M'yu jumped back, hand going for his knife.
The man tsked softly. "You know what an LMS is, kid?"
M'yu's eyes flicked around. There were no other guards in the hall, but this guy was a head and a half taller than him, and lean too. The man tilted his head, and moonlight caught on pale scars across his face and neck. His crisp Cap accent said he couldn't be a street native, but he was still an alley cat if M'yu had ever seen one. M'yu's hand tensed around the knife.
Alley-Cap pressed a button on his palm. A low resonant hum and the sense of a storm filled the air. M'yu's neck prickled.
"LMS is short for electromagnetic skin," Alley-Cap said. "It's also short for 'your pathetic knife isn't landing anywhere I don't want it to.'"
Eyes locked on Alley-Cap, M'yu's finger stretched subtly for the linkcard's 'run' button.
"Ah, but you're still thinking of breaking into that room. Let me disillusion you of that too. Past that door is the second-best fighter in the entire Capital. He has killed men stronger than you and boys younger than you, and I know for a fact"—Alley-Cap stepped closer, leaning down—"he will not hesitate to eviscerate you."
M'yu swallowed hard, fighting to control his breaths. Weeks of planning, luring the Caps exactly where M'yu wanted them, and now— "This was a set-up."
"So you see sense after all." Alley-Cap straightened. Through the window behind him, the soldiers' movements had slowed, and the Magnate's electricity flicked on again.
M'yu's heart hammered in his chest. Thoughts spinning, head lowered, he tucked his knife and card away. He'd need his hands free soon. "There. What do you want?"
"What I wanted was for your boss to show, but I should have guessed he'd be too smart for that. Turn him over, and you go free."
"Boss?" M'yu's head popped up, and Alley-Cap's eyes lit as they both realized the boy's mistake.
Spinning around the Cap, M'yu slid his hands down the man's coat pockets. Alley-Cap hooked his leg behind M'yu's and tugged. The wooden floor rammed M'yu's head, and the Cap dragged him up by his coat. "Do you really want to fight outside his room?" Alley-Cap hissed, jerking his head toward the door. "I was hoping we could talk like civilized folk."
A red and orange glow lit the Cap's sneering face, and M'yu's head snapped over his shoulder. Two doors down, the Magnate's house roared with fire. Around the base, dark figures lay still in the snow.
The blood drained from M'yu's face. Karsya, what have you done?
A few soldiers fled back this way. Another handful—nowhere near the earlier hive of activity—threw buckets of water at the building. Steam rose and snow fell, but the outside of the house was already wet.
The fire had started inside.
Going limp, M'yu shrugged off his coat, leaving the Cap holding empty fabric. He pulled his knife and ran full tilt, diving toward the window. The knife's tip connected with the glass, and M'yu's body hit right behind, turning a chip into a spiderweb that shattered around him. He sailed through the air. The fresh snow drenched him as he cannonballed into a drift beneath the house. The cold knifed his shoeless feet, and the wind ate away at his skin. He charged down the row, socks squelching through the snow, toward the Magnate's mansion.
A hand snagged his wrist and tugged him off-balance, into the shadows of a house in-between. Karsya laughed softly, flames dancing off her auburn hair. "Where are you going, witchboy? Let's get out of here."
She tried to drag him away, but he shook her off. "You promised me!"
"You needed more time." Her bloody, soot-stained hand reached for him again, and he stepped back.
"We said no one dies."
"Rot and ruin, we can argue about this later! Let's get out of here."
M'yu shook his head and tossed the linkcard he'd swiped from Alley-Cap to her. She barely caught it before the priceless tool tumbled to the snow. "Go."
M'yu turned toward the raging fire and ran.
The fire crackled and lit the scene with ghastly clarity. Sweat dripped down the futile firefighters' brows. A few bodies lay among the snow and ash, slit necks painting the white pink. The fire whooshed, a beam collapsing inward.
"You're not gonna put it out!" he shouted at the men and dashed past them full-speed into the building.
The heat hit like a wall, and he gasped, then coughed up smoke. Yanking his beanie off, he used it to cover his mouth. His eyes ran, and he searched through the blur. The fire roared the hardest to the left; Karsya must have tossed the bomb through one of those windows. Screams echoed from upstairs. Footfalls thudded behind him. Through the smoke, outlines of soldiers stormed the building with him. They followed the screams.
M'yu ducked his head and ran the opposite way.
He'd been surveilling this house for weeks, monitoring light usage, figuring out when everyone went to sleep, looking for the sweet zone to catch them off guard. Most of the bedrooms were upstairs.
A flaming beam fell, and M'yu dived past it. Scrambling up, the heat of the floor almost burned his feet, and he ran harder for the one bedroom tucked away from all the others.
The fire grew hotter, beams weakening around him. He ducked past falling wood and flaming debris. Through the smoke, the door appeared. The frame was askew, and someone pounded weakly on the other side.
"Back up!" M'yu called and coughed. He threw himself against it. "Back up!"
Cracks ran through the frame, and M'yu used his bruised body as a battering ram again and again. Sweat drenched his skin, smoke burned his lungs, and dark spots pressed his sight. He crashed against the door, and the frame finally gave way. Smoke filled the room. One entire wall roared in fire. A girl about his age lay on the floor opposite it, wheezing.
World spinning, M'yu pulled her to her feet, stringing her arm behind his neck. He passed her the beanie, and, holding his breath, ran back the way he came.
