Chương 182: 5.21

"Sorry for the wait, Erind," Imani told me as she returned, putting away her phone in her purse.

"I just had to take a call from work. Busy, busy, busy," she added, tilting her head back and forth.

"I can understand." I gave her a sympathetic grin. We didn't walk that far. Three busy blocks from Divergent Boulangerie, we entered an alley to find a small café hidden at the end of it. Just a hole-in-the-wall store that turned out to be pretty chic. Before I saw our destination, I half-expected that Imani— I like her name —was going to pull out a knife or a gun to rob me. Or maybe she was going to scam me or something in a dark backstreet.

I even imagined that she might be leading me to a group of criminals who kidnapped pretty girls like me, cough, cough, for their human trafficking business. Las Vegas was prosperous and an extremely modern city, but I had heard of many criminal syndicates operating here. But no, it turned out that Imani didn't have any nefarious plans and was telling the truth about treating me to coffee. And pastries too.

Getting kidnapped and having the opportunity to freely snap necks without the constraints of Rule #4, probably even trying on my girl-is-actually-an-Adumbrae face again, sounded fun. But free food and drinks were a close second. Actually, I preferred food right now because I was hungry. Imani examined the tray I held.

"Have you already picked out what you want to buy?"

"Um, I have," I said. This place, while tiny, had a pretty good selection of bread and pastries. It was tempting to fill the tray with tons of food that'd cost Imana a lot to get back at her for bothering me, but that wasn't for the average random girl face I had on. After thinking it over, I simply settled for about twenty dollars worth of food, a cup of tea for me, and coffee for Deen. I'm such a good friend for not forgetting about her.

"Really, a big thanks for this," I told Imani.

"Just making up for bumping into you." She held up her finger.

"If you're going to say that I don't need to do this, then you can just think of it as the famous Las Vegas hospitality on display." Las Vegas hospitality? I wasn't sure if that was an actual thing. I had seen a friendliness ranking of all the states before; it was a yearly list if I wasn't mistaken. Nevada was nowhere at the top of that list. It wasn't in the middle either. And among the cities in this state, I wouldn't bet that Las Vegas would be voted to have the most hospitable people.

Apparently, Imani was an exception. It seemed that the fast-paced and assertive lifestyle required to thrive in this city, plus the different valuation of humanity with the backdrop of aggressive augmentations prevalent here, hadn't warped her personality. Wow, the value of humanity —that was rich coming from me. While we were waiting for my order to get wrapped for takeout, we continued our chat from when we were walking. Imani said, "I know the Tech Fair is a big thing here, but I haven't been there.

What's the point of seeing the latest and fashionable augs if I don't have the money for them, am I right?"

"Definitely," I politely replied before joining her in laughing. I gave the fake story that I was in the city for the Tech Fair, stealing it from the dead frat boys. It sounded believable and already came neatly packaged, so I decided to go with it instead of cooking up something new. On our way here, Imani endlessly blabbed about her life, her work, her boyfriend, her mom, her dog, her rent, just a lot of crap I didn't care about. It was a bit unsettling that she would share those things with a complete stranger.

But then again, my appearance probably helped her feel at ease—I was short, petite, had an innocent face, and a soft voice. I also told her I was from out of town; that probably helped her become more open to me. In return, and to not look like an antisocial bitch, I decided to tell her the fake Tech Fair story—which might eventually turn out to be true. I realized only just now Mom might want to attend it. And she'd probably pull me and Deen along with her.

Anyway, to make my tale to Imani complete, I added that I was here with a friend who was interested in augmentation.

"Did your friend force you to go to the Tech Fair?" Imana said.

"Not really forced. I admit bioaugmentronics or any enhancements aren't really my thing, but she promised we'd go visit other places afterward."

"That does sound like a good escape from La Esperanza," she said. I did tell her where we were from.

"It was my dream to find a job and transfer over there because it's a much more chill place than Vegas. But given what's happening there..." She made a face and shook her head.

"I get you," I said.

"That's part of the reason I agreed with my friend to come here. I hope everything is safe again by the time we return."

