Out here everyone was for hire, and everything. It was the nature of life off Grid, it was why they came out here in the first place. Freedom from constraint. Life without a safety net.

And there was always a score to settle somewhere, if you knew where to look. Design yourself the tools and put yourself in the marketplace. You could make a lot of money, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t also have fun.

The assassin strode into the room and stood smiling, watching his prey.

Cass was bound tight in the web, her head turned away from the room. He was just a dark smudge in the corner of her vision, but she could feel the confidence and power emanating out of him. Her right arm dropped to her waist and grasped the handle of the blade. It was still free.

She swung the blade up to her shoulder, protected from his sight by the rest of her body. She was about to slice the web when something stopped her. That’s not the way.

Footsteps thudded slowly towards her.

The broken edge of the wall was closest to her right side, just at arms length. She could see the sticky ends of the web suckered to it. She could use this.

Cass reached out her arm to the wall, resting the blade just behind its edge, and snuggled back and forth in the web, tightening it around her, increasing its tension.

“The little fly is trying to get away.”

The voice surrounded her senses, reaching out across the room to her. There was no need to hear them to feel the twisted menace in the words.

“I like little flies that struggle. I pin them down and clip their wings.”

Cass could sense the voice, feel its alieness to the body that surrounded it. It was a teenager’s voice. A cruel, lonely teenager. Someone who had the time and will to construct this thing out of himself.

“Yes, I think I can have some fun with you.”

She waited until she could feel the heat of his breath against her cheek. Now.

Her right arm swung into action, slicing the blade down the outside of the wall, aiming for the ends of the web. For a moment the blade seemed to take control, moving slightly in her hands, pushing itself outwards, sinking into the solid concrete of the wall itself. It cut deep and pulled down quickly, slicing through the wall with ease.

Cass had no time to be surprised. The web snapped as the tension built up in the strands suddenly released. It wrapped back against itself, bending around the assassin as it went, twisting them both until Cass was left staring back out into the street, body inside the building now, staring straight into the face of the assassin trapped in his own web.

His eyes were full of surprise and panic, and something more. Something cold and dead mirrored back at her. She wondered if he was strong enough to break his own cage.

Cass brought the blade up and sliced into his throat. Now she’d never know.

The web itself dissolved around her as the cold light in his eyes faded out. He didn’t even whimper.

Cass landed on her feet inside the building and turned away. She didn’t need to watch. The fire in her veins was slowly draining out, allowing her brain back in to deal with the consequences.

She didn’t mind, it would be back.