After thirty minutes, the taxi came to a halt by the end of a dark alley. Flickers of neon light spluttered from down that alley, somehow without managing to illuminate the path one bit. There was no Green Sun or any other bar in sight.
"This is as close as decent people get," the driver explained in response to Luna's questioning look. "Head that way. Try not to get robbed. You'll find what you're looking for eventually." The back doors clicked open in response to a wave of the driver's hand. "Now get!"
Luna nodded her gratitude, then scurried out. The moment she'd stepped even a single step away from the taxi the door locked behind her and the vehicle sped away. She wasn't going to get back to where she'd started that way. The only way was forward.
As Luna stepped into the alley her hand reached, almost automatically, into her hoodie's pocket and caressed the birdcage ornament she'd secreted there. The note directing her to this rendezvous had been concealed inside. How had it gotten there? Luna didn't have any choice by this point but to follow the request, but that wouldn't keep her from being concerned. What was she getting herself into?
Further down the alleyway the sources of the erratic neon flashes became apparent. At intervals on either side the concrete floor gave way to recesses down to the basements of the surrounding buildings. Up from those pits came the harsh lights, blinking and strobing as if they were actively trying to distract and disorient anyone walking by. Past those entrances the irregular juts and turns in the grimy walls of the alley provided plenty of cover to other people skulking through – as did the frames of pipes and cables that ran down the brickwork, twisting past each other at harsh right-angles. Luna found herself grateful to be wearing something other than her usual dress once more. After she ended up brushing too close to a pair of people in one of the dank nooks – the two of them hashing out some sort of furtive deal over the item one of them held: an eel-like implant with an eyeball on the end – she tugged the hood further down over her face and increased her pace. She'd just have to hope she hadn't drawn any attention.
Just as Luna was beginning to wonder if she'd be lost in this maze forever, the alleyway opened out. The ambient lighting didn't get any brighter; the ramshackle buildings towering up on either side saw to that. But Luna now had space to steady herself and reorientate. And when she did she found the sign she was looking for.
A fluorescent green circle hung from a bar on the building opposite, wavy lines coming out from each side. A green sun.
Her sigh of relief only held back by the trepidation of what she'd find inside, Luna crossed the yard and opened the door beneath that sign.
o-0-o
Inside the Green Sun bar, Luna found a dingy but bustling establishment. The entrance she'd come through was raised so she could view across what she could only think of as a pit, looking over the crowd to the bar on the other side. Music blasted from all around without seeming to come from any particular source, as though woven through the walls. Luna's ears could isolate and filter that sound out, but she had no idea how anyone else was able to hold a conversation at all.
Much as Luna's trepidation rose at the idea of wading into that, she felt just as exposed stuck standing there above everyone else. After locating the stairs at one end of the rickety metal platform she made her way down. She'd barely even decided where she was going; would she get lost in the crowd? But as she reached the bottom step and began to enter the throng she spotted an oasis of safety. Hidden away under the entrance were a row of small bar tables, away from the tumult of the crowd, and one of them was free. A perfect place for Luna to await whoever had summoned her here.
Should she just go straight to that table and settle in? No. One little thought deflected her from that course; she made her way around the edge of the crowd to the bar instead. Wouldn't it look suspicious if she was the only person not partaking of the alcohol on offer? It might even be the clue that would draw someone's attention to her, after which it would only be a matter of time before they realised she was a Gaulem. After the reaction she'd gotten in that first plaza, and the skepticism of the taxi driver, she certainly wouldn't want to face the same while surrounded and cut off from the exit doors. Surrounded by drunk people, no less.
Luna reached the end of the bar's counter, but had to wait until one of the servers became free. When one of them came over – a lanky guy with a chrome visor wrapped all the way around his eyes and an extra finger grafted to each hand – Luna caught his eye, and ordered what looked to be the cheapest thing on offer. At least she knew how to pay this time. When the guy behind the bar finished pouring the disconcertingly purple liquid into a glass and pointedly didn't slide it across to her, Luna was ready. She presented her left wrist to the nearest terminal, holding it there until it beeped. Luna couldn't help but gingerly glance at the guy who'd taken her order, but his only response, on looking at his cash-machine's display, was a single arched eyebrow above his visor. Luna gratefully accepted the glass and turned away before the bartender could ask the question it looked like he wanted to ask.
o-0-o
Luna arrived back at the table she'd wanted to wait at. The seats around it, fortunately, still hadn't been claimed. She placed her glass gently on the surface and then lowered herself into the high seat on the far side, where she could overlook the crowd in the Green Sun's centre. Maybe she'd see her contact coming; maybe she wouldn't. But at least she'd have a chance.
