FOUR

Thor's Shieldhall, Solaris VII,
Freedom Theater, Lyran Alliance,
July 27, 3062

When I beat 'Fist' Difalco, I thought I just beat a timey, a warrior past his prime who wandered from blood pit to blood pit, shoveling money from rookies and newcomers. When Difalco made a threat, I thought it a threat in the arena. Little did I know that Difalco was a much larger player than a timey.

I was sitting alone at Thor's Shieldhall, enjoying a quiet afternoon when 4 men entered the bar. They dressed up like mechwarriors, and they took the table next to mine. They did not seem to be interested in food or drink, and they sent Emi away curtly when she tried to take their orders. I smelt something inapt about their presence, so I called on Emi, pretending that I was ordering another drink.

"Have you seen them before?" I whispered.

"No," she was still shaking by the rude treatment of the strangers.

"Here is what I need you to do," I slipped some c-bills into Emi's hand. "Call the police, call the security, and hide behind the counter. Do not – I repeat, do not come here again until they are gone. I feel something bad will happen. Now go and pretend you are getting me my order."

"But what about you?" she whispered back.

"Never mind me." I pushed her gently, then spoke in a rather loud voice, "Another beer, please, and bring it faster this time. You do not want your tip to be cut in half, do you?"

She got up and smiled, speaking in a distinct but edgy voice, "Your beer's coming right up, Sir."

As Emi walked behind the counter, I tried to look to other direction, but kept monitoring their movement from the corner of my eyes. As soon as Emi disappeared behind the counter, two of the strangers got up and quickly moved in on me, one from the left, and the other from the right. They took the seat and pulled up pocket knives, shoving the tip onto my ribs.

"Get up," one of them hushed in a hoarse voice.

"What is it that you want from me?" I tried to resist. "Can we just talk like civilized people?"

"Get up, or you'll be chocking on your own innards!" the other one pushed the knife harder.

"My wallet is in my rear pocket," I followed their order, but still tried to buy time. "Take anything you want, but just leave me my ID card."

"Shut up! Shut up you sonofabitch!" the first heaved my collar. "You don't know who you're messing with! Now walk to the door! One false move and you're dead!"

I had no choice. The gravity in his voice told me that they meant every word. The other two got up and followed us closely. I walked between tables, watching Emi poking her head from behind the counter. I knew she was trying to help me, but she was smart not to take everything into her own hands. I could only hope she called the police and security guards, just like I asked. Other customers looked at us, and then returned to their own problem.

I was still clueless of what these guys wanted from me.

Coming at the door, the other two guys walked past us and opened the door, but Kyle Garret stood there as if he had been waiting for them. Before they could even blink, Kyle's elbow flew past my face and drilled the guy on my left, right on the bridge. The guy's head twisted back as his body swayed like a timber. He crashed on top of a table, taking down with him beer bottles of 5 mechwarriors that had been thrashing out a particular event in the arena.

"What the hell?" they ranted. Two of them lunged at Kyle but Kyle shoved the other thug that came for me. The guy rammed the mechwarriors, and he got up to knuckle Kyle but the mechwarriors held his arms and punched him in the face. The thug lost his balance and slumped on another table, which brought more mechwarriors into the fray. It was like a chain reaction. If somebody fell on a table, all the mechwarriors on that table rose and started punching with no particular target.

Now mechwarriors fought each other, with the thugs trapped somewhere in the middle. Each one punched the closest person next to him, which in turn punched him back or found somebody else to punch. Then security guards came in, but it was too late to establish order. They tried to subdue the mechwarriors, but instead getting punched from every direction. They defended themselves by doing exactly what every body else did: punched somebody next to them.

I stood there idle, watching the solemn bar erupted into a brawl feast. Somehow I felt that Kyle had this planned. The way he was waiting at the door, the way he picked the closest thug to a table, all led me to a conclusion that he knew what happened in the bar. How? Did Emi called him? It was unlikely, because I knew Emi would call the police before he called on Kyle.

But I had no time for a thorough guessing. One thug was still on my right, shoving his pocket knife at my side. I grabbed his hand, yanked it forward then pushed it down as hard as I could. An agonizing groan reverberated from his lips, coupled by a horror look in his face, as his own pocket knife sank into the flesh of his thigh. I grabbed his collar and cocked my left arm, then hurled my fist into his face. He jerked his head behind before teetering on his heels. Once again I hit him in the face, and he crashed to the floor.

I was ready to grab him, but two wrestling mechwarriors tumbled upon me, bringing me down under their weight. I crawled back up, but they were really at it, and once again pinned me against the wall. I pushed them away and got up, but yet another one came and punched me in the face. I had never met him before, and I was sure he did not know me either. But he did punch me, and punched me hard. Why? I did not know. Perhaps it was just the way it was around here.

