When K'rth told me that the squad was going to meet at the Crib the next afternoon for a BPN, I shook my head as I looked through the Bayer dossier. I figured if the squad was going to take another BPN, there was no chance of getting concerted help on this one and I was mostly on my own.
"You misunderstand," K'rth started. "Casper wants to take on what she calls a 'paying' BPN at the same time she helps you with yours."
I laughed. "So she's helping me as a favor, huh? She doesn't realize that Cloak is watching her too and might take it as a lack of devotion if she refused to give it priority. Damn, arrogant, stick-up-the-"
"Here me out, Alex. You backed her down in front of the squad and she's embarrassed. She's trying to ease her bruises and makeup in her own way."
"You think I should feel sorry for her? I should apologize for putting her in her place?" Sometimes he's too much of a diplomat. If I hurt her feelings, that's too damn bad and the good guys won one for once.
"Someone with that little self-esteem should be pitied, but not granted mercy. What you did was right and will help her to grow as a person."
I shook my head. It was too early to wax philosophical and I turned back to the dossier.
"A side benefit is that Angus won fifty uni's from the boyfriend McNeil over who would back down. If you had fought and won, he would have won a hundred."
I grinned and looked up. "Fifty uni's, huh? Gotta love team loyalty."
After I dressed, I unwrapped my Blitzer from its silicon cloth and tested its unloaded weight. Every part of the revolver's construction screams 'hand cannon' even before you feel the recoil and I like that. I loaded it, put two speed loaders in my jacket, and an 8 mm snubber in a holster in the square of my back. I didn't think I'd need anything else, but strapped my MAC to my leg as a precaution and headed out. If we found out where Bayer was holed up, I would need to come back for my Mangler and body armor.
Rogue Shift used to go through a financier for assignments until Casper raised hell over his cut and burned that bridge. Since then, we've been wasting at least a day a week trolling for BPNs in the Crib like everyone else. While I'm not claustrophobic by any means, the sheer expanse of the hall filled shoulder to shoulder with hungry ops is enough to make me nauseous. Add in that half of them don't have housing and don't shower, and you've got a sauna that smells as bad as most sewers.
K'rth, Obie, and I got there around one and started in when we saw Gaelyn outside. She waved as we crossed the street and met us at one of the doors.
"Where's everyone else?" I asked.
"They're inside, trying to get a Yellow BPN."
"What about Nix, where's she?" The wraith hates closed in areas and never goes into the Crib, so I figured she was around somewhere, probably sneaking up on us. Gaelyn had one of those 'can we talk' looks on her face and K'rth nodded, heading to the door.
"I'll see if I can find the rest and make sure they choose a good assignment" he said and went in. Obie stood there oblivious, but I was so used to his presence that he seemed more like a wall than an eavesdropper.
"Alex, I'm sorry about not backing you yesterday. It's just that you caught me off guard when the trouble started with Casper and I didn't know how to react. Getting between you two isn't something that anyone except for Obie likes to do."
I patted him on the chest and he looked down with a puzzled look, asking "Whut?"
I nodded, turning back to the Ebon. "I know and it's ok. I don't want to divide the squad anymore than it is, but sooner or later she and I are going to have to go our separate ways. If she punches my buttons again, I'm not promising that I'll let it run off."
She looked at me for a moment then nodded. Gaelyn enjoyed the squad's company as much as I did and would hate to see it end.
"I'll do what I can to put it off as long as possible, ok?" I added. "Don't want to break up our big, happy, dysfunctional family now do I?"
With that she shook her head and mouthed a thanks. There wasn't anything else to say, so we stood there waiting for the rest of the squad to navigate their way out. A growing stream of people moving into the hall forced the three of us further to the side where the eave's coverage wasn't as complete and we raised the hoods on our jackets. It was a cold rain and people caught outside the eaves scurried between cover like rats.
I studied the gentle profile of her face and thought about the differences between our races. Whenever K'rth or Angus and I are waiting, we make small talk about everything from DN to sports, but things are different around Ebons. While Gael is always expressive and communicative, she only speaks when she has to. I've never had a problem knowing what kind of mood she was in, but like the saying goes - the silence can be deafening. It's one of those little things that remind you that Ebons are sometimes even more alien than a Shaktar or Wraith.
