“Right, so remember. Hold your tongue if Anna gets angry. I didn’t do this with her blessing and she’s the leader of the rebel cell who took me in,” Mai said as she and the surviving Cullers stood outside the entrance to the rebel base.

There were ten of them left by the time she destroyed the attacking team. All of them were injured, so she’d used an entire bottle of bio-mass boost, getting them back up to strength and replenishing their bio-mass.

All of them had been either mid-level gangers, or normal civilians. Again, none of them were prisoners or ex-military. Lines had definitely been drawn and she couldn’t work when or why that had happened.

Dakota nodded, a grin spreading across her face. She hadn’t been able to stop smiling. “Mai, chill. I get it. You’re going to be facing a pissed off leader. We’ll not cause any trouble.”

Mai returned the smile, reaching out to hold Dakota’s arm. Dakota returned the touch, and Mai realised just how long it had been since someone had touched her in that way.

“It’s seriously good to see you again,” a picture of Johnny flashed across her mind. She killed it as surely as she’d killed him. For some reason she knew that Dakota wouldn’t betray her.

“Okay people look at the lovely river of shit whilst I open the door. Anna would freak if she knew I’d let you see the combination.”

They did as she asked, all too grateful to her for saving them to put up any form of protest at her secrecy. Opening that door, she led them into the killing chamber and knocked on the other door.

“Where the fuck have you been and who the fuck are these people!” screeched Anna, face red and blotchy, veins pulsing in her neck, pushing through into the killing chamber even before the door had finished opening.

Mai decided that Anna had probably been rehearsing the first part since they’d realised Mai was missing. From the way that Anna’s eyes bulged out of her face, they hadn’t expected her to return with anyone else.

“That’s my friend, Dakota, we helped each other in training before entering the Culling. The others I don’t know yet. I had to rescue them, but they were with Dakota, so I think it’s safe to assume they’re cool.” Anna’s eye twitched a little at that. Mai didn’t think she’d ever seen anyone quite so angry before. “Don’t suppose a little girl arrived here a while back? Saved her from some organ drones.”

She kept her tone light and as respectful as she could. The first part was hard, and it was all she could do not to laugh in Anna’s face. The second part was even harder. She wanted to do nothing more than punch Anna in the throat.

What level is she? Anna had been a Culler in her past, must have been. Escape her life, enter the Culling. That was how things went wasn’t it? Which meant everyone in the base had been a Culler. Ignoring society’s polite norms she opened Anna’s SASS.

She was only level three. Three! Mai was a clear six levels and dozens of kills higher than her.

“Did you just look at my SASS?” hissed Anna. Mai ignored the sharp intakes of breath around her. A serious breach of etiquette at a time like this was not the best idea.

“Yep. Have a look at mine,” Mai smiled, narrowing her eyes pointedly. It was as if everyone in the room had stopped breathing.

Anna paused for a moment, tilting her head slightly before SASSing Mai. There was a moment, less than a heartbeat before she gasped, her blotchy face quickly paling, hand rising to cover her mouth.

“How … I mean … what …” she stammered.

“Seems I’m getting quite good at Culling people,” replied Mai, stepping past Anna and entering the building. “What’s cooking, these people are starving.”

Entering the base proper she waved to the rebels escorting Anna. A couple of them glared at her, but the rest were full of smile and friendly greetings

“How’s the new expansion working?” she asked one of the rebels, glaring at her.

“It’ll do,” the woman snapped. It was clear she didn’t want to give Mai any credit for the improvement. However, Mai took that as a small victory, especially as the woman clearly couldn’t say that the expansion was a bad thing.

“Good. Glad it helped you,” Mai laid a hand on the woman’s shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Now that I've completed the rescue mission, I’ll see what other benefits I can add. Anything you’d like?”

“You out of here,” snarled the woman, shaking off Mai’s hand.

“Hey, that’s not nice, Hind,” said one of the rebels who had been smiling. “Mai didn’t have to expand the bunk room. She’s cool in my eyes.”

“Thanks,” Mai nodded gratefully to the rebel. “Anna was a bit preoccupied. Did a little girl arrive here a while ago?”

“Yep, she’s in the canteen. Poor thing was starving. Hasn’t stopped eating since she got here.”

*

“Hello again,” Mai waved at the little girl she’d saved. The girl tried to wave back and say hello, but her hands were full with a bowl and chopsticks and her mouth was so full her cheeks were bulging.

Mai was about to join her when a heavy hand slapped down onto her shoulder.

“We’re not finished. Command room. Now.” Anna was so close her breath tickled Mai’s neck. It was uncomfortably intimate and it took everything Mai had to not react.

“Fine. Dakota, would you like to see the command room?” Mai looked over at her friend. “The rest of you can get settled and have some food. It’s good.”

