Suddenly the door opened. Dana shuddered and darted behind the wall, but... a black (not just dark-skinned like Dana, but really almost black) middle-aged woman with bright pink hair and in an imposing leopard outfit that clearly revealed more than it covered came out of the building onto the terrace. She languidly smoked an electronic hookah bursting with fragrant steam and looked at everything around indifferently and haughtily. Dana noticed that the lady has a decent figure - "everything that is needed is in place and does not even fall off," as the chatterbox Nathan would say.
"Bono dia, madam," Dana greeted. "Were you the one who ordered package number thirty for two credits by thirteen hours and twenty minutes?"
- Bono - waved the lady away. - Yes. And alas, not Madame, but still Madita... Chloe, I'm glad to meet you- a black lady looked into the energy box on wall and took out a package, activated it through a fingerprint sensor and took out a small vial with a dark red liquid.
- I'm Dana, I'm very glad too.
The lady hid the bottle somewhere under her strange outfit and put the container back in the drawer. She went up to Dana and gave her a friendly pat on the hair:
- Thank you, my girl, what would I do without people like you?
- You would have to jump on these roofs yourself, Madita Chloe! Dana joked. - And the snipers of the Black Angels would have dropped their rifles from the roof with laughter!
- Heh, and you're not lost!- Chloe, it seems, did not think to be offended. - Cheeky girl, I like you. Yes, I'm ready to put my best wardrobe on the area that these... cabronas mutabore are staring at me in their optics right now! And at you at the same time.
"I'm not sorry, let them watch," Dana replied. - Maybe they will remember me that way and won't confuse me with anyone. I get a little nervous when I run this route.
- Are there any safe routes?
- There are no completely safe routes ones.
"Exactly. Wait here.
Chloe entered the building and a few seconds later came out with a wine glass of fruit juice concentrate.
- Here you go. I'm sorry, I don't have simple glasses. Drink it right away or it will heat up and be nasty like skunk urine.
Dana did not refuse and drained the glass in a few sips, giving it back. Good! Chloe put it on the power lamp and it shone brightly in the light of the scorching sun.
- By the way - Chloe took out a small opaque bottle from another invisible pocket and handed it to Dana:
"Pass it that old fool Alonzo. Let him rejoice.
- what is it? Dana asked after examining the strange bottle without markings, she turned it over in her hands and put it in her purse pocket. - Do you know him?
- Of course. Or do you think he hasn't been to my... uh... party?
She said it with such an expression that Dana understood everything without unnecessary words.
- Oh... so you... well... m...
- Yes, my girl, I am a prostitute. I can't say I'm proud of it. I myself would prefer to sleep with one man I know well. Well, or with two, at most, with three... but I have to do this with everyone who has an itchy bolt and has extra credits... hmm... sorry, Madita Dana, I probably shouldn't tell you this... But I don't have much to complain about either. There's a copper, there's a silver, I live without straining, I sit in a virtual network at my leisure or read smart books...
"It's nothing," Dana waved away. - Granpa teaches us that it is better to help when you want to condemn.
"A wise man," Chloe agreed. - Even though he's a fool.
- why? Has he offended you?
- It's personal, don't worry your head.
- OK. And you... have you tried doing something else? Even here you can find... well... another job. For example, I run.
Oh, my girl... Do you have a dream?
- I have a lot of them! Do you want me to tell you?
- Don't be, Madita Dana. - These are your dreams. Suddenly at least one will come true? And when I was a little older than you, I wanted to become a gardener. Old man Edgar built a greenhouse on... now it's a Oblique street. I studied with him for a long time and even started working. And then the fucking corporate stormtroopers fell from the sky and turned that area into a glass beach. Belissimo. It's a good thing I wasn't there. And old Edgar, as always, was busy with his infernal poisonous mushrooms. Maybe you saw a frozen face in the glass ground of Oblique Street? I recognized him right away. Peace be upon his eternal dust now...
- So it didn't seem to me! Dana remembered. - Everyone says it's just a horror story. "But how did he survive?"
- He always wore his transparent protective suit. He was immured in it. And I had to look for any job just not to die, and half of the district was smashed into splinters. I didn't want to get killed on a construction site in the heat when the Black Angels came and started rebuilding everything...
Suddenly, the glass left on the energy meter splattered with shards to smithereens! A neat narrow hole appeared in the battered construction-plastic wall. Dana and Chloe, without a word, collapsed on the terrace floor and quickly crawled around the corner that would protect them from the view from Three Crosses.
- Three times fucked in the ass whore's children! Chloe shouted loudly, still lying down. - Your mothers are slop whores!!!.. Hmm... Yes, I understand - Chloe was confused. - From my words, it sounds like bitter self-irony.
- And I think you're right!- Dana confirmed fervently, whose skin was almost burned by the construction layer of the floor, heated from the sun. - Wait... I have a direct call...
Dana pressed the comlink in her ear twice and a rough male voice came out of it:
- Girl, would you be so kind as to warn Madita Chloe Alva not to joke like that anymore! I mistook your idiotic glass for the reflection of someone else's sniper optics. Do you realize that a block away from you is the territory of Good People, damn them!? And thank you that I figured out what was going on and didn't shoot you for the company along with your glasses!
The connection was interrupted.
"G-good! Dana muttered.
- I heard everything - Chloe waved her hand and they got up from the floor. - He was yelling so loudly, as if he wanted to reach us through the air.
The comlink came alive again. Nathan's familiar voice was heard:
- Dana! Where have you been? I was wondering if you'd lost your comlink-you've been stuck in one place for so long!
"It's all right, don't get mad," Dana replied. - I met a friend.
- Aah... Girls... how to hook each other with your tongues - so for three hours!.. We have a new order, we need to pick up the parcel from the First Descent and deliver it to the Scarlet Tower. They pay as much as seven credits! Seven! This cannot be missed! Pick up your dice and run!
- So run yourself if you need to! Dana snapped. She herself was ready to immediately rush off to fulfill a new order, especially with such a decent reward... but she really didn't want to show Nathan that she was obeying him. Here's another one! Granpa Alonso is another matter, he saved her life, she respects him, and this cute chatterbox who does he think he is!?
- I would run instead of you, but who will lead? Nathan objected.
- Granpa Alonso. Not you.
- He's not back yet. And I'm the oldest, and until he comes back, I'm in charge! And I'm also the most experienced and smart.
- And the most talkative.
- And that too, and for that, too, you need a mind... Wait... Dana, don't move.
- I'm standing there. Do you decide whether I should stand or run?
"What the hell?" Dana, there's something strange going on here... No, you're right, I don't have enough experience, granpa would immediately understand what it is... Diabolo!!!- in the comlink, there was the sound of a box of chips falling to the floor, which Nathan was eating at the post.
- Will you explain what's going on or will you swear?
- Dana run away from here! Run faster! A swarm of drones has taken off from Rosa Street, flying in your direction! Their sensors are active, they are in combat mode! It is unlikely that they have Chinese lanterns on the suspension. Save yourself!
- Chloe, drones! Take cover and tell the neighbors!- Dana took off and ran on the way back.
- Dana, don't run back, there's another swarm from the Intersection! Run to the Three Crosses, warn the Angels, then they will hide you inside!
- Where are they from? Dana asked breathlessly as she ran. "and whose are they?"
— I don't know. Precisely! Someone dragged a lot of drones into the tunnels and started launching them through hatches. They have nowhere else to go! Beware of the undeground hatches!
In the distance, an ominous buzzing was heard behind the running girl.