By Elizabeth Jane Shelton
I wake, head pounding and hands bound behind my back, both surprised and angry to recognize the room. Metallic walls, striped with black and red, are so shiny I can see my reflection, and the exit door boasts a dagger-and-skull insignia. The interrogation room.
Not him. Anyone but him.
The last thing I remember is leaving the Lotus Bar, my bounty secured, no more than a few hours ago. I was so proud to finally track him down and get him off the streets—a pedophile, drug dealer, and tax evader to boot. But as soon as I stepped into the alley, I took a sharp blow to the head, and then… nothing.
I look into my captor’s familiar face. “Aegis.” Mercifully, my voice remains steady. “What do you want?”
“Is that any way to treat an old friend?” He grins, sharklike. I wish I could smack that smile right off his face. The fluorescent lighting reflects off his bald head and brassy chains around his neck as he lounges in a rusted folding chair a few feet away. Conversely, his crisply pressed suit and fitted black V-neck seem to absorb light, a pool of shadow in the stark room.
He’s exactly like I remember him. Charming.
Dangerous.
“Friend? You left me for dead.”
“You know this is a hard business.” He shrugs. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard you were still alive. Nobody should have survived that explosion, but seeing you now…” He chuckles.
I glance at the wall. It’s been three years since the surgeries saved my life, but my reflection still gives me pause. The upper right side of my face is covered by a steel plate, a glowing red cybernetic eye replacing my ruined biological one. The plate extends over the entire top and back of my skull, and dozens of synthetic braids protrude in place of hair. The left side of my face is scarred beyond repair, but still functional.
Nobody would call me beautiful. But seeing myself here, now, in front of Aegis… it stirs something in my chest. Hope.
I’m not the girl I once was.
Aegis continues. “Bounty hunting is beneath you.”
“It pays the bills.” I raise my surviving eyebrow. “I’d rather turn them in for profit than kill them for sport.”
“Not sport. Business. You never understood…”
As he talks, I activate my neural interface as naturally as if I’d been born with it, commanding one of my false braids to detach. I catch it deftly with a bound hand and get to work, careful not to break my inch-long lime-green nails. My hair hides all sorts of secrets, and this particular braid conceals a knife.
I’d worry about keeping him distracted, but he’s not even done talking yet. “Truth be told, I had business with your bounty, but when I saw you—well, why not get two for the price of one?” He opens his arms and smiles again. “Little Meg, finally home after all these years.”
I bristle at his use of my old name. “I won’t play your games anymore. I got out.”
“You think a little thing like dying gets you out?” He snorts. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
I yank at the bindings. Close, but not quite. “And what makes you think I won’t kill you as soon as you untie me?”
He chuckles. “Oh, Meg. You never were much for murder. I pulled your record to see what you’ve been up to, and what did I find? Not a single terminated bounty.” He sighs. “You used to be the perfect assassin.”
I take a deep breath. Once, facing Aegis would have left me trembling. Now, I feel… steady. Aegis no longer has the upper hand. Against all odds, my near-death experience has forged me into something even stronger. Something unshakeable.
I lift my chin. “I don’t go by Meg anymore. If you’ve seen my record, the least you can do is call me by my new name.”
He throws back his head and laughs. “All right, all right. What was it again? Something thematically appropriate, I’m sure. Athena? Artemis? Which goddess did you stylize yourself after?”
My bindings snap, and in that moment, so do I.
I activate the defense mechanism in my cybernetic eye, and it emits a flash so bright that Aegis cries out, clawing at his face. His chair tips backward.
I launch myself forward, pinning him as I dig all ten of my poison-tipped fingernails into his neck. He cries out and struggles, but the nerve toxin spreads quickly, and soon he stills, staring with wide, unblinking eyes.
Petrified.
The pain is supposed to be excruciating, and he won’t be able to move a single muscle for hours. Breathing a sigh of relief, I plug the knife braid back into my cranial plate, then retrieve my belongings. I pull on a knit beanie. “At least you could remember my name,” I say to Aegis’s prone form. “After all, you’re the one who made me a monster.”
He’s right about one thing. I won’t kill him. But I’m no longer afraid to move against him. Hopefully, when my tip leads my employers here later, he’ll get what he deserves.
I pull a pack of themed playing cards from my bag and place one on his chest. “Here. So you don’t forget.”
A face eerily similar to my own stares back up at me from the card: flashing eyes, green claws, writhing hair. The woman who inspired me to make myself a weapon so I would never be helpless again. Aegis might have made me a monster, but her story saved my life. I even borrowed her name.
Medusa.
I take one last look at the reflective wall and smile.
I’m going to enjoy this.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Loved your story! Thanks for sharing. :)