“You’ve got two choices. Well, three, I guess.” The girl ticked them off on her fingers. “You can come with me back to Aegis regional HQ, you can try to fight us, or you can try to run away.”

She frowned. “I can’t really recommend any of them. If you come with me, I’ll try to protect you but you’ll still be exposing yourselves to the bastards who let this happen to you. If you fight us, we’ll kick your asses—no offense, it’s just we’ve had combat training and you haven’t. If you run away…even if we let you get away, you won’t get far before either Aegis or the Marauders come for you in force. ‘Free agents’ don’t tend to last very long in this biz, especially ones who don’t know what they’re doing.”

“What ‘biz’ is that, exactly?” James asked. “You make it sound like there’s a war on.”

The girl paused. “Well, how do I put this?”

“Oh, that’s just great,” Sera said. “Stellar. Can we at least have your name?”

“Oh. I’m Lisa. That’s my partner, Fur.” She nodded to the Elise. “So what’s it gonna be?”