Sin ain’t new for a city like this. Most of them trade in a particular one of the seven. Some feature a combination. None come close to cradling all of them in its arms quite like The Vice. Yeah, that’s how obvious the city name is. The walls of this mecca city has long been painted with wickedness on a foundation carved by greed and envy. Pick the poison you want to die from and you’ll have it brought to you on a Sinyambarium platter with a distill chaser. The worst part about it is how many people believe the lies. You know the ones. Come to The Vice, live life well and find your fortune, they tell you. Until you find yourself under the cartels’ thumbs of the ones who planted their flags and buried the bodies before you even heard of this town. You might claw your way out from the bottom, but that path leaves piles of corpses behind you. That’s where I come in. People like me can’t sit by and do nothing. I’d probly say most cities on Sinyambar are built here with good intentions, tempered by founders with a conscience. But not this place. The lucky ones learn early on their only way to a better life is by leaving. Most can’t do that of their own accord, so they seek the services of a courier. Like me. I’m a shepherd of sorts. I take the broken, battered, and desperate out and plop them down somewhere they can catch their breath. So it was, just like any other time, Sol came by my bar. Patrons spread out to give him a wide berth: not because he commanded that kind of respect, mind you, but out of sheer physical necessity. An electric cig hung from his mouth, dragging his preferred unusual stench through my shop, and I knew by the hesitation in his step he came with a job.
“No. No way, Sol. I told you I’m on a break.”
He sat at the first stool and his wide hips pushed the other out of the way. The poor leather seat and metal post cried in agony as he set himself down on it.
“Come now, Snakes, you’ll want to hear this one. Your services have been requested, specifically. Seems your reputation’s begun to precede you.”
“A reputation for going against the Syndicate ain’t something I want, Sol. Quash it.”
“Hear me out. One job and I’ll scrub you from the rotation for three months. This job’ll pay for it all. You could hire a bot to man the bar, take some time, get yourself a bit of company in Harem, maybe?”
“Don’t need company, Sol.”
The deal seemed too good to be true. I tapped a button on my arm and my eye implant scanned him. Didn’t find any devices or new injuries that might explain this windfall. Just the same heart trying its damnedest to keep his blood moving and the little stents that helped it along. He blew a puff of smoke in my direction. “Satisfied?”
“Blow that smoke in my face again and I’ll let you know the depths of my dissatisfaction.”
Sol’s wheezing, hacking laugh shook every hanging bit of his sloughing skin. “Someday, that attitude’s going to get you killed. So. Whaddya say?”
“How many?”
“Four.”
“Kids?”
Sol chewed on the butt of his cigar.
“Sol. I told you—”
“Two kids.”
“I won’t do it with kids again. Get Jackie or Bull, not me.”
“Hold on.” He raised his simian hand, cigar stuck between equally fat fingers. “I’ll add another month. Trust me, the pot for this one is good for it. One job. Four months. You won’t get a better deal, on that you can trust.”
The frustrating blob was right. “Fine. But I swear on my father’s grave, Sol, if this goes sideways like the last time, I will kill you.”
He responded with a chuckle rumbling in his chest. He’d seen firsthand what that promise looked like.
“Tomorrow night. I’ll send you the time, Honey will send you the location.” He slid off the stool and it groaned with relief. “Until next time, Snakes.”
“Never a pleasure, Sol.”
I crossed my arms and kept my scanner on him. I poured myself a drink and let the burn of liquor sear another scar into my throat. A day meant I barely had time to prep. I served the rest of my patrons, and put up the “On Break” setting, and let the bar make its own drinks as I slunk into the back to get my bags ready and make the appropriate calls.
I rolled my Delilah up to the meeting place. Long shadows twitched and danced in the hanging lights of the alley. I leaned against my baby and its cold metal sent a chill up my spine. Laughter, screams, metallic crashes, and desperate scrapes along wet pavement echoed around me. A typical first night of a Set. I ran my thumb over the safety of my sidearm tucked into the side of my jacket. They were late. A handful of Hundreds late I can accept—children complicate things—but running up on a Kay pulsars late made the hair on the back of neck leap for greener pastures. I rummaged through the back of my truck and double checked the bag with my fake I.D. chip and tradeable metals. I scanned the alley one last time. 1,800 pulsars late now, almost 2 Kays. It’s time to go. I stomped to my driver’s side door and ripped it open. As I put my first leg in, I heard her.
