Chapter 1

It was amazing to Danni. She actually remembered back when, if this was not exactly a nice neighborhood, then it was at least descent one. When she was a little girl she actually lived three streets over from here and every other house did not have burglar bars. Her house sure didn’t and that was true right up to the day that her Mom moved to another planet.

The older Nguyen, Tammy, had begged her daughter to go. Danni just could not bring herself to do it. This was her home and that was something Danni’s mother had never really understood.

On the other side of the coin, Danni could logically make herself understand her mother‘s desire to leave. Tammy was born a Patrelli and only moved here after she got married. Danni was willing to bet that, before her parents were married, Tammy was probably one of those people who could not have pronounced what would become her last name. It was probably equally true that when Tammy Nguyen stepped on a transport, to come here to the Arch, she probably had no idea where it even was.

When Danni pulled up at the little row of townhouses, that she had been looking for, she picked up the slip of paper that was sitting on the passenger seat of her car and then began checking addresses. Danni found it easy enough but, had a hard time finding a close space to park. Her only consolation was, it wasn’t raining. It was, however, in the later stages of dusk and she found herself being forced to park under a broken street light.

Too make matters worse, there were three guys hanging around the parking lot. They were sitting on some cars, in front of what Danni presumed was their crash pad. It looked like your typical flop house with the door wide open, music blaring from inside, beer cans laying around the bushes, and a small stretch of dying grass that passed as a front lawn.

Those guys also happened to be Canadians. While it was impossible to tell who your average Canadian was it was very easy when dealing with the street gangs that grew out of that community. They always had red and white shirts on for one thing. These guys had that. A lot of them also tended to tattoo a maple leaf somewhere on their body. Danni knew that it meant they had some kind of rank but, she was not clear on the specifics. At least one of the guys she was looking at, now, had the mark and it was on his high enough up his neck that his shirt did not hide it.

The three gang bangers ignored her so she returned the compliment and knocked on the door she came to knock on. Amy opened it nervously and then became giddy and smiled. The red head tossed her arms around Danni’s neck and then, still bouncing, she ran back in the house to grab something. Danni scratched her head when Amy came back and was locking her door.

When Amy was ready to go she looked at her friend and said, “what’s wrong?”

Danni put her hands on her hips and thought about it for a minute. Then she tried to put it as delicately as she knew how which, wasn’t very much given the nature of the disaster, “you’re not wearing that are you? I thought you went back in to change?”

Amy looked at herself as best she could. She had on a descent pastel shirt with her light pink knit coat. She kind of twisted in place and looked at her jeans to make sure there were no stains. Then, finally, she looked back at Danni and just shrugged. As an after thought, with a horrified face, Amy did ask, “these jeans don’t make my butt look too big, do they?”

“Yikes,” Danni said as she rolled her eyes. Then she motioned to her own ensemble which included a heavy dose of the color black, a leather choker with little spikes, matching bracelets, and a big wide belt that tied off at the front instead of buckling.

Amy did point to the jeans that her friend had on and said, “well we are both wearing jeans.” She added, “almost.”

It was true that Danni was wearing jeans but most of the front of both legs were gone. Danni just had to shake her head and she pointed to the door, “back inside. We have to make you presentable.” It was very clear that Amy was quite nervous about the prospect of having a make over that fit into the ‘post apocalyptic’ style.

As they walked up the stairs, of the little townhouse, Danni was more interested in the style of interior decorating. She had never been to Amy’s place before. Danni thought nothing of it since Amy had not been here that long anyway. Maybe this also explained why the little living room looked more like the station than a little grandma’s house which, is what Danni had always pictured Amy living in.

“I like the style,” Danni said.

Amy stopped near the top of the stairs and turned with a nervous smile, “does that mean we can go now?”

Danni pushed the girl on up the last couple of steps and said, “no, I meant your interior decorating skills. It looks so early cardboard.” Danni had to practically push the girl right into the bedroom as she noted, “this place looks more like somewhere I would be living.”

“Oh thanks,” Amy said in a chipper kind of way that was anything but.

It took some time to find something of Amy’s that Danni might find halfway presentable. It was amazing to Danni how she was standing in a bedroom with a box spring and mattress on the floor, next to bits of trash, yet the closet was neat, compact, and everything hung up in a color coded order. Amy’s closet literally went from dark to bright. Danni started on the dark end, naturally.

It only took them a couple of hours which, unfortunately, was also a couple of hours longer than Danni had planned on before they were finally walking in to the club, Feu Rouge. The place was mostly dark except for the constantly spinning, multi colored, search and rope lights. The place was also very loud and Amy found herself digging her fingers in her ears as Danni pulled her along through the crowd.

They came to a stop at a little, round, stand up table. There was already another girl there. From the looks of things, Amy could guess that this girl was Danni’s friend. They sure hugged like it. Then as Amy leaned forward to shake hands she realized that she knew this girl but, the last time Amy had met her it was under very different circumstances.

“We met before,” Amy told her. She slapped herself in the head and played it dopey, “I should have realized.”

Sally Henchersfield suddenly looked brighter and said, “oh yeah!” The girl was very giddy as she slid around Danni and then put a bear hug on Amy. “You’re one of my saviors. I should be apologizing for not recognizing you.” Then Sally’s eye wandered up and down Amy to the point that it made the red head self conscious. It did not get any better when Sally said, “well don’t you clean up well.”

Amy was very meek when she replied, “thanks. I think.”

Danni found herself quite embarrassed, mostly for Amy. It was becoming clearer to Danni that it might have been mistake to bring Amy here. It was just not girl’s kind of place. Sure Danni considered Amy a friend, even best friends in many ways but, that was in an entirely different environment. It made Danni really question the wisdom of pulling work into her private live since the last time that happened she wound up getting shot.

Still, Amy had been the one who asked to come. Danni could guess why and she told Sally just that, “she’s having problems with her boyfriend, Sally. She needs some cheering up.”

Amy raised a finger, “well, technically he’s not really my boyfriend. We’re just…”

Sally interrupted quickly, “well then you and I are getting out on the dance floor girl!” She grabbed Amy’s hands and with a skip Sally started yanking Amy out towards the dance floor. Amy did not exactly resist but she was not quite going willingly either. She did turn back and yell to Danni, “but I’m not gay!”

Danni just turned, ordered a drink from a passing bar keeper, and then rolled her eyes as she said, “and we are? Holy shit, that girl needs to pull the corn cob out of her ass.”

Just after her three shots of bourbon arrived, Danni quickly knocked back two of them when she felt her phone vibrating. She had to reach into her shirt and get it out of her bra. What there was of her jeans was a little too tight to let her use the pockets. She called up the main screen and the caller ID automatically came up after that.

Danni was a little confused by who was calling. There was no number. There was no name. There was not even in a contact code or those auto business card things that some people had. The screen just said ‘unknown caller’ which meant one thing. It was one of those cheap burns you picked up at the airport duty shop. Even crooks did not use those. They had much better cloning technology which was both cheap and everywhere.

After quickly downing her last shot, Danni scooted along to the front door, got her hand quickly stamped, and then made it out to the parking lot where she could actually hear. When she answered the call she told whoever it was in an agitated voice, “this had better be good, whoever you are.”

The voice that replied was not only unexpected but, left Danni so shocked she almost fell over. The woman said, “Daniealla, oh thank god.”

Danni shivered. Then she saw another reason too. Wehrmacht soldiers were surrounding the club and rushing the doors. Danni just blurted out in a single breath, “Mom call me back in about twenty minutes, bye!” Then Danni ran as far from the club as she could get.