Chapter Seven
"I swear, this time he's actually gone." Chow Mein said, coming down from Doc's loft.
"Son of a bitch, man." Emily snapped, inserting bullets into a clip. "What happened? Does he suddenly have no use for money?"
"Got me." Bubba said, sitting across from Emily at the dining room table. It was heaped with weapons and ammunition. "I guess Fletch will do for tonight. Besides, Sparky took off, too. Took Baby with him, so that means he's out clubbing and collecting cigarettes."
"So seriously, 'Stance." Mystique said, looking over the end of the couch. "This Fletch guy gonna do okay?"
"Yeah, I think so. He's a fairly competent magician. Nothin' like Doc's patented 'Hole Maker', but rather, uh, quiet magic."
"Quiet magic? That shit gets people killed." Mystique said, turning back around.
"No, it keeps us from getting caught." Bubba said. "You never had the fortune to work with Doc before he started smoking, did you?"
"No. Why?"
"He did some wiz stuff back then. Body count for an entire year could be counted on one hand. That's the true definition of our occupation."
"The true definition of our occupation is the power of a sawed-off Remington at yer hip!" Chow Mein shouted from the kitchen from over a pot of ramen noodles. "Am I gonna have time to eat this?" Bubba looked up at the clock in the kitchen.
"Uh, nope. Two minute warning, fellas. Get it together." Chow Mein, Mystique, Bubba and Emily started loading guns and tucking them away in their clothes. Emily and Bubba only took a pair of guns each, while the brothers packed away enough weapons and clips of ammunition to open a gun shop.
"Wake up Nocturne. I'll get Fletch." Emily said. Emily walked to the garage and to the car. She opened the door and shook Felix's shoulder slightly.
"Hey, you awake?" She said softly. Felix inhaled sharply, looking around in surprise. Then he stretched and nodded his head.
"Yeah." Felix yawned. "What time is it?"
"Ten 'til two." Emily said. "Hey, scoot over." Felix slid over to the other end of the back seat as Emily got in. "So, you sure you wanna go along with us?"
"Sure. Doesn't seem like anything big." Felix said. "Should be okay."
"Well, it could get pretty intense. I just wanted to warn you. If you stick close to one of us, you'll be okay." Emily said. Felix smiled slightly.
"You're showing an awful lot of concern. Something you're not telling me?" Felix cocked an eyebrow and smirked.
"Oh, I can't take it anymore!" Emily exclaimed. She suddenly slid across the span of the back seat and jumped on top of Felix. "I'm desperately in love with you! I want you! Take me!" She moaned in ecstasy two inches from his face, grabbing his jacket. Felix's heart raced. His only thought was how his pants were getting uncomfortably tight.
"Uh, um… I…" Felix gibbered. Emily let go and sat back down.
"Don't believe anything anyone says." Emily said. "You'll survive much longer." Felix gibbered a little more.
"Uh, okay." Felix said.
"And don't get a hard-on for anyone who suddenly does that. You'll survive much longer."
"I don't get that excited like that all the time." Felix said, straightening out his pants and jacket.
"Oh, just over me?" Emily said. Felix started to turn red.
"Uh, well…" Felix said, looking around, trying not to make eye contact. As he looked behind him, the sight of Bubba crossing his eyes and pressing his face up against the window startled him. Felix turned two shades of red deeper.
"You ready?" Bubba asked, laughing.
"Yeah. Let's go." Felix said, his cheeks burning. Everyone piled into the car and drove off into the street lamp lit night.
"Okay, here's the plan." Bubba started. "Fletch and Nocturne will sit on a lower floor and keep watch. Mystique will sit one floor higher and blast anything that Fletch and Nocturne tell 'em to. I'll be with Circumstance and Chow Mein. They'll look for the memo, and, if he's even there at this ungodly hour, I'll beat the CEO around a little bit. If something goes down, everyone make to the top floor. They don't send helicopters out to Bellvue, so we can regroup on the roof. Questions?"
"Can I get a burger?" Mystique asked, lying back with a cable in his eye.
"No. Think about work." Bubba said. "Fletch, still have that pistol?"
"Yeah."
"Don't use it until I tell you to. You two are going to be playing look out, so I doubt you'll be the frontal assault also."
"Fourteenth and Olympia coming up, you bitches." Mystique announced. He cut off the headlights and slowly approached the intersection. Everyone looked at the building.
"Oh, no." Nocturne said. "There's some serious trouble."
"Say what?" Bubba asked.
"I count ten jazzed animals on the ground floor."
"She-it!" Chow Mein and Mystique exclaimed in unison.
"What?" Felix asked, confused.
"Some sick individuals will perform procedures on these poor animals. Install wired reflexes and replace muscles with synthetic garbage." Mystique answered, still staring at the building. "Makes a very nasty, very dangerous, and very hard to kill animal."
"They can do that?" Felix asked in disbelief.
"They have been for a few years now. But since they're an awfully expensive luxury, not many are around to talk about." Bubba explained.
"Sounds like they'll eat you alive." Felix said.
