Born of Silicon

The three of us were silent for a while, just trying to process everything. I was silently crying, my face still stinging.

“You don’t need to hold back your tears anymore.” Silver said.

You can’t just instantly undo two years of having to hide everything when it wasn’t just Silver and I. I didn’t trust Vince wouldn’t look at me the same way Mara did, that he wouldn’t decide I was worthless like she did.

I’m forced to interrupt Cassie’s story with a question.

“Why did Silver keep you around her for so long?”

“Because I was an idiot.” Vince answers. “They could see I was coming around slowly, that I was hating how Mara saw Cassie. Mara’s hooks were slowly being dragged loose. Clover thought I was still savable. Or I guess more likely, Kismet did.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if they needed you for some future.” Ivy says. “Hopefully this one.”

“Maybe.” Vince shrugs. “Just wish it could have happened faster.”

“That’s possible.” I admit. “They have to account for billions of potential futures with imperfect information, they can’t just pick one and make it happen. If they did want you around, what that would mean is that you did good in far more of the futures that you escaped Mara than you did bad.”

“That’s a nice thought. I like to think I’ve done pretty alright since then.”

Eventually I cried myself into a restless sleep, only to be woken by Vince and Silver’s soft words hours later.

“Hey.” Vince started the conversation, whispering to try to avoid waking me up. “Sorry.”

Silver didn’t respond, but Vince continued anyway.

“I should have realized just how far my head was up my own ass. Thanks for staying for so long.”

“Just make sure it was worth it.”

“I’ll do my best.” He promised. “Where are we headed?”

“Arc City.” Silver answered. “I’ve got friends that can get us a fresh start. We stay quiet, away from the top floor’s crap. Start a scrapping gang on the edge of the city.”

“When Mara comes, you want guns and bodies.” Vince guessed.

“When Mara comes, I want to live. And I want Cassandra to live without having to hide in a hole until we both grow old and die.”

“Then why not go further? The Mississippi Canyon, the east coast, find a ravine halfway across the planet?” Vince’s fear started to creep its way into his voice.

“You think she wouldn’t find us? You can’t move without leaving tracks. You should know she’ll see running as a challenge. No, we stay right where she expects us to be. When she shows up, we dance and bring down the city with us if we have to. Would you shoot her?”

Vince stayed quiet for quite a while.

“I don’t know.” He eventually admitted. “I really don’t know.”

“You have time to figure it out. She’s going to want upgrades before dealing with me.”

“Sure.”

“Does that plan sound good to you, Cassandra?”

I jumped at my name.

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop!”

“You’re fine.” Silver reassured me. “You’re just as much a part of this group as the two of us. No more Mara getting pissy when you try to help, your input matters.”

“I guess it’s fine? I don’t really know.” I answered.

“If you change your mind, speak up. Now, both of you, you’ve got a clean break. I’d recommend marking your new life with a new name. I did it years ago, it makes things more final. When Mara comes calling, the less she knows about you, the less power she has. It’s a hell of a lot easier to ignore someone calling you by the wrong name.”

“That makes sense.” Vince stayed quiet for a while. “Just shorten my name, Vince will work.”

I could tell Silver wasn’t incredibly happy about that. They never said it, but changing our names had a second goal, a goal we kind of ruined. A lot of the top floors were familiar with them, and changing at least some of our names gave us plausible deniability, that they weren’t the Silver and Vince they knew.

“Cassie.” I said quietly. My dad used that nickname a few times.

“Vince and Cassie. Welcome to your new lives.” They paused for just a moment, letting it sink in. “You two should get some sleep. Nothing’s going to happen tonight.”

“I guess not. Can we make it to Arc City before the next storm?” Vince asked.

“Not quite. We’ll camp out in the shadow of the Rockies. Middle of nowhere, where nobody can find us. We’ll get to the city next storm.”

“If something goes wrong, do we have enough O2?” Vince was clearly very uncomfortable about asking, about doubting the plan that was given to him.

“I wouldn’t take the risk if we didn’t.” Silver sighed to themselves. “Thanks for checking though.”

The conversation ended there, and the next time I woke up was after the storm hit. The swelling had really set in then, and even some medicine wouldn’t let me open my eye.

Those few days were awkward. Nobody really knew how to react. Vince spent his days full of regret, hiding in a bottle. I spent mine the same, hiding in a book. Silver just stayed on watch silently, although I didn’t know they were kept company by Clover at the time. I just thought they could sit statue-still for days.

When the storm passed, we started to pack up. Vince finally spoke more than a few words for the first time since we arrived.

“Hey, Silver, I know I fucked up last time, but if we’re worried about Mara, Cassa- Cassie should pack a pistol.”

“That’s up to her.” Silver raised an eyebrow at me. “You feel safe carrying it?”

“No, but I don’t think a knife would be useful against Mara.” I reached out for it.

“Just don’t sleep with it.” Vince took off his holster and handed it to me. “And try to take care of it, it’s my dad’s pistol.”

I took it, and I think I’ve taken pretty good care of it since then.

“Never once did I regret giving it to you.” Vince adds.

We set off, and made it to Arc City just a few hours later.

“How much money are we dealing with?” Silver asked just after we parked. “I assume your share was in Mara’s car?”

“Yeah.” Vince shrinked back a little as he admitted his mistake.

