"It's all fun and games till someone gets hurt, then it's just fun. When someone gets killed it's our job and when an entire city is destroyed it's not our fault."
-Remark attributed to Kei by an anonymous reporter.
"You should see the view from the bathroom," Kei said as she walked into the bedroom, a towel wrapped around her, steam flowing out of the door behind her.
"Why would anyone want a great view from a bathroom?" Yuri asked, though it was more a rhetorical question than anything else.
"I don't know. You can make the glass cloudy or even opaque just like the window in this room."
"That would lessen ones' worries about voyeurs."
"Nice room she gave us," Kei said as she tossed herself onto one of the canopied beds.
Yuri nodded.
The room had two beds in it, several chairs, two couches, and a coffee table in front of each couch. A bookshelf covered the wall opposite to the beds. It held an entertainment centre, two computer workstations and of course books. The door leading to the bathroom was between the beds. Opposite to the door that led out into the hall way was a picture window that made up the outside wall of the room.
Yuri sat on the window bench staring out at the manicured lawns and the forest two hundred meters away. She knew that the security system covered the forest so well that every animal in it could be counted and identified. It would be nearly impossible to get through it undetected.
Her fingers tapped absently at the keys of the laptop she had found in the room. However she hardly paid any attention to it, her attention absorbed by the view.
"So why do you think 3WA went to so much trouble to get us here?" Kei asked from the bed where she was towelling her hair dry.
"You noticed that to." Yuri looked away from the view to see Kei nod. "I suppose we'll find out some day. At least we're getting the Angel refitted almost two years before the set date, or it being trashed."
"Bet you politics are involved one way or another."
"Probably," Yuri said as she looked at the screen of the computer, curious as to what she had been doing.
"How long do you think this case is going to last?" Kei opened one of her suitcases and began tossing clothes onto the bed.
"Not too long." Yuri turned the computer off. "I mean how long do you think they can afford to just leave us here?" Yuri stopped and considered the implications of what she had just said.
"They wouldn't," Kei said, having reached the same unpleasant conclusion Yuri had.
"Of course not."
"Good."
Yuri did not think that Kei was really assured, but neither was Yuri. There was a silent agreement between them that they would forget their concerns and not speak of it any further. At least that was what Yuri thought.
Kei put on her undergarments and then took a seat at the vanity table to brush out her still damp hair. Yuri simply stared outside, letting her mind wander.
A few minutes later Yuri was snapped back to the present by a knock at the door.
"Yeah," Kei called.
"It's Tamikia, can I come in?" She called from the other side of the door.
"Sure, it's not locked," Kei told her.
Yuri went back to looking out the window.
Tamikia pushed the door open, entered the room, and took a look around. "I suppose that I'm almost disappointed."
"Really?" Kei was checking her bangs for split ends. "Why?"
"Guess I was expecting guns to be scattered about the room, as well as other things."
"Maybe next time. So," Kei finished with her hair and turned towards Tamikia, "what can we do for you?"
"I just came to tell you that your suggestions have been put into effect or soon will be. Also I'm going to a formal party tonight..."
"Great, we love parties," Kei interrupted. Yuri came out of her thoughts and turned her head towards Tamikia.
"Well I only want one of you to come with me, the other will stay here and ensure the safety of my children."
"Have fun with the kids Kei. Now what should I wear?" Yuri asked aloud.
"Oh no Yuri, I took the less pleasant aspect of the case last time."
"I seem to remember that I was the one being tied up and beaten and you may think that's fun but I'm not into it."
"Yeah, but I had to sit in that drop ship worrying about you."
"Why do I get the feeling you two don't care for children?" Tamikia asked.
"No offence meant," Kei said.
"Let's flip a coin," Yuri suggested.
"Let's not, no matter what the admin types say you're still on the injured list. Stay here with Mughi acting as back up. The house is a lot safer."
"That's hardly fair," Yuri told Kei.
"But the fact you might be at a disadvantage at the party has nothing to do with what's fair."
"Okay, I'll stay, but you owe me big." Yuri pouted.
"My children aren't that bad," Tamikia insisted. "Well usually at least."
"You're both going armed," Yuri said as she stood and stretched.
"I seem to recall you saying something like you had a target range?" Kei asked Tamikia.
"Yes, in the sub basements."
"Might you also store arms there, pistols, rifles, and other assorted party favours?" Kei leaned back against the vanity.
"Of course."
"Good, just let me get dressed then we'll go looking." Kei stood and walked to her suitcases.
Tamikia walked over to look at something she had seen on one of the bed. It was a grey plush cat with a red ribbon around its neck, set neatly on a pillow. She picked it up. It was a beautiful toy, very well made, eyes that seemed almost real. It was nice to find a little something innocent with the trouble consultants.
"This is very cute," she said.
"That's Yuri's," Kei said. "She needs it for security."
"I can understand that." Tamikia placed the cat back on the pillow.
"It's great." Yuri came up beside Tamikia and picked up the cat. She reached into a hidden opening in the cat's stomach and pulled out a pistol. "Kei thinks that something under the pillow is enough but I like the extra surprise this provides. I can even fire out of it, the round exits right out the back of its head."
