Installment II

Chapter 6

Running down the steps to the bottom doors and pushing through both to go outside into the falling snow, Kina jogged slower across the street so as not to slip in the accumulating slick. She saw Rocky's sign aglow and went by the ice freezer outside with its coin slots. The door jingled open and she stepped into the store.

"What do you need, Kina…Christ, what happened to your face?"

"Battle, Rocky, and I won…kind of…You got duct tape, and something like a tarp or weatherseal?"

"Where's the body? Sure, kid, check in back with the camping supplies for the tarps and check the arts and utilities sections. I'm sure the duct tape's in both."

"Thanks, Rocky. I'm going to grab a few bags of ice, too."

"For what—did you look outside? There's snow coming down. Just put your face out of your coat and stand in the weather for twenty minutes."

"That's not going to cut it, Rock. Found the tarp…and….found the duct tape." She jogged back to the counter and Rocky rang up the items.

"What's going on, Kina. You got a broken leak somewhere?"

"My window got bashed out. I need to cover it up before the cold air freezes my pipes."

"Really…you need help?"

She thought about the ice packs. "Can you leave the register and lock up, carry this stuff while I get the ice?"

"I can close for a break. You want to get the ice packs, and I'll meet you at the apartment with this tarp and roll."

She paid for the items and he scrapped the receipt at her request.

"I saw some shady fella walking around earlier. Were you robbed?"

"Nah, just some asshole came in through my window. Broke it before he left."

"He didn't do nothing to you?" He was skeptical, looking at her face's condition, "…You don't have to be tough, Kina. I know folks around here respect you—"

"I got these licks from fighting 'Belle Elle' in Wrinkle's today before I came home and had to deal with that jerk who came through my window, Rocky. Relax."

"Okay…you do the fighting on the side, I recall."

"Full-time, Rocky."

"Yeah. You should get out of that while you can. Not good for the brain, you know? I read the news. Old fighters come down with Park's' and stuff degenerative, all that you don't need so young—don't need it old, but with the age, it's expected…Different when it comes down to young folks."

"Yeah, Rocky, I know. I'll get out soon as I make enough dough to leave."

"All right, kid. Don't let me discourage ya. Bingham Heights ain't no glory town."

He started to walk with her to the front of the store, Kina having waited despite his suggestion to go ahead of him while he locked up. He stopped at the doors, flicking off the lights, "…Hey, Kina, that drell lives in your building."

"Yeah, he's on my floor."

"You be careful. There's a rumor about drells. They bring bad omens."

"They bring bad omens? Don't you mean they'd be bad omens?" She started to laugh, but Rocky gave her a stern look.

"Say, there he is—getting into a car."

The lights were out, so they watched together in the darkened storefront as through the snow Konis came from the building towards a car that had parked in the alley near to the front of it. The car door opened and he ducked his bulk into the back.

"I wonder where he's going." Kina glanced at Rocky, who shrugged.

"All right. Outside. I got to lock the doors. Tarp, roll, don't forget your ice." Rocky held the door for her to go to the freezer and closed it, sliding a key into the lock and pulling the window gates together, unlocking a combination lock and reattaching through the double loops of the windows' gates to join these with a loud click.

Jamming the coin glider into the freezer, the door opened and Kina paid for and pulled out six bags of ice chips.

Rocky helped stack the six packs lengthwise in her arms to expedite things and once stacked, they made through the snow fogging the lamp posts and coming down faster. Kina balanced the ice across the street while Rocky walked ahead in his boots, carrying the tarp and duct tape roll to her building.

He opened the doors and helped her get through by holding these one at a time. Kina climbed the steps, her fingers near frozen from the ice and cold air. Both came out at the top landing and walked noisily down the hallway.

Kina stopped outside her doorway and put down the ice. She stood and unlocked the door. "Window's ahead. I'm going to put the ice in the bathroom." She glanced at Konis's door with the number 2 over it in iron.

Rocky went in first, Kina dragging two bags behind her, and she returned for the remaining four bags leaning against the wall outside.

"Fuck," she could hear Rocky curse under his breath, "…what a mess."

The bathroom was located between the kitchen and the bedroom. Kina dragged two bags at a time into the bathroom and stacked these against the cast tub inside, just passed the sink and toilet.

Rocky found a vacuum and what was left of the glass too small to be seen he vacuumed up into the paper bag in the trailing pod at the end of the hose.

Kina passed a step stool over to his side of the room and he climbed up despite his older, wiser self to start taping the tarp over the window at its height 1.8 meters off the ground.

"I hope you don't care for the paint job in this place."

"Hang it up, Rocky. I'll paint it later. Hole needs to be covered or I'll freeze my ass off while I'm icing."

"Goes without saying." The window was completely covered by a folded-over tarp of black material stretched by the duct tape in several designs, "…It's no Mona Lisa, but it does the job, right?" He held his hand up to the tarp and its sides, "…Still could use another layer…You got a blanket you don't mind nailing to the wall for a while?"

