“Handler?” Epoc said, blinking. She tugged at her restraints. The chair she was in, a large metal one, had built-in clamps. She looked around but there was nothing to identify the room with. It was metal. There was the table. The chair she was in. The chair on the other side. No door she could see. Winter. Epoc. Gun. “What’s going on?”

“I’m going to ask you again, Epoc, who you’re working for,” the CEO said, resting the gun on the table. Her finger wasn’t on the trigger. Yet. 

“I’m working for you, Handler! What the fuck are you doing? Is this another one of your stupid fucking power plays because if it is, I’m not interested in playing! I did not sign off on guns as a kink thing and I don’t appreciate–”

She stopped as Antimony pulled the trigger back and swallowed. “Who,” Winter said, “do you work for?”

“Winter,” Epoc said. “Antimony, you have to believe me. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Tell me what’s going on and maybe I can answer your questions.”

“As soon as you entered the cave system, all communication was cut off. Three hours later, we get a distress signal from the surface, we find Nexus Alpha floating at the surface, the barely-identifiable remains of the Hexapod and four competitor Frames torn to pieces, two of which look like they were torn apart by a wild animal! Now TransAm and Cèilidhean want my head but they’ll settle for yours. The alternative is so many sanctions it’ll bankrupt Mako three times over, or war.” She took a deep breath and raised the gun again, standing up. “Why did you do it?”

“They attacked me!” Epoc said. “The, the, the TransAm Frame, she said she’d been paid extra to take me and the two Cèilidhean mercs out. They wanted Nexus Alpha and salvage rights! You were there! You told me to take them out!” Epoc wanted to stand up, forgetting about the restraints, and painfully twisted her wrists. 

“What are you talking about, Epoc?”

“You gave the kill order!” Epoc was desperate. This wasn’t right. Her Handler had given the order! She’d given her the vibrations. Her reward. Her treat. She was reduced to a quiet whisper. “You pressed the button,” she said. “Twice.”

“Epoc, the last order I gave you was to turn around.”

“You said ‘kill,’” Epoc said, a sob stuck in her throat. This was all wrong. She’d done the right thing. She’d done what she’d been told. She’d been pushed to the brink and then shown what she would have to do to move past it. Why was she being punished for it? Who was doing this to her?

“I didn’t,” Winter said. “Nobody did. We pulled Nexus Alpha’s logs. It’s barely legible, but what we saw was you killing the Hexapod and one of the other Frames. Damage done to the other mechs indicate either direct blows from Nexus Alpha, torpedoes or shots from a weapon that the logs show you taking from the TransAm Frame that used to be Gospel.”

Epoc thought for a second, then raised her eyebrows. “You can check the logs of the other Frames! They’ll show you that the Transam Republic Frames shot first.”

“We thought about that,” Antimony said, “but there isn’t enough left of either of them. Black boxes were completely destroyed. You saw to that.”

Realization dawned on Epoc. There was no way out of this. Whoever had done this to her, had framed her perfectly. As CEO, Winter had only three options. Give her up, which meant the end of Mako’s proprietary technology and market stranglehold on the best pilots. Pay the sanctions, which meant the end of Mako Group entirely. Or, of course. 

Gun. She stared at the barrel. It only made sense. Regardless of what happened now, this was the best thing, the right thing for Antimony Winter, CEO to do. She sighed and hung her head. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. 

“For what?” Winter demanded. She leaned forward across the table. “Tell me who you’re working for! If you give me a name I can give you, I can grant you sanctuary. Protection. I can keep you safe from them if you just tell me who it was that made you infiltrate Mako. If I can prove this was a covert op by, by someone else, by Otoko or ICTA, then all of this goes away and–”

“I’m working for you, Handler,” Epoc said quietly. She pushed the sob down and forced herself to keep going. “I belong to you. My n-name is Epoc Mako. Formerly Epoc Daimyo. Formerly Epoc Octacorp.” The tears were coming now and she couldn’t stop them. Words burned in her throat. “Formerly Epoc Scholar. Formerly Epoc HMart. Formerly Mi–”

“Stop.”

Winter collapsed in the chair. 

“I can’t… I can’t just… Just get this over with. End it.”

“W-what?”

“Behind me is a door. Little red button in the wall lining. Press that and a tunnel takes you to a small shuttle. There’s a passport and enough cash in there to go anywhere. You’d stop existing and you’d be someone else. It’s my bug-out pod. Mother insisted on it.” Antimony sat up straight, crossing her legs, her hands in her lap, but Epoc spotted the white-knuckle grip one hand had on the other. “If you’re a turncoat, I…” She clenched her teeth. “In the event of the death of a Mako Group CEO, the company immediately dissolves and all assets are divided, to some extent, among its employees. Should they wish to start a collective, they’ll have the resources for it. I can’t… let you go. But I don’t, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t–”

“Antimony?” Epoc said. “Breathe.”

“I can’t kill you, Epoc,” Winter said. The Handler put the gun down and slid it across the metal table. It stopped in front of Epoc. The restraints clicked open. Epoc looked at the gun, then at Antimony, and then back at the gun. Very carefully, in case she was being watched, she reached for the weapon. 

