Shade rode up to the Beaumont Towers on his motorcycle a few hours after his meeting with his boss. On the ride over, Shade did his best to steel himself against whatever he was about to face. He gave himself a motivational speech that involved cursing and growling. He had decided that he wasn’t going to take any of Vaughn’s shit and wondered if that would be easier said than done. Nonetheless, Shade made sure to grab an extra knife just in case he needed a way to fight off the goons that Vaughn was sure to have surrounding him. Shade always kept a pocket knife on him at all times but on more security conscious deliveries, pat downs were likely and his knife was always confiscated. When he felt it was necessary, Shade packed a second knife in a hidden pocket on his delivery pack that he always had slung across his chest.

Shade was given specific instructions on where to go once he arrived in the building. He was to use the set of elevators in the back of the building and had to take the third elevator on the left set of elevators which meant Shade had to press the ‘up’ button and wait for that specific elevator to open. He ended up calling every elevator down and his was the last door to open. He got on the elevator and pushed the button for the 21st floor. He already hated Vaughn for making him follow these rules. These weren’t rules, Shade thought, they were a game that Vaughn was playing, a power move. Shade could feel his heart beating a little faster and his face flushed red as he tightened his fist on the ride up. He began giving himself that same motivational speech in his head, this time with more cussing.

The elevator emitted a short, smooth tone when it finally reached its destination. The doors slid open and two large men appeared on the other side of the door. They were both a head taller and probably two and half times as wide as Shade. If he was going to fight his way out of this situation, he’d have to find a way to deal with these two beastly men. The man on the left motioned for Shade to follow. Shade’s hand had a slight shake as he went to pull out his mirror sunglasses from a pocket on his pack. Putting them on was a master class in not sticking yourself in the eye with your sunglasses as your hand shook. Shade wasn’t nervous but his nerves were on edge. He had motivated himself so much that he was ready to throw a punch at the drop of a hat and at that moment, Shade wished his boss hadn’t told him anything about Mr. Vaughn being an asshole. It was throwing him off of his normally calm demeanor and heightened his senses to a degree that even small noises made him flinch. Shade used the glasses as a way to not give away his emotions. That was bad for business.

Through a door at the end of a hall, Shade and his two massive escorts walked into a grey and white office of minimal design. A stylized map of Trinity was painted on the wall to his right and a glossy, grey desk stood in the middle of the room, a closed laptop lay in the middle. The chair behind the desk turned around to show a man with a haircut that squared off the top of his head. From what Shade could tell, this man was almost as big at the men that brought him into the room. Shade slowly started to fade from nerves to nervous as the prospect of fighting his way out of the room seemed like a lesson in futility, given the size of the people around him.

“Are you my Courier?” Vaughn asked. His voice was deep. He seemed to draw each word from a well of radio voices. He sat lazily slumped in his chair.

“Yes sir, Mr. Vaughn,” Shade replied quickly.

“You’re the one they call Shade?” Vaughn asked.

“Yes sir,” Shade replied again. Shade was ready with a snarky reply but he didn’t want to say anything to set him off.

“Good,” Vaughn said and he pointed at his men and then to Shade.

Vaughn’s goons moved in on Shade and patted him down. They confiscated his pocket knife just like he knew they would and went for his delivery pack. Shade pulled away from the one who reached for it. Vaughn sat up in his seat, a smile forming. Shade held out his hand and pulled the pack from his chest to behind his back.

“They want to know what’s in the bag. You don’t get to walk into my office without thoroughly being checked,” Vaughn said.

“The contents of my pack aren’t any of your business, Mr. Vaughn,” Shade backed up from the two guards. Shade could feel his face getting warmer.

“You’re in my office so that makes it my business.”

“You take my pack and we’re done here and you can find someone else to deliver your package,” Shade said.

“That’s not how this work-”

“This is exactly how this works,” Shade said and turned to walk out of the office door.

“Wait,” Vaughn called out.

One of the giant men put his hand on Shade’s shoulder and squeezed. He wouldn’t be using that shoulder for a few days, he thought. Before Shade had a chance to turn around, the goon’s hand twisted Shade’s shoulder, making him turn around or risk crushing said shoulder. Shade winced. So much for fighting my way out, Shade thought.

“Unfortunately, no one else can deliver my package,” Vaughn said, waving his hand. The guard released Shade’s shoulder. Shade rubbed it to make sure he still had feeling there.

“Why is that, Mr. Vaughn?” Shade asked, gritting through his teeth.

“You have some information that I would be willing to pay for.”

