After that, the president had pulled all combat personnel and sent bots to fight on the front lines. The caliph disavowed the suicide squad. He never used violence against people, even then. Welga wanted to go back in with a different team—smaller, less overtly military. They knew where he was. They could’ve gotten close to him, at least brought home the remains of her squad, but the president wanted war theatrics more.

Welga shook her head. “I lost my faith in god as a teenager, but that day, I lost faith in my government. I’ll always be loyal to my Raiders, to my family, and to the people of America, but I won’t fight for someone who doesn’t stand up for their troops.”

“You done, Ramírez?” Hassan asked on their team’s audio channel.

“Yeah. Let’s get to work.”

WELGA

1. Modern society has found itself at the mercy of an oligarchy whose primary objective is to accrue power. They have done this by dividing human labor into two classes: designers and gigsters. The former are exploited for their cognitive power, while the latter rely on low-skilled, transient forms of work for hire.

—The Machinehood Manifesto, March 20, 2095

Welga expanded Connor and Hassan in her visual as their boss started the briefing. A list of names popped up in the center of her view.

“I’ll make this quick since we’re short on time,” Hassan said. “We have two high-probability protest groups that have previously gone after other pill funders. The first is Purity Now, a machine rights group that thinks pill usage is diluting the human race. They usually attack with old, generic bots. The second is Death to Bots, a local construction union that likes to go after any high-profile target. They use whatever the hell they have. Salvage, typically. Everyone else shows a less than ten percent chance of approach. No registered exfactors in the area either, except for some tower climbers.”

“Sorry, what’s an exfactor?” Ammanuel interjected.

“Someone trying to pull extreme stunts for tips,” Welga said. “They have to register ahead of time or risk breaking the law. We don’t want to hurt them, but they can cause real trouble. Being thrill seekers, they’re after viewers and tips, which means that they’re more likely to get in our way. It’s good you don’t have to deal with any for your first assignment. The only time I’ve had to shoot a person was in my first year as a shield. An exfactor wanted to demonstrate a new juver they’d designed and made themself a target by firing at me. Turned out their juver didn’t work.”

“What happened?” Ammanuel asked. “Did they die?”