"I got one." She passed him a blanket from the couch. He held it up to the top of the window and checked that it covered the entire frame.

"It'll fit. Go get me a hammer and nails."

"Thanks for going above and beyond, Rocky."

"You bet. Can't have my best customer freezing and dying on me. I'll run out of business."

She laughed and gave him a hammer and a can of nails from under her kitchen counter. "Winter's going to be cold."

"Always is."

"Hold the can and pass me a nail when I need it," he turned to reach his first nail up with the blanket and set this against the wall, then took a swift bang at the nailhead, sending it through tarp and duct tape as well. He took another nail from Kina's hand and repeated the sets and swings until the blanket and its underlying materials were all nailed together, and the window flow of cold air was reduced significantly compared to before.

"Don't tell anyone who thinks I'm tough that I had an eighty-year-old man balancing on a step stool to swing hammers and nails into my wall over a window of broken glass."

"I won't brag."

"Nah, you should." She thanked him with a strong shake of his hand with hers. "I appreciate it Rocky. There's hope for my future, if I ever get old."

"Come down to the shop if you're in trouble, someone trying to break in again, okay, Kina?"

"Thanks, Rocky. I'll keep that in mind, running to an old man when I'm a twenty-five-year-old woman who can't defend herself."

"Don't be a wit too often, Kina. I gotta go back to the store, but you take care and don't freeze your ass off icing that face of yours."

She laughed hard and it felt good. She went to the doors to see him out across the street through the snow, giving him a hard time about having to do her good citizen work by walking the elderly.

§

Locking the door to her apartment, she took off her coat, peeled off her bra tank, and pushed down her pants and briefs to the floor, rolling down her socks. Her shoes were by the door, dripping melted snow.

She went through the kitchen into the hall outside the bathroom, passing the mirror facing the bathroom door and ignoring the welts and bruises forming on her body. Inside the bathroom she checked the ice bags, leaking onto the floor tiles, and grabbed some towels out of the cabinet across from the sink to blot up the water.

Cold water ran from the tap into the bathtub. She didn't care it would be cold. She felt like she was on fire and was craving the ice and the cold water that filled up the tub halfway when she shut it off.

She was so impatient to start icing, she stepped over the rim and entered the water, her feet, shins, ankles crying out in relief as she started ripping open one thirty-two kilogram ice bag at a time and sliding the ice chips into the water, spreading these over the surface and adding to the volume in the tub. All six ice bags were added.

She turned on the tap, bringing in more cold water as she eased herself down, sighing instead of hissing with the chill, and submerged herself. The water and ice came up passed her breasts.

Grabbing one of the towels she'd left out unused, she filled it with ice from the tub, not caring that the towel was absorbing cold water, and placed this over her face after closing her eyes. She laid back against the incline of her bathtub with the cold feeling beautiful on her face and head.

§

"Belle Elle" was throwing another punch into her cheek when Kina snapped awake from her sleep.

She looked down and could see her breasts and belly clearly through the cool water. All the ice had melted and the water had risen substantially to the rim of the bathtub. Some of it sloshing out over the sides, Kina got out and dragged the towels on the floor around with her feet and through the discarded plastic bags she had not thrown away in her haste to get into the cryobath.

She toweled off, grabbed a few extra towels to go find pipes throughout the apartment and wrap these for security against the open window with the makeshift tarp and blanket seal. Checking the thermostat above the heater, the hot air was pumping to keep the cold air at bay and maintain 18.3 degrees Celsius inside the apartment compared to -1.1 or less outside the window, with a wind pushing snow in and bending the tarp and blanket like a bow. She knocked it back, scattering snow onto the fire escape though this she could only sense through the slack in the covering and the lighter weight without the snowbuild on it. She was still naked in a towel as she did this, then went to dress in some warm sweats with as soft and thick an inner lining she could find. She pulled on underwear briefs, pants with Notre Dame on the side, and a hooded sweatshirt with her Lions logo on the back, a blaze on the left breast.

She returned to the broken window and added cushions from the couch to prevent the snow from bowing the seal inwards again, and pushed a chair up against these to further support the seal and trap in warm air.

Leaning against her entry table, she carefully scrutinized her work and made a note that the vacuum bag had to be thrown out with "GLASS" labeled on the side. She felt the handle of the drawer against her thigh and turned, pulling the drawer open and reaching in. She withdrew Konis's card and examined this in the light she switched on by the lamp on the table. She felt the elegant scrit across the one side and the translatable human print on the other. It was only a set of thirteen digits with symbols in between each. How she was supposed to dial this on analog she had no idea, but there was a pattern on one end, and if she knew tickets, this was supposed to be scanned or slid into something. It also weighed at least an ounce in her fingers. She flipped the eight by three centimeter card and put it into her pocket of her sweatshirt. Grabbing her key, she unlocked the door by its simple twist cap, and went across the hall to unit 2.

She stood outside his door and knocked, wondering if he had returned during the night while she slept in the bathtub.

