HAWK

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: LIMBO (4/6)

Over the next couple of days, Kas couldn't help but wonder if she'd made a big mistake. While Worm's list hadn't been that long, Kas hadn't fully appreciated the size of some of the equipment.

Her apartment had been taken up by two aisles of slim but tall computer-racks that spanned the length of the room like twin rows of six-foot dominos. Joining them together were cables as thick as Kas's arms, their bodies strewn across the floor like monstrous snakes, coiling around the faded furniture and turning half of the apartment into a maze of tripping hazards. Worm took one of the cables and attached a suction device to its end (not unlike a toilet-plunger) before suckering it to the X1 computer, still locked inside the neck of its broken body. All of the cables ultimately fed into a desk-sized computer terminal with more screens and switches than the Pegasus's control panel.

'This is some pretty impressive stuff,' Kas said while Worm set everything up. 'You got all this for nine-thousand?'

'Eight and a half,' Worm replied from under the terminal. All Kas could see of her was her little legs poking out.

'I don't know much about computers, but that seems pretty cheap.'

'This computer's worth twenty-thousand by itself.'

'Then how'd you manage to buy it for under nine?'

'I didn't buy it. It's a loan.'

'A loan? Are you telling me I gave you nine-thousand credits and you don't actually own anything?'

'I told you, I'll pay it back.'

Kas felt like she should make a show of being angry, but her heart just wasn't in it. Her perspective on the world had shifted and money just didn't seem all that important anymore - she was just grateful to be alive. She left the girl to it and returned to the sofa to catch up on her favourite movies and TV shows on the lambentile wall screen.

For three days, she barely moved except to go to the door to receive food deliveries. Worm, meanwhile, fully submerged herself into her work, only stopping to eat or have a quick nap before returning to her task, but despite her best efforts, the X1 was proving to be as stubborn as her and yielded no signs of life. With each further day that passed, Kas wondered if the kid might have had a better chance of trying to invoke sentience in a bowling ball.

By the end of the week, Kas had ploughed through twenty-two films, six TV shows and a couple of VR sporting events while Worm was exactly where she'd been at the start.

Kas was finishing off a family-size bag of zero-fat crisps and watching the season three finale of Altered Lies when the doorbell sounded. Thinking she must've ordered some more food and since forgotten about it, she paused her show and activated the vidcom, and was surprised to see President Mantana standing outside the building with three burly guards. The rain was coming down in nails.

'President Mantana,' she said, munching on another crisp. 'What brings you to the Woods?'

'Kas?' he replied, wiping the rain from his eyes. 'I can't see you...'

'You won't. Video only works one way.'

'Can you let me in?'

'Just you or your whole boyband?'

'Just me.'

'Do I need to be concerned?'

'Not at all. In fact, I'm here with a friend of yours.' He raised his hand to the camera to show off the WASP mask in his grip.

Kas froze as she shook the last few crumbs of food into her mouth. She swallowed and discarded the empty packet to the floor.

'Come on down,' she said.