Epilogue

***

I couldn’t help the smug grin as Gomorrah drove the Fury around the Black Bear Mining Corporation’s headquarters, then found a spot to land.

There were people in the spot Gomorrah chose. A few soldiers sitting on crates and chatting. At least until they saw the car coming down, and started to drag things out of Gomorrah’s way.

“The job’s not done,” Gomorrah said as she pulled on some lever-thing in the middle of the dash with a satisfying clunk. I think that put the car in park or something. I needed to take a bit and learn how to drive one day.

“This is the boring part,” Cause Player said from where he was squeezed in the backseat. He opened the door and contorted his way out.

“What bit?” I asked.

“Where we ask the corporation some difficult questions about why their maps didn’t match up exactly, and where we debrief the army about what to expect,” Gomorrah said.

I felt my grin fading a little. “Can I take the third option?” I asked.

“We also need to do a quick patrol of the town, but I think Cause Player’s already trying to be the one to do that,” Gomorrah added.

“Can’t we just go home and rejoice in our huge winnings?”

“Come on, out of the car, you whiner.”

I laughed as I stepped out of the Fury then stood up and stretched. The day was turning to evening pretty quickly. I wasn’t sure how much time we’d spent underground, but I was pretty happy that we weren’t under there anymore. Open air felt great.

“Do you want to take care of the army, or the corp?” Gomorrah asked.

“Can’t our AI do both?”

The nun shrugged. “They can help, but having someone there does a lot more to help.”

“We didn’t need to do any of this last time,” I said.

“Last time, we were both still just small fry. There were other, more impo-- wait.”

I paused in my stretching and turned around to see that Gomorrah was staring at the ground, a patch that had nothing of interest on it.

“You okay?” I asked.

She raised a hand in a ‘one moment’ gesture.

I waited. “Anything going on?” I muttered, too quiet for Gomorrah to hear.

Nothing noticeable. The army has set up a cordon around the town and have begun inspecting it street-by-street. A second group is breaking into homes to ensure that they are cleared of Antithesis presence. They are being rather polite about it. Senior management have been evacuated from the town, along with the relatives of upper-echelon corporate employees.

“Typical,” I muttered.

The Family has sent a message informing every Vanguard in the region that a team of liquidators is going to arrive before sunrise to inspect the mine. A few corporate clearing groups are moving to the region as well.

That was different. I didn’t envy anyone dealing with Antithesis without someone like Myalis to bail them out. “How do they make money?” I asked.

They capture models and samples of Antithesis flesh, as well as collecting data for resale. It is not a very profitable endeavor, but there is a slim but noticeable profit margin. Mostly, those they hire are indentured to the company in one way or another.

“Ah,” I said. If you didn’t need to pay people to do work, then you could make a nice profit on that work, I imagined.

“God damn it,” Gomorrah swore.

I turned to her in time to see her move to the back of the Fury and pop open the trunk. She practically threw my surviving mecha cat out, then my Whisper and my climbing gear. “You okay?” I asked.

“I need to go,” she said as she slid into her car.

“Uh, in a hurry?” I guessed while leaning into the passenger side of the Fury.

She was already flicking switches on the dash. “Yes.”

“This isn’t just some way of getting out of doing work, is it?” I asked.

She looked at me, expressionless mask locked in place and staring at me for a few long seconds. “No, Cat, this isn’t that. I need to go, something’s come up. I... I don’t think I need help, alright?”

“Alright,” I said. “But if you do need help, I’m here, okay? You’ve helped me plenty; the least I can do is return the favour.”

“Yeah... thanks.”

I backed up as Fury lifted off, aimed up, then shot into the sky with enough force that I had to take a step back or be bowled over by all the wind.

Something was definitely up.

I wanted to get back home, maybe relax with Lucy as a reward for a job well done, but I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that things wouldn’t be that simple.

Also, she’d just left me stranded in Black Bear.

“Crap, I’m actually going to have to work.”