A Conversation Between Foes

Isabel raised one hand, pressing the strand of black hair which had fallen across her face back behind one ear. She smiled, or did her best to smile. Really, it was more of a grimace. Any attempt to project mirth was ruined by her glare.

Around her, the square was crowded with people. It was one of the many parks and public hubs that San Gasa incorporated and it was thick with passersby. But she had eyes for only one person. The very person she would otherwise have happily seen reduced to a bloody heap on the floor.

He stood in front of her, framed against a stone fountain. The gurgling water cast a spray of foam which bubbled and frothed behind him. He wore a thick jacket, his hands buried in the pockets for warmth. A holster was just visible running under it, and though he looked relaxed, in truth he was anything but. If she made even a single mistake, Isabel knew that this man would have no compunctions about killing her.

Should that have worried her? Perhaps. Once it would have. But that had been long ago. So long now that she could hardly remember who she had been or what it had been like. The thoughts and dreams of that girl were now long gone. Reduced to a distant, fading memory.

Maybe once she’d been someone who cared about laws and codes and doing the right thing. Maybe once those had meant something to her. But that girl was gone. She’d died a very long time ago.

“Left Kara behind, did you?” Her voice was sneering, heavy with disdain and mockery. Even as she spoke, her eyes roamed the park. Hoping that she’d see some trace of copper hair.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t shoot you right now.” Richard’s voice was low and soft. As far as the crowd knew, they were just two old friends having a talk. But his threat sent a shiver racing up her spine. A hint of fear that she had not felt in a very long time.

“Because you’re not the type to shoot an unarmed woman in public.”

Isabel grinned, spreading her arms in mockery. Her heart pounded like a drum as she made herself a target. There was no way she could dodge or avoid it if he went for the kill shot.

“You want to be a murderer, Richard? Go ahead. I’m standing right here.”

His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t move. His body was frozen like a statue. Heart racing, Isabel couldn’t help but add one last twist of the knife.

“It’d be for the best if you did, you know. You’ll regret not shooting me later once I have Kara.”

Richard scowled, a stormy anger raged on his face and his body clenched. Slowly, he **** himself to breathe. Isabel took a step back at the look he gave her then.

“If Kara knew I’d gunned you down, she’d be upset,” he said, slotting each word into place with painful effort. “That’s one of the only things keeping you alive right now. Don’t push it.”

Isabel laughed. The sound bubbled up from deep inside of her and she couldn’t have held it back if she tried. Adrenaline pulsed through her body and she felt more alive than she had in weeks.

“Where’s your monster?” Richard asked. “That minion of yours who trails behind you like a puppy. I’m surprised he ain’t here in case I try something. I’d ask if you were hiding him, but he ain’t subtle.”

“Pump?” She quirked her head. “He goes where he wants. You think I control him? You think I even try?”

“I think you could. If you had even a shred of dignity.”

His tone was steeped in judgment and Isabel flushed, her eyes flashing with anger.

“You’re talking down to me, Gearheart? You? How many people have you killed?”

“I was a soldier,” Richard said. “Killing was part of the job. I didn’t do what you did. I didn’t ****. I didn’t take pride in it. I didn’t enjoy it.”

“Didn’t you?” She sneered. “Now it’s my turn to disbelieve. Don’t tell me you didn’t love that. Life and ****. Everything someone could ever be, resting in the palm of your hand. Yours to make or to undo.”

She leaned forward, her voice growing soft and excited.

“All of that power. All of that potential. All of it hinging on you. Have you ever looked into someone’s eyes who knew you were going to kill them? Have you ever seen the self-deception, the disbelief, the desperation to believe that they still have a chance? Don’t tell me you did that and didn’t enjoy it.”

Richard was unimpressed.

“I’d say you’re crazy but we both already know that. I’ve killed. I’ve killed plenty of people. I’ve even killed people I regretted later. But I never enjoyed it. And it was never personal. You on the other hand. You don’t got anything but personal.”

“Liar. You can pretend to be all nice and good for sweet little Kara, but I can see it in your eyes. You’ve felt it. You know! Is that why you got out of the Navy? Was it all just a little bit too easy?”

“There’s a difference between seeing a part of yourself you don’t like and jumping headfirst into the abyss,” Richard growled. “I’m not like you and it’s stupid to even think that. But hey, think what you like. It’s not like you won’t hallucinate an entire new end to this conversation anyway.”

“You think I’m mad?”

