THE PRICE OF MERCY

""No... no, no, no!"" Maya screamed, tearing at the empty seat cushions as though her grandfather might be hiding beneath the cracked vinyl. She picked up the plastic retrieval tag; embossed upon it was the corporate crest of Vance Resource Management, along with a timestamp from twenty minutes ago.

Jonas stood frozen at the cab door, his face darkening with a fury that transformed his stoic demeanor into something monstrous. ""They didn't use drones. They tracked the tire treads from the mini-mart using ground scouts.""

""Where is he?"" Maya sobbed, grabbing Jonas’s tactical vest with both hands, shaking it with all her meager weight. ""Where did they take him?!""

Jonas checked his wrist console. The emergency channels were already broadcasting a live feed, but it wasn't Derrick this time. The screen showed the pristine, marble-lined atrium of the District Municipal Hall. In the center of the hall, seated in a high-backed metal detention chair, was Arthur. He was barely conscious, his head hanging low, his chest barely rising.

Standing over him was Marcus Vance himself—a man in a tailored grey suit, impeccably groomed, with the cold, predatory gaze of a predator who owned the water everyone drank.

""Citizens of District 9,"" Vance’s voice purred through the tablet speakers, resonant and cultured. ""Law and order are the only barriers between civilization and the desert. Last night, an elderly vagrant and a young delinquent orchestrated a coordinated terrorist attack on our essential distribution infrastructure, injuring employees and stealing municipal property. We will not allow the dregs of this society to blackmail the system that sustains them.""

Vance rested a manicured hand on Arthur’s limp shoulder. ""Under Emergency Protocol 12, this individual has been sentenced to immediate asset forfeiture and corporal public correction. If the fugitive child, Maya Lin, does not present herself to the municipal steps within thirty minutes, her grandfather’s life-support ration will be permanently terminated on live broadcast.""

Maya stared at the screen, her tears drying under a sudden, blinding heat that ignited behind her eyes. Her hands stopped shaking. She looked at the amber injector Sarah had given her, then at Jonas’s holstered firearm.

""Take me to the Municipal Hall,"" she said.