“We’re in trouble?” Honey laughed, releasing her hug and grasping the sides of Juliet’s face, looking her in the eyes. Honey’s eyes were streaming with tears, and her smile was such that Juliet couldn’t help returning it. “Of course we are! Don’t worry, you sweet, wonderful, badass of a woman. God, I can’t believe you’re here! What do we need to do?”

“Get the girl. Oh, here, use this sword." Juliet nodded to the black-wrapped hilt and scabbard protruding from her overalls.

Honey reached for the hilt, and her eyes widened, “Oh my God! I recognize this! It’s Rutger’s monoblade, that creepy asshole! Is he the one who did this to you?” Honey gestured to Juliet’s blood-soaked outfit, her bloodied, bruised face.

“Yes. Be careful, Honey.” Juliet watched her friend pull the scabbard back, exposing the metal and examining the blade with its dancing red lights.

“I will. Here.” Honey reached forward and tugged Juliet’s zipper up, then she reached down and gently lifted Juliet’s red, plasteel arm. “Damn, girl! When did you get the hardware?” Her arm wouldn’t bend at the elbow, so she had to lift it at the shoulder.

Juliet couldn’t feel it directly, but some twinges in her back made her wince. “Ah!” she hissed, imagining pain where she couldn’t feel it, “Careful, please. I wrecked my shoulder fighting that guy.”

“I’ll be gentle. Just want to get this buzzing knife out of your hand. Seriously, though. When did you lose the arm?”

“Last job. The long one, you know.” Juliet didn’t want to say any names in front of the three witnesses or the cameras now that Angel was blocked out of the network. She wasn’t worried about her face; Angel was surely still scrambling it, but words were another matter.

“Right.” Honey nodded and carefully pried Juliet’s thumb back, then her pointer finger, and then she grasped the knife’s handle and lifted it out. She clicked it off and slipped it into Juliet’s pocket.

“Thanks.” Juliet smiled as Honey gently lowered the dead limb.

“Of course.” Honey turned and, glaring at the three people still standing along the wall, growled, “Paula, Scott, Adrianna! Get in here.” Juliet walked forward and watched as Honey pointed at the empty bed in the room and said, “Sit down.” As they all hurried to comply, she approached the other bed where the little girl sat, looking much the same as Juliet had seen her in the video feed. Shouldn’t she be up, sneaking peeks through the door, wondering what was happening? “Come on, sweetie,” Honey said, holding out a hand.

“Okay.” The girl’s voice was clear and high, sweet-sounding, really. She took Honey’s hand and then followed her to the door.

“I didn’t know!” Paula cried as Honey walked out of the room.

Honey looked at her, at all three of them, for a long, measured second. “I know you didn’t. Rutger told me he’d kill anyone I talked to about how we were taken.” As they stared at her, mouths agape, she turned to Juliet and asked, “Can you lock this?”

“Yeah. Press my palm to it, the cybernetic one.”

“I’d say we should yank their PAIs, but this whole level’s jammed, and there’s no terminal or anything in there. The creep who took us is very paranoid.” Honey pointed at the three scientists or nurses or doctors or whatever they were. Squints, she decided. They were squints. A sad sort of smile touched her lips as she remembered Charlie Unit.

“Paranoid,” the little girl echoed.

“She’s adorable,” Angel said, and Juliet, jerked out of her melancholy reverie, smiled at the girl, watching her big pale blue eyes observe as Honey lifted her hand and pressed it against the data pad. When it beeped, and the door slid shut, Honey carefully lowered Juliet’s arm again.

“I don’t know how you got past Rutger, but you sure did a number on that arm. It’s all scorched—I can still smell the burnt plastic.”

“It’s a total loss, I’m afraid. I couldn’t touch that guy, so my PAI dumped the batteries and overcharged it for one shot. I got him.” She saw Honey’s concern and added, “Don’t worry. I already ordered a better one. Come on; we can’t linger here. The elevator is locked, but I won’t be surprised if the security up top has figured out we’re down here.”

“We?”

“My partner. He’s dead. We need to make our way to the elevator these squints use.” Juliet jerked her head at the locked door. “My exit plan is blown.”

“They took my PAI, so we’ll have to talk quietly. I hope we don’t run into any more researchers. I’ll take the lead. Lilia, you have to hold onto this nice lady’s hand, okay? Just grab hold of her fingers there. Follow me closely, and don’t let go, okay?” Honey guided the little girl’s hand to Juliet’s fried cybernetic hand, and the girl gripped her pointer finger, wrinkling her nose. She looked up at Juliet and stared at her for a second. Juliet smiled at her, trying to be reassuring, but the girl looked away, eyes straight ahead, walking calmly beside her as they followed Honey down the corridor.

