As we entered the guild, the overcast sky darkening as we switched into the bright artificial lighting, it was much like it was yesterday, packed with hopefuls.

Dozens of people stood around, reading markers for jobs, filling out applications, trying to bargain with the staff and making it blatantly clear they had no clue what they were doing.

“Is it like this all the time?” I asked. “Seriously, I mean, they hang around, hoping to get picked for a random mission?”

“Yeah, but not just that,” she said. “They’re recon as well.”

“What?”

“If we get a report of a specter roaming, you know, somewhere it shouldn’t be, but it’s not confirmed? It goes on the board there.” She nodded to a much smaller and less comprehensive map compared to the one upstairs. “They can pick the location and go check it out. If they find it, and update the location with real-time tracking? They get a credit.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it,” she agreed. “That being said, there’s a dozen guilds that deal with specters, so these guys?” She nodded at the small group gathered around the board. “They’re spotters. Probably working in a team. They keep an eye on the board, send some street rat to confirm the location, and then they pass on the video feed. A single credit isn’t much, I know, but these are live, and they get updated and paid out on the hour, every hour. If you’ve got a spotter here, and a team working with them? They might earn a couple dozen credits an hour reporting and tracking.”

“Yeah, but then they pay the street kids and…?”

“It’s a shitty wage. But it’s a wage.”

“Fair enough.” I sighed, before frowning. “You think we could get them searching for decent mods?”

“What, then hit and loot for your friend?” She slowed her stride as she thought. “It’d probably work, yeah.”

“Want to bet we’re not the first to consider it?” I grunted, looking at the figures again, and she grimaced.

“Yeah, that makes sense, actually.” She nodded. “I always wondered why they’d keep doing it.”

“Still, if we could get to them first…?”

“Probably worth it, if we’re in that area to begin with. But unless we’re there? A single kill isn’t worth the effort.”

“True.”

We walked through the back doors, Reign nodding to the occasional desk worker she knew or merc, and we headed up to the main jobs board upstairs. I diverted as I saw Julius talking to someone in a side room.

“Go ahead,” I told Reign, nodding toward the board. “Pick us up something decent, and then we’ll go speak to the spotters, and try to find the girls.”

“What about a fifth for the team? Or a sixth?” she suggested.

“We could probably do with two. But I want people with military experience, or it’s not worth it, as well as decent gear.”

She winced. “Slim pickings out there.”

“Exactly. I’d rather do it with just us than needlessly get idiots killed.”

“Or let them fuck it up and get us killed,” she agreed, nodding. “Okay, I’ll check it out and see if there’s anything we can make use of, boss.”

With that, she was gone, and Julius nodded to me, finishing his conversation and heading over.

“Kabutt,” he greeted me, offering a fist.

“Julius,” I replied, bumping fists and looking around. “Anywhere we can talk?”

“In here.” He gestured to another room and led the way.

It was a bunkroom, small with a bed, and that was pretty much it, but when he swiped his hand across the door sensor, it closed and outside sound cut off.

“Privacy field,” he explained with a wry smile. “You try sleeping in one of these rooms without it…it won’t happen, believe me.”

“Good point.” I grunted, having not even thought about it. But with the sheer number of people moving back and forth, clattering up and down stairs, dealing with their gear and so on? It wouldn’t have been cheap, but it was worth it, I bet. “So, you wanted to talk to me?”

“Yeah.” Julius drew the word out. “So, first of all, again, sorry about Hobbs. From what I saw on the recordings, he did well. It was a plain shitty lucky shot that did him in. That grazer could have taken any of you. That it was him was just the luck of the draw.”

“It was,” I agreed, hating that it was true, but also glad it’d not been me. “By the time we got out of the undercity, it was too late to pay my respects. You said his family took him?”

“Mother and a sister.” He nodded. “They sent me some fantastic messages last night, screaming eternal vengeance and so on. Apparently, he’d not told them he was specter hunting. They thought he was a wall guard or some shit.”

“And it’s you who gets the blame?” I guessed.

“Every time.” He grunted. “Most wouldn’t even bother to contact them and tell them what happened, but for the extra effort? That’s what I get. Shoot the messenger.”

