee in each hand and a bag of fresh baked cookies dangling from my wrist as I exited the diner, I had spent a relaxing half hour with my beloved gazing into the hazy distance. Jan was there too, casting envious eyes at me as I gabbled on about how great this new bike was.

Once the coffees were done and the cookies just crumbs down my chest, she had grappled me and held my face in her hands, demanding to know whom I loved the most. I swear I barely hesitated before declaring she was my one and only true love, but I couldn’t help sneaking a glance at the ebony machine we were leaning against.

“You are such a bitch, Luisa” she had told me, then kissed me passionately with her coffee and cookie flavoured lips.

The last day of calm before the storm was a Wednesday and I had been in touch with Mabel. She had left Unity behind and taken up residence in Haven, the big settlement that lay just beyond the walls of Pan City. It was notorious for the red light Entertainment District and the many illegal pleasures that could be found there, a den of sin unrivalled in the Zone.

Mabel had been eager to see me again but reluctant to meet anywhere in Haven so we agreed to a halfway point in tiny Sunshine. I had some work to do that morning so we met for a late lunch at a quiet café on the main road of the town.

I had arrived after Mabel, parking my new bike beside a deep red sedan. A squat slab of muscle in a dark suit watched me dismount with an alert expression, his eyes hidden behind a slim set of wrap-around Smart Goggles. The goggles linked to an induction cable that fed to a suspicious bulge under his open jacket, the hint of a shoulder sling peeking from under the light armour weave.

There was no one else around the café front, which made me wonder why Mabel had acquired such an obvious bodyguard and driver. He might have been a minder, yet in that case I would have expected him to be inside. I gave the slab a smile and a nod and he glared at me without moving a muscle, adhering to what I call the Ghost school of human interactions.

I strode past him and opened the café door, entering a small room with a half dozen tables scattered around the interior. A solitary waitress was standing behind the counter, waiting so silently I thought she was a serving robot until she startled at my arrival.

There was only one table occupied by a stunning woman with jet black hair and exquisite makeup, her pale face contrasted by a deep red Cheongsam. Thick gold bangles and rings adorned her wrists and hands, yet the most arresting piece was a pendant hanging from a sturdy gold chain.

The pendant was of two entwined snakes, or serpents, rendered in red gold. A large polished ruby was gripped between the open jaws of the snakes, their extended fangs forming the cage to hold the gem. I was not as familiar with the gangs that controlled Haven, but I recognised the symbol of the Red Snakes clan.

One of the largest and most brutal Tongs that infested Haven, rivalling the Yakuza and Russian Mob for turf they ruled.

“Hi Mabel” I said to the seated woman, whose cold expression softened into a narrow smile.

“Hi Luisa” she replied and I felt a gulf lying between us, as the world we had met in only days ago in Unity was replaced by the grim realities of Spitfield and Haven. “How have you been?”

I took a seat opposite her, draping my bike jacket over the back of another chair. She watched me closely, her deep brown eyes the only thing I recognised of the woman I had met before.

“Busy with work and catching up with my family” I said in a mild tone. “How about you?”

“The same” she replied. Her chin pointed to the parking area visible beyond the café windows, where her driver was checking out my bike. “You have a new motorcycle I see. It looks very fast”

“I haven’t had a chance to check out the top speed” I admitted. “I am planning on a long ride north as soon as I am free, so I’ll open her up on the Central Highway. There is a place I need to visit”

“Me too” Mabel responded. She looked away from me, trying to smother the emotions I could see rising within her.

“Wade called me to say her funeral went well” I said into the silence. “Quite a few people from the town attended, so many they had them spilling out into the street. A couple of her old Navy buddies turned up too. They are serving in the Mercenary Corps down on the border and they got word through the Ex-Serviceman’s network”

“I’m glad Bobbi had so many there to see her off” Mabel said quietly. “I wish I had gone on that mission with you after all. I might have been able to save her”

“Perhaps” I said. “You know, I have been talking to some detectives who work in Pan City. They are in a small team called Division X but we all call them the Odd Squad and they handle all sorts of weird stuff. I asked them about that thing you mentioned, the Covenant”

Mabel glanced at me sharply, her eyes dark and unreadable.

“Did you believe them?” she asked.

“They told me that sometimes people exhibit Abilities that don’t fit any of our known talents. They can do things no other Awakened should be able to. If they use those talents to hurt or kill, then they are judged in breach of this ‘Covenant’ and sentenced to death”

I paused and shrugged my shoulders.

“To me, it sounds like it’s just another kind of Restricted Ability, like a Jacker or a Scanner. If some prick uses their Ability to commit a violent crime, we get issued an Execute on Sight Order. The words are different but the end result is the same”

“So it doesn’t matter if I call myself an Adept or an Awakened, I can’t use my power to hurt or kill” Mabel paraphrased my words.

“That’s right” I admitted. “If you use whatever power you have without wounding or killing, the laws of the Zone will let you be”

Mabel smiled tentatively at me yet I felt my face remain cold and unyielding. She laid her hands palm upwards on the table, showing me those intricate tattooed circles that covered her skin.

“What if I used my power for things that were still a crime?” she pondered aloud. “Would you come after me?”

“Nope” I answered easily. “I’d send the Odd Squad after you. They seemed like the best ones to tackle a weirdo like you”

I laid my hands over hers, our palms touching and met her eyes with a slim smile of my own.

“Besides, I would be crazy to tackle Madam Sin, head of the Red Snakes Clan”

“Thanks, Luisa” she gave me a big grin back, her face at last the Mabel I had met in Unity. She gripped my hands tightly and I could see a single, moist tear run down her cheek. It left a faint line in her makeup, reminding me that there was a different person hidden beneath the facade she wore today.

“Why did you go back to Haven, back to the Red Snakes?” I asked her gently.

“I hadn’t intended to leave my Clan leaderless for so long” she responded. “It had become so suffocating, that at first it was just a wild plan to travel north to the tip of the Zone, maybe watch a starship launch into the sky. On the way there I stopped at Unity and met Bobbi at a bar. She had been so full of crazy energy and unstoppable desire, I was addicted from the first taste”

“So I bought out a small bar and returned to one of my oldest passions, cooking” Mabel continued. “Soon enough I was a fixture in the town, immersing myself in the simple life I imagined I was leading, ignoring the calls from my family. I ignored the dark side I saw in Unity too, keeping myself ignorant of what Acres and his crew were inflicting there. I thought I had been happy, yet when I let Bobbi die facing an enemy I should have vanquished I knew it had all been a lie”

“Bobbi wasn’t some kind of Paladin, fighting for truth and justice” I reminded Mabel. “I loved her too, but she was a hired gun”

“True” Mabel admitted. “Yet she believed in the law. Every job she ever took was to uphold the laws of the Zone, whether they were real justice or not. She was a hired gun, I won’t deny that. Bobbi fought because she was paid too, yet at the end of the day isn’t that true for you as well?”

I would have denied her claims, but I looked inside of myself and saw Judy staring back. I was a sinner and law-breaker ten times over, happy to dispense justice to others while denying it for myself. Of all the many kinds of hypocrites, I was the worst kind – someone in a position of power who abused it for their own reasons.

“Yeah, it’s true” I told Mabel. I released her hands and pushed back my chair, getting to my feet. I slung the jacket over my shoulder and turned to leave. “Thanks for lunch” I said as I headed to the door.

“You haven’t ordered anything” Mabel called to me. “At least let me buy you something to eat”

“Sorry Mabel, but I think it would look bad for me to be spotted eating in public with the head of a Tong Clan”

“I understand, Luisa” she said. “How about next time I invite you to my place and I cook something instead?”

“Depends” I replied. “Could I bring a friend?”

“Only if she’s cute” Mabel said with her old grin.

“I only have cute friends” I countered and gave her a grin of my own. “I’ll see you around, Mabel”

I exited the cafe and gave her driver a friendly wave before seating myself on the bike. My helmet was strapped on, jacket zipped and gloves snugly fitted when Mabel came to stand outside.

“I meant what I promised you” the head of the Red Snakes Tong called out. “If ever you need my help, I’ll be there. I won’t fail you like I failed Bobbi”

I started the engines, enjoying the throb of restrained power as they wound up to full capacity. My visor was still raised on my helmet and I met Mabel’s sincere eyes with my own.

“You didn’t fail her, Mabel” I said over the bike’s hum. “Neither did I. None of her crew or friends did. She was taken from us by a group of assholes that I am going to hunt down and bring to justice. And if that justice is delivered by a Judge or by my own hands I won’t care, so long as they pay their Penance”

“Thank you, Luisa” she told me. I nodded and slapped my visor down, then reversed my bike onto the narrow street of Sunshine.

With a whine of electrics I roared off towards the Expressway, thinking it would be some time before I spoke to Mabel again. Turns out I can’t see the future at all.