Gingerly, she picked it up and slid back the receiver. It was armed. That was a real fucking bullet. The safety was off. Antimony Winter was not fucking around. 

So what now? Kill Winter or ruin her life? 

Nah. 

No fucking way. 

The weight of the gun in her hand felt even more final when it rested against her temple. “I’m sorry, Winter,” she said. “I don’t know who did this to you, but I can make it go away.” Her vision swam. This was insane. She could just point the gun at Winter. She had only known the woman for a few days. Epoc could just leave. Disappear. One life for another. But she couldn’t kill her. And leaving or pulling the trigger, both of them were a death sentence for Mako. “I’m sorry. I wish I’d been a better Hound to you.”

“What are you doing?”

“I wish I’d been a better friend.”

Epoc closed her eyes. A few things happened. The first was that Epoc took a deep breath and prepared to end her own life for a woman she barely knew. The second was that she opened her eyes again because she wanted to see Antimony Winter one more time. The third was that she was now face to face with aforementioned Antimony Winter, who had flung herself halfway across the table, reaching for the gun in Epoc’s hand.

“What.”

“I thought you were… going to…”

“I was but…”

“I don’t want you to,” Winter said. 

“But that means–”

“I know.”

“But–”

“I know,” Winter said. “Now please give me the gun.”

When Epoc moved the gun away from her head, the speed with which Winter not only snatched the weapon out of her hand but unloaded and then dismantled it was something to behold. Pieces clattered to the floor one at a time. 

“I think it’s dead,” Epoc joked. The look she got was feverish. Frenzied. 

“That wasn’t an option,” Antimony hissed. 

“Neither was killing you.”

“You could have–”

“Or abandoning you, for that matter.”

“You’re impossible!” the CEO shouted. 

“You’re one to talk!”

Winter paced through the room, a lot of pent up energy now with nowhere to go but out. “What the fuck happened, Epoc?!” 

Epoc stood up and leaned on the table. The reality of what had almost happened was starting to seep in through the cracks in her brain. “I heard you say Kill. I killed! Like I was taught! Like you trained me to do!”

Winter spun around. “Conditioning doesn’t happen that fast, Epoc!”

“Well… I wasn’t supposed to know that! Maybe it was, it was the heat of the moment, or–”

“Kneel.”

Epoc crashed through her knees. Her vision swam, eyes watering. She immediately grew hard and groaned, her body waiting for the buzz that wasn’t coming. She was panting. Squeezing her legs together. She looked up at Winter in confusion. Had she pressed a button somehow? If she had, Epoc hadn’t felt it. And it wasn’t like she was in the mood for it, either. 

“What’s happening?” 

“I don’t know,” Winter said with a frown and knelt down in front of Epoc. “How much time did you say you spent in simulations?”

Epoc smiled proudly despite her pathetic situation. “Highest on record. 25k hours.”

“How? Where do you find the time?” She held out her hands and Epoc took them, letting Winter help her unsteadily up on her feet. 

“Took Relonex so I could get a full two REM cycles in four hours. Eight hours of class. Eight hours of sim. Four hours free for food and socializing.”

“For how long?”

“Eight years and change,” Epoc said, shrugging.

“You’re not supposed to take REM accelerants for more than a week at a time!”

She vaguely remembered reading something about that, but she had never noticed adverse effects. The medication had just made it easier for her to sleep, and she’d felt well rested every night. On top of that, it hadn’t been addictive. When she hit her 25k hours, she’d just… stopped, with no downsides. “I mean, I’m fi–”

“Speak.”

Epoc’s words were interrupted by a bark that rose from her throat before she even realized Winter had said anything. She was shaking. Her hairs were standing on end and her heart pounded a million miles a minute. She felt like she could catch a fly out of the air in her hands. She wasn’t high-strung, she was stratospherically wired. “W–what?”

Antimony looked her in the eyes with a worried curiosity. “I’m having you sent to the med bay to get scans taken but Epoc, I think your neuroplasticity is completely shot. Your brain is putty.”

“But… but I…”

“I don’t know if piloting a Frame is healthy for you,” Winter said, and it was, in an instant, the worst thing anyone could have ever said to her. Her heart fell out of her stomach. This couldn’t be happening! She was a pilot! That’s all she could ever be! That was her whole life! That’s why she’d done all of it in the first place!

“But–”

“I called you a hound and as soon as you got into the seat you went feral. You had no prior history of violent behavior. Someone said ‘kill’ and you killed two people, including one that wasn’t even hostile to you.”

“No but–”

Winter took Epoc’s face in her hands. “Whatever is going on with you, I’ll figure it out, Epoc. We both signed that contract.” She straightened up, arms by her sides, balling her fists. “Epoc Mako. I believe you. You were attacked by TransAm Republic Frames. They demand retribution I am unable to pay in one case and unwilling in every other. You are Mako Group property and my personal responsibility. This is an insult to you and, by association, me. Not only this, but you are also under my protection, and I intend to honor the contract to the letter.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means,” Antimony Winter said with a voice like black ice, “that Mako Group is going to war.”