Hard Reboot - Django Wexler Page 0,13
good. Nearly had it. Just needed a few more parts, some programming time.”
“That’s why you came trying to rip me off?” Kas said. “To get money for parts?”
Zhi gave a tired nod. Kas sat back on her haunches, looking thoughtful.
“So if you came after me for your ten thousand ’terci,” Zhi said, “you probably guessed I ’ent got it.”
“It’s not even the ten thousand I’m worried about,” Kas said. “That ridiculous bot said I owe a thousand just for the privilege of winning.”
“House fee,” Zhi said.
“Which I can’t afford,” Kas said. “I came to ask you to cancel the bet. Apparently we can do that if we both agree.”
Zhi snorted. “Can’t afford. Sure thing, slagger.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re an off-worlder,” Zhi said, though watching Kas’s face she felt herself growing less certain. “Off-worlders are all loaded, else how would you get here, yeah? What’s a thousand ’terci to you?”
“More than I’ve ever had in my account?” Kas said. When Zhi snorted again, her face darkened. “Look, you’re probably right that most people who visit Earth have plenty of money. But I’m only here because I talked the Scholarium into sending me on a research trip, and I could only make the bet because the system lets me access their credit. They can afford it, but if I spend a single half-centi without permission . . .” She drew a finger across her throat.
“Didn’t think off-worlders got slashed for debt,” Zhi said.
“I mean, they wouldn’t literally kill me,” Kas said. “But next best thing. My life would be over.”
“Right.” Zhi pursed her lips, looking thoughtful.
“So can we please just call off the bet?” Kas said. “Do that and show me the way back to the surface, and I swear to the Throne I won’t tell anyone about what you have here.” There was genuine pain in her voice. “Although . . . if you let me put in a quiet word to Scholar Firidi . . .”
“They’d come and take it and leave me with nothing?” Zhi said.
“Probably,” Kas admitted. “All right. I’ll keep quiet. Just . . .”
“I have a better idea,” Zhi said. She couldn’t help a slow smile spreading across her face.
“What do you mean, a better idea?” Kas said.
“You help me get Alpha Zero up-an’-running.”
“What?” Kas shook her head. “I can’t. I mean, the code, maybe, but not here, and—”
“Not the tech stuff, yeah?” Zhi was grinning now. “You use your Schoolario’s credit to buy me the parts I need to finish, and bring ’em down here since I can’t show my face up top anymore.”
“I just told you,” Kas said, “that the Scholarium will tear me to pieces if they catch me spending as much as you’ve already made me, much less more.”
“But not lit’rally?” Zhi waved dismissively. “Anyway, once Alpha Zero is working, I’ll take him up and fight Custis in the all-comers match next week. Put a big enough bet on me, and when I win, all your troubles are over, yeah? Pay back the Scholarium with credit to spare.”
“Assuming you win!” Kas said.
“Course I’ll win,” Zhi scoffed. “You saw the fight today. If Speedy’s ankle hadn’t given out, I’d have been a lock, yeah? Can you imagine what Alpha Zero will do to a clunker like that DreadCarl?”
Kas blinked, then shook her head. “I can’t. If the scholars check their accounts before the fight, or if anything goes wrong, I’m completely fucked. I wish you luck, but I can’t be involved in this. Can we please just call off the bet and pretend all this never happened?”
“Nope,” Zhi said. “’Cause here’s the thing. This is my only shot, yeah? I’m in debt to the House. And they will, lit’rally, slash my throat, or make me into a slave, or whatever they slagging want. And just because I’m not going to knife a pretty girl who ’ent fighting back doesn’t mean I have to roll over when she bats her eyes at me.”
“I am not batting my eyes,” Kas growled.
“So you can take your chances with the House and your scholars,” Zhi went on. “Or you can help me, and maybe fix everything, yeah? Which is it going to be?”
She glared at Kas. Kas stared back, lips tightening.
* * *
Fuck me with a neutronium strap-on, Kas thought, and leave me to dry on a Throne-damned pulsar.
She had a sudden, profound wish that Emperor Haberistus II & IV & VIII hadn’t succeeded in his quest to remove all possibility of time travel from the continuum.