Page 53 of Scion

“Alright. So run the sim again, but we catch the Dupe alive.”

Another silence.

“Best-case scenario gets a little better. Sort of.” Atti sighs. “The Keres directors of the Themis branch get a public listing by DeGov and are made available for proscription. The outrage over de Alwes generates enough crowdfunding for another Ten-O-Ten corp to risk taking the contract. Every asset the Keres have in Themis gets seized by DeGov, which then informs the other megacities of the violation. It’s a big enough hit that the other branches decide it’s better to cooperate with their respective DeGovs, take the loss and focus on PR in their own regions, rather than go scorched earth here and try to take you out.”

“But?”

“But they’re a corp, Azure. They’re a distributed entity that has a hand in every aspect of life inside every megacity: not only do they have all the tokens, but they’re key clients for half the other major corps as well. No one really wants them gone. Even if you get them in Themis, they’ll just disappear for a while, then come back with different people and under a different name. You inconvenience them, yes—you piss them off, certainly—but you sure as hell don’t beat them.”

“That’s fine. I’ll settle for the pissing them off part. You have to start somewhere.”

“Do you, though? I feel like that’s what people without tokens say.” When I don’t respond, she sighs. “Oh, and if I extend the sim? DeGov legally requires you to remain as physical proof of the Keres’ breach. You become evidence. They tag you.”

I pause. “Riiight.” I hadn’t thought of that.

“There really is no world in which you can do what you’re planning to do, and be safe. No world in which you take them down. No world in which you can even give them the finger and slip into the shadows.” She’s quieter. Apologetic. “There is a world where you get out, and you’re happy. You want to hear how?”

I don’t speak for a long time. Happy. Does Atti even really understand the word, in the way a human would?

“Azure?”

“Yeah, yeah. Tell me the plan.”

“No. It’s not that. It’s just… I think there’s someone trying to get in.”

I’m about to respond when the door to the sewer flies inward off its hinges, a massive torn-off tentacle gets flung into the lab, and a very angry-looking version of me follows it into the room.

“NOW? SERIOUSLY?” I’M EXASPERATED AS the filthy, one-handed Dupe stalks toward me. “We needed, like… three more minutes?”

It throws a Ceramic at my head.

It comes fast. Bullet fast. Without my revs activated, the blade would have skewered my eye and subsequently my brain. As it is, I don’t have time to catch it, only duck. It barely misses.

I am lucky the Dupe didn’t try to throw it at my body, because that would have been harder to—

It throws another one at my body. A white handle sprouts from my shoulder, despite my best efforts to dodge.

“Damn it! Ow. Just stop for a second, will you?” I yank the blade from my shoulder and hang onto it.

“I will not stop until you are destroyed. Every. Last. One of you,” the Dupe hisses.

I recoil a little.

“Uh, Azure? Is it just me, or does the Dupe sound—”

“Utterly psychopathic?” I murmur. I continue to back away, and raise my voice to address the Dupe. “So! Friend. Comrade. Any chance we can have a nice, rational—”

The monster with my face blurs forward.

The next ten seconds are a haze. I backpedal around the lab. Dodge, and dodge, and barely the hell dodge as my one-handed and very angry mirror image snarls and slashes and punches and generally does its best to kill me. It throws scalpels and beakers and one time, its own damned severed hand, which is so gross and weird that I don’t move fast enough and it slaps me across the face. Hard. Atti, who usually provides at least semi-helpful commentary during a fight, just laughs uproariously at that part.

It’s all fine, though. The Dupe got here more quickly than I thought it would, but otherwise, everything’s in place. I’d guessed at its aggression, given the smoking crater of Sanctum. Pretty much supposed that things might go something like this. I mean, the hand-flinging was an unpleasant surprise. The demented little speech even more so. But generally, everything feels under control.

I finally skid out the thick steel door and jam it shut, barely in time as the Dupe screams and throws itself forward. Not unlike the door at Sanctum, there’s immediately the crashing echo of impact after impact on metal. Dents on my side quickly begin to appear.

“You get a holo of all that?” I ask Atti as I stride toward the Loop platform.

“Hell yes. Wow. You were so close to dead, just then.” Atti sounds impressed. “Like, completely outmatched. That Dupe is strong.”