ACT & VIST (At the Beginning)

I hate it when blood gets in my eyes, especially when it’s not mine. It’s a good thing Lez seized the initiative and dropped like a sack at the feet of the Cruiser who had clearly decided to finish me off. The Cruiser, a skinny but strong guy, tripped over nearly one hundred kilograms of my love, got tangled in his cassock, and fell onto my blade with a cry of horror. I felt, rather than heard, steel scraping against his ribs. He died, impaled on my bayonet as if on a spit, red liquid pouring from his mouth.

I jumped back, wiped my face, and looked around. What if help arrived? But no, it seemed he was truly alone. The alley of the abandoned Champlain quarter of Vermont was empty. Two crows, disturbed by the fight, returned and perched on the remains of a drainpipe that had come off the cornice.

Lez stood up, rubbing his side. “Damn, their iron boots. Why do they wear such heavy clothes nowadays? I didn’t have to when I was a Moon Brother,” he complained loudly.

“Because these unfortunate members of the Moses Movement only experience pleasure when they take all this off before bed. Rumour has it they feel so good then that they don’t even need sex,” I said, pushing the corpse with my foot to free my weapon.

“What are we going to do with the body? Min Jee, my flower, I really don’t want to dig a grave or collect wood scraps for cremation,” Lez grumbled, searching for his knife, which the Cruiser had knocked out of his hands.

I searched the dead Cruiser. “We’ll leave him. You told me that brothers believe you must care for the soul, not the body. They will find him. His corpse will be turned into Angel Flesh and packed with the rest of the emergency provisions.”

“Oh . . . don’t remind me of that innovation.” Lez paused, then added, “Disgusting!”

“Do you happen to remember if there are any secret pockets in these cassocks of theirs?” I stood up to my full height and looked at Lez, my expression feigning hope.

He burst out laughing and showed me the knife he had found. “Mooners don’t have them, but the followers of Moses carry their valuables in the sewn-up fold of their sleeves.”

He leaned over and felt the Cruiser’s wide sleeves rolled into broad folds. With the knife, he ripped open the sky-blue fabric and pulled out a tube of flexible plastic tied with thread. He handed the tube to me.

“Here, Min. I hope this is what you were looking for.”

I unrolled the thin plastic and saw two children’s faces in the photograph – a boy and a girl, both about fourteen years old, smiling. The boy’s head was shaved, but the girl had luxurious copper-red curls. Anyone could see they were twins. They had the same freckled noses and green eyes. It was hard to believe these were not ordinary children but the latest generation of loaders.

“AI imaging?” Lez asked, looking over my shoulder.

“Not this time. It’s them. Let’s leave here before the Cruiser’s patrol comes through.”