Gael must have noticed my stare and looked over at me, arching an eyebrow. I raised my palms in a "sorry" gesture and she smiled and nodded. I've wondered before if she can read minds, but have never tested the theory. If Casper had the ability, somebody would be dead by now. Maybe Ebons are just intuitive. I'd have to talk to K'rth about it and see what he thought.
I saw Nix leaving a food vendor's cart carrying four steaming cups and a bag of some sort of food. Almost on queue, Obie's stomach growled and I laughed out loud.
"I doubt that bag is going to fill you up, big guy. You'll have to wait a while." He gets hungry about six times a day but I'm not sure if it's because of his metabolism or because he's a pig.
Gaelyn nudged me in the ribs and I looked over, seeing her staring into the crowd. Tracing her line of sight, all I could see were groups of bustling people taking advantage of the slackening rain.
"Over there at the 'Downtown Burger' stand. Something isn't right. They're acting suspicious."
I watched and saw that the guys setting up the cart kept waving customers away, while the scores of competitors were taking in cash hand over fist. They also seemed a little edgy, more than a vendor in this area they call "Prime Strip" should be.
"Hey Obie, how about a burger?" I said and patted his shoulder. He followed behind me as we made a beeline for the cart. Nix intercepted us part way with the food and a smile. It looked like she had picked up a double Espresso for herself again.
"I need you to circle and keep an eye on the DT burger stand over there. Something isn't right." There were at least six people around it, all of which seemed out of place. Vendors are supposed to be hawking business, not staring it down.
"Why, what's going on?" she asked, looking over.
"I'm not sure," I started, and then decided to take two of the drinks with me. I loosened the tops and looked up at Obie. "Follow my lead, ok?"
"O-kay" he said and followed me in.
I came around the front of the cart and the four men and two women looked at me with what looked like a mixture of shock and irritation. Each wore a DT burger apron with an "I Can Help You!" tag pinned to their chests, but didn't make me feel that they were a customer friendly bunch. When two of them ducked out of sight behind the cart, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and I realized that I had just pulled an 'Angus'. By coming around the front, I'd set them off. Three of the men came around the side to meet me and the fourth, a woman, stepped back from the cart and began to reach under her plastic apron. I gave them my best smile and held the Styrofoam cups out to the men in front of me.
"These coffees are cold. What kind of business are you-"
I splashed a cup of hot coffee into the faces of two of the men and snap kicked the third into the stand. The first two yelped and grabbed their eyes while the third wheezed and pulled a 10 mm pistol free of his apron. I kicked him in the right knee, snapping his leg backward, then followed up with a palm edge to his throat. As he dropped the pistol and fell choking, I jerked my Blitzer free and pulled my MAC in my off hand. The Chagrin was so eager to join in that he nearly knocked me down as he charged forward with a roar. We had everybody's attention, which is good for promotion and a very bad thing if you screw up.
Obie crushed the arm of one of the blinded men as he swung him into the air. He slammed his tusks through the guy's torso, then ripped sideways spraying the yellow canopy with gore. With a grunt, he sent the disemboweled body flailing to the ground and turned on the second target.
The second man backed up whimpering and dropped his pistol as the Stormer advanced. With a growl, Obie tore the man's head from his shoulders and opened his chest, covering the side of my face and jacket with red. I cursed and wiped the gore on my sleeve. We seldom got capture bonuses when the damn Chagrin was around but at least he looked hard on camera.
Something went 'crack' and Obie flinched and snarled. The woman farthest from the stand had opened fire, catching the Stormer in the chest with one of those DN peashooters. Personally, I'd never shoot a Chagrin with anything less than a proverbial "big gun" but then I'm fighting on the right side and don't have to worry about it. Obie completely lost it and charged with a roar, sending the spectators trotting backwards. The woman realized her mistake and turned to run, but Nix materialized and spun her hard to the pavement. There was a second shot amidst the screams and rips, but all I could see were red sprays and flashes of claws and teeth. Nix always prefers to take down opponents with her natural weapons, but has recently started to try to draw the kills out. It seems everyone in this squad, with the exception of K'rth, is determined to troll for camera time.
Obie kicked the stand sideways in frustration when his target vanished and it smacked my hip hard enough to nearly take me off my feet. The two DNs behind the stand probably got knocked on their asses since they couldn't have seen him coming. I tried to make my wince look heroic but wasn't sure how good I pulled it off.
