I pull back the lips and examine the incisors. Something has been experimenting on the undead.

And breeding with them.

This is where the dead baby came from Evander was feeding on.

Ugh.

A thought forms in my mind as hard and clear as a hexagonal diamond. I was set up—lured into a trap at The Dredge Towers by Sylex's ancient enemies. They want to break into this world. That is what attacked me. Something darker and more evil than Sylex.

I gather Lila in my arms. "Your baby is dead, child. We need to leave."

The only place I can hide Lila is with one Evander's whores.

Victoria Walker—a tainted cyborg street worker.

And a verifiable bitch.

She is a former Grid Walker who has the scars to show the danger of the horrific profession she escaped with Evander's help. I allow her molecular security monitor to scan my face and confirm my identity. Victoria has moved up in the tiers of life. She no longer sells her body. She is quite wealthy from winning the Off World lottery and auctioning her seat for a small fortune. Although, she has stopped working the grid, she still has ties to the dangerous, seedy underworld she came from.

Unsure if Victoria will open the door, I keep Lila covered under my cloak. I scan the building's hallways for a kindly looking older woman that might watch the child for a few hours if Victoria refuses to help me. The Xecon building's corridors are deserted.

I've made a mistake. Either she's not home, or she refuses to see me. As I prepare to leave the monitor comes to life with a crackle of energy. A spotlight lights up the darkened corridor.

Unlike my home, her prefab housing is completely automated to seemingly survive an end of the world apocalypse. There is a rooftop heli pad for drone deliveries, an android guest charging station, and several abundantly green garden pods. The whole unit is portable and can be relocated in case of emergency.

How can I trust this woman? She's more an inhuman, calculating machine than a potential good Samaritan. I admit that I was hurt and jealous that he sought solace in the arms of a grid walker, a woman who is half flesh and half machine.

Inwardly sigh. I can't judge Victoria's self-serving precautions now that I've learned that we are both alike. Our lifestyles maydiffer, she was modified to give men pleasure, while I was modified to be an efficient killer, but we are both cyborg hybrids. Part of my dislike of her is jealousy. Against all reason, she has risen while I've sunk in the system. She is a cunning cyborg street worker, but under her tough exterior, I suspect she has a tender heart. She hates me because I work with Evander. I hate her because Evander shares her bed instead of mine. If it wasn't for me, she believes he would settle down with her.

The door slides open, and she gives me a cold stare as she accesses my muddy uniform and wild, disheveled hair. "What do you want, Light Worker?" She scans the hallway. "I was sure I heard you talking to someone." Her gaze lands on the filthy child huddled in my arms. She raises her chin. "What's all this?"

I shift the almost weightless child on my hip. Afraid of the hostile stranger, the girl's body tenses, and her tear-streaked face buries into my neck. I feel her grime being smeared onto my body. I open my coat and stand the child on the floor. "This is Lila. I need you to watch her."

"I'm not a daycare. Go away." She palms a panel and begins to seal the door, but I shove my boot between the entry sensor and the door frame."

"Evander's in trouble." Her face freezes at his name. "I need to talk to you." I see her facial muscles tense as conflicting emotions turn her sneer into a scowl. After a minute, she unseals the door.

Entering her house, I smell sandalwood. I experience a rush of soothing energy and I know I have made the right decision to bring Lila here. The grounding energy surrounding me seems to be coming out of the walls. This is a luxurious stronghold with obsidian psychic shielding.

She nods in the direction of a cleansing unit next to what I assume is a sleep chamber. "Put the child in the decontaminant chamber. I'll find her a clean tunic."

I nod, grateful for her help. Victoria may be a detestable she-beast, but her hatred of Sylex industries is as strong as mine. Perhaps it's because she worked as off world entertainment for their faction leaders for five years before they unceremoniously dumped her here on Terra.

I gently undress the little girl. Her small frame is battered and bruised. "It's alright," She winces as I reach past her and turn on the shower. Dirty water floods the drain. It looks like years of filth are sloughing off her body. "This will make you feel better." The warm water relaxes her, and I feel her tense muscles loosen. She's so exhausted that she doesn't protest when I wash her and wrap up her in a bamboo towel. Before I throw the colorful rags that she was wearing into the disposal unit and press incineration, I tear a blood-stained section off her dress.