Tamikia sighed and turned away.
Yuri slid the pistol back into the cat and then placed the plush animal gently back on her pillow. She bent down to fix the ribbon and touched the cat's nose before straightening. She saw Kei looking at her with a smile. Yuri stuck her tongue out.
"So what are you comfortable shooting?" Kei did up the last button on her blouse.
"Assault rifles, rail pistols, the very occasional heavy assault weapon," Tamikia told her.
"Assault rifles tend to be a bit conspicuous," Yuri said.
"Oh I don't know, remember our graduation party? You could have brought a field piece in there without anyone commenting."
"Well let's go down to the range and see what we can find before we start trotting out the artillery," Yuri responded.
"Come on, we can take the elevator in the next hall way." Tamikia headed for the door. Kei and Yuri followed her.
"Bang," Yuri said as she sighted down range with the H&K rail rifle.
"Having fun?" Kei asked slyly.
"Okay, I'll admit they make a fine as weapon as they do a computer." Yuri pulled the first stage of the trigger and the laser sight came on. She squeezed the second stage and fired a burst into the human shaped target, blowing its head from the rest of the body.
"Nice grouping," Kei commented, looking at the scoring screen.
Yuri put the weapon on safe and ejected the magazine. She touched a recessed button inside the weapon where the magazine had just been. A single flechette fell into her hand. She looked at the fin-stabilized dart; so small but so deadly.
"Too bad you couldn't use the grenade launcher," Kei said.
"Let's not get greedy." Yuri let the flechette fall beside the magazine. She turned and walked into the weapons lock up.
"See anything you like?" Yuri asked Tamikia. Tamikia was looking at a selection of pistols, a speculative look on her face.
"What?" She sounded surprised. "Oh, no. I just never realized how many damn weapons I have down here." She shook her head.
"You are one lucky lady," Kei said as she entered the lock up. "Did you buy them all?"
"Some. Most are samples from the companies I own, or own stock in."
"Must be nice." Kei pulled a DEFTEC, combat shotgun from its place in the rack.
"I think the Berretta Streamline Four would be a good choice." Yuri took the pistol from the rack. "Rail pistol, sixteen rounds, accurate up to a fifty meters, reliable, easily concealed." She worked the simple action and then presented it to Tamikia. "It should suit your needs."
"It lacks stopping power." Kei said as she put the shotgun back in its rack.
"Sure, if you want to drop an elephant."
"What about a small mech, or a full conversion borg?"
"Not a pistol in the galaxy that can do that," Yuri told her.
"What about a Terror?"
"Only in bad vids."
"Blood bath twelve was not a bad vid."
"Excuse me ladies," Tamikia interrupted them. "Mind if I give this a test." She held up the pistol and a magazine.
"Go for it," Kei said.
Tamikia walked to the firing point, slid the magazine into the grip and aimed down range. Controlling her breathing, carefully squeezing the trigger, all as she had been taught. The weapon discharged. The score screen read a hit in the centre of the target's head.
"Well?" Tamikia said smiling.
"Nice, if the person you're trying to shoot lets you take the time you need and refrains from firing at you." Kei told her.
"And you're so much better?" Tamikia said defensively. She then frowned and shook her head. "Of course you are. Stupid of me."
"Don't worry about it. Here, check this out." Kei took the pistol from Tamikia and tossed it to Yuri. Yuri lifted her hand, waited for the pistol to pass near and closed her fingers over it all in one smooth motion.
Turning on her heel, she waited until the pistol's barrel lined up on a target and began to fire. The smooth turn continued, Yuri emptying the magazine as fast as the targets presented themselves. Every shot a head shot.
"Now it isn't realistic to expect you to be that good," Kei said once Yuri finished. "That is after all why you have body guards and why we've been assigned to you. Still, you got to get your head out of the firing range mentality."
"Try firing from a kneeling position or prone." Yuri handed her the pistol and a new magazine. "It will make you that much harder to hit."
"And remember to use surprise. No one will expect you to be armed. If you can wait until your target gets close and then..." Kei put her hands together with her trigger fingers extended to form a pistol shape. She made a firing motion.
"And don't be afraid to just blow off an entire magazine. Keep their heads down and make them waste time," Yuri said.
Tamikia nodded then knelt down and began to fire, trying for speed rather then accuracy. She fired twenty magazines worth of ammunition before the trouble consultants were pleased.
"What about my daughter?" Tamikia asked a few minutes later while she ran a diagnostic check on the pistol.
"Catherine?" Kei asked.
"Yes."
"Get her down here and we'll see what we can do."
Tamikia put the pistol aside and walked to the phone on the wall.
Kei walked back onto the range where Yuri was firing at a holographic target sequence with the rail rifle she had used earlier.
"A weapon for Tamikia's daughter, what do you think?" Kei asked Yuri.
"How old?"
"Fifteen."
"Something small, easily concealed, it doesn't have to have a lot of range," Yuri said.
"How about a hold out pistol? The one you used in the Jenki sting was nice."
