By A Shot of Amber
Session 22: Dancing in the Cadillac's Light
The gifts arrived the next day in the early afternoon. Spike lay on the couch asleep while Faye filed her nails on the stairs above him. Jet worked on the Hammerhead inside the cargo hold, Ed slept in a corner next Ein, and Ivy hung up the laundry to dry.
She was lost in her thoughts when the delivery truck set down on the deck and man holding a small box in his hand came forward. She signed for the package and watched him climb back into his ship and take off. It was a small box made of wood with crudely drawn yellow flowers on top.
Ivy unhinged the lock and opened it up to see a pair of silver keys laying on the blue plush cushion and a note.
" What's that?" Jet walked out of the hanger to see the delivery truck taking off and disappear into the sky.
" He was just delivering something," Ivy replied unfolding the note without really paying attention to him. Two tickets fell out and landed at her feet. She bent down at picked them up. They were for tomorrow night, two tickets, seats to the opera.
" What? Something for you?" Jet walked through the sheets towards her and looked at the box in her hand. " You got a package? Another one?"
" Yea, you can sort of call it a late birthday gift," Ivy replied folding the tickets back into the note and sticking them into the box.
" A late birthday gift?" Jet asked scratching his head.
" Yea, a late birthday gift." Ivy slipped the box underneath the clothes in the basket and picked up a shirt.
" I gather yours?"
" Yep, how did you guess?" She asked sarcastically pinning the shirt to the line and reaching for another.
" A hunch, how come you didn't tell anyone?"
" It's not really important to me, basically it was just another day," Ivy replied.
" He Jet! Someone is calling for you!" Faye yelled waving Jet's phone above her head.
Jet sighed and felt his back pocket, he thought it held felt emptier. " Alright I'm on the way."
Jet walked off while Ivy continued to pin up the shirt in her hand. She would read the note later when everyone wasn't around breathing down her neck.
" Yea Bob?" Jet asked looking into the vi-screen at Bob's face.
" I just got info on a new bounty and I thought you might be interested." Bob replied.
" Really?" Jet perked up causing Faye to stop and look back at him. " How much is he worth?"
" 3 million woulong. He's a cop inside ISSP but he's wanted for working with an outside link for selling drugs to underage kids."
" You got any info?"
" Yea, I sent it to the kid on your ship, it's in an encrypted file, but the password
should be pretty easy to find."
" Thanks, I owe you one Bob." Jet clicked off the phone and turned around to see Faye standing there.
" What do you want?" He asked dryly.
" A part of the bounty, I heard how much he's worth," Faye replied.
" Well you got to do some work this time instead of lazing around like you normally do." Jet walked past her headed inside.
" I do not laze around! I put in just as much work as you and Spike in helping to catch a bounty!" Faye cried indignantly.
" Yea whatever." Jet walked into the main room and picked up the book laying on Spike's face.
" Wake up, we got ourselves a new bounty."
" How much is he?" Spike groaned opening his eyes and yawning.
" 3 million woulong."
" 3 million? Forget it, I don't deal with small fries." Spike picked up the book and draped it over his face again so he could go back to sleep.
" I guess that leaves Spike out," Faye replied giving him a disgusted look.
Jet walked over to Ed and nudged her awake. " Hey Ed wake up, I need you to do something for me."
" No, no, Ed is sleeping," Ed mumbled turning around and going back to sleep.
" Ed, come on, get up!" Jet yelled nudging her again.
" Your never going to wake her up like that. Leave it to me." Faye pushed Jet out of the way and bent down next to Ed's ear. " Hey Ed! Wake up!" Faye screamed.
Ed's eyes shot open and she sat up rubbing her ears in pain. " Ouch Faye Faye! Not so loud!"
" We need you to do something for us Ed," Faye replied standing up.
" You just have to ask, not yell."
" Ed I need you to look at the file that was sent to us, it's encrypted so your going to need to break the code." Jet replied.
