MAD

chvpter 5

...

Market street, or technically, Orient Road, is overrun by neon hospital roadblocks and the mess of people waiting for cheap medical attention.

The ANZ wreck casts a cold shadow over me as I stand in the queue of people waiting to be permitted into the hospital. My blank mask conceals everything beneath my nose, and I adjust my hood so I blend in.

Soldiers in full-face gas masks grip their machine guns as they scour every malnourished, impoverished rat who scurries past. I inspect their gear as I pass with my head tipped low. Glim-Screens appear every moment, detailing many high-tech security and comm devices. Even some electronic weapons.

The party is tonight... but I burned my mask, I burned the two things that reminded me of Tokyo, all to spite my ugly brute of a father. Marrying me off to Hito, what a twisted idea.

Now my father is just another enemy. If I go to the party, he could kill me, if I don' go, it will push him to declare me an enemy, and I'd be caught before I can get to Scorpius... do I keep this a family secret, or make him declare it? Both options fücking suck.

I have to go tonight.

I swallow down a pang of nerves. I'm not gon' be able to bite my tongue if I see Reid Myers. Prick deserves to be thrown in a pit of Zeros.

My father and Tokyo had a huge fight the night before he enlisted. Reid betrayed us two days later... it can't have been a coincidence.

Reid's betrayal got good men, our men, killed—his actions left Ghoul families without fathers, but then it hits me like a bullet that I'm no longer a Ghoul. I shouldn't hate him anymore. His betrayal got nothin' to do with me.

But that just begs the question... Why did Akimitsu kick Reid out if they were such close allies? Why wasn't Reid offered Yubitsume? Was Reid rebelling, looking for a way out?

The congested queue moves toward the hospital steadily, but people leave hastily on the other side of the neon blockades. I run my hand along the yellow plastic, my stomach tight with unease. They never put so many barriers up. Is it just crowd control?

It amuses me when we pass the singed remains of Crippy's tent. The scene of black tar and destruction earns whispers of shock and horror, but I just graze my new gun affectionately. I can't believe something blew up. I must've missed an explosive device.

I glance in the distance where I know Moaners-Tilt leans, and more importantly, the stash of weapons lies. I get the urge to check they're till there, but I remind myself that Scorpius left a disguise holograph up for security. It'd be more of a risk to check, because then I might be followed.

I look back at Crippy's old tent. Two Ghouls guard the singed remains, confirming my suspicion that my father had to have known... He should have mentioned it last night if there was nothing suspicious about the attack.

I nearly stop dead in my tracks when I witness a giant graffiti tag on the only remaining wall. A Doberman with a spike collar, and the word, HOUNDS, slashed underneath.

Why would the Hounds claim the hit I made? Unless the Heratix left the tag to point suspicion away from them.

Why was dad asking me about Vinnie? He's a Hound. Well, whatever that means now, given they're a dead gang.