Incense

Red Latch - Devansh

“Hey, boys!” Devansh yelled at the group of teenagers idling at the Cheesy Bae Pizza stand near Seabreeze Park in Vargos’ Red Latch district. The boys waved enthusiastically as Devansh approached from his front door.

“What’s up, Mr. Kapoor? You see Jay’s new hand?”

The boy pointed to one of his friend’s metallic contraption affixed where his hand had once been. The cybernetic was an amalgam of scrap parts and metal objects, barely functioning as an augmentation. With some effort, the boy was able to squeeze the “fingers” together into a fist.

Devansh smiled, bumped his fist lightly against the kid’s hand, and shot them a look.

“Careful now, boys. You know the corpos will pick you up if they see that kind of engineering here. You guys headed to school today?”

“Yeah, but we have a free period in the morning. Hey, you wouldn’t want to help us out, would you? Our teacher said he’d mark us as in attendance for the whole week if we could get him some neural dampening smokes, and I heard you know where to cop those.” The kid looked at Devansh with eagerness in his eyes.

Devansh had been raised to support kids pursuing an education, but he knew they were safer avoiding the decrepit death traps Red Latch labeled as schools. He shook his head.

“Not today, guys, but ask me again tomorrow. I’m headed to the shop.”

The boys laughed and mocked Devansh, shoving him playfully and giggling.

“Yeah, say hi to Angelica for us.”

Devansh blushed and smiled before pulling his hood up and heading from the stand back into the rainy street. He’d been seeing Angelica for the last couple of months, but they hadn’t made it official yet. She’d been waiting for him to invite her to move in, he could tell, but they both had tiny studio apartments, barely affordable even in their run-down neighborhood. He was nervous about sharing such a cramped space with another person, but when he was honest with himself, he knew he wanted it too. Despite his best efforts to avoid it, he was falling in love with her.

He made his way past Lady Basa’s stand, the pungent scent of incense blasting his nose as he passed. She hobbled out from behind the stand, her old cybernetic leg creaking, a defunct company’s brand still emblazoned on its side in the old style as she shook her cane in his direction.

“Devansh! You still owe me for last night’s game! Double or nothing on bones tonight, you stupid asshole!” Lady Basa shot him a mostly toothless smile, rubbing her thumb, index, and middle finger together with a mischievous glint in her eye.

Playing dominoes with her had become part of Devansh’s nightly routine. She had lost her husband and three sons to the Carrion Choir long ago although one might call her lucky that they had become members rather than meals. She and Devansh had grown close since Devansh moved to the neighborhood.

Devansh stopped and turned around, grabbing some incense from her makeshift stand and swiping his personal chit across her scanner to pay. Her eyes flashed blue for a moment before returning to normal. She yelled after him as he jogged up the street.

“Overpaying won’t save you from the debt, boy! Be here tonight, or I’ll tell that girl of yours not to kick you to the curb!” She chuckled, hobbling back to the folding chair behind her stand, puddles splashing as her clunky cybernetic leg scraped through dips in the road.

Devansh made his way up the road, passing several more makeshift shops set up in front of the ruins of old office buildings, warehouses, and corporate headquarters once belonging to long-defunct companies.

Finally, he arrived at the coffee shop. Café Concourse had been set up where an old medical clinic had once operated, now selling Quang Xi - Blackfoot rations and synthcaffe to those in Red Latch lucky enough to afford such luxuries.

Devansh burst through the door, escaping the heavy rain, and wandered up to Angelica at the counter. She rolled her eyes, smiling playfully as he handed her some incense and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. She looked good today with her frizzy red hair tied loosely behind her baseball cap.

She wiped her coffee-stained hands on her apron and kissed him back, her lips brushing lightly against his trimmed beard.

"I missed you, dove." He said warmly, his eyes fading blue for a moment as he interacted with the coffee shop’s internal neural network, sending her his order for a black synthcaffe and a Nutritio-Snac croissant.

Her eyes glowed blue as she received the order, then she took the incense, inhaling its aroma tenderly before shifting toward the coffee machine.

"It’s only been two days, Devansh. Stop it," she said, barely able to wipe the smile from her face. "Am I seeing you tonight?"

Devansh took a deep breath and met her eyes over the counter.

"You’re going to see me every night. How about we move you into my place after your shift?" He gave her a mischievous smile as her eyes widened.

She squeaked under her breath, pressing her hands against her mouth to hold in the excitement.

"Yes, oh my god, yes!"

She handed him his coffee and croissant, then ran around the counter to give him a quick hug. Angelica held him tight, then planted a kiss on his lips, nearly sucking the breath from his lungs.

"I’m off at six tonight. Meet me outside the shop?"

"I’ll be there." He said with a grin.

He kissed her back, then took his order to a table in the shop’s back corner. The place was packed today with nearly every table filled with at least three people, a boom day for business even with the heavy rain.