“That’s not what I do. I don’t deal in information,” Shade said.

“What if I made it worth your while?” The square-headed man asked with a smile creeping onto his face.

“No.”

“No money? So what, women? Men? Or maybe you’re into the virtual thing?”

“No,” Shade said, his voice shifting lower. Shade was running through the best way to access his hidden knife if it came to that.

“What if I told you, you would be helping put a very bad person in prison? Come on, not even a meeting place?”

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“No.”

With that answer, Vaughn lumbered around his desk and nearly came chest to chest with Shade. He was at least a head and a half taller than Shade. Shade thought of this as an advantage as all he had to do was make one swift motion up to Vaughn’s throat. He just had to make sure he could get to his knife as quickly as possible. Luckily, his bag was still open. For the first time in this short meeting, Shade felt confident that he had the upper hand and he was the only one who knew it. Shade took off his mirrored sunglasses as looked up to meet Vaughn’s eyes.

“And if I threaten you, Shade?”

Shade’s left hand grabbed Vaughn’s collar as his right hand pulled the knife from his pack. He flipped open the knife and held it hovering under Vaughn’s neck. Vaughn’s eyes grew wide as he drew a sharp breath. Vaughn’s guards stepped toward the two men. Shade looked over his shoulder and pushed to the blade so that it was making contact with Vaughn’s neck. Both guards stepped back, holding up their hands in surrender. Shade’s knife hand slightly trembled and a bead of sweat began to form at his hairline. Vaughn’s face changed from shocked to anger.

“You must be very stupid to threaten me, Courier,” Vaughn said through gritted teeth, careful to not move too much for fear of the knife piercing his skin.

“Maybe but if you threaten me or another Courier again, I will come back with a bigger knife,” Shade’s voice was now a growl. Shade was doing his best to keep his entire body from shaking. He didn’t like confrontation but it was the principle of the thing.

“Then would you mind delivering my package?” Vaughn slowly reached back to grab a small box on his desk and handed it to Shade.

“Where to?” Shade asked, keeping his knife to Vaughn’s throat.

“I assume you know Luther?”

As soon as Shade left the Beaumont Towers he broke into a full out sprint for his motorcycle. He wasn’t sure if Vaughn would send his goons after him but he didn’t want to wait around to find out. He wanted to put as much room between him and the powerful man whose throat he just threatened to slice open. Shade figured that probably didn’t happen to Vaughn very often. He just hoped he made his point and if not, he’d have to find a bigger knife and a way to hide it. Shade jumped on his bike and it roared to life when he put both hands on the handlebars. He tore off into the night.

Shade pulled the earpiece from his pack and popped it in his right ear and called Luther. He really didn’t want to see Luther because he made Shade’s skin crawl but he had a delivery to make. Luther confirmed his location and Shade took a left at the next traffic light. Luther wasn’t too far away so Shade would just enjoy the ride while he went over the events of his meeting with Vaughn. Vaughn didn’t seem like the kind of guy who ever heard the word “no” and that made him dangerous to people like Shade, to people with no access to enormous amounts of money and the access to the power that said money bought them. Two grey SUVs pulled up on either side of Shade, both containing one of the guards from Vaughns office and a few other menacing types. Shade rolled his eyes.

Shade pulled back on the throttle and rode in between two cars in front of him and then the next two after. A shrieking of rubber and a crunch of metal rose up behind him. Shade looked back to the two SUVs pushing the two cars he just split off the road; one car flipped and the other veered into oncoming traffic. Shade looked ahead and tried to make a plan but first he needed to get further ahead of the SUVs. He pulled the throttle again and the same shrieks and crunches kept flooding his ears. Shade began to weave around cars, hitting the breaks when one cut in front him to make a right turn. Shade veered left, cutting off two cars, and veered back to the right to hide in front of a delivery van while he tried to come up with an escape plan. He could hear his heart racing in his chest as he tried to calm his breath so he could see his next move. Honking and metal grinding on metal could still be heard in the distance but it was getting closer. Sirens joined the cacophony and Shade knew he had to come up with a plan sooner rather than later. The cops getting involved would only complicate his delivery if he ended up in their crosshairs. His earpiece chimed and Luther’s name appeared in Shade’s helmet visor. He tapped his ear.

“All that commotion wouldn’t happen to be you would it?”

“Commotion?” Shade asked, his voice cracked.

“I hear sirens and I think I heard an explosion, my dear Shade,” Luther said with some amount of concern in his voice.

