We stumbled, staggered, and wandered around the barriers, with Reign waving to us to wait a minute, before slipping around the back of the pipe.

We paused. I leaned my head around the corner, and jerked back as a shotgun loaded with fléchettes went off. The blast tore past me and into the roof, ricocheting deeper into the room.

“Now, now, Lucky, that’s not very friendly!”

“Fuck you, Kabutt!” Lucky hissed, and I grinned at the pain in his voice.

“You know, it sounds like you’re stuck,” I called back. “Maybe you and your friend should toss your guns out, and we can talk about your options…”

“I’ve called Oshbob!” he shouted. “He’s sending reinforcements!”

“He tried to place three calls,” Stinger said a second later on a direct call to me. “Two were to the same location, and the third was to ACE. He also tried to send a compressed datapacket. I intercepted all attempts.”

“Really?” I called to him. “You hear back from them?”

“They’re gonna be here any second…” he tried, and I snorted.

“I don’t think so. And just so you know? Calling fucking ACE, of all people? I mean, that’s low, dude. The compressed data file is interesting as well…”

Silence for a few seconds.

“What do you want, Kabutt?” Lucky called back grimly.

“What do any of us want, Lucky?” I replied philosophically. “A home, somewhere to call our own? Friends?”

“Fucking stop playing with me, you asshole! What do you want?”

“I want to renegotiate our partnership, Lucky,” I said. “I want a fuckload of credits, and I want an apology.”

“An…apology?” he hissed, his companion still silent.

“And the credits,” I replied. “You’ve cost me credits here, and frankly, you hurt my feelings. Credits first, then the apology.”

I gestured to the others and spoke in a low voice. “Search the bodies and get ready to move. Stay away from the far end of the room.”

I got nods, and while they started to move, I leaned on the pipe and the pile of debris from the fallen section of the roof, making sure I was close enough they could do nothing as I edged my rifle around the edge, connecting to it and watching the fucker as one of Lucky’s assholes tried to keep the big orc alive.

There was a section of the roof atop the end of the pipe that held Lucky down, and the big half-orc’s skin looked even greyer than normal thanks to the blood loss that I could see adding to the gradually spreading puddle by his side.

“So…” I watched Lucky trying to get free, and the ganger, a familiar and young ganger of indeterminate gender who glanced from him to the door in the distance as he pulled futilely. “Last chance for the creds,” I said.

“Fucking give me an account then!” they snarled, and I hesitated, before sending both them and Lucky my account with a knock.

“Throw the guns out!”

I’d not actually expected them to do anything, and their identity finally clicked with me, as they sent over…thirteen thousand credits and change. They’d been the one who’d looked down on me as I’d gotten off the lift that time a day or two back, and who apparently hated orcs, from what they’d said to Luna.

As it was?

“Calos!” Lucky snarled at them, and they sneered, before dragging Lucky’s shotgun free and tossing it aside where he couldn’t reach it.

“Sorry, hun, end of the road!” they said, before calling out to us. “Can I go?”

“Sure.” I shook my head at how fucking easily they’d betrayed Lucky, and the way they were trying to hide a gun down by their side. “One coming out, people.”

Calos was up and running in a flash, sprinting for the entrance they’d come by, and I spoke quickly, but not quick enough. “I wouldn’t go that…Ouch.”

They ran headlong into the remnants of the MADD grenade. Their scream barely started before they collapsed into minced shreds of flesh, bouncing and dicing themselves with their momentum.

“Damn.” I shrugged, turning back to Lucky and watching him through the scope. “Ah, well. Last chance, Lucky.”

“You killed them?” He panted in pain as he tried to pull himself free.

“They concealed a gun, then ran straight into a monomolecular wire. That was all on them.” I smiled. “Let’s face it, I think I’m being pretty patient here. Last chance, though, before I shoot you in the fucking face. Credits or bullets. Your choice.”

He finally saw the rifle and froze, then snarled and responded to the knock, with a grand total of twenty-seven credits.

I started to laugh, then stepped around the corner and pointed the gun at his face.

“Lucky, you sure as shit weren’t named for your brains, that’s obvious.”

“I spent it all!” he snarled. “I had to restock, to get people moving, to—”

I shot him in the knee, making him scream. He let go of the pipe, the weight settling even more, and he screamed again.

“Count to three, Lucky, and you might as well close your eyes.”

“No, wait! Look, I have more credits! They’re invested, that’s all, and…”

“One.”

“What the hell do you want!” he half screamed. “You want a fucking apology? Fine! I’m sorry! You happy now?!”