"In the meantime," Imana excitedly said, "Do enjoy your stay here. There's a lot more to Vegas than augs and technology. For example, you can check out the Natural History Museum downtown." Then she listed off tourist attractions in the city; some of these I had already visited with Mom. She was also upfront that there were some parts of the city that I should avoid, especially since these past couple of weeks there was a rise in crimes.

I simply nodded while flicking my eyes to the counter to see if they had finished packing my food. This was plenty enough social interaction for the day. My batteries were going to run low and I wouldn't have any opportunity to recharge with Mom and Deen around.

"Where are you staying in the city?" Imani asked.

"I can accompany you there if it's not too far." And here was the scam. Or was she just being friendly? I wasn't really used to Las Vegans being friendly. I might also be assuming the worst in people like I usually did.

"I can walk there by myself," I said, dodging her question.

"Isn't this area safe?"

"It normally is safe in these parts, but you never know if the Tea Party expands its operations here. Gang wars, stuff like that, you know?"

"Tea Party?" What a weirdass name for criminals. I wondered what the actual name of the 2Ms' organization was? Didn't Stella mention that they had connections in Vegas? I even pretended to be hired by their counterpart in this city.

"They're one of the tech gangs," Imani explained.

"A syndicate involved in illegal augmentations and enhancements. A really huge business. Of course, they do have a lot of smaller rackets, and wherever they extend their tentacles, all sorts of unsavory people appear. I heard someone was arrested here last week who might be connected to them." Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"I'll keep an eye out for trouble." Then I timidly pointed at the counter.

"Looks like they're done." The cashier gave me a large paper bag and that cardboard cupholder thingy for the drinks.

"You don't want to drink here and—" Imani started to say. She turned left and right, and instead said, "No seats. Oh well, everywhere's full around this time anyway. I'll walk with you out." She accompanied me through the alley and back to the busy street. Then we parted ways. She told me she had to get back to her work at this or that place—I didn't really care what she was going to do. This made my trip longer than it should be, I thought as I stared at Imana's back as she walked away. She was on her phone again.

"Oh, that's right," I said, checking my own phone. If Deen woke up without seeing me, she might panic and assume the worst. I forgot to leave her a note that I went out. But even if I did, she'd probably still overreact anyway that I was out of her sight. I had no text messages or missed calls, which meant she was still asleep. I set a reminder to pick up Mom at the airport later.

We should leave two hours before then to have plenty of time to wade through the bullshit Vegas traffic even at around ten in the evening. Every hour was rush hour. Next, I checked a map on the internet.

"This is the right direction, isn't it?" I mumbled to myself. The sounds of heavy footsteps, slightly discernible over the noises of the crowd, made me look up. Someone went past me, jostling me to the side. A tall man wearing a jacket and a cap pulled low. I regained my balance, automatically apologizing to the middle-aged woman in corporate attire that I bumped into. A tall blur disappeared into the throng of people up ahead. I stared at him with a frown. Then I looked down at my hand which felt a bit lighter.

My phone was gone. Did I just get robbed? For a split second, I thought of shrilly shrieking for help. But I doubted any of these people around me would help catch the thief. Not sure how effective the Las Vegas police were, but I didn't want to wait and find out. I also didn't want the hassle of filing a complaint and that shit. And the chance was slim I'd be able to recover my phone if I let the guy go now.

Deen bought that phone for me; I should personally retrieve it—and that was my excuse for dealing some vigilante justice. For the record, this wasn't what was taught in law school. Quite the opposite actually.

"Someone is asking to die," I said, setting down the drinks on the sidewalk. Then I bolted after the fucker who dared bother me and forced me to leave behind my tea and Deen's coffee.

"Hey, you left your…" someone called after me, but I ignored him. I easily slipped between the herd of people, keeping my eyes on the disturbance up ahead as the thief shoved people aside to escape. He turned down an alleyway free of people, and I followed him. He looked over his shoulder and saw me. He pushed down the trashcans he passed to slow me down before increasing his speed. Is this guy a racetrack runner or what? He was incredibly fast. He might have had leg augments. Not that I had any problem keeping up.