No one came to the door, nor did anyone answer. Somewhat mystified, she left with a serene acceptance that he was gone—at least for the night.

Back inside unit 3, she locked the door, turned off the lights, and felt her way into her bedroom via the kitchen and the hall outside the bathroom.

She hadn't checked her face in the mirror, or her body for that matter, and lay on the covers of her twin-sized bed.

Going over the fight and her mistakes both with "Belle Elle" and Randal Hebin in her head, Kina slipped off readily into real, and deep, sleep.

Chapter 7

2182

Kina sat on the edge of their bed, watching him pull on his clothes after cleaning the bed and stripping the sheets for laundering. He stopped over the bag she had filled with her clothing yesterday night and glanced at the bag full of the bed strippings.

"I'll take care of it, Konis."

He nodded that this would be fine with him and turned towards the bathroom, where he went inside to finalize his appearance. He came back out, went into the living room, through to the kitchen and she could hear him moving through the cabinets and setting up plates for breakfast and drinks. It was the domestic thing to do. She got up from her seat on the bed and dressed into work clothes. Another skirt to go over the corset and a blouse to go over her bra. Her underwear was black with sheer trim around the seamed edges and smooth as satin. Taking the launder bags to the living room, she opened a chute in the wall and dropped these down the dark opening to the basement of the tower with a tag attached to each one, denoting their apartment and names. She went into the kitchen to join him, and ate the food he made fresh from the refrigeration chest and the converter meant to process raw food into cooked states. He went to the wash unit, having finished his food, and placed his utensils and plate, his glass into the rack, closed this, moved to Kina, kissed her cheek, and then went to the doorway. He picked up the bags he had set on either side of the entrance, the door slid open, and without a glance at her, Konis left.

The sonorous voice of the apartment's assistant wished him, "…Good day, Master Konis."

The door sealed behind him and Kina was alone with her breakfast and a glass of tea that smelled like mint. She sat for a while, looking at the empty doorway, sniffed, and poked at her food. She drank the tea but only a sip, and placed it into the wash unit after discarding it of its liquid and perfume down into the sink drain. Her food she scraped into a chute for disposal, which led to incineration mechanisms at the bottom of the building, pressing the "Sanitize" button to lock the chute door and partition it for cleaning so residuals from the dropped foods and waste products did not have the chance to accumulate on the sides of the inner vein and burned off. She went to fetch her purse after visiting her office space to collect the briefcase, then left through the door, the apartment assistant bidding her a good day as well.

The hall was empty as she made her way to the lift, but through the glass wall on the outer side of the hallway she could see the light coming in from the daytime through to the lobby, and as she entered the lift and it brought her to ground level at her request, she could see other occupants of the tower leaving through the lobby floor to the building's corner doors. The concierge was handling calls and speaking alternately with those who stopped by the desk to wish him a good morning and a smile, or to complain and point in the air about something on their minds. She was let out onto the lobby level and walked across the floor in her black shoes, briefcase in hand, purse on her shoulder, hair down and behind her ears. Halovar glanced her way while a turian was talking to him about raising his rates, or so she heard as she passed them on her left. Ordinarily, she would stop by and say good morning, but Halovar was busy, so she nodded to him and smiled, then faced forward of his eye contact and went through the doors. Out onto the sidewalk she joined the commuters walking to work, everyone dressed in business suits or the style of business professional per species.

The grid of the city was flush with traffic. Vehicles hovered fast by overhead, and the channels between towers were a blur mixed with dots of slower vehicles coming and going with the flow of its inhabitants that morning in 2182.

The shift of the skirt up her legs as she walked forced her to walk slower and wriggle the hem downward with hips, hiding her sculpt of thighs and the definition in her skin. It attracted the eyes of others walking behind her, and some walking towards her she noticed glancing at her motions, especially of the fabric hugging her hips.

The points of her black shoes pinched her toes.

Kina let out an exasperated breath as she adjusted her grip on the briefcase, the strap pinching her shoulder, the frustrating yet eye-catching skirt on her hips—more so the hips because these were not meant for skirt-wearing and walking in heels down metal streets—and the constant battle between wearing fashionable shoes that were considered outmoded by asari standards and having comfortable feet. She missed her sneakers.

The midway point to work was marked by Trudy's Café, which she stopped in to purchase a drink as well as to rest herself after fighting with her ensemble for the day.

Trudy's Café was bustling and lively, crowded with noise and bodies.

The line followed a posted path, weaving from the doors to the checkout and the beverage and meal pickup stations. Kina got fourteenth in line, holding the strap of her purse with one hand, still the briefcase with the opposite.

"Can I get a double-dose latte with cream on top?" asked Kina of a hovering clerkbot that buzzed by customers in front of her, having taken their orders and now stopped outside the guides of the line's posts to listen for hers.

"Name."

"Kina."

At that moment, a friendly voice spoke through the clerkbot's speaker below its domelike eye. "Good morning, Kina!" It was the gregarious barista behind the counter. "How are you today!"