"You don't know how correct that statement is." Bubba said. "These animals are trained to do as much damage as possible without killing. Keeps the company from facing any legal trouble, and keeps the individual alive for the company brass to talk to. Then they kill the poor bastard."
"But, at least they're not that smart. All them chemicals have dumbed them down a bit. Heard you could do invisibility, Fletch."
"Yes."
"Good. We have to go through the first floor to get to the rest of the floors. You cover us and we should be able to get in okay." Bubba said. Mystique drove into the underground parking garage and parked close to a flight of stairs. Everyone got out and hiked up to a metal door and a maglock.
"Okay, Mysty. Get to work. Fletch, get us covered." Bubba said. Mystique bent down slightly, removed a small tool out of his backpack and started to break into the maglock. Felix closed his eyes and concentrated on covering the entire group.
"Shit, I hate doing this when I can't see my hands." Mystique grumbled. Felix opened his eyes to see nothing but the wall.
"Can you do it?" Felix asked.
"Oh hell yeah. Few more seconds." Mystique's voice answered. The casing of the maglock floated in midair and wires appeared to move around by themselves. A red wire touched a black wire and a sharp click came from the door. Someone pushed it open.
"Okay, get to the elevator quickly." Bubba whispered. After Felix heard everyone leave the corridor, he stepped out. His first sight of the lobby was the dogs. In the dim light made them look almost normal, but the dull reflections of metal on random places along the dogs' bodies revealed their true nature. Most were asleep and lying on the floor, breathing in short, sharp pants. Two paced along the window in jerky, spastic motions. Felix tiptoed along, praying he wouldn't make any noise. The entire group reached the elevator without alerting the animals.
"Okay, you guys slide in quickly." Bubba whispered. The doors of the elevator widened slowly. Felix pushed in over someone else and got inside. Bubba grunted trying to pull the doors apart.
"We're in, dude. You do the same." Chow Mein whispered. With one final exertion, Bubba pushed the doors open far enough to squeeze in. When he got inside, the doors crept closed again.
"Okay, Fletch. Drop it." Bubba said. Felix let go of his spell, turning everyone visible again. Bubba punched the third floor button. Almost immediately after he pushed it, low, angry growls came from outside. As the elevator kicked into motion, the dogs started to bark and run for the door. Suddenly, four dents popped into the elevator door, startling everyone inside. The elevator continued upwards while the dogs scratched at the outside walls.
"Hard headed sons of bitches, ain't they?" Mystique said nervously. The elevator jerked to a stop and opened it's doors to a floor full of desks and cubicles.
"Our stop, dear." Nocturne said as she floated out of the elevator car. Felix looked at Bubba momentarily then followed Nocturne out. The doors of the elevator closed and the car continued its ascent. Felix followed Nocturne as she floated idly past desks and cubicles. Eventually, she turned and went into a cubicle with a couch, a coffee table and a coffee maker.
"Ah, perfect." Nocturne said. She floated to the coffee maker and started to fiddle with the controls. Felix walked to the couch and sat down.
"So what do we do? Just listen for anyone coming up the stairs?" Felix asked. Nocturne looked over her shoulder with a strange face.
"No." Nocturne said in a sarcastic tone. "We scan the building and the surrounding area astrally."
"Oh. Sorry." Felix said. He crossed his hands and started tapping his heel. He suddenly felt as if someone was watching him. He quickly looked at Nocturne to see she was staring at him.
"What's the matter?" Nocturne asked. "You okay?"
"What are you doing?" Felix asked. He scratched his ear slightly.
"I'm sure you looked me over before now, dear." Nocturne said. She turned back to the coffee maker.
"I haven't." Felix replied.
"Oh? Why not?"
"Well, uh, promise you won't laugh?" Felix asked, leaning forward slightly.
"Yes."
"Uh, you see, I'm kind of, uh, afraid to scan astrally or project." Felix said. Nocturne turned around.
"I see. That's very uncommon with magicians. Something must have happened to you to cause your fear of the astral realm." She turned around again and poured a cup of coffee. "How do you take yours?"
"Uh, black, please." Felix said. "And yeah. Couple things, actually. Um, when I was fifteen, I figured out I was a magician, right? Well, my favorite pastime was scanning astral space. All the time. I would scan people, objects, just for fun. Well, I was at school, doing that, when I scanned over someone. He was a huge troll going to my class and instead of the usual dull glow of the average person, this guy was lit up like a candle." Nocturne brought Felix a cup of coffee and sat on the other end of the couch.
"Thanks. Well, he knew I was doing it, and he got angry. I tried apologizing, tried telling him I didn't mean anything by it. But he didn't listen. He jumped on top of me and just beat me within an inch of my life. I came out of the experience with broken bones, bruised organs, and nearly lost my left eye. Spent four months in the hospital. They said that the kid was sensitive about it because his father gave him a lot of shit for being a mage. Said magicians don't play football, or Urban Brawl. Said a troll shouldn't do such weak things."
"I'm sorry." Nocturne said. Felix picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip.