The house was a fire maze. Smoke made paths almost unrecognizable; fallen beams made others unpassable. M'yu desperately reached for any memory of windows and doors in the security plans, but the thoughts danced away, a mirage in the heat. He spun, searching.
There. Near the floor. A hole in the fire, a beam raised caught at a diagonal, just enough space to crawl beneath. The girl went limp on his shoulder, and M'yu staggered. Recovering his balance, he pressed the beanie back against her face, dragged her over to the beam, and lowered her down. Past the break, military boots ran out the open front door.
"Over here!" M'yu coughed and gagged, his strained voice blending in with the crackle of the flames. Teeth grit, M'yu grabbed the girl's wrists and crawled backward through the hole.
The heat intensified; M'yu's head lolled. His fingers loosened on the girl, vision growing darker—
Control. He dragged the both of them past the hole and into the entryway just before everything went black.
* * *
M'yu's whole body ached. As he floated to consciousness, he tried to remember who'd beat him up this time. One of his gang members? A starving thief? A brute of the Magnate's?
The Magnate.
His eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright. Bright spots of pain swam before his eyes, and he grabbed at the wall for support. The concrete was rough and cold against his hand. Dread bloomed in his stomach, and he opened his eyes again to look around carefully.
The cell was a five by three foot room, too short even for him to lay completely flat. The walls were all concrete; the only light came from a crack near the bottom of the stone door. A tiny draft wove in from there as well, stirring the otherwise stale air.
M'yu slammed his fist against the door and cried out, shaking the pain from his already battered body. This couldn't be happening. A shakiness crept through his bones, and he sank back against the wall. Three days. That's how long Karsya had to pay the bail before he went to a trumped-up courtroom, before he was shoved in front of a judge that couldn't tell one street kid from another except for the smudge they leave on his shoes as he grinds them beneath his feet. Local Gloam judges always chose the same fate for minors like him—sold to the highest bidder. A better situation for everyone, they said: the court recompensed expenses; a service provided to the community; room and board for the wayward soul.
M'yu sneered, then lashed out at the walls again. "Let me out of here!" He kicked the door with his bare foot. "Let me out!"
When the screaming was done and the fight all fought, though, all he was left with was a hoarse voice and more bruises. The walls glowered above him like they might cave in at any moment and bury him.
He'd almost rather that.
He pressed his face into his knees. "Control," he whispered, voice shaking. They probably had cameras in here. It was enough that they'd seen him throw a tantrum. They didn't need to see him cry too.
Karsya would think of something; she would have to. But instead of her face, all he could see in his mind was the dead soldiers she must have snuck up on.
"Stop it," he growled, fingers digging into his pant leg. Karsya might have gone rogue, but she still needed him. She cared about him—they all cared about each other—but more than that, she needed him. Karsya couldn't code her way past 'hello world,' nevermind 'hello new world order.' She might have the linkcard he got off that Cap, but that was only step one. Even M'yu wasn't sure what step two was; it would depend on how powerful the linkcard was.
Most cards only served as identification: they let you bank, opened doors for you, proved you were a citizen. The things didn't even have passwords on them. But government linkcards...
Government cards were different. The first Cap engineer's card he'd stumbled across, he'd had to fight just to get the thing unlocked. Behind that was an array of goodies whispering to M'yu that they hadn't just started a new game—they'd changed it entirely.
The warmth drained from his cheeks. It certainly wasn't a game he could win in here. He shivered, missing the weight of his coat, the tightness of his beanie, the security of his shoes. He'd spent years scraping by for those things, keeping them safe, letting them keep him safe. Without them, he was as cold and helpless as the night his family had cast him out. More so, maybe.
Jittery, M'yu jumped up to pace, then caught himself on the wall as a wave of pain rolled black curtains across his vision. But he paced anyway, blinking it back. The Magnate's brutes or the Cap soldiers or whoever had shoved him in this rotting cell didn't need to see him sulk and lick his wounds. It's not as if they were going to treat him.
The door opened, and M'yu winced from the light.
"You know," a man said, "I've heard of walking it off, but I don't think this is exactly what they had in mind." Framed in the doorway and backlit by the LEDs stood a tall man in official Capital Knight regalia. The green suit was emblazoned with gold thread and smattered with medallions, the heavy synth-fur cloak draping his shoulders. Everything about him was pale: icy blonde hair and snow-blue eyes, paper skin written over with silvery scars. Alley-Cap. He nodded to the Magnate's brutes behind him. "Thank you, gentlemen. I have it from here."
M'yu tensed, hands closing into fists. "What do you want?"
Alley-Cap watched them go before leisurely turning back to M'yu. "The same thing I wanted last night."
"To set me up? I'm already in jail."
"Set you up? That's a rather bold accusation coming from a boy who lured me down here via serial robbery." Flexing his right hand, he grimaced.
"Get hurt last night, old man?"
Alley-Cap tilted his head. "By you?" The tic of his lip made it sound like the most amusing impossibility in the world, and M'yu's nails dug into his palm. The Cap straightened and stepped back. "Old injury. Now, why don't we stop antagonizing each other and talk somewhere more comfortable?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Do you want one?" Alley-Cap eyed the inside of the cell. "I wouldn't."
M'yu crossed his arms. "I want my things."
The Cap barked a laugh. "Already negotiating. You will get your things when I give them to you. Come if you're coming." And he turned on his heel and clipped down the hall.
M'yu bit his lip and glanced around the cell one final time. In the brighter light, the metal of the camera in the room's corner winked at him. Flicking his thumb past his front teeth at it, he braced himself and followed the Cap.