More out of her embarrassment she smiled, for Ben always greeted her so and she was used to it, but not the embarrassment of having all eyes turned to her conversation with him through the hovering clerkbot.

"I'm good, Ben." Kina ignored the looks as these were dropping away from the sudden animated intrusion into their peace of chaos there in line. "I need that coffee though. It would help my morning."

"Two espressos and coffee with steamed milk and foam coming up, Lady Tian! Don't worry. I'm on it," and the clerkbot moved onto the next customer before Kina could ask Ben how he was doing, but Ben would understand, and he had orders to fulfill. Everything was fast in the city and Ben no stranger to customer temperaments. Despite his skill on the job, impatience sometimes overtook common sense and he wheeled with it in smiles and grace. He set to work creating her order and sending it down the line to his coworkers to put this up at the pickup station. "Add a heart to Lady Tian's," he added out the corner of his mouth as he passed the paper-ceramic container to his partner next to him.

The line moved like a stop-and-go conveyor belt and she passed the counter where Ben winked at her. She stopped at the checkout to hand her credit chit to the cashier who scanned it for its deduction of value and handed it back.

Grasping the paper covering of corrugated cardboard, she lifted the ceramic container and carried it with her to the doors.

As she reached the doors, the clerkbot turned from its current customer's annoyed expression to deliver Ben's affectionate farewell,"…Have a nice day, Kina—and don't forget to look under your thumb for that heart we left you!"

"Thanks, Ben." Kina lifted her thumb as she raised the container to see the heart on the paper slip and smiled, for it meant she could come back and get a freebie with her paper slip in hand. She looked back over her shoulder and gave Ben and his crew a thumb's up before leaving through the parting doors with other customers going out as she did.

Upon setting foot onto the first large metal tile spanning the front of Trudy's Café, Kina had to stop and squint in the glare of reflection off the silver walls behind her and the flash in front of her.

Eyes adjusting to the brightness that had met her, and the duplicate flash of sunlight that accosted her sight, Kina wondered why she hadn't brought some sort of eye protection with her and cleared her view by shading her eyes with cup, hand, and forearm. Parked and floating on stabilizers before her at the edge of the sidewalk, attracting much attention from inside the stores, offices, and café windows—as well as garnering that of those walking by and slowing down to admire (or covet)—was an airlimo.

And she lowered her cup when she saw who was there inside the open door, waiting for her.

The blinding flash had been from the window as the door was pushed open by Cartira's arm, who was sitting in the rear bench seat and waiting for her to come out of Trudy's Café.

One polished shoe set down below the curb as he shifted his size out of the seat and emerged, stepping down with both shoes now into the street before going over the curb to stand even taller, his expensive suit mute but shimmery in its high, metallic thread count.

His smile was infectious. Within moments of his face glowing with that handsome grin of his, Kina was smiling, too.

His walk was slow and taunting, Kina beginning to feel her body reacting to that smokey look he gave her as he swayed over and stopped, gazing down at her as he lifted the panels of his suitcoat and pushed these back to insert both hands into his trouser pockets, stretching the front over a bulge.

"Going our way?"

"Good morning, Cartira."

"Hop in with those bags of yours, Kina. Let us drive you into work."

"Were you following me from Sola Boulevard and Atmore?"

"I know Trudy's is your halfway point to work. You always stop in for coffee at this time."

"I'll accept your lift…this time."

He turned and escorted her to the airlimo door.

"I hate it that you walk to work in this city. Azim and I can gladly give you lifts to and from work, Kina." Once she was inside, he joined her in the back seating and closed the door from prying eyes. The Aldebaran lifted from its parking spot and flowed into traffic as he leaned towards her ear, pushing back her loose hair. "I think you'd prefer it if I—alone—gave you the ride, and we could go somewhere private before and after work." He breathed into her ear, sucked in a whiff of her perfume, adding, "…I'd do a lot of things for you…and to you…if you only let me, Kina."

"Good morning, Azim." Kina leaned away from Cartira, his face following hers as she waved to the chauffeur at the front.

"Good morning, Mistress Tian."

The latte was raised to her lips and she blew the steam off and sipped, Cartira noticing the heart drawn in red marker on the paper slip.

His frown was quickly hidden by a smile as she turned her face to him and lowered her cup.

"Cartira, as much as I enjoy your company, and we've shared a special moment, we can't entertain the idea of an affair. This has to stop in its tracks before it becomes the wreck I foresee it to be."

"You admit it and you're fighting it."

"I am." She turned her face away from his searching eyes. "As much as I'm drawn to you, Cartira, it would be disastrous if we continued to play this game—"

"It's not a game, Kina—"

"Cartir, I'm a married woman and I'm married to possibly the most dangerous man alive to you right now unless this stops…I still want to be friends, but I can't give you what you're asking of me and I can't do that to him…He needs me—"

"But I need you…"

"I need you, too," her eyes snapped to his, "…I need you more as a friend than a lover….That's what's possible."

Azim looked up at their reflections in the rearview mirror over the dashboard….Cartira appeared hurt by her decision, his golden face an expression of the inner mind thinking ways to persuade her otherwise.

