Violet tries not to breathe. The strangely curved knife that hovers beneath her chin looks more than sharp enough to lay open bare skin. She racks her brain for an escape, but the only one that shows any chance of success is if the Wutan-Weylan combat variant's greed is equal to their intelligence. A fifty-fifty split would be enough wealth to live as a lower board member in any of the other three corpos.

"...feel about going what?!"

Her heart races in her chest. Bribery's clearly out. There's nothing left. Even if Corgia attacks, it won't be fast enough to keep her alive, which means Corgia can't do it. A sudden motion draws her attention.

"Sky," the strange woman with the ancient rifle and bleeding eyes rasps, trying to keep her aim steady, "can you stop doing... you know..."

"...oh. Sorry."

Pressure unexpectedly disappears from Violet's ankles, and the deadly length of metal vanishes from her throat. Surprised, she twists her head to catch her assailant's piercing gaze.

"You're... not going to kill me? I mean, that's a smart decision. Very wise. Even if we don't go halfsies, you'll need me to get out through the fleet. We can go thirdsies. You get two of them, obviously."

"What should we do with her, Torch?" The Wutan-Weylan combat variant ignores the offer, sounding exhausted. The bloody-eyed woman shrugs, lowering her rifle slightly but still keeping it pointed in the same direction. Violet looks on with wide eyes as the prototype, a burly bruiser with scarred fists and bulging muscles walks up next to the woman with the rifle.

"Don't suppose you have any sort of jail in the village?"

"What the fuck's a 'jail,' Chief Outsider Engineer MacWillie?"

"It's where... you lock up... you know, never mind. I can fashion some restraints. The real problem isn't the lass anyways, it's the wee beastie."

The prototype points at Corgia and Violet's stomach sinks. If they destroy Corgia's mobile processor unit, her ability to manipulate the infonet is going to be severely limited. That would be a disaster. The dog tries to scamper down the ramp towards her but the strange... thing in front of it refuses passage, one paw raised to swipe with fractal claws.

"No!" Fingers tighten around her upper arms, and she tries not to thrash. "Please. It's my dog, my only friend. You can't kill it!"

"You thought we were just going to kill your friend? Without even talking to you first? MacWillie, what kind of savages live out there?"

The voice behind her is equal parts disgusted and horrified. In front, the prototype brings a broad hand to her face in what looks a lot like exasperation.

"No, Sky, look, it's not... the beastie isn't really alive. It's offloading some of her integrator's capacity. Probably quite a bit of it if she is what I think she is."

Violet's mind races. Why are they talking so familiarly with each other? Wasn't the Pilar tasked with taking the prototype back to Wutan-Weylan by force?

Corgia, interrogate assumptions.