"Don't be. Funny thing is that I forgave him. He still wanted to kill me, but I understood."
"I'm glad you have a strong sense of understanding. But you said there were two things that scared you about astral space."
"Yeah. This time, I was at the UT in Seattle. Freshman year. By then, I was kinda getting over being scared of someone jumping me for scanning them over. I was in a basic astral class. Well, the entire class shifted to astral perception as an exercise. One of the students, however, decided to bring a fire elemental to class. Seeing all these magicians in the same room must have freaked it out, because it went berserk. Everyone dropped out of astral as soon as the elemental went nuts, but I was stuck projecting. I could not get back inside my body, for whatever reason. Kinda like a rabbit in the middle of the road when it sees headlights. Anyway, it jumped me and beat me just as bad as the troll did. It came into physical being and engulfed me for about thirty seconds. The teacher managed to get rid of it, but, once again, back in the hospital for another eight months. Good thing was the University paid for it all, even the eye." Felix leaned forward and opened his eyes wide. "See the shading? The left one is browner than my right one. They could never get it exactly right."
"It is. You lost your eye in that incident?"
"Yes. The left one. And I thought my potential as a magician was shot. But I came through alright."
"Good. So are you afraid of elementals, too?" Nocturne asked. Felix chuckled.
"Actually, water elementals are my favorite." Felix said.
"Fascinating. But you mustn't be afraid of astral space. Come, scan me over. Tell me what you see." Nocturne said.
"Uh, alright." Felix said. He exhaled and slowly let his vision shift from the colorful view of the physical world to the dull, dim view of the astral world. Everything appeared as it did in the physical world in astral space, but instead of wallpaper patterns, colors and logos, all the inanimate objects were dark, solid and gray. In front of Felix, however, was Nocturne, shining brightly and contrasting highly with the couch she was sitting on. On her ear, something small and round glowed ever brighter.
"You have a focus on your ear." Felix said. He shifted back to normal vision.
"What kind? Can you gauge how powerful it is?" Nocturne asked. Her mouth did not show up on her astral aura.
"That's gotta be a spell lock, and if you're using it for levitation, I don't think it's more than a two on the ACB scale. It's not that bright."
"Yes. A spell lock. That's how I get around. But we shouldn't be sitting here chatting all night. We have to keep the look out. Don't be afraid of being in astral space. If anything happens, I'll be here to help you. Now, try to relax and project into the astral realm."
* * * * * * *
"Damn." Emily growled. "How paranoid can a guy get?" Bubba and Emily stood over Chow Mein as he hunched over a large office desk. He probed a maglock on the top center drawer with a wire. The maglock had dozens of wires coming from it, all attached to four different small displays.
"Man, I would be too. But I'm stealing this drek when we're done. These locks ain't even on the market yet." Chow Mein said as he squinted at a display.
"Tell me again why I can't just tear the desk apart?" Bubba sighed.
"The maglock is connected to the dataport on the CPU, the CPU is built into the desk, and monofilament gold wire, spaced two millimeters apart, runs through the entire thing, which is also connected to the CPU. You tear the desk up, we don't get paid." Chow Mein said. He tapped a display a few times, then looked at the other three.
"Finally. Clock synchronization is fixed. Starting code entry procedure." Chow Mein said. He straightened out and stood up. The four displays showed the codes that were previously entered, followed by a flashing INCORRECT.
"How long does this take?" Bubba asked.
"Interesting you should ask. With Fragmaster version 8.0, the desk would decay around the maglock before it would yield. This is the brand new, fourteen and a half trillion megapulse encryption system." Chow Mein explained. "That would be around eighteen thousand years."
"Jesus!" Bubba exclaimed. "Why are the hell are we even here then?"
"Would you shut up and let me finish?" Chow Mein exclaimed. "Fragmaster was written by a guy who does nothing but screw around with security and encryption at some university somewhere. In his position, he knows what new wiz stuff is on the market before anyone knows about it. One of the perks of his position. So when he saw this hot new drek out, he updated Fragmaster to 8.1."
"So how long will Fragmaster, version eight point one take?" Bubba asked.
"Dunno. The professor that cooked all this stuff up guarantees results within an hour." Bubba turned to the window and looked out to the street below.
"I hope that computer gets lucky." Bubba grumbled.
"Why are you so worried, Bubba?" Felix thought to himself. He was projecting into the astral realm, leaving his fleshy vehicle behind on the couch a few floors down. His shimmering astral body floated around to the other side of Bubba, studying his aura. It was a slightly yellowish green, the color an aura turns when the person is worried or distressed.
Felix studied Bubba longer. His form was whole, un-violated by cyberware or replacements. He looked at Chow Mein and Emily's dull glows crouching next to the cold dark desk. Chow Mein's form was shredded by the amount of replacements and cyberware in his body. Only a few scraps of natural energy were seen in his mostly artificial body. Emily's astral form was fairly intact, much more free of cyberware than Chow Mein. A small spot on her hand and a few devices in her arm and shoulder, various pieces in her torso, and her entire head were dark. The small spot on her hand, Felix guessed, was for a smartgun link.
