Miss Teneru was more than eager to talk about the exhibit since she’d stayed there until it closed. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to learn that seemed relevant at the time. The rumors and gossip of the artistic gleam world hardly felt relevant, not when the suspect was an outsider who used the event as a way to show off. She still offered to accompany Nestra for a little bit after confirming she had a gleam protector. “Unless you prefer to go with your bodyguard.” “I would rather not. She doesn’t know what I’m doing, exactly. It would only worry her.” “Hiding things from a B-class?” “B-class tend to make people scared. It’s going to be difficult to fish for reactions on someone who is constantly afraid. I would rather keep the discussions casual so I can catch some reactions. Your presence might help, although I’m skirting so many rules…” “Then what’s one more!” Nestra thought about it. She was already bullshitting her way through something she wasn’t trained to do. At least, having two people including one gleam asking questions would look more natural than a single baseline going around looking for her own death. Also, Nestra hadn’t had a partner since Shinoda. Felt weird to go it alone. Damn it would have been much easier with the old bastard leading the dance. “Didn’t take you for a pun person.” “Never wanted to make you laugh.” “Didn’t take you for someone who named her gear either.” “If it can tear through walls, it deserves some attention.” “Fair enough. Well! I got ya some nice things. First, we need to manage recoil better.” Nestra thought she was doing well but there was nothing wrong with better gear. “To be honest, the Window Maker is performing well. It’s other things I’m more interested in.” “Patience, woman,” Gorge replied, suddenly much more energetic. “Stop whining and watch me improve upon a masterpiece. You’re gonna need it if you want to stop anything close to C. Can’t punch three levels up without a bit of help.” The bald fucker dragged her to the inner part of his workshop. Shelves packed with rigorously labeled boxes overlooked several specialized machines. Gorge was apparently doing a lot of custom work as evidenced by the carefully labeled prototypes lining the shelves. Some of it emitted faint traces of mana. “Right. First the grip. Trust me, you’ll need this.” Gorge took a mold of her fingers, then used a printer to forge a rubber grip with indents where her digits ought to grab. A counterweight at the bottom of the handle gave the gun a sort of big butt. Made it heavier too. It fit snugly and she found it was much more comfortable. “We’re just getting started. Next: a muzzle brake. Fair warning, it will make the gun loud.” “I’m not leaving home without dampeners nowadays.” “Good because if you fire that thing without them, you won’t need dampeners anymore.” The muzzle brake Gorge picked was a short black tube that screwed itself into the end of the barrel. The Window Maker was now longer and heavier. “That will affect my speed.” “You’ll need to practice drawing, yes, but I’ll make it worth your while. Speaking of, I got you a custom holster. You won’t be able to hide the gun that easily. Just wear it on your hip.” Nestra sighed. It was a tradeoff, but hopefully a good one. “Ok. So the recoil was manageable before. Can you explain why I need to accessorize?” “Bullets!” Gorge replied, suspiciously giddy. “Got you two models. Well, three, but the third one’s special.” Gorge opened a locker, then ceremoniously picked out a box. Nestra could feel hints of mana coming from inside. Nestra found that they’d set up a range in a separate hangar. It was well done with multiple targets and a concrete wall at the back. Someone had painted a propaganda image of the mayor dead center. The head and chest parts were already chipped. “Not a good look, Gorge.” “My political affiliations are no secret, girl. I call this my cathartic moment.” “And I call this ‘exhibit A’ in a criminal conspiracy case.” “Damn, it’s like you were meant to be rat squad or something. A bitch through and through.” Nestra rolled her eyes. “Finally. You were being too nice; I was weirded out.” “Right. Bullets! First, the bullets you’ve used so far are kinda shit.” “What the fuck? You’ve been selling me garbage at half a brick per unit?” “Hold on. That was the best I could do at the time. Here. This one is your new and improved ‘basic’ bullet.” Nestra picked one from the box. She recognized the flattish tip with a small depression in the middle. “With a crushed mana crystal layer. If you want to avoid overpenetration or just need some massive flesh damage on a large D-class, that thing will do wonders. Seven hundred a pop because I need to cast portal world lead and copper.” “Damn inflation is robbing me dry.” “Can’t put a price