Dec skirted the tracks on his way to the train terminal, which was little more than a rickety bench, a rusty four-post shelter, and a single SolStore lamp which gave no more light than the moon. Only a few stragglers remained on the road, some making the long walk to the closest bus which would take them back to their coastal homes, others heading to their cars which were parked on the dusty expanse of what used to be farmland but had now turned into arid wasteland.

Dec checked his palm pod, which flashed a little after 3AM. He must've just missed the fast-track train, which would have left a little before the hour. It would be enough hour before the next. He had time to waste.

Stopping, to dislodge a loose pebble in the dirt with the toe of his shoe, he took the time to turn over his annoyance with Mel in his head. Why was he so furious with her? She'd done nothing wrong. She'd offered to look after Tommy, and for that, he should be thankful. But there was something else she'd done. Something he couldn't quite put a finger on. Something—

His thoughts were interrupted by yelling. Up ahead, from the confines of the terminal, a heated argument was taking place. He stopped and listened. One of the voices was low and gruff. Distinctly male. The other was female, cut like crystal. He recognised it. But from where?

He crept closer, giving the terminal a wide berth so as not to draw attention to himself. Two figures came into view, locked in opposing stances, splaying the lamplight with jerky arm movements. The woman was Teegan from the club— almost unrecognisable in her plain black jeans and tank top as opposed to the tight lacy dress from two nights before. She must've come to watch the fight. The person she was yelling at was Chook, Tommy's opponent—significantly less disfigured than Tommy, but with noticeable bruising on his cheek, and a butterfly bandaid holding a split eyebrow together.

Teegan was pointing a manicured finger at Chook's chest, and prodding it, as one might stoke a fire to see if it's still burning.

"That's a cop out and you know it."

"They saw me fight. They want me to go away for six months on a special assignment. Six months. That's not fair on you ... or me."

"Do you hear yourself? They've given you a special assignment because it's risky and they want you to take the fall."

Chook shook his head. "Look. I know this is hard for you, but I think it'd be best if we took a break."

"You're an idiot," Teegan growled, though if only to disguise the choked sob that caught in her throat.

Chook stepped forward to touch her cheek. "Teegan ..."

She slapped his hand away.

Chook threw his arms in the air. "I'm trying to do the right thing here."

"The right thing? The right thing?" Teegan's voice rose shrilly. "How about this for the right thing. If you walk away now and take that deal, don't ever speak to me again, don't ever try to see me again. And when shit goes down and you realise you were wrong, don't come grovelling back."

"So is that how it's going to be? As easy as that. Like ripping off a fucking bandaid."

"Yep. As easy as ripping off an itchy as shit plaster cast."

Chook shook his head and muttered, "Fine. But I want my Luminite back."

Dec's years pricked.

Teegan scoffed. "It's mine now. You gave it to me."

"No way. That was my money. So that's my Luminite."

"Well, too bad."

Their voices rose, and started on about who'd given who money, and who owed who what. Dec listened with one ear, while his mind spun with new plans for his Luminite. Without trying, he'd stumbled across more users. And users with money, judging from the high-tech of Chook's compression skins. He probably had cash on him too. Fresh notes from his win against Tommy.

His hand travelled to his pocket. Individual buyers wouldn't afford him the stability like Lazar's business would have, or the steady returns, but he wasn't exactly in a position to be picky.

His ear was drawn back to the argument when Teegan gave a cry of surprise. "What did you just call me?"

Chook sneered. "Bot bitch."

Teegan, eyes wide, took a step back. "Want to say that one more time?"

Chook slammed his hand against the supporting frame of the terminal, rocking the rusted iron to its foundations. "I called you a ro-bot bitch." Spit flew from between his teeth.

Teegan was shaking with anger now. Even Dec was taken aback by the severity of Chook's insult. To call someone a bot, was to call them inhuman. It was like wishing death upon them. It had become one of the lowest insults in the South. So, Dec didn't expect Teegan to come back with, "North wind." It was a far worse insult to be compared to the flatulents of a Northerner.

Chook quite literally puffed up at the insult, chest expanding and contracting like he was out of breath. "Give me my luminite, or I swear I'll come and get it from you myself."

Teegan snarled. "Whatever."

Chook let go of her wrist, but instead raised his hand in a fist. It hung high and threatening.

Dec stepped from the shadows, all thoughts of offloading his Luminite to the feuding pair gone. "I think you've made your point," he heard himself say, voice low and unrecognisable, seeming to come from a hollow deep in his chest.

Chook's fist dropped in surprise at Dec's sudden appearance. Then, his lips quirked in a smile when he saw who the threat had come from. "Move on and mind your own."

"Can't." Dec shrugged. "This is my stop."

Chook adjusted his weight onto his toes and squared his body towards the Dec. "Well, come on then, let's see what you've got."

Dec pointed to a security camera attached to support bars of the terminal without taking his eyes off the grappler. "Better not. Unless you want to get the wasps involved."

This only served to fuel Chook's annoyance. "Who the hell does he think he is?" He said to Teegan, as though expecting her agreement. "Come on, babe. Let's talk about this in the car."