"Perfect," Yuri said after a moment of thought. She walked into the weapons lock up to see if she could find one. Kei picked up the rifle, slid a new magazine in, and began to fire.
Catherine rode the elevator to the sub basement. She was fifteen and at the awkward stage between child and adult. She was an attractive child, anyone could tell that she would be quite beautiful in a few years; anyone but Catherine, unfortunately. Adolescent insecurities preyed on her. She twined her long, dark brown hair in her fingers, her brown eyes held a down cast look to them.
She was in two minds about the presence of the Dirty Pair in the house. On one hand they were two women who Catherine idolized in a strange sort of way. They were counterculture heroes to many young people.
On the other hand they were both very attractive and between her mother and all the female servants the last thing she needed were more beautiful women in the house for her to feel inferior to.
The doors of the elevator slid back revealing the range to Catherine. She stepped out of the car.
The one with long, black hair, Yuri she recalled, was firing down range with a machine pistol. Catherine remembered once being told that machine pistols were inherently unstable and not very accurate.
No one, it seemed, had ever told the 3WA agent about it; her score was high and continued to increase. And that, she noted, was with only one eye. The eye-patch some how made Yuri look dashing, glamorous, dangerous.
The red head, Kei, was talking to Catherine's mother, using a tone Catherine had trouble believing her mother would take. Life seemed even more screwed up to the insecure teenager.
"So you must be Catherine," Yuri said, snapping Catherine out of her thoughts.
"Yeah." Catherine mumbled. She noted that Yuri was not using a condescending tone. That, at least, made her feel better.
"Glad you're here. Try a few shots with this." Yuri held out a small pistol. "See if you like it."
"Pardon?" Catherine was confused.
"Your mother decided it might be a good idea if you were armed," Kei told her.
"Really?"
"Yes," Tamikia said. "I think you are mature enough for the responsibility."
"There you go," Yuri said, smiling as she put the pistol in Catherine's hands. "Down range." She pointed at the targets.
Catherine shifted the pistol in her grip, walked up to the firing point, raised the pistol and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.
"Just a sec." Yuri stood behind Catherine and reached around the girl's slim shoulders. "You have to press this button." She placed Catherine's thumb against a concave surface on the back of the pistol. "That will connect the battery to the magnetic coils. Safety feature." Yuri pushed on Catherine's thumb and there was a small click.
Yuri stood up, letting Catherine aim again.
"Go for a head shot," Kei told her. "That pistol is notoriously ineffective against armour, hold outs are like that."
Catherine shifted her aim, pulled the trigger. The projectile barely hit the target.
"The range is pretty bad on that thing," Kei told her and turned her attention to the range controls. "You shouldn't be shooting much farther than two or three meters with it." The target Catherine had fired at moved closer, to the four-meter mark. "Try this."
Catherine took a deep breath and then fired again. She hit, almost dead centre in the target's head. She fired a few more times and repeated her success.
"Try it kneeling," Kei instructed.
Catherine dropped to her knee and fired some more shots. She found it harder but quickly got the feel for it.
When she ran out of ammunition Yuri handed her another tube magazine of the Teflon-coated, steel balls. Halfway through the magazine the weapon's power cell went dead.
"Good enough." Kei took the pistol from Catherine.
"You won't need to get off that many shots anyway," Yuri told her.
"Why not?" Catherine and Tamikia asked almost simultaneously.
"You want to work with surprise." Yuri said, addressing Catherine. "No one is to know you're armed. If it comes down to using that weapon you'll only get a few shots off, probably at very close range."
Kei had slid a new battery into the pistol and pushed a new magazine into it.
"Don't connect the battery and the coils until you're going to use it." Kei handed her the pistol and a holster. "Do I have to give you the standard lecture about weapons safety?" Kei asked her.
"No," Catherine said as she took the weapon.
"Fine, I can't remember the standard lecture anyway. I'll just give you the warning one of my instructors gave me. Fool around with that, treat it like a toy, and I'll shoot you in the knee caps." Kei smiled, taking some of the bite out of the warning, but not all of it.
"Yes ma'am." Catherine said.
"Kei." The red head's smile was warmer.
"Where should I keep this?" Catherine held out the pistol.
"That's a stealth holster. It will clip on almost anywhere. Put it into the waistband of your jeans and pull the tails of your shirt over it," Yuri told her.
Catherine did so; she could hardly feel the pistol but was sure it must be creating a huge bulge.
"About tonight..." Tamikia said to Kei.
"Yes." The red head turned.
"I'll send my tailor up to fit you for something to wear at the party."
"This isn't some jab at my taste in clothing is it?" Kei asked.
"No."
"She's lying to spare your feelings dear Kei," Yuri said. "You have no taste. Can I borrow this?" Yuri held up the rail rifle and looked at Tamikia.
"You can have it," Tamikia said as she walked over to the elevator and tapped the call button. The doors opened immediately.
"We can't accept gratuities," Kei said, obviously getting back at Yuri for her earlier comment about her lack of taste. She directed Catherine towards the elevator.
"If anyone asks I stole it," Yuri said as she followed the others into the elevator.
The doors closed and the elevator began its ascent.