ABC - Penance
Chapter 9

Alvarez Gym, South Bank District

“Luisa!” my Papa called out joyfully as soon as I entered the gym. He strode over to me, casting his big arms wide to capture me in a rib-crushing hug. I kissed his cheek and begged him to let me go, feeling self-conscious under the interested gazes of the other gym occupants.

“Tell me you love me first!” he demanded, lifting me and twirling us around like I was five years old again.

“Okay, Okay” I grunted. “I love you, Papa. Now put me down!”

Back on my own feet, I looked at the raised sparring ring that occupied the centre of the gym floor. The two girls inside had paused to watch the performance with my Papa but now squared off against each other.

Underneath the padded face protector and kidney belt I recognised Hanna-Lei Weng, a keen fighter and Papa’s star pupil. She was the eldest daughter of the family that rented an apartment above the gym, sharing the upper floor with my father.

Facing her was Minke, similarly attired and gleaming with a thin layer of sweat. Both girls stepped into range of the other, although I reckoned Minke had a slight reach advantage. Gloved fists snapped out, probing the defences of their opponent, then Minke dropped low and swung her left leg in a broad sweep while she balanced on her right..

Hanna-Lei side-stepped quickly, avoiding the leg sweep with a grin of victory. She turned her movement into a forward lunge, driving her left glove at Minke’s unprotected head. Except Minke had kept turning, the momentum of her leg spinning her head out of the way of Hanna’s punch.

Minke pushed off with only her right leg, her calf muscles straining as she launched her body mass forwards, bringing her left fist up into a rising cut. She caught the girl solidly in the stomach and Hanna exhaled violently as she folded over the blow.

“Good, good!” Papa cried out with delight as the two young women separated. Minke had gotten back to her feet and then laid a conciliatory glove on Hanna’s shoulder. The other girl rubbed her gloves across her belly then stood upright, tapping Minke gently on her shoulder to show she was Okay.

Papa and I climbed up onto the sides of the ring, leaning on the ropes as Minke and Hanna- Lei joined us.

“That was a good feint, Minke” I told her and she grinned happily, her teeth hidden by a bright blue gum shield.

“Hmm, but she was left in a badly balanced squat if it failed” Papa declared, which got a smile from Hanna-Lei. He saw that and added “Still a good leg sweep, Minke. You used it well to draw the response you wanted from Hanna”

Papa laughed good-naturedly as Hanna looked crestfallen at this comment. My father reached over the ropes to tap her lightly on the head, the same old gesture of affection he used with me.

I won’t say I was jealous right then. I was, I just won’t admit it.

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We had retired to Papa’s apartment on the upper floor, Hanna-Lei saying her goodbyes in the corridor before disappearing into her family’s apartment. A waft of fragrant cooking drifted out, making my stomach rumble until the door closed and the delicious odour was sealed off.

Papa owned the entire building, a legacy of many years working hard in the construction industry. He was one of thousands of workers brought in to build the gleaming towers and streets of Pan City, then relegated to living outside the walls in satellite cities such as Spitfield and Haven.

He lived in one half of the upper floor and the Weng family lived in the other. The family helped my Papa look after the gym in return for free use of the facilities, an agreement that benefitted everybody. Sometimes Mrs Weng shared her delicious cooking with Papa and I, an added incentive for me to stop by.

Tonight Papa was cooking for us, a spicy stir fry of vegetables harvested from a nearby roof-top garden mixed with tofu and vat grown pork. He had a heavy hand with the chilli so I warned Minke not to add any more on top, such as my father invariably did.

I like the spice but not the insane level of heat my Papa enjoys, probably because he brought me to the Zone while I was still a young girl. Mama had died from the Virus in the old country, her body ripped apart by the mutations. My father and I survived those dark days in Mexico, then we fled the Northern Bloc as soon as we could.

“Wow, that is great, Mr Alvarez!” Minke enthused, coiling another string of noodles and vegetables around her fork. She was sweating slightly, same as I was, as Papa had added a little too much kick to tonight’s dinner. I noticed even Papa had added a lot less extra fresh cut chilli over his meal, so it was not just Minke and I feeling the burn.

“It’s not too hot for you, Minke?” Papa asked, glancing at me as I downed half of my cold beer in one swig.

“No, I love hot food” the girl replied and shovelled another loaded forkful into her mouth. Papa gave me a triumphant look, as if to say his only daughter should be more appreciative of the food he cooked. I just saluted him with my half full glass of booze and accepted defeat.

After dinner I made my father and I coffee then we sat in Papa’s living room, watching a Gravity Ball game on his big screen. It was a match between the Divebombers, a Pan City team, who were playing against the Jakarta based Steel Hawks.

The Levitators who played were all Grade Two’s, with teams made up of Awakened men and women. Our team had a single Grade Three who was the Striker, a handsome guy named Darcy King who hailed originally from the RUK.

All three of us cheered and hollered as Darcy flew spirals around the end zone defence, swooping up thirty meters over the spherical floor to hurl the red ball into the ten-point goal. He then got hit with a late tackle by a big defender, a woman from the Balinese Protectorate, that sent him spinning into the mesh barriers.