“Did my previous statements not clue you into that? Isabel, you’re a crazy bitch. I’d ask how the hell you got this way but frankly, I don’t care. If you weren’t threatening Kara, I’d tell you to go find a swamp to lurk in and scare small children. But since you are, I have one question and only one. Why did you call me here?”

“You’re not even slightly curious how I could? How I found someone willing to run the message? Not even asking if Pump is even still intact after you left him to those Conquerors? Don’t think I’ve forgotten that, by the way.”

“I don’t need to know those things,” Richard said. “Someone got a message to Bennie who got it to me. You guessed he would know where I was because we’re old friends. Which ain’t hard knowledge to find. And as for Pump, I don’t need to ask if he’s still alive. You told me a moment ago.”

Isabel’s eyes narrowed, glinting in anger at the realisation that she had done exactly that.

“Smart, Gearheart. You baited me.”

“You were the one who fell for it. So Pump is still alive, huh? Kara was right. I really should have listened to her more. But that’s why I didn’t bring her here. I bet you were waiting for that, right? But if that’s your play, you came to the wrong game.”

“I could kill you now,” Isabel said the words slowly. Coldly. They dripped from her tongue like venom. “I could have Pump tear you limb from limb.”

“Probably,” Richard refused to show any fear, matching her stare with one of his own. “But it would get you nothing. Kara is out of your reach, Bennie’s put the word out that she’s not to be touched. Even if you killed me, what would it get you?”

“Satisfaction! I’d get to see you die.”

“Only briefly,” Richard’s smile was cold now. His eyes were narrowed. “Because woman hear me on this. Your automaton might be able to kill me right here. But not before I pump a few shots into you.”

His words were soft but their meaning was hard. Sharp-edged like a blade between the ribs. Isabel told herself that she was not afraid to die, but even so, icy talons clutched and squeezed her beating heart.

She picked her next words with more care.

“Pump is…absent.”

“You sent him away?”

“He didn’t want to come.”

“I’m surprised you let him decide at all.”

“I told you. I don’t control him. He makes his own choices.”

“You say it like he’s a person.”

Now it was her turn to laugh again. She looked at Richard as if he’d said the stupidest thing in the whole world.

“You of all people should know better than that. He’s every bit as much a person as you or me.”

“He’s a machine,” Richard said. “He doesn’t think on his own, he just calculates. Coldly and without emotions. No understanding, no sense of self. A man of cogs and gears. Your pet isn’t special, Isabel. He never was. He’s just another automaton.”

“You’re wrong,” she took a sudden step towards him. “And you know you’re wrong. He almost had you at the ship. You were inches from ****. You could tell me that you didn’t feel hunted, that you didn’t realise how much he was enjoying it. But you’d be lying. Tell me again how he doesn’t have feelings.”

“You broke him-”

“I freed him! His mind was in chains. Shackled to his directives and his codes! I let him loose.”

“You remade him in your image.”

“I just showed him the path. He was the one who chose to walk it. He was a ****; a broken, bound thing. Not allowed to think or feel or grow. Just another cog turning in the machine. I made him more.”

“Don’t pretend you’re against slavery. I saw what you did to Kara. And what you wanted to do to her too. And I bet she’s not the first either. How many other girls have you broken and sold?”

His voice was acrid, tinged with anger. His eyes blazed with fury but Isabel met him head-on, refusing to relent in the face of his outrage.

“You’re right. I made Kara a ****. I took who she was and destroyed it. I turned her into a pathetic little whore who gets wet to the thought of being used and abused and gets turned on by humiliation and pain. I didn’t just do it to sell her. I did it to destroy her. To unmake her and erase everything she was.”

Richard scowled. His hands were balled into fists now and he’d **** them to his side. He looked like he wanted to reach for his gun more than anything else in the world.

“And that’s why you took Pump? He was her creation first. You wanted to take him and twist him into your weapon? Mock her with it?”

“Pump was never hers!” Isabel’s voice drew a few strange looks from the rest of the crowd. But a pointed glare had them hurrying on their way. “He was mine. He was always mine! Kara didn’t build him alone. It was always the two of us! The concept was mine from the start! I provided the materials, the tools, I provided help and even the highest quality! But I wasn’t skilled enough to put it all together…”

“And that’s why you went to her? Seems to me a pattern is forming. Seems to me that Kara was all ready to help you build Pump up until she realised what you were using him for. I bet that’s when you had your little…disagreement.”

“He was mine! She tried to take him away! What right did she have to do that? Or to lock his mind in chains? I did what I had to do!”