"She has a point, Sered." Cartira glanced at Azim from Kina's downturned face. "Respectfully, and as a friend, Sered, Konis Traus is capable of killing if you should come up as a concern between his interest," his eyes switched pointedly to Kina, the wife of said threat, seated beside his employer, "…and him."

"You don't even wear a symbol of your affection for him," Cartira's glare at Azim for reinforcing her decision softened once he turned back to Kina, "…You bear no token of his."

"Konis and I are going through a difficult time right now, Cartir."

"Is that why you let me kiss you?" There was an ugliness underlying his next choice of words. "Because of a rough patch?"

Cartira sat back, deflated, his handsomeness sullied by the look of disbelief on his face. He chose not to look at her and only stared forward through the divider to the traffic ahead, passed Azim's spiky fringe poking out under his cap.

For a while no one spoke in the airlimo. Kina sipped her coffee and held it between her knees when she was not sipping. Cartira shifted some and she thought he was turning away from her to give her his back and a frigid shoulder, but he turned to her again and revealed a long and square-edged container between his fingers, sliding it out from a pocket in his inner suitcoat's lining.

"I was going to give you this." He separated the rectangular lid from its bottom one and moved from hand to hand a thinner, silk-covered case free of its outer protection. His golden fingers popped the clasped claws apart with a click, separating the sturdy fabric-covered lips of the shell. "This belonged to my mother." The bracelet inside was silver and blue with hard white gems, so rich was the Carat of the diamonds, stunningly set into detailed crowns. "Try it on." Her hands locked to the latte container, Cartira took out the bracelet and set it securely about her left wrist.

He leaned away, smiling at her speechless expression, and depressed the button to close the divider that separated the passenger cabin from the front of the airlimo.

Chapter 8

2167

Flecks of white drifted down to the pavement outside her building. It coated the frames of the windows and doors.

Kina watched it fall, gathering on the door corner where the glass and wood joined together as she waited for the building's superintendent to come out from inspecting the damage to the window in her apartment.

The stairs groaned next, following the relief from the wood boards of the hallway as he came down from her unit to speak with her about the damages. "It'll be covered by the insurance. Theft and robbery, some bull I'll write up in the claim. You missing anything?"

"Just my window."

"I'm going to replace the glass and repair the locks for now until we get a new window shipped in. Glass and locks will be done by the time you get home from your training this evening."

"Thanks for not being pissed at me, Sup."

"Yeah, no big deal." He pulled open the door for her. "Go to training. Keep that body of yours in shape." He watched her leaving, gaze traveling down to the pants under her coat end, and the round curves of her rear.

Kina glanced behind her, Sup averting his gaze from the sight of her posterior and heading back up the staircase. She stepped down onto the recently shoveled and salted pavement.

As she started to walk through the snow, tucking her sleeves down from her coat, she saw a black car pull up.

The car stopped a meter from the curb and the door opened in back on the far side from her. Konis emerged.

Shifting the strap of her sports pack over on her shoulder, she watched him close the door and step around the rear of the car.

She slowed to a stop as he came up out of the street.

His gaze was not on hers, but on the doors to the building where Sup had just gone from the outer door's window—where he had been checking out Kina from behind. Konis's eyes shifted from the doorway to hers as he came to stop beside her on the sidewalk.

"Is the superintendent repairing your window for you?"

"The building's insurance will cover it, is what the Sup told me. His insurance, I mean."

"Good. Where are you heading, not to Rocky's…" He glanced away, "…It's none of my business."

"I'm going to work…training at the gym at Wrinkle's. I've got to train and get ready for my next match with Belle Elle again."

"Is that wise?"

"It's not about wise."

Konis kept an even stare on her, then dipped his chin.

"Good fortune to you."

He turned to head inside. The car was still waiting in the street. Kina spoke, stopping him in his tracks.

"Konis, you should come see it…see me fight. I bet I'm as good as those drell women you talked about yesterday."

He said nothing, the snow falling between them, the car running. His blue eyes moving over her.

"I do not partake in such violence, women assaulting women. It is not something I enjoy seeing."

"So you're okay with men beating each other up…boxing between two guys."

"No."

"So what do you like…aside from drinking milk."

"Nothing."

"Look, I gotta go." She shifted her bag strap on her shoulder.

Turning, the snow dusting her shoulders and head, Kina walked away from him on the sidewalk.

§

Eyes in the car had watched the interaction, and now the young woman walking away from Konis. A man cleared his throat.

Flakes sprinkled over the tinted window and his face behind it.

The man turned his face towards Konis's, now looking into the window at him.

Turning, Konis went into the building's foyer.

"Drive." The tires started forward.

Treading in her sneakers over wet, grainy pavement dotted with salt crystals melting the falling snow, Kina continued to walk towards the shuttle that would take her closer to Wrinkle's.

Tugging up her hood over her hair, she hid herself from the snow.