"Go home, Chook," Teegan said between gritted teeth, blinking and rubbing her eyes, streaking her face with a smudge of mascara. "There's nothing to talk about."

Chook opened his mouth, looked as though he might say something more, then clamped his lips tight again. "Alright then," he sneered. "You kids have fun."

Chook's beat up ute commenced a tight burnout as it slipped onto the dirt road and sped away, pluming the air with dust. Teegan watched him go, emotionless, the black mascara smudge around her eye making her look like she'd just competed in the Smackdown.

Dec didn't know what to do, or say. So he just stood and watched Chook's ute disappear behind its own dust twisters, which spun in its break lights and disbursed as the car made its way towards the city lights, a chalky smudge on the ink black horizon.

Teegan snubbed her nose, cleared her throat and said, "How much of that conversation did you overhear?"

Dec shrugged, lying, "Just the part about the Luminite."

Teegan scoffed. "Are you going to report me?"

Dec shook his head, wondering if he should mention that he'd been thinking of doing just the opposite.

"What a mess," Teegan mumbled.

Dec nodded in agreement.

They stood in silence for a while, just staring out towards the city until Teegan sighed and kicked the base of the SolStore lamp. "Shit," she said. "How am I going to get hold of my Luminite now?" Casting furtive glance at Dec she added, "I'm a chemical engineer. I use Luminite regularly in my experiments."

"I know what you do. You psychoanalysed me last night, remember?"

As though recognising him for the first time she took a step backwards. "Hey, you're Declan with a C. From Mansions."

"Yeah. And you're Teegan with two ee's."

She gave a wry smile. "Heh. No shit. She paused to contemplate him. "I suppose I should thank you for helping me out with that North wind of an idiot."

Dec shrugged. "Sure." He rubbed his eyes. In the adrenaline of confrontation, he'd forgotten about his headache. But now it was back in full force. How could he bring up the Luminite, without putting himself up for blackmail again, just as he'd done with Lazar?

Silence again.

"God. You must think I'm a mess." She gave a sardonic laugh. "And to think Chook reminded me of Hersh from the midnight news projections."

Dec stared at her, mouth agape. In no way did Chook look like Hersh. People called Hersh the 'egg' because he was like a hard-boiled egg out of its shell—bald, sweaty, and so round about the middle, his shirt gaped at the buttons, exposing his lily white mid-section. "You're not serious," Dec said. "About Hersh."

Teegan sighed. "I wish I wasn't. Chook would kill me for telling you this, but he used to be fat. When we first met, he had this pudgy little gut that just made me want to—" she made squeezing motions with her fingers.

Dec snorted, which made Teegan snort. And soon, they'd both dissolved into laughter. Dec couldn't help but notice Teegan's laugh was nothing like her voluptuous, long-legged appearance—it was like old, dry cheese on a cheese grater, throaty and uncontrolled. A little on the 'cackly' side. And it made him laugh even harder.

He didn't know what made him say it then, maybe it was all the laughing, but he found himself asking, "Hey, so, you said you needed a supply of Luminite..."

Teegan waited for him to continue, eyebrows rising slowly as they she knew what he was about to say.

He started, "I, well, might be able to help you out." He withdrew the packet from his pocket.

Teegan's eyebrows rose even higher. "I'll need more than a quart."

"There's more where this came from," Dec added quickly. "I just couldn't bring it all to the fight."

He knew he was talking too fast, to appear like the experienced drug dealer he was trying to emulate. His cheeks blazed.

Teegan took the packet and held it up to the moonlight. After rolling the granules around between her fingers for a while, she nodded and handed it back. "If you give me a lift to my apartment, I can give you the money. She dragged a five sol note from her pocket and repeated his words back to him. "There's more where that came from. But I couldn't bring it all to the fight." She added behind her hand, "And besides, I lost half of it from hedging my bets on Blackpoint."

Teegan commenced her cheese-grater laugh again and it was Dec's turn to raise his eyebrows. He guessed Chook wouldn't have found it so funny that his own girlfriend had put her money on Tommy and not him.

"I would offer you a lift," he said. "Only I don't have a car."

Teegan shrugged. "It's okay. I've got Frankenstein over there." She pointed. About one hundred meters away was the ugliest car he'd ever seen. In no distinct style or colour, it looked as though it had been put together from a patchwork of parts from fisherman's graveyard.

"Your car's got a snorkel," Dec said apprehensively, though it wasn't the snorkel he was worried about. The vehicle looked like its wheels could fall off at any moment.

"You never know when there's going to be an apocalypse," Teegan said, strolling away and rattling her keys.

Dec snorted and before he knew it, found himself jogging to keep up. There was something about Teegan that made him forget his headache, Tommy, his sister, his mum, his job. Teegan just didn't seem to care about anything. It was refreshing to feel like a regular 20-year-old again.

Sparing one last look at the old port, and the shipping container containing Mel and Tommy, he turned his attention to the long dirt road that lead back out to the freeway and the lights of Atunda. Adele would just have to wait a little longer.