It was early morning. So early, Lachance had only ever been up at this time when she was coming at it from the other side, staggering home after an all-night party. The sun broke over the water, a ball of shimmering orange, and she clapped a hand over her eyes.

'Ugh.'

They never made her get up this early in juvie.

Lachance sat up when she heard the motorised gates to the docks open and a truck pull out. This one was loaded up with barrels.

She was sat beneath a nearby underpass, a Shard motorcycle propped next to her, waiting.

Her original idea had been to break into the docks and steal the truck direct from there, but the slavering Doberman that had growled at her through the chain-link fence made her think again. She fucking hated dogs.

She sat back and wondered if any of her fellow Saints would also be up at this ungodly hour. Maybe she should call Troy, and yell down the phone how it was a bright new day. She smiled at the thought of the guy: sleepy, hair mussed, cursing as he reached for his phone, bedsheets slipping down to reveal his tight, lean body-

The gates opened again, and Lachance jumped up. Her heart started to beat quicker as she spotted a semi truck carrying the cars matching the description Lin had given her via text message last night. Now for the part of her plan she really wasn't looking forward to. She jumped on the bike and pushed the starter button, then pulled out carefully behind the truck. Samson's chop shop was just across the block, so the sooner she could get this done, the better.

As the road to straightened out, Lachance felt the wind whip at her hair as she veered over to the right-hand side of the Peterliner. She cranked the throttle, making the engine howl, and brought herself in-line with the passenger door of the cab.

'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,' she swore under her breath as she tensed the muscles in her legs. Before she could think too much about what she was about to do, she flung herself from the motorcycle. The truck swerved violently as she slammed into the passenger door, and she had to cling to the handle as her feet found the metal step below. She wrenched open the door and threw herself into the cab, pulling out her gun and pointing it at the startled driver.

'Holy shit,' he yelled, and stepped on the brakes.

'Keep driving, motherfucker,' Lachance snarled. 'Just follow my directions.'

'Okay, okay. Holy shit. Where the hell did you come from?'

'Your worst fuckin' nightmares if you don't shut the fuck up. Turn left down the next street.'

Her heart slowly returned to it's normal rate as she guided him to Samson's garage. She tried to keep the elation that her plan had worked from her face.

Samson came out to greet her as the truck pulled into his yard, but he frowned as Lachance ordered the driver out.

'Hey, kid. You're gonna have to get rid of that guy,' he said.

'What? Wait, no, please. I have a family-' pleaded the driver.

Lachance shrugged and pulled the trigger. Samson winced at the loud crack of her revolver.

'Done,' she said. 'Now, Dex said you could hook me up with a couple of small charges? I need to blow up some more shit.'

'Dang girl. Remind me never to piss you off. Come with me.'

Samson headed back into his workshop, and shouted at a young guy leaning against a wall to go and clean up the mess outside.

x.x.x

The cheque from Aisha hadn't bounced, so after leaving Samson's, her day had been spent shopping. There had been a lovely moment in Rim Jobs when she paid off her car in full.

She tucked a new nine-millimetre pistol into the back of her jeans and looked at herself in the mirror. Dark grey hoodie, black jeans, and grey sneakers. Dex had told her to be discreet. She pushed a black bandana, her cellphone, switchblade, and a silencer for the pistol into various different pockets. That she couldn't get a silencer for her .44 Shepherd was a crime. It was getting dark outside. She picked up a runner's backpack, feeling the weight of the explosive charges within as she slung it over one shoulder. She blew out a sharp breath before turning and leaving her apartment. This shit would be so much easier if she could just have one little line of coke, but she was a woman of her word. She would not betray Troy's trust for anything.

An unremarkable little silver Halberd sat in the street opposite. She had boosted the ride earlier, so now she placed the backpack onto the passenger seat and headed to The Mills.

Lachance pulled up with the warehouse in sight and switched off the engine. The corrugated metal building stood alone on a plot of patchy grass. A siren wailed in the distance but soon faded away. As she watched, she could only see one Carnales member standing guard by a side-door. She tied the bandana around her face, covering her mouth and nose, and pulled her hood up. She screwed the silencer onto her pistol, and shrugged the backpack over her shoulders.

Opening the car door as quietly as she could, Lachance stepped out and hurried over to a fence. In a last minute decision, she put the pistol into the large front pocket of her hoodie and pulled out her switchblade. There was a small 'fwip' as it flicked open. She kept the blade sharp enough to cut silk.

The tall hispanic guy in red looked bored. He paced back and forth by the door, clearly not expecting anyone to be bold or foolish enough to attack the Carnales. The next time he turned to walk away from her, she ran up behind him and reached her hand over his mouth, then dragged the blade deeply across his throat. He made a wet, surprised noise as his knees buckled. She wiped the blade on his shirt before putting it away and pulling out the silenced pistol.