I lost my vision for a split second when his fist blasted my temple. I reached for the wall to regain consciousness, but the one that punched me had grabbed an empty beer bottle and swung it toward me. I flinched, and the bottle exploded on the wall. He still got the sharp edge, and he tried to shove it at me. As much as I was confused about this meaningless brawl, I did not want to be taken victim of the bottle. I slapped his hand, and when his momentum brought him close, I jammed my knee into his midst. He keeled over in pain, and I sank my elbow onto his shoulder blade. He tumbled.

Fighting drunken men was more dangerous than fighting sober ones. A particular mechwarrior, a big hunky man, broke a leg of a chair and used the leg as a cudgel. He swung it hard and cracked the skull of another mechwarrior. As the smaller mechwarrior went down, the big man lunged at me, swinging his 'bat' like a Hatchetman looking for a kill. I thought they were just fighting, but now things were getting out of hand. One strike of that club would send me to an infirmary. As the big man swung, I ducked and sent my fist into his juncture, just between his legs. It was a dirty shot, but I did not know the meaning of this brawl anyway, so I might as well do it. The big man hunched over, his eyes widened as his mouth agape, whimpering like a little girl. I sent him crashing to the ground with just a little nudge on his shoulder.

Clearing the big man, I went back to the place I last saw the thug that I stabbed, but he was gone, leaving only a trail of blood on the floor. So were his companions. Suddenly cops scrambled into the bar and started pushing people around. Some mechwarriors resisted, and the cops used their batons to pin them on the ground, rendering them motionless. I raised my hands when they came to me, and they just pushed me to the wall, asking me to stand still. Some minutes later, paramedics stormed into the bar, giving health aid to those who were knocked out during the brawl. Funny thing, though, nobody came and apprehended Kyle. He stood there while cops flooded the bar, restoring order by breaking up the fights and pushing people against the wall.

Who was this man? Was he with the cops? Emi called the cops, that much I was certain. But how did Kyle come here earlier? Why nobody touched him, despite the fact that he drew first blood? I started to see that Kyle's presence at Solaris had something to do with the cops.

Then two more characters entered the bar, Natalie and a middle-aged man, clearly the leader of the cops. Kyle went on to talk with the man while Natalie summoned me, giving me gesture to come up to meet them. The cops gave way, so I followed her call until I was close to Kyle and the cop leader.

"Captain Morton, SCPD, Black Hills sector," the man introduced himself. "We got a distress call from the waitress that you were being abducted by unknown mobs. What did they want from you?"

"Honestly, I do not know," I replied. "They just asked me to get up and follow their direction. I said they could get my wallet, but they did not take it."

"Do you know any them? Did you begrudge somebody?"

"No, as far as I know, no."

"They might be the Grey Wolves," Kyle interjected. "Parker smoked 'Fist' Difalco two days ago."

"Ah, there," Captain Morton smirked. "You're just messing with the wrong people then, son."

"What are Grey Wolves?" I muttered.

"I'll take it from here, Morton," Kyle responded, pointing the trail of blood that headed toward the door. "Parker stabbed one. If he's not dead losing blood, he's on a nearby hospital. I think you should trail him."

"You bet," Morton hailed his lieutenants. "Ali, take charge here. Hills, get your men. We'll follow the blood. And Garret, always a pleasure."

"Of course," Kyle made a simple salute, which Morton returned in a flash. He looked at me, realizing that I could kill if I did not get proper explanation, then hailed one of the paramedics to take care of me. "This one needs a little attention."

I did not realize that I had a swelling on my left temple. The mechwarrior that decked me earlier sure knew how to deliver a punch. The paramedic put a bag of ice on my temple, and it felt as if it was burning. But a minute later, my temple became numb. He then put some medicine and wrapped my head with a bandage.

"You owe me a lot of explanation," I said to Kyle while the paramedic was done with my head. "But first, what are Grey Wolves?"

"Grey Wolves are one of the syndicates in Solaris," Kyle explained. "Game syndicates. They have arms like squids that penetrated deep into the game infrastructures. They have the necessary tools to fix matches, bribing juries and referees, and even fixing the result. Their target is the gambling business. Sabotaging a match was not uncommon in their operation, so certain mechwarrior would win the match. This way, they can milk the advantage of betting.

"The Grey Wolves, in particular, have a close bound to the Capellans. Their area of operation is Cathay, where there were a lot of Capellan loyalists putting their money on Capellan-backed players. But recently, the Grey Wolves had been damaging Davion loyalists. I think this act is influenced by Tikonov and St. Ives Compact."

"God, I hate Capellans!" Natalie sighed.

