Sasha's heart pounded as she hovered behind Dean and her sister at their mum's front door. Nika had alerted Maddy on her ajna of their arrival and they waited in anxious silence. The door half-opened and Maddy peered out. She baulked at the sight of her mother's mass of red hair tied in a messy bun, her pink denim jacket, bulging tank top, and the tightest leggings she'd ever seen on a woman of her age. Why does she wear those butt tights when her thighs look like barrels?

Maddy's mouth tightened when she spied the bombshell on her doorstep--her. She frowned and shook her head while her daughter explained their need for shelter, but finally swung open the door. "Oh for Christ's sake, come on in."  

Nika and Dean clumped into the brightly-lit interior. She hesitated, then brushed past her mother and stomped down the swirly-carpeted hall. Maddy pursued her and tried to smother her with a hug. "Oh my baby, it's been an age. What've you been up to?" 

"What's it to you?" She shook her off with contempt. She was feeling sharp and irritable, and her mother's words prickled her. "You can drop all that crap."

"I'm sorry, baby." There was a long silence. "Let's get the bourbon out," Maddy finally said. "We'll celebrate your return."

"I don't need a drink." 

"Well, I do." Maddy went to the cabinet where the liquor was kept.

She flung herself into the walnut-colored armchair in front of the huge blue screen, while Dean plopped down on the sofa. Nika helped her mother fill four glasses with mint juleps, bringing two of them to the sofa for herself and Dean. 

Maddy approached her clutching two glasses. "I'll leave yours on the side table next to your chair."

She folded her arms. "Don't bother. I don't wanna sit here gettin' drunk."

"You need to lighten up, Sis," Nika said. "We're lucky to be in a safe place, where the purples can't mash us."

She looked past her mother into the kitchen. Harley was sitting at the table, eating a meal and engrossed in a holomovie. "Who's that?" 

"Your cousin, Harley. Aunt Angie's son," Maddy said.

"What's the movie about?"

"Flying boards, as usual." Her mother stood beside the armchair, a glass in each hand. "Here." Maddy handed one to her. She could smell the bourbon. She opened her mouth to refuse, then thought better of it. She took a sip, then another.

"I'm really sorry about what happened, Sasha..," Maddy began.

"Yeah, whatever." She gulped what was in her glass.

"First off, you gotta remember I needed a man in my life to help me with Nika and pay for her education. Your dad was a douche. He disappeared as soon as I told him I was pregnant."

"Shut it, Mum, I don't wanna hear about it."

Maddy stared at her, bug-eyed. "I just thought you ought to know." 

"Anyway, thanks for putting us up." Nika said to her mother. "We'll need to stay a day or two, till we find a safer place."

"How come you're in trouble with the police?" Maddy downed half of her drink.

"I destroyed four of their bots," Dean said. "That's enough to get 'em mad."

"Holy shit. I hope you've got a good lawyer."

"I have. His name's Jack Hemmings." Nika took a sip of bourbon.

Maddy chuckled. "I know Jack, he likes Reverse Asian Cowgirl."

"I'll bear that in mind," Nika said. "I used his services when I was falsely accused of drug running." She made a sour face. "You may have seen it on the news."

"You were on all the channels," Harley shouted from the kitchen. "They called you a science doc."

"You're a celebrity criminal, Nika," Dean said, and finished his glass.

Nika gave him a weary look. "It wasn't funny at the time." She took a long swig and glanced at him a second time. "You got any idea where we can go from here?"

"There's always Tyrone Jacques. He's the revo who lent us the car I left behind."

"Does he have a place where we can stay?" 

"It's huge," she piped up. "You could hide an army in that house."

"You've been there?" Nika shook her head in confusion.

"We went there for a visit the day after we met," Dean said. 

Her face reddened and Nika smiled at her blushes. "Lucky girl."

"I'll call Tyrone." Dean let Maddy refill his glass. "If he says yes, we'll move out tomorrow."

She woke up early with a splitting headache. Dean was lying in an untidy heap, his face buried in a pillow. Despite the morning chill, the room they were sharing was overheated and stuffy.

"Dean, it's time to get up," she said sharply. "I can hear people downstairs."

"What the fuck..?" he mumbled. He stirred his head and yawned. "What time is it?"

"Dunno, but the telly's on real loud."

"Oh, all right. Let me wash my face."

