A fruity laugh slipped along an industrial wind and rang like distant music to Lana's ears. I saw the smile bloom on her face and she spun in place, looking for her dearest love.

I rolled my eyes and closed the front door behind me. My house, a well-worn but liveable triplex, was more on the brinks of town than right in the thick of things and thereby safe from possible thieves. Not that I worried too much. It was the cemetery proprietors that had to keep an eye out these days. The grave robbers were flourishing more and more as our corrupted city continued to eat itself alive.

It seemed as if GeneCo's new management had failed to change things. If anything, things were worse than ever. Legal Zydrate was still just as hard to obtain, but the black market version was cropping up in abundance. The former spokesperson for the anti-addiction campaign herself, Amber Sweet, wasn't doing a thing to keep Zydrate off the streets. And who would have figured otherwise? We all knew of her addiction. I'm sure each of us had come across her crumpled, stoned out of her mind, in a gutter in some back alley at some point or another. Her only real action to stop the spread was continuing the apprehending of any grave robbers found. It was a thin mask behind which to hide her dirty little secret, but so far it had worked. Of course, as manager of GeneCo, there wasn't anyone above her to point fingers.

Not only had the amount of street Zydrate increased, but the death toll was booming. Amber had, to the utter horror of every resident, appointed her brother Luigi as the head of law enforcement. The Gencops had been given allowance to be as brutal as possible. As a result, minor infractions had earned the death penalty on numerous occasions. Luigi himself was often found stalking the streets surrounded by a battalion of Gencops, raring for someone to provoke him in some small way so that he could get use of his blades.

Pavi Largo, it seemed, had not been designated a certain position in the company. Rather, he strolled along as he always had, dazzling the ladies and stealing faces along the way. Rumours circled that he was in charge of whatever departments were behind cosmetic surgery, but nothing was certain.

No research was being done to speed up the face-changing surgeries; that was for sure. No one was willing to go through with the procedure any more, not after Amber's disastrous performance at the Genetic Opera last year. People couldn't be bothered with an enhancement that might fail. No one cared all that much anyhow. Plastic surgery was still always an option.

There were always options for those who chose to put their faith in GeneCo.

Lana was still searching for the source of the laugh. She beckoned for me to hurry up, as if I too couldn't wait to get a quick glimpse of her crush. I resigned myself to trotting along behind her.

"Lana!" I called out. Her pace was certainly more eager than mine, and she was putting distance between us two. "Lana! Wait up!"

She paused at a street corner, looking from left to right. I doubt she had heard my comment—she was like a fox on a hunt, dead set on her target and impossible to distract. I heard her mumbling; something about from which way the unctuous giggle had drifted. I had hardly caught up before she was off again, dashing to the right.

Her pursuit finally ended when we saw a cluster gathered at another street corner. As I approached the clamouring throng, I could just barely make out a head of inky black hair surrounded by the red masks of the Genterns.

I held my distance, a frown curling my lips as I watched Lana trying to nudge through the crowd. It was strange that a Largo sibling should stray so far from the inner city. I couldn't imagine what would have brought Pavi to the suburbs. His presence was certainly known, though. Girls of all ages were elbowing their way closer to the center of the maze of people. It turned my stomach to see the preteens squealing admissions of love to Pavi. He would respond with a flourishing wave, as if promising to give them a good lay once they came of age. The girls didn't seem to realize that they were setting themselves up for a love 'em and leave 'em relationship, possibly followed by a brutal killing by Luigi and a swift face-snatching.

Fed up with the pathetic show, I stalked over to Lana just as a couple of Gencops began to disperse the crowd. Disappointed girls slinked off to their houses, undoubtedly to slip their fingers into their panties to relieve the sexual tension created by Pavi's proximity.

Just as I hooked an arm around Lana's elbow intending whole-heartedly to drag her away if need be, I heard the fruity laugh once more, this time right in front of me. I looked up, and what do you know, there he was, grinning permanently behind his mask. He had long since shed Amber's old face and donned something new. I wondered what poor soul had unintentionally willed their face to Pavi.

"Aha! So-a eager to run away!" His voice was a carefree lilt, more Italian-sounding than his siblings. "Why are you-a leaving, bella? Maybe I want to continue looking at your-a pretty face!"

I stiffened as he raised a single finger to my chin, lifting my head so that I was looking directly into his eyes. The mask was one that expressed merriment, reminding me of how he looked that dark night at the opera. His eyes, however, betrayed something else, something I couldn't pinpoint.

"Yes, beautiful!" He dropped his hand and offered it to me. "Come, bella, and I will-a show you GeneCo. Someone as pretty as-a you could-a be a Gentern!"

The Genterns giggled in an all-too-sycophantic fashion. They were just the type of woman on which Pavi thrived: vapid and promiscuous. Their painted fingernails traced invisible, lusting scratches down his chest as if they couldn't wait for the return to his bedroom.

I glared at him with as much disdain as I could muster with Lana shooting eye-daggers into my back. "No thanks. I'd prefer a career that uses brainpower."

A collective gasp of offense rose from the Genterns. Their bottom lips all popped into a pout one by one. They were certainly acting like programmed robots. Had they been trained as such, or did Pavi enjoy the lack of conflict brought on by the Genterns lack of brain cells? Good question.

Pavi, on the other hand, laughed again. ", bella, very good! Such wit! Are you-a sure you don't want to come for a walk? We could-a have much to talk about!" He proffered his hand once more.

I gave Lana's arm a tug backward and began to step away. "No thanks," I repeated. "Maybe another time."

"! I will be-a waiting!" Pavi waved flamboyantly and ushered his Gentern posse in the other direction. Their chatter about what they would do to him later was audible for all too long after they had headed off.

We were hardly a block away when Lana rounded on me with fire in her eyes. "What was that all about?" she hissed.

There was no point in playing dumb. The object of her affection hadn't even glanced her way as he had essentially hit on me. Her jealousy was blaring as fiercely as Luigi's temper, and I knew that unless I manoeuvred carefully out of this predicament, I might earn her cold shoulder for a good week or so.

"Lana, he was just being an ass. Don't read too much into it." Like that would happen. She would probably spend months dwelling on the encounter.

"Oh? And the fact that he was pretty much humping you with his eyes? I'm not supposed to read into that?" Her hands were in tight fists, and I worried that one might break free and smash my teeth. "Jesus Christ! He's mine, and you still—"

"Excuse me?" I lost it at that point. The words began to flow, harsh and honest. "Yours? Yours? Lana, he doesn't know your goddamn name, and yet he's still yours? Listen, it's about time you grow up and realize that he's never going to give a shit about you. He's going to keep screwing whores and Genterns and every other girl in this stupid city, and even if he does give you the time of day and maybe a quick fuck, he will never care about you. Get over it!"

It was cruel, it was excessive...and it was the truth. I had kept it all hidden for so long, and one foolish comment from Lana had cracked the seal. I felt bad immediately afterward, but the damage had been done.

With one final look of purest contempt, Lana slapped me across the face and left me standing frozen on the sidewalk.