“Well, I appreciate it,” I said. “Look on the bright side. For me, there’s nobody to contact.”

“Well, hopefully that’ll change.” He sighed. “No man is an island, Kabutt. No point in living if there’s not someone there for you.”

“Whatever,” I said, not willing to elaborate on Richie and Sync. “So, anything else?”

“Yeah, two things. First, you did well. I watched the recordings, and yeah, I don’t mind about the datadeck and the grazer, but it’s a one-time thing. You pocket shit normally? You’ll be out, all right?”

“Right. That brings up a point, as you’ll be recording us. Mods.”

“What about them? Guns?”

“No. Specter mods,” I said, and he shook his head.

“Don’t do it, Kabutt,” he said seriously. “I know a guy who chipped one once. He’s a specter now, or he was the last I heard about him. Don’t risk using them.”

“I’m not. I owe a gang, and they want specter mods. I want to harvest them as I go.”

“They want them?” He looked disgusted. “Fuck, that’s all we need, more powerfully modded gangs…”

“Think of it as a natural cycle, if it helps,” I suggested. “We kill the specters, get the mods. I give the mods to the gangs; they chip the mods; they become specters, and we kill the specters. It’s that whole circle of life thing.”

“With innocents getting caught in the crossfire, no doubt.”

“I don’t think so. If anything? The more gangs that do this, the more it’ll convince people that being in a gang is bad for your health. Let’s face it, if all the gang leaders use the mods and we get paid to kill them? It’ll wipe a lot of the gangs out.”

“Or they’ll kill a load of innocents as they turn.” He shook his head. “That’s why you joined us?” he asked. “To harvest the specters?”

“Yeah. Normally I’d not admit to it, but you know, recording and all that.”

“Yeah,” he said slowly. “Look, I don’t like it, okay? But…look, your team…”

“Yeah?”

“How’d Reign do? And the girls?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“The sisters were fine. Little mad, happiest in the fight, but that’s the orc blood in them.”

“And Reign?”

“Any reason you’re asking?” I countered.

“She’s…she’s a friend, but she has a few issues.” He sighed. “I’m not going to betray her trust, but I need to look after my guild, so here’s the deal. You want to loot specter mods, you do it quiet, and you keep her in your team. She’s a damn good sniper, and she’s more or less stable, but—”

I nodded.

“But if she had nostrils atop her head, she’d still drown…she’s that deep in the shit with debt,” I finished for him.

“Yeah.”

“And don’t trust her with medikits.”

“Ah, fuck.”

“Yeah, I know,” I admitted. “I’ve agreed to give her a chance, and she gave me a medikit of hers last night, so I owe her for that. Actually, now that I think about it, dammit, I’d forgotten about it.”

“Well, you keep her.” He nodded as he leaned back on the bed, bracing himself against the wall and looking at me. “You’re all right with me. Harvest the mods, but don’t let anyone outside of the team know. And if it’s reported to me, we’ll have to reevaluate. I’ll probably have to order you to stop, publicly, so don’t bring them in here either.”

“You don’t see it, you don’t care.” I nodded. “Gotcha.”

“Exactly,” he agreed. “Well, it was Reign and the mission I needed to talk to you about, so yeah, we’re good here. I am sorry about the way it went sideways, and I’ve demanded compensation for those stupid fucks locking you out of the bio-farms as well…”

“Shit. I just remembered—the loot!”

“What loot?”

“Hobbs was carrying all the loot we’d gotten up until that point,” I explained. “It wasn’t much—a handful of guns, some random jewelry and some credit-chips, that kinda shit, a couple of trashed personal cyber-ware…”

“Two minutes.” He sighed, one eye lighting from the inside as he accessed something, then he was sub-vocalizing, before cursing and cutting the line off. “The cleanup crew claim it wasn’t there when they arrived. I’ve ordered the AI to review their recordings. It’s not something we generally do—the first team picks anything valuable, after all—but if they get the loot, I’ll make sure you get your share.”

“And if not?” I asked, fairly sure which shifty fucks had done away with our loot, right after locking us out.

“Then I’ll make a formal complaint to the client, demand the full value of everything we can prove was in the bag is paid to us, and you’ll get that instead.” He sighed. “It’ll take time, though, and until they pay it…

“You think they’ll pay it?” I asked disbelievingly.

