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ASHES
to
ASHES
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"This is absolutely ridiculous," Akela declared, speaking mostly to himself. He sighed, running a hand through a collection of tangled grey curls. "The police are cracking down in the business at now of all times. Where were they twenty years ago, when we actually needed them?"
Raksha stayed silent, combing through the mission reports with monotonous ease. The situation had already reached the point where even former enemy gangs were now willing to collaborate and join hands in order to simply stay in business, which worried her greatly. If there was a war against the police, Canis Lupus would no doubt get caught in the middle of the crossfire.
"We have the monthly summit approaching," Akela said, sounding unenthusiastic. "Looks like we are the ones in charge of hosting this time. All those gangs at once, in our territory. Nothing but a disaster practically begging to happen. Remember what happened to the GAZ-Ls the last time it was on their land?"
Raksha hid a cringe. She remembered hiding behind a partially demolished wall as a lower ranked GAZ-L was brutally dismembered by some particularly vindictive members of the Civet gang.
"I'm sure it will not be as bad as it sounds," she suggested, trying to sound as reasonable as she could. "We have Bagheera on our side. There's no gang that's willing to go against him." Suddenly, she felt guilty for casting the man out of their territory earlier for such a trivial matter. She would have to make it up to him somehow, later.
"Yes, but..." Akela paused, as though he had thought of something. "Well, I do hope you're right." He didn't say anything else, his attention once again concentrated on his desktop computer.
Raksha frowned, but made no efforts to press him for an answer; what Akela wished to remain silent about was not her jurisdiction. She just hoped that whatever it was, it truly something that would not come to bite them later.
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