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                “There was . . . a mighty duel.”

                                Prince Humperdink, Princess Bride

                I wake up to the smell of effort.

                My eyes open, knowing well the smell of work. I’ve smelled it before. It’s the pungent stench that fills an empty house after all the furniture’s been moved out. It’s the odor of hours of work in the fields. It’s the smell of sweat when hard work is involved.

                And I smell it in the alleyway. Over the trash and the burned, day-old food, I smell effort.

                I sit up slowly, cautiously. My eyes scan the shadows in the alleyway. I glance up at the sky. I don’t see any stars, but the day is so overcast, it might as well be dusk. How could they tolerate pollution in a bio-dome?

                After considering every shadow of trash, I decide I’m alone. I sit up and look around. A lot of the trash is pushed up against the walls, except some of the larger piles, which are scattered as if they’ve been stepped in.

                A fight.

                “Slate?” I call.

                Silence

                I look over at where she went to sleep last night, seeing the space empty. I just sit there calmly for a moment, staring at the woman-shaped vacuum in my mind. I don’t panic. My mind rushes through a vast array of possibilities. Was she there last night? Did she wake up and leave? Did I imagine her? Did I imagine everything?

                I see her backpack. I see mine. And then I see it.

                Blood

                I move over on my haunches, beginning to sweat in the stale air. I look at the small splattering of blood. It looks like nothing more than a few drops of blood that was stepped in. I look back around at the alleyway, connecting the dots.

                Slate’s eyes opened in a flash. Her head lifted up as she saw the two shadows against the far wall, just on the other side of the alleyway. She could hear their steps, subtly heavier than people their sizes would have. She pressed back against the brick wall, slowly sliding up, watching the shadows and Sam sleep at the same time.

                Standing now, she moved up from the wall, reaching to her waist. With her machete in her right hand, she took hold of one of the two handles on her belt. With a quiet whip of her left hand, the extendable baton slid out. She stepped to the center of the small hook in the alleyway, staring at the silhouettes of the two men.

                “There she is.”

                “Get her!”

                The first one, Tiny, moved at her to her right, then moved in to grab her machete arm. She slid her left arm underneath her right elbow, catching him in the side of the chest with her steel baton. She immediately reversed the motion to hit Tall across the face with the baton just before hacking him in the side of the neck with the machete. The blade tore a heavy cleave into his skin and muscle as he fell away against the brick wall.

                Tiny swung at Slate with his fist, but she ducked around it, catching him in the stomach with the flat of her machete. She came around with the steel baton to his face, then slashed him across the face with her machete.

                When he fell, Medium was standing in the alleyway’s entrance.

                Medium swung his broadsword at Slate, but she slipped out of the way, hitting it with her machete as she swung at his head. Medium pirouetted his jaw just enough to dodge the swing, then came up at her with his knee, catching her in the kidney. Slate was thrown against the wall, but then kicked back, catching Medium in the knee. He fell down, just inches from the still-sleeping Sam.

                Slate came around as Tall moved towards her, mindless of the giant gash in his neck. He swung at her, trying to take her head off, but she chopped him in the stomach with her machete, his guts spilling out into his hands.

                She moved as Tiny tried to swing at her, but she just clipped him in the face with her elbow, before coming around from the other side with her other elbow, smashing his face almost half an inch inside his head.

                Smart, at the entrance of the alleyway, leveled the tazer at her. Slate barely had time to gasp.

                “Four guys.” I say, looking down at the markings on the ground of the alleyway. “And she’s studied Arnis too.”

                I grab up her bag and mine and load them onto my shoulders. I step out into the alleyway to see a car go zooming by the entrance. I watch the car disappear, then look down. There are skid marks on the pavement. A fast drive-off. They were rushing. They were still struggling. “She was still struggling, even after they used a tazer.” I exclaim. “Jesus.”

                At the entrance of the alleyway, I don’t see anything. It’s probably mid-morning by now. Who knows where they are. Only once chance.

                The door buzzer gives me away as I walk into the Chinese restaurant. The woman behind the counter looks up at me, a less than pleased look on her face. “Can I help you?” She asks in a thick accent.

I look around at generic decorations on the pale yellow walls, then to her. “Yeah. I’m looking for my friend.” I say, trying to sound as friendly as I can. As I speak, I feel my cheek, noting the whiskers. I bet I look pretty ragged.

                “I no see anyone.” She says. “Thank you.” She starts to turn away.

                “I don’t suppose you saw any cars out here last night?” I ask as she keeps walking off. “With a bunch of goons pulling some girl into the car?” No response.

                Of course, I don’t necessarily know that they used a car. But it makes sense and that’s what skid marks like that mean on CSI. I stare at the spot on the street for a bit, considering the options. As I look around, I glance up across the street, at another alleyway. I can see a couple of bums over there.

                There’s three of them. All of them look a bit rough around the edges, but not like the usual bums I’ve seen. I come up the entrance of the alleyway and look at the three as they sit casually against the brick walls. “Hi.” I say with a friendly tone. “A friend of mine got boosted last night. I was wondering if you guys saw what happened.”

                “I didn’t see nothing.” Says the one closest to me.

                “I did.” Says the one across from him, looking up at me. “Pretty girl too, man. She your girl?”

                “No.” I answer truthfully. “To be honest, I’m actually a bit afraid of her. But she’s my friend and I want to know who stole her.”

                “It was Morcean’s goons.” Comes the third, sitting on the other side of the dumpster so I can barely see him. “He and his boys rode up a few hours ago, just before sun up. They jumped out and went back there and started a fight. We see it all the time. He roughs up everyone he can. Thinks he’s the next Al Capone or something.”

                “Morcean?” I ask. “Who is he? How did we know we were there?”

                “Probably the sewers.” Says the bum, pointing at the sewer grates. “He’s got ears everywhere. He hears this city, you know. He sees it and knows it. Or that’s what he likes to pretend. I remember, back when I still had a job, I went up to his office one night. Scary place. Big and pointy and shadowy. Scary place.”

                “How did you guys end up without jobs in a controlled environment?” I ask. “This is a bio-dome. Why would they . . .”

                “They offered us the chance to get jobs.” Says the one nearest to me again, speaking up again. “Said they’d train us. Course they didn’t. We got here and had like two weeks of training and were sent out to find jobs. When we couldn’t, well. They didn’t think we wouldn’t be able to find jobs, so they don’t have any shelters or nothing. But we can’t leave because it would ‘damage the experiment’.” He rolls his eyes and looks away.

                “Experiment.” I say, looking back out at the street for a moment. “So this Morcean guy, he ganked Slate. But why?”

                “She’s a pretty girl. Maybe that’s all he needed.” Offers the bum behind the trash can.

                “No, there’s got to be more to it.” Says the second bum. He looks up at me. “You gonna go get her?”

                “I don’t know.” I admit. “I have no idea what to do or even where he lives.”

                “He’s about eighteen blocks that way.” The bum says, pointing out of the alley, down to my left. “In the park.” I turn my head and look.

                Before I even know what’s happening, my feet are leading me in that direction.

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