But I just couldn't catch him. Should I transform to Blanchette and finish this shit, so I can eat? The stuff in my paper bag were already squished!

"Stop! Thief!" I originally didn't want to draw attention to myself by yelling for help. The fewer people who noticed me, the fewer potential witnesses if ever I'd be forced to use my Adumbrae powers. But there were no people here. And I wanted him to know I was alone so he'd stop. My plan worked. The bastard pulled out a switchblade and spun around to face me.

"Don't make me hurt you," he said, his voice muffled by a bandana covering the lower half of his face. He threateningly waved his blade.

"Your life isn't—urgh!" I didn't stop running and threw my fist at his stomach, remembering Deen's martial arts practice a couple of days ago. I did use a bit of super strength, but not so much that my fist would go right through his body. Walking back to the condo splattered in blood would be a tad too noticeable. But it seemed I held back too much because the bastard was up again. My phone was still in his hand. Oh, fuck, I mentally groaned as I continued the chase.

He ran out of the network of alleyways into a wide sidewalk with food trucks. People lining up to buy lunch were surprised at our sudden appearance.

"Watch it!"

"The hell? Don't touch my food!" The asshole grabbed the food tray of someone who had just ordered at a taco stand and threw it at me. I ducked. The tacos hit a couple of guys in suits talking to each other. The thief then grabbed a woman and shoved her towards me. She fell to the ground. I jumped over her and followed the thief into the traffic. We played who'll-get-runover as we crossed the street. Horns blared and tires screeched as cars tried their best to avoid us.

"Erind!" someone called to me as I reached the other side of the road.

"What are you—?" Up ahead, Imani was about to enter a building. She didn't finish her sentence and stopped waving at me when she noticed something wasn't right. She looked at me with wide eyes, and then at the guy who ran past her. There was a flicker of understanding on her face. She extended her hand and something shot out of it, straight to the back of the thief. His body became rigid, and he dropped to the ground like a plank.

"Sto-stole my phone," I pretended to pant as I slowed down.

"That guy stole my phone."

"Oh my gosh," Imana said, bringing her hand that shot the thief up to her mouth. Her index finger had opened up with a string sticking out that connected to the asshole's twitching body. An augment? It reminded me of Pino's power.

"I-I chased him," I said. He must've gone around in circles trying to lose me because we somehow ended up where Imani was headed to. And she couldn't have gone far from the café where we bought my food from. Food that was now pancaked inside a crumpled paper bag. She looked down at the guy twitching a bit on the concrete. He had let go of my phone.

"Is this yours?" She picked it up and handed it to me.

"Ye-yes," I said.

"Thanks for the help. I don't think I would've—" Imani pushed me back and shielded me with her body. The guy had taken out a syringe from his jacket and jabbed it into his leg. With a trembling arm, he grabbed the projectiles Imani buried in his back and pulled them away. He got up, still shaky on his legs, and wobbled away.

"Don't chase him, Erind," she said, stopping me from going forward.

"You shouldn't have been chasing him in the first place. Why didn't you just call the police?"

"I didn't want to lose my phone," I stubbornly replied.

"I understand," she said.

"But it's still quite dangerous. You were lucky I was here to help you."

"Tha-thanks for the help," I said, continuing to pretend I was trying to catch my breath.

"Is that an augment?" I asked, pointing at her hand. Of course, it was, I berated myself. That was such a stupid question. The last time I checked, babies weren't born with a built-in stun gun.

"This?" she said, raising her hand. Now that I had a closer look, I noticed that it was a bit shiny and had the texture normal flesh shouldn't have.

"I had an accident before... and lost my hand. I replaced it with this."

"Ah, I see..." Would it be offensive if I said that she now had nifty storage for hidden weapons?

"I'll accompany you to your condo," she said, breaking the awkward silence. This time, I relented and agreed with her offer.

"Okay," I said.

"Super thank you for taking the time to help me." The face I had on should be shaken with the whole ordeal. It was natural that I'd want her along for protection until I returned to safety. Wait, did I tell her I live in a condo?