Chapter Text
It was only because of her wealth of experience, plus the fact that she had a modicum of situational awareness, that Sevika was the first of the two of them to realize.
Realize how absolutely cooked they were.
The job was supposed to be normal, easy even- if easy existed in Zauhn. But then Jinx had shown up, the way she always had, and, well, Jinxed things up. Striding in with that swagger that seemed too large for her thirteen-year-old frame and one of those damned bombs in her hand. Sevika had groaned at the sight of her.
Silco had made her bring Jinx, insisting she was old enough to learn more about their business and start going on routine Shimmer pickups. He couldn’t see the kid for what she was: a lost cause and, worse, a risk . When Sevika had picked Jinx up for the drop, she knew there would be trouble. With her, there always was.
Still, what Silco said went, and Sevika just let out a heavy sigh and started in the direction of the drop point without looking behind her to see if Jinx was following.
“Don’t fall behind,” she threw over her shoulder, “We got a busy day.”
To her credit, Jinx had, even with her gangly teenage assortment of limbs, not fallen behind. In fact, she had been almost placidly obedient, sitting back quietly while Sevika met with the Shimmer dealer.
She was quiet… Until they were leaving and one of the Shimmer thugs made the mistake of letting out a wolf whistle in Jinx’s direction. In a split second, Sevika knew that an irreversible mistake had been made, and that everything was about to go sideways.
Sevika reached out to grab Jinx’s arm, just a millisecond too late as the younger woman spun on her heel, a wicked grin on her face. But even that wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for the janky, monkey-shaped bomb she was holding.
“Sorry, what was that?” Before the goon could respond, Jinx had pitched the bomb, and Sevika was swearing up and down. Without thinking, she picked the slight teenager up in one arm and the Shimmer in the other, propelling them both down the nearest alley. It was only because she had grown up here, in Zauhn, that she was familiar enough to know the turns to take. Her body pitched left and right on instinct, before her mind knew where they were going. Gotta get back to the Last Drop. Gotta get back to Silco. They won’t fuck with us there. Sure, she could have stayed and fought, but that was messy, and Silco wanted quiet. Plus, admit it or not, Sevika didn’t love the idea of Jinx getting caught in the crossfire.
Unfortunately, as luck would have it, enforcers were out in droves that day. At first, Sevika thought she could use that to her advantage—she could draw their attention to the rival goons and leave both in their dust.
And it almost seemed to work, as a few enforcers grabbed the slowest of their pursuers, throwing them efficiently into cuffs. But it wasn’t enough. They were still being followed by over half a dozen of them, and the enforcers were catching up.
Sevika dragged Jing around a corner, which would lead to the final stretch before The Last Drop. Her heart skipped a beat when she was met with a dead end—a food stand filled with oranges blocking the entrance. It hadn’t been there last week, and now it was cornering them against the encroaching enforcers.
“Fuck!” Sevika growled as she glanced furtively between the stall, the high walls on either side and, finally, Jinx. She knew that with the Shimmer still on them, they were both guaranteed a one-way ticket to Stillwater. Unless… if it wasn’t the two of them.
Sevika wasn’t gifted with an abundance of schooling; few in the lanes were. But she knew street math. She had to. Street math was calculating the odds of winning a fight, how many men you needed to how many of theirs, how fast you could run, how the environment could change those odds on a dime. It took Sevika less than five seconds to do the math here, and it wasn’t in their favor.
But it could be, if she split the variable. If she got rid of Jinx, one of them could get out of there. If she gave her enough Shimmer to keep Silco happy and kept enough to catch the interest of the enforcers, they wouldn’t chase Jinx.
But Sevika had been to Stillwater before, and had sworn never to return. It was a dark place, one that kept her up at night, dreading the nightmares that were memories.
She could make a dash for it, leave Jinx holding the bag. But she'd been to Stillwater before. And she had been a teenage girl. She knew firsthand what would happen to a pretty, young Jinx. With a frustrated groan she counted out six of the ten Shimmer vials and shoved them at Jinx.
“Take these and get them to Silco. I’ll hold them off.”
“Hold them off? There’s like eight of them. No way can you take all of them!”
“Thanks, kid, I know. But it’ll get you enough time to get your skinny ass over the wall.” Jinx’s blue eyes widened as understanding hit, but Sevika didn’t wait to see if she’d bother protesting. “Listen quick, we only have a second. Don’t stop running until you get to the Last Drop. Tell Silco everything that happened. And tell him… tell him that I’m no snitch. He doesn’t need to send someone to shut me up. But if a little loyalty goes a long way, it’d be nice if he got me out. You got all that?”
For once in her life, Jinx shut up and just nodded. She took the vials from Sevika with trembling hands.
“Th-thanks, Sevika.” Sevika hid her growing nerves with an eye roll.
“Just shut up and get the hell out of here.”
Jinx, not having to be told twice, spun on her heel and hauled all eighty pounds of herself up and over the side of one of the walls, hands finding holds where Sevika could have sworn there were none. No sooner had the last flick of her blue braids disappeared than the first of the enforcers rounded the corner, pointing a finger at Sevika.