“Two.” I settled comfortably on the pipe, making him hiss in pain as I aimed at the bridge of his nose. “Close your eyes, Lucky. You don’t want to see this coming.”

“Fine!” he surrendered. “FINE! My apartment…it’s got everything in there, just…you need me, remember? You’re meeting Oshbob tomorrow, and he hates humans!”

I received a data code for access to his quarters as well as a locational marker.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I’ve got two half-orcs on my team,” I pointed out in a low purr. “They’re both prettier and smarter than you.”

“I…I…”

“Goodbye, Lucky,” I said conversationally, shifting to get more comfortable, before pulling the trigger.

The bullet hit Lucky above the nose, punching through the skull and out the far side in a spray of fluid, cranial gloop, and Lucky’s innermost personal thoughts.

“You’re not very honorable,” Stinger said after a few seconds, calling me directly again.

“I am, actually,” I corrected him. “What I’m not is very patient. That dickbag…” I gestured off toward the pile of shredded meat that had formerly been known as Calos. “Was damn rude to me on the other occasion we met, and despite being told to leave their weapons behind, tried to run with a gun.

“Lucky, on the other hand, had betrayed me already, and no offense, but you do that once, I’m not giving you a second chance to do it again. The fact the fucker had me tagged with a tracker and a fucking bomb? That’s not a ‘maybe’ he was planning on offing me later—that’s a ‘when.’”

“And now we come to our particular situation,” Stinger said, and I nodded.

“Very true.”

“What to do…” he mumbled, as if thinking aloud.

“Well, consider it carefully,” I said clearly. “You know what happens if you try to kill me, and frankly, I’m ready to EMP the shit outta you if I have to.”

“Now, now, Kabutt.” Stinger sighed. “There’s no need for that.”

“You’re considering betraying me…”

There was a sudden laugh, before the voice changed. “No, actually, dear boy, I’m not.” Stinger’s voice changed from the obviously synthesized amalgamation of voices to that of an older woman and settled there.

I hesitated for a second. “So, what are you considering?”

“Exactly as Reign suggested, actually,” Stinger said. The door at the end of the room opened smoothly, showing a small, older woman in smart body armor who gestured at us to come to her. “Deactivate the MADD, and get anything you need from their corpses, then come this way.”

I winced. “Deactivate…?”

“Send the code to the grenade,” she repeated, then sighed. “Save me from working with amateurs. Here, send this code to the grenade’s processor core.”

I received a complex code, and I squinted at the blur from the monomolecular wires, ordering my RI to scan for a processor core. It found a dozen, mainly remnants of people, but after a second, it’d narrowed it down to two, and I sent the code to both.

There was response from one, and a faint blurring of the air, followed by a gentle clang.

“You think the designer of the MADD wanted people to never be able to use the area again?” Stinger asked me, sounding disappointed. “All MADD grenades are set with a default activation and deactivation code. Sending the code results in either deployment or retraction, so be damn careful when you’re carrying one, and always change the code on it!”

“How?” I asked, confused.

“You bought it or looted it?” she asked.

“Looted.”

“That explains it.” She sighed. “Any proper sale comes with the activation, editing, and deactivation codes.”

“They’re banned, aren’t they?” I asked, and she snorted.

“Of course they are. You remember the mess those defective ones made, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah. So…?”

“Oh, lad.” Stinger snorted. “You’ve so much to learn yet. If you want to become a real bounty hunter and assassin, you’ve not even touched the surface yet!”

“You offering to teach us?” Reign asked, hopeful, and the older woman shook her head.

“Retirement time for me. But, you can still do nicely out of this, I think, provided you’re at least a little smarter than you act.”

“Me or her?” I asked.

“Definitely you.” Stinger snorted. “She’s plenty bright enough.”

“You’d be surprised.” Reign snickered, glancing at Luna and Gessh, who grinned at her.

“So, you want to loot those bodies or not?” Stinger asked, and Luna straightened.

“I’ll do the far end,” she said. “If she can switch the grenade off, she can probably switch them back on again, so you all stay back…”

We nodded, spreading out and looting as well, watching Luna as she demonstrated insane bravery, considering what we’d just seen. After a few seconds of clearing the stuff closest to us, she bit the bullet and walked straight into the middle of it all, feeling around and occasionally cursing over how messy it all was.

I turned back to Stinger, having looted the space around me quickly, taking only credit-chips, guns, ammo, and the occasional explosive, until I finally stood on something I couldn’t quite see. I grinned as I realized I’d found the fucker.