“Oh, they will,” he assured me with a wry smile. “The bio-farms are shitholes, but they’re profitable ones. They’d have to reinvest massively to seal the lower floors away properly, as well as stop production for a few days. Or, they can pay us. Failing that? I was thinking we needed to get rid of a few contracts anyway, as busy as we are, so they’ll have to replace us with a new guild, and the others are as stretched as we are.”

“Fair enough.” I grunted. “Anything else?”

“Just an honest question,” he said after a few seconds. “Now we know why you’re with us, and that you’ll be harvesting as you go, I at least know why you’re stooping to specter hunting rather than anything else, so…”

“So?”

“Welcome to the team. And as much as I don’t like what you’re doing? I damn well need you, and it gets Reign back in the game, so thank you.”

“Thanks, Julius, and you’re welcome,” I replied sardonically. “So, any jobs in particular you got for me?”

“The jobs board is upstairs. Did Reign…?”

“She showed us.”

“Then that’s it.” He nodded. “Go pick your jobs and get to work. Do as many as you can.”

“Will do, mate.”

With that, the discussion was over, and I was back out in the hall, Julius moving on to look for someone else for whatever reason, and me looking for Reign and the girls.

I eventually found them in the ready room that I’d been taken to originally, and as I approached, they were arguing good-naturedly about the contracts.

“I still say the waterfront is the best,” Luna grumbled, as Gessh sighed and shook her head.

“No chance. Industrial all the way.”

“What’s that?” I slid into a seat next to them.

“Luna wants to hit the sightings along the waterfront, specifically the pleasure beach at Rodman’s Throat.” Reign sighed. “Gessh, on the other hand, wants to hit the industrial zones, as there’s a lot more confirmed sightings down there.”

“So why the beach?” I asked Luna.

“Because it’s a beach,” she explained. “Clean sand, water, all that shit.”

“It’s supposed to piss down all day,” I pointed out as a distant rumble of thunder rang out, and I winced. “And there’s a storm incoming.”

“Beach still,” Luna said quickly, and I looked at her in confusion.

“It’s going to be pissing down,” I repeated.

“With rain,” she said, slowly and clearly. “We go into the tunnels? They’ll be filled with the same rain, but there’s also the wonders of floating shit, literal piss, and more. Given the choice, I’d rather have rain on my body than…”

“Yeah, baby,” Reign muttered in a low voice, and Gessh snorted a laugh.

“Fuck’s sake!” Luna barked a laugh as well before shrugging. “Hey, I’m game for that too. We could just get a room and work tomorrow. That was a good payday, after all. And after a few drinks, maybe a club or two…?” She bounced her eyebrows suggestively, and I grinned at her.

“Appreciate the offer,” I said into the pregnant silence. “But unlike you lazy fuckers, I need to earn some creds. Gessh? Why the industrial zones?”

“There’s a reasonable amount of sightings near a memory farm, probably high-tech enough it’s drawing them, without it earning enough that it’s able to afford gear to slaughter them all. We’re talking hundreds of people sitting there all day getting mind fucked, and drawing the specters. Not only are we killing specters, we’re protecting people.”

“I didn’t know you were so sensitive.” Reign frowned at Gessh.

“We spent long enough working in places like that.” Gessh glared at Luna. “And unlike some, I remember how fucking terrifying it was when you knew that specters might be nearby. Counting your mods and comparing them to others nearby, hoping that if a specter found its way in, they’d draw it instead of you…”

“I remember.” Luna hung her head. “I just don’t want anything to do with the fucking places, all right? Too many memories.”

“Then it’s time we got some good fucking memories of them in their place!” Gessh snapped. “Think about it! There’s bound to be some of those asshole ‘security’ guards around! If we catch them being dicks? We can cut them off!”

“Cut them off?” I asked.

“Their dicks.” Luna nodded. “Seriously, you don’t want to know what happens in those places.”

“I really don’t,” I agreed, wincing.

“I’ve heard,” Reign said. “Okay, look, how about we check the specters that have been seen there. If there’s a decent amount? We hit them, then go onto the next?”

