The streets were peaceful. Well, not peaceful peaceful. This is still the slums we’re talking about here. Still, with everything Mela had shared with me, I expected to find people running for their lives while gangers cackled and tried to mow them down.

  Instead, it almost felt like any other day in the slums.

  People hurried along and kept their heads down. Sounds of violence occasionally erupted from somewhere in the distance, but no one paid them any mind.. The local gangers glared at each other and eyed up potential marks, but didn’t make any actual moves.

  All in all, manageable.

  The jittery nervous energy that had been burning in my veins slowly cooled, leaving me calmer and feeling more capable of handling whatever came my way.

  Good thing, too. When I got to the HQ, the guards on duty were looking nervous and twitchy themselves. I’m pretty sure if I had jogged up to them, they might have just opened fire without paying much attention to whom they were shooting at.

  “Heya, kid.” One of the guards, a ganger with a shock of bright blue hair going blond at the roots, nodded at me. “Go on in. It ain’t smart to be out on the streets right now on your own.”

  “Thanks man, appreciate the concern. Didn’t look that bad out there, though.”

  He snorted loudly. “Don’t look bad, sure. Don’t mean some twenty of our guys will be showing up again, though.”

  I grimaced, but I didn’t answer. Twenty people missing, at least. And that was probably just the number of people they couldn’t confirm were alive or dead. From what Mela was saying, things were worse than that.

  Or did they fudge the numbers for the sake of morale? I suddenly wondered. That would make sense with Garren’s typical way of running the show. The big guy wasn’t a manipulator or anything, but he sure did like to keep things close to his chest when he could.

  I couldn’t count the number of times Mela had annoyed him by spilling info to me in his presence. It wasn’t anything big, of course. Not even Mela would do that. But she did discuss things like certain patrol routes, finances, or even goods acquisitions freely around me, much to Garren’s frustration.

  While I had the feeling he was upset she was doing it in general, rather than that she was letting me know specifically, the distinction didn’t feel all that important. The point was, I could definitely imagine Garren being… less than open with the gang as a whole, at least until he had a firm handle on the situation.

  “Ah, Adrian!” Ravs called out the second I was in the building proper, making me look around for him.

  It was tough to spot him in the mess of people filling up the ground floor, but I managed and headed for him immediately.

  “Hey Ravs. What’s going on? Where’s Mela and Garren?”

  “Ahhh, they’re in the meeting already, I’m afraid. The last of the lieutenants arrived, so Garren had them start immediately. Meanwhile, I’m one of the poor shmucks stuck here, checking off the lists.”

  “Lists?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the scroll in the medic’s hands.

  “Mmmhmm. Garren wants to know exactly who’s shown up and who hasn’t. He sent out the request for everyone to gather a while ago. We’re just trying to figure out who’s missing, y’know?”

  I did know, even if I didn’t like the implications. Now that I looked around the room properly, I spotted other gangers doing the same thing as Ravs. The fact that this was necessary to begin with didn’t bode well for all our futures.

  Ravs couldn’t stand there and chat with me forever, though. He excused himself quickly to continue his rounds, and I was left on my lonesome to find a way to pass the time.

  Eventually, I found myself in the cafeteria. Both because my body was still oddly achy, and because I discovered that I was starving. Came with throwing up so many times, I suppose.

  Feyo, at least, was as much of a treasure as always. In spite of the pervading tension that was trying to choke all the warmth and positivity out of the room, he still bustled about in his kitchen, chatting people up while he delivered their food.

  He didn’t always do that, and he didn’t need to. Deliver the food himself, I mean. I knew for a fact that he had several assistants who all got frustrated with him sometimes. Still, none of them could deny how much Feyo tended to brighten people’s day whenever he showed up in person.

  Luckily for me, I happened to be one of his favorite ‘customers.’

  “Ain’t looking as skinny as you used to be anymore, are you kiddo?” The man laughed as he swept up to me and plopped a plate heaped high with food onto the long dining table.

  I eyed it hungrily. We were having some variety of chicken that day. It came in small pieces drenched in a vegetable sauce and layered with thin slices of tomato. All synthetic, of course, but that didn’t make the meal taste worse.

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  “Not so much these days, no!” I quipped back, already feeling the tension in my shoulders start to loosen. “Thanks to you.”

  “Ha! Just doing mah part. Now, what’s gotcha looking so glum, hm? Ain’t no reason to worry so much about this whole mess. Garren will sort it all out, and then we’ll be back to business as usual.”

  “Yeah, I can see that happening.” I wasn’t even lying, really. Garren could be very intense when he wanted to be. “Just… don’t like it, you know?”

  I hoped he couldn’t see the real reason I was moping.

  I mean, sure, mysterious murders were bad. Having absolutely no one for us to point our fingers at was bad. Both would just ratchet up the tension until I was pretty sure even Kittens would start snapping and lashing out.

  We were one of the best behaved gangs out there, but we were a gang. Discipline and iron-fisted leadership only went so far. If things continued like this for too long, not even Garren would be able to stop his people from doing something rash, like trying to purge their turf of anyone who ‘didn’t belong’ or ‘looked suspicious.’

  More than all of that, though, what had me sulking was the fact that I was stuck sitting there in the cafeteria, far from all the action and decision-making.