Rolling out of bed, he shook his head a couple times and stumbled into the bathroom. She heard him urinating. She wandered into the bathroom and examined her face in the mirror. "Shit."

"Wassup?" He turned his head to look at her reflection.

"I thought I was done with acne last year, but look at this." She showed him a few sores around her chin and upper neck.

"Hey, you're seventeen. What d'you expect?"

After splashing water on his face, Dean went back to the bedroom and sprawled on the bed, his eyes closed.

"You better start gettin' dressed." She was pulling on her underwear. She hurried into her yellow clothes and yellow boots.

He turned over on his stomach, farted, and pushed his face back in the pillow.

"Get up, you lazy fuck!"

"We've got a long day ahead of us, Sash," was his muffled reply. "You go down and I'll follow you in a bit."

She darted into the bathroom for one last look at her haggard features, then clumped downstairs.

She walked into the living room and frowned at what she saw. Maddy and Nika were sitting on the sofa, hugging each other in front of the big screen while a news broadcast blared. Nika was visibly agitated.

"What's goin' on?"

"Yuke Corrigan's in custody, accused of killing his father," Maddy said. "Yuke looks pitiful in his mugshot--but mugshots always look dreadful, don't they?" "He's appearing at Marylebone Magistrate's Court tomorrow," she added.

She slid into the armchair and watched the onscreen drama unfold. The announcer, an intense-looking woman with a shaved head, was giving a breathless account. 

"It appears Mr Corrigan's son, also called Yuke, entered Claridges Hotel shortly after midnight and bribed a desk clerk to let him into his father's penthouse suite. He surprised his father and a female, drew a weapon, and shot Mr Corrigan several times, killing him instantly. The female, who was spared, was able to alert the authorities. Yuke later walked out of the hotel and armed police arrested him in the street. The female who witnessed the shooting has not been named."

"This is so bizarre." Nika looked bemused. "I just can't wrap my head around it."

"It's a blessing for Nika," Maddy said to her. "She won't have to worry about the lawsuit." In response to her blank stare, she added: "He won't be able to testify from jail, will he?"  

"Don't be so sure, Mum," Nika said. "I'll have to call Jack Hemmings about that."

The screen filled with Yuke Corrigan the First's craggy features, while the announcer gave a summary of his business empire. She reported his flagship company, Corrigan Holdings, had launched Revelation, a device capable of looking into the future and verified by scientists at East London University.

"Sounds like the PD 's got a new name--I'm glad I'm not one of those scientists." Nika turned away from the broadcast. "So what's for breakfast, mum?"

After breakfast, Dean asked Maddy's permission to drive her turquoise BMW coupe with its plum red leather upholstery to the safe house he and Sasha had left. Having secured Tyrone's consent to let the three fugitives stay at his mansion, Dean wanted to bring his ULF rifle with him. Maddy reluctantly agreed, and he set about installing his steering console over the autodrive.

She stared with deep apprehension through the tinted windshield as she and Dean barreled along the dowdy streets of East London. Her stomach roiled with signals of extreme distress and she wished she could persuade Dean to change his mind about going to fetch the gun.

They swished up to the safe house, which looked deserted and forlorn. She gazed at it, wide-eyed and scared. The sight of the place brought disturbing memories, and she gave a shudder.

"Dean, I got a really bad feeling about this. Is there any way we can just turn around and leave?"

Dean stopped the car. "Don't worry, Sash. We'll be in and out of there in no time." He tapped on the window's bullet-proof glass. "And we'll be okay getting back. This car's built like a tank."

They tiptoed through the silent rooms and into the back yard, flicking their eyes to left and right. Dean unlocked the door of the shed and quickly found the rifle. He took off the smartfab wrapping and showed it to her. "D'you know how to fire this beauty?"

"Here, let me try." She grabbed the rifle from him and swung it into firing mode. "What do I do now?"

He helped her jam the butt into her shoulder and slide her finger into the trigger guard. Then he showed her how to aim. "You're not shooting bullets, you're sending sound waves. But you still have to aim straight."

"Okay, I got it," she said, sighting an imaginary target down the barrel scope. "Are we ready to go now?"

He took the rifle, rolled the wrapper around it, and propped it against the wall. "Almost. First I need to give you the activation code for my ULFs. The same words work for both guns." 

He pulled out the revolver he carried in his belt and handed it to her. She seized the grip and felt the heft of it. No more than fifteen centimeters long, gray and metallic, it looked to her like a regular semi-automatic pistol. 