I fired a one handed blind shot where I thought the two DNs might be crouched and began to come around the side. Even with recoil baffling, my wrist and palm still stung - that'll teach me to show off for the cameras. Someone yelled and I saw that one of the DNs was down. The other one, a woman, stood up with a Dino 100 and I slashed her hands. She recoiled, dropping the rifle, and pulled a knife of her own. It was one of those DN MAC knockoffs and I shook my head with professional disgust. I thought about the old saying "never bring a knife to a gunfight" and decided to take the opportunity to show off. I calmly holstered my pistol and flipped the knife to my right hand, blade down. For a moment she stood there rocking on her toes, unsure of what to do. I guess her DN butter knife didn't look like as impressive as my MAC. I couldn't help but think that she would be pretty if her face wasn't so tense. Her gray eyes were wide with terror like an animal and she was bleeding from where she had bitten through her lower lip.
"You could just give up." I said with a smile, giving her a chance.
When my words registered on her face, her brow knotted and she lunged forward with the knife held underhand. Ok, you've made your choice I thought and reacted according to my training. I sidestepped, slashing her across the throat and buried the knife in the side of the head behind the ear. It made a 'thunk' sound as the hilt went flush and killed her instantly. As her body started to topple forward, I wrenched the blade free with a pop and tossed her onto her back in a red puddle. For a moment I looked down at the corpse and realized that she couldn't have been any older than maybe nineteen. What a waste, another victim of DN subversion.
Since all of the threats were down, I came out of my half crouch and sheathed my knife. My shot had taken the prone man in the elbow and ripped off his lower arm. I kicked the weapons away from him and used his belt as a tourniquet. Maybe we could get a capture bonus if this creep lived. Gael was already checking the only other possible survivor and stood up shaking her head. Our bonus hinged on this guy, but I wasn't going to hold my breath. He'd lost a lot of blood already.
I'm amazed at Karma's advances since by the time I stood up, Obie's wound was almost gone. He was still royally pissed off, but I knew that would fade and decided to leave him to cool off. Nix was grinning at me with red teeth as she searched the body of her kill and gave me the thumbs up. With the exception of these Dinos, everyone was having a banner day. I glanced back at the woman I'd killed and shook my head. Maybe not everyone.
Gaelyn came while wiping her hands on her raincoat and looked inside the cart. She let out a slow whistle and when I saw what was inside, my blood turned cold. In addition to weapons, the inside of the stand was rigged with enough explosives to level half a downtown block. She laughed and stood up with more calm than I could muster and smiled at me.
"Relax, it isn't live. Looks like the rain shorted out the circuitry and soaked the powder based explosive they were using. The Shivers ought to be here any second and can double check."
I nodded and let my breath out as I walked around. I had only a passing experience with bombs and consider getting blown into molecules a major turn off. The next half hour was spent getting questioned by the Shivers and I couldn't help but wonder how much Casper was going to gripe about us being late. As we left the cordon, I could see them staring at us and tried to head it off before it started.
"Before you start, we had to take care of a potential incident. Ask the Shiv-"
"Good work, Cole" she interrupted and looked around. The puzzled look on my face drew a smile. "You might be a media star someday after all."
Angus came pushing out of hall in the "In" lane, drawing curses and shoves as he fought against the current. He passed a yellow BPN wrapped in plastic to Casper who held it up and smiled before tucking it into her jacket
"Well guys, we've got a contraband sweep at Central Customs Distribution to take care of so let's hit it."
I shrugged and fell in beside K'rth as we crossed the street. Looking over at Nix, I motioned at her teeth since they were still red. She grinned and kept pace with me, obviously proud of her work. The Waster and boyfriend climbed onto a Kalaharvey, leaving the rest of us to our own transportation. As the engine roared into life, she looked over and sneered.
"Oh Cole, let's hope you aren't bored by a lowly yellow BPN. We wouldn't want you to disappoint your friends in Cloak." She extended a finger and ran it across her throat while making a choking noise. I shook my head and extended a finger of my own as they started to pull out. She cackled and yelled something, but the growling engine drowned it out.
K'rth hailed a battle taxi for us and sat across from me quietly as I stewed. After a moment, he leaned forward looked into my eyes.
"Those who hold no respect for their masters court the edge of a two-edged blade."
His statement made me think about the potential double edge of the Grey BPN. What if the entire squad was under observation instead of just me? Her attitude and actions could bury us all and I'd be damned if I was going to be held responsible for her insubordination.
I nodded and turned my attention to the beads of rain on the fogged window, regarding our reflections.
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