on life, Nestra. And here is the armor piercing version.” Nestra picked it up. The tip was really pointy. And painted blue. It looked nasty. “Portal-sourced tungsten carbide. Got a slightly deficient batch from the army and let me tell you, this will put a hole in a kaiju. Well, maybe not, but it will definitely skewer a golem like a roast pig.” “And finally, for all your C-class needs.” With religious care, Gorge removed a single bullet from the edge of the box. This one was different, Nestra could tell. It contained so much mana that it might as well be a single-use artifact. “This will stop a C-class gleam. Actually, no, it will kill them. The head is made of frangible magical lead with finely powdered mana crystals underneath, but that’s not the important part. The important part… is the powder.” Gorge slotted the cartridge in the Window Maker’s cylinder, then clicked it back in. He handed the revolver back to a wary Nestra. “Consistent burn pattern powder, made with the help of a pyromancer. It will provide a smooth combustion that will triple the power of the bullet. That means…” “Nine times the kinetic energy.” “And nine times the recoil. What the hell will happen to my wrists?” “Look, you’re clearly at quirkie level, power-wise. I think you should try. You got regen patches?” “You know we’re not supposed to abuse those.” “Just once. See if it works. Trust me, if you shoot this at a C-class they’ll feel it. And who knows? They might be underestimating you enough to try and block it.” “They’ll feel the mana.” Gorge gave her a condescending look. “Nestra. Untransformed, you’re not a killer with an artifact. You’re dreg with a last resort mana tool. Got it?” “Yeah yeah. Alright, let’s give it a try.” “Before you do, let me tell you something. This is my pride and joy.” “I named it, the demon bullet.” He waggled his eyebrows. “It costs three and a half thousand bucks per unit.” “Motherfucker,” Nestra spat. “Buuuut since this is a proof of concept and your first, experimental shot, you can fire one for free. By the way, we tested it in the lab. The gun will hold. The question is your wrist. Or wrists.” Nestra grumbled but she did step forward. She lined up the shot. The dented form of Mayor Kim waved affably at her at the back of the range, which incidentally smelled of campaign promises. She frowned and changed for a nice shape about ten meters downrange. Impossible to miss with her training. Two hands grip. Stable posture. Nestra almost fell on her ass but she managed to hold on by some miracle. The gun had bucked in her hand so hard, she’d almost dropped it. Only her index finger on the trigger still held the thing. The sound made her ears hurt through the sound dampener she wore. She’d missed. The bullet had veered slightly off course, leaving a fist-sized hole in the reinforced concrete. A blue glow shimmered from the deep point of impact. “Holy shit. I think that might actually put a hole in a battle walker.” “Sorry, what were you saying?” The man removed earplugs with casual smugness, his smile reminiscent of a fat, happy cat. “I am convinced. I’ll buy two.” Gorge feigned outrage. “What? After such a demonstration?” “You want money, sell that shit to the military. My banker is already going to blow a gasket when he sees how much I’m spending on military-grade hardware.” “Oh well. If you kill something fun, I’ll use it as an advertisement. Oh, I have a wrapped loader for the revolver ammo. It fits snugly in a pocket until you snap it. Now, what next?” “I need a gun for when I’ve time to prepare.” “How do you feel about a shotgun? It chambers shells that use the same payload.” “You just want me to bulk purchase your damn things.” But she did purchase the damn thing and it was good. The shotgun was a semi-automatic, ancient design with a custom stock. Thus equipped, Nestra felt more like some movie bounty hunter than an actual officer, especially a rat squad spook. At least the holsters complimented her dress. “You mentioned flashbangs?” “You bet I did. I got small ones that fit in a pocket, courtesy of the Stockholm enclave design team.” In the end, Nestra bought several of those as well as enough ammo for both weapons. The grand total neared twenty-thousand credits. There was another complication when her bank refused the transfer. “I’m probably raising all kinds of flags right now.” “It’s alright. All of my customers have the same problem. We’re not in the system properly just yet.” Threshold’s AIs were nothing if not thorough. After a little while, a visor identity check let her pay the sum. It was a reminder of the kind of grip surveillance had over everything here. As she walked towards her car, Nestra considered that she hadn’t bought anything in the way of passive defenses. Her Wellington armored suit was still serviceable