"Her entire head must be packed with cyberware." Felix thought. "I wonder how much room the doctors left for her brain. Oh well, none of my concern." Felix floated next to Emily for a few seconds longer, staring at her featureless astral face. He sighed and dove through the floors back to the cubicle with the couch, the coffee maker and his body. He settled back into his meat frame and opened his eyes. He looked to the other side of the couch. Nocturne was still there, sitting with her eyes closed and looking out for intruders in the astral realm. Felix stood up and stretched. He wandered out of the cubicle, looking for something to do for a break away from lookout duty.
Felix wandered up and down the rows of cubicles. Every deck was the same. Every computer and every terminal was the same. Every chair, every wastebasket, every bulletin board and every bulletin on the bulletin boards and every thumbtack holding them on were the same. Felix grew tired of this order very quickly. For the first time, he was thankful of his current occupation and it's variety. He continued up a row to an office door. It had no knob and a fairly standard maglock on the wall next to it, which he guessed to be a supervisor's office. Felix poked at the number pad randomly and turned to wander in another direction. He stopped in his tracks when he heard the door stealthily slide open. He laughed out loud and walked into the office.
The office was entirely unlike the cubicles outside. Large floor to ceiling windows offered an unobstructed view of the streets below. Several ferns and small trees lined the walls and sat on top of tables, including a very purple version of a ficus on the corner of the desk. Shelves on the three windowless walls held assorted books and knick-knacks like the ones in Felix's room. He glanced over them as he idly walked by. The door slid back closed automatically when Felix moved out of its sensor range.
The things on the shelves were mostly uninteresting. Every now and then Felix would pick one off the shelf and handle it, but put it back and continue with his casual browsing. He continued until he glanced across the top shelf, where he froze. He spied a violin. A very old, very expensive, very beautiful Stradivarius model violin. The violin's bow lay next to it, the horsehair detached from one end. Felix plucked them off the shelf with extreme care and sat cross-legged on the floor with them. He held the violin in both hands in total awe. He ran his thumbs across the S shaped holes on both sides of the instrument.
"God, how long has it been?" Felix thought, hooking the end of the horsehair to the other end of the bow. He twisted the screw on the end until the hair pulled tight. "Northwestern Honor Symphony was my sophomore year, so… fifty three? Yeah." He tucked the violin under his chin and sighed slightly when he rested the bow on the strings of the instrument. Felix counted to four in his mind and pulled the bow across the strings. In perfect unison, all four strings snapped and the horsehair split. The body of the instrument, which was only being supported by the strings, fell off of the neck and shattered into rotten splinters on the floor.
"Ah, just like I remember." Felix sighed. He tossed the broken bow to the side and ran his fingers through the scattered splinters. He picked a large sliver of wood out of the pile and turned it over in his hands. "Maybe I should go back to work." He stood up and went to the door. It slid open as Felix walked within sensor range, and closed when he exited. When the door closed, Nocturne floated around the corner.
"There you are." Nocturne said. "We have a visitor."
"We do?" Felix said, trotting up to Nocturne. He placed the sliver of wood in his pocket before Nocturne took his hand and floated for the elevator. "Who is it?"
"I don't know. It's only one person, so I don't think he'll find us. I need to tell Mystique, though." Nocturne explained. She tugged Felix into the elevator and poked the eighth floor button. "Go look. He should be coming up to the front entrance by now." Felix sat down and closed his eyes, projecting into the astral realm. He zipped passed the floors to the front entrance looked around. A human sized figure walked for the entrance. When it got to the door, it stopped and turned around. After a few seconds, Felix saw four other figures advance, much larger and much dimmer than the first figure, and approach the entrance. Each of the large figures held something very large. The best that Felix could guess was that they were guns. Felix shot up back through the floors and dove back into his body. He opened his eyes to see Mystique and Nocturne standing next to him in the elevator.
"There's five people at the entrance. Four are very big and they're carrying what looks like guns." Felix explained as calmly as possible. His heart raced.
"Bloody hell." Mystique cursed. He put a finger to his throat. "Brother. How much longer?" He was silent for a moment, then cursed again. "You're serious? Fuck. We have four people who'd like to impede your progress. We'll be up momentarily." Mystique pushed the button for the top floor.
"How'd they know we're here?" Felix asked as he stood up.
"Number of ways. They probably know someone is trying to break into the maglock upstairs." Mystique replied. He reached behind his back and brought out a pair of submachine guns in one hand. Felix took this as a cue and took the pistol out of his pocket.
"Hey, the bathroom gun." Mystique said. Felix smiled. The elevator chimed and opened it's doors to the top floor. Felix, Mystique and Nocturne ran to the office the other three were in.
"What's this I hear about people coming?" Bubba growled.
"No kidding. There are five guys coming up to have a word with us." Felix said. He poked his head out to the hallway. The doors of the elevator closed and the display above started counting backwards. "And they're coming up now." Bubba reached into his jacket and pulled out a gigantic revolver. He walked to the door, past Felix, and lowered the gun to the elevator door.