" Aye, aye caption," Ed saluted and reached for her goggles.
" What's going on?" Ivy asked walking into the room with the empty laundry basket.
" We just got word of a new bounty and Ed is going to help us find it."
" Oh," Ivy nodded her head in disinterest and headed off towards the laundry room to drop off her basket before walking off towards her own room, the bow in hand.
" Well did you find anything?" Faye asked leaning forward to look at the computer.
" Uh, huh," Ed removed her files and pushed the computer closer. " Ed has found out where the bounty man be."
" Hmm, this says he's a high ranking official in the ISSP yet he also moonlights has a drug agent."
" So all we have to do is find out where he is and then catch him," Faye replied.
" If we can find out where he is."
" That should be easy," Faye waved a hand nonchalantly. " We'll find him then collect that bounty."
Ivy closed the note and slipped it into her bag along with the tickets. The opera was tomorrow night, she was to go alone and during the intermission ask for the dressing room of the ballerina named Katrina.
" Easy enough," Ivy slipped her bag over her shoulder and walked out of the room.
" Now lets go see about this gift he left me."
" Where are you going?" Jet asked as Ivy jumped off the deck onto the pavement on the other side.
" I'm going into town for a bit to do some exploring."
" Oh so your on a treasure hunt I see," Jet laughed.
Ivy smiled and winked. " Something like that, I'll be back later." She waved one hand then turned and walked off.
" Ugh, how can anyone sleep with all these people making noise?" Spike groaned sitting up and letting the book fall away from his face.
In the corner, Ed typed on her computer while Jet pounded away inside the hanger. Faye had already left to look for some clues on the bounty.
" That's it, I'm going to see what Jet is doing." Spike stood up and lumbered off towards the hanger shoving his hands into his pockets.
" Hey Jet! What's going on? I thought you had left to go find your bounty?"
" Faye's out looking, she's going to tell me if there is any clues." Jet replied tightening a bolt on the Hammerhead.
" Oh, well do we have anything to eat? I'm starving."
" Ivy went out somewhere and I'm to busy to cook right now. If you want food, go and make it yourself."
" Gee, thanks." Spike sighed and walked back inside towards the kitchen to see if there was anything edible that he wouldn't have to cook. He was not in the mood to cook right now.
Ivy looked down at the piece of paper in her hand, the map drawn on it was not very good. Really, nothing but crude pencil lines and streets all spelled wrong.
She had gone to the opera house, it stood like a giant stone goddess bathed in a golden light all of it's own. People walked in and out dressed in the finery of the rich speaking among themselves. Stone cherubs and maidens dressed in flowing ribbons stared down at her with harsh cold looks till she turned and walked off looking for the place indicated on her map.
" Turn left at Branston, walk three steps then make another turn to your right. What the heck was he talking about?" Ivy muttered turning right at the indicated point and entering into an empty parking lot. " Now what is supposed to be here?"
She looked around only seeing a small red convertible parked and sitting alone a little bit of the ways from her before going back to the note. " Your surprise will be opened with the key."
Ivy looked down at the key in her hand then up at the car before looking down at the key again. A smile spread upon her face and she ran up to the car. The silver keys fit in perfectly, turning the lock and opening the door. She grinned happily as she threw her bag into the front seat and reached for the envelope taped to the steering wheel.
There was only two words written on it.
" Your welcome." Ivy laughed at the note and crumpled it up throwing it in the back seat. It hit a white box resting there tied with a blue ribbon, she didn't even bother to open it but instead climbed inside the car smelling the smells of leather and vinyl. Her hands ran over the smooth steering wheel and the plush seats before closing the door and starting up the engine.
Max had taught her how to drive but he never let her drive alone so this was a real treat to have a car to herself without him commanding her from the passenger seat.