“Are you the Snake Eyes?” she asked. She, her wife, and the two gremlins perched at the mouth of the alleyway.
My teeth about cracked in half with frustration. “Well, don’t announce it to the whole damn city—let’s get movin’.”
I hit buttons in the dash and below the armrest of my door. A hidden compartment in the back clicked open. The foursome took tentative steps until I lifted the back hatch of my truck. The kids sprinted inside. I lifted the panel all the way up.
“Kids go in here. Y’all need to be quiet, understand?”
The elder boy and younger girl nodded. The boy’s eyes watered, but the girl clambered over the back into the bay. The boy followed her only after one of his mothers gave him a nod.
These women were some of the lucky ones. Their clothes stank, and the reek of mining gear oil radiated from their hair. Mining work was dangerous, but there were far worse places to work for the Syndicate. They set their small sacks into the back after I set the panel down. The shorter of the two pressed her starved cheek to the panel and spoke words of encouragement to the children.
“There’s a change of clothes for both of you in the passenger’s side. Quickly, now.” I pointed to the side door.
The pair went to the front and lifted the clothes off the bench seat. “You expect me to wear this?” the taller of the two said. Rebellion burned in her blue eyes. Her partner pulled her thick black hair back into a pony tail.
“I can explain away taking two girls to Harem even if that ain’t where we’re going. I can’t explain two mining girls and two kids without bringing a world of hurt down on all of us. Believe me. I don’t like pretending I’m into you either, but it’s the easiest way out. So git.”
I turned my back to let them change and endured their muted words of disapproval. Once they signaled they were dressed, my eye scanned them for weapons—not that their outfits left much room for them to hide any. I grabbed my bag, slammed the hatch down, sidled up in the driver’s seat, placed my bag under my seat, and closed the door. The truck’s engines primed themselves when I squeezed the steering wheel and rolled out of the alley onto the street.
“Thank you for doing this,” the woman closest to me said. “I’m Sa—"
I cut her off. “Don’t. We’re still in this hellhole.”
I guided us through the flashing endorsements of vice, abdications of virtue, and embrace of consumerism. The billboards blared their messages the entire way through until we reached the dull exit point of the city. Delilah coasted into the scanner and a blue line swept the vehicle from front to back. A torso with legs sauntered out of the station and bent to glare at me on the other side of the glass. A torso that didn’t belong to Sally. Anxiety flushed my head with heat. I lowered the window.
“Evening. Sally out sick?”
“What’s your purpose?”
“Ain’t it obvious?” I tilted my head at the dolled-up women next to me.
The guard glanced at them and into the backseat. He grumbled. “Open the back.”
“Come on, now. You can see there ain’t nothin’—”
“Don’t make me ask you again,” the torso said.
He ambled to the rear and I pressed the icon on the dash to unlock the back. The women turned their faces with flared nostrils and bulging neck veins to me. I swallowed and mouthed, 'It’ll be okay.' They didn’t look convinced. Might have been because I wasn’t either. The guard whipped the door open, nearly lifting Delilah’s rear off the ground.
“Hey!” I shouted and twisted around. “Do you think Solaris Mann would appreciate receiving a formal complaint?” Goddamn Sol for making me drop his name. That was the one favor he owed me.
The guard lowered his head to glare at me from the back. “Whatever you’re hiding, Sol won’t save you.”
“Only thing I’m fixin’ to hide is my foot up your ass if you keep manhandling Delilah. I got two birds here waiting to make their dreams come true in Harem, so if you wanna keep Sol waitin’ on his product, then you better come draggin’ my corpse with some proof I done somethin’ wrong or I’m having you strung up by your microscopic scrotum, y’hear?”
My hand slid under my jacket and pulled out the pistol. The guard kept my gaze. The women’s breath turned haggard and they gripped each other’s hands with white knuckles. I clicked the safety off.