“Is there anything I should know about her?” Juliet asked, her voice hushed.

“A lot, but too much to explain right now. Just know that she’s not a normal little girl. She’s not going to freak out or anything. She listens to me and only me. I can explain that later, too.” Juliet looked down at the little girl again, wishing she could wiggle her finger or squeeze her hand, wishing she could at least feel her grasp.

“Do you know the way to the other elevator?” Juliet asked. So far, Honey had only turned once and seemed to have a destination in mind.

“Not exactly, but I know where all these corridors go; they walk us to eat in a kitchen, to a little playroom, to a garden area, and to various exam rooms. There’s one corridor with an orderly on duty all the time, and we never go that way. I’m headed there.”

“I mean, I have a map . . .”

“Well, if I go the wrong way, say something,” Honey chuckled. They were hurrying, Honey and Lilia quiet in their slippered feet, Juliet trying not to stomp her boots, but even so, it startled her when they rounded a corner and a burly man in gray scrubs looked up from a little desk. Honey, smooth as silk, graceful as a cat, ripped the monoblade from its sheath and darted forward, halting it about five centimeters from his neck. He hadn’t even lifted his hands yet.

“Easy,” he cried, trying to lean away from the sword.

“I don’t want to hurt you, but you recognize this sword, yeah? Rutger liked showing it off, didn’t he? We’re leaving, and I can’t have you hanging around to try to stop us.”

“I won’t! I won’t! Look, I have shrink cords in this desk. Just tie me up, leave me on the ground here; you know wireless won’t work down here.”

“That’s fine,” Juliet said; she’d seen plenty of blood. “I’m covering him. Go ahead.” She watched, pistol held close but aimed at the orderly, while Honey rifled through his desk, collecting a plastic bag of shrink cords. She made the man lay down, face first, and then she bound his wrists and ankles, but first, she searched his pockets and retrieved a small knife attached to a set of keys.

“Those are for my storage units! I have a side business . . .”

“Quiet. I’ll leave ‘em somewhere that someone will find them.” With that, Honey gestured for Juliet to follow her, and then they hurried down the corridor to another T junction. Honey stopped to look back at Juliet.

“Left,” Juliet said, looking at her map. “We’re almost there. One more turn to the right about twenty meters ahead. Is it normal for so few people to be around?”

“Yeah. We usually only see one or two people a day.”

“What were they doing with you?” Juliet knew Honey had said they’d talk later, but she couldn’t help the question.

“Watching her.” Honey jerked a thumb at Lilia. “Studying her. Waiting.”

“For what?”

“I’ll explain later, Ju . . .” she cut herself off, remembering Juliet’s admonition about using her name.

“It’s fine,” Juliet said, figuring maybe Honey didn’t want to talk about Lilia and what Levkin wanted in front of the girl. “Damn, I wish this jammer wasn’t running. I had full access to their network upstairs.”

“Nothing to do about it. Levkin doesn’t trust anyone. He doesn’t let the employees leave with anything; they even have a scrambler attached to their PAIs when they’re in here. I bet we’re about to walk through some serious scanners. If you think the heat might already be on us, I promise it’s going to get crazy when we run out of here.” She turned down a hallway to the right, and there it was—the other elevator. Nobody guarded it.

“A scrambler?”

“Yeah. Some custom device that plugs into their data ports. Keeps ‘em from recording audio and video and sets off an alarm if they remove it on premises.”

“You guys don’t have anything installed? Tracker? Kill switch?” Juliet asked, only half joking about the latter.

“Nope.” Honey lifted her hair, showing Juliet the empty data port on her neck. “Nada. Lilia’s PAI can’t be messed with—it’s part of why they’re studying her. I’ll . . .”

“Explain later,” Juliet finished for her. Then they were in front of the elevator, and Honey gently removed Lilia’s hand and carefully lifted Juliet’s palm to the scanner. “Come on, please, please . . . Yes!” Juliet was starting to feel giddy, and she knew something was off with her. Her vision had begun to blur, and she could see Angel making adjustments to clear things up for her. “I’m not sure how much help I’m gonna be if there’s trouble, Honey.”

“Chill. I gotchu.” The elevator slid open noiselessly, and Honey slipped inside. Juliet glanced down to see Lilia once again grasping her dead hand. Together, they followed Honey. “Okay, get behind me. You got the pistol, so I’ll go in front if anyone’s waiting. If there are multiple targets, I’ll keep left. You shoot right. I’m not going to pull my punches if I see guns.”