Of course, Luna didn't know what time she was supposed to meet whoever-it-was. That hadn't been on her note. Which was why Luna's only option was to observe and hope for the best. Was there any particular reason why the contact had chosen a bar like this? Luna didn't know that either.
One reason why the Green Sun was not an ideal spot for a clandestine meeting quickly became apparent. A space formed in the centre of the floor as the crowd edged away like oil on water fleeing from a drop of soap. There, in the centre of the open area, the causers of the disturbance stood plain and clear. Three youths, two men and one woman all sporting exoskeleton-like implants along their shoulder blades and arms, had surrounded a skinny cowering man there. The victim tried, acting on pure instinct, to scurry through the gap between the two guys. A single menacing flex of a bicep had him scrambling back to the centre.
"The fuck did you just say to us?" grunted the thug who'd obstructed the man's escape. Luna was sure she was the only person on the periphery capable of hearing that, over the volume of the still-blaring music and the muttering of the surrounding crowd.
But the meaning was more than clear to the man it'd been directed at. "I'm sorry! I didn't say anything. I swear!" the victim cried out.
Now it was the turn of the young man on the other side to sneer. "What's that? Think you're too good to talk to us?"
"Wha-?" The befuddlement of the man's expression gave way to dread. "Please. I didn't mean anything by it. Please don't…"
Then the female thug came up behind the man. She gripped him by the left shoulder, lights blinking and flowing along her arm implants as she raised the man from the floor. "A normie like you shouldn't even breathe the same air as us." Then her other arm shot out at superhuman speed and broke the poor man's wrist.
The man yelped, fell to the floor.
As the three attackers giggled and turned away towards the bar, the crowd parting warily in front of them, the man they'd assaulted pulled himself to his knees and struggled his way away from the centre of the main floor. As it was he ended up coming to rest against the platform that Luna's table rested. He let out a dismayed sigh and then slumped there, nursing his left hand.
Luna slipped off her barstool and knelt beside the injured man. "I can help you with your injury," she said gently. She then reached out towards his arm. "Please, let me…"
"Huh?" the man grunted, tilting his head to face her. "You got some sort of angle, lady? What, do you want–?" A wince of pain broke through his speech.
Luna shook her head fitfully. She barely even understood what she was being accused of. "No, please. I just want to help."
The man gazed up under her hood, carefully studying Luna's facial features. Eventually he shrugged in resignation. "Not like my day's gonna get any worse."
Luna first inspected the damage, tracing the run of bones through the arm with a gentle brush of her fingertips. On the bottom of the man's wrist she found something hard that hadn't been on any of the anatomy diagrams she'd memorised. It was right where the payment device had been in her own wrist, and as she cradled it she found the position uncomfortably reminiscent of handling the AB bracelets in preparation for and during the Nonary Game. Then she moved past it and found the damage the thugs had done to the radius and ulna: unpleasant, but at least within the range of what she'd dealt with before.
Luna didn't have anything on her that even resembled a proper first-aid kit. She did the best she could, using a fragment of table leg she found on the floor – were tables broken in here that regularly? – as a splint and binding it in place with fabric from the man's own clothes. She would trust in her abilities as a nurse, even if the man she was treating wasn't ready to trust anything.
Just when she'd finished checking her work, as she stood up and reached a hand down to help the man back to his feet as well, the doors Luna had entered by swung open with a brutal clang. Four men entered the Green Sun as a unit, all wearing sleek helmets over their heads and metal body armour adorned with police-blue stripes. One of them stayed atop the metal balcony, surveying the crowd, while the other three descended the stairs. They pushed their way methodically through the crowd. Then, after a few warning looks cleared some space, the three arrayed themselves around Luna and the man she'd just nursed.
"Well, well," the leader said, now close enough that Luna could see hints of his face through the blue-tinted visor. "What's going on here?"
The man next to Luna stayed pursed-lipped, silent. She took it on herself to give the police officers a clear and concise explanation of what had occurred. "Those three over there –"
Luna felt her elbow suddenly yanked back. The man she had helped stepped past her in haste, his posture practically supplicating as he put himself between her and the three officers. "It's nothing! A misunderstanding It wasn't a big deal." Luna didn't understand why the man had acted like that.
The lead officer sneered down at the man. "Heh. Looks like a big deal to me. Let's hear what the little lady has to say." He stepped past the man – who scrambled hurriedly out of the way – and loomed over Luna. "So? What do you say happened here?"
