Chapter 9: Nightmare

Wuxue spun around and hurried upstairs, with Torre close behind. They raced up to the second floor and found the door standing open again. Wuxue’s heart sank. She quickened her pace and rushed into the room.

Qiongna was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding two little biscuits. In front of her, Luo Shisan sat obediently on a stool with her mouth open, waiting to be fed. She looked like a pet being given treats.

“Qiongna… Are you all right?” Wuxue glanced at Shisan. “How did you get up here?”

Shisan snatched a biscuit from Qiongna, bounded over to Wuxue, and flashed a smile like she’d just found a wad of cash. “I waited downstairs for ages. You didn’t come back, so I thought you’d run off.”

“She came rushing upstairs just now,” Qiongna explained. “I thought she was trouble, but then she said she was your friend. She was starving. Seeing the two of you really do know each other has put my mind at ease.”

“This… This isn’t…” Torre recognized Shisan, too.

“Ah… Aren’t you…” Shisan recognized him at the same time.

Wuxue was terrified they’d let slip that Torre had shot her. She cut them off before either could finish, darted over to Shisan, and pointed at Torre. “Torre’s my brother-in-law.”

“But he…” Shisan clearly remembered Torre firing two shots at Wuxue.

Wuxue grabbed Shisan’s head and pulled her close, then lowered her voice to warn her, “He’s my brother-in-law now, so watch what you say.”

“But he—”

“Do you still want your money or not?” Wuxue pressed the point.

“Nice to meet you, Brother-in-Law.” Shisan flashed all her teeth in a warm smile.

“This is Luo Shisan. You’ve met her,” Wuxue said, giving Torre a meaningful look. “You still owe her 200,000 orbs. Pay her back.”

Torre hadn’t forgotten. But remembering that he’d shot Wuxue made things awkward, so he hurried over to Qiongna, took the wallet from her, and passed the money to Shisan.

Wuxue headed for the door and struck a pose that made it clear she was seeing Shisan out. “Now we’re even. Give me back my gun, and you can be on your way.”

“Wuxue, is that any way to treat a friend?” Qiongna called from behind her. “It’s so late, and it isn’t safe for a girl to be out alone. She can leave tomorrow.”

Wuxue looked at Torre. Torre looked at Wuxue. With no choice, they brought Shisan back inside.

“Have you had dinner?”

“Would you like some hot water?”

Wuxue had never dared to go against Qiongna. Even after becoming one of the most famous bounty hunters around, she had always done whatever Qiongna asked. Now that she knew Qiongna was terminally ill, she was even less likely to argue.

“Well…” Shisan rubbed her hands together and grinned. “I’ll take you up on that.”

Wuxue booked a room with two beds at the inn. She and Shisan would make do for one night, and tomorrow she’d send Shisan packing first thing.

Once Shisan was settled, Wuxue went with Torre to check the black box in the inn’s storeroom.

Strangely enough, it didn’t seem special at all. You could find things like it at any scrap yard. Wuxue didn’t bother speculating about the client’s motives. They’d paid, and she’d done the job.

Still, it was hard to call the job hers. As Skok had said, no one was going to hire her now. Having killed her client, she was practically on the bounty hunters’ blacklist.

It was Torre’s job. She’d only claimed to be his assistant. Now that she was notorious, it would be hard for her to get another contract. She’d planned to find work under Torre’s name, but she’d never expected him to back out because of Qiongna’s illness. And now she still had people hunting her. The whole situation left Wuxue feeling wretched.

“The delivery’s due tomorrow at noon.” She tapped the black box. The four letters DSWD stood out clearly on its surface. “Did the client say where in town?”

“They did. At the entrance to the dam, three kilometers east of town,” Torre replied.

“Well…” Wuxue looked at him. “When are you going to hand me over to Maji?”

At the name, Torre took half a step back. “I… I wasn’t going to hand you over to him. I… I don’t know what to do now. And Qiongna’s illness…”

Torre looked miserable. Wuxue felt no better. She patted his shoulder—he was more than half a head taller than she was—and tried to comfort him instead. “We’ll figure something out. For now, we’ll deliver the package tomorrow, then leave with Qiongna right away. We won’t go back to Pennsylvania, either. I’ll help you get started in the business. As long as you can find work, Qiongna will have money for treatment.”

“Wuxue… thank you,” Torre said. “I… I never meant to kill you.”

“All right, enough. Go back to your room.”

