Free Archon's Queen by Matthew S. Cox

in front of Old Bill.
    The officers made them wait while a MedVan flew in to extract the officer. After the scene calmed and the police found no contraband in either bag, an officer waved them through.
    Two blocks deeper into London, they paused on the corner. Now it was Anna’s turn to comfort Penny. “It’s not right what they do to us.”
    She looked into Anna’s eyes, shaking her head. “There’s no need for pat-downs like that. How do you keep going back to that club? It’s…”
    “Dirty.” Anna squeezed her. “What can we do? They’re the Met. They could kill us and no one would care. We’re not even people to them.”
    Penny’s large brown eyes filled with tears and futility. No one who lived in the dustbin, as the Propers called it, got any respect. “Have you thought about the Moon?”
    Anna blinked. “The Moon? Are you daft? We couldn’t afford the shuttle ticket, and I’m not about to lick that much todger.”
    “I hear they don’t trust dolls up there.”
    “They don’t trust dolls here, either. The King’s a bit touched, thinks one’ll kill him.”
    Penny looked to the sky for a moment. “We could get jobs. I saw an advert yesterday bout this place lookin’ for executive assistants. We could do that.”
    “It’s a bit more than makin’ coffee and bein’ a pretty face on a VidPhone; ya gotta know biz-ness.” Anna leaned on the last word, turning it into a sarcastic giggle.
    A few minutes later, Anna came to a halt while Penny turned up the walkway of a small dwelling.
    “Well we could wait tables then or something… cleaner.” Penny offered a consoling look, fixed herself up, and pushed the buzzer. “Get away from this place.”
    “
This
place is fine. It’s
that
place what’s the problem.” Anna stared at the ominous grey smear in the air behind them.
    A brick-red door slid to the side with a hiss. Penny chatted with an older Indian woman for a while in a rambling of language Anna couldn’t follow. When their conversation ended, a small boy of about three years emerged from the house, bundled in a beige coat. He waved at Anna and leapt into Penny’s arms, happy to see her.
    As the trio left the front yard and continued down the street, Penny doted over him. Ad-bots whizzed overhead, occasionally making him point skyward and plead for some treat or toy he saw. With a child in tow, the Propers stopped looking at the two women the way Anna had become accustomed to. They became two people among many thousands, largely ignored until they arrived in the lobby of the public assistance office and got on line.
    Sighing, Penny bounced the kid on her hip to keep him from fussing. “I don’t see why they don’t automate this.”
    Anna kicked a stone into the street. “I don’t have a ‘mini, plus they gotta check us to make sure we’re not wasting the dole on drugs or booze.”
    The smirk on Penny’s face made Anna burst out laughing, drawing a few stares.
    “Oh don’t give me such a sanctimonious look. I’m not the one pawning someone else’s kid off as mine to fatten my giro. To think she pays you to babysit on top of it.”
    “One of these days, you’re not going to get so ‘lucky’ and have a sensor blow out.” Penny made air quotes. “What’ll you do when they pick up the shit in your blood? How long does your psych cert last anyway? You ought to stop dodging the doctors.”
    Anna stared at her scuffed boots, fidgeting over the pale green and yellow tiles. “I dunno. Watching my father die when I was twelve affected me deeply. I don’t think I’ll be right in the head ever. Lucky for me the sensors keep failing.” The complete lack of emotion in her voice gave away her lie, but then a thought brought forth genuine sorrow. “What I wouldn’t give to not be able to make…” The rest of what Anna muttered trailed off into silence.
    “What’s that?”
    Her head snapped up, a faint trace of blush visible through an ashen look of dread. “Nothing… Yeah,