At the sound of wheels rolling through snow and sticking to the wet of the pavement, Kina turned to see the car driving by on her right.

She couldn't see who was behind the windows.

But he watched her still trudging through the snow with her pack as the car slowly picked up speed.

He sat forward, sounding the leather with his shift in weight.

"Tag that one."

The driver's head moved in a subtle nod.

Picking up a phone from the front seat, the driver opened the keypad and dialed out. "Bobby…Yeah…Grab a pencil and listen."

§

The stairs made no sound as Konis climbed these to the next floor.

The door to unit 3 was swung inward and set wide open. Konis stopped to look at it and his doorway.

The sound of faint music coming out of small speakers, too loud to be considered safe for a human's hearing, could be heard coming from unit 3. Konis could tell these must be earphones transmitting the heightened volume of noise.

Peering into Kina's apartment, he observed the super.

The superintendent was preparing to jerk out the nails holding up the remaining blanket and tarp. Half the window was exposed. Jamming the prongs of a hammer between nail and wall, he cranked his arm down and popped the nail free…It fell onto the floor with others and Konis frowned at the mess.

The music was coming from a headset over the super's ears. Konis could see Kina's chairs moved to the other side of the room, couch cushions scattered among these.

He looked down at the table by the door and saw a package for a spy camera…a small one that could be bought at any tech store and easily concealed.

Konis stared at the package, then at the back of the super's head of black hair.

He took the package off the entry table.

Crossing the hall, he unlocked his door and went in.

There were cameras throughout the building and he knew they did not look like this (nor did they work, he was certain). He regarded the package in his hand with its gaudy marketing fonts and tactical look, and somehow the super did not strike him as meaning to help catch Randal Hebin—or any trespasser for that matter—and not with this small contraption in particular...He opened a drawer and dropped the package inside.

He did not leave the desk, however. After a pause of consideration, he reopened the drawer.

He reread the package's labeling.

Chapter 9

The shuttle to the outskirts of town bobbled everyone's heads as it went along the road.

Scooting up on her seat, Kina tried to make herself more comfortable.

The seats throughout the shuttle were hard and black. Typical plastic public furniture for easy wipe-down and disinfect.

Bingham Heights passed through the windows, slow as she approached in the shuttle then fast right when it was beside her and close enough to read the stores and their signs, the street postings, the houses that were squeezed in together like congested family homes among a speckling of apartment buildings and other small facilities.

Beside her on the seat by the window was her old sports pack, marked with a lion and white straps. She picked it up and pulled it across her lap.

Standing and sidling out of the seats, she reached for a pole at the end and stepped into the middle of the aisle that led to the length of the shuttle front and back.

A loose cord looped the length of the aisle way and she dropped her hand on it, pulling down and signaling to the shuttle driver that her stop was next.

Through the window on the opposite side of the street could be seen the sign "Welcome to Bingham Heights" for incoming traffic.

She slid her hood back, letting her neck breathe.

She waved to the driver as she passed him in the aisle to the steps down to the street.

As she stepped onto the slush and pavement, the shuttle closed the door and accelerated forward with a squeal and groan, heavy in its body of steel and metal. Kina lifted her bag and adjusted the strap over her chest, then walked from the street down the lane towards the squat warehouse in the distance. A red sign above its main garage door read "Wrinkle's" in stark and curled lettering across the aluminum front.

She made the parking lot in five minutes and crossed the outer empty parking brackets before the spots filled with cars.

She slowed as she got closer and recognized Randal's Ford sedan parked near the front in the corner of the lot by a copse of trees laden with snow.

There were three other cars packed tightly together with his, occupying that section of the lot.

Across from this territorial entity of cars was a large van with Belle Elle's face plastered on it.

The arrogant look on the fighter's face made Kina roll her neck and blow out steam through her lips.

Everyone she was looking forward to seeing would be inside to confront her this morning. She continued on towards the door to the right of the garage's entrance bay, reaching for the cold handle and turning it, jerking it outward from its worn-out frame and stepping into the musty smells of the gym that were all too familiar and comforting.

Kina headed for the desk, leaving wet sneaker lines and shapes imprinted on the rubber tiles leading up to the counter.

"Hey Billa," a salarian looked up at her and smiled, "…you mind checking me in? I should still have a few sessions before I need to re-up."

Billa straightened from his book and tapped several keys on a keyboard, entering her name into the computer. "All set, Champion. You look better than Belle Elle this morning, and she's licking her wounds inside the lockers about now…"

"Yeah, I saw her identity van…Randal's car is outside…He come in with Thomson and his gang?"

"Yeah," Billa lowered his head towards her and leaned over the counter on his elbows, "…Mind your backside, Kin…You know you got eyes on you what with the name you're making for yourself…You're getting too good and Belle Elle is watching her back with you sweating her in the box like you did last night…Keep up the hustle and don't sign anything or agree to anything if it has to do with Thomson."

"I'm aware." She pushed back from the counter, tapping the metal surface with her hand and moving towards the gate separating the foyer from the main gym and locker rooms. "Thanks, Billa."