“Got it.”

Silver parked, grabbed a bag full of valuables, and we walked around the edge of the city.

There were a fuckton of people, more than I’d ever been around. We’d been in Vegas of course, but I stayed in the room. We never really stayed in Arc City either, we tended to work west of Vegas. I walked close behind Silver, trying to get some cover.

So many people we passed stared at my legs. They pitied me, looked at me like something was wrong with me. That was the last time I wore shorts around anyone I didn’t know and trust.

We came across this hellhole. A run down hotel, right on the edge of the city. Trash was piled up everywhere. The courtyard, the roof, the hallways, just bags and bags.

Silver stopped though. They saw something in this place. The strong, concrete walls. The fence giving some privacy in the courtyard. Enough space for a few more buildings, a garage and a range.

They brought us in, though a small path through the courtyard. Literally the only part anyone had bothered to clear, or at least mostly clear. Nobody even bothered to sweep away the sand that forces its way through during the harsher storms.

The hallway inside was abandoned, although I could hear people in the rooms.

Against the wall was a manager’s office. Silver knocked, and I could hear someone moving on the other side. Just a moment later, the door opened.

“We’ve got no open rooms, so fuck off.”

“How much for the property?”

He was stunned for a moment at the question, before a smile spread across his face.

“I get that question a lot.” He lied. “I know what I have. I ain’t selling for anything less than a cool million.”

“Deal.” Silver put down their bag and started to go through it. “I’ve got you recorded by the way, don’t bother trying to up the price.”

The man just stood there, jaw half open. Silver overpaid horribly for this place, especially with the shape it was in. I’ve asked them why in the past, and they told me they were far too familiar with his type. He lived to hold something over others. The moment Silver tried to bargain, the price would have risen. Plus, accepting right away pained him. If Silver was willing to pay that much, how much more could he have gotten?

Silver counted out an even million, handed it to him, and turned away.

“Get me the deed, get your crap, and get out.”

To his credit, he did. He grabbed a small booklet of papers from a safe, handed it over, and an hour later movers came in to empty out his office.

Silver put Vince and I to work while they handled a few separate things. A truck rolled up in front of the hotel, and we loaded it up with trash. They handled everyone staying there. A few people they actually recruited, but most got sent off with enough money to find a new place to sleep.

The first thing we did was clear out a few rooms on the top floor. I wanted a room off the ground floor, and I got my pick. Vince ended up taking one a few rooms down.

It was weird having my own room again. Not a hotel we stayed in sometimes, not a safehouse we hid in. My own place, with ruined furniture and all.

We did nothing but work, eat, and sleep for days. Trucks constantly took away the trash, although I couldn’t tell you where or how the logistics worked. All I knew was that Silver had another truck there whenever we needed it.

They spent more time away from the compound than there, actually. They were off recruiting people, buying furniture, making deals. Thankfully, any furniture deliveries came with people unloading it for us. We just had to do the trash.

The place transformed slowly. When the courtyard was clear, Silver brought in contractors. They built the same garage and range we still have today, and stocked a few wrecked cars they got for cheap. They found a mechanic willing to fix them up, Sonia.

We knocked out the walls from a few of the rooms on the bottom floor, and Sonia set up her workshop. It started with just a few basic machines and a mound of scrap, and Sonia forged most of her own tools.

While we kept cleaning, Silver started training the few people they recruited. It’d be a month before they actually got sent out on a scrapping run. Silver really didn’t want to risk their lives before they had the tools needed to make it home.

Of course, training people meant we needed a rangemaster and an armorer. So they brought in Jade.

When we cleared the basement, Silver created a server room and installed some cameras around the compound, along with the intercom system. Of course we needed a diver, and they brought in an old friend.

Vince and I were working like always when the two of them came to find us. We were cleaning different rooms. I wasn’t afraid of Vince anymore, but I still didn’t like to be around him if I could avoid it.

“Hey, you two.” Silver’s voice filled the floor. “Come meet our new diver.”

I came into the hallway and saw a man with a tight cap on his head, leaning hard on a cane with a stiff leg not taking much weight. He smiled, although his emotions didn’t really reach the left side of his face. Straight down the middle, half of him was smiling a genuine, warm smile. The other half was barely more expressive than a blank face.

“You must be Vince and Cassie, I’ve heard a lot of good things. My name’s Drew, it’s nice to meet you.” He held out a hand. Vince reached out to shake it, although Drew’s fingers didn’t quite curl all the way around Vince’s hand.

“Sorry, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of you.” Vince said.

“That’s probably fair. I met Silver when a mission went FUBAR. Not really worth remembering. I just wanted to introduce myself, Silver thought you’d want to meet your new techie before I start staring through the cameras.”

“Always glad to have a watchman I can talk to. You know what you’re looking out for?”

“An old friend who’s going to be looking for revenge eventually. I’m caught up.”

“Good.”

“If you ever need anything, I’ll be spending most of my time in the basement. Just let yourselves in.”

With that he walked away, and Silver went with him.

It wasn’t long after before things settled down and Silver’s became an actual scrapping gang. Although it was a long time before we actually made a profit. We had a couple groups that went out in a couple cars. For the most part they just headed to the junkyard, it’d be a while before we got big enough to have an outpost in Denver.