Chapter Thirty-One – Casanova Howitzer

Chapter Thirty-One – Casanova Howitzer

“We often underestimate the Antithesis, claiming that they are merely bugs, or idiotic plants. What we don’t realise, what we terrestrial beings have a hard time even conceptualising, is that these plants evolve at a rate that is impossibly fast, and in that evolution, they discover things that we’ve never even considered.

And then they remember them.”

–Except from Antithesis: A Biologist’s Perspective by Dr. Gene Pool, 2045

***

Delilah was on a treadmill when we found her. She’d probably seen us coming, what with the machine facing a wall covered in a floor-to-ceiling mirror from one end to another.

We’d gotten a few looks as we came in, but no one approached. The gym’s ironically-overweight employee behind the counter was too cowed by the presence of two samurai armed to the teeth, and I supposed Rac as well.

“I’ve been getting non-stop shit,” Rac muttered.

“Huh?” I asked.

She made the universal ‘hand waving before face’ gesture of someone talking about their augs. “Ever since we walked in, I’ve been getting ads and requests for stuff. I think I now have a life-time membership for the gym?”

“That sounds expensive,” I said.

“I know! And I can’t figure out how to cancel it. I think it’s a subscription to the gym’s advertising service, not even the gym itself.”

“Yeah, gyms can be like that,” Sam-O-Ray said. “They can be nice places too, though! Never liked the more business-y ones.”

Give me a moment. I’m feeling a little sorry for poor Racoon.

“Oh,” Rac said a moment later before blinking. “I guess they stopped?”

“Or someone took pity on you,” I said with a smirk.

Gomorrah hadn’t stopped jogging even when we got within talking range. “Hello Cat, Rac… Sam-O-Ray, was it?” she asked between pants.

“That’s me, sister,” he said with a grin. Then the big guy slipped his boots off and hopped onto the machine next to Delilah

Rac, seeing what was about to happen before I did, took the machine on Delilah’s other side, which left me standing there for a moment. “Oh, fine,” I muttered before getting onto the one on Rac’s other side. I was now far from Sam-O-Ray, which wasn’t going to be helpful for any chatting, but whatever. I stabbed the start button, then wobbled for a moment as the mill started treading, or whatever.

“So, what’s gotten you to come over here?” Delilah asked. She was looking at me through the mirror.

“One sec. Before that, we should think privacy. At least a little. I know this will get out, but we can at least make a token effort to keep it under wraps.”

“Sure,” she said. “Atyacus… thank you. My AI should be covering things for us.”

I’ll go and make sure he actually does a good job of it.

“Thanks,” I said. Was Myalis Atyacus’ rival or something? I didn’t get that mood from her before. Or was it more of a mentor kind of situation? Or… nagging older sister? Actually, yeah, that last one sounded about right. I licked my lips and took a peek at the speedometer on Delilah’s machine, then matched it with mine. “Is this place safe?” I asked.

“More or less,” she said. “I have Atyacus hooked into all of the security around here, and I have a gun on me.” She tapped her front which had… a fanny pack. There was a water bottle there too, which seemed like it would be annoying to jog with unless you did so with perfect posture.

Delilah was… not looking so hot right now. Not as if she looked sick, it was just… I was used to seeing her put together properly and she was definitely a nine outta ten woman. But now she had her hair in a sloppy pony-tail, was wearing a loose t-shirt, and her pants were the ugliest, greyest sweatpants I’d seen in a while.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” she asked.

“Yeah, so, you know how we’re all gonna die if no one does anything about Phobos?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“As it turns out, no one is planning on doing anything.”

Delilah didn’t react too much except to frown faintly and adjust her step mid-jog. “The Family doesn’t have a plan?”

“As far as I can tell their plan is to use this to gain as much political capital as possible.”