Passing the desk on her right, she left Billa to his reading and followed the walls to the divide for the gym and lockers, then turned again to head towards the women's changing area.

She ignored the posters plastering the walls with Belle Elle's face poised and tough-looking…Some were ripped, but there was at least one at every turn.

She dropped her bag on one of the wooden benches as she came into her familiar area of the lockers.

Unzipping her bag, she pulled out the rolls of tape and wraps.

Unthreading her shoelaces, she removed the soggy kicks and set these inside a locker, then pulled out her mat trainers from the sports pack. She had another pair of socks to change from her wet ones and did so before lacing up the trainers to her feet and ankles.

Shedding her coat, she hung this inside the locker.

She began wrapping her joints, taping after.

She snapped open a plastic shell and removed her mouthpiece, sliding this into the pocket of her training shorts.

It took her twenty minutes to set up, changing and wrapping and moving between her tasks to get ready, and when she was through and could put her bag in the locker, she clanged it shut and turned the combination on the metal door to one she could remember, then left the lockers to go to the bathroom.

On the way around the last locker row, she brushed shoulders with Elle.

Like two wolves sizing each other up, familiar with each other's bite and formidability, the young women stared at each other…Belle's face was a mottled assortment of cuts and bruises, some swelling still evident around the lips and eyes though significantly less than how Kina had left her in the box last night…but to Belle, Kina looked right about the same.

The snarls were in the eyes as Kina and Belle spread and gave each other distance after that initial contact of arms, intentional or not.

With lingering looks, Kina went to the bathroom vanities and started to braid her hair for working out.

Elle tore her snarling stare away and went onward to her locker, the next row over from Kina's.

Tattoos were printed all over her skin that was not covered by shorts, socks, and a tank bra…even fake tears stained her face in blue and black ink. Kina ignored these after being attracted to the detail, briefly distracted from braiding her hair over her crown.

Maybe when she had the disposable income to do so, she would get some ink on herself, too. For now, her tattoos would be the scars she'd earned from fighting that woman, along with the others before her.

§

The black metal clip clacked against the other studs of rivets in his belt.

The pants eased down over stiff muscle, channeled with black and blue grooves to his calves and ankles.

His spine flexed, crunching and cracking along the length of vertebrae into his neck as he bent upwards from the floor.

The clips and buckles sprang open in a controlled fashion as he freed their tight clasp around his waist, chest, shoulders, thighs, hips, arms, and wrists. He carried each one, loaded with their assembly of weapons, away from his body with care.

The bed began to fill with the array of his belongings, the halters opened and lined in parallels of leather, vinyl, weapons, looped thongs and straps perpendicular to the main belts and their holsters.

Thumbing the blue blades of one of the halters, he removed a box from a bureau and took out a whetstone from its container of water, then carefully stroked one blade over it that he felt too dull for his work.

A few minutes later, he had a steel brush grooving into the chambers of several pistols freed of their clasps from another halter.

The pistols lined on a cloth on the floor now, he had a can out and was dipping clean rubbing cloths into the oil.

His tight undershirt was peeled off his back, dry-damp with sweat and venom from his pores.

His boots were oiled once the pistols were tended and stored back into their holsters.

From his long coat, he removed his gloves, checked the fingers for tears and the seams for openings, then applied an oiled cloth to the leather.

Opening the closet door next to his bed, he removed the floor boards, set these aside against the wall, and pulled out a large trunk from the crawlspace underneath the floor. He opened it after setting a code to free the locks and went to his bed to pick up each heavy halter and its belongings, restoring these inside the trunk. He closed the lid, set the code again, and resealed the trunk inside the floor.

The small kitchen filled with his presence as he went to the fridge.

Grasping the long handle of the refrigerator door, he detached the door from its seal to the frame of the chest and reached in for the gallon of milk.

The sound of liquid poured into a tall glass on the table.

He raised the glass to his lips and drank, aqua-green folds of stiff skin expanding and contracting as he swallowed the milk.

He remembered Kina's comment outside on the sidewalk about his liking milk, or anything else. He lowered the glass and looked at the door, stillness taking over him as the memory burgeoned into his sight.

Those seconds passed and he whispered the word, "…Nothing," then freed from the memory spell, he felt his lips slowly curling up into a crooked grin.

§

Randal Hebin was grunting under a barbell while two of his buddies spotted the ends. There were at least two plates on either cap-end plus change, and he banged it onto the J-racks. A third man Kina didn't recognize was behind his head, helping steady the bar as he pressed it back into its holders.

Randal hadn't seen her yet, so she kept to the far side of the gym and turned her face away as she crossed through the warmup section.

She went to the main office of Wrinkle's, passing back through the divide and nodding to Billa on her left as she went through a doorway into the large garage bay.

She stopped and knocked her taped knuckles against the opened door, wedged by a triangle on the bottom between its edge and the floor to announce her presence.

"Good morning, Wrinkle."

