"Name's June," Mist said, stirring her smoothie with her straw. "What's yours?"
Aila looked at her carefully before responding, deliberately taking a long sip of her own smoothie before responding.
"Aila. And you're also Mist, right?"
"Yup. I work for Solstice. We used to be Paris' Phalanx, but then Paris went a little nuts. Couldn't control him, so we booted him and Team Chaos picked him up. With Paris out of the picture, we needed a new name too."
"You're surprisingly forthright," Aila said carefully.
"I'm trying to recruit you. May as well be upfront about everything."
"What makes you think I'll join you? You're a crime group."
"But we're not as bad as Team Chaos, Angela's people or the Legion. We don't hurt people without a reason to. Then again, Angela won't either, but her reasons are a lot more flimsy."
"Who's Angela?"
"Our nemesis. She's also the ultimate head honcho of your Kwik Kash loaners."
Aila was slightly taken aback at how easily Mist dropped a word like nemesis, but then again it wasn't the strangest thing she'd experienced.
"Angela's nasty. She hurt our boss. And most of us too. She's kind of a criminal mastermind tyrant. She stands at the top of the underworld. The rest of us need measures against her or she'll stomp us. Especially those of us who used to work for her. Once you've caught her eye she'll never let you go."
"And she's the one threatening to sell my sister?" Aila asked, a chill creeping over her whole body.
"Probably not. Like I said, she's the head honcho. As long as you don't do anything to catch her personal attention, she probably doesn't care. The people under her are allowed to do whatever they want, though, as long as they don't do anything she doesn't like. Whiplash, the guy from before, is one of hers."
"So what do you want me for exactly?" Aila asked, glaring at Mist.
"You can turn off Miracles. Even if it's only temporary, that's a huge boon to us. The military gets its power back, those of us who know how to handle fistfights get our advantages back, and the psychos who can burn the whole world lose what makes them scary. Anyone who knows about you will want you on their side.
"Team Chaos can shut off the Legion's abilities while their people do their own thing. The military can even the playing field. Angela will want you mostly so no one else has you. And I'm sure the Legion would love to pair you up with someone like Prime to better take out criminals."
"Criminals like you?"
"Pretty much. You're a valuable commodity, Aila. I don't normally involve myself in stuff like this, but Jase would be really upset if I let you get away."
"Who's Jase?"
Mist thought for a moment before answering.
"Jase is Jase. He's my family and the leader of Solstice. He's the only person in the world I trust. If you work for him, he'll make sure you and your family are safe."
"And why shouldn't I just go to the military?"
"They don't know how to hit Angela where it hurts. We do."
"The Legion?"
"They're a bunch of paranoid idiots. And I have it on good authority that they're about to self-destruct entirely."
"Fine. But why you? Maybe I can strike a deal with this Angela."
"Good luck. Nothing is sacred with her. She'll promise to protect your family one day and then the moment you displease her even slightly she'll have one of them killed or worse."
"Why should I trust you on that?"
"She's abandoned a lot of people to rot in prison. People who were loyal to her and then messed up once. She's merciless. If you don't believe me, that's fine. But you'll learn the hard way if you go to her."
"And how do I know your Jase won't screw me over either?"
"My word against everything else I guess. How's this? I'll get the debt collector off your back, then you can think long and hard about it and make your decision."
Mist looked at Aila, that blank expression still on her face. Aila frowned.
"What do you get out of that arrangement?"
"A chance to earn your trust. I promise they'll never bother you again. And if you need money, Jase can pay you a salary."
It didn't sound like a bad deal. But there was one thing Aila had to check.
"What kind of work would he want out of me?"
"Nothing you don't wanna do. He took me in when I was fourteen and I've never done anything I didn't want. I chose to steal and kill. You can choose otherwise. He could probably even set you up with a decent paying part time job on the condition that you remove Miracles when you can. I dunno how exactly that would work, but if we can summon you to the big fights and have you turn on your jammer, we could stop a lot of people from dying who don't need to die."
"You're awfully altruistically minded for a criminal group," Aila said slowly, taking another sip of her drink.
"Not really. This whole setup doesn't benefit us at all. People are scared, so they hole up and stop spending as much money. People are dying, so they no longer contribute to the city. The economy is stalling and that affects us too. If things keep up like this, Arx may no longer be able to support itself. There's only so many jobs you can make a robot or AI do."
"So you want me to fix your mess so you can go back to stealing enough money to live?" Aila glared at Mist over the table. The other girl just shrugged.
"Guess it kind of is our mess. If given the opportunity, I'm sure Jase would toss Paris to the military without a second thought. We're trying to backpedal, though. Can you say the same of the other groups?"
Aila frowned in thought.
"No strings attached if you get rid of the debt collectors?" she asked cautiously.
"None. Gimme your account number and we'll have it settled within two hours."
"You're awfully confident."
"You think I can't do it?"
"It seems too good to be true."
"We've got a good hacker."
"Fine. Gimme a phone number and I'll text you the account number. If they show up again at midnight, I'm selling you out."
"Deal." Mist pulled out a phone, opened its contact list and slid it across the table.
Aila entered her own number into it, then passed it back to Mist. With one last long sip of her smoothie, she stood and walked out of the cafe.
It was several more minutes before Aila left, wandering back to her mom's house with equal parts terror and relief flooding through her.
Was this Yellow's way of giving her an opportunity?
If things worked out, she could only think of it as divine providence.
