Chapter Eighteen

...and Hope to Die

That bitch doublecrossed us. Cadman could have screamed. The things he would do to that avian bitch when he found her. Oh, he'd make her regret ever betraying him. And he'd have fun doing it. For now though, he needed to survive.

They'd made it out of the vault. Just barely. The lifts had shut down the moment the alarms went off, but there was a secondary ladder for emergencies. He doubted the designers had ever expected it to be used by an infiltration team to circumvent the security protocols. Typical Federation incompetence. They'd probably never expected anyone to get near the vault who wasn't authorized.

Now though, they were trapped in the main corridor, a dozen meters from the exit, taking fire from security personnel. They were hiding around the corners, and the walls and floor were pitted with black impact marks from laser fire. "We've gotta get out of here."

"Working on that," Lupus said in that irritating lisp of his. How such a flaming...it didn't matter. He was competent. He shot straight. And it wasn't like Cadman turned his nose up to shoving it inside a man if that's what was around. "Sarah, if we get you to that door, you can hack the lock, right?"

"Sure." Sarah took a few potshots around the corner of the wall, none of them hit. "Delicate work to do while being shot at though."

This was all going tits up. And, in a rare moment of self-doubt, Cadman wondered if it had all been his fault. If he had pushed too hard with Talia, been too rough and scared her into doing something stupid. Something like this. If Vesper found out...Cadman didn't want to think about that. The price of failure would be high. And Vesper didn't care if it was the first time it had ever happened.

"Grenade." That was Jax. The lion stacked up behind Sarah was holding a spherical yellow and white explosive, his thumb hovering over the arming device.

"You throw that," Cadman warned, "You risk blowing the door controls."

More laser fire poured down the corridor, some of it nearly hitting Lupus. The wolf swore and crouched back behind cover. "We can worry about that if it happens. If we don't get rid of those guys now, we're never getting out of here."

"Agreed." Cadman nodded at Jax. Jax, much to Cadman's frustration, looked to Lupus for confirmation before priming and then tossing the grenade.

There were panicked cries of "grenade!" followed by scampering feet. Then, a deafening explosion and burst of light and heat that washed down the corridor, singing the walls and filling the air with the scent of burning fur and charred flesh. That sickening reek however was the most reassuring scent Cadman had picked up since this whole thing began. It meant they'd gotten the bastards.

Without a word they broke cover and charged down the corridor. Lupus and Sarah, on point, sprayed suppressing fire in front of them, keeping the area ahead clear until they'd reached the door. Cadman surveyed the area. Five bodies, burned and bloody. All dead. Good. Dead enemies weren't a threat. None of them looked to be Talia though. For a moment Cadman considered handing off the data card to one of these hired hands and then heading out to search for the woman. He'd enjoy the look on her face as he executed every one of her people. He'd enjoy the tears that came with what he did next even more.

"Okay, so the door controls are a little singed," Sarah said. At Cadman's oath, the female lupine added, "Don't worry." She pulled off the touch panel and looked at the mechanism inside. "I can do a manual override. We'll have to force the doors afterward though."

"Do it," Cadman barked. He almost cuffed someone when Sarah looked to Lupus, once more, for confirmation. They hadn't been doing that earlier. It didn't matter. They were almost out of here. He could upbraid them later for it.

Sarah started working on the door controls, her fingers moving in efficient, unhurried motions. That at least marked her as a professional. Cadman was about to compliment her on it when he felt something hot against his spine. A laser barrel, recently discharged. His eyes widened, and a spike of fear shot through him before he could bring it under control. "Jax?" He was the only one Cadman couldn't see.

Lupus, in front of him, aimed his own weapon at the dane. "Drop the gun and hand me the card."

"What the fuck?" Cadman dropped the gun, but he made no motion to retrieve the card. This could not be happening. There was no way in hell this was happening. Who the fuck did these people think they were?

"Hand it over, or I'll pull it off your corpse," Lupus said flatly.

Cadman growled, gnashing his teeth. "You realize what's happening? We're wasting time. Talia's people could come around here any second and mow us all down."

"That'd be a shame," Lupus replied. "Hand over the card and that won't happen."

"What's this about, huh?" Cadman didn't have much choice. He reached into his bag and handed Lupus the card. "Someone paying you more? Talia maybe?"

"Nope." Lupus shook his head. The doors started to open, slowly. "Jax, go give them a push."

Cadman felt the barrel of the gun against his spine leave. Sarah came around next to her brother. Behind him he could hear the doors squealing as Jax forced them all the way open. "At least tell me what's going on," Cadman said, feeling both cornered and bored at the same time. These scum wouldn't kill him. If they did, Vesper would have their hides. Cadman was still useful to him. And he hadn't screwed up here. Not yet. They were going to get out.