Squatting, I ran my hands over the still form, half rolling them until I could see the hole in the suit, that I’d blown through with the shotgun. The adaptive camouflage made the bloody mess of the body underneath twist and warp as I felt for the seams.

It was a camosuit.

I checked for the seals, finding them after half a minute of swearing, and running my fingers down the material, splitting the edge to reveal the idiot inside.

It was another of the women who had worked with Lucky, apparently unarmed. But remembering the blow she’d landed on me, denting the titanium of my helm and breaking bones through it? She’d clearly not needed the weapons. I rolled her out of it, seeing it had only a few minutes of charge left. I connected to it and shut it down, putting my prize in my bag for later.

Clearly this was why I’d only ever seen her once, and when I did, the other one, Irena, had been missing. I was betting the pair, as bodyguards, had taken turns wearing this fucker, ready to slaughter anyone who attacked the boss.

Sudden comments by Lucky, like when he was in my apartment, made a lot more sense when I considered there could have been a stealthed bodyguard there watching over him.

I stood again and moved back to stand by Stinger. “Is that possible?” I asked, the thought having rolled around my head as Luna looted the bodies. “To reactivate the grenades, I mean?”

“Yes and no.” Stinger shrugged. “The wires and anchors deploy using an explosive charge. No explosive, no deployment. When it’s unlocked, it is possible to tease the cables out, but dangerous.”

“You’ve done it?”

“Kabutt, I was acknowledged as a master assassin before you were born. Believe me, I’ve done almost everything.”

“So what now?” I moved over to stand closer, shaking my head as I recognized her as the stinky crazy lady I’d met on my first day. “And what the hell were you doing out in the entrance? I mean, any ganger could have attacked you at any minute.”

“It’d have been the last thing they did.” She snorted. “I’m far from defenseless, boy, and I like to see who enters and leaves my building.”

“Your—” I frowned. “You own the building?”

“Ha!” She snorted. “Gods, no, but I do have, shall we say, a vested interest in it. The lower floors are mine, and have been for many years. Others…?” She shrugged. “Perhaps I’ll send one of my people to replace the floor bosses you took out so happily. Or perhaps not.”

“So…” I looked at her expectantly, and she huffed.

Luna rejoined us, her arms full of gear that she quickly passed around. The rest of us packed shit into our bags, intending to check on them later.

“Fine.” She waved for us to follow, leading the way into the next corridor and down to a second ladder, then from there to a hatch, and finally…into a fucking luxurious apartment.

Looking around, I was stunned. It was easily ten times the size of mine, if not more, and the layout? It looked like something in a corpo vid, the ones where they tried to convince you if you were a good little drone, you could one day earn something like this.

It was bullshit, there was no way anyone not of the corps got something so sweet, but here?

“Goddamn,” I muttered, and saw several others standing around, each wearing masks. “Are they…?”

“They’re Stinger.”

“They’re…then who the fuck are you?” I asked.

She smiled. “I’m Stinger.”

“And they’re…?”

“Also Stinger.”

“Explain that please,” I asked softly, my mind racing.

“I’m a master assassin, but no assassin lives free, boy. We’re always hunted, we’re always on the edge, and the retirement package? Not the best,” she admitted. “So we decided some time ago that the best way to do this was to create a fictional identity. We were all assassins already, you understand. We’d reached about as high as it was possible to go, and we had some impressive bounties on our heads, but…”

“But we were tired of being hunted,” another voice, this time a man’s, rang out. “Every time we finished a job, no matter the scumbags we were removing from society, we were hunted by more and more. Their friends, family who refused to see what they’d been, their replacements who wanted to make sure they didn’t meet the same fate…all of them.”

“So we created Stinger,” another voice said from the side, and a young woman, judging by the long hair and elfin figure, replied, also hiding her face. “A master assassin from another city. Between us all, we could perform any hit we needed to easily, and our team gradually grew.”

“We went from a handful of assassins who were sick of the business, to ten in less than a year, and we rediscovered the joy of the challenge.” The old woman made us all tea, setting the cups before each of us.

I glanced at the tea suspiciously, and she laughed.

“Kabutt, if we wanted you dead, you’d be dead. There’s nothing dangerous in the tea. Drink up.” She took my cup and set her own before me, sipping from it and smiling.

I shrugged, knowing that she was damn well right. I took a drink of the goddamn tea, before regarding her as a faintly familiar taste registered on my tongue.

“That’s drugged,” I said softly, and she nodded.

“Yes, and you’re far too trusting,” she agreed with a little shake of her head.