Blarg. I was hoping I’d get a bigger bump from that, but I’d committed to a few jobs with the team anyway. Since I actually like Grizzly, and Harlow’s not the bad sort, it’s not that much a hassle. That and it’s been nice not to think about business and drugs for a day.
What has been plaguing my mind is Jamie’s kiss ‘for luck’. I feel a lot of guilt for it, and it’s undoubtedly because I didn’t check her touching behavior immediately. I feel like I should tell Zia, but I’m like super afraid to? Maybe I wait until I resolve the situation with Jamie, then explain the whole thing? I nod to myself. It seems reasonable not to want to hear about some other girl in repeated messages.
That decision made for the day, I look around the shack I’m squatting in and muse at how used to having basic utilities I’d gotten. After confirming my kills I took precautions to not go home, and since Harlow mentioned we had a follow-on job ‘up north’, so I decided to test the offroad capabilities of this hoverbike and cut over to the next North-South highway and ended up at some pieced-together hut with a water tank on top fifty kilometers outside of Crystal Springs.
/Bearded Papa, DE Flying Squirrel, checking in/ I text in the group chat.
No one replies right away, making me think that they’re asleep. I shrug and bring up some plans that Tova has been making four our neighborhood.
She wants to build a total of eight five-story buildings that double as watchtower installations, and a more centralized community fortress. I look at the layout of the watchtowers and see a skinny building with 4 apartments per floor with a central elevator, a pair of suites at the top, and turret installations on the roof. The roof also has an equipment vault for extra ammo. The bottom floor is a lobby for the main building, and a security extension for the team that would be responsible for that sector. Since my HQ building is close enough to the edge of my area and is well enough equipped to serve as a security installation, only seven of the buildings need to be built. That would give us more than 150 residences before the dorm is finished, then we should be able to hit village population easy.
The fortress is a whole other beast. Tova assures me that we can build it in sections, but each section is like fifty thousand credits a pop to build. That’s a pretty nutso amount of money, but it should fill the needs of five thousand people and offer a secure place to hole up indefinitely if we keep exchange access.
\Flying Squirrel, DE Grizzly, wheel team is doing recon of our next location. We could use your portable exchange repeater. Send me your location.\
I ask Tova to handshake with the veteran’s AI.
\You’re just down the road. Convenient. Meet in an hour to go over the mission.\
/Copy that Grizz./
He sends a pin and I figure I’ll head that way, find some building to scurry up and have lunch with a good view of the desert. Twenty minutes later, I end up on top of a water tower with a platter of tacos and some fizzy juice sourced from Astorian vendors. When I see a familiar Jeep pull off the highway, I climb down to meet the crew. Jamie waves at me as I’m walking to the motel and they conveniently show me which room I’m supposed to be going to.
Harlow and Denning are discussing a map that one of them is sharing with the group as Tennison sits nearby, listening in.
“Oh good, you found the stray. Did your caution pay off?” Harlow asks me.
I nod, “the target was still alive. His armor must have cost a fortune and was specifically tailored to stop ballistic assaults. Was not effective against energy weapons.”
“Why didn’t you salvage it then?” Denning asks.
“Time and hassle. None of you gave a shit, so don’t hassle me about loot.”
“Easy, Kid,” Grizzly interrupts my train of anger before it can leave the station. “The big man is a treasure goblin. He’s also jealous of your toys, we all are.”
I shrug, “Sucks. I worked my ass off while I was gone. Made some deals, made some money, and made some enemies.”
“While I would like to hear the story,” Harlow says, raising his hand, “We need to get on the same page for this grab and go.” He motions for everyone to gather around.
Our target is a geological research station at Crystal springs. Some nutty researcher has managed to re-start the station and presumably re-started their research. Few guards are expected, but there will be a dozen other workers plus the research director. The mission is to abduct the director, or obtain his research by any means necessary.
“Smash and grab?” I ask.
“I would prefer a stealth intrusion. Only Tennison is Tracked for it. Salcedo Most recently got out of CQB training. Kimber, how’s your training measure up?”
“I’m fast, I lived through a conference room full of mobsters trying to Kill me, and I have recently converted pistols and mixed martial arts into a combined skill.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Survivor and a scrapper. Alright, you’re coming inside. Give Waller your .308, if you still have it, and Salcedo can have wheel duty this time.”
“Isn’t it a bit soon to be trusting Novarro inside? I know the girl’s good, but we don’t know how she is.” Denning asks.
“I want teams of two to search this place. Your choices are between a girl that has been in a fight for her life four times, and two women who haven’t. On second thought, Waller, you’re back on wheels, Salcedo, you’ve got the .308 and a rooftop.” The big man grumps at the team lead’s logic, and the vet smirks at all of us.
“If no one else wants to belly ache, the other reason Novarro comes in handy, is the portable relay. We need some data recovery gear and some breaching explosives, just in case.”
“Breaching, cutting, shaped, or plain murder. I know explosives pretty well and can find it for you.” I get a lot of eye quirks in response. “What? My alchemy focus so far has been explosives. I discovered a new form of gunpowder and some moldable stuff using my enhanced formula. My scatter grenades are also pretty popular.”
