Because the answer is always yes, never no.
A bullet of rage struck Kane so hard he blacked out. When he came to, he was running toward the dunes with his hands curled in fists and a wild roar tearing from his lungs. The man jerked his gaze toward him and flinched, which enraged Kane even more. He craved violence more than air. All he wanted was to lay his hands on that man and rip the limbs from his sockets. He imagined the resistance of the man’s flesh giving way, and his mouth watered. His muscles coiled with power as he flew toward his target, but just as he reached for the man’s throat, an invisible force knocked him to the ground.
He spat out a mouthful of sand and clawed his way toward the man, who was now scuttling away on all fours to the other side of the dune. Kane fought harder to buck the weight holding him down. He didn’t recognize the animal noises coming out of him, guttural snarls and howls of fury. His teeth ached in a primal need to sink into flesh. Someone was shouting, but he couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of murder in his ears.
Then a sobering fist struck Kane’s jaw.
“…out of your mind?” Cutter yelled from above him. “You could’ve torn that guy’s head off! The boss will have your ass when he finds out!”
At once, Kane’s senses snapped into place.
Oh god. What had he done?
He’d attacked a guest! The Redshirts would punish him, maybe even change his work assignment. That would mean no more Gold. He didn’t think he could survive going back to the old inhaler. He had to do something to make this right.
“We won’t tell the boss what happened,” Kane said, but then he remembered the guest in blue, who wouldn’t stay quiet for long. He lifted his head and peered over the dunes for the man. “But first we have to kill that guy and hide his body.”
No, wait. That was bad…or was it? He couldn’t tell.
“Calm down,” Cutter ordered. “We’re not killing anyone.”
“But what if they take me out of the pit?”
A new voice, almost too soft to carry over the crashing wave, said, “They won’t take away your Gold.”
Kane craned his neck and found the woman in white peering at him through pupils so wide her eyes looked more like onyx marbles than human tissue. She didn’t seem to notice her guest had left, because she kept the blade suspended above her arm.
“You’re allowed two strikes,” she told him.
“How do you know?”
“Because I said no to this the first time.” She had a faraway look on her face, as if she were talking in her sleep. “I thought my supervisors would take away my Gold, but they gave me more refills, not less. Then they said I could have another chance if I apologized to my guest.”
Kane exhaled a long, hopeful breath. He could do that—apologize to the man in blue. And if the man forgave him, Kane would do better next time. He wouldn’t ask to run on the beach, or anywhere else, ever again.
Freedom wasn’t worth it.
When the Zhangs heard about the attack, they sent a maintenance worker to Kane’s dorm to install special bolts on all the doors and windows that locked from the outside. He didn’t know what happened to the lady in white after her supervisor came to take her away, but she was right. The boss gave him a second chance.
“Now you know why pit fighters and guests don’t mingle. I’m training you to be a warrior, not a socialite.” The boss slapped Kane on the shoulder. “Shake it off, kid. I’m not mad at you.”
“You’re not?”
“You’ve got a big heart,” the man said, shrugging. “That’s not a crime. But try not to feel sorry for the ladies. They’ve got their own special brand of Gold. Yours makes you fierce; theirs makes them numb. I promise those girls didn’t feel a thing. Besides, they’re not dead. They just passed out from blood loss. They’ll be good as new after a plasma shot.”
Kane nodded, though he couldn’t look his boss in the eyes.
“The whole resort’s buzzing about the wild boy who charged Nicky Malone and made him piss his shorts. You even have a nickname. They call you the Wolf.” His boss laughed while beaming with pride. “Did you really growl at Nicky?” Shaking his head, he murmured, “Damn, I wish I could’ve seen that.”
“Nicky Malone,” Kane repeated. That must be the man in blue. He’d offered to apologize, but the boss had forbidden it. He’d said it would make Kane look weak and hurt his reputation in the casino.
“He’s a real monster,” the boss confided behind his hand. “The Enforcers tried popping him for a bunch of murders on Earth, but he’s got the kind of money that makes evidence disappear. Know what I mean?”
Kane believed it.