after its repair but that wasn’t the main point. The main point was, unless she caught the killer off guard or at a distance, she would get splattered before it mattered. Even Max-Sec armor would break like wet paper. C-class killers were not the same as augs like Cleaver who were still subject to the laws of physics. They were in a league of their own. Her only real hope was that the killer apparently liked to play. Of that, she was pretty sure. “Nestra dear? Are you done? Oh my, how much metal do you even need?” Deborah Palladian walked back to the car while holding three freshly picked eggplants in her arms. Gorge’s child was left blushing in the field, waving a goodbye with the stupid face of a lovestruck goon; Poor kid. “Hey we can’t all have arctic magic. Alright, let’s go home.” “Of course dear. Bye everyone!” “Goodbye Miss Palladian. Come again.” Nestra frowned. Almost nobody called her Miss Palladian unless she was in trouble. Not fair. “Little Nezhra! I am always happy to hear from you.” “I, hmmm, listen. You remember that some assholes tried to get me to pay for a spear I had them fence for me? Rings any bells?” “Oh, yes, your first true portal world artifact! I actually expected you to keep it for sentimental value. We had a tradition, back home…” Seth talking spontaneously about his childhood? Now she was curious. “The first looted treasure would be paraded and exposed to society. Some claimed they were prophetic, the magic of the world bending to speak to the young raider. Ah, but those are distant times. Yes, I remember the people you mentioned. I remember them well…” His tone shifted to a darker tone. “My first human kills.” “What the hell happened?” “I expected they might become an issue so I bugged Rangi’s office! With technology!” “Seth, focus please.” “I am very proud. As for Rangi, he had the misfortune of seeing a picture of Crescent on his datasheet, in an article about team killers. The incident with Valerian.” Nestra thought for a while. “Wait. Someone wrote a piece on that?” “Your guise as Crescent has been mentioned in several forums as well. There are speculations. Few of them concerning, however Rangi recognized you and he was preparing to attempt blackmail.” “Because I sold him stuff before I got legal?” “And Threshold’s law on unauthorized raids can be quite stringent. I judged that giving Ragnhild a better understanding of what you were doing before you came here was unwelcome. And he was starting to annoy me. And I am but one Aszhii. I cannot possibly keep track of the ever increasing number of people who know too much about you.” “Him and his entourage.” He was really calm about it. He sounded thoroughly uncaring. “My duty is still to the covens. This scum did not appreciate the first favor you did him. I was disinclined to give him another opportunity to make my life more complicated. I am sorry if you are angry, little Nezhra, but in this case, I am tightening my grip.” Nestra debated arguing over it. Instead, she chose a calmer approach. There was something hard in his voice she didn’t quite like. “You can’t just kill people as an easy solution.” “Life is not as sacred to me as it is to you, Nezhra. If it comforts you, consider this my decision. You had nothing to do with it.” “I don’t want you to kill someone I… appreciate… just because it’s convenient.” “You will notice that I left Mazingwe and Valerian alive. And Helena. And Stibbs. I am already… stretching the terms of my oath for the sake of your happiness. And mine, I suppose. I will not stretch them further.” Nestra sighed. What could she do? Certainly not force him. “Can you at least check with me before doing that? I might have easier solutions.” “Hmmm, true. You could see them as prey. I agree. You may involve yourself in covering your own mistake next time.” “Do you think this was a mistake? Helping Gorge, I mean.” “If it were me, I would have gone to the meeting to kill them all. Including Gorge and his children.” Sereth sighed. She could almost see the long ears drooping. “Your world is still kind, despite everything your people have gone through. I find the dedication of many users to the common good rather touching. Please be aware that it remains an exception, on Earth, and nowhere else. For many, self-preservation and the ascension of their clan to the detriment of all others remains the norm. Ah, but listen to me ruining the mood, little Nezhra. How goes your hunt?” Sereth’s childhood sounded like a dog eat dog kind of deal. “I found something. Doing research.” “Then what is next for you?” “Wonderful. I will be watching with attention. Do try not to die please.” “And one last thing. You do realize that hubris is guiding your actions right now. Yes?” “What do you mean?” Nestra asked. She was pretty sure she was playing it safe.