I dress her in the oversized sleep tunic Victoria brings me and then lay her on the couch after covering her with a soft blanket. She starts sucking two of her fingers.

"Why is she on my couch?" Victoria frowns at the child.

"This is the old-fashioned analog way of sleeping. That's what she's used to doing from her time being caged in the breeding facility."

"Facility?"

I nod. "I rescued her from an abandoned breeding facility."

"By Deimos's twin, where?"

"Underground, near Dredge Towers."

"Is that where you were looking for Evander?"

"Yes. I believe he accidentally stumbled onto the illegal operation. Now he's missing."

"What else happened? " She narrows her eyes. "Why can't you track him with your powers."

I study my hands. "I've lost my psychic power. I can't feel his energy signature. I do know he's no longer human. Something turned and demonized him."

"I don't believe you."

"I was going to turn back time to save him, but now that I've discovered the breeding facility, I realize that won't stop the inevitable.

"Inevitable? You don't know what you're talking about. The undead are only created by infecting the living with a dark energy transfer. And that doesn't happen often because they consume their victims. They don't breed with them."

I shake my head. "There were altered med beds in a facility under Dredge Towers." I glance at Lila and lower my voice. "Someone or some entity is breeding genetically altered undeads with human females and creating IR's—Inhuman Replicants. If I turn back time to before I slice off his head, then I never find the breeding facility and discover and Sylex's corruption.

"You sliced off Evander's head?" She raises her hand to strike me. "Fucking bitch!"

I grab her by the neck and push her against the wall. "This is your fault, Victoria. You lured him into your world of sex and drugs and got him hooked on android hyper sex."

Her eyes burn with unveiled hatred and something else. Sadness. "I didn't want to hurt him. You know that. I left that lifestyle behind. He didn't. If I could trade places with him, I would."

She hesitates as if she is choking before she adds, "He loved you."

Her words are like a sledgehammer to my gut. I release her and she massages her throat. The silence between us is deafening.

I glance at her throat. There's no bruise, I was careful to avoid hurting her. "If you want to save Evander, then help me. Lila is the key to finding Evander." When her shoulders droop in defeat and I know that I've won.

The scent of the lab and Lila's fifth waft off my uniform and make Victoria's nostril's twitch. "Give me your clothes and use the sanitation facility. If you're going to stay, I can't have you smelling like a morgue."

While she's in the other room, I scan her living space. It's triple the size of my tiny unit. She hasn't really moved in yet. There's half an unpacked box on the floor next to an open bottle of wine on a dark red oriental rug. The polished wooden floor gives the room an austere doshi feel.

Glancing at the drained bottle of wine and two half-filled glasses, I wonder if I've come at a bad time. I hope she's depressed.

"Are you alone?" Inadvertently, my tone makes it more of an accusation than a question.

She's hiding something.

"That's none of your business."

Gathering my coat, I head to the exit. "If you see Evander, call me. Don't approach him, he could be dangerous."

When I head for the door, the preternatural child wakes up and rushes to my side. She clings to my leg arousing a motherly instinct in me that I never knew existed. I note the strange look of deja vu on Lila's face. As if she's been here before and has come to a place that was once home, but isn't anymore.

Victoria holds out her hand. "Here, give her to me."

I hesitate a moment. Victoria can be brutal. I've seen her bash in a client's face if he mistreated her.

"I haven't got all day."

Reluctantly, I lift the shivering little girl into her arms. For a moment, I see a hint of loving sadness flick over her face and then it's gone. She is too good at masking her true self, but I feel a nurturing energy buried deep in her heart. I hope she can find it for the traumatized child I'm leaving in her care. She cathes my eye over Lila's head. "I know you think I'm no better than a demon beast, but once I was just like her."

She closes the door and I'm left standing alone in the hallway.

Without difficulty, I leave her residence. I'm trying not to worry, but I'm anxious about leaving Lila with her.