"There's no hammer, chamber, or cartridges for this baby. You aim, pull the trigger, and ultra low-frequency sound waves shoot straight to your target." He touched the cold metal of the barrel. "Also, there's no mechanical device, no safety button or slide, to activate it with."

"How d'you activate it, then?" She examined the smooth metal shaft carefully.

"With a voice command." His face broke into a grin. "You whisper 'sweet nothings' to it and it's ready to fire." She nodded. "But that's not the only thing you need to know." She fingered the trigger guard. "After six weeks the code expires and you have to say another one to it."

"Which is..?"

"'Flirty Gerty.'" 

Her eyelids drooped. "And what happens when that  expires?"

"It doesn't expire. That's the final one..." His blue eyes narrowed. "And don't let anyone else have it."

"I never will."  She handed back the gun. "Now I'd like some 'sweet nothings,' please." 

He drew her to him and kissed her, taking her breath away. She found herself responding, kissing his face until he began groaning. His face full of regret, he broke off. "'Sweet nothings,'" he whispered and patted her shoulder. "Okay, we gotta go." 

They hurried out to the car and she climbed in beside Dean. Her heart pounded as they rolled away. Her apprehension was building up to a full-blown panic. Passing through streets of dingy dwellings, she became aware of a dark gray cloud floating above the car.

"Dean, we got a skimmer watchin' us. We better do somethin' fast, or we'll have the cops on our tail."

He looked up and frowned. "Uh-oh, if they see me driving this rig we'll get pulled over. Let's see if we can shake off the bugger. This beauty's built for speed."

He swung the car into a major thoroughfare and accelerated toward the next set of lights. Just before hitting the lights, which were red, he swerved right into a small side road.

Fifty meters ahead of them, a blue-and-white checkered police armo straddled the road, blocking their route. Dean stopped the car, and she flicked a panic-stricken glance at the police officer who stood next to the armo.

"Don't leave the vehicle!" he called, but Dean was already pulling his ULF handgun out of his belt. He slowly eased his door open.

"Keep down. When I say go, we're gonna make a dash for it."

Shaking with fear, she crouched on her side of the car and waited. Two huge purple bots climbed out the armo and began marching toward the car. She boggled at their massive size. They looked about four meters tall and were clad in thick layers of smartarmor.

Dean flung his door wide open and took aim. The bots roared out one of their standard phrases: "Get back in the car and don't move!"

Dean fired and one of the bots stumbled and faltered. His eyelets blinked and his speech ground to a halt. They continued their forward march, but after another shot the second bot wobbled and stress fractures etched the armor of his chest. His eyelets flickered and went out. Seconds later, both bots keeled over and, with a loud crunch, slammed into the pavement.

"Go!" Dean yelled. He jumped out of the car and raced across the road toward a side alley. Tinker's invisible hands clamped her to her seat as she watched, in horror, the police officer reach into his holster and pull out a semi-automatic pistol. Taking quick aim, he laced Dean's body with bullets. Dean collapsed and his body went still.

She screamed and fought to free herself from Tinker's grip. Twisting her head, she glimpsed the silvery glint of Dean's rifle in its wrapper lying on the back seat. Tinker's grasp loosened. She reached behind her, pulled out the rifle, and set it into firing mode.

The cop who had shot Dean paused. He lowered his pistol and strode toward the lifeless body. It remained perfectly still. He stood over it and, with a slight twist of his head, directed his gaze at her. In her panic she kicked her door open, hoisted the ULF rifle, and took aim. The officer lifted his gun as she squeezed the trigger. She fired and the cop's body crumpled and sank to the ground.

Shit, Dean's dead and I've just shot a cop. What do I do now?

'Remain calm and take the wheel. Hit the juice and I'll do the rest.'

She heard Tinker's soothing words in her mind and replaced her fear with anger at the cold-blooded way Dean had been gunned down. She stowed the rifle back in the car.

Throbbing with rage, she climbed into the driver's seat, powered up, and swung the steering wheel hard. The BMW swerved into a screeching turn, leaving behind the armo, the fallen bots, and the two bodies. She roared away, trusting Tinker was guiding her hands and no skimmers would bother her. Her only concern was whether Tyrone Jacques would honor his agreement with Dean to let her and Nika stay at his mansion.