She earned herself a five minute term in the penalty box while Darcy shrugged off the big hit and scored two more quick slam-dunks in the five-point goals. The Levitator was a freaking legend!

“I wish I had been Awakened as something useful like a Levitator” Minke sighed from her seat on the floor. She had a brightly patterned cushion under her butt and was leaning back against the side of my chair, drinking a Panic Cola. “Being a Shiner is worse than useless”

“I know what you mean” I agreed. “There aren’t many commercial uses for a Kinetic Enhancer either. Not legal ones anyway”

“Is that why you fought in the Arena, Luisa?” she asked innocently enough. My hand dropped warningly onto her blonde head and stayed there, my spread fingers gripping her skull lightly but firmly.

“We don’t talk about those days” Papa said evenly, his eyes fixed deliberately on the screen as the Steel Hawks rallied to score two five-point goals of their own in quick succession. “Luisa was not herself and I came very close to losing her forever”

I sometimes wondered how much of my illegal fighting Papa knew about. He had always been a well known boxer and trainer for all of his years here in Spitfield so he had plenty of contacts. Not once had he ever let on he knew about my final bout, the one that woke me from my numbness and let me walk away from the Arena.

It had left a young man dead, a guy I trained against in Papa’s own gym. His sister had watched me kill him, a teenaged girl named Sam Preston. The same Sam Preston who ran the crew that Minke had been part of.

I relaxed my hand, stroked Minke’s head gently then pulled my arm away.

“Sorry, Luisa” Minke said, sitting still at my side.

“I’m sorry too, Minke” I replied. Papa made a grunt of some kind, halfway between a sound of approval and a demand for silence as the onscreen match went into overtime. I smiled to myself and sat back, letting my thoughts go vague as I drank my coffee.

The match ended with a five point victory to the Divebombers.

=====

Minke and I said our goodbyes to Papa and were heading out the door when he stopped me.

“I want to visit her tomorrow, Luisa” he said firmly. “You should come with me and pay your respects”

I had gone rigid, Minke standing uncomprehendingly at my side. With an effort of will I turned to face my Papa, showing him the effort it took me to stay in control.

“Tomorrow is not a good day for me” I said flatly. “There is some work I need to do”

He shook his head, denying my words.

“Tomorrow is Sunday, you don’t work on that day” he stated as if it was God’s law. I know the Ten Commandments say so, but I was not big on following those.

“Please, Papa, it’s still hard for me to see her” I replied. “I just need more time”

“Of course it is hard!” he insisted. “But that is no reason to pretend she did not exist!. Come with me please, Luisa. We will put fresh flowers on her grave”

I finally gave in and nodded my agreement. We would meet at ten in the morning at the cemetery gates.

Minke had to rush to catch up to me as I left the apartment, stepping quickly down the stairs. She caught me as I opened the door to the street and she asked the question I knew I didn’t want to answer.

“Whose grave are you going to visit, Luisa? Is it your mother’s?”

My dear Mama was ashes in an urn, sitting on a shelf in my apartment.

“My daughter’s, Rosa Alvarez” I replied. Minke fell silent, uncertain of how to respond. I strode out on the streetside pavement, registering a presence lurking in the shadows.

They stepped up to me, fast and determined. Without thinking I channelled power into my fists and delivered a straight armed punch to their face. As I connected I saw it was a male, maybe in his mid twenties. Bone crunched and the guy flew backwards, slamming into the wall of Papa’s gym.

Two more stepped out from the walls to my rear, so I spun to face them. Both had the rough, dirty faced look of Hole Dwellers. One had a knife and the other a stun baton, humming faintly as the capacitors built up a charge.

“See, I told you if we hung around here, Minke would show up sooner or later” called a third man. He walked into the light cast by the gym, showing the Chem ravaged face of Robbie. So these had to be assholes from Sam’s crew, hunting for their runaway.

“Stay behind me, Minke” I called out to her as I squared off against the trio. Three losers from the Wasteland were not a match for me in any scenario I could imagine. I felt the energy being drawn into my Kinetic Enhancer, ready to unleash the wrath of Punching Judy on them.

“Please don’t hurt her!” Minke called out, catching me by surprise. I was the one who was going to be delivering the hurt on these guys, not the other way around.

I glanced back at the girl and saw she was looking in a different direction. A single man walked confidently towards us, dressed in jeans and a dark shirt, a worn leather duster open at the front showing his well muscled body. Dark hair, shaved on one side and hanging long on the other, framed a pale face with eyes like pits of blackness.

“Please, Victor, she has nothing to do with any of this!” Minke begged and the light bulb went on in my head.

The pistol under my left armpit was drawn and half way into line with the fucker when I stopped moving. I lost all control of my body and this guy walks calmly over to stand in front of me. My arm lowers without any orders from me and I stand there like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

Oh Minke, I thought to myself. Why didn’t you tell me Victor was a Jacker?

He smiles into my face with those demon eyes, a tiny smile on his thin lips. I can’t move my head but in my peripheral vision I see Robbie come up close, a hypo-injector in his hand.

It fires its load into my bloodstream and the world goes dark. My last sight is of Victor, reaching out to Minke and slapping her hard across the face.