  I knew I was a nobody among the Kittens, and that there was absolutely no chance Garren would ever consult me on anything. Still, a part of me smarted at being left out. And no matter how many times I told myself I was being both ridiculous and childish, that didn’t change.

  It was all Mela’s fault, I eventually decided, once I’d managed to work myself up past the sulking and into mild resentment. She made me feel like a part of the team, like I was in with the big boys, and then she left me sitting there alone.

  I had finished eating and was busy planning mild inconveniences for Mela’s future when Garren finally strolled into the room, swiftly followed first by his lieutenants and then by a stream of people all trying to squeeze into the cafeteria.

  As one of the biggest rooms in the building, it was often coopted for announcements, which was one of the reasons I’d gone there to begin with.

  “Okay, listen up, all of you!” Garren bellowed from the middle of the room, making everyone fall silent. “It’s no secret that something is happening out there. We’re not sure yet if someone’s targeting us in particular, or if they’re killing members of whatever gang they can get their hands on, but that doesn’t change the threat.”

  “We gonna hole up, then?” someone shouted.

  A bunch of unhappy voices rang out right after, mostly in protest of the idea.

  Honestly, the HQ wasn’t a comfy spot for all of us to be stuck in. There wasn’t that much space. We had to sleep practically pressed up against each other. Tempers began to flare quickly when so many people had to tolerate each other for a while.

  The last time wasn’t that bad, on account of the fact that our lives were openly and rather obviously threatened by Zerx, but I had a feeling that nothing short of all-out war would convince even a gang as ‘disciplined’ as the Kittens to go into another lockdown.

  I sure as fuck wasn’t big on it.

  Not only would I be losing out on a bunch of work with Catill, and therefore missing credits I could be putting aside for future big purchases, but I wouldn’t be able to train my running inside the HQ. I wouldn’t put it past Mort to catch me doing it, and then I would be in some deep shit.

  “Oh shut up, the lot of you!” Garren’s shout cut off the rising chatter rather efficiently as he swept angry eyes over the crowd. “If I fucking say you’re staying here and keeping your heads down, then that’s bloody well what you’ll do!”

  He took a deep breath, visibly struggling to calm down. “However. No, we’re not doing that yet.”

  His declaration wasn’t met with a cheer, but only because he was still glaring around, as if daring someone to do it. I had trained with the man exactly once, and he’d put me down way harder than Mela. He could probably kick the asses of everyone assembled there that day. Maybe even all of us at once, if he had more cybernetics hidden under that synth skin of his.

  “Just because we won’t be holing up in the HQ doesn’t mean everything’s gonna continue as normal, though. From now on, I want you all to report in every two hours, on the dot. I don’t fucking care if you have to get an implant that’ll shock you every two hours just so you can remember. If you fail to check in, you’ll earn private time with me. After all, if you want to fuck about with your own safety, then I may as well train you how to protect yourselves.”

  The silence actually deepened. No one was stupid enough to tempt fate and piss Garren off in that moment.

  “That’s not all. We’re doubling the number of patrols as well as the number of people patrolling together. I don’t fucking want you getting ambushed out there. We aren’t in a state of emergency yet, but it’s a close thing. If this shit continues, I’m not gonna have much of a choice but to stick you all in HQ. At least then I’ll know you’ll be alive.”

  He paused.

  “We’re also discussing… how we can keep you all a bit safer at home, too. Mort pitched an idea to me about surveillance.”

  Voices rose in protest immediately. They only fell silent when Garren raised a hand with a thunderous look on his face. “I get it. No one likes even considering that. However…”

  The big man closed his eyes, obviously thinking about something that pained him deeply.

  “You didn’t have to see the pictures and video of what they found in some of our people’s homes. No bodies. No real evidence. Just blood, and a lot of it. Do you want your families to get slaughtered? No? Then you’ll fucking install cameras at the entrances to your homes and be happy about it. There’ll be no surveillance inside your homes, though. That, I agree, would be a step too far.”

  This finally mollified the crowd, including me. Garren went on about how important it was to cover all the doors and windows you had, which I tuned out. How many people in the slums could afford to have windows, anyway? Not many, that’s for sure. I’d just need to stick a single camera on my door, and I could call it a day.

  So, as Garren wound down and then dismissed us, I kept my eyes trained on Mela. She didn’t look happy at all. If anything, she looked worried out of her mind. That was enough for me to shed whatever childish pique I had left in my system.

  I pushed through the crowd until I reached her. She was hovering a short distance away from Garren as he chatted with some of the Kittens.

  “Hey, you doing alright?” I whispered.

  She jumped, then gave a tense smile when she realized it was just me.

  “Yeah, I’m just fine kiddo. Just… worried. My brother hasn’t shown up yet. I know Garren keeps telling me he’s fine and that he’ll be back soon, but he also won’t tell me what he’s got him doing out there that would take this long. He’s not even answering my calls or messages. That just ain’t like Mak, and… Well, I worry.”

  “Hey, you trust Garren, right?” My eyes drifted to the gang leader. He was still chatting with various Kittens, reassuring people, promising them everything would be fine.

  “I do. That doesn’t stop me from worrying, you know?”

  “Yeah,” I muttered, my own shoulders slumping under the weight of my churning thoughts. “Yeah, I sure do.”