CB: Cat and Mouse, -VII-

I dress with the feeling of being watched, but nothing happens in the bath house. I make it all the way to the parking lot where I plan to catch the bus back to where I left my ship before the guy that's been following me catches up with me. I drop the cigarette from my mouth and crush it under the toe of my shoe.

"You."

I lift my eyes from the path I was taking and greet the person that is waiting for me. He stands before me, dressed sharply and distinctively like someone from the syndicate. On closer inspection, he has the cut and trim of a Red Dragon about him. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced."

"You killed Vicious."

"You've got the wrong guy, I didn't kill anyone." I shove my hands into the pockets of my pants, tilting my head down into the collar of my shirt. "I'm just another guy whose lost and looking for the way home."

"I don't quite believe you."

"Well that's just too bad, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, but not for me."

"What do you mean?"

"It's really worse for that lady friend of yours than it is for either of us," he replies, inclining his head across the parking lot towards something that is behind me.

I turn and know, before my eyes reach the point, what will be waiting for my sight once I turn to make it out. Faye, with a gloved hand held tightly over her mouth and a knife at her delicate, pale throat.

"What is it you want?" I reply. I am not disappointed in the sad expectation. "And why bother with innocent women? She's a pretty one, though."

"I think she's a little less than innocent when it comes to you, Spiegel," the man's voice draws my eyes from her, thankfully. If I looked any longer I'd give away how concerned I really am. "And I think that once you've decided to come around, you'll come tell me what I want to know."

He meets my eyes with a chuckle.

"In the meantime, we'll just have a little fun with your girlfriend." He jerks his head to his accomplice, and I'm certain she's being dragged into the alley and out of sight. They know me, and they know her. We were both on the rooftop when they dragged Vicious' dead body away on Mars.

And they saw her drag me, limping and barely alive, out of the ruins.

I guess I'm just no good for women.

"You can come to the Gray Stone Tavern when you've decided you've had it with the suspense."

I grit my teeth, and shrug, reaching for another cigarette. The man glares, eyes narrowing, and brushes past me.