“See if we can hit a few places?” Luna suggested. “Get the memory farm done fast and move on, maybe hit a handful of places?”

“Definitely.” I nodded. “And, uh…” I looked around, noting the others in the room, and sent a message to the team instead.

Julius said as long as we’re not caught, we can harvest the specters. He doesn’t care. If we’re caught? We stop or we’re out of the guild, I think…

The others read the message and nodded, smiles lighting their faces.

“So,” I said aloud. “We do this, hit as many places as we can, then we dispose of any loot, less the guild fees of course, and later?”

“Yeah?” Reign asked, hesitantly.

“I’ve got a private job,” I said, looking around. “It doesn’t pay, okay? And we don’t get to take the salvage unless it’s a mod we can use or a gun we need. The…stock? Well, the stuff at the target is to be left behind, but…there might be some decent mods and some decent guns for loot, and it’d be gangers, not specters.”

“You want us to help?” Luna asked slowly.

“I helped him out last night,” Reign said, winking to her. “It was well worth it.”

“Yeah…” I sighed. “Fuck’s sake, Reign, you’re just so subtle, but go on, tell them what happened.”

“Well, after I got back to his place…” she started, leaning forward as if to tell some deep dark secret, before dropping her voice and sending a message to us all, even as she started spinning aloud some bullshit about sex that nearly broke the apartment block.

We didn’t fuck or anything like that. That’s just to confuse anyone listening. I followed Kabutt, and he got into a fight. The target he had? She had bounties on her already. I’ll help you register with the bounty guilds, and we share any bounty, getting Kabutt’s jobs done.

“So yeah, I think that’s enough spilling my secrets!” I said loudly, red-faced for real as she described the things I could do with my tongue. “Fuck’s sake, Reign!”

“Hey, skill like that deserves to be praised.” She grinned. “I knew you were the team lead for me when you winked at me and licked your eyebrows!”

I told you about some guys not taking no for an answer? One of them is in this room. The sex story was more to fuck him off than anything else, so don’t get your hopes up.

I read the message, knowing it was sent to me only, and I slowly looked around the room, seeing a half dozen guys pretending not to be listening, and three of them staring at me.

None of them looked happy. That could be because I was new, because Reign was attractive, because she was waxing lyrical about me being able to “fuck her through the headboard” or even just over how utterly unprofessional all of it was.

When Luna asked if she could have a go next, and Gessh joined in loudly saying that she wanted a go, too? The looks I was getting were fucking terrible.

No matter whether any of these guys had a history with Reign or not—right now, I was getting eye-fucked…and not in a good way.

I coughed and said something about “Later” and “If you impress me” before dropping my voice.

“Fuck’s sake, you lot!” I snapped. “Professionalism!”

“Oh, bless him!” Luna sniggered. “He’s such a pretty shade of red!”

“You do blush well,” Gessh agreed. “Virgin?”

“Are you seriously asking me that?” I groaned.

“Well, you know, a little joke about sex and you’re blushing this much?” Luna shook her head. “Wait, have you actually seen a real boob before? Do I get a bonus if I give you a little look…?”

“I’m not saying what I’d do for a decent slice of the bounty,” Gessh said in a low voice, “but it rhymes with ‘duck’ and…”

“Is it really too late to trade you all in for a new team?” I hissed, before standing and shaking my head. “Enough. Come on!” I strode toward the exit, head spinning and cheeks flaming.

The laughter that followed made me sigh as I led the way out of the room. The four of us slid through the mass of people as I moved toward the door.

“Wait up,” Reign said quickly, holding a hand up. “Sorry, seriously, guys, but I need some ammo and new gloves, so give me a few minutes, okay?”

“Fuck,” I growled, before nodding. “I need grenades and a helmet, as well as more ammo.” I followed her to the back of the building, and through the doors again, this time headed to the catalog for the armory.

Linking to it with my Keystone, I sighed. I’d not trusted myself to have a little look last night, not properly. I’d looked for just those clothes, and the bits I’d needed to fix the shotgun.

Now, though?

Now I started to search for some new toys, as well as ammo for the nice HK-TT slug thrower I’d liberated from the bodyguard this morning, and that now hung on my hip.