Griz grunts, “good bunker and vehicle grenade.”
The grenade in question triggers a mechanical disassembly after a certain number of tumbles, flinging grenade pieces in many directions. When acceleration approaches zero, the pieces explode via aether-charged explosives that I’ve designed—basically charged cordite.
Harlow purchases some ammo and some of my products from the Exchange, a few sticky cameras that hook up to our team feed, and of course the data acquisition pack. That’s a little nebulous, black box device as far as I’m concerned, but it’s not my mission.
***
Waller is a very good driver. We come in hot, packed in like sardines, and the plan is to tack into a controlled spin and exit the vehicle through the back hatch that we took off for the mission. I’m sitting in Denning’s lap, with his big body securing me to the vehicle while I hold my .308 aiming out the back. Waller initiates a drift in one direction then shifts the wheel to spin us in the other. Denning clinches his powerful muscles and I begin to breath out slowly.
This is up there on the most unstable I’ve been while shooting, but heads are pretty big at 40m. The first shot is nigh perfect, dropping the man with pink mist and a snap back of his head. The second catches a man at the edge of an eye socket and blows out the side of his skull. That wound is messy and effing gross, but it still kills him.
I hand the weapon over to Jamie as Denning shifts to get his feet angled out the back. Seconds later, as we’re skidding to a jogging pace, the big man gives me a light shove out of the vehicle, following close behind me. I’m at the door first, jamming a high explosive putty rope into the seams of the door with the handle of a knife, both of which I summoned from Zia’s ring. Denning jams a sliver of a crystal with an antenna mounted over it into the rope and hugs the wall a meter away from the door, I mirror him on the other side. Three fingers, two fingers, clenched fist and a bang with a small rolling plume of smoke rolls out of the doorway into the desert. Griz comes charging past, I tuck in behind him and Denning behind me with Harlow bringing a cutting torch and a breaching shotgun.
I make my pistols appear in my hands as we dash roll-walk through the halls, expecting someone to come check the noise. As we enter, the vet points out cameras and I blast them with plasma, which is much quieter than my hyper velocity pistol. Griz and I peel off at the first right while Harlow and Denning continue on forward.
\Don’t stop at doors unless they’re open, kid.\
I click in affirmation as we continue to almost run down the hallway. The poor bastard that peaks out of his office while we were approaching caught a bullet for his trouble. We get to another security door and I bust out more putty rope, but this time the burst is physically uncomfortable in the enclosed space.
Griz pies right, I pie left and then he rushes the way his gun is pointing and I do the same after he clears the frame. Loud pops streak through the room and I see my battle buddy stagger a step. I start unloading into the room. Anything that even remotely looks like it’s moving gets a bullet or a pulse shot. I hear Griz’s assault rifle back in the fight and take the moment to reload my .38 and slide a new crystal into my pulse pistol.
/Should be two behind the consoles. You injured?/
\Third behind the servers. Looks like my armor held.\
He directs me to follow him in a sweep that should reveal all three people. They don’t stand much of a chance as two were already wounded and fumbling.
/Why are we executing everyone? If this were ‘just a grab’ we’d be leaving non-combatants alive./
\Not my place to say, kid.\
/Fuck that, old man. You don’t trust me enough to tell me why it looks like we’re killing civilians, and I don’t trust you to watch my back./
\That’s uncalled for.\
I shrug, then move over to the console to plug in the Data extracting box into the security station.
\That is also not where we were supposed to use that.\ He frowns.
/If this is as far as we go, why does it matter? Now, before you think of saying anything just to placate me, I have an ability to ensure I know if you’re lying. I didn’t use it for the mission brief, because I trusted you guys./
\This was supposed to be Fontaine’s job. She has looser morals than the rest of us.\ Statement rings true.
\None of us care about justice as much as you do\ Also true.
\Everyone that works here is a bad person.\ Yellow. There’s more to that statement, but he believes it.
One thing that I know for sure: Tennison knows about my Talent.
/And you’re still giving me the runaround. Un-fucking-beleivable./
How dare they lie to me about such a crucial point on this mission! If they’re lying to me then they knew I might object.
A growling burble of indignation rises from the depths me. A slight tug on my aether stores is noticeable about the same time I see a hint of fear in Tennison’s eyes.
\They’re experimenting on people they abducted.\ Yellow again. \That’s all I can say\ green.
He honestly believes something life ending would happen if he should talk about it. Ugh, green statements feel bad, but yellows are just confusing. Stupid flip floppy magic.
/I hate this. I don’t want to leave you on your own, but how can I fucking trust you Griz?/
His turn to shrug. \You can’t. You can trust that I’ll act in my own interest. You should honestly hope that Harlow doesn’t crawl up your ass about insubordination in the field.\
/We’ll certainly be having a talk. Let’s get this done with so I can yell at some old men and tell them how it works in my day./
Once the data-extraction device finishes its scan, I stow it and we move back to where we split with Harlow and Denning to take the stairs down to the labs where our target is known to hang out. We pass by several bodies. At this point, there can’t be too many people left to shoot.