Luna didn't know what to reply with but the truth. Her voice subdued, she recounted the events that had led up to the man needing her medical aid and the arrival of the police.
The officer she'd been talking to stayed silent for a while. When he spoke again, Luna could see the smirk through the glass visor. "I see, I see." He nodded, an exaggerated rocking of his helmet. "Well, that's just your side of the story, of course. We'll have to see what they have to say about it. Won't we?"
With a sharp gesture the leader directed one of the other police officers towards the bar. Luna couldn't do anything as the policeman sauntered away. When the officer reached the group that had attacked the man a brief conversation ensued. After a quick back-and-forth one of the thugs held out his fingers forming the outline of a rectangle. Even from this distance Luna could make out the details as a holographic image resolved, an identity card floating in the air. The police officer glanced back at the leader, and delivered a resolute nod.
The lead cop directed his attention back at Luna and, menacingly, planted his gloved hand on her shoulder. "Thought so. You'd best come with us, little lady."
One of Luna's feet took a step back away from the officer, automatically. "Why?" she asked. "Please, there's got to be some explanation…" Luna paused as the lead cop's grip tightened; her pleas were cut off entirely when he yanked her forward.
The man Luna had helped waved his hands frantically. "She didn't do anything!" His expression almost shocked at what he himself was saying, the man continued, "She was just trying to help."
Then the third police officer back-handed the man across the face, a shocking crack of violence. The man stumbled and just about stayed off the floor, cowering from the officer who'd attacked.
Luna turned her head back towards the leader. Anything but utter compliance would only get people around her hurt. She bowed her head and let the officer drag her away and up to the entrance, jeers echoing in the Green Sun behind her.
o-0-o
The police officers hauled Luna out through the Green Sun Bar's entrance and tossed her onto the damp concrete of the yard outside. The four of them fanned out around her and the one in charge knelt down next to where she was sprawled out, looming over her head. He wrested the dark purple hood away from her head and peered down, studying Luna's facial features with a sneer.
"I don't think you get what's going on here, missy," he said, his voice calm but deep enough to almost rumble. "You're causing trouble for your betters. Here in Rhizome Nine, we don't like it when 'people' like you cause trouble for productive citizens. You get what I'm saying?"
Luna didn't. Why were these police officers acting like this?
One of the other police let out a harsh snort of a laugh. "Her sort aren't capable of learning anything. Same as all the scum down here. Seriously, why doesn't the founder just let us clean out all these shitholes already?"
"Father's a great believer in second chances," the leader replied. Then he turned back to Luna. "Hear that, little missy? The founder of Rhizome Nine, the great Father, gave scum like you the opportunity to advance yourself. He built this place to give you the chance to get off the burnt out husk of Earth and make something of yourself. Now, if you're gonna squander these opportunities…" The police officer gave Luna a melodramatic shrug. "That's up to you. But when the vermin in this shithole cause problems for their betters…"
Suddenly the officer grabbed Luna by her curled-up hair and flicked her head back against the concrete.
"…then you're just making our lives harder. And we don't like people who make our lives harder. Ya hear me?"
If that had been done to a human being they would have been dazed, at the least. Luna was just confused, and dismayed. The sheer extent of her lack of understanding about the universe she'd found herself in was looming large in her mind. And now there was nothing she could do about that. She was powerless.
At what the lead cop had said, one of his subordinates had come over from where he'd been surveying the square and warding off the mildly curious gazes of passers-by. "Like those damn terrorists," that cop muttered. "If they'd just let us tear this entire place down, we'd be sure of getting all the fuckers who've been sheltering…" As that police officer stepped close enough to stand over Luna he trailed off. "Hey? Sarge?"
"What?" the leader replied.
A bright light on the side of the other officer's helmet burst on. It swivelled about, moving at the officer's conscious command, the bright spot it projected running over Luna's body like a searchlight before settling on her face. "Does she look familiar to you? I'd swear I've seen her somewhere before…"
These police officers knew about Luna? She would have had a ton of questions for anyone who could have known what she was doing there or what role she was supposed to play. Somehow she didn't think these police would give her the answers she wanted. Luna could only lie there, looking up at the officers who loomed over her until a sharp gasp came from the one who'd first recognised her.
Then something small and round and gleaming shot into position, hovering over them, before bursting open with an underwhelming poof.
In an instant the entire area was smothered by dust and white smoke. The cops who'd surrounded Luna stumbled back, disappearing into the cloud. And then a bright, high-pitched voice called out, directed at Luna and Luna alone.
"Over here, Miss! This way!"