The rain poured down on her like a shower, streams of water flowing down and out from her long hair, hiding Keri’s features as she stared at the glowing glyph-card in her hand. The data-sphere lay in her pocket, feeling far heavier than its true mass, whilst her corps had deactivated at some point during her wild flight.

She had nowhere else to go.

The image on the glyph sparked and fizzed in the rain, lurid pink writing splashed atop a picture of a pale white face decorated with garish make-up. Exaggerated red lips smiled out above glaring white teeth, set beneath wide, dark eyes that seemed to follow her wherever she moved. Unanimated, the face was frozen in a rictus of mania, clown-like beneath a shock of orange hair, unidentifiable in gender.

Caligula’s Kingdom, it read.

There was a small map, distorted by the rain, in the corner of the card, with a tiny red arrow rolling around the boundaries that pointed in the same direction regardless of which way the card was moved. She followed it.

Keri didn’t know how long she was walking; an hour, at least, and in that time she felt the adrenaline wear off and the chill seep into her bones. She was dressed only in the light pants and short-sleeved shirt she had chosen for the night, though thankfully the material was at least hydro-repellant. Only her exposed arms and head were actually wet.

The sky above remained black, dawn still far away, and in the weather few people moved.

She rarely came to this part of the city, even during the day. It wasn’t that there was any danger, not in an era of near-instant response times, but this area wasn’t… decent. She shuddered even as she thought the word, ashamed at herself for using the same terminology so derided in her chosen info-sphere. She’d heard there were even homeless here, though she didn’t believe it.

Even the architecture of the area seemed designed to instil disquiet, actual concrete used in the construction of many of the buildings instead of the extruded plastic so common in other areas. It felt as if the LED strip-lighting had been deliberately widely spaced, though she told herself she was only imagining it.

Caligula’s Kingdom turned out to be a quite standard pre-fab model, fixed onto what appeared to be a reclaimed zone, a few piles of rubble visible around it in the darkness. It couldn’t have been here long, either, judging from the whiteness of the foundation blocks at its base.

So, an itinerant bar. As in the bar was literally itinerant, not the clientele. She'd heard of them, venues that catered to a customer base that preferred not to be seen in one place for too long. They were rarely found in the same location for more than a few days, apparently, but the message boards of her sphere agreed with confidence that it was far more gimmick than actual lifestyle choice. As she stared at the silent, pale red facade with only a single door cut into it, she felt uncertain.

She had to fight the urge to bolt when the door swung backwards abruptly, an obviously intoxicated couple of women stumbling out arm in arm and laughing raucously. They were heavily made-up, the same pale white foundation of the glyph-pic covering their faces. They looked positively burlesque, save for the intelli-metal stretching and curling in ribbons across their exposed breasts. Well, exposed in terms of clothing; in terms of covering, their skin was practically buried beneath waves of hair and colour and make-up, along with the constantly moving intelli-metal.

Both their voices fell to hushed whispers when they saw her, velvet tones just beyond comprehensibility.

"You lost, love?" called one of them suddenly, causing Keri to jump.

She stared from the glyph in her hand to the couple, mouth opening and closing without words.

"Not sure you're in the right place, hon," said the other, patting her companions arm. “This isn't the place to be walking alone. I'm alright, of course. I've got my big old defender with me, but I'm not so sure she'll look out for you too.”

The first seemed to find this hilarious, swaying and stifling a guffaw.

The taller one who had been laughing stopped suddenly, giving a deep frown as Keri continued to stand there, mute. She shrugged off the first and strode over.

"Hmmm, well you've got your card, at least," she said, taking it from Keri's unresisting hands. She was perhaps the largest woman Keri had ever seen, strong, tall, with a set jaw and eyes that seemed ready to challenge anyone and anything at the slightest provocation.

The woman's frown deepened as she looked down at the glyph, turning it over and over in her fingers. "Have a look at this, Eu[1]."

It was only when the second person came over that Keri realised she was old. As in truly old, with the kind of aged features you rarely saw these days. Even the thick layers of white makeup couldn't hide the crinkled skin beneath, the telltale scars at each corner of the temple which spoke of the long-ago custom of aug-implantation in childhood. Apparently it hurt when they were taken out, and never truly stopped hurting.

"Huh," said the old woman, eyebrows rising in surprise and sending a cloud of flaking dust floating from her face. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion when she looked back at Keri. "And where'd a little greenhouse like you get this?"

Keri blinked. She was exhausted, cold, wet, and frightened.

"My... my friend," she stammered, the world spinning. "He, uh, he gave it to me before he... before he..."

"Ok, dear," said the old lady, eyes softening. She reached a supporting hand up and around Keri's shoulders. "Let's get you inside, shall we? Come on..."

Keri didn't resist as she was led towards the door, barely noting the security scanner that ran tight-beam radiation through her and set her corps to beeping in warning, not noticing the watchful gaze the second of the two sent around the darkened street behind them, searching for prying eyes, before they disappeared into the gloomy hallway inside.

[1] Keri had no idea how this name was spelt, but nevertheless it was spelt like this