Crack in the Kill Code (AmpCore #2)

31 - Treysi

I'm here to join the revolution.

Kirk didn't quite know how to process that. He just stared at her for a moment, trying reconcile it with what had let him here. Seedy back alley surgeons and loan sharks did not a revolution make.

Then he realised he needed to say something. Treysi stared at him. Her brow furrowed and she tilted her head just a little. The quirk of her lips made his pulse quicken.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," he stammered, glancing around, before leaning in a little closer, lowering his voice and making a show of nervousness. "I just... I've never been anywhere like this before."
"It's just how they advertised it," she replied with a smirk.

"I know, I know. Just, you know, they're gonna..." He let his voice trail off, partly for effect and partly because he didn't know exactly what was being done to the people here. Some kind of augmentation, sure, but how much? And for what? Last he'd checked, he'd been the one trying to start a revolution.

"How'd you hear about it?" he asked quickly before she could press him any further.

Some of her cheery demeanour evaporated at that. She averted her gaze, scuffing one booted foot against the floor.

"I... got in a bad way. Debts and shit. Lot of my hommies the same. Some of them are here too, you know? Saw them go in. My neighbourhood, plenty of bottom feeders swimming." She shrugged. "Guessin' you know how it is if you're here too?"

"I know how it goes." He nodded sympathetically. "But how'd you go from debt to... this?"

"I was done letting some fuckin' pendejo loan shark drag my family through the dirt. Knocking our doors at night, stalkin' my mother in the day." Treysi gave a bitter shake of the head. "I went lookin' for a way to get payback. We all did."

"Payback." Kirk leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. After years of being terrorised by the late Cutter Jennings, he could relate easily enough. "And you found this?"

"Not at first. Went to the Saws. I wanted mods – nasty stuff. Something that could let me fight, you know? Bitch wouldn't give what I wanted, but she told me there was somebody who could. Somebody who's hooking up with real honest blacktech, and taking payment in work." The smile returned to her face and she looked at him. "When I got here, I realised that work was kicking the spivs in their fuckin' balls, I could get more than payback on some little snake in the slums. There's a new game in town, Kirk. These guys are it."

"Planning to take on the corps," he said, the conviction in her voice sending a tremor of unease up his spine. "So they're modding everybody here to be fighters in the revolution, is that it?"

"You ask a lotta questions, Kirk." She raised a wary eyebrow. "Isn't that why you're here?"

"I mean... I guess so."

"You guess? They ain't popping you with steroids, man. This is the real deal."

"I know!" he blurted. "But I... nobody told me they were gonna be cutting us to bits. You're sure this is what you wanna do?"

"Come this far." She nudged his knee with hers, smirking. "Don't get cold feet now, Kirk. Corps need to know that Hadrian's done bending over for them. The more of us who wanna fight, the better our chances."

Kirk managed a weak smile at that. In another time, he might have been fired up by such a speech, but he couldn't shake the sensation that nothing here was what it seemed. And the coincidence, running into this kind of black market chop shop – the kind of place that hadn't existed in Hadrian North for decades – right when some thing from across the water was out kidnapping and killing, was too much to stomach.