When I woke up the next morning, I took my time getting my weapons and myself cleaned up, then K'rth and I set out to catch the subway to the Glades area again to check up on my Shiver buddies. On the way out the door, my favorite Chagrin puppy dog caught us and decided to tag along. Initially, Obie thought that we were heading over to check more crates for Casper, but he figured it out soon enough when K'rth and I started filling out the forms and warrants for the previous evening. I wanted to make sure that the Shiver sergeant whose chops I had busted didn't have any technicalities to throw back at me. After sleep, I recognized how bad of a career move it really was and I regretted it like a hangover. This time no amount of fresh air and aspirin would help and I had to take my lumps.
Cloak had walked me right into a well-armed DN facility without so much of a warning, so I guessed that they were both testing me and trying to kill as many rats with one rock as possible. I didn't think that there was any way Bayer could have been there, but there had to be some evidence there that we were meant to find and I hoped the forensics or interrogation would turn it up. Even though we had just completed a Red BPN bordering on Black for free, my spirits were pretty good. Maybe I was becoming a little fatalistic.
When the three of us walked past the squad of APCs parked at the Glades, my mood rose and I couldn't contain it. The Shivers were in fine pissed off form and their body language showed it. I waved my ID to them as I got closer and one of them visibly cocked his browbeater. I couldn't help but snicker – I've been hit with those before and they don't pack nearly the same kick as a real gun. Real intimidating.
"Morning!" I said to the two Shivers standing guard. One of them gave me the finger and I returned it with a sarcastic smile. "Talk to your date, he'll take care of you" I said as we passed.
"Alex…" K'rth began and I nodded.
"I know, I know. No reason to rub it in any more that I have to. " Sometimes it's a lot of fun to aggravate the Shivers and it's no wonder that they hate Ops.
The barren stairway reminded me of a sewn up corpse after an autopsy, having been laid bare when the trash was collected by forensics. Scars and holes marked the walls like the sores of a pox victim and dark black streaks of soot clouded the corners. Tiny slivers of silver were embedded in the groaning stairs and rusted handrails, giving everything a carpet of nails look. I stepped carefully to avoid the worst parts and was dripped on by the soggy ceiling tiles above me. The most striking thing was the complete silence – ever since we had passed the APCs, the silence had been thick enough to cut. I doubted that anything illegal was going on in the Glades, at least not until SLA ignored it again. I had no doubt that we were watched from the moment we appeared.
The top landing was even in worse condition and I whistled when I saw how badly shot up the wall was where I had ducked. The slugs and explosion had blown out enough of it that it almost made a second doorway and wouldn't have been any cover. Fortunately, it had been dark so they couldn't take advantage of it. The back wall was in as bad of shape and I saw a Shiver tech cataloging grenades and explosives on the other side. I was damn lucky that a wild round hadn't set anything off. You can never tell how bad those knockoffs really are.
Since the stairs and main hall were clean, I knew I was on the right track with my actions. The sergeant would have called in to confirm the BPN and complain about my requests and someone with clout had ok'd it and probably told him to stuff it. That meant I was operating with Cloak's approval and was probably following the path they'd wanted. That had to really piss the boys in green off. As the three of us stepped into the hall, a Shiver blocked with his browbeater. The body language told me that he/she/it recognized me and I smiled as I flashed my ID.
"Yeah, I'm the asshole who gave you the opportunity to work all night."
"Gee, thanks buddy," he said as he got out of our way, "Sarge is through there."
I found the sergeant in the factory area sitting without his helmet and talking with the meatwagon guys. He saw me when I came through the door and rubbed his eyes. The irises were the color of gray steel, although the whites were badly bloodshot.
"Good morning sergeant. What have you got for me?"
"Morning operative," he said with the same flat tone as yesterday. Apparently his voice was naturally devoid of emotion without the voice synthesizer sterilizing it. I bet he was a lot of fun at parties.
