The docks of District 9 smelled of brine, rotting fish, and the chemical sweetness of processed misery. It was a place where the city’s conscience went to die, hidden behind rusted shipping containers and the shadows of groaning cranes.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7zPcLE3neC
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Lady Luck perched atop a stack of lumber, her green silk cape snapping in the wind like a warning flag. Below her, four men were unloading crates from a nondescript trawler. They were Vipers—low-level enforcers with high-level hardware.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKpB7pJHL40
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"Move it!" a man with a jagged scar across his throat barked. "Vane wants these distributed to the 'pharmacies' before dawn. We have a city to get hooked."12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGW1vPcoFzC
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Brenda’s skin pricked. Hearing the name of the drug—the very thing that had turned her life into a fractured glass house—sent a jolt of pure, electric fury through her veins. It wasn't the dull ache of withdrawal anymore; it was the sharp, jagged high of the hunt.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNo7v0DMM6V
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She didn't use a gun. Guns were for the desperate. Brenda Banks was a gambler, and she preferred the intimacy of the blade.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQuTeX0sECw
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She dropped from the rafters, the green veil fluttering around her face like a ghost. She landed behind the first guard, her movements a fluid, practiced dance. Before he could turn, she pressed the tip of her rapier against the soft spot beneath his jaw.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjGtm7ybrIs
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"The odds are against you tonight," she whispered, her voice a sultry, dangerous purr.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7RpWTJvo5g
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The man froze, the cold steel biting into his skin. "Lady Luck..."12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAwYSC2CxFq
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"In the flesh. Or what’s left of it."12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgzGiaDGalo
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With a flick of her wrist, she didn't kill him—she wasn't a murderer, not yet—but she drove the hilt of her blade into his temple. He crumpled.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡivC9cNrJqR
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The other three spun around, drawing submachine guns. The dock exploded into a cacophony of gunfire. Lead chewed into the wood where Brenda had been standing a split second before. She moved with a speed that felt supernatural, a blur of emerald silk and silver steel.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCPXhcFnvjx
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She swung from a loading hook, her body a perfect arc of defiance. She kicked the second man through a stack of crates and disarmed the third with a whip-like strike of her cloak, the hem weighted with lead shot.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzqHztqFr3n
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Then there was the Scarred Man. He didn't reach for a gun. He reached for a syringe filled with a concentrated, glowing purple liquid.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4BNuMAT6Ly
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"You think you’re a hero?" he spat, his eyes wide with a manic, drug-induced light. "You’re just another junkie looking for a fix. This? This is power."12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡituLzMSZQ8
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He plunged the needle into his arm.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡASVc8cpayR
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Brenda watched, a sick fascination churning in her gut, as his veins turned black and his muscles twisted. This was the dark heart of the trade—the "super-soldier" variants that turned men into monsters.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGJtM5QPhMj
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The man lunged. He was a mountain of meat and rage. Brenda rolled, the wood splintering behind her. She felt the rush—the terrifying, beautiful adrenaline that made her heart hammer against her ribs. It was better than any pill. It was the only time she felt truly, dangerously alive.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYxDUpGGkwi
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She evaded his clumsy strikes, using her fencing training to find the gaps in his defense. Step, parry, thrust. She opened a long, shallow red line across his chest, then another across his thigh. She was playing with him, a cat with a very large, very angry mouse.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWlqHrhhlOJ
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"Is that all?" she taunted, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps. "I expected more from a Viper."12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjAzoW4KRXR
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In her arrogance, she didn't hear the sirens until they were right on top of her.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhdKztrkiVx
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Blue and red lights flooded the dock. Tires screeched.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0FRhRl3lKa
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"Police! Drop the weapon!"12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm6Ac8Z6Oe6
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Brenda froze. She knew that voice. It was the voice that had comforted her in the garden only an hour ago.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOkn6tZErhS
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Thomas Hardy.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhtxWthab6d
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He stepped out of his cruiser, his service weapon drawn and leveled at her heart. Behind him, a dozen officers fanned out, their flashlights cutting through the emerald fog of her veil.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3ZpoitMB3X
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"It’s over, Lady Luck," Hardy shouted, his voice hard as iron. "Nowhere to run."12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHhWCGLZBPB
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Brenda looked at the Scarred Man, who was recovering his strength, and then at Hardy. If she stayed, she’d be unmasked. If she fled, the monster would kill the man she loved.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaoYGZWgXQK
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The gamble was set.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnDxQ1Fn0kq
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"Sorry, Chief," she whispered, her eyes burning behind the green silk. "But I never play by the rules."12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfaxw3wB1E4
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She threw a small glass sphere at the Scarred Man’s feet. It shattered, releasing a thick, choking cloud of emerald gas—her signature "Luck Dust," a potent tear gas mixed with a mild hallucinogen.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrpgbfxtPIu
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In the chaos, she didn't run away. She ran at the Scarred Man. She used the fog as cover, driving her rapier deep into the man’s shoulder, severing the nerve and dropping him to his knees.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ09HHf5EAZq
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Then, she turned toward Hardy.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaMm0STVlkZ
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Through the haze, she saw him coughing, his arm over his eyes. She could have vanished. But she stopped. For one heartbeat, she stood inches away from him, the scent of her expensive perfume—the one he’d bought her for her birthday—wafting through the chemical smoke.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPiEqP3co95
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She pressed a gloved hand to his cheek, a touch so light he might have imagined it.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRuc4iOmphG
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"Keep the city safe, Tom," she whispered, so low only the wind could hear.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡk9uIjXQI1c
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Then she leaped into the black water of the harbor, the cold shock of the waves swallowing her whole.12Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMEPwwrajz5
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