“This wasn’t the plan, Shaggy.” Obadiah growled menacingly, although the look was ruined by the old man biting into a cheeseburger.
Shaggy swallowed a bit of his own burger before he responded. “Hey, there were HLO goons there. I made a judgment call. Clearly, they expected the big guy to escape alone.”
“Do your people know who hit the transfer vehicle? It takes real cajones to attack a prison vehicle IN the prison.”
“What? You didn’t see anything?” Shaggy sat back in the booth, taking a sip from his drink.
“My people were set up along the transfer route. I did not expect anyone to hit the damn thing before it even set out.”
Shaggy turned to look at the rest of his pack. All ten of them were spread out over two other booths in the fast-food restaurant. They looked to be scarfing down their lunch, but Shaggy knew that each one of them was listening carefully to his conversation. Behind Obadiah, Agent One was pointedly not eating her food and glaring daggers at Vick. Agent Two was apparently still convalescing.
“Hey, old guy, it could’ve been anybody? Okay? It sounded like rocket launchers hit the damn truck!” Matteo said from the seat behind Shaggy.
Shaggy rolled his eyes as Obadiah shot him another glare. “And then there’s this guy? Why did you bring an unaffiliated super into this conversation?”
“He was in the truck and he helped get Duke out. Although now he could go on about his damn business, Y’know?!” Shaggy said over his shoulder.
Matteo scowled at him. “Hey! If you think I’m leaving something this interesting, you’re wrong. I’ve been waiting for some kind of prison event and this seems close enough.”
“This isn’t a Prison Event. This is black-ops against a corpo-government entity.”
“It’s clandestine reconnaissance.” Obadiah corrected.
“Either way, Matt. This shit may be out of your wheelhouse.”
“So get the old NPC to read me in, then. I can help.”
Shaggy rolled his eyes, but Obadiah raised his head and whispered to Agent One. Shaggy could hear what the old man said, but Matteo got suspicious. Then he seized up in his seat. When his body finally relaxed, Agent One hissed.
“D-Tier Super with a Manifestation power. Suitable for burn ops.” One whispered back to Obadiah.
“Hey! What the hell was that about?! Did you just cast some spell on me?! I’ll fucking go off, I don’t even care that we’re in a burger-”
Shaggy sighed as he spun in his chair. Already Cekrass and Stanley were out of their booths heading right for the irate Player. He waved them back as he stared at Matteo. The one-eyed player glanced between the hulking lizard-alien and the skinny teen before regarding Shaggy.
“I'm going to need you to be quiet, Matt. Okay? Like we’ve already said, this shit is meant to be covert. So unless you want to be locked in a government blacksite…” Shaggy left the threat hang there, but Matteo seemed to vibrate with excitement at his words.
“Wait. Can he do that? Put me in a blacksite? I mean, I’ve busted out of prisons before, but never a blacksite. I mean, the Super-max was going to be a challenge, but a fucking Blacksite?! Now that would be top-tier.”
Shaggy rubbed his forehead as he heard Obadiah whisper to One again. “Matt, this isn’t like prison. Villains won’t be coming to let you out every other day.”
Before Matteo could say anything, Agent One spoke up again, this time for everyone to hear.
“Matteo Rustik, imprisoned fifteen times since his first appearance a week ago. Escaped, fifteen times. Ten times by his own ingenuity, two times by Villain attack, and three times because the prison was unaware of his Manifestation abilities.”
Matteo’s eyes grew large. “Well, that’s a neat trick. Are you going to tell me how you know all that?”
Agent One simply tapped her temple with two fingers, and Matteo snorted.
“Pfft! Yeah, the first couple of times, I simply made a key and walked out of the damn prison. But after they realized what I can do, they started collaring me. That’s when the real fun started.”
“So your Manifestations can be anything?” Obadiah asked.
“Anything solid and nothing complex. I can’t create a computer or anything… at least not yet.”
“But how did you escape ten times without any damn powers?” Shaggy asked.
