Ashley drummed his fingers nervously as he looked out from the cockpit.
"We will make it," Anya said confidently, as she stood behind the pilots chair. His eyes darted down to the blinking triangular hazard light, and he sighed. The reactor had exhausted its' fuel rods an hour ago, and they'd been running on the batteries ever since. He reached over and flicked off the air scrubbers and the air conditioning. She slapped away his hand when he reached for the release for the magcar. "Look, see? Is on horizon now."
Several seconds later,
The Artemis
began communicating with Airdock control, and the city computer took over completely. The boy puffed out his cheeks and let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. The Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia were as good a place as any to drop from the sky to their death, but Ashley was just happy it wouldn't be today.
"
Buckle up, sweet cheeks! Landing procedures initiated!
"
"Why we cannot flip switch to turn
her
off?"
The shipboard AI giggled saccharinely. "
He already pushes
aaallll
the right buttons.
"
"It only antagonizes you because it gets a rise out of you," he said, but his attention was fully centered on the mass of domes ahead of them. Hyperia had been ahead of it's time once upon a time, using a lot of experimental technology to get their domes up faster than almost any other city worldwide. Some of that technology hadn't stood the test of time. Four of the six major domes were cloudy on the inside. Around those six, another few dozen smaller domes spread out in every direction. He could see major cracks in no less than five. "She's taking care of the docking and fueling costs, right?"
"
Da,
" she said, exasperatedly. "How many times must you ask?"
"I just... I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to. I can hardly make out the buildings inside."
"Be
very
glad we only visiting," Anya said, before turning and heading back into the cargo area. Ashley took one last look at the fabled 'City of Tomorrow' and shook his head as he turned and followed her. "Anya can smell you sweating."
"Bullshit."
"A woman knows these things," she said, assuredly.
"
Bullshit!
"
"Is not too late to put on dress and pretend be girl."
"Can we just get this over with already?" The shipboard AI began counting down, and they took positions on either side of the loading ramp. Ashley grabbed the nylon handhold to brace himself. Anya did not.
The Artemis
touched down gently. Ashley sighed and smiled when he heard the SMR access alarm fire off. Ivanka was as good as her word; they were being refueled. He followed Anya down the ramp and around to the treblin side. She flipped open a control panel and punched in a security code. Their magcar soundlessly disengaged from it's magnetic locks, and dropped a few feet to float above the tarmac.
"Once more," he said, as he slid into the passenger seat, "for the record, I hate this plan."
"It really turns me on," she said flatly, "when you complain like little bitch." Ashley opened his mouth to speak, but just sunk down into his seat, sulking.
The Airdock was poorly lit at night, though he suspected it was more from negligence than bad design. It certainly wasn't because of lack of funds; the ships he saw dwarfed
The Artemis
in size and lavishness.
Capitalism at it's finest,
he thought. Ashley frowned as they were waved around a long line of magcars waiting to enter the first dome. As much as he wanted this over with, a long line might have been a safe excuse for blissful procrastination. Ivanka, however, had rolled out the red carpet for them.
The autodriver took over as they pulled out of the docks. Anya keyed in their destination, and the magcar began heading for the towering highway system that ran through each of the six major domes like a spine. Their car attached itself to the underside of the second track of the highway as they began travelling north. Ashley watched out the window. At an altitude of only 200 feet the smog was so thick that the ground level was mostly obscured, although trying to spot details at 130 mph was hard enough on a clear day. They flew through the forest of concrete and steel giants, each one passing in a blur of color and light against the night sky. It was pretty in it's own way.
Ashley swallowed hard as they passed out of the fourth, and largest, dome. The autoelevator brought them back down to ground level, and Anya resumed manual control as she started looking for parking. These were some of the oldest parts of Hyperia; the most run down neighborhood of a run down city. The buildings built on top of the buildings built on top of Little Odessa seemed nice enough, what little he could see of them anyway. "Shit rolls downhill," a favored saying of his mother's, had never seemed more prescient, although she had used it in a completely different context. Eventually, Anya pulled into a parking dock at the base of one of the massive support columns for the mag highway. He took a deep breath, if only to cling to what clean air tasted like, and stepped out onto the street.
In just the area he could see, there were at least twice as many trash fires as working street lights. The sidewalks were littered with street vendors, selling everything from fried tofu wraps to sex toys. He saw a store advertising illegal genetic mods right next to a sign that read "We buy children!" He saw
actual
sex robots. Nothing like Synths, which were so closely modeled after humans. These obviously-artificial creations were so old and beaten up that he couldn't imagine a way in which their profit exceeded their maintenance costs. Of course there was also ample human flesh to be bought as well. Prostitutes of such variety as to sate even the most eccentric perversion. Beggars, criminals, businesswomen, whores; all found a place here provided they knew their place.
It was like an entirely separate ecosystem; providing for, feeding, and consuming itself. Relying upon it's own, and taking care of it's own needs. If Little Odessa was a living organism, Ivanka was it's heart.
As they picked their way through the crowd, the two drew more than a few glances. In a neighborhood this tight knit, they were easily recognized as outsiders. Ashley scowled, trailing behind the giant bounty hunter. He couldn't even bring himself to appreciate the view her ass afforded him.
