The cold rain and the movement seemed to be helping Stephens to get his bearings back, but he was no where near coherent yet. I knew enough to keep an eye on him and held the Mangler in one hand as I pushed him ahead of me with a wrist lock. K'rth followed, still dragging the poor sod along behind him. From the sound of it, he was managing to pull him through every objectionable or painful substance in our path. I swear that the Shaktar must be some of the cruelest species ever to walk Mort, well second cruelest.
Casper came around the corner with that "gonna kick your ass" swagger and I figured I was in for it. The daily rotation of ass kicking must have gotten off track and it looked to be my turn again. Since she berated the hell out of me on Tuesday, it meant that it's probably Mac's turn again and he's injured. I didn't have time for her crap.
"Where do you get off giving orders?" she snapped, grabbing me by the collar. I hate getting pushed by a Waster and shoved Stephens off balance and into her. She surprised me by not catching him and he crashed face down on the pavement at her feet with a groan. Casper stepped over him and into my face again.
"I asked you a fucking question 'Long Pig'!"
"Long Pig", God I hate that name. It's all Nix's fault since it's her race that calls humans that and she had to tell me within about ten minutes of our meeting. Funny that the Waster uses that slang since she thinks less of the Wraith than she does me. Probably likes it because I hate it. Skanky, charred-eyed, greasy haired,-
"Well?"
"Well what? You were out of contact and we had a situation. No one else was stepping up and Angus was about to get himself killed. I didn't have a choice-". I noticed that the Frother was sitting against a wall and Gaelyn was working on him. He didn't look so good and I wanted to check on him.
"You had a choice and you didn't make the right one. In case you forgot, I'm the leader of this squad and I call the shots. You try that shit again and I'm going to kick your –"
"You want me to follow your fucking orders, then get me a hands-off mike that actually works." I tossed my mike at her as I pushed past and stepped on Stephens. "Why don't you watch YOUR prisoner."
She started to say something, but decided to hold it for the moment. The Waster probably thought she won that one and decided to let me off easy. Awfully macho for someone named "Casper". That's the kind of name you'd give a kiddie cartoon character or something. She bragged that she got the name from a boyfriend and if I ever meet him, I've got to buy him a drink. I can't see how he sold her on that pet name with a straight face, but he must have some serious cojones.
I kneeled down next to MacReady and he looked up with half-open eyes. Reading the look on my face, he grinned weakly and gave me a thumbs-up.
"I've got some Kickstart if you need it," I said to Gael. She shook her head with her eyes closed and kept concentrating. She was in the middle of formulating and didn't need my help. She breathed out while placing her hands over the wounds on his arm and abdomen and a faint light began to shine under her hands. I've never gotten over seeing her heal someone and the sight of the wounds closing and bullets popping out still disturbs me. I decided to check out the rest of the scene and get an idea of what the Frother and Obie had run into. Mac was out of danger for the moment, at least until the next time. I hope they didn’t ask me about him on my next psyche evaluation, or I'd have to lie and we'd both end up on the street.
I found the Chagrin inside the chapel staring at some sort of markings on the wall. Walking up to him I patted him on shoulder and was surprised how tense he was. Even after a combat is over, his body is still wracked with adrenaline and he doesn't relax. The wounds on his chest and shoulder were closing as I stood there and I decided to look at what had his attention instead.
"What's wrong big guy?"
He stood there without answering, scanning the markings on the wall. There were a series of ornate characters that seemed to have been made with charcoal or tar. I had no idea what they meant, but figured someone in the squad might have an idea.
"What are these?"
"Dunno."
In the three months I've known him, Obie has never been much of a talker. That doesn't mean he isn't expressive, since you can usually tell what he's thinking by his body language. These marks were unlike anything I'd ever seen and I figured that I would make sure the Shiver forensics team gave me a good set of 8x10's to run through the Dept of Info. A thought occurred to me and I leaned out the door to wave for K'rth. After a few moments he came in and started to study the markings with the same intensity as the 714.
"Any idea what these markings are?" I asked.
"Not entirely, but they appear to be a series of some crude form of glyphs. Perhaps Gael or Casper would be able to decipher them."
"Obe, get Gael if she's finished with Mac."
The big guy still seemed transfixed by the markings and nodded before nearly walked through me on his way out. I took an opportunity to look around and take in the crime scene. I'm far from squeamish, but the mess in the next room was enough to unsettle my stomach. It looked like Obie and that crazy Frother had cornered most of the DN goons here and taken them in close combat. Amongst the wreckage of what looked to be a drug lab were various pieces of the combatants. I winced when I noticed that even the ceiling was coated with gore and turned away. This was one for the Shivers since they get paid for that sort of thing.
Gael came in and glanced at the markings with the same interest as a 5-year old looks at a stock page in a newspaper. Her face was drawn and haggard. My guess was that she had to burn a lot of flux to help Mac.
"What are they?"
"Glyphs of a sort, but they're not correct. Probably some nutcase trying to channel Ebb I'd guess. Some of these are for folding and others are complete gibberish. Someone was probably trying to summon something."
"Any chance they could succeed?"
"Possible, but if they were human it would turn their brain to tapioca. Is that it?" She walked back outside to rest without waiting for an answer. I felt that we could probably leave the scene for the Shivers to handle. After all, this part wasn't in our BPN and everything was tied up nicely now that we had Stephens under wraps.
Sometimes you realize you're in a world of shit a few moments after you've done something to tip the balance against you. Other times, you've done nothing at all and it still comes down on your head like a brick.
When I walked back into the street, I saw that a Shiver APC had pulled up along with a meat wagon and the forensics crew. Casper was talking with the Shiver Sergeant and when I stepped out, I noticed that everyone was staring at me.
The Shiver Sergeant stepped away from Casper and towards me.
"Are you Operative Alex Cole, SCL 8.2?"
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
Two of the Shivers stepped forward to flank me and did their best to look menacing. I heard the pop and hum as the GASH baton of the one on the left came up to frequency and glanced over. The Sergeant's mask showed a fun-house version of my reflection as he got closer. The synthesized voice had an edge of menace to it, but don't they always?
"We have orders to bring you in."
"What?" I couldn't believe it. I hadn't done anything wrong. "Am I under arrest?"
"Sure looks that way," he said and nodded. The Shiver on my right held out his hands for my weapons and I turned over my Mangler, MAC knife, and 603. He patted me down afterwards and nodded. I guess he was disappointed that I didn't have a holdout.
That's when the other one stepped up and hit me with the baton.
Lights out.
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