“There she is! She’s still got the Shimmer!” As they encroached further, the old instinct to lay down on her stomach with hands up and lean on mercy rose in Sevika, and she shoved it down. Not just because she was a Zaunite, and wouldn’t lie down for any Piltie, but because if she went down too quick they’d have time and men to go after Jinx. So, the second the first enforcer was in range, she swung with her mechanical arm.
He went down fast, head thunking against the wall before he collapsed on the road. The next one bothered to draw his club, but Sevika knocked it out of his hands as his fingers collapsed with a crack, and she followed up with a kick that sent him sprawling backwards. The next two were smart enough to attack together, flanking her on either side. Sevika backed up, only for her back to bump against the closed partition of the stall. They rushed her at the same time, the one on the right getting in a strike to her ribs with his club that threw off her balance enough to clip the other one, instead of delivering a knock-out blow. The enforcer shoved her into another, who was waiting to send a wave of electricity coursing through her.
“Motherfuck!” She grabbed at his arm holding the weapon, only for the one on her left to attack the same way—another jolt to her other side. This one sent her to her knees. Okay, now you’ve lost, she told herself as the circle of enforcers tightened around her, all of them with drawn weapons. She raised her hands in surrender, but that didn’t stop them from lashing out, a punch to the face, a kick to the ribs, the stun of a baton against her neck. She wanted to keep from screaming, but only managed it for the first half of the beating .
Eventually, they stopped, and Sevika was left a panting, bleeding mess on the street. They didn’t give her more than a minute to recover before hands were hauling her up, first to her knees, then to her feet. They got out a pair of cuffs, but seemed to be at a loss for what to do with her mechanical arm. Finally, the one in charge spoke up.
“Cuff ‘em both for now, they’ll probably take it off when we get to Stillwater.” A fresh wave of panic rose in Sevika’s gut. Not just because of the mention of the prison, but at the idea of losing her arm. She gave another weakened struggle, just to receive a cuff upside her head for her troubles. The leader stepped forward, eyeing Sevika up and down. He was an older man, maybe forty-five, with a bald patch on top, heavy jowls, pockmarked skin, and a scar cutting through the right side of his lip. “You’re one ugly bitch aren’t you?”
“Seen a mirror lately?” The punch snapped Sevika’s head to the side with such ferocity that she was sure it could have broken her neck. Thankfully, all it gave her was a mouthful of blood as she bit her tongue. She considered lodging it into the man’s face, but ultimately spat it out the side of her mouth. The leader shrugged, indifferent. “With that much Shimmer on her, she definitely works for Silco. Take her to Stillwater, and we’ll get an inquisitor in to find out what we can about his business.” Sevika scoffed. As if half the staff at Stillwater weren’t on Silco’s payroll. Wouldn’t stop them from beating the shit out of her for show, though.
And that was the other math. Silco could get anyone in Stillwater he wanted, for better or for worse. If he thought she was worth it, he could have her out after one night. If she was worth it, provided enough value, was loyal enough. Which meant her fate was dependent on Jinx making her case. The thought didn’t fill her with confidence, but Sevika chose to believe that Silco would come down on her side. Facing down the loaded barrel that was Stillwater with anything less would surely tip her into a gaping hole of hopelessness. One night, she told herself. Survive one night in hell.
“Silco!” Jinx all but screamed, barreling through the doors of The Last Drop. Ignoring the multitude of eyes snapping to her, she rushed past the bar and to the door of Silco’s office. The bartender, a beefy man named Ricky, stopped her with an iron grip around her willow’s branch of an arm.
“He’s in a meeting,” Ricky snapped.
She yanked a knife from her belt, pressing it into the man’s thick waist. “Let me go, Dick. I’m talking to him— now. ” The man narrowed his dark eyes, but reluctantly released her arm.
“On your head be it,” He muttered, throwing his hands up in exasperation and turning back to the bar. Not bothering to acknowledge him, she shoved through the door into Silco’s office. He was in the middle of a spirited discussion with Margot and Smeech, which fell into silence the second she broke into the room.
“Jinx.” Silco spoke in that measured voice of controlled frustration he often used with her, fingers steepled in front of him. “We’re in the middle of business. Can this wait a moment?”
“No, it can’t,” Jinx insisted. “We—-
“Shouldn’t you be on a job with Sevika?” Silco continued as if she wasn’t speaking. “Where is she?”
“That’s my point!” Jinx shoved her way past the barons of the lanes to jump onto the desk, forcing Silco’s attention. “The job went sideways and we got busted.”
“Sideways how?”
Jinx swallowed hard, pushing down her guilt as she ignored Silco’s question. “They got Sevika. They arrested her!”
That shut Silco up. His eyes drilled into Jinx for several seconds, making her feel small and cold. Finally, he released her from that stare, turning to address the rest of his audience.
“If you’ll excuse me,” He said in a tone laced with danger. “We’ll have to continue this discussion at a later time.” When he turned his focus back to Jinx, she once again found it hard to breathe under the intensity of his quiet scrutiny. She opened her mouth to speak, but he silenced her with one raised hand, eyes flickering meaningfully to their audience. Margot and Smeech both got up to leave and she absurdly found herself wishing they wouldn’t. During times like these, Silco was a dangerous man to be alone with.
Finally, their audience was gone. Silco nodded slowly as he spoke.
“Tell me… everything.”