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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMnO7Asx6ve
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaPRNCwRWBE
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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."13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiE2UUkN9KP
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4kHxtihkWv
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsS7D0vd5cT
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsg6VzsLJpv
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"The odds are against you tonight," she whispered, her voice a sultry, dangerous purr.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHogynIPG6F
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The man froze, the cold steel biting into his skin. "Lady Luck..."13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPs4aRc2z0D
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"In the flesh. Or what’s left of it."13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ZAJQIAmCs
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2qqfSFXXL3
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpY9fZ8g9A8
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCriowHpjhq
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSfxyXqo4jp
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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."13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡra436ypScG
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He plunged the needle into his arm.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkP2IIum4X0
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdNAHwLnJVV
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr8mwAP6L7A
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0s34VDcAEa
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"Is that all?" she taunted, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps. "I expected more from a Viper."13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7VQWboyZom
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In her arrogance, she didn't hear the sirens until they were right on top of her.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ67kpVq9wBg
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Blue and red lights flooded the dock. Tires screeched.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxBFwCKlxir
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"Police! Drop the weapon!"13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrdfZUAsnTt
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡynaiwM7vte
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Thomas Hardy.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9xnK3J8vHk
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡo0XvNFqLYF
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"It’s over, Lady Luck," Hardy shouted, his voice hard as iron. "Nowhere to run."13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDlYkdxepzz
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgIsUXccMk0
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The gamble was set.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaXPGD5RlnI
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"Sorry, Chief," she whispered, her eyes burning behind the green silk. "But I never play by the rules."13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPzyiR7ORGV
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcRuQI9OddJ
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq5OqB3Rcmh
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Then, she turned toward Hardy.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9hUMolkz2d
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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.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWTmkj6Vcvo
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She pressed a gloved hand to his cheek, a touch so light he might have imagined it.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJTcdKajoya
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"Keep the city safe, Tom," she whispered, so low only the wind could hear.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNs5QRWIGzA
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Then she leaped into the black water of the harbor, the cold shock of the waves swallowing her whole.13Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK2mNDKPEBG
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