"Funny thing," Sarah said, stepping closer to Cadman. "We didn't quite trust you. So I went ahead and followed you when you went to meet your contact. Brother and his boyfriend needed some alone time anyway."

Cadman frowned. "What are you getting at?"

A sharp, sudden pain shot through Cadman's guts. The distant, rational part of his mind identified the sensation immediately. He'd been stabbed. "You don't look that hard to break...or something else?" Sarah bit out through grit teeth. Another sharp pain, and then another. Cadman was losing focus. He could feel the hot blood spurting out of him, dripping onto the ground. "Compensate you some other way?" One final pain and then he crumpled to the ground. He looked up at Sarah and Lupus, and at Jax as the lion came back to loom behind the two. He saw pure hatred in their eyes. A pure hatred he'd seen only a few times before. But usually in the context of what came after those words Sarah had uttered back to him. "You can have fun rotting in hell with my father. But don't worry, we'll get this card to your employer."

Sarah pressed a boot to his wounds and kicked him over. Looking at them as they retreated, and the life seeped out of him, Cadman said just one more thing. "Who are you people?"

Lupus stopped, looked down at him, and seemed to consider it for a moment. "Us?" he said, a smile that did nothing to make Cadman feel any better spread across his muzzle. "We're Star Wolf."

And with that, the last light of the dark, despicable life of Cadman Dane went out.

Talia stared at the monitors, trying to process what had just happened. Five of her people were dead. The intruders had escaped. But not before turning on one of their own. Dane. The dane who had threatened her life. Who she knew had just been drooling at the thought of forcing her to the ground and doing the most unspeakable things he could think of to her. They'd killed him. Stabbed him mere seconds before reinforcements arrived. Now, they'd disappeared into the jungle. She had no intention of ordering her security personnel to pursue. There was no point. She didn't have the people, and that jungle would mask their thermal signatures.

Reaching behind her she grabbed onto a chair and sat down, heavily. Reality was beginning to close in on her. She'd betrayed her country. Given vital, top secret information to Ascended knew who, all for the sake of money and a fulfilling retirement. A rich, hedonistic retirement. Then, she'd nearly died instead. She'd nearly been raped and killed for not having exactly the information that psychopath wanted. She'd survived that, and then this whole mess had started. But now she'd survived that too. There would be questions. Investigations. She might not get through unscathed. But she'd done her job well. She knew there wouldn't be any trace of her own misdeeds. It would all just look like a foul up of leadership. She might get discharged for incompetence. No pension then. But she had that sweet million credits.

A smile curved her beak as she thought about that. To hell with her pension. To hell with an honorable end to her career. She'd invest half of it, and spend the rest getting drunk off her ass and screwing half the Zitza arcology. She'd earned it. Decades of service to the Federation, and all they'd been going to give her was a retirement medal and a lousy pension that'd let her live comfortably on one of the lower levels. No. She didn't give a damn about whatever the Federation had just lost. All she cared about was getting through the next six months of inquiries and investigations, calling the parents and next of kin of those who'd died, and then getting the hell out of here to somewhere with lots of drinks, and lots of men.

She realized her staff was looking at her. Wiping the little smile off her face, she stood up and said, "Alright, you all know your jobs. We've drilled for this. A lot. Let's do them, and make sure that no one from internal affairs has any reason to think we did anything other than those jobs. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am," came the chorused response.

Talia set to work, a deep feeling of satisfaction inside of her. It had been bloody. It hadn't gone the way it was supposed to. But when she moved into a nice apartment at the top levels of Zitza, and threw her first big party with all her friends, it'd all have been worth it. Glancing at the screen that showed the corpse of that dane, lying in a puddle of his own blood, Talia amended her sentiments. With that scum dead, and gone from the lives of anyone in Lylat, it had all been worth it already. Well, well worth it.

Industrial Sector K-7 looked to have been abandoned for quite some time. James's boots crunched against the shattered glass of a window, making him wince at the loud noise. Located near the bottom level of Eladard City, and surrounded by high rises and elevated train tracks on every side, the area looked to have been out of use since at least the time of the Third Great Recession. At least, that was Peppy's estimation. James was willing to take it at face value. The last thing he needed right now was to set Peppy off on some historical topic. The man could be downright didactic when he got going.

"Why is it always old industrial sectors?" James muttered, stopping to shine a light on a bit of graffiti. He held back a chuckle at the rather lewd commentary it provided about a local Eladardian house of ill-repute.

