She did not move. She sat at the entrance to his private chamber, her red eye fixed on the safe.
In that instant, the Silk Worms' breaching charge blew the chamber doors apart. Kingpouge reached for his concealed plasma pistol, but Laika was faster. She didn't attack him. Instead, she lunged for the safe, her metal-reinforced jaws tearing through the biometric lock like wet paper. She grabbed the data-slate—the whole of his empire, the kill-codes, the blackmail files, the fortune—and leaped out the shattered window into the rain-slicked dark. kingpouge laika
"Laika," he said, not looking back. "Heel." She did not move
The turning point came on the night of the Red Eclipse, when the city's particulate moon turned the color of rust. A rival syndicate, the Silk Worms, launched a full-scale assault on Kingpouge's spire. Plasma fire melted the rain mid-fall. Screams echoed up from the lower levels. Kingpouge, calm as still water, stood on his balcony, watching his kingdom burn. Kingpouge reached for his concealed plasma pistol, but
Her name was .