When Life Doesn’t Matter

Mars 2194

The night of the fight, Tamiko met Mere in the locker room before the fight. Mere thought she’d come to walk her to the cage, like most managers did, but then saw Tamiko's face.
“I just got a call from Daniel,” Tamiko explained. “He said Aeron was a warning. Next time they’ll call the police instead of leaving it there for us to find.”
“Next time?” Mere asked. “What did he say he would do?”
“I’ve got a lot of androids,” Tamiko answered. “He said he wants you to lose the fight tonight. Let Collin knock you out.”
“Is that what you want?” Mere asked.
“No,” Tamiko answered. “But the security at the Imperial-Asia is too good for me to get anyone near him. It’s up to you. Either way, he could just frame me again. It’s not like his word is worth anything.”
Tamiko got up to leave, and then paused and turned back to Mere. “He did offer 50,000 naira if you take the dive. I’m mean, 50,000 for you.” She turned and left without saying anything else.
50,000 naira? Mere was only going to be paid 10,000 if she won. But Daniel’s word really didn’t mean anything. Losing to Collin Zhang could kill her career, and she’d just be left with the 2500 naira the loser was going to be paid. She decided to win. Tamiko could afford the best lawyers. Besides, Danial had killed Aeron and all those other androids, just to send a warning? Over a hundred androids had been killed for a warning?
As she pushed her way through the crowd, she realized it was far more packed than it usually was, but then again, she wasn’t an opening fight anymore. Most of the fight-fans apparently didn’t show up until the opening fights were over. Collin was in the cage waiting as she stepped in. The cage door closed, the light turned red, and he advanced.