The third night in Changtown, I watched over McNabb a little more closely. He didn’t seem to be dealing with the job as well as I would have liked. What I had taken for excitement may have been squeamishness and that could cause problems. I would need to know shortly and find two replacements instead of one if he didn’t work out. Nothing was going to take me out of the #1 position or ruin my chance to become a crew boss.
As we were finishing up our second run, McNabb’s runner came up to me with a scared look on his face. Carson was an average looking guy with freckles and a shock of red hair that stuck out of the rear of his ball cap. Since he didn’t use the walkie-talkie, I knew it was bad. I found him looking lost in the crowd in our area before he saw me.
“What’s wrong Carson?”
“Nabb. He’s talking to some Slops.”
“Shit. Maab, tell Ruez to reel in his catches and get to the truck, then tell Chaz what’s up. Go in person. Carson, lead me to him and I’ll see what I can do.”
McNabb seemed to be a standup kind of guy, but he wasn’t nearly hard enough to deal with the treatment Slops could throw at him. I stayed close to Carson as we made our way through the crowd until I saw what was happening. An attractive woman was swooned against his chest and he was desperately holding her up. Four ops stood around him and it looked they had caught him in the middle of a catch.
“Carson. Go back to the truck. It’s over.”
He started at me with wide eyes.“What? B-but you gotta help him! You can’t leave him there!”
I started to turn him to lead him away, but he stood his ground and shoved my arm off his. He pleaded with his eyes, and I stared back. I grabbed his arm again above the elbow and squeezed for emphasis.“YOU CAN’T LEAVE HIM!”
“We can’t do anything for him. We have to bail before he tells them where the trucks are and they get us all.”
“But-“
“No arguments, we have to get out of her NOW!” I said, cutting him off. I pulled on his arm and he weakly resisted before coming with me. His face was puffy and his eyes were watery. I leaned close to him as I moved him away.“Don’t look back, just keep walking.”
I could sense that we had been spotted and one of the ops had started after us. The object was to move quickly enough to put some distance between us, but slow enough not to draw too much attention. I heard people complain about being shoved and realized that caution was no longer an option.
“GO!” I shouted and dragged him forward.
There were additional yells of people complaining and I heard more commotion. The entire team might be after us now. We ran down an alley to cut towards the trucks and splashed through a puddle so deep that we stumbled. Glancing behind us, a figure dodged between shadows and I heard the flutter of a leather coat. It was gaining on us. I prayed to God that it wasn’t one of those things that can ’t die.
As we ran, I did my best to toss boxes over and slow it down, but nothing seemed to matter. In between shadows, I caught a glimpse of a death white face and a toothy grin. I picked up the pace and shoved Carson ahead of me.
As we cleared the edge of the alley, Carson kept running and I dodged to the side. Kneeling, I pulled the Taser from my jacket and began unspooling the cables. Dropping the trodes into the nearby puddle, I primed it and waited. A lot of Tasers that Slops use have safety features to prevent this sort of thing, but since this was custom built by Wang, I knew I could easily fry myself. He once said something like “Safety Features – We Don Need No Stinkin Safety Features!”. There was probably only enough juice for one shot.
I listened to my breath and waited. When the sound of pounding feet started to drown my heartbeat, I knew they were close. I waited until the second splash before I leaned on the trigger. There was the sound of an impact then something fell hard into the muck. I listened and when there was no sound, I unholstered my pistol and pulled back the slide. There was still no sound, so I glanced into the alley. Two bodies in the much, one of which was a leather-clad brunette lying face down in the black water. I scooped my Taser and cables into my coat pocket and stood with the pistol trained on them.
Chaz and Ricky ran up to me with weapons out but stopped short of the bodies in the puddle when I waved them back. Stepping carefully into the alley, I kneeled next to the brunette and tapped the barrel of the pistol to the nape of the neck. When there wasn’t a reaction, I grabbed a handful of hair and lifted her face out of the water. The face was pasty white, but had pretty features and I could see she was completely out. Dropping her face back into the muck, I pulled her by the jacket until she was lying on her back on a rotting piece of cardboard. Instead of clothing, she wore a black skintight outfit that looked like skinned muscle. I have never been this close to a Brain Waster before and was surprised that she looked so human. Her friend was a cute bald Asian human woman who was still twitching. Chaz pulled her out on the other side and was giving her the look over.
“Want me to cap ‘em?” Ruez asked. He gestured toward the Waster with his SMG.
I walked around the couple and looked them over.
“No. Strip them and hit them with a heavy sedative. Especially the Waster. Then pack them in the back of the truck and use the heavy shackles. They’re coming with us.”
I looked down the alley, but no other operatives were headed this way. I figured that they had to leave someone behind to hold McNabb. As Chaz and Ruez hoisted the Slops and headed for the truck, I thought about him. Out here, you gamble with your life and tonight he rolled snake eyes and lost. Taking two operatives and their weapons in exchange for one mediocre bagger isn’t a bad deal if you look at it as a trade. You have to look at the bright side when there is one. If I keep repeating it, maybe my conscience will stop pounding. I put away my weapon and followed the boys towards the truck.
Out here, we own the streets and Slops either forget or were never taught that. Their weapons and combat training make them dangerous in a straight-out fight, but we have the numbers and instincts. It isn’t a contest.
Even the most dangerous predators are sometimes prey.
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