“Roger.” Juliet hoped no one would be waiting, hoped no one had found the slaughtered guards in the security room. She subvocalized, “Any sign that an alarm has been raised? I feel like red lights would be flashing, and people would be swarming all over the place if they’d found the dead guards by now.”

“I have no access to any networks at the moment, so I have to operate based on what you can see and hear. I think you’re right about an alarm unless they hoped to catch us unawares.”

“Stand behind that nice lady, Lilia,” Honey said, and the little girl complied; still gripping Juliet’s finger, she tucked herself behind her right leg.

The elevator ride was quick, half as long as the one that took her and Lemur down to the research level. Honey stood before the door, sword scabbard held to the side in one hand, the hilt in the other, and she looked ready to burst into motion. When the door slid open, she darted forward as soon as it was wide enough to allow egress. Juliet lifted her pistol, looking for targets, but as the doors continued to open, she saw Honey alone in a very long, wide, concrete tunnel. A small electric cart was parked by the elevator.

“Shit,” Honey said, looking into the distance, lit by regularly placed amber floodlights.

“Yeah, Lemur, my dead partner, thought they were bringing the squints over from a different location. A clinic or something.”

“Squints? You crack me up, girl. Sheesh, though! Where the heck are we?”

“Xanadu Dome.”

“What? I mean, what planet are we on? Mars?”

“No, you goof! We’re on Titan—one of Saturn’s moons.”

“Holy H bombs! You came all this way to save me? I owe you big time!”

“You’ll pay me back, I’m sure. Come on.” Juliet climbed into the passenger seat of the little cart, watching, amused, as Lilia followed, still holding her finger, to stand beside her.

“Climb up onto the back seat, Lilia.” Honey sat next to Juliet and pushed the green button on the cart’s incredibly simplistic control panel. When it lit up, she got it to move, turned it around, and then they sped down the tunnel, probably doing twenty kilometers per hour.

“Angel,” Juliet subvocalized, “still jammed?”

“Yes. But I’ve been keeping track of our direction of travel. We’re heading toward a small ‘self-contained’ community in the Xanadu Dome—a cluster of homes with a shopping plaza, clinic, and entertainment hub. I bet this tunnel will bring us to the clinic.”

“Is it further from the tunnel leading to Old Atlas?”

“It’s six kilometers from the entrance you scouted. Six kilometers of forest and hills.”

“Oh man,” Juliet sighed. “Could be worse.”

“What?”

“We’re going to have a hike through the forest after we escape this clinic.”

“We can do it. I’ll carry you if I have to, J.”

“You can call me Lucky. It’s my new handle.”

“Lucky? I like it!” Honey jostled Juliet’s good shoulder, and when their eyes met, Juliet laughed; she couldn’t believe she had Honey sitting next to her, squeezing her shoulder.

“I can’t believe I found you.”

“Join the club!”

“Hey,” Juliet said, squinting ahead. “I see the end. Another elevator . . .” Just then, the amber lights illuminating the tunnel turned red, and a sense of foreboding overcame her. “Oh, brother. Too much to ask that we’d get out unnoticed.”

“We got this. They don’t know where we are yet. Let’s get out of this tunnel.” The little cart was quick, and in only seconds, they pulled to a halt before the elevator, and Juliet hopped out, stumbling as a wave of vertigo hit her. It only lasted a second before Angel adjusted her inner ear, but she knew she was on borrowed time. Her body was running on fumes with some pistons misfiring.

“Push her hand onto the screen like I did,” Honey said to Lilia, and the little girl complied, helping Juliet to open the elevator.

When it worked, and the light turned green, Juliet said, “I guess they haven’t figured out we stole their chief’s biometric data.” A thought occurred to her, and she subvocalized, “Angel, what was the name of the security chief you stole the biometrics from?”

“Rutger Tanaka.”

“Oh, wow.”

“Huh?” Honey was watching the elevator door as it opened, and when she saw it was empty, she stepped forward. “Lilia, grab her hand. Come on, you two.”

“It’s nothing.” Juliet followed her in. “I just realized the security data I’m using to open these doors came from Rutger’s file.”

“Man, talk about a scary character. I still can’t believe you got past him.”

“Scary,” Lilia echoed.