"Probably because no one in their right mind would want to come here in the middle of the night," Peppy whispered back, looking over his shoulder.

"Good point." James and Peppy continued creeping forward, sticking to the shadows as much as possible.

Earlier in the night they'd used Gwen and Janice's ship to scan the city, looking for the isotope that Argus had infused into the Arwing as a tracking device. What they'd found had been...odd. Multiple signatures had been pinged throughout the city, as if there were more than one Arwing here. In order to try and narrow their search, they'd analyzed the data to find the ages of the various signatures, and then connected them, from oldest to newest. The shape that had come up had thrown them all for a loop. A spider's web. It's damned creepy.

"What do you think of Gwen?" James asked, breaking the silence as they stepped around the corner of another building. Still nothing. None of these buildings were large enough to hold the Arwing. Their interior spaces were cluttered with assembly lines, spare parts, and containers. That, and none of the doors were wide enough to accommodate the Arwing's wingspan.

Peppy glanced back at him, almost invisible in the stealth suits that Gwen and Janice had provided them. The two women were posted in one of the nearby skyscrapers, providing cover. The stealth suits were top of the line, with active camouflage that would blend them into their surroundings, and noise cancellation to keep conversation quiet and footsteps inaudible. James could have a screaming match with his team and no one would hear a thing. "You're asking me that now?"

"Sure." James waved his flashlight along another window. Nothing inside but junk. "It helps me focus."

"Thinking about women?" Peppy sounded incredulous.

"Why not?" James replied. "Plus, I mean, it gives me a reason to live. You know, getting laid at the end of this."

"Jeez," Peppy sighed. "You don't lack for confidence do you?"

"Not really," James answered, a smarmy grin on his face. "So, Gwen?"

Peppy sighed again, crackling static on the team mic. "Sure. Why not?"

"Yeah James. Go for her, she's got a sweet rack." That was Vixy, breaking in from the other side of the industrial sector. She was with Archer, combing the place. They'd eventually meet up in the middle. Hopefully they'd be able to drive anyone else around here out of hiding, though James knew they'd likely have needed a platoon of Federation soldiers to do an effective sweep and clear of the area.

"She does. Can she hear me right now?"

"Yes." Gwen's country Papetoon accent answered. "And not in a million years James. What kinda girl do you think I am?"

"A very, very attractive one. Who also happens to be very attracted to me," James said, not missing a beat. "I promise, I'm a perfect gentleman."

"Pfft." Vixy, making an explosive noise with her lips.

"Shut up."

"What? James, you are so not a perfect..."

"I meant shut up, I think I found something." James stopped in front of an abandoned elevator shaft. It led underground, and was marked with hazard tape. That wasn't what had caught his attention however. Swept through the chipping paint on the doors was a set of feline claw marks. And they looked fresh. His suit was telling him there was still some living organic residue. Just the normal things you'd find under a cat's claws, but if those marks had been here since the place went under, they'd have been dead by now.

"I don't know James." Peppy shook his head. "This doesn't feel right."

"No. It doesn't," James agreed. "But it's the first thing that's felt anything since we got here. Vixy, Archer, come to my position."

"Aye."

"James," Gwen's voice again, "If you go down there we can't cover you."

"We'll contact you if we need anything," James assured her. Staring at those claw marks he had the feeling he'd found something. Or been led to something.

Janice's voice this time, "Depending how far you go down, comms might not work. You should wait for us."

Vixy and Archer arrived, and James said, "Negative. It'll be close quarters down there. I want to take as few people as possible. In fact, just one person is going to go with me."

All eyes turned to James at that. "Who?" Peppy asked, though his tone told him he already knew.

"Vixy. You piloted the Arwing. Think you could fly it out of there?" James asked.

"Absolutely." Vixy set her shoulders, her expression determined. "Assuming, that is, there's a way out of there."

James smiled and looked back at the elevator doors. "I'd be willing to bet real money there is."

"Why?" Gwen asked.

"Because," James said, walking up to the doors and pushing the call button. "Whoever has the Arwing wants us to find it. That much is pretty obvious at this point. And if he wants us to find it, he wants us to take it."

"That sounds like a trap," Archer noted.

"Mmhmm." James turned back to them, Vixy beside him. "Keep things clear here. I have our next move."

"And what is that?" Peppy asked.

James smiled and stepped into the elevator. "Spring the trap."

A/N: And so the penultimate chapter arrives! Only one more after this, and then we can close the book so to speak. I'll have a little more to say once that one is posted. For now though, Cadman is dead. Thank. God. A more loathsome being I have never created.

Also, apologies that this wasn't out yesterday. There were some technical issues on FF's side. See you next Friday!