"We cleaned the scene up, tagged and bagged the Sub-Vees, and got the reports for you even though it took all damn night." With that, he slid a thick envelope to me and I picked it up. I thought about giving him a Uni and telling him to call someone who gave a fuck, but knew K'rth would give me hell for it. Don't kick the Shivers.
It turns out that everything I had asked for was there, with the exception of the lab work, which was pending. They had seized fifteen partial cases of KACK and DN SMGs with ammo, two crates of BLA weapons, and five GA Browbeaters. It was a nice haul and as far as I was concerned, this crime scene was closed and I could move on. As I started to reseal the envelope, I saw the stack of prints. They showed the etching on the walls and were clear enough to use for research.
"What the fuck are those, Cole?" he asked. It surprised me that he used my name, but I'm sure they all knew it by now. Again, familiarity with Shivers is not a mistake I'd recommend making to other operatives.
"Some sort of screwed up glyphs according to the Ebon in my squad. Maybe someone was trying a little voodoo but there's no way to be sure. Any ID on the meat, especially the freak I butchered in the hall?"
He breathed out as he shook his head and stood to pick up his helmet.
"It's all in the docs," he said as he tapped the envelope. "By the way, the guy you cuffed and gagged is bug-fuck crazy. What the hell did you do to him?"
I smiled, still looking at the prints. Combined with the forensic information, I had a lot of puzzle pieces but no idea of what the final picture was going to be. Cloak would hold a few back just to make things interesting. This had to be a test, but I still wanted to know for what. Recruitment maybe? God, I hoped not.
"We showed him how outclassed he and his DN buddies were. Has he been shipped to lockdown yet?"
"No, we've got him WT in the APC."
"I want to talk to him before I go. It'll only be a few minutes, so you can saddle up anytime."
"Thanks a lot." He said with a mixture of sarcasm and fatigue. I was glad that I got to show this poor bastard that he was outclassed too.
We followed the Shivers back to the APC and had the perp, a guy named Mikhail Voss pulled out of the WT. When Shivers say someone's in WT or "wrap n trap", they've shrunk-wrapped the perp in plastic sheets and locked him into a coffin tube in the APC. It's not uncommon for the perp to suffocate if wrapped incorrectly, but I don't think anyone is too concerned. Since Voss was still alive, they must have figured someone important wanted to talk to him.
When they set his feet on the ground, he wobbled and nearly fell, so I steadied him and walked him away from the APC. The cold rain pelted him and he shivered, keeping his eyes down.
"Guess you're beginning to think that joining Dark Night wasn't so great of an idea, huh?"
No response. The falling rain sounded like steel shot hitting the cardboard pavement and I pulled the collar of my coat higher. I was cold, but Voss wasn't wearing a jacket and was probably freezing his ass off. With his wrists and forearms cuffed in front of him, he couldn't even wrap his arms around himself to conserve heat. That was just too damn bad and I shoved him. He stumbled and sprawled near one of the meat wagons.
"Well Mikey, you screwed up bad and it's going to cost you, but the question is how much. I want information and if you don't give it to me willingly, you are going to need serious medical care before you go to questioning."
There still wasn't a response so I grabbed him by the neck and forced his eyes up to mine, seeing his eyes wide with fear. Joining DN was probably the only bad thing he had ever done and in truth, he was probably dead already. He probably knew that and I decided to play on any hope he might have left.
"Where can I find Bayer?" I asked. He recognized the name and his eyes darted down, so I shook him and made him look up again. He started to shake his head no, so I slammed him into the side of the APC and caught him as he fell.
"WHERE!" I yelled in his face. He started whimpering, so I backhanded him but it only made him start crying and he sat down. Clasping his cuffed hands together in front of his face, he pulled his knees up and crumbled into a near fetal position. I looked at K'rth with frustration. When he raised an eyebrow, I shook my head. I'd handle this one myself.
"Mikhail, I'm going to ask you one more time then my big tusked friend here is going to rip the limb of his choice off and eat it. Ok? Now where the fuck can I find Bayer?"
