“Titama, are you okay? Are you okay?” Jojo said.

Titama was battered and bruised but in one piece. She rolled her shoulders now that they were free of her leather coat, the sleeve of tattoos down her left arm rippling. Jojo was bleeding in several places but was covered in a great deal more blood than just his own. Red painted its way up his right arm, across his chest, and sprayed onto his face. Propped against the wall was Jupiter with his head demolished and a starburst of gore behind him.

“I’m good, you okay, Jojo?” Titama said. “Come on, help me finish these tanks.”

Thick electrical cables snaked away from the machinery and the tanks. Titama was tired. She and Jojo moved around the already busted monitors and the two of them yanked and unplugged the tanks, throwing the heavy cables aside. The glows from the cylinders and beeping monitors died. One by one, they killed the remaining clones.

Titama kept carrying her sledgehammer as they removed the cables, covered in blood and gore. Jojo was holding his bloody crowbar. Supporting each other, the two of them walked out of the room together and back into the main area of the Farm.

Muturangi was waiting for them across the room, blocking the exit. He looked like he’d dashed upstairs and came back down while they were fighting the other three. Nodding slightly, Muturangi looked outraged but also impressed.

“It’s done, boss, just walk away,” Titama said.

“Did you really kill them, girl?” Muturangi asked. “All of them?”

“Who, the clones or the boys? Bash, Thrash, Jupiter?” Titama said. “Suppose it’s not much difference to you, you could always get more of both. Clones and foot soldiers.”

“You were always softhearted, Titama,” Muturangi said. “You were the only one who’d work with the retard cyborg right there without even questioning it.”

Muturangi lifted a small, rectangular object, like an old TV remote, so that Titama and Jojo could see it. Jojo gave no reaction, he’d been called a lot of names before and he obviously didn’t recognise the device.

“You ever wonder why I’d let some halfwit like Jojo work for me? Before I took him in, I had a console jockey poke around in that brain implant of his,” Muturangi said. “Had them install a few hidden subroutines and master programmes. Like watch this, Jojo, kill this ungrateful bitch for me.”

Muturangi mashed several buttons on the remote. Jojo went stiff and started jittering as if being electrocuted. Bloody hands going to the sides of his head, he dropped his crowbar and fell screaming to his knees.

“Jojo! Jojo, what’s happening?” Titama said.

Titama tossed her sledgehammer to the floor as she knelt beside Jojo. Her partner collapsed, thrashing and grabbing at his head as Muturangi slipped back out of the room. Jojo’s eyes were bulging out of their sockets. Just as suddenly as he’d been hit by whatever Muturangi had done, however, Jojo stopped screaming and sat up. He snatched Titama around the neck and shoulders.

Titama was shocked and didn’t resist as Jojo heaved her backward. Instinctually, she rolled with the push and ended up on her haunches. Letting out an inhuman screech, Jojo got up and shot toward Titama. Whatever Muturangi had activated inside his skull had filled Jojo with berserker rage. He moved more like a chimp than a human being, shrieking. Leaping onto Titama, Jojo hit and clawed. It was all Titama could do to protect her face and eyes.

“Jojo, stop! It’s me!” Titama yelled.

Twisting, Titama slammed the heel of her hand into the base of Jojo’s throat. He let out a horrible gagging noise but didn’t stop. Jojo smacked Titama across the face and her head whipped around, nose bleeding. Another punch and her head bounced off the tank behind her. The male clone drifting upright in the tank showed no reaction, deep in its dreamless sleep.

Gagging and shrieking like an animal, Jojo wrapped both hands around Titama’s throat. Getting on his feet, Jojo lifted Titama up the side of the tank. She kicked and thrashed. Jojo’s hands closed around Titama’s neck, cutting off her airflow.

“Jojo, stop,” Titama said.

There was no reasoning with Jojo. He was also incredibly strong in his berserker state. Titama knew her lanky partner was stronger than he looked but not like this, the programming in his cybernetic brain must have caused his adrenaline to spike through the roof and drive his body to extremes. Titama chopped her hands into Jojo’s elbows but couldn’t make his arms budge. Her lungs were burning. If she couldn’t get the pressure off her throat then she would pass out and there would be nothing she could do to stop Jojo killing her. Titama had no idea whether Jojo could come back from what Muturangi had done to him or not, but she had no choice.

“Jojo, I’m sorry,” Titama rasped.

Pinned against the tank, Titama bent and brought both of her knees up. She kicked and then hooked one leg over Jojo’s right arm. Titama pulled down and Jojo lost his grip. The two of them fell and Titama turned so she had her back to Jojo. He snarled in confusion. Titama kept his arm pincered between her muscular thighs.

Jojo fell to his knees, leveraged by the arm. Titama twisted the limb as his other hand clawed at her hip and then wrenched it sideways. There was a sickening crack as Titama snapped Jojo’s right forearm just below the elbow. Jojo fell to the ground but didn’t seem injured, just angry. His right arm was useless but he swung around with his left, trying to tackle her.

On her feet, Titama grabbed Jojo by the shoulder and shoved him into the tank. His head bounced off the glass. Jojo was only momentarily dazed. Titama used that split-second to snatch Jojo by the side of the head more firmly and then she hammered him into the curving side of the tank again and again and again. Blood dripped out of Jojo’s ear. The area around his implant was bruised and discoloured.

“So long, partner,” Titama said.

With fingertips calloused from weightlifting, thick and powerful, Titama dug into the edges of the metal band running around the left side of Jojo’s skull. Jojo kept howling and fighting until the end. Titama pulled down and twisted. Sparks erupted from the implant as Titama ripped it out of his head. Bloody streamers of circuitry came loose from Jojo’s grey matter. Jojo jerked around, eyes rolling back in their sockets and blood pouring down the side of his face.

Jojo dropped at Titama’s feet, seizing and dying. Removing the implant revealed a square hole cut right through the side of his skull. Titama waited until she saw the last breath leave Jojo’s body. She looked down at the curved implant in her hand, covered in blood and brain, and tossed it aside.

“You’re going to fucking die for that one, Muturangi,” Titama said.