Chapter Three

"What the fuck do you mean you want money?" Scott bent over and stared at the bartender.

"Exactly what it sounds like you little chicken shit," the bartender looked into his eyes, "I'm sick of Lu sticking up for you on this issue and you just treating her like crap. It's time to pay up."

Scott ran his hands through his hair and stood up, "Fuck man, I don't have any fucking money. None, natta, zip."

"Well you better get some quick otherwise we have a problem, and you don't want us to have a problem."

Scott sat and thought for a couple seconds. Then he snapped his fingers in the air and looked up.

"I got it you old fag."

"Yeah I'm listening, and watch the fucking tongue."

"All right, I'm supposed to be making some money soon. Kinda this little thing I did and it should get me enough to pay you off. But, I'm not entirely sure when I'm gonna get this money, ya know," Scott paused for a second.

"Yeah, I'm listening."

"All right, how bout this? You wait till I get this money, okay? I won't have any beer or anything of yours till then. Plus, I'll add this. If I don't get the money, not only will I never show my face around here again; I'll never bother Lu either. And, if I do, be my guest to pump some lead in my white ass."

The bartender thought for a second. He bent down and picked up a dirty glass and began to clean it.

"Fine you little shit. You got two weeks. Plenty of fucking time for even a loser like you to get some money. I'll pay any price to get your ass outta here forever."

"All right man, it's a deal. Don't go thinking I'm gonna break it or anything. This time I got a sure thing," Scott walked out of the room.

"Yeah, whatever you chicken shit," he continued cleaning glasses.

It was about half past noon. The bar was empty because only the drunks liked to come out near nightfall. The sun was just straight up above the ground but not too harsh on the people below. Crows flocked in the sky and bothered one another.

The bar that Scott and Charlie were currently at wasn't just your normal bar. It had two floors. Walking in, there was about an even set of small round tables with stools. The counter was all the way up to the wall and to the right of it was the back room. The back room was made for the employees to take a quick break, or whatever. However, Lu was the only employee at that time.

Next to the back room were stairs that led to the second floor. At the top of the second floor there was a window that had a fire escape outside of it. On the second floor were just two rooms. One for the barkeep and the other was for work.

Three days had past since Charlie had gotten badly wounded, but he was healing very quickly. He was already up and moving around. Doing things without any help. Of course Scott didn't care what he did, but Lu would always nag at him not to push himself.

Lu was mopping up the back room floor and trying her best to clean all the blood off the couch. It didn't look so good, but she was already planning to throw away the couch anyway, long before Charlie showed up hurt.

She stopped mopping for a second and wiped the sweat away from her eyes. She put down the mop and looked around.

"Fucking A. How the fuck am I going to clean all this up? I should make Scott help me. Come to think of it, where is that man?" she walked out the back room.

She looked around at the tables, but he wasn't seated at any of them. She noticed the bartender had fallen asleep. He was lying on the counter and drool was all over his face.

She walked up the beginning of the stairs, but stopped only after a few steps. Lu put her ear to the wall. She could hear Scott and Charlie's voices. They were sitting outside of the bar on the fire escape. Lu got low and took quiet, slow steps till she could see Charlie and Scott.

Scott was relaxed and comfortable on the railing, while Charlie just stood up and paced a little.

"So, how's the arm?" Scott looked at Charlie.

"It's doing better, probably just a few more days and I'll be as good as new," Charlie smiled.

"You had us worried for a bit that you weren't going to make it."

"Nah, I'm good. I gotta be here, it's against the rules for me to die."

"Why is that?"

"You'd be fucked without me," both of them laughed.

Scott stopped grinning and stared at Charlie.

"Any news from Thompson?" Scott asked.

"Not much, he should call in a few days," Charlie responded.

"So, you care to tell me?" Scott looked at him.

"Tell you what?" Charlie asked.

"Tell me what the fuck you did to get that guy to almost kill you," Charlie stopped pacing.

He stood quiet for a second.

"Well, you gonna answer?" Scott moved around a little to get the rail out of his back.

"All right. I did some research on the group Diadem, while you were out getting them on tape. I was just hacking their files on the computer and everything seemed to be going smoothly. I learned just a little about what they were cooking up.

"I doubt they were talking about this in the meeting, but they got something big. From what I could see it was some sort of a weapon. But, I couldn't get enough facts about this weapon. I don't know if it's a virus, or some type of bomb, but it's bad.

"Anyway, just as I'm about to figure everything out, my connection dies. Seems that they had found me out and were playing with me, letting me get a taste of whatever the fuck they got planned. Before I knew it the big guy was in there giving me some lead and beatings.

"All my findings, like the name of it, and everything, I wrote down. But, they all got thrashed. Also, I can't remember to much cause I think I got hit on the head pretty bad."

They both were silent for a second, then Scott got up.

"All right. This is what I figure. After we give this tape up, and get our money, we pull out of this. If we don't, were gonna get too far tangled and could have to fight. I mean, were just mercenaries, we gotta keep ourselves low," Scott looked off into the distance.

"Yeah, your right. Let's get this tape to Thompson and get the fuck out before we are dead meat," Charlie agreed.

They both sat there for another moment.

"What about Lu?" Charlie asked.

"What about her?" Scott responded.

"Well, are we just going to leave her here?"

"It's up to her. I don't think she will want to be tangled up in this b-," Scott stopped speaking.

He looked into the window right at Lu.

"Lu, what did I tell you about listening in on us?" Scott closed his eyes and looked down.

Lu walked out into view and was burning red with embarrassment. Charlie and Scott stared at her. Scott opened the window and stepped inside. He then walked down the steps and into the back room.

Charlie walked up behind her.

"Don't worry. Scott doesn't really care you listened. And, since you were listening to us, at least we don't have to tell you the story again," Charlie smiled and put his hand on her shoulder as he walked to a table and sat down.

"Yeah, your right," Lu whispered with tears in her eyes.