"Cover your ears." Bubba warned. He pulled the hammer back and pulled the trigger. The blast shook the walls. The elevator doors shattered and fell down the shaft. The edge of the elevator's doorframe caught fire from the extreme velocity of the bullet breaking through the doors.
"We now have two minutes until Lone Star gets here. If the lock is not broken in ninety seconds, we leave without the memo." Bubba barked as he walked back into the room.
"I think the shot scared it, Bubba." Emily said. "The lock let up as soon as you pulled the trigger."
"Good, get in there. You have eighty seconds." Bubba said, pointing at the desk with the gun.
"And away we go." Emily muttered. She stuck one end of a wire in her temple and opened the desk drawer. She plugged the other end into a similar looking hole next to the integrated keyboard. She sat down cross-legged and punched the CONNECT button.
"Whoa." Emily whispered.
"Seventy seconds, Circumstance." Bubba said, looking out the window. "What do you mean 'whoa'?
"There are no countermeasures. Every little megapulse of data is scattered around, not even so much as a folder holding any of it. I could pull all of this in a few seconds." Chow Mein lifted the lid of the CD player and inserted a small red CD.
"Get to it then." Chow Mein said. He closed the CD player.
"Nine seconds 'til everything's over." Emily announced. Felix looked around the corner of the door again. He saw a hand holding on to the bottom edge of the elevator door. Another hand tossed a large rifle out onto the floor of the hallway.
"They're here! They climbed right up the shaft and now they're here!" Felix exclaimed. Bubba came to the door and peeked around. Three men, dressed in obviously armored security uniforms were in the hallway, helping a fourth up out of the shaft. Four large rifles leaned against the wall. Bubba lowered his gun to shoot the rifles. Suddenly, each guard turned and fired with pistols. Bubba ducked back into the room.
"Dammit!" Bubba growled. "Now we've got wired security after us. Get that stuff now, girl!" Emily yanked the cord out of the desk drawer.
"Done!" Emily exclaimed. Chow Mein popped the top of the CD player and reached to extract the CD. A guard jumped into the doorway and fired one shot. The bullet passed through the lid of the CD player, Chow Mein's head and shattered the window. Chow Mein dropped, grabbing for his head, rapidly slipping away. Bubba slammed the guard in the head with his revolver. The guard's head twisted enough to break his neck. Emily plucked the CD out of the player.
"Brother!" Mystique screamed. He dove toward Chow Mein, but Bubba grabbed him before he could touch him. He struggled, but Bubba held him tightly.
"No! Save yourself!" Bubba snapped and hoisted him under his arm. Mystique stopped and fell limp. Bubba lowered his gun at the desk and fired. The desk exploded into chunks of burning wood and plastic computer parts.
"Here we go! Get on!" Bubba yelled. He tucked the gun into his pants and ran to the window, grimacing slightly because he did not allow the gun to cool down before he tucked it away.
"Where?" Emily asked. Bubba only pointed out the freshly shattered window. He grabbed Emily. Felix ran up, jumped and wrapped his arms around the troll's neck.
"Somehow, I knew this would happen." Felix muttered, burying his head into Bubba's leather jacket.
"Go!" Nocturne commanded. Bubba jumped out the window holding Felix, Emily and Mystique and started to close the distance between him and the ground. Halfway down, an updraft slowed their descent dramatically. Ten feet away from hitting the ground, a Lone Star car turned the corner and drove directly under them. Bubba, Felix, Emily and Mystique crashed onto the car, pushing the entire roof into the cabin of the car. The siren dropped in pitch and died. Bubba paused to readjust the weight and ran for the car.
"Everyone alright?" Bubba asked loudly. "You still with us, Nocturne?"
"I'm here!" Nocturne shouted behind Bubba. Felix turned to see Nocturne straddling a shimmering figure flying behind him five feet in the air. En route to the garage, Bubba ran past an alley. A pair of Lone Star officers ran down it, guns parallel to the ground and pointed straight at them. Felix held onto Bubba's neck with his left arm and grabbed the pistol out of his pocket. The officers began to fire at them, spraying rounds in every direction. Felix aimed at the ground just in front of the pursuing officers and opened fire. Bullets ricocheted off the ground and struck one man in the shin. He fell to the ground, but continued to fire at them on his stomach. The other officer stopped and dropped to aid the wounded officer. He shouted into a radio on his shoulder. Bubba turned the corner and ran down the ramp to the parking garage.
"Circumstance, call our employer and tell him we need to get rid of this now. We're being followed. Fletch, Nocturne, in the back." Bubba said, running for the car. When he got there, Felix jumped off and opened the door. Bubba tossed Emily and Mystique in passenger seat and got into the driver's side, ruining every automatic adjustment control for the seat. Felix and Nocturne went around and got into the back seat. Bubba reached under the steering column and ripped out a fistful of cords, disabling rigger input and switching the control back to manual operation. He slammed the gear into reverse and floored it. Halfway out of the garage, a Lone Star patrol car screeched to a halt in front of the exit to block Bubba. Bubba applied more gas and broadsided the patrol car in reverse. The patrol car bounced off the heavy Ford Bison and careened through the glass of the building opposite the garage.