The engine purred to life, causing Ivy to laugh aloud. She tested a few buttons finding the windshield wipers, the lights, and a button that she definetly liked. The top rose and folded down behind her allowing sunshine to fill the car. With a flick of a button Ivy turned on the radio cranking it up high and moved the gears into drive. She took off with a squeal of the tires driving out of the parking lot.
" What is that awful smell?" Faye gasped holding her nose as she walked into the Bebop.
Jet gave her a dead pan look has he rose up from behind the Hammerhead.
"Spike's been cooking again, I opened all the air shields but it's going to be awhile before the smell dissipates."
" Oh man is it bad." Faye groaned waving the air in front of her.
" You'll get used to it, I know it did."
" What was he cooking?"
" Beef, real beef." Spike replied walking into the hanger carrying a sword holding some charred bits of meat. " Want some Faye?" He asked holding the sword out to her with a smug grin on his face.
" No thank you," she replied waving it away with a disgusted look.
" So Faye did you find any clues about this guy?"
" Yea I did," Faye turned back to Jet while Spike took a bite of the meat and chewed it slowly. " It seems he disappeared from the ISSP when it was revealed that he was trafficking drugs. He's mostly likely hiding with his group somewhere here in the city but from what I heard, not a lot of people know where."
" So that means we have to look extra hard for this guy," Jet groaned.
" No, not exactly. I did get some information about how you can contact him for a sale from people who work with his group."
" So your saying we could contact him has if we want to make a deal?"
" Yea, and then we catch him and haul his ass into the police." Faye replied.
" Sounds good."
" Yea, but how are you going to contact the guy if you don't even know where he is." Spike pointed out.
" I got some info from this one scared sap when I shoved a gun in his mouth." Faye replied smugly.
" Well good luck on finding him. I'm staying out." Spike turned and walked back in side the empty sword swinging in the air next to him.
" Good, a bounty is easier to spilt between two instead of three."
" Hi I'm back!" Ivy jumped onto the deck and walked into the hanger cheerfully swinging her bag and grinning.
" What's up with you?" Jet asked surprised to see her so happy.
" Oh nothing, it's just a wonderful day, that's all!" Ivy replied as she walked past the two headed inside.
" Well I guess someone found her treasure," Jet muttered watching her back disappear inside.
" Treasure?" Faye asked turning around to Jet.
" It's nothing, so how do we contact this guy?"
" We have to find on of his agents and tell them we want to make a deal on our terms. We give them a meeting place and time along with the amount we want."
" The when we do that, we bust the guy and bring him in. So did you find one of his agents?"
" Yep, already did. We've got a meeting with our bounty tomorrow night."
" Alright, we've got this one in the bag."
" What's up with you?"
" Oh nothing. I'm just in a good mood," Ivy replied dropping her bag on the floor and reaching into the cabinet to find something to make for dinner.
" Your just in a good mood?" Spike placed the burnt sword back in the corner with the others and turned back to her.
" Yea, can't a person be in one?" She asked pulling a couple cans and set them down on the counter before walking over to the fridge. " Now if you don't mind, get out of my way so I can cook dinner and get this awful smell out of the air."
" It's not my fault, you weren't home earlier to cook," Spike replied shoving his hands into his pockets and walking off.
" It's not my job to be at your every beck and call when it comes to cooking Spike." Ivy pulled some tomatoes out of the refrigerator and slammed the door shut.
The tomatoes were dumped out on the counter while Ivy reached for a knife. She smiled happily to herself as she thought of the car hidden in an empty parking lot near the Bebop.
Maybe after dinner she would go for another ride.
See you Space Cowboy…
Miles: You know old man I think it's totally unfair that we don't get to be in any of the episodes.
Duham: Shut up Miles, we don't have time to be prancing around. We got work to do on the ship.
Miles: Yea but Blue Sox fans never like to be left out.
Duham: Just shut up and introduce the next episode Miles.
Miles: The next episode is " A Grand Opera Entrance."
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