The guard let out a labored breath and his jaw muscles rippled under his skin. I prayed for the children to keep silent. Please don’t let it be like last Annum. The guard lifted his lip and snarled. He slammed the hatch back down, then plodded back to his station and dropped the electric gate. His scowl followed me as I sped past him and left Vice in the rearview. The pavement turned to dirt less than a mile out and the vast, flat, open wilderness stretched out ahead of us.
“Can the kids come out yet?” Blue eye’s wife asked.
“Not until I can’t see the city. Won’t be long, I promise.”
She pulled the gaudy earrings I gave her off and swiped the makeup off her tan face. Blue Eyes did the same. I squeezed the wheel harder and Delilah’s twin motors whined and pushed us further up the road in a trail of dust. A few minutes later, with The Vice no longer in sight, I repeated the sequence of buttons to unlock the compartment and let the kids out of the back. They scrambled out and plopped themselves into their mothers’ laps with muted sobs. Both women shed tears, hugged them, and kissed their heads and faces. Tears streaking their make-up, they thanked me again. I repeated that we weren’t out of the woods yet but accepted their gratitude all the same. By the time the first sun poked its face over the horizon, the children were fast asleep in their mothers’ arms, lulled by the bouncing of uneven terrain and soft suspension. The mothers joined their slumber soon after. Both suns hung in the sky, pouring warmth and light over the landscape, and my skin relished the prickle of midday heat as I hopped out of the car at our destination. Soothing scents of char-broiled meat, freshly cut fields, buzzing insects, and grazing caprins soothed my nerves. A pair of tracker dogs whooped as they rushed up to me.
“Easy,” I cautioned, and they plopped their hindquarters down. Their tails whipped back and forth, kicking up a bit of dust. I reached into my pocket and tossed them each a piece of dried meal. They caught the treats mid-air and tore off back toward the sprawling ranch house. Mist from a crop sprayer cooled my face as the machine rolled through the field. The brunette came to me holding the little girl.
“Are we to stay here?”
“No. This is just where I pass you off. Imelda will hold you here until she can arrange something for you in Sinyambar City. You’ll have a chance to recover, rest, eat, and put in some honest work.”
“We’ve done plenty of work,” she said. She showed me the scars on both her arms.
“Be that as it may, Imelda’s got plenty to do around here, but at least it’ll go to feeding folks instead of reaping profits for the Syndicate. The little ones will have plenty of space to play and grow. When you get to Sinyambar City, that’ll change. The place is packed with people stacked on top of each other, but at least the Syndicate ain’t dug their talons into it just yet.”
The woman’s head drooped.
I continued. “Go on now, get some more rest. Imelda’ll be in the house. It’s nearing lunch time and I suspect you haven’t eaten enough in a while.”
The girl in her arms perked up and asked to be put down. She called for her brother and the pair took off running. The woman followed, yelled at them to slow down, then sighed at their refusal. Blue Eyes fished around the back of the truck and retrieved their sacks. She slung one over her shoulder and dropped the other by her feet. “Thank you,” she said. Her gaze was fixed on her feet. The tremble in her voice could mean anything, but I took it as exhaustion. What a fool.
“You’re welcome.” I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Life’ll get better from here on, I promise.”
She nodded. I turned my back to her and lifted my foot to get into the driver’s seat. A sharp pain stole my breath. My legs crumpled beneath me and a searing pain lanced up my back. A push from behind threw me into the cab and I landed on my side. A shiv clinked onto the ground.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. A tear dripped from her chin onto my forehead. “They found out about us. I had no choice.”
Who really does? Goddamnit, that’s why I don’t do kids. I tried to sit up, but she pressed down on my chest. Blood climbed up my throat. I tried to spit it out, but only choked and coughed. She turned my head to the side to let the blood ooze through my lips. A mercy, some would say. At least I wouldn’t die choking on my own blood. I always said, sin catches up to you. You never lead when you dance with the devil. Especially not when he’s ready for the final bow.
The mother sobbed, whispered another apology, and lifted my hand to the steering wheel. The dash came on, and she set an autopilot. My blood dripped onto the floormat. She pushed my legs up onto the seat and closed the door. Delilah rolled away and carried me into the wilderness. Cold replaced the searing pain as my blood pooled in the creases of my seat. My vision dimmed as the suns bore down on me. At least I'll get to die in Delilah’s arms.