CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE—ANARCHO #4

Tired and worn out, May, Kyle and John trudged into the penthouse suite at the top of the Hitomo Luxury Suites building.

Kyle ambled over to the sofa and fell down face first while John, not bothering to open the secret weapons alcove simply slid one of their last duffels next to the wall. May did the same, then stalked into the living room where Kyle had just crashed.

“A little dramatic, don’t you think?”

He turned his head. “It’s been a long day.”

She smirked. “You’re not the one who got your ass kicked.”

“Oh right,” he said, as if he had just remembered.

“Hey,” May said, making eye contact with him. “Thanks for saving me back there. I think that psycho was going to finish me off.”

He shrugged. “Don’t mention it. I’m just sorry we didn’t get Strogaus.”

“Yeah,” May said. “But you can’t win ‘em all, right?”

“Ugh!”

“What?”

“I hate that good-old-sport attitude,” he said. “It really kicks my ass that we couldn’t get the scumbag, especially after what he did to you.”

Behind them Lexa and John were speaking, but May couldn’t hear what they were saying. With a tired nod, she sat down on the sofa.

“Are you all right?” Kyle asked as he looked her over. This time he wasn’t ogling her—he seemed to genuinely care.

She had a lot of bruises and aches. She glanced up and their eyes met—their faces closer than need be.

Kyle jerked back.

“Oh—“

“Sorry.”

Glancing away awkwardly, he said, “Holo-net on. News.”

“FUCKFUCKFUCK!” the LC News anchor screamed. “And we’re now getting reports of the chase. It seems the Anarchos have—“

“I hate this blue-haired douche,” May said. “Different channel.”

The in-home government-approved (hacked) holo-net device obeyed, flipping to the much more sober—but still totally trash—ONN station.

“…and it seems the attackers after Brian Strogaus were in fact the two Anarchos Max and Staxx.”

“But wait,” the woman said. “Today there was a new name scrawled along with theirs.”

“That’s right,” Shaia. “Under the names of our two usual suspects the name May appeared.”

“Do you think they have a new accomplice?”

“It’s impossible to say, but time will tell.”

Bellow the two anchors a display of Life City in all her neon glory filled the backdrop, along with other incoming news feeds. At the bottom of the screen a black bar with white letters scrolled by reading: ANARCHOS MAX AND STAXX RAID CEO’S OFFICE AT STROGAUSS INDUSTRIES, MAKING OFF WITH TROVE OF SENSITIVE CORPORATE INFORMATION.

“In their wake,” the male anchor said,” the two Anarchos and their accomplice killed an SI mage and multiple guards. They were then pursued from the premises by the police and…”

May stopped paying attention as their scratched message on the walls scrolled by in yellow lettering, reading: ANARCHOS MAX AND STAXX WERE HERE, STROGAUS! YOU DOUCHE! AND MAY, TOO!

“Not bad,” John said. “Not as flashy as we could have been, though.”

“Flashy?” May asked. “You guys really do like the attention, don’t you?”

“I can say with absolute certainty,” Lexa said, “that John and Kyle are not only adrenalin junkies, but they’re attention whores.”

“Hells yes!” Kyle said.

“Lexa,” John chided. “When did you start using language like that?” He handed May and Kyle each a beer.

With wide eyes Lexa looked at John and shook her head. “I don’t know. It just came out.”

Kyle nodded and took a gulp of his beer.

“Wow,” May said. “That’s good.”

“Eighty a bottle,” John said. “Only the good stuff for the Anarchos.”

“I’ll toast to that,” Kyle said as he raised his bottle. May pushed hers forward and so did John.

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“Now what?” May asked. “We botched it.” Then, glancing at John and Kyle she said. “Sorry. It’s not your fault.”

Kyle sighed.

“It’s no one’s fault,” John said. “Listen, we’re just going to have to deal with Strogaus some other time.”

“It sucks,” Kyle said.

“Think of it this way,” Lexa said, “It’s simply more time to build up notoriety for the Anarchos.”

“Yeah,” John said with a grin. “When we finally get the opportunity to do something about him—it’ll be a worlds-wide sensation.”

Kyle scoffed, but despite his dubious reaction, seemed to like what he was hearing.

May shook her head. “You guys are crazy.” She lifted her chin to Lexa. “You too.”

John sat down on the other sofa across from them as the news flashed into the living room, the sound muted.

“Strogaus is going to be gunning for you now,” Kyle said. “He knows you escaped.”

“He probably knows I was there at his office, too.”

“But the topo bands?” Kyle said.

No,, she thought. Topo bands or not, he knows.

“He might not be able to prove it,” May said. “But he knows, I think.”

“I agree,” John said. “He’s got you on a shitlist somewhere.”

“I hope you’re high up there,” Kyle said.

May glanced at him, surprised at what he had just said.

“Nono! Not like that,” he said quickly as he raised his palms. “I mean, I hope he gives you the due attention you deserve—“

She raised her eyebrows, making her reaction a little more pronounced than she actually felt. She knew what Kyle was trying to say, but she liked giving him a hard time.

“Ugh!” he said. “Nevermind. You know what I meant!”

“Yeah,” she said. With a heavy sigh she added, “I can’t believe we got out of that crash situation and broke into SI Headquarters. In one day!”

“We like to get things done,” John said.