He took a bite of the dry croissant and sipped his synthcaffe. The drink always tasted like an impression of coffee rather than the drink itself, but the warmth of it sent goosebumps crawling up his neck and back. He took another bite and lit one of the incense sticks, letting the smoke drift up and fill his nostrils.

"Lavender. Some things never change, do they?" A voice whispered from behind.

He popped his head up, seeing a young woman with short blonde hair make her way around the small table and sit in the chair facing him. She wore a Depth Coat, a long black slicker popular in France, its high collar cutting off the bottom half of her face. She had a crude cybernetic eye and roughly installed jaw plate on her neck, the mechanical nature of the augmentations overly visible at a time when a more subtle model was easily affordable even on a scrap collector’s salary.

He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn’t find the words. Something about her felt familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked, the malice lacing her words so clearly that Devansh thought his coffee might’ve cooled just from being near her.

"I’m sorry, but no, I’m–"

"Devansh Kapoor. At least that’s what they’re calling you here. I have to hand it to you, it wasn’t easy tracking you down these last few years. I tried New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Osaka, Nairobi. Each place, there were hints of you once being there, but nothing ever panned out. Then I hear you’re in Vargos somewhere. I nearly gave up after that. Hard not to since this city is large enough to be a country on its own. But after a few months I heard about a guy just barely matching the description I had, selling neural dampening cigarettes out of Red Latch." She spoke quietly but with purpose, her eyes never leaving his face as she looked him over.

"Devansh Kapoor is an interesting choice. I knew you as Scarab back in Mumbai."

Devansh’s skin went from its normal ochre brown to nearly white as the blood fled from his cheeks. He set his croissant down and dropped his gaze from her to the slow-burning incense on the table. Lavender usually calmed him, but all it did now was annoy him.

"My older brother worked with you for the Golds twenty years ago. Not bad work with the plastic surgery, by the way. Whatever salon you went to really gave you your money’s worth. Hard to guess you’re in your late forties, looking like a guy who just became old enough to drink in this city."

He moved quickly to stand up from the table, but stopped halfway as her coat shifted open slightly, just enough to reveal a Fountainhead .99 automatic pistol tucked at her waist. He swallowed hard and lowered himself back into his seat, pressing his hands hard against the cold plastic table.

"My brother’s name was Colby Valentine. You knew him as Trix." That was all he needed to hear. Devansh understood now what was happening. He hadn’t heard that name in years.

"Look, miss, I don’t know who you think I am, but–"

“You really don’t want to insult me right now. My brother’s name was Colby Valentine. You knew him as Trix. When the Golds got pinched by the police they sent you to clean up the remaining members. Trix begged you to spare him, he was taking care of me while I got through school. You didn’t waste a second to even hear him out, you just blew a hole in his chest and left him to bleed out in front of me. So now you’re going to give me the time to talk that you never gave him.” She leaned forward in the seat, the smoke from the incense crawling up her face like a wicked mask.

“You and Colby were partners. I saw you almost every day. You once bought me a shaved ice on a really hot day and held my hand to walk me across the street after a tuk tuk almost ran me over. Do you remember?” Devansh didn’t meet her eyes, but he nodded.

“You’re Tinsley. I remember you.”

“Glad you can admit it, because I want you to know who it is that’s bringing all of this to an end today.” She stood up from the table and nodded her head toward the coffee shop’s entrance.

“Tinsley. Please don’t do this. I’m sorry about your brother, but he knew what the protocol was with the Golds. He–” She launched forward and seized his throat, her grip surprisingly strong as he felt the air vanish from his lungs in a fit of gasps and gurgling coughs.

“I do know the protocols, Scarab. Who do you think bank rolled me to track you down? You’re burned.” Her grip was growing tighter. Devansh’s eyes darted around the cafe but no customers even shot him a curious look. Red Latch folks weren’t known for involving themselves in public displays of violence. He choked out the next few words.

“They’ll burn you too Tinsley. The Golds may be defunct but they never leave things unfinished. Let me go and we can–” She released her grip before he could finish, forcing him to stop his plea short as he struggled for air.

“You’re going to walk out of here and head back to your apartment. It’s only fitting you draw your last breath in the place you feel safest, like Colby did.” She took a step back to allow Devansh to stand. He did so, slowly taking a last sip from his coffee and staring at the incense. Lavender was so calming, why did it do nothing to stop his heart from racing now?

He threw on his coat and began walking towards the door, Tinsley following him closely behind. As he passed the counter he shot a look at Angelica, her eyes wide with fear as she watched him march away.

“Devansh?” she said, timidly trying to get the word out.

“It’s okay my dove, I’ll be back at six to pick you up.” He smiled nearly ear to ear, lingering on her face to try and etch it into his memory as best he could.

He made his way out of the door and into the pouring rain, the drops hitting him harder than they seemed to on his way up the street that morning. He felt the stiff metal of the pistol’s barrel press against his lower back as warm vapor from Tinsley’s whispered words struck his ear.

“Walk.” He made his way slowly back up the street, trying to remember every detail of the new home he’d come to love over the last twenty years.