“Same as any other game, dude. Sneaking, lock-picking, coercion, bribing, and when all else fails, my fists.”
Obadiah rubbed his chin in thought as Shaggy nodded along. Matteo wasn’t wrong. If the collars didn’t affect your natural skill set and you were good enough, you could probably escape pretty easily. Matteo was trying to read both of their faces before he gave up and simply asked.
“So… Blacksite?”
Shaggy rolled his eyes, but Obadiah shook his head. “Actually, your skills might be better used elsewhere. Care to work for me?”
Matteo looked a little put out that he wasn’t going to a blacksite, but he still nodded. “Sure, what would I be doing? Would I work with Shaggy?”
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“Sometimes. But mostly you’d be breaking into highly secured places. Not out of them. I find myself down an agent after a slight mishap…”
“Ha!”
Vick barked out a laugh from his booth and Agent One returned her glare to the back of the sniper’s head. Matteo watched the byplay but said nothing as Obadiah continued his sales pitch.
“You’d work directly for me and receive a generous stipend as well as a place to live…”
“Hold up, this isn’t the pitch you gave me,” Shaggy interrupted.
“You are a known gang leader with ties to a decently sized criminal organization. Mr. Rustik is a lone agent with little or no ties with the criminal underground. You are an asset, Shaggy. But I want to make Rustik an agent.”
Shaggy rolled his eyes at the distinction, but he couldn’t fault the old man. Matteo looked a little hesitant about the offer. He waggled his head from side to side before tapping Shaggy’s shoulder.
“What do you think?”
Shaggy shrugged. “It’s your game, man. Have fun your way. But I can tell you this: The old man is making some waves in Austin. If you stick with him, you’ll either find yourself as a highly placed player or in a super-secret prison somewhere.”
“So win-win, really.” Matteo muttered to himself. Finally, he nodded and hopped over the seat to sit next to Shaggy. “Sounds great, old man. When do we start?”
Obadiah shook the player’s hand briefly before turning his head to Agent One again. “One, take Agent Three back to headquarters and get him kitted out. I need to finish things here.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll check on Two while I’m at it. He is likely going stir crazy.”
The small woman rose from her seat and moved around the table to Matteo’s side. The player grinned happily before he got to his feet. He gave Shaggy a salute before hurrying after the smaller woman. Shaggy saw some of the restaurant staff sigh in relief as two of their party exited their establishment. Then they went back to worriedly looking at Shaggy’s pack and the pile of burgers on both of their tables. Shaggy grinned to himself before addressing Obadiah again.
“See. I got myself an in with Duke and you got another agent. Aren’t I amazing?”
“Ha! I’m not quite sure of your ‘in’ with Duke. For all we know, right now, his HLO handlers are telling him to stay away from you.”
Shaggy grabbed a handful of french fries and stuffed them into his mouth. He chewed them slowly and swallowed before he said.
“You know the best way to get someone to do something?”
Obadiah quirked an eyebrow.
“Tell them not to.”
“Please. That may work for children, but adults…”
“Aren’t any different,” Shaggy interrupted. “Sure, we like to tell ourselves that we wouldn’t react in the obvious way. But nobody likes to be told what to do. Maybe he won’t rush right to my side, but his curiosity will be peaked.”
Obadiah tapped his fingers on the table idly. “And you think that curiosity will be enough?”
“Combined with the HLO telling him all sorts of tales about me. I imagine after our most recent dust-up, they’ve got some stories about me.”
“Yeah, your file in their system has been elevated past my current level of access. Which is never a good thing.”
“So Duke is with his HLO minders being told not to go out and play with the big bad wolf. But if he accesses their systems to find info on me, he’ll hit a brick wall. Increasing his curiosity even more. The way he was looking at those minders of his also makes me think that he’s tiring of them. One can only wear a leash for so long.”
Shaggy grit his teeth at the unbidden heat in his words and he felt Obadiah tense up. They stayed tense until Shaggy managed to calm his anger at old memories. Obadiah also relaxed and the two quietly ate their food. Digesting both it and the information they had just shared. When Obadiah was done, he collected his trash and rose.
