I wasn’t surprised that Karu woke up before me. I was usually up with the sun, preparing to hunt or otherwise make an excursion, but I guess her actually-military lifestyle was even more stringent than the one I’d had by proxy through my father.

She was quietly making adjustments or calibrations to her gear when AEGIS subtly woke me up by bumping a drone into my sleeping face a few times. Despite how chummy she’d been the night before, AEGIS was still apparently paranoid about having her around. I got the hint and sat upright with a stretch and a yawn.

“Good morning. I hope I did not disrupt your slumber,” Karu said with a vague wave before needing both her hands on her task.

“Not at all,” I said, shooting an annoyed glance at AEGIS, who had nothing for me but an embarrassed smile. “Would you like something to eat?”

“It would not do for me to consume some of your limited resources when I have access to a limitless amount back at home. Rather, let me apologize for…let me apologize by providing breakfast for you. Will your companion be joining us?

“Uh, AEGIS doesn’t…eat.”

“–with strangers,” AEGIS added.

“Odd, but I would not question it. I fear my travel rations are far from a hospitable feast, but they are what I have to offer, and between the two of us, there should be plenty to partake. Is this acceptable?”

“I’ll never turn down a free meal.”

Karu simply smiled and set down what she was working on, and dug around in a small pouch on her armor’s belt. I guess it wasn’t all ammo and explosives in there. She withdrew six tubes, each drab colored with small black writing on it, each about the size of a finger, with a cap on one end.

“I do not take particular care in bringing a variety, though I could endeavor to do so should this become a habit. I have…let me see…pasta with beef sauce, spinach-mushroom quiche, lemon-pepper snapper…another quiche, maple syrup and pork sausage — that one may prove to be the most appropriate breakfast option — and black bean chili.” She held the tubes out for me to inspect.

“W-what are they?” I said, picking one at random and looking at it. It was heavier than it looked, but just seemed like a plastic tube with a cap and writing.

“Oh. My apologies. These are simply nutrient paste. NP’s, or ‘nopes’ as the colloquial banter would call them. Eating two in a day will give you all the caloric and nutritional needs for a standard operating day, or three in a particularly exhausting day, though that’s really just for the calories. They are standard issue for military outfits far from support, such as deep reconnaissance, alpine, or airborne units.” At the mention of the latter, she gestured at her jetpack. “Not standard issue for general arms yet.”

“I see. And you just…eat it?”

“Um, yes. I should warn you the flavor is synthetic and has sometimes been described as seeming fake or too strong, but I have never personally had a problem with them.”

I looked at the tube in my hand. Black bean chili. The thought of eating my mom’s chili, with hunks of ground beef and big chunky wedges of tomato made my mouth water. I twisted the cap and Karu gave me another small smile.

She picked one seemingly at random and put the rest on the floor between us, twisting off the cap as I had, then putting the opening to her mouth and apparently just sucking on it. I followed suit, and a thick, gooey paste flooded into my mouth, almost honey-like in its consistency.

The taste was far from honey though. Odd texture aside, it tasted exactly like black bean chili, with hints of cayenne and oregano, garlic and bell pepper, and of course the mild earthy essence of the beans. After parsing a few nibbles I realized why people might have a problem with the flavor; unlike regular chili, there were no chunks of anything, no bit of tomato here and a bean there, rather it was like someone had taken the average flavor of chili, all different tastes included, and the whole tube tasted like that throughout.

Ordinarily that might be a criticism, but as it was, this was by far the most delicious thing I’d had in months. Roasting some fish only came so close to actually cooked-tasting food drawing on an entire kitchen and pantry.

Some of my glee must have shown on my face because Karu kept staring at me and smiling. I could only endure this for so long before turning to her and asking: “What?”

“Oh, it is nothing. I am happy to see you eat with such apparent relish.”

“You should have seen him choking down the mushrooms,” AEGIS added. “Compared to that, everything else he’s eaten he’s looked at like a snake eyeing an unguarded nest.”

“Very flattering metaphor,” I said, my mouth completely full of goop.

“It’s true, though,” she replied. “I’m happy you’re able to enjoy some of that so-called food, but seriously, ick.”

“Regardless,” Karu cut in, possibly already realizing that unimpeded, AEGIS and I would banter back and forth endlessly. “I am happy to provide you with this small enjoyment at least.” She sucked on her own tube idly, smiling at me with her knees in front of her and her chin resting on one of them.

I’d thought it several times before, and would certainly do so again, but damn was she beautiful. If she had a long braid of hair and a dress instead of guns, she could pass for a fantasy princess. A sort of muscley ass-kicking one, sure, but she had an extremely beautiful face. Her skin was tanned but free from blemishes, high cheekbones, and soft-looking lips.

I swallowed hard and remembered just how soft her lips were from when I’d resuscitated her. It seemed like so long ago when she was so crazy angry murderous. I suppose now she was just murderous.

“Is there some nutrient paste on my face?” she asked.

“What?”

“I ask only because you are staring at my face.” She dabbed a finger experimentally around her lips and scrutinized it closely.