"How am I supposed to make a call with all this racket?" Emily asked, sitting back up. She opened a panel on the dashboard and dialed a number.
"Sorry, dear." Bubba said and tossed the gear back into drive. He fishtaled a few times before he took off down the street. A pair of screaming Lone Star patrol cars and three unmarked cars began to follow them.
"Got him on the dash monitor." Emily said. A small monitor flashed white, then the image of the fairy appeared.
"What in da hell are you waking me up for?" The fairy snapped. He was only wearing a pair of boxers. He was extremely well built.
"Whoa. For a fairy, I'd say you were damn sexy." Emily said.
"Oh, you's like dis?" The fairy said. He flexed a couple times.
"Enough. We have your information, and we are being tailed by wired security."
"No shit." The fairy said. "Fair enough. Get on the interstate. I'll make the exchange there."
"On the interstate?"
"Sure! Ain'tcha never tossed junk outta cars before? Just look for a limo. Ja beat da crap outta da CEO for me?"
"Never saw him. Did you really expect him to be there at two o'clock in the morning?" Bubba said. He took a left turn at sixty miles an hour on two wheels. The patrol cars had no hope of making the turn and continued straight, but the three unmarked cars made the turn flawlessly.
"Aw, geez, then how am I gonna justify paying you twenty grand?"
"Hold on, I think we have something in here you like…" Emily said and slid the small red CD into a slot next to the monitor.
"Yeah? What?" The fairy growled. The fairy's image was replaced by a man in a suit, holding a bag of small, blue, octagonal shaped pills in the office they were previously in. He gave the camera the finger.
"Ha, ha, you bureaucrats. I got two words for you. 'Not guilty'! Ha!" The man exclaimed. Some laughing came from off camera. He reached into the bag, pulled out a fistful of pills and dropped them into his mouth. Emily pushed the eject button. The image of the fairy came back on, stunned.
"I will give you sixty thousand nuyen for that CD." The fairy said, totally void of any accent.
"See you on the interstate." Bubba said. He made a right turn for the onramp. As he hit the ramp, the back end bounced off of the street and broke the back window, scattering tiny nuggets of glass all over the interior of the car and on the freeway. The three unmarked cars still followed in pursuit.
"Nocturne, Fletch. Get rid of those cars." Bubba barked over his shoulder. He swerved around a car and straightened out. The unmarked cars approached closer. Nocturne and Felix turned around and looked out the shattered window. One car's front end began to dent and the headlights shattered. After a few moments, smoke billowed out of the grill. The car dropped back.
"Nice. May I?" Felix asked Nocturne. She nodded once. Felix held out his fists and tossed a fireball out of the car. It slammed into the front of one car and exploded the engine. The hood of the car blasted straight up over a column of fire and smoke.
"That was pretty cool, Fletch." Bubba said. "I could see that in the mirror." The last car accelerated and steadily approached the car. Felix and Nocturne started to cast a double dose of magic on the car, but instead, both of the dropped and fell over each other on the back seat.
"Fletch? Nocturne?" Emily asked. She looked over. They were both out cold.
"Aw, great. They have magicians." Emily groaned. Bubba looked over his shoulder at the two.
"Christ." Bubba exclaimed. He swerved around a semi and a motor home, skidding and nearly spinning out. The car behind them perfectly avoided the two other vehicles and approached closer still. Bubba took the large caliber gun out of his pants and turned to point it at the car. The car lunged forward with a growl of the engine and bumped the car. Bubba jerked his hand upward and pulled the trigger, blowing a hole two feet in diameter in the roof. He straightened and pointed the gun at the car. He fired into the engine. The hood ripped off, flipping in the air and it dropped far behind them. He fired again, but missed and hit the windshield. The glass was not even so much as scuffed.
"I can't fraggin' believe it!" Bubba shouted. "What stops the mortal fury of the handgun of doom?" They zoomed passed an onramp where a limousine raced up and ran parallel to Bubba's car. Emily and the passenger of the limo lowered their windows.
"I hear you have something you want to sell!" The passenger shouted.
"Get closer!" Emily screamed. The limousine crept close enough for each party to touch. The passenger of the limousine held two credsticks out. Emily snatched them and looked at the amount on each. They read thirty five thousand a piece.
"A bonus for a speedy job." The man shouted. "Now, the item?" Emily took the CD out of the slot and reached out the car to hand him the CD. Suddenly, she smelled burning hair. She looked behind the cars to see a person hanging out the passenger side window with a rifle.
"A little help?" Emily asked.
"Absolutely. Thank you, miss." The passenger said. Emily ducked back into the car. The limousine faded back slightly. From the window, the passenger tossed a small object onto the exposed engine, and the limo slammed on the brakes. The entire front end exploded. The other half of the car flipped over onto it's top and exploded again, sending traffic in every direction around it. Bubba raced forward without looking back.
"Did it go well?" Bubba asked. He slowed to a respectable rate of speed and exited the freeway.