“Hey! What about what you got off the Warden’s terminal? You’re really not going to tell me anything?”
Obadiah stared at him for a few long seconds before he sighed and sat back down. “Fine! We found credit transfers going to the warden from several shell companies. Each of them has suspected ties to the HLO, but nothing concrete. But the information was enough to prove that the warden was taking bribes from an outside source.”
“What about what Madam Rossi said about the prison system? Is the HLO really moving in to straighten things out?”
Obadiah snorted. “Of course not. They are performing a sweep of the prison to find out how the warden was caught. But I burned the terminal as soon as I was done. They’ll dump a few million credits into Prison Reform and call it a day. Nothing’s going to change.”
“But now you have a bunch of shell companies to investigate.” Shaggy grinned as he wiped grease from his face.
“Indeed, and still only a limited staff to work with.”
“I told you about Ruby, right?”
“Your reporter friend? Did you pull her out of whatever she was into?”
“Nope. I contacted her after our last talk, but she never answered. I suspect she’s either captured or gone to ground. But my money's on her hold up somewhere hiding.”
“You want me to look for her?”
Shaggy shrugged. “Honestly, I just figured she’d make another good agent for you. She’s got a nose for trouble and she was already hunting down HLO shell companies.”
Obadiah finally grinned. “Damn, son. Why are you so eager to do my job?”
“Hey, I figure having you owe me a few favors can only be a good thing. Besides, you made sure my turf was safe while I did one more short stint in prison.”
Obadiah shook his head as he got up and finally threw away his trash. He glanced over at Shaggy’s pack for a few seconds before addressing Shaggy again.
“I only kept the cops out, Shaggy.”
The old man patted his shoulder and walked toward the door. Shaggy spun in his seat and asked.
“What does that mean?”
But the old man was out the door and gone without giving him an answer. Shaggy glared at his pack and searched the pack link, tying them all together. He got a mishmash of emotions coming from all of them as they all stood up and started his way. Shaggy was tempted to check to ask them mentally, but Rita and Ephemara had already taken a seat across from him as Sybil moved to steal his fries. Shaggy defended his food valiantly, but soon the others arrived and he was quickly outnumbered.
“Y’all know I’m the boss, right?”
“That just means you eat first, boss. Which it looks like you have. Do you think they have anymore in the back?” said Rita.
Shaggy looked over to the counter and scowled as he spotted a ‘Kitchen Closed’ sign. He wanted to find an employee to complain about discrimination. But they had more pressing issues.
“So what the fuck’s going on with our territory? I haven’t been inside long enough for shit to hit the fan yet, have I?”
Ephemara and Rita exchanged looks as the rest of his pack stayed annoyingly silent. He was about to raid their minds for the information when Ephe finally spoke up.
“We’ve got an infestation, boss.”
Shaggy squinted his eyes in annoyance. “What fucking kind of infestation?”
“The gangland kind. With the cops and the HLO backing off, we’ve gotten an influx of small-time soldiers into the turf. We keep batting them down, but they keep popping up.”
“What’s Levy been doing to handle it?”
“She’s doubled the guards at our associated stores and at the deli. But they aren’t hitting our places right now.”
“They’re hitting the neighborhood. Trying to make their mark.” Rita nodded in agreement with Ephemara.
“Organized?” Shaggy questioned.
“Not in the slightest, boss. It’s literally a bunch of rats that smell cheese. Everyone wants a piece.”
“Well, I’ll be damned if I let them have a piece. That’s our pack’s turf! Ain’t no fucking small-timers moving in.” Shaggy growled as he finished his drink and stood.
Sybil and the others in his pack hurried to follow him. Shaggy tossed a few credit sticks on the countertop and moved toward the restaurant’s exit. He felt his inner wolf stirring, and he gave the guy a mental pat on the head. A warm vibration ran through his body. He could feel his wolf’s contentment. Soon, they would be back in their territory. Establishing their borders and burning out all the unwanted rodents.