He started bawling and I wondered if I would be able to get anything from him at all without torture. I looked at my friends again and shrugged., crouching next to him. Obie looked over at me with a "now?" expression on his face and I waved him off. I was going to try a different tactic.
"If you give up Bayer, I let you walk."
He didn't know whether to believe me or not and looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I'm not much of a negotiator and he realized it, but I think he knew that I would back up threats.
"Otherwise, whatever I can make the Chagrin spit up goes with them." I added and he tried to look at my feet again. I jammed my thumb under his jawbone and forced his eyes up to mine again.
"I-I don't know where he is."
"Okay then," I said standing "Give me something I can use to find him. When was the last time you saw him?"
He wiped the tears from his eyes and quietly stifled his sobs without speaking. I pinched his earlobe with my thumb and twisted it over, forcing him to straighten up as I leaned closer. He winced and blinked as black rain splashed across his eyes.
"This is your last fucking chance. I'm going to count to five, if you don't answer before I reach five, the Shivers wet-vac the pieces. What is Bayer planning?"
I waited for a moment then started the count.
"One."
I reached over and slid the MAC out. He stiffened and started to hyperventilate but didn't speak.
"Two."
Nothing, Nada. Either he thought I was bluffing or if he clicked his heels together three times, he'd be somewhere safe. Yeah, him and his little subversive dog too.
"Three."
I turned the blade over in my hand and slapped the flat inside his upper thigh. He stiffened, but didn't speak. Ok, your choice pal, I thought to myself.
"Four. You're out of time asshole," I said as I wrenched his ear to the side and slid the blade edge upwards against his groin.
"W-what about f-five?" he stammered. He had stiffened and the color had drained from his face.
"You don't deserve a five! You won't need these where you're going."
He shrieked and tried to pull back but I held him in place by standing on his hands. He had gone from a semi-fetal position to a half-squat in a heartbeat. I think I had him convinced that I was serious.
"OK! OK! I'll T-Tell Y-You! I'LL TELL YOU! OH GOD, PLEASE D-DON'T!" he blurted. I slightly relaxed the tension on his neck, but kept the blade where it was.
"Ok, talk."
He was too frightened to be able to speak until I moved the blade down a bit, but I kept it close for motivation.
"He-he was here a c-couple days ago. He-he runs the p-place." He blurted between gasps.
"WHAT ELSE?" I said and pressed the blade higher. He squealed and tried to hop away, but couldn't move.
"T-They got something in a couple days. Specialists coming from off-world t-to k-kill someone."
"Who?" I said and lifted the blade again. He held onto my wrist and tears streamed down his cheeks. "WHO?" I yelled and wrenched his ear again.
"Mary Somebody, a chick! I d-don't know who she is! Please! I'm telling you the truth! I swear to God I am!"
I believed him, but there were a billion "Marys" out there and there was no way we could find the one Bayer was after or why. As I lowered the knife, I nicked him on the high upper thigh before I sheathed it and he fell over crying with relief. I motioned to the Shivers who came over and wrestled him to his feet.
"I want the full transcript of whatever he squeals about." I said and Voss looked at me like I'd just sold him to Skinny Puppy.
"Yeah, I lied. You're not worthy of honesty." I said to him.
As the Shivers carted him away and put him in the WT again, the three of us walked towards the subway. Obie seemed mildly interested in the graffiti, but it was probably just the bright colors again. K'rth waited until we were near the subway before speaking.
"Every day you seem to interpret more of the seven codes. Admirable, but unnecessary."
I smiled and nodded. "Because I'm not a Shaktar? I like to live by a code of conduct, and yours appeals to me so I've accepted parts of it."
K'rth seemed to approve and nodded as we hit the stairs down to the subway. You never know when Obie is listening or when one of his questions is going to zing out of nowhere. He says things with such innocence that if he ever decides to learn sarcasm, I'll never see it coming. As the train hissed to a stop and the doors wisped open, he tapped me on the shoulder and cocked his head to the side.
"When you growin dreads?"
I smirked and shook my head before walking into the train. The damn Chagrin was a comedian.
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