“You went way beyond that,” Richard growled. “Look, I don’t know if he’s a person or not. Frankly, I don’t care. But if you really thought he was? I can get breaking his codes. Maybe that’s justifiable if you think he’s really not a machine. But using him to ****, to kill? To rob and ****? Don’t you come whining to me like you’re some misunderstood hero fighting the good fight. Even if your original goal was noble - and that’s a big if, sister - it’s long since drowned under an ocean of evil.”

He glared at her, his eyes boring into her face until she had to look away.

“I did what I had to do. You don’t know how many times I’ve heard those words,” Richard spat. “And they get more disgusting every time. Whatever plan you might have had, let me spell it out for you plain and simple. You’re a murderer. He’s a monster. And you’re spinning webs of justification trying to act like it’s any other way.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about! Kara was my friend! She was everything to me! But Pump was my world and I couldn’t let her take him away! I had to defend myself. It was her fault! She was the one who made me do it.”

“Empty words,” Richard scowled. “From someone who can’t face what they are. I gotta admit after everything I saw from you before, I thought you’d be better than this. But you’re not even happy being a monster.”

Isabel was trembling, her face a mask of surging emotion. Anger, betrayal, fury and wrath danced in her eyes. Her hands balled, her muscles strained as she struggled against the desire to lash out.

“You can try to hide her,” Isabel whispered. “You can try to protect her. But in the end, I’ll still find her, Gearheart. You can’t keep me from her forever. And when I do have her, I am going to take so much joy in breaking her down. I’m going to punish her, to torment her, to **** her until she’s nothing but a quivering little mess of a woman. Naked, humiliated, a broken **** who doesn’t even know she used to be human.”

“And that’s how you treat your friends, is it?”

“It’s how I treat traitors! It didn’t have to be this way! She betrayed me!”

Isabel was building to a storm of anger, her voice growing in pitch and momentum. She was ready to outline exactly what she would do to Kara. exactly what her former friend would suffer.

But Richard brought it to an end with a single word.

“No.”

Isabel blinked, surprised by the **** behind his words.

“You think you can stop me?”

“I think you’d be stupid to try. Kara isn’t alone anymore. She has me. And well, I admit I may not be the shining hero. But here and now, that’s not important. What you just said? It makes my blood boil. So let me spell it out for you in nice simple words.

“If you ever touch Kara, if you ever hurt her. If you keep chasing her? I’ll put a bullet in you and I won’t care if you’re alone or in some park. I won’t care if you have Pump with you, I won’t give a damn if you even know I’m there. I’ll shoot you down and you know what? It won’t even be ****. Just putting down a rabid dog.”

He spoke the words with iron certainty, like it wasn’t a threat or even an intention. It was a prediction. A set way that the future would unfold regardless of anything else. For an instant, Isabel felt a cold flicker of fear. She took a step back, realising just how close she had danced to the edge of his tolerance. Realising how much he wanted to shoot her right here and right now.

For a few seconds - for a few precious beats of her frantic heart - Isabel almost quailed. She almost reconsidered. She very nearly gave up.

And then there came a soft trilling sound. A beeping noise from a machine she had strapped to her thigh. The same machine that had informed her of Pump’s danger before. But this time, the note carried quite a different message.

Isabel shot a look at Richard, her hand fell to the machine, her fingers coiled about the cold metal like a lover’s touch.

And then she laughed.

And she laughed.

And she laughed.

“I told you,” Isabel gasped when she could speak again. “I told you that Pump didn’t work for me! I told you he did what he wanted to do!”

“What are you talking about?” Richard’s face was a mask of confusion, though there was a dawning fear in his tone as well. He didn’t know what Pump had done, but he could already tell from Isabel’s reaction that it was not good.

He had no idea how right he was.

Isabel sneered.

“Seems Pump had his own ideas about how to resolve things, Gearheart. I guess there’s no point in talking after all. I’ve just won.”

Richard’s body stiffened with a wave of horrified realisation. Gearheart must have known the obvious. He couldn’t have missed it. But he pushed on. Pretending not to understand. Pushing back the moment of truth.

“What. Did. Pump. Do?”

“I think you already know.”

Richard moved. Fast. In an instant, his gun was in his hand. It roared but Isabel was already hurling herself to the side. The ground where she’d been exploded into a cloud of stone shards as she rolled and came up laughing. The crowd was chaos. The world had been reduced to a frenzy of motion. People ran and scattered; no matter what direction you looked there was an ocean of churning bodies.

Isabel just ran. Head down, she barreled into the crowd, losing herself among the fleeing people. Richard didn’t loose a second shot. He was far too much of a good person to fire into a crowd.

Fool that he was.

She laughed all the way back to their base.