Kat sent me to the showers first, complaining I smelt like people. She gave me new clothes, brown cargo pants and a big washed out green tee. She also let me stay in her guest room where I slept for a couple of hours. It was nice to enter a comfortable bed and sleep without worry. I woke up late in the evening and Kat sat me down at her small dining.

Her house was simple. A master bedroom, a spare room, a guest room, two bathrooms, a living room and kitchen where the dining was set up. Her walls were beige and plain, her ceiling a bland white. She had no pictures around the house. No paintings or nicknacks. All that was there was useful and in bland colours. Everything about this house was dull except for the person who lived in it.

Kat was covered in more tattoos than Viktor. Her brunette hair was kept in an 80's style bob and the white streaks in it were the only indicators of her old age. She looked young just tough and worn. Her lips were painted red though, the boldest colour in her house and she always had a cigarette between them.

"So..." she begun blowing out smoke from the drag she'd taken. "Kay sent you."

I nodded. "She said you make fake IDs. I need one to get as far from here as possible."

"Where do you want to go?" Kat asked. European and Russian countries were death traps. South America was a minefield and the North wasn't any better if my recent encounters said anything. I needed to go far.

"Australia, Rockhampton," I told her.

"Fake passport?"

"If you can do it," I sighed. "I would prefer to have a way to travel on the DL though. It's dangerous for me to be in more public places."

"I know a coyote if you're interested but he travels by sea. It may take time but he can get you to Australia without anyone the wiser. I can prepare a few documents for you to use once you get there."

"How am I supposed to get to the coast?" I asked her. "That's an even longer journey than the two months I'd spend on the sea."

"My friend will come and pick you up from here. He had friends in high places. They can get you on a cargo plane to the coast then you'll get on a boat to Australia then you're on your own."

I sighed, leaning back in my seat to think it through. I could die at sea. I hadn't really been a huge fan of the water. I could swim, I loved it but the ocean was not a swimming pool. The large mass of water scared and mesmerized me at the same time. Those two things never went well together. Thinking of the vast blue ocean had me remembering Viktor's soft eyes.

"Fine. Sounds good enough," I told her. "What do you need from me?"

"A picture," Kat said and then pulled out her phone, leaving her smoking cigarette to hang in her mouth. She held her phone up and I straightened as she told me to and take a picture.

"How long will making this stuff take?" I asked her.

"I'm mostly done. I just needed your picture," she said waving the phone in her hand.

"Oh."

"I'd love to get you out of my house as soon as possible," Kat told me and got up from the table. She opened up a pot on the stove and the smell of food waffled around the kitchen. This was heaven itself.

"Dinner will be ready around seven," she said stirring what was in the pot before closing the lid and coming back to sit with me.

"Anything else you want to know?" she asked settling in the chair.

"When will your coyote get here?" Coyotes usually helped immigrants on the Mexico–United States border crossing but with the world expanding, so did their business.

"If I call him now, at least a week."

"A week?" I asked incredulously.

"He's a very busy man and he has to find other people to go with you. He doesn't only take one person you know. It's a business."

I rubbed my forehead, trying to dispel that headache that was coming on. "I don't think a week's going to cut it."

"Why?" Kat asked with a scoff. "You think you can just rush this kind of thing? Coyotes in this area are run by the Castellano Cartel. You do not want to get on their bad side little girl."

"I know but I'm being chased by someone worse," I said my mind flashing back to Viktor's form. Strong, dominating... deadly. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

"No one will find you here," Kat said and I thought her voice had softened somehow. "If they do come, I have a shotgun."

I smiled. I still had Viktor's gun. I'd kept it in my bag. It should be enough security. I knew Viktor didn't want to kill me yet. He needed to know who I knew so he could figure out who else was on his hit list. I pulled the locket around my neck out from under my shirt, running my fingers absently over the lock.

"A gift?" Kat asked. I looked at her and the way she watched how delicately I held onto the locket.

"It was my mother's," I told her. "It is one of the only things left of hers. My dad threw the rest out."

Kat nodded. "Is it useful or something? Why you're being chased?"

"In a way," I said not elaborating. The locket had more than sentimental meaning to me. It held something I'd kept close to my heart for a long time.

"Miss Kay told me you went to prison. What was that about?"

Kat laughed. "Pinewood Medium Security Prison. Worst years of my life."

My heart raced at the mention of the hell hole she'd been in. "That's pretty far from here," I pointed out.

"Yeah. Once I got released I wanted nothing to do with that place so I went as far as I could go," she answered and then pointed her cigarette at me. "What's your relationship with Kay?"

"Oh um... my dad used to work for her. I stuck around her mansion a lot and made friends I guess."

"Must be nice to have pals in high places."

"Not high enough," I said and then Kat burst into laughter.

"Don't you have high standards," she chuckled after getting over her fit.