"I still don't like this," he said. "There has to be a better option."
Anya sighed. "We cannot track bounty without fuel. You know this
Myshka
. Ivanka has job for us. Is good money."
Ashley's expression darkened at the mention of Ivanka. "You mean
the butcher
."
She rounded on him, glaring. "You do not call her this thing! You will show
respect
to her. Ivanka is
old
friend, older than you." Ashley's mouth hung open for a moment, speechless. After a while she added in a much more measured tone. "Besides, she likes you."
She likes to touch me
, he thought, sulking.
Pulse was a strip club occupying the bottom three floors of an entire city block. Posters advertised individual dancers, upcoming musical acts, available drugs, and their clean water filtration system. Unlike most of the buildings in Little Odessa, it was untouched by graffiti and gang tags, mostly because nobody was dumb enough to mess with a business owned by the Russian Mob. Even from outside, Ashley could feel the dull throb of electronic music. Women milled about the entrance, chatting and passing around stimsticks. A couple of them leered at Ashley as Anya and him approached.
"
Myshka
... stay close, yes?"
Ashley snorted, "I thought Ivanka was a
friend
."
"Ivanka, yes. The company she keeps however..."
Ashley gave the women a wary look and tucked in close to Anya as they walked through the entrance. Inside, strobes flashed in time to the pounding bass. The club was packed. Women were dancing with scantily dressed men while still more lounged at tables, getting buzzed on alcohol and worse. The air was thick with the smell of sweat, drugs, booze, and sex. Ashley slowly followed in Anya's wake as she made her way toward the VIP section. The crush of bodies around him made him feel smaller and smaller.
He was startled by a hand on his arm. "Hey sweet thing, where are you going?" A stocky girl with a punk haircut and one too many piercings grinned at him with a look that suggested she was more than a little intoxicated. "Want to grind?"
"No, I-" Ashley tried to pull away but she only tightened her grip.
"Don't be like that, cutie."
A synthetic arm snapped out and caught the girl by the wrist. The punkette cried out in pain as Anya crushed her wrist. Anya watched the girl's pain with a bored dispassion "
Idi na xuy huesos.
Go, now."
"
Fuck
," she cried, clutching her wrist and backing away. "I didn't know he was special."
Anya stared hard. Once the retreating woman had disappeared into the crowd, she grabbed Ashley's hand and dragged him along to the VIP section. "I
said
stay close."
An imposingly-large woman stepped in front of Anya as she reached the velvet rope, and Anya drew short to stare at the hand placed upon her. Ashley took a step back as a second woman came up beside Anya and began to pat her down. Anya spun, grabbed the second woman's arm, and twisted it painfully. Her pistol was drawn and shoved into the face of the first guard before Ashley could squeak.
"Ladies, please!
Please!
The day Anya and I can't trust each other is the day I retire!" Ashley groaned inwardly as the crowd of supplicants in the VIP section parted, and Ivanka stepped forward. Her english was much sharper than Anya's, ostensibly because she gave a damn, but he could still tell it wasn't her native tongue. The first guard raised her hands and backed away, and when Anya let go of the second, she grumbled and returned to her post.
Ivanka was big in every sense of the word. She easily matched Anya in height but, what Anya had in toned muscle, Ivanka made up for in bulk. Still, she wore it well. Her tailored suit fit her impressive curves immaculately. She might even be called beautiful by someone who wasn't scared to death of her.
Anya laughed. "Ivanka Adamovich! You old
kozel.
Crime must treat you well for you to grow so fat and slow," she said, hugging the other woman.
"And bounty hunting must be treating you very badly for you to be so skinny!" Ivanka slapped Anya on the back of the head, sharing her laugh. "It's a sad thing your looks have abandoned you or I might be able find you a corner to work for food." Ivanka caught sight of Ashley over Anya's shoulder and beamed. "Little mouse! It's been too long! Come and hug your
tetushka!
" Ashley had no time to voice his protest before Ivanka scooped him into her arms and sat down with him in her lap. "When will you leave this
shloocha
for a real woman?" She wrapped her arms around the him, nestling him against the expanse of her warm breasts.
"Where are my manners! Nikki!" Ivanka snapped her fingers at a nude boy, not much older than Ashley, lounging on the couch. "Go. Bring us drinks. Two
Zhigulevskoye
and, for the little mouse, bring a strawberry daiquiri." Ashley frowned but let it go.
Anya reclined in the couch as two boys settled in on either side of her. "So, how
is
business?"
"Getting harder and harder. Every year, one or two new execs want a cut. Bunch of criminals, the lot of them. They're worse than the actual criminals."
Anya smirked, putting her arms around the two boys. "Ach! Fees! Is horrible! My last bounty was taken from under nose because of... is called red tape?"
Ashley rolled his eyes "If red tape means not paying to renew your license in Russian, then sure, it was red tape."
Anya shot him a warning glare. "See? Is stupid!"
Ivanka chuckled "
Da
, I wondered why you contacted me looking for work. It's
fortuitous
