Sid thumbed the device in his pocket. ‘Look, I don’t know what it was he was trying to sell. Said he’d only tell you directly.’

  ‘That’s right about the time his men moved in to close the cage.’ Cavalier added.

  ‘So, here’s what I could salvage. He said it wasn’t a breaker, but that’s all I could get out of him before things before it went all waru.’ He withdrew the flash memory from his pocket and handed it off to Hyugin.

  ‘I’d would not be at all surprised it if it was empty.’ Hyugin mused.

  ‘Yeah, considering. I don’t think he’s the kind to be able to bullshit his way out of a situation like that.’

  ‘No.’ the raven replied, ‘and I think we will find no souls to morn his passing.’

  ‘Hope he wasn’t just a brutal dictator type’ Cavalier thought out loud. ‘Nature abhors a vacuum.’ Hyugin paused to consider the thought before stepping back to her elevator. ‘So who was it?’

  ‘Consortium’

  ‘Well, Fuck em. For one thing, you’ll have a few of my boys free of charge if you plan to give them some hurt.’

  ‘I’ll see if I can arrange an opportunity.’

  ‘See that you do. Remind those fuck-wits in their ivory towers just who we are. The elevator will go to the roof, if you’d like a call. There’s a box of burners in the back.’ The boss of the Murder Party held the door open before closing with ‘I’ve some of my own calls to make.’ Their guards departed with their boss. Guess the trust didn’t go as far as Sid had thought, which was all the same to him. That was the nature of the black, smiles hid lead and lasers as often as not.

  ‘Going to claim a mix-up? Depending on whats on it?’ Cavalier queried, grabbing one of the temp phones from a box of them.

  Pausing to let loose a long held sigh, his muscles shrank as he tried to let the tension flow out of him through his souls, finally turning to his partner to confirm ‘I’d rather keep as much of the ball in our court as I can. You always have to have leverage, every ounce counts, especially if you’re all alone out here.’

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  ‘Well. Not alone.’

  He pulled her into the elevator ‘Just til we do whatever this is we have to do in that consortium stronghold, assuming we even make it out.’

  ‘Throwing me to the curb?’

  ‘You’ve got no other reason.’ He turned his head just enough that he could meet her eyes out of the corner of his own. She turned more fully, her front facing him as she leaned against the elevator walls, during their long trip to the roof.

  ‘Well Mr. V, that’s one of the flaws in your thinking. I’ll even bet its come up once or twice before.’ her legs were locked, and she fanned her feet, rotating along her firmly planted heels ‘The issue is you think an awful lot about how you relate to others, your position. Have you spent more than a few seconds really on how you relate to me, from my position?’ Sid had to admit to himself that he hadn’t. He’d always had to be moving these last two days, making calls, thinking up moves, walking, bargaining, and no he really hadn’t thought about what he might be to Cavalier.

  ‘You’re not about to tell me you love me are you?’ A returned smirk and shake of her head came first.

  ‘If I were, would that be wrong? I get that you think I’m a relentless flirt. Ask yourself though, how do you think I wound up in that position? Tied up, waiting for execution.’

  ‘Well, you have skills, but you haven’t got the kind of know-how to navigate in the dark places.’ He tilted his head, a hint of annoyance creeping up in his raised eyebrows. ‘So you’re military or corp. Even corps won’t fuck with the military lightly, but it was a firm that probably handles no small volume of contracts so, maybe you’re an inconvenience that needed to die while examining a test fire, but this doesn’t smell like that. So Corp.’

  She smiled, but it was a kind of tired smile, the kind some one caught doing wrong, but knowing they’d just go back and do it again given the opportunity, a weariness etched into her features. ‘So? Keep going.’

  ‘Well, there’s really no way for me to really guess the details, so I’ll skip to where I think you want me to go.’ He turned to face her. ‘You want me to say, that since they were trying to kill you, you’re alone. And I’m your only friend.’

  ‘Bingo.’ she pointed finger guns, jerking it up like it had recoil her voice tightening as she continued ‘There’s some people who if I tried.’ she choked up, her eyes glistening, causing her to pause to recompose herself. ‘well they might try to help. But if they did.’ she let it trail off knowing Sid could finish the thought.

  ‘So I’m all you got.’

  ‘Well, for the moment we’re not dead, so long as that trend continues. You did promise Mr. O, after all.

  She half coughed out a laugh ‘I did’

  ‘And you have been my good luck charm.’ he took a step forward, taking one of her hands and giving it a gentle squeeze. ‘We can finish that conversation later though.’ they emerged on the rooftop, the wind howled and whistled around them. The two moved to the other side of the elevator to hide from it. The sight of the city filled their vision, the occasional dark tower covered in a multitude of bright neon lights, others awash their colors, distorted reflections danced across their glossy glass facades. Dark swirling cuts of highways broke up this neon sea, without a single light to mark them, traversed by endless automated trucks who needed no such thing.

  The wind whistled around them. They sheltered themselves as best they could, he placed an arm around her, giving her some small comfort. He was bracing himself, he didn’t expect this call to go well, at least without a lot of shouting. He’d figured some one would pick up? Cat, that would be some kind of terrible. Bullwinkle would make it take forever, but it would at least be pleasant. Spooner? No idea. Course, maybe they’d get fresh blood and this would take some level of explaining. Either way, Sid hated making phone calls.