Lachance eased the door handle down and pushed it open slowly, pistol held up. She was listening intently, controlling her breathing, but she couldn't hear any movements from the other side of the door.

The room beyond was dark. Lachance swept the pistol ahead of her, finger resting on the trigger, alert to the smallest movement or sound. She crept forwards, footsteps soft, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness lit by a small amount of streetlight coming from the open door behind her. She could make out the shapes of large glass bottles and beakers, and against one wall a glint of metal indicated the presence of a boiler.

After making her way over to it, she slid the pack from her back and took out one of the disc-shaped explosive charges. This was the most dangerous part, as she needed to use two hands to fix and set the device. Lachance had argued with Samson, asking him for another remote detonator, but he had simply replied that this type of bomb wasn't designed that way. Gun within easy reach on a nearby counter, Lachance pressed two buttons on either side of the device and placed the charge against the metal boiler. She twisted her hands, and a light flashed twice red then once green. It was fixed in place, and she now had ten minutes before the bomb went off.

She picked up her pistol, and ran out of the door. Several shouts in Spanish made her whirl, and she swore when she saw two guys in red pointing in her direction from the front of the warehouse. There was no cover in the middle of the grass plot, so she threw herself onto her stomach and shot at the Carnales. One guy fell immediately, but the other took cover behind his car and returned fire.

Bullets tore up the earth in front of her and to her left. The wannabe-gangsta fuck was holding his pistol sideways, and it was throwing his accuracy way off. As his head peeked above the hood of the car, Lachance blew it off.

'Thanks mom,' she whispered. With a sigh, Lachance stood and jogged back to the Halberd.

The gunfire had not drawn the sound of any sirens yet, but she had to move. There was still another lab to destroy. It was just a shame she couldn't risk hanging around to watch this one go up in about five minutes' time.

She drove into Barrio towards Cecil Park, and went straight past the house that was being used by the Carnales after pulling the bandana down off her face. There were four guys and one girl in red sat on the steps of the house, all carrying guns. At the end of the street, she turned into an alley and killed the engine.

Lachance bit her lip as she got out of the little car. She walked down the alley, which was really just a thin avenue between the back gardens of two streets. She swore when she saw another large group of Carnales standing around the back of the house. Loud hip hop music was coming from inside the building.

Ignoring their stares and whistles, Lachance walked past her unsuspecting rival gang members and continued on towards Loreana's brothel. Once inside, she asked the pretty girl on the front desk if Kaja was available. Lachance thought that she would hide out here for a few hours, before checking the house again to see if the operation wound down overnight.

A wide smile spread across Kaja's face as she descended the twisting staircase, and she wrapped her arms around Lachance.

'Is good to see you, but you should have called first. I would have worn something much nicer for you, darling,' Kaja said, smoothing a hand over the cream lace of her camisole.

'Compared to what I'm wearing?' Lachance said, indicating her dark ensemble.

'Tahk, yes, that is not flattering. Come, I will show you my new room.' Kaja grabbed her hand and led her upstairs. The red corridor pulsed with the muted sounds of passion and sex, hard moans and soft laughs, and Lachance's hand tightened on the tall blonde's. Kaja threw her a wicked look over her shoulder as she pulled her over to a door on the right.

x.x.x

Her hand rested on the tanned curve of Kaja's hip.

'You have to go?' Kaja pouted and Lachance kissed her pursed lips.

'Yeah I do, babe. I already stayed longer than I meant to. And Loreana would shit if she knew I brought a bomb and a gun in here.'

'I think it is sexy. You are dangerous.'

'That's why you're my kinda crazy,' Lachance said with a laugh. She kissed her again, biting her bottom lip, before rolling off the bed. 'The fuck are my panties, girl?'

After diving under the silk bedsheets to retrieve her underwear from the giggling whore, Lachance got dressed and picked up the backpack.

'Try not to die,' Kaja said as Lachance reached the door.

'Yo, I'll try. Give Delisa my love.'

Outside, she stifled a yawn. She needed to get this done now, before tiredness got her shot. And Johnny would just fucking love that. Lachance wondered again what Lin had meant when she said he was the reason there were no other female Saints. He didn't seem to hate women in particular, just people in general, and she had seen the way he looked at Aisha.

Fuck it, Lachance was now a Saint until her heart stopped beating, and he could stick his issues up his perfect ass.

She blinked. 'Perfect'? Damn.

The front of the house was now devoid of Carnales, but there was still light at the windows. She hitched the bandana back over her face, breathing in Kaja's heady perfume. Gun in one hand, switchblade in the other, Lachance chose to interpret Dex's insistence on discretion as simply meaning no come-back on the Saints. If a masked assailant burst into the house, one who was not wearing gang colours, and killed every motherfucker inside, then technically, she was still being discreet. Kinda. Fuck it.