“Ah, no. I was just thinking, it’s a little odd that your whole job is fighting people and yet you don’t have any scars.” She laughed.

“I have had many, many scars. Some, even, that you have given me.” I felt guilt plummet into my stomach, even more dense than the nutrient paste. “But whenever I am hurt, I have access to a regenerator at my clinic, and one of the side-effects of their use is removing scars.”

“I thought regenerators just sped up natural healing by a lot?” I asked.

“They do promote natural regeneration, yes, but the inside of a regenerator tank is also very similar to the conditions inside of your body. What your body does naturally from the inside, the regenerator does artificially from the outside.”

She put the tube of paste down. “What I have heard–and I am unfortunately merely a soldier and not a scientist, so do not take this as gospel–is that under some conditions, the body will expel foreign bodies, like bullets, or built-up scar tissue to the surface. As the fluid in the tank tricks the body into thinking it is a part of the body, the scar tissue will be expelled entirely, as new skin and muscle are regrown in place underneath.”

“Woah. That’s super awesome sounding. Does the tank just…fill up with cast-off scars?”

“I would not know. I am sedated the entire time for my own safety. Errant thoughts or emotional states could cause abrupt shifts in my bio-signs which could cause the regenerator to do anything from not work to create cancerous growths all over my body.” She frowned. “I find it best to simply comply with the medical staff and not ask too many questions.”

“And you’re okay with the possibility of having…everything cancer?”

“I sometimes require access to a regenerator, that is an unfortunate condition of my occupation. Consequently, I am willing to tolerate the risks, and do whatever I am instructed to mitigate them.”

“Pretty brave.”

“Not particularly. Like I said, I am sedate for the experience.”

“So, changing the subject mostly because the thought of being a cancerous mass in a tank kind of freaks me out, how long are you staying with us today?”

“Hmm, I had not considered,” she said, and reached back, pulling her visor and putting it on. “It appears to be 7am or thereabouts. I have no outstanding obligations on the day, however–” she pulled the visor off again and shook her little mane of hair out “–I am not certain that it would be entirely proper for me to spend overlong in your company.”

“What’s the harm? You were already here all night.”

“That was by necessity. Some thoughtless individual locked my equipment out, making it impossible to return home even if I had desired to.”

“Yeah, why do you have an 8-hour lock on that stuff anyway? Doesn’t seem too useful.”

“So I have noticed. It had never occurred to me that someone would be able to take and use my equipment while I was still living, so I simply set the lockout time to the longest possible setting to give whomever looted my body the greatest possible inconvenience in attempting to repurpose it.”

“You set it that way yourself?”

“I did. Is this surprising?”

“No. It’s just…I recently ‘acquired’ an exosuit from another hunter. It didn’t have any lockout at all, and just let me add myself as a new user as soon as I put it on. Or…got in?”

She turned around and peeked through the piles of junk in the room until she spotted the exosuit in a corner. Instantly, a dour look crossed her face.

“The incessant color-coordination of Luminary, it would appear,” she said. “I am not surprised that he took no care in securing his own exosuit, as the man is an idiot.”

“So you guys are really good friends then?” AEGIS goaded, injecting herself into our conversation seemingly only when she could annoy somebody by doing so.

“If by ‘good friends’ you mean to say that I find him a disgrace who cheapens my entire occupation simply by existing in it, a man so driven by praise and money that the values of righteousness and virtue are completely alien, and a man who repeatedly attempts to goad me into some form of dating,” she spit out the last word like it was the most abhorrent of profanities. “Then yes, you could say that he and I are ‘good friends.'”

“Eesh, could have just said no.”

“And you could have simply remained silent and not attempted to mock me, but I did you the service of answering your question, inane though it may have been.”

“So anyway” I cut in. “Luminary’s a big idiot. We learned that firsthand. Happy to hear you agree with my opinion on him.”

“I am not certain it is possible to formulate any other opinion.” She sighed. “And yet he has millions of followers on social media, and people who tune in to each of his episodes. In one such episode, he mentioned me and that I would not go dating with him. At that time, I was ignorant that he even had an interest in me, and saw him merely as an annoying colleague. I was unfortunately awakened to his true feelings by an endless deluge of fan-mail sent to me–his fans, not mine–which accused me of everything from being a ‘basic bitch’, to ‘a sell-out fraud’, to a prude, to a slut, to a lesbian, on account of my hair style.”

She ran her fingers through her hair with a frown. “Does this hairstyle indicate that I am a lesbian to you?”

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” AEGIS said.

“Shut up, AEGIS,” I said.

“Honestly, I wonder what people think of my profession sometimes. I hear back in the old days, when the association was newly formed, hunters were treated with fear and suspicion, assumed to be manipulating everything from politics to stock prices behind the scenes. Now…thanks to–I suppose one would call them celebrities–such as Luminary, the inner workings of being a hunter have never been more visible, or more fake.”

“What a weird problem to have.”

