Episode 6: Red Widow

(Music ((Muffled)) Nightfall by soundcop) (Muted noises, the entrance is from the perspective of the Case Lead and woman).

Footsteps (POV Jeseph & Sandra Ravimos), key card

Kal: (yells something ummutable & the sound of somehting getting hit and falling)

(key card, iris scan, door unlocking. . .)

Savage Sal: . . .with your attitude. Shit. After the throacic mobility spend the next hour working on your hurdle stretch (Door opens and voices unmute)

Kal.

I blink, still very much feeling the tracks of my long dried tears, on my cheeks. Its Jeseph, my Case Lead, and with him. . .

"Its you," I say, looking the woman up and down. Not as tall as I originally thought but starkly beautiful, in the way vipers are. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel as if I know her from somewhere else. Maybe a holo? But thats ridicolous, what would an actress want with me? The woman from the viewing portal lifts her nose, and gives the room a condenscedning look. For my part, I feel nothing. No shame at the weights, papers, and crap thrown across the floor in the peak of my tirade. Savage Sal for his part looks like a fish out of water, caught somehwere between horror and the gutting.

"Sir, I can explain," Savage Sal says, wringing his hands.

Everyone ignores him. The woman's eyes glimmers shortly, as does Jesephs. "His life debt is yours." She nods and begins walking away.

"The shit is this?"

She makes it several strides before stopping, turning, and casting us all with a look that could freeze the world twice over. "It means your retirment has either come sooner or you will need to be finding yourself another protege, Salvador. And as for you. . . Kal, you belong to us now. So I suggest you follow if you ever truly want to be free." And then she's gone, turning out of frame of the door.

And I'm following. I'm following. Following. (SS: Kal! Kal! ((Fades)) Layer with the music going from Muted, to full sound, making his way out of the building and into a space vehicle. Sandra: Buckle up. Sounds of them buckling up and into the Heliojumper.)

Pilot 1: Rising to altitude Maam

Controller: Red Widow, Red Widow. You are cleared for Sector LFT.

Pilot 1: Copy Control, enroute.

Static

I can hardlyh believe my eyes. I rub them twice to make sure I'm not dreaming. From the viewing port, I watch as Virdi Inc. dissapears into the clouds, the last time I would ever see that monolithic tower. The Heliothopter moves smoother than even the holos depict. Had I not climbed into that black disc of a vehicle, I would've thought my feet were still on solid ground. Away we fly and away goes Cloud Garden. The sprawling sanctuary for corporate billionaires. A floating oasis in cotton candy clouds, pink with the luster of the sun. We leave the pyramids, the marble mansions, the golden palatial estates and into the open air.

"Do you like it?" the woman asks, seated across me, legs crossed, the slit of her dress running dangerously high.

"That place," I stammer, my heart quickening at the sudden relaization of my predicament. I swear she see's it on my face and smiles. Her teeth are so white against the shroud of her skin and I can't help but think of bones found in the wasteland. Picked clean by the carrions crawlers and gliding vultures. I shiver.

"I'd hang myself before I said I like it. Cloud Garden isn't a place for my kind. Its built off the backs of my kind." She nods. "Look, I'm here because I was told this was my ticket out of here. Nothing is free. Who the hell do you work for and whats the catch?

"Straight to the point. I like that."

I grunt something indescernible and try to look tough—what else am I going to do?

"My name is Sandra." She removes her gloves and reaches out hand to shake mine.

Controller: Red Widow, Red Widow, you are clear to make the jump. On Citadels mark. Three, (switch, rising music)

Taking her hand into mine, my heart skips a beat. My hair stands on end. And everything in me is telling me to run. But I'm in a heliojumper, getting ready to jump at lightspeed to God knows where. Her pointer and index fingers have been replaced by an opaque synth flesh, with jagged, obsidian-like metal bones at the center. The ends of the two fingers sharp as knives. . .

Controller: Two.

Red Widow, Red Widow. Shit hit's me. I do know her. Sandra Ravimos. . . the infamous sex trafficker. Her name is all over the news. The prosthetics only confirm my suspicions. . .

"Your with the Cartel. . ."

Controller: One

"Don't look too suprised. Who else could possibly pay of your life debt?"

Pilot: Jumping, now (Button flips, engine whines)

"Oh Fu—"

Ship jumps, heavy soundscape, scoring music