Wuxue stopped him from going on. If he’d acted because of Qiongna, then she’d forgiven him already.

The inn looked like it had been built in another age. Its walls were concrete, the plaster peeling off in patches. Faded markings covered the walls, and on one exposed section Wuxue could just make out words written centuries ago: God has abandoned us.

Bounty hunters had to know about all sorts of things, and Wuxue recognized the message. Words like these usually dated back to the viral outbreaks five hundred years ago.

When Wuxue returned to the room, Shisan was already asleep, lying ramrod straight like a mummy. The white powder on her face had vanished, revealing delicate features.

Wuxue understood. A beautiful woman living in a place like the Red Iron Wasteland had to learn how to protect herself. Qiongna used to smear mud on her face, too.

Wuxue tidied up and climbed into bed, but the day’s events kept her awake.

When she was fourteen, Qiongna had sent her to work as the assistant to a bounty hunter. In ten years, she’d gone from a slum kid to one of the best hunters around. Who could have imagined that all that work would vanish in a single night, like a dream? She could hardly believe that in a month she’d lost everything all over again. Worse, she might end up putting Qiongna in danger, too.

Wuxue hadn’t felt that kind of despair in a long time. Only someone who’d had something precious could know how terrifying it was to lose what they’d fought so hard to gain: her reputation, her money, and… the person she loved.

She didn’t want to admit she was crying, but the warmth at the corner of her eye wouldn’t let her ignore her fear. She’d known since childhood that she was unusually fragile. Without Qiongna, she might have died on that winter night eleven years ago.

“Are you crying?”

Shisan’s voice made Wuxue quickly wipe her eyes.

“I’m just tired,” Wuxue said. “Why aren’t you asleep?”

“I had a dream. It scared me awake,” Shisan said. “I wake up from weird dreams like that all the time.”

“I’d rather have nightmares. The waking world is even crueler.”

Maybe it was because of how she felt, but Wuxue found herself saying more than usual.

“I want to squeeze in and sleep with you,” Shisan said. “It’s not like you’re scared of me.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Come on…”

“No! I paid for a room with two beds. Go back to yours.”

“Hey, yours is softer, too.”

“…”

Outside the window, the stars moved slowly across the ecliptic. Shisan’s breathing was steady beside Wuxue’s ear. Maybe, deep down, she and Shisan were both ruled by fear.

The next morning, Wuxue got up early. She hadn’t slept deeply the night before, and the first thing she did was see Shisan off. As promised, Shisan returned the gun. Wuxue could hardly believe it when she saw that Shisan had taken the gun apart into eight pieces and hidden them separately in her shoes, her waistband, and the lining of her bag. Only before leaving had Shisan reassembled it and handed it back.

Wuxue’s eyes widened like saucers. The gun was expensive, and its parts could only be found in a big city. If Shisan had damaged it, there was nowhere in this little town that could repair it. Wuxue checked it over and over, terrified, and only let Shisan go once she was sure it was fine.

Still, she was impressed. She’d never expected a scavenger from the Red Iron Wasteland to know so much about mechanics.

According to yesterday’s plan, Wuxue and Torre were supposed to deliver the package, then take Qiongna somewhere safe until things settled down.

But Wuxue didn’t feel right leaving Qiongna alone at the inn when she was sick. She hurried Torre into finding a car, and soon the three of them were on their way to the reservoir where the delivery was supposed to happen.

They found somewhere to hide near the reservoir. It was called a reservoir, but there wasn’t a drop of water in sight. The world’s largest reservoir had been dry for a long time. Now it was nothing but wetlands, with lush vegetation and trees nearly a century old, so thick and deep that the forest seemed to go on forever.

“Perfect place to rob someone and leave them for dead,” Wuxue said, lowering her binoculars.

Torre stared in the direction she’d been watching. “So what do we do?”

Wuxue gave him the kind of look reserved for a useless person, then went to the trunk and took out the black box. After settling Qiongna, she turned to Torre. “A bounty hunter can’t kill their client, and the client can’t kill the hunter they hired. This is your first job. Make it count.”

“O-okay.”

Torre still looked timid. He didn’t seem like a hunter at all.

Wuxue tossed him the black box, then wrapped her battered scarf around her face until it hid her features completely. Her face might be covered, but she couldn’t hide her presence.

Watching Wuxue walk ahead, Torre quickly pulled on his coat, clutched the black box, and hurried after her. Far ahead, someone was already waiting.