“Explosion, no. Sirens, yes.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“The person sending you the package has sent a tail and they aren’t too happy that I’m trying to elude them,” Shade said, still out of breath as he tried to navigate the road in front of him. Shade took a right at the next cross street and nearly crashed into a man who looked like a sunburned cabana boy.

“The hell?”

“Who sent me the package?

“Vaughn? Mr. Vaughn,” Shade responded. He could hear Luther sigh.

“Shade, meet me at the alternate site, do you remember?”

“Got it. I’ll be there soon.”

The alternate site that Luther had set up with Shade was in an industrial district near the gulf. Shade guessed that Luther ran one of his shady businesses out of the area. Drugs and any sort of trafficking were probably easiest when you owned buildings right on the water. Shade didn’t know what Luther was into besides the rumors of running an underground hacking collective and didn’t want to know anything beyond the rumors he had heard. Luther took a liking to Shade and paid well. For Shade, that’s all that mattered.

The sounds of metal crushing metal started to fade as Shade wormed his motorcycle through neighborhoods at top speed, the engine on his motorcycle revving to a deafening roar. Normally he would have felt bad for tearing through a neighborhood at this rate of speed but he needed to put a lot more distance between him and the people coming after him. He also didn’t want to compromise Luther’s alternate meeting spot. It was much better than meeting him at his nightclub and going through the motions of getting through security there. By the time he found his way to the freeway he was confident he had lost Vaughn’s goons.

Shade arrived at the docks and went to the same place he met Luther the last time he had requested this site. Shade parked his bike and Luther stepped out of the shadows in what was a very dramatic, Luther thing to do. Shade pulled off his helmet, smiled, and then immediately regretted it because that would cause Luther to smile. Luther’s smile wasn’t so much a smile as much as it was a predator showing its teeth before pouncing on its prey.

“Shade, my favorite Courier! It’s been too long,” said Luther.

“Luther,” Shade acknowledged the tall, skinny man who held out his arms in his greeting.

“So what does Mr. Vaughn have for me? I hope it’s good,” Luther said as his eyes widened. Shade handed him the box and Luther opened it. Luther’s shoulders dropped and he looked back to Shade.

“You brought me a bomb, Shade. Is this how you treat a well loved client?”

“What?” Shade asked, as he pulled the box from Luther’s hands. He looked inside sure enough, there was a countdown clocking ticking away. Shade wondered if it was really a bomb.

“We have 15 seconds left to live. Why would you do this, Shade? We could have been great friends!”

Shade looked around and stuffed the package back into his pack. Shade took in a deep breath and wrapped the delivery pack’s straps tightly to the seat of his motorcycle. He revved the bike’s engine and set it to the self-drive function. Shade guessed he had about 5 or 6 seconds left and sent his bike at top speed off the pier. The motorcycle caught air and just as the front wheel hit the water the package, along with Shade’s beloved motorcycle and delivery pack exploded. Shade and Luther shielded their eyes from the explosion. Shade had worked hard to get that motorcycle after he had become a Courier and now, after 7 months, it was gone. He hadn’t even given it a name because he could never settle on one and right then Shade felt guilty for not giving it a name and not being able to mourn his teammate properly. Two arms clasped themselves around Shade and a kiss was firmly planted on the side of his head.

“Shade, my friend, I owe you for that one,” Luther said with a grin on his face. At least he wasn’t full on smiling, Shade thought.

“Yeah, well, I almost got you killed so it’s the least I could do.”

“No no no. I’ll deal with the bomb business later. Seriously, whatever you want, it’s yours,” Luther said, letting go of Shade. He placed an arm on his shoulder and leaned on him.

“Can you replace my bike and my bag?” Shade asked,

“Consider it done. You’ll have a new one by lunchtime tomorrow,” Luther said.

“Wait, really?”

“Lunch and a new motorcycle. It’s a date!” Luther said with cheer in his voice.

Luther kept his promise and he presented Shade with a new motorcycle and a new delivery pack at their lunch date. Everything was top of the line and the lunch wasn’t too bad either. Tales of Shade standing up to Vaughn quickly spread throughout the Couriers and the underground at large. Some people would even come up to Shade and ask if really stabbed Vaughn in the neck but he always shot that rumor down. It was bad enough that people knew about the confrontation in the first place. Shade didn’t want to be a celebrity as it would make being a Courier harder. He wouldn’t be able to blend in and move in and out of crowds and buildings without drawing eyes. His boss also kept his promise and started assigning the higher paying jobs to Shade and with Shade’s celebrity, everyone wanted him if they could get him. Year three was really looking up for Shade.