My bruises were bad enough that they were on my mind every time we hit a bump or I had to climb in or out of the truck. I didn’t want to talk about what had happened and managed to fend off Maab’s questions with a few curt snaps. Chaz was quiet as he watched the road, and once Maab fell silent, it was a little unnerving. I needed to concentrate on my problems instead of the throbbing in my skull, so I reached for a 3b and found that I was down to the last one. I hoped it was enough and strained to dig a can of soda out of the cooler. The effort of leaning over hurt like hell, but I got what I needed.
“What’s that?” Maab asked, breaking the silence.
“3B. It’s a pain killer/healing accelerator.”
“Like Kickstart? What’s the ‘3-B’ stand for?”
“Broken ,Battered, and Bruised, I guess.”I bit the capsule in half and used the soda to wash the contents down. The bitter taste made me grimace, but it was worth it. I got out of the shotgun seat and made Maab switch with me so I could lie down.
“Wake me up when you need me.”I woke up when the door slammed shut and we were back at the docks. They had bagged seven additional bodies with me out cold.
Considering that the stungun was out of gelpacks, it looked like they used the brute force method. I hated to see how badly beaten up my cargo was in. Checking the tally, I saw that we scored a total of nineteen bodies for the night, which is respectable. I made a mental note that I needed to pickup more gel packs along with additional restraints and 3B’s.Climbed out of the truck, I looked around and saw that we were parked in dock #2. It felt really good, but maybe it was the drug.
Macy was probably chewing nails by now since we were still ahead, but I had no idea by how much. It had looked a little doubtful for a day or two with me out of commission, but we were where we needed to be. Macy was bound to try something soon.As I walked to get something to eat, there wasn’t any sign of Maab or Chaz. I wondered about that as I ate and headed back to the truck. Macy’s runner was underneath the front axle of the #3 truck on a folded tarp doing what looked like maintenance. It looked like the little bastard still had his knife on him and was fairly intent on his work. I thought about it, looked around to make sure no one was watching, and decided that the little bastard deserved something back. Time to deliver that boot I promised him.
I casually strolled past to the #4 slot and realized that Macy’s rig was here and ratboy was doing “maintenance” on the truck in slot #3 that belonged to Dixon. It looked like Dixon was back with a vengeance and with Macy fixated on me, had managed to slip past her. I’m sure that ticked her off and this is why she so graciously offered her runner’s services to “tune up” his truck. She’s a real humanitarian and a team player. I admire that.
I slipped behind Dixon’s truck and made sure that the runt was still thoroughly involved. Pulling my Taser from my jacket, I looked around, then crept up to where his boots hung past the front tire. Times like this make you feel like a character in one of those children’s cartoons that was about to drop a 10 ton block on the bad guy’s head. Quietly unlocking the safety, I aimed under the truck, lining up between his feet. When I let the darts fly, I heard him raise up with a “HEY!” and smack his forehead on the underbody of the truck. With the crackle that followed, he went rigid and began to tremble. I gave him three good long jolts just to make sure he was feeling good then snapped the cables loose. He had lost control of his bladder and his frontal lobe seemed pretty scrambled. Pulling his knife from the sheath, I jammed it into the inside rim of Dixon’s front right tire until white paste started to hiss out. Rat-boy drooled and mumbled something that I ignored. I would make sure he was in a lot of pain once he woke up.
After leaving the truck, I went looking for Dixon and found Tomas, his runner instead.
“Tom, I just passed your dock and saw someone under it. Since it isn’t you, you better check your truck. You might be able to catch the SOB before he does much damage.”
His eyes grew wide and he yelled out to the driver who was coming this way carrying a piece of cardboard loaded with food. The big man took off after him at a dead run without dropping a single snack. A few moments later, I heard yelling and the sound of someone getting smacked around. Crews headed over to watch the “fight” and Jag walked up to me.
“What’s happening Mason?” He gestured towards the crowd.
“Looks like Dixon’s crew just caught that tire slasher in the act.”
“I better stop them before they kill him. We just lost two trucks tonight to a two man op squad and we can’t afford to lose another crew.”
“Symbiote?”
“Who knows. I wasn’t there, but they kacked Takata’s and Kain’s crews clean out and snatched the cargo.”
“Bastards.”I walked away putting the thought of the dead crews out of my mind and saw Macy and Brion watching the fight from afar. Macy looked mad enough to be a member of Dixon’s crew after they found her rat-boy cutting up their truck. She saw me and we locked eyes. I aimed with my finger and dropped the thumb, mouthing “Shit Happens”. She smiled back and mouthed “Not today.” I was aware of her glaring until I left the dock but didn’t mind. The side effect of the 3B’s is a little euphoria, but I wasn’t going to knock it.
I still needed to get supplies but with a little payback coming my way, I was in the best mood I had been in two weeks.
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