The elephant in the garage bay turned on ponderous limbs, brown knuckles curled into the concrete floor. "Wrinkle" was an elcor, and he entered and exited the office by the garage doorway leading out to the parking lot.

Even with the garage converted into his office space, his size made it seem too small as the elcor in sweats ambled in a stunted circle to face her from his inventorying on a computer with a keyboard customized for his great, blunted fingertips.

Kina wondered how difficult it was for an elcor to change the one-piece he wore…They must be more flexible than they look…and she considered the height of the garage's hollow ceiling of metal girders and panels as the imagery of an elcor standing on his hind-legs was considered briefly in her head.

"Pleased…I did not expect to see you after last night's contest," his face—a fringe of fleshy slats vibrated, filling the garage with the echo of his deep-chested voice, and he spoke haltingly, but precise and politely, "…Surprised…what can I do for you, young lady."

Kina tried to focus on the bright little black specks of eyes hidden above the slats somewhere in his brown hugeness of head, knowing they were there but hard to find if he was not under the overhead lamps of his office.

"I had something on my mind I wanted to run by you, Wrinkle."

"Patiently…you need to say it then, Kina."

He caused her to take a step back as she witnessed the elcor rear up a quarter of the way, enough to set his heavy knuckles onto the steel table separating the doorway and her space from his inner office.

The steel buckled and popped its top downward and sides outward from the weight of his hands.

"I was wondering if you'd buy my fists for the gym's fight club, Wrinkle…The pot last night was good and will last me a couple months, but I'd like you to sponsor me."

The steel table bent and shook from Wrinkle's own body-quake.

An elcor's laugh was epileptic to a human, and though it was silent but for a deep thrum from his belly, it was still dauntingly disconcerting to witness, even in the best of circumstances.

"Gently…just because you beat Belle Elle in the box last night doesn't make you a professional…So far you've had a string of small expo matches and Belle Elle was your first big show….Sagaciously…you'll have to beat her in a rematch to prove it wasn't just good joss alone, Kina Tian."

He relieved the steel table of his pressure. Setting his knuckles back on the floor, he started to turn, still speaking at her from his seamless neck and shoulders. "Encouragingly…continue your training, Kina….Optimistically…your swelling has reduced significantly since last night…You look better than Belle Elle."

"Come on, Wrinkle," Kina walked up to the steel table, which had dent creases throughout the surface, "…does that mean you'll consider sponsoring me if I win the rematch against her next week? All I'm asking for is a short contract, with contingencies even…I'd have to maintain a minimum number of matches and wins in a certain time period to be considered for re-sponsor or renewal, or something like that."

"Annoyed…you can't get a contract here with me, Kina."

He ambled about to face her again on his knuckles, and he hunched forwards over the steel table, fleshy vertical slats of lips looming closer to her face as she looked up at the bright black beads of eyes either side of the diamond trunk shivering with his speech, "…Sadly…I'm selling the gym and rights to the fight club to Royal Thomson, Kina."

"Is that why Randal Hebin and those goons are back there in full force?" She nodded over her shoulder, turning slightly towards the gym.

"Discreetly…I won't sign you to the fight club because Thomson would get your contract once the sale is finalized, Kina…Paternally…you would not be able to back out of the contract if he owned your fists….He wouldn't let you."

His black eyes dulled as he leaned back on his knuckles and haunches from the table and lights overhead.

Kina shoved her hands into her arms beneath her biceps and leaned back on her hip, a reproachful look in her eyes, "…Why'd you sell out, Wrinkle."

"Forebearingly…I would like to return to my home on Dekuuna…My tribe has opened its leadership ranks with the passing of two Elders, and I am in line to ascend to such a position as one of these."

"Wow, I didn't know you were in a tribe…What's the name of your tribe?"

"Proudly…it is one of the oldest tribes in existence on Dekuuna…the Taleikuun, Kina….Humbly…you will need to go to Creighton Falls to fight and train if you do not want Thomson to squander your career away." His elbows bent as the slats along his mouth shivered, and he lowered his head to bring the beady eyes into view again, "…Respectfully…I am sorry, Kina Tian."

"Thanks, Wrinkle," her hand touched the worn-out table between them, "…I'm glad you told me…Makes me feel a little better why you said no to sponsoring me—like you been looking out for me all these years you've seen me training here….Does that mean others are going to leave, too? Go to Creighton Falls? Like…is Elle leaving or staying—staying, I bet, since I see her posters everywhere even after last night's fight."

"Resentfully…Belle Elle has signed with Thomson, but it will be a profitable relationship so far until he's done exploiting her." At her understanding nod, Wrinkle's folds shivered, "…Surreptitiously…the decision has not been made public to the rest of the club…Confidently…the other fighters will likely stay at Wrinkle's, and therefore with Thomson….Supportively…go back to your training and avoid Thomson and his friends…Thoughtfully…I will provide a recommendation to Creighton Fall's 'Glory Fists' for you to hit the ground running if you can find a way to drive the long distance to that gym…Conspiringly…ask for Lynda when you make it out there."