Kyle nodded. “That’s how it’s always been.”

“Listen,” Kyle said. “May—I think you should stay with us. At least until we take Strogaus down.” He looked at her, then glanced at John.

The big guy nodded.

“What, in your guest bedroom?”

Kyle shrugged.

“We own the whole building,” John said. “We have empty apartments.”

Her eyes widened as she glanced at them both.

No way.

“You guys really want to put me up like this?”

“We’re rich,” Kyle said. “It’s nothing to us.”

John shrugged as if to say “that’s true.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “All right. Thanks.”

“No need to get mushy,” Kyle said. “It’s what allies do for each other, right John?”

“Yeah.”

Lexa smiled excitedly. “I’m looking forward to having you around, May.”

“Me too,” John said.

“Yeah,” Kyle echoed with a nod.

“Just don’t go buying any brand new cars without our permission,” John added.

They all laughed.

“Why would I need to do that when you have a whole dealership down in your garage?”

“Good question!” Kyle said emphatically. “Because I need an excuse to buy a new Corvo.”

“Why?” John asked. “The Kc did really well, I thought.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kyle said.

“So wait a minute,” May said, feeling light and easy now that most of her worries were gone. These guys are pretty cool. “So you—“ she pointed to Kyle—“ are the car freak, but you”—she indicated John—“do all the driving?”

“What, no!” Kyle objected.

“Well, not all the driving,” John said. “All the important driving.”

“Man…” Kyle complained.

May turned to him with a grin. “To be fair, Kyle, you’re crazier than John.”

“You’ve been with us for one day,” he said incredulously. “How would you know?

“No,” she said, “I can tell. You’re crazy.”

“Says the lady who put on her shades in a dark alley so she could shoot down five cop cars with a freakin’ minigun.”

She thought about that for a moment.

He does have a point.

May shrugged.

“I thought Kyle put that in there,” John said.

“And you went and made big-gun jokes on our way out, too,” Kyle said. “You have no mercy, do you?”

“I’m a woman. I have to use what I’ve got—claws and all.”

Kyle and John laughed.

“Now we’re two women,” Lexa said as she stood and sat next to May.

“What do you mean?”

“She means you’re part of the team now,” John said.

“Wait,” May said. “I’m not sure—“

“No arguments,” Kyle said. “We all have similar goals.”

“And what goals are those?”

“To tear shit up! To bring down this world and the overlords controlling it. One job at a time.”

“All right,” she said. “You have me there.”

Kyle put out a hand. “Welcome, May. Anarcho number three.”

She smiled and took his hand.

“Wait,” Lexa said. “I’m Anarcho number three, not her.”

John laughed. “All right, I’m off to bed.”

“Me too,” Lexa said with a heavy yawn.

“Hey,” Kyle said, standing. “You don’t get tired Lexa!”

“I don’t?” she asked. “Believe it or not, even an AI needs to relax—clear out her sub routines and defrag useless data.”

“Uhh…”

“Tech talk,” John said as he walked down the hall. Turning to May and Kyle, he said, “Goodnight, you kids. Don’t stay up too late.”

May laughed. “We won’t. I’m beat.”

“I mean you too, Lexa.”

She giggled, then her holo-display shimmered into nothingness.

The room was quiet.

Really quiet.

Kyle said nothing, and neither did May.

Awkward.

He got up and went to the windows, glancing out at the megalopolis of neon and sky cars. Higher in the skies heavy freight ships with spotlights and advertisements flashing in the night cruised overhead.

May got up and walked over to him.

“What are you thinking about?”

Looking at her, he said, “Just how we’re going to get to Strogaus. I don’t want you to be a slave to some indefinite security lockdown.”

“He doesn’t know my identity, Kyle.”

“I know, but if he finds out, he’s going to throw some heavy hitters your way.”

“And yours.”

“I’m not worried about that.”

He’s so sweet, she thought. She had to make sure not to laugh. “Only worried about me, huh?”

He shrugged. “I can handle myself. You on the other hand…”

She chuckled and hit him on the arm with the back of her hand. “Sure you can.”

Tuning, she left Kyle at the window, but before going too far, she glanced over her shoulder. “Allies put each other up, huh?”

Kyle turned around. “Yeah.”

“What about friends?”

With a subtle grin, he nodded. “Definitely.”

Smiling, she said, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Kyle.”

“Sure thing.”

She left him there.

Kyle watched her walk down the marble hall into the other section of their penthouse where her guestroom was at.

Feeling a deep tiredness in his muscles, he glanced up at his bedroom above the stairs to the left. There were no walls surrounding the marble spiral, and they had an excellent view of the city, along with the rest of his bedroom.

He trudged over to the kitchen and got another beer.

And purely out of curiosity—definitely not being a perv—he went over to the console and glanced at the buy orders and almost dropped his drink.

“No underwear?!”

Sighing, he nearly jumped out of his skin when Lexa suddenly said, “Kyle—that’s naughty of you.”

“Shit,” he said. “Lexa, are you spying on me?”

“No,” she said cheerfully. “Just watching out for the only other lady in the house.”

“Yeah right,” he said sarcastically. “I’d have seen this next time I ordered pizza anyway!”

She giggled.

“Go to sleep.”

“Okay.”

After she disappeared, Kyle sighed heavily. “Friends… Yeah, that’s not gonna to work.”