As the doors closed and the elevator surged upward, Honey took her position in front of Juliet and said, “Titan, huh? I never thought I’d leave Earth. I was off the charts when I got the gig on Luna. What a rush . . .” The elevator stopped moving, and Honey stopped talking. She pulled the sword loose, exposing some of its blade, red holograms flickering on its mirror-sheen metal, and Juliet held her breath, steadying her gun the best she could with her exhausted left arm.

Once again, as the door opened, Honey danced through the gap. Juliet knew something was different this time—a persistent alarm was beeping, red lights were flashing, and she could see flashes of movement as the gap widened. A gunshot rang out, though her auditory implants squelched the sound. She sidestepped slightly, pressing Lilia back with her right hip, turning sideways, ready to shoot, but when she saw the scene in the hallway beyond the elevator, she lowered the gun.

Two men in gray suits lay in pieces. One had half of an SMG in his hand, bisected just behind the trigger guard. That much was clear, but the rest was a mess. An arm lay near Honey’s feet, a pistol in its fist, most of a head was rolling to a stop near the wall, and that’s when Juliet stopped looking—it was clear the men were dead; she didn’t want to take note of how much damage Honey had done with that wicked sword.

“Lilia, close your eyes,” Honey called.

Juliet pressed back, making sure she was between the girl and the door, and then she looked down to ensure her eyes were closed. When she saw they were squeezed tightly shut, Juliet walked, dragging Lilia, who still clung to her cybernetic finger, through the scene, following as Honey darted ahead to the intersection of another corridor. “You’re all right, sweetie,” Juliet said, once again wishing she could squeeze her hand.

“Sorry,” Honey said when Juliet caught up to her at the next corner. “They were ready to shoot, but they didn’t recognize me. I think they have orders to be careful; if someone hurts Lilia, Levkin will have their hide. I, um, also didn’t quite realize how easily this sword was going to cut through . . . things.”

“Well, I’m glad they aren’t just spraying bullets at everything that moves. I’m glad they don’t want to hurt Lilia. It’ll make escaping a little easier. Some of these guys have some heavy weapons. I see daylight up ahead. Is that the lobby?”

“Yep, think so. This sword is something else, though. Let’s find a back door . . . or make one.”

“It can do that?”

“Probably. I mean, I doubt this clinic’s made of something super tough—there’s a dome, right?”

“Yeah, we’re in a park dome. Honey, you’re not going to believe it.”

“I bet!” Honey turned left, away from the presumed front of the building, and Juliet followed. They passed a nurses’ station, and Juliet was sure she saw people cowering under the counters, but they didn’t stick around to see them. They darted through, down a long hallway lined with exam rooms, then left, where they saw a man’s foot disappear as he slipped into a room and slammed the door behind him. Beyond that, Juliet saw a door with a big red EXIT in the center of it. “Easy peasy,” Honey said, running for the door and smashing her foot into the crash bar.

The big metal door slammed open, smashing past its hydraulic hinge limit and crashing into the back of the building. Honey, more reckless than Juliet remembered her, dove through the door, still gripping the sheathed monoblade, and dashed to the left. Juliet hurried to the doorway, Lilia still holding her finger, and looked left and right—an empty lot with a dumpster and a fence bordering the wild forests of the Xanadu Dome greeted her. Honey stood a few steps away, crouching, sword ready.

“Damn, but I miss my PAI. I feel so weird just seeing what my eyes want to show me: no comms, no net, no nothing.”

“Speaking of comms,” Angel interjected, “I have net access again, and there is a general alert out—the roads to and from Xanadu Dome are closed by order of the NAUC.”

“NAUC?” Juliet asked, and Honey turned to her, puzzled.

“New Atlas Unified Council—the ruling corporate council on Titan.”

“They closed the roads. We need to get over that fence.” Juliet gestured to the back of the lot where the forest, thick and dark, led away from the clinic’s lot.

“Come on,” Honey said, running for it. Juliet jogged after her, still tugging Lilia, eyes closed, behind her. When Honey got near the fence, she whipped the monoblade out of its sheath and sliced it through in a long upward arc. The links fell apart, revealing a two-meter opening. “Lilia, open your eyes. We need to go through this forest. Come here, and I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”

Juliet watched Lilia climb onto Honey’s back. Honey slipped through the fence, and she was following when Angel said, “I heard drones.”

“Drones,” Juliet said, and then the unmistakable sound of tires squealing on pavement sounded, and she knew it was more than drones that they’d be running from—the security team from the villa had probably arrived. “That, or some other team . . .”

“Company?” Honey asked, looking back from the bole of a big, rough-barked tree.

“Yeah. We need to run, Honey. Run like your life depends on it.”