HAWK

CHAPTER THREE: HAWKED (1/6)

Kas rocked up to the Artisseum five minutes before opening time. Proceedings wouldn't be underway for at least another hour, but she always liked to check on the status of her haul before the event.

As the stadium came into sight, Kas saw dozens of people were already waiting outside the entrance, all huddled together under the wide awning surrounding the entrance. Kas assumed they were there to escape the acidic downpour, but as she got closer, she realised they were all chanting in unison with several of them holding up signs.

'Primi's our home! Leave us alone! Primi's our home! Leave us alone!'

Kas slowed to a stop and sneered. She had no interest in going any closer, so she crossed the square to a shallow stone wall where a broad spirewood tree offered her a little shelter. She took a seat and ruffled the tips of her mohawk to shake off the worst of the rain, then looked again at the protesters still chanting their dumb chant.

'Racists,' she said, though only she could hear. She had half a mind to go over and offer a few choice words of her own, but attention was exactly what they were after. The Artisseum's security would sort them out soon enough. She looked up at the grand building and took it all in.

The Artisseum was five-stories tall with a perimeter over a mile long. A former zero-gravity stadium and once a major contributor to Chantos's income, it had been forced to close over a decade before when investigators discovered that it hadn't been built in accordance with required regulation. Everything had been fine to begin with, but after several months, the home athletes began to complain of increasing muscle pains. A fault was discovered in the stadium's outer walls which it turned out hadn't been properly adjusted for the moon's gravity. This played havoc with the specialised gravity suits the athletes had to wear, and the effect was as slow and constant as water dripping on a rock. Gradually, their muscles atrophied and eroded from many months of exposure.

Once the problem was known, local officials were presented with two choices: demolition or repurposing. Due to the high cost of construction, they certainly weren't about to destroy it, so instead the Artisseum was turned into an auction house.

It was no ordinary auction house, of course. You couldn't just turn up and have a cheeky go on a box of unopened proto-canisters, hoping to stumble upon a rare exochip and turn a tidy profit. This place was big league. Some of the rarest and most expensive items in the solar system traded hands there. It was an evening's entertainment for many locals who came in their droves to witness the trades for themselves. And they didn't come for the most expensive items - usually just boring minerals and rare elements. They came for the warships. The super-weapons.

The criminals.

The sound of the Artisseum's huge double doors breaking open stole Kas from her thoughts. The protesters immediately forgot their chant and began shouting and swearing, some calling for the 'toad' to be killed. Kas shuffled off the wall, turned up her duster's collar and sauntered into the rain towards them.

A dozen security guards stepped out of the building as she approached and tried to encourage the protesters away from the entrance, but the crowd wasn't giving way. Kas waded into their midst. Looking at their pale faces, she knew most of them had never even left Chantos. They all had the same emblem printed in various places on their clothing: the face of a man with the word 'LIBERTY' underneath. Kas made it half-way through before finding herself stuck behind a man a whole foot taller than her. He was the biggest and loudest of the protesters, and he was the one in Kas's way.

'Move!' she yelled, but her request had barely left her lips before it was shot down by the rest of the shouts. Anger filled her fingertips and curled them inwards. Her hands came up and grabbed the back of the tall man's jacket while she placed her right foot on the back of his knee. She pulled back with her arms and thrust her foot forward. The big guy toppled like a dead tree and landed hard on his back.

The crowd went quiet as they looked at Kas.

'Move,' she growled.

Every one of them was looking back at her with wide, twitching eyes, but with their leader now lying winded on the floor, none of them dared go for her. They split apart as she stepped forwards, reluctantly allowing her entry into the Artisseum. The security guards nodded to her as she passed them by.