Karu laughed. “Yes, that is one reason I enjoy coming out and combating you, truth be told. Out here, in the wild, with you, there is no greater deception than a feint, no larger agenda than living, no aggrandizement, merely survival. It is pure and beautiful, in its fragility.”

“Hey, say what you will, but we’ve been at it like, half a dozen times now, and nobody’s dead yet. I think fragile is not the right description for what we’ve got going on here.”

“Perhaps not. But even so, one false move could lead to a permanent end. I am no artist, but that still speaks like poetry to me.” She checked her visor again as she spoke. “I should be leaving soon. You are more than welcome to the remaining nutrient pastes, though I must warn you that as someone somewhat malnourished, if you should eat food which is too rich, you stand the risk of damaging yourself. Please pace yourself, as it would not do for me to kill you in this way.” She stood and smiled, and I wasn’t sure if she was kidding or not, except that this was even less funny than her other attempts at humor.

“Uh, sure. I’ll keep it to one a day, tops.”

“Much appreciated. Before I go, I have a warning for you, though it may not be helpful, as it is vague even to my ears. Still, I feel obligated to inform you.”

She walked to the door and I followed, keenly aware that drones were subtly repositioning in the ceiling beams to eavesdrop on whatever was said.

“The word is that there is a new information broker who is an Exhuman. Of course there is nothing substantiated, but the XPCA is concerned as any Exhuman whose power involves prophecy or acquiring restricted knowledge is obviously an enormous danger to them and is equally difficult to track and catch.”

“Interesting. And this Exhuman is using their powers as an info broker…so they’re digging up secret information and then selling it?”

“That is correct, from what I hear.”

I let out a low whistle. “I’ve never heard of an Exhuman successfully turning a day job before.”

“There are many such cases, they are just kept secretive. The XPCA prefer everyone to believe that Exhumans have no option but to surrender themselves, and consequently most do. Being a hunter however, I have had many cases of ferreting out individuals who have secretly embedded themselves in society.”

I frowned. “Were they doing anything wrong?”

“That is really not for a hunter to say. Others post the contract and we fulfill it.”

“That just seems like…murder.”

“If they were as righteous and strong as you, they would be receiving my warnings and breakfast now instead of paying for it.”

“I just…that seems super messed up.”

“I do not think so. I think God has a plan for each of us, and for many Exhumans, his plan is for them to die.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to kill them.”

She let out a heavy sigh. “This is not a conversation I wish to have with you, but I will suffice to say that I was there and you were not. I met and fought with these individuals and you did not. Like with you, whether I intended to or not, I judged their mettle and their morals, and before you, all had been found wanting. While I am interested in re-examining my principles going forward, that does not mean I am willing to second-guess all my previous decisions. Were they wrong, they were still right in that they led me to you, and the ability to see that they were wrong.”

She stopped, and I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to reply. Discussing the morality of murder was difficult when speaking with a paid murderer.

“I had a point to my previous statements if you still wish to hear that.”

“Okay. Go ahead, but I’m not sold on the whole hunting business still.”

“How fortunate for me that I do not need your approval to operate,” she said wryly. “My warning is thus: This information broker has seemingly taken a personal interest in you and has made several inquiries into your whereabouts through various channels. Given her resources, it is unlikely that it will take long for her to find you, strictly classified though your location may be.”

“That’s…just…”

“It is not fortuitous, I know.”

“What did I even do to possibly get her attention anyway?”

“I do not know. By all metrics you have ‘laid low’ as it were. You have not left the area or had correspondence with others…barring her, of course.” She jerked her head towards AEGIS. “Your capture was not eventful. There was no Exhuman event. Perhaps she is interested in your powerset?”

“I guess. I thought th–two crazy women after me was plenty. And now there’s one more out there, no telling when or where she’ll find me or what she’ll do when she does.”

“Indeed. And, not to indulge myself in my own praises too greatly, but I suspect that when she does come, if her intentions are hostile, she will not meet you honorably on the battlefield as I do. She is a figure who operates in the shadows by matter of course.”

“Yeah. That is a concern. Does she have a name?”

“She is called the Black Shark in the circles where she has deigned to identify herself.”

“Black Shark,” I said.

“What?”

“What? Nothing,” I lied. “Just thinking.”

She gave me an odd glance. “Very well. If there is nothing else, I shall take my leave. I bid you good health until my return.” I waved goodbye, and even AEGIS called out a farewell as she suited up, stepped out, and with a streak of blue plasma, streaked off over the treeline.

“So what was that about Black Shark?” AEGIS asked as soon as Karu was gone.

“What do you mean?”

“Something was written all over your face when you heard it. I’m sure Karu saw it too but she’s not as nosy as me. So spill it.”

“Okay,” I sat down in my hammock facing AEGIS. “We should probably get some chairs in here at some point.”

“I’ll put that on my build list. Now spill.”

“Yeah. Well, it’s not much, I’ve certainly never heard of any info brokers before. But Black Shark, well…The Black Sharks, that was the name of my high school’s football team.”

“That you played on? That you QB’d for?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah.”

“What does that mean?”

“I have no idea at all, AEGIS.”