"I'd be dead or working as a striper somewhere if I didn't," I stated.

"Ain't that the truth," Kat said and shook her head, taking a drag from her cigarette.

"You haven't asked who's after me," I mused a loud after a while.

Kat sighed and a dense smoke escaped her lips. The smell of tobacco wasn't new to me. It brought back memories of old. "And I don't want to know. The best way to get through this life is by keeping ignorant about certain facts."

I snorted. "Ignorance never sat well with me. I'd rather know what I'd up against that stumble in the dark."

"You don't have to know everything kid," Kat replayed words that had been said to me before. "Ignorance is bliss."

"It is also the root of misfortune," I told her. "It might be dangerous to have knowledge but at least I'd know what I'm up against."

Kat looked at me for a while, the only sound between us were her breaths as she smoked and then she smiled. "You have it."

"What?" I asked her.

"Darkness," she answered simply, her head tilting. "I have slept in cells with some of the most messed up women on this earth. Women who've seen things. You have that air about you and a dullness to your eyes. You're just like them except, your mind is your prison."

Kat's words unnerved me. Some thought it was impossible to fear yourself but sometimes I wondered what kind of crazy lurked beneath my mind. I tried to keep it at bay, I pretended that there was nothing absolutely wrong with me but I knew there was. It started with the blackouts after my brother left. I had gaps in my memory from the days after the last time I saw him and I didn't want to know what I'd missed. I hadn't had blackouts in a long time and I didn't need Kat's cryptic words triggering anything. I was too compromised at the moment.

I stood up. "Please call me when food is ready."

I left and Kat left me. Once in the guest room, I collapsed on the bed and stared at the ceiling. I'd deal with my shit once I got to Australia. Now, my top priority was making sure I avoided Viktor and kept myself out of any other mafia networks before they too knew I existed. I crawled up the the front of the bed and pulled my laptop out of my bag.

I flipped it open and searched for the motel I'd stayed at. There were cameras so I replayed what they had on Viktor and I's interaction then deleted all evidence of my stay there, even my check in that I'd made with an alias. I searched the cameras for where Viktor was. He'd gotten into a car and driven off in the direction I had. I searched for hospitals in Cloudpass and found videos of him going in and being taken care of. He used an alias to get help from the hospital and paid in cash. Following the cameras, I managed to catch him taking a call by his car in the parking lot.

He looked around and his eyes connected to the camera I watched him through. He smiled and waved. I checked the time. This was almost two hours after I'd left him yesterday. He knew I'd watch. I sighed and hacked into Cloudpass' network company to listen to Viktor's call. I increased the volume on my laptop and let the call play.

I was confused for ten seconds. It was Viktor's voice, the deep rough and velvety sound I'd heard before but the words he were saying weren't something I understood. He spoke Russian. I cursed and found a translator.



Viktor: What do you want Markov.

Caller(Markov): Have you had contact with the hacker yet?

Viktor: I have.

Caller(Markov): And?

Viktor: What do you want Markov?

Caller(Markov): Has the threat been eliminated.

Viktor: No. Not yet.

Caller(Markov): What is it that you are doing exactly Viktor?

Viktor: I underestimated the threat but it will be handled shorty. Just do as I told you.

Caller(Markov): You underestimated the threat?

Viktor: Yes. This hacker... she's more resourceful than I'd thought she would be.

Caller(Markov): She?

Viktor: Yes.

Caller(Markov): Are you going to kill her or not?

Viktor: I am. I will contact you should I require any further assistance from the Bratva.

Caller(Markov): What is your plan exactly Viktor?

Viktor: I can't tell you. She's listening to our conversation.

Caller(Markov): The hacker?

Viktor: No. Baba Yaga. Follow my orders Markov.



The call ended.

I sighed and settled back. Viktor was good. I rubbed a hand down my face and thought of a better course of action. If he did make it to Las Pavita, it would be a lengthy process trying to track him down through the cameras in that place. Some of them will have tight firewalls that would take a while to get through. I didn't have time for that. Kat said I was safe here but she didn't know the magnitude of trouble I was in.

I wrapped my hand around my locket. There were a number of things I needed to protect and this locket was one of them. I tucked it back underneath my shirt. I didn't trust it anywhere else but on me anyways. I cracked my knuckles and begun typing a new code, something that might help me track Viktor's phone. It was a burner phone so he must have tossed it somewhere. My suspicions were confirmed when I located the phone in the middle of nowhere but in the middle of Las Pavita and Cloudpass. The road only lead to the never sleeping city anyway.

I know if I had trouble tracking him in the mafia infested city, he'd have trouble following up my movements as well. I wasn't lowering my guard though. I did not and would not trust that he wouldn't find me unless I got off this continent.

A knock sounded at my door.

"Dinner," Kat's voice came through and then a set of retreating footsteps.

Food first.