Ignoring Anna once again, Mai led her friend out of the canteen and along to the command centre. Anna followed, spluttering. It seemed that ignoring her was the best way to knock her off balance.

“Nice!” exclaimed Dakota as they stepped into the command room. The rebels in there all spun about to look at the newcomer, then spun straight back again as Anna stormed into the room, busying themselves with anything but looking at their irate leader.

“You’ve endangered this whole base bringing strangers to it! It’s not big enough to hold all of these new people!” Spittle spayed over Mai’s face and she took a couple of steps backward to get out of range.

Anna tried to close the distance, stopping as Mai gently but firmly placed a hand on her chest, checking her forward momentum. At the same time, Mai bladed herself, sliding her right foot back behind her.

“Firstly, completing that mission probably means I can continue to expand this base. Not that we don’t have the points to do so in the first place. Why you didn’t do anything to improve the lives of your people is beyond me.” Mai held up a finger as Anna tried to speak. “Secondly, you were talking about rescuing these people anyway. Worried that me doing so will steal glory from you?”

Dakota stood behind and to the left of Anna, and Mai clearly saw the wince that crossed her face at those words. There was a collective hiss amongst those present and Mai’s mouth dried as she realised she might have taken a step too far.

“You bitch! Your behaviour has endangered everyone here. How do you know that none of the Cullers you supposedly rescued aren’t Imperial spies?”

“That makes no--” Mai didn’t get any further.

“Do you really think that we just bring any stranger directly back to the base? Do you really think that we don’t take them to a secondary location so that we can debrief them and make sure that they aren’t spies?”

Mai hadn’t thought about that. She hadn’t really thought about anything other than bringing the Cullers back to the base. Her stomach flipped at the possible consequences of what she’d done.

“I seriously doubt that any of those people are spies. The shooting was totally random and there was no chance that they could guarantee they wouldn’t be killed by a stray bullet or even by someone using explosives,” she tried to keep her tone as reasonable as possible.

“It doesn’t matter what you doubt or don’t doubt! You put this entire base in danger when you brought strangers straight to it, and you put it in danger when you expanded it,” hissed Anna. Her fists opened and closed as she spoke.

“Well, I for one am grateful that she came and got us,” Dakota stepped past Anna and stood with Mai.

“You’ve got to be fair Anna, expanding the base didn’t put us in danger and allowed us to have a lot more space. It worked for everyone, and I’ve added some more rooms myself now that I know it’s possible.” Chan stood next to them too.

Others had stood, some had moved towards Mai, whilst a smaller group had moved to stand with Anna. You could cut the tension with a knife.

Mai saw the realisation of what was happening dawn in Anna’s eyes as she took in the size of the group standing with Mai, and the size of the group standing with her.

They weren’t huge, but if they were representative of the base as a whole, Mai had just gained the support of the majority of the base. She didn't dare check her reputation, but it was clear Anna was on the way down.

Anna’s eyes darted towards Chan and narrowed as she looked at the person who was her second-in-command and supposed to be supporting her. Mai felt a pang of sympathy at the betrayal she knew Anna would be feeling.

“So, it’s like that? Not spies, just people you trust to take this base away from me.”

“No, it’s not like that. They needed rescuing, so I rescued them. It’s your bigotry that’s driving people to disagree with you. Get over the fact you’re vat-born, none of us care. We don’t think of you any differently. So why should you?”

Anna stood stock-still; Mai could barely see her breathing. Then she spat on the ground at Mai’s feet and stalked out of the room followed by the couple of rebels who had stood with her.

Mai opened her SASS and looked at her reputation in the base. It had taken a massive twenty-four per cent increase since she had arrived back with the Cullers. Anna’s had taken a forty per cent decrease and was effectively at rock bottom.

“That wasn’t your finest moment,” Dakota patted Mai on the back.

“No,” agreed Chan, “it certainly wasn’t. You do have a way of pissing Anna off.”

The tension in the room broke and the rebels burst out laughing. And Mai felt at home, just like she had with the Sewer Company, Andries and Fat John. Feeling a part of something once more was good.

“Thank you, I’m glad you find it amusing,” Mai softened her words with a wry smile. “I’m knackered. I’m sure the Cullers I brought with me are tired too.”

She looked over at a rebel. “Jock, could you take the Cullers to the bunk room? I’ll be keeping Dakota.”

The rebel nodded and left the room without question. Whilst Mai’s request was perfectly reasonable, it could also be taken as an order. Something which the rebel – who had been assigned a place in the command room – should have confirmed with Anna. That he hadn’t, spoke volumes.

“And what are you keeping me for?” asked Dakota.

“Got something to show you,” Mai crooked a finger and led Dakota out of the command room.