"As well as we could have hoped. We got ten grand as a bonus."
"Excellent. We'll go drinking. We need to get drunk after a job like this." Bubba replied. He drove for a minute longer then drove into an alley and parked.
"Should we take Nocturne and Fletch inside?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, I suppose. Mystique, grab Nocturne please?" Bubba asked. He got no response.
"Mystique?" Bubba asked again. Mystique sat there, staring at the floor unblinking.
"Let him stay here." Emily whispered to Bubba. "He lost his brother tonight. He doesn't need to drink." Bubba nodded. He opened the back door and put Nocturne and Fletch under each arm. Emily climbed across the bench of the front seat to Mystique. She stroked his face gently with the back of her fingers.
"Mysty? We'll be inside if you need anything, okay?" Emily said softly. Mystique sat there unmoving. Emily came back outside.
"Hope he's okay." Emily said. Bubba and Emily went to the back door of a building and entered. They took the closest booth they could find. Bubba dumped Felix and Nocturne on the seat and slid them toward the middle. Emily and Bubba flanked them.
The club they were in was fairly quiet and very dark. There was no DJ or light show running at the time and a random selection of techno music played quietly in the background. A waitress in a brown and white uniform approached the table.
"Hi. What can I get you?" The waitress asked, pulling a pencil out of her bun. Emily leaned forward and squinted.
"Tina?" Emily asked. "That you?"
"Hey, girlfriend!" The waitress exclaimed. "What the hell you doing here?"
"Not much. Back from a job. What about you? Workin' lately?"
"Naw. I'm tired of all that BS. I'd rather get up at the crack of dusk four days a week. At least I don't get shot at."
"Can you sit down? Talk for a while."
"No. I'm covering for another girl that's sick. Can I bring you a round?"
"Yeah, and could you bring a few shots of the nastiest vodka you have?" Bubba asked. The waitress smiled.
"That's the only kind we got. Be back in a second." The waitress turned back for the bar. Emily pulled her hair around to examine it. She picked at the ends for a few seconds and found the hair the bullet sheered off. It looked as if it was burned with a lighter.
"Aw man." Emily whined. "I can't wash this out."
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure you can cut it out." Bubba said. "Hell, shave it bald. I've always liked bald women." Nocturne, with her head on the table, started to cough.
"Holy *cough* geez." Nocturne moaned. "Where are we?"
"Bar out past Bellvue. Need something to drink?" Bubba asked.
"Yes!" Nocturne exclaimed with her eyes crunched shut to keep out any light. "Copious amounts of alcohol! Must replace magical headache with mundane headache. Now!" She sat up and looked at Felix, still passed out over the table.
"Ugh. Did we get paid?" Nocturne asked. She tilted her head back and rubbed her temples.
"Oh yeah." Emily said. "A full seventy grand." The waitress came back with four bottles of beer and four shots of clear liquid. She placed each in the middle of the table, oblivious to Felix.
"'K. Here you go. I'll come back later and see if you need a refill, or a basket of wings or something." The waitress said. Bubba took a shot and sniffed at it. He cringed and shuttered.
"That'll work." Bubba said. He slid the shot next to Felix's face, dipped his pinky in it and rubbed vodka on Felix's upper lip. Nothing happened for a moment. Then Felix licked his lip and smiled.
"That's nasty vodka." Felix said, still draped over the table with his eyes closed. "Is there more?" He opened his eyes and sat up. He looked at Nocturne, who had a beer bottle tilted vertically into her head. Felix took a bottle and swallowed a few gulps of beer.
"Ah. Better. What happened?" Felix asked, running his finger along the edge of the shot glass. He raised it and sipped.
"As far as we can figure, you and Nocturne either got sleepy really fast, or there were magicians in the car." Bubba said. He tilted a shot straight back and slammed the glass into the table. Felix looked down at the bottle he held in both hands.
"Chow didn't get out, did he?" Felix asked, looking at the table. He got no response. "Could have happened to any one of us, couldn't it have?"
"That's why we don't take too long mourning for our fallen comrades." Bubba said. He took another shot of vodka, emptied it and set it on the table. "Just a night of drinking and we get back to work."
"How many others have been killed working with you?" Felix asked.
"Fletch!" Emily scolded. "It wasn't anyone's fault!"
"I didn't say it was. How many, Bubba?" Felix asked. He looked up at Bubba. Bubba looked at the table and sighed.
"In all the time I've worked? Twelve people have died working with me." Bubba grabbed a third shot and drank it. "But all of those people died because some other punk got lucky, or they were stupid, or some other circumstance like that. It happens. I'm sure we'd have a lot more dead co-workers if we were working for the police."
"So what was Chow Mein like? I knew him for all of about ten minutes." Felix asked.
"Dunno. He and his brother watched the trid every time I saw them." Nocturne replied. "I can't say." Felix took his bottle and held it in the air.
"Here's to Chow Mein. He died doing the job he liked." Felix said. Nocturne, Emily and Bubba held a bottle up for the toast and took a drink. Bubba reached back into his back pocket and removed his wallet. From there, he extracted a folded up, yellowed piece of paper. He unfolded it and handed it to Felix.