"What did they want from me?" I mused. "I have no connection to any Successor State."

"Fist Difalco is one of Grey Wolves' frontrunner in light circuit," Kyle replied. "He is past his prime, and he's not getting any younger. People started to overlook him, and that's where the Grey Wolves get their hands dirty. They must have fixed the betting, but they were not considering you as a threat. You beat him, thus ruining their betting plans. So my guess your attackers were Grey Wolves, but we can't be sure until Morton gets a solid proof."

"How're you connected to Captain Morton? Are you a cop?"

"No, I'm never a cop," Kyle shook his head. "I didn't know Morton before I came here. I'm a Davion soldier, serving with the 160th Davion Guards, known as the Shooting Stars. Evee must've told you about me and my unit. We fought together at Carver V."

Again, him mentioning Evee made my head spin with rage. I did not know how his fiancée put up with him. It seemed that he mentioned a lot about Evee, some even in front of his fiancée. My heart started pounding, and my blood sped through my veins. Suddenly I had the urge to launch my fist at his face, but I knew doing that would only complicate things.

"If you are a Davion soldier, why are you here," I snapped with inadvertent hostility. "You have a fight to win against the Steiner, do you not? Why are you playing games instead?"

Kyle looked at me with all intention to bury me under his wrath, but instead he restrained with excellent self-control. His willpower put me to absolute shame. I was the one who should excel in self-control. I was a Wolf Clan mechwarrior! I was trained to put my logic above my emotion. But somewhat my restraint crumbled whenever Kyle mentioned Evee or Carver V.

What was wrong with me?

"After Carver V, my unit was stationed at Tecumseh, Kathil PDZ," Kyle replied, obviously opted for the more civilized approach, but his gaze told me that my comment was not ignored. "Katrina Steiner decided to take the planet as a stepping-stone toward Kathil. Her target was Kathil's mech factory complex. She sent the Sword Crushers under 'The Butcher' to set up a base for LAAF. While my Shooting Stars disposed the Sword Crushers, I was locked in a duel with The Butcher in a Fafnir. I thought I had him, but I was wrong. The monster took my best hits, then returned fire in a vengeance. I was forced to eject, and if it wasn't because of my lance mates, I would've been squashed under the Fafnir's feet.

"Although the Sword Crushers had been destroyed and The Butcher had managed to flee off world, I was not happy with my performance. I thought Solaris was the place to improve my skill. So I assigned one of my lancemates to take care of my unit while I went here with Natalie. I was lucky that the O'Bannon Sisters heard about me, so they invited me to work for Gemini Stable. And it happened that some of the mechwarriors at Gemini Stable had been victimized by Grey Wolves' shenanigans, and the sisters worked closely with Captain Morton. I volunteered to be the frontrunner for their cooperation. So that's how I know Captain Morton.

"I realize, by your reputation, sooner or later you'll cross path with the Grey Wolves, so I asked Morton to look out for you. When the waitress called the cops, Morton told me that you're in trouble. I heard about you and 'Fist' Difalco, and I knew this would happen. Then I set up an ambush. But Morton was late, so I had to take care of the Grey Wolves alone."

So that was how he looked prepared. Still, I was unhappy with the entire situation. "Does that mean you are using me as a bait to lure the Grey Wolves out?"

"I thought about that," Kyle leaned back. "But I couldn't. You're Evee's heart. Although you are not together anymore, I can't do it because of her. See, Parker," he paused, clearing his throat. "If I wanted those Grey Wolves, I should've gotten them arrested already. But my sole objective was to get you out unharmed. That's why I summoned the bar fight because I couldn't fight 4 thugs without you getting hurt."

As mad as I was at him, I felt moved. He barely knew me, and I already made a nasty impression out of myself. I came out as a grumpy ass. Yet he decided to assist me, out of his respect for Evee. That was righteous, something that I need to take note, that there were freeborns with noble quality like this man.

But then, how did I know that he was telling the truth? How did I know that it was respect for Evee that drove him, not lust or passion? He talked a lot about Evee and Carver V, and it was easy to see that he had something more than just respect for Evee. She told me about him, that he helped her through tough times, and that they became close friends ever since. Perhaps Evee did not tell me the whole story. Perhaps something else happened at Carver V that bound them close.

But considering the situation, it was unwise to pursue this matter at this moment.

"I am grateful for what you did for me," I said. "Pardon me for all my bad manner. I wish we met at kindlier situation."

"Yeah… you've been in rough times," Natalie responded. "No heart feelings, but remember that your attitude can be the death of you. Some people hate grouches."

"I will keep it in mind," I nodded.

"Just watch your back," Kyle added. "You're on their crosshair. They'll try it again, that much I'm sure."