Chapter 5

Ground Control Stable, Montenegro,
Solaris City, Solaris VII,
Freedom Theater, Lyran Alliance,
October 12, 3067

When Amber felt uneasy, she brought her dadao to a secluded place behind the stable after hours. The sword was her father's, which he inherited from his father, which also got it from his father. Amber didn't know how old the thing was. She just knew that flashing the big heavy sword several times always made her feel better.

The back yard of Ground Control stable was virtually abandoned, especially during dusk when most of the stable members had gone home. Amber looked around, making sure that she had the place for herself, then unsheathed her dadao. The large sword looked too big for her 5'5" frame, but Amber had the muscles to use it. She spent some moments to admire its magnificent curve, then closed her eyes to meditate. The sword felt right in her hands, like an extension of her arms, with murderous sharp edge pointing forward.

As she closed her eyes, her mind brought her back to the lunch at Brit's Diner. Amber knew the other members respected her, but she caught some of them badmouthing Mac behind her back. She understood why they didn't like Mac, but their attitude irritated her. Jeremy was just a new addition to Ground Control. Mac, despite being a total asshole, had been the primary provider for the gang for some time. He single-handedly kept the stable running, because other mechwarriors were inadequate to bring money home. How could they favor Jeremy over Mac so quickly, after everything Mac did for the stable?

Then her thought shifted to her relationship with Mac. She was in a bad position because others saw her as Mac's girlfriend, and they didn't share bad opinion about Mac with her. It alienated her from people, and she became insanely jealous to see Jeremy getting a warm welcome. Sometime she wondered if she belonged to Ground Control stable.

Suddenly she heard some steps. It was unusual to see anybody at the stable this late. She opened her eyes and saw a shadow zipped on the corner of her eyes. She clenched her hands on her dadao and posed a fighting stance. She opened her senses, trying to catch the smallest movement of the shadow. But it disappeared into the dusk.

"Mac?" she called out.

When she heard no response, she took a peek from behind the building and caught a glimpse of shadow in the distance. The shadow headed slowly toward the hangar. Slowly Amber got up and tiptoed toward the hangar. Being barefooted helped her move in stealth. The shadow didn't realize Amber's presence. He took Kilroy's power wrench and started climbing the Apocalypse. Amber immediately knew that the shadow was trying to sabotage the mech.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Amber shouted. "Step away from the mech!"

The shadow turned its head before throwing the wrench at her. Amber rolled to the side, dodging the wrench, then quickly raised her dadao. But the shadow had already gone. Amber closed her eyes to pick up any sign where the shadow might be hiding, but it had completely gone.

There was a brief lull, then a thump exploded in the distance. It sounded like a muffled firearm, but different. Amber didn't know what it was, but she knew something was coming at her. She threw herself, feeling a sharp wind swooshed right beside her face. The thump blasted again, and Amber sommersaulted before hiding behind a wall. Something blasted the wall with such a brute force that the splinters almost got into Amber's eyes.

"Pukimai! Show yourself, you coward!" Amber yelled, fastening her grip on her dadao.

The shadow didn't respond, and there was no movement for several minutes. Amber looked around, trying to find her attacker, but the hangar was as quiet as when she first came. Amber didn't know if anybody was still at the stable, but even if there was, she didn't want him or her get into her situation. The shadow obviously knew what he was doing.

Quietly Amber reached for her comset, then called Mac. As the comlink established, she whispered, "Mac, where are you? I am at the stable. Somebody..."

Suddenly she heard that thump again. Reflexively she dropped her comset and raised her dadao to block the attack. A second later something hard hammered her dadao, so hard Amber almost lost her grip. She quickly got up, but she felt a twinge in her abdomen. She looked down to inspect it and saw a slender dart was buried on her stomach.

Amber didn't know what it was, but she knew it was poisoned. She pulled the dart out, but the poison had seeped into her blood stream. She started feeling lightheaded. Then she lost control of her muscle. Her dadao felt heavier by each counting second, and finally she had to drop it. Her leg muscles shook hard to support her own body, and in the end, she stumbled.

With her remaining power, Amber tried to reach for her comset, but her vision had tunneled down into darkness. She gave one last struggle to raise her head, then surrendered to the drug.

Horziba Manor, Montenegro,
Solaris City, Solaris VII,
Freedom Theater, Lyran Alliance,
October 13, 3067

Mac was viciously awakened by the sound of his comset. It was close to dawn, and he wondered who might call him at that hour. His guessed was Amber. Maybe she wanted to explain why she didn't spend the night at his place. Mac spat in disgust. When she missed her usual arrival, Mac quickly assumed the worst. She must have been having good times with Jeremy, he thought. So he picked up a girl from the bar and had a wild night together.

Picking up his comset, Mac went to the kitchen so he wouldn't wake the girl up, but more importantly to hide the truth from Amber. As a matter of fact Mac didn't have to do that. If Amber was cheating with Jeremy, he had