The Failing Frontier 6 - Jane, a knife and a piss fetish.

Jane, still tied to the chair, shimmied across the room to the kitchenette. Using her teeth she opened what looked like a cutlery drawer; unfortunately for her it contained only cloths. Looking around the room she spotted another drawer above the sink which would have been eye level if she was standing. She wasn't; it was too high for her to reach. 

“Fucking weird,” she thought.

With that she moved, or rather hopped, to the sink. She wrapped her mouth around the handle of a carving knife that was on the drying rack, arranged the blade so the sharp end was facing away from her, bent over as much as she could and spat it out. It fell, bounced off her thigh and dropped on to the floor, landing about a meter away. 

“Oh for fu—”

Jane eyed the blade then rocked sideways towards it, she fell, landed on the floor and broke her fall with her arm. With the blade now behind her, she started to root around with her bound hands. After about two minutes she eventually grasped the blade; at which point her bindings had loosened enough for her to slip her hands free.

She stood up and looked around for her shimmer blade, but it was nowhere to be found.

“You little shit,” she thought.

“Fine,” she said and grabbed the carving knife from behind the toppled chair then slipped it in to the scabbard concealed inside her cloak.

About ready to go, but with no clue where she should go she checked her watch: her BPM was running at 170.

“Stress’ll do that to a bitch,” she thought and then she paced out of Edward’s apartment.



Jane burst out of the apartment entrance in to the street. It was four thirty two in the morning and dark. the bustling ruins of New York weren’t so bustling at this time; the streets were mostly lined with the sleeping bodies of the forgotten many: men, women and children who were homeless because getting a job meant having an education, something the majority of people didn’t have nowadays. As she walked she looked at the sleeping faces and realized how lucky she was. She'd had a rough day, but these people: they'd had a rough life. She walked and seemed to have been walking in the direction of her motel, but on her way she noticed a little girl, wide awake, wedged in between her two sleeping parents. She motioned for the little girl to come over to her. The little girl stared at her, unperturbed by her request.

Jane produced a small green disc from her inside pocket and flashed it at the little girl who then jumped to her feet and made her way over. By the time the little girl had arrived in front of Jane her parents were awake and staring wide eyed; waiting to see what Jane had in store for their child.

Jane squatted down and asked, “Did you see a man come past here about this high, carrying a bag?”

The child nodded.

“Okay, did you see which way he went at the end of the road?”

“Left,” said the child. Jane placed the green disc in the child’s hand, her parents smiled and the child returned to them.

Left meant east, so he’d gone to the residential districts. That didn’t help Jane in the slightest; she didn’t know who he'd be going to see on that side of town. If he’d have gone right then she’d have had leads to follow up on. Jane went right anyway.



Jane sat in the waiting room outside Watts Daily’s office. Watts Daily was the assistant to the grav-cycle league event coordinator, so he knew before anyone else when and where the next race was going to be held. That was prized information considering the location of a race was only ever announced to the public six hours before it was scheduled to take place.

Jane had been blackmailing him for weeks because, like any good bounty hunter, she knew that the best way to get someone to talk was to dig up some really embarrassing shit and threaten to reveal it to their nearest and dearest. A few weeks earlier Jane had broken in to Watts' office, hacked his computer and found photographs of beautiful women peeing all over his chest and face. Watts had a piss fetish and luckily for Jane he didn’t want his wife or children to know.

Watts' Secretary answered the phone and then looked over at Jane and said “You can go through now honey.”

Jane burst through the door making Watts flinch.

“Hey Watts, you piss loving ponce. I want the details for the next race. I won't ask twice”

“Oh charming. I do always look forward to your visits,” Watts said.

Jane sat in the chair opposite Watts and put her feet on his desk. “Well I’m a heart beat away from getting real charming with your folks, I’m sure they’d love to see your collection.” 

Watts rolled his eyes. “Alright, alright, It’s in Hei Long on Tuesday”

“Oh great, why’d he pick that shit hole?”

“Don’t ask me. You think I want to go there?”

“Eddie got a preference when he’s shopping for grav-cycles?” she said.

“Oh, he’s only going to one place with his bank roll, and that’s the scrap heap over on the east side. I’ve heard the guy over there takes pity on him and fixes him up; sad really,” he said.

“Yea whatever. I’ll be back,” she said.

“I’m sure you will,” he said.

Jane set off on her way to the scrap heap on the east side with two things on her mind: her knife and her bounty.