"Go ahead." Bubba said, grimly. Felix looked it over.
It read: We, the undersigned, do not hold the undersigned responsible any personal injuries or death (mental, physical, spiritual or otherwise) of the undersigned, and, in the event of a death of one of the undersigned, expect the undersigned to go on with their lives without any remorse, personal responsibility, regret or guilt for the undersigned.
A list of seventeen names followed underneath the paragraph, most of them crossed out with a dark pen. Only the names of Circumstance, Nocturne, Sparky, Bubba, Doc, Mystique and his slain brother remained. Bubba reached into the jacket and removed a black ballpoint pen. He took the brittle note back from Felix, set it down on the table, and ran one, single line through Chow Mein's name. He pushed each over to Felix. Felix looked back at Bubba.
"I can't sign this." Felix said.
"You have to, Fletch." Sparky answered. "We don't want you taking the blame."
"I won't." Felix pushed it back at Bubba. "I'm not a…"
"Then sign it so we don't take the blame for you." Emily said, looking up at him. She looked the most serious she had ever looked to him. Felix nearly jumped at the gravity of her look at him. He took the piece of paper back and signed it "Fletch" quickly.
"No court would dare recognize this." Felix said.
"It's not for legal purposes." Bubba said. He carefully folded the paper back along the original folds and put it back into the wallet. The waitress returned with a basket of chips and a bowl of salsa and collected empty glasses and bottles.
"Another round please." Nocturne said. "And keep checking back until we've all passed out."
* * * * * * *
"Seriously?" Felix asked in a slurred voice. "You really took out a helicopter? With what?"
"A motorcycle." Bubba said. He laughed and took a drink from one of the several bottles on the table. He held his index finger and thumb closely together in front of his eye. "Just a little one though."
"Fletch, we have to *burp* come up with a better name for you, dear." Emily exclaimed, tapping on his shoulder. He turned around.
"Oh yeah? What?"
"I dunno. It's just that, you know, you don't really act like Felch."
"Fletch."
"Yeah, that's what I said."
"Okay, well, how about…" Felix looked to the ceiling. "You know you're Bond movies?"
"Kinda, yeah. Why? You gonna be Odd Job or something?"
"More like Hand Job." Bubba laughed.
"No. What about Tomorrow?" Felix said.
"Wasn't that yer dad's name?" Emily recalled.
"I doubt it now. But what about Tomorrow?"
"Why 'Tomorrow'?" Emily asked.
"'Cause Tomorrow never dies." Felix said smiling.
"Yeah, but Tomorrow never comes, either."
"Is that a joke about my punctuality?" Felix asked.
"Sexual prowess, actually." Nocturne interrupted. Bubba roared with laugher. Felix blushed brightly.
"Oh, geez. My back teeth are floatin'." Bubba said, sliding out of the booth. "Be out back." Bubba staggered for the back door. He went outside and leaned against the car, squinting at the sun peeking it's face over the edge of the building's roof. He unbuckled his belt and looked into the car. He fastened the buckle again and went to the passenger side. Bubba shook his head, reached in through the shattered glass and pulled a pistol out of Mystique's mouth. His hand fell limply into his lap.
This presented a new problem to for Bubba. The car was already looking pretty poor. He wasn't sure he would be able to get it fixed as discreetly as he wanted, and was considering just selling it for a quick thousand or so to a rigger friend. However, disposing of a body, one that was a heavily loaded as Chow Mien and not registered in any database in Seattle produced several new problems. He could have easily called a few vat farms and second hand dealers to dice his poor friend up for resale, but Bubba wouldn't have it.
Bubba got on his stomach and felt around for a long tube he had planted there several months prior. Once he found it, he felt for a ring and pulled it. Whirring began to start. Bubba jumped to his feet, paused to put his hand on Mystique's shoulder to wish him well and hastily re-entered the bar.
"We need to go. Now." Bubba said. He pushed the payment button on the table panel and slid one of the two credsticks into the payment socket.
"Why?" Felix asked, slurred as ever. "We haven't begun to drink!"
"Now." Bubba said. His tone sobered everyone at the table.
"Okay. What's the matter?" Felix asked. They all slid out of the booth and exited through the back door. The car was already half-way melted when they came outside. The steel and plastic formed a puddle of bubbling goo on the pavement and the rest of the structure was sinking fast. Mystique's body was severely and grotesquely degraded from the chemical reaction caused by the compound contained in the cylinder Bubba activated seconds earlier. Everyone turned their heads away. They couldn't bear to see him like that. After two more minutes, the entire car, Mystique and any other material will have been broken down and turned into a flat, shiny, brittle plate of iron and carbon.
"Mysty?" Nocturne asked, floating close to Bubba. Bubba nodded. He thrust his hands into his jacket pockets.
"We'd better get home before you get caught in the sun." Bubba sighed. They turned for the street, and Bubba hailed a SUV converted into a taxi. They piled in and drove home.