The door banged against the wall as she kicked it open, and the silenced pistol made three small pops as she shot a guy sprawled on a couch and the girl in red sucking his dick. Two more pops took out the guy who ran through an open doorway, and Lachance pressed against the wall. Beyond the doorway was a kitchen and a staircase leading up. She could hear Latin hip hop coming from a room above.

Lachance stepped over the dead Carnales member and swept the small kitchen and attached bathroom, finding them empty, and moved to the foot of the stairs. She took a breath before running up, and ducked into the room opposite the one she could hear music from.

A flash of movement made her raise an arm, and she grunted in pain as a large hunting knife cut through the material of her hooded top and bit into her flesh. She dropped her switchblade, but pulled the trigger of her pistol as the barrel pressed against her attacker's chest. The dark-haired girl who had wielded the knife jerked backwards and fell, spatters of her blood landing on Lachance's face.

'Fuck,' Lachance hissed, as she held her arm against her side. Blood was running freely down to her hand. Not pausing, she kicked open the door of the remaining room, and shot two guys wearing dust masks. This was the lab, and she quickly walked to a large metal boiler. She fumbled with the zip of the backpack, smearing blood on the fabric, and took out the explosive charge. Fixing it to the boiler was a struggle, the fingers on her injured arm not holding the button down long enough, but after what felt like an eternity it flashed twice red then once green.

As she was getting ready to leave, Lachance spotted a stack of large plastic bags, filled with white powder. She pushed three into the backpack, and hurried back down the stairs and outside. It would be a waste to destroy what was likely pure Colombian cocaine, especially when Vinnie had been doing nothing but bitch about a lack of supply. Lachance smiled. It would be nice for that fucker to pay her for a change. She pushed away the thought of trying a bit, just to see if it was pure.

Blood dripped from her arm as she headed back to where she had left the stolen car. It was gone.

'Thieving motherfuckers.'

Lachance pulled out her cell and carried on walking. Dex answered on the second ring. She smiled at the idea of him waiting by the phone for her to call.

'Yo, it done?' he asked

'In five minutes it will be. Hey, do we have a doctor who don't ask questions?'

'Shit, you okay? Where are you?'

'I just need a few stitches, bro.' Lachance stumbled down a kerb. 'I'm near... Sloppy Seconds, in Southern Cross.'

'Stay there, I'll come get you.'

x.x.x

'Shit.' Dex looked ashen.

'Dude, you freaked out by blood? 'Cause that's funny as fuck.'

'Shut up,' he muttered, and stared out of the window. They were in Dr Gupta's back-room clinic, based on the seventh floor of an apartment block in Sommerset. Lachance sat with her arm out on a gurney, the good doctor sewing up the deep cut on her left forearm. Dr Gupta was middle-aged, short and slightly built. He had quick, dark, intelligent eyes, and small gentle hands. He had thrown a white coat over his pyjamas, his fluffy blue slippers peeking out from underneath.

Once the neat row of stitches were complete, he gave her a shot of antibiotics, and Dex paid the bill in cash.

'Yo, when we get to mine, I'll pay you back,' Lachance said, as they made their way down the fire escape and back to Dex's car.

'It's cool. You did a good job tonight. Nothing on the news about Saints involvement in the blasts.'

Lachance sighed and put her uninjured arm around his shoulders. 'Can we make a deal where I only work for you? Gat would have left my ass bleedin' in the street.'

Dex chuckled. 'When you know him better, you'd know that he'd die for any Saint. But… I wouldn't mind keepin' you to myself,' he said, sliding an arm around her waist as they stopped next to his car.

'Oh yeah?' she asked softly, turning to face him.

'Yeah.' His other hand brushed lightly along the fading bruise on her cheekbone. 'You're beautiful.'

Lachance jerked back. She'd remembered how Troy had said the same words to her the night he'd helped her home. Her stomach felt weird.

'Shit, did that hurt?' Dex asked with concern, snatching his hand away.

'No, it's cool. It's just been a long day, I'm sorry, man.' She rubbed her eyes.

'It's okay, I get it. I shouldn't have said-'

'Hey, I like you. Ai-ight? I just really need some sleep, yo.' Lachance squeezed his arm then walked around to the passenger side of his Raycaster convertible. They drove back in silence.

Dex pulled up outside her apartment block and Lachance got out, hooking the heavy backpack over one shoulder.

'What's in there?' Dex asked, frowning.

Lachance laughed. 'A fuckload of dope, man. What else?'

'Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Keep yo' secrets. Goodnight, Lachance.'

'See you around, bro.' Lachance smiled as he drove away.