Page 77 of Tyton: The Spider and the Dragonfly
“Our kids”God, did that sound weird,Callie thought.“Our kids won’t be able to use cyberware.Or DocPods.”
Sesi shook her head.“No.But in a few generations, anyone who can will be dead, whether we have kids or not.”
“So, you’re putting the fate of the species on me?”
Sesi looked away.Callie lay her head back down on Talia’s chest.For a full minute, the only sound was her breathing.Callie tried to detect any hint that Talia might be pushing her one way or the other, but her breathing remained steady.It really was her decision.
How could she bring a child into this world?What would the world even look like in a few generations?Wouldn’t they just fuck it up again?Or could this really be the start of something different?Of making amends?
Callie sat up, strengthening her resolve.“How long can I think about it?”
The Chariot
January 13 2268
T
he access hatch blew and not a single member of the SecTac team survived.Anticlimactic, to be sure, but not unexpected.By either side.After all, how could it be?The only biosig signals Black’s men could read were their own.And they may as well have been broadcasting their arrival to the Adlets.
The first SecTac officer poked the muzzle of his IntelArms rifle through the door, only to have it yanked away.Tornit’s scarred grin greeted him, but his gaze was fixed on the giant man’s black-market mechanical fingers folding the barrel like cheap origami paper.The last thing the SecTac officer saw were those same fingers around his face.
The sight alone caused a rookie’s bladder to release.He didn’t have long to appreciate the embarrassment, though his superiors did get to witness his limb removal.The rest of the SecTac team stood uselessly gazing into space, waiting for their IntelArms targeting system to lock on to something, wasting precious seconds as the SmartCartridges came up blank.They shot rounds as quickly and as impotently as teenage boys on their first dates.
Black arrived after the avant garde had been slaughtered, his palm held out in surrender.“You can’t blame me for trying,” he said through an arrogant smirk.
“I’m pretty sure their families can.”Siku’s face gave nothing away.
“I agree, it was a waste, but I only sent what I could spare.”
Siku kept his muscles under control, but he wanted to show this arrogant prick just how disgusting he thought he was.“You’re here for Talia,” he managed instead.
Black nodded.“I like you.You’re efficient.If you ever…”
Siku chuckled lowly, avoiding eye contact.“We won’t be giving you Talia.”
“Then why drop her face on my camera?These deaths,” he gestured to the corpses littering the floor, “are as much on your hands as mine.”
“That’s quite the leap,” Siku adjusted his lapel.“We’re offering to clean up your mess.And you’re going to help.”
“The Natalists are expecting Talia.”
“Oh, they’ll get her.As well as everything they say they want.They won’t survive to see it though.”
Black smiled through his annoyance.“You may enjoy being a cryptic little shit, but it doesn’t give you any power.My family built this city.You’re just a parasite clinging on to it for dear life.”
“Parasite.”Siku laughed.“That’s a very interesting word.”He held out a dossier, but Black didn’t take it.“What do you think the city will do when they find out your nanoids consider foetuses parasites?What do you think the Natalists will do?”
Callum scoffed.“Why would I give a shit what they think?They’re going extinct like the rest of us.”
Siku shoved the dossier toward him, more forcefully this time.Callum took it.“Where did you get this?”
“Ghosts.Remember?”Siku huffed.“And your family?”he continued.“We know what Morgan Black did.We know who he is now.And we know there’s no way to reverse it.”Siku sighed.“And you don’t have the men to take care of us, let alone the Natalists, or an angry city.It’s all show.”
“So, you brought me here to threaten me,” Black ground out through his teeth.
Siku shook his head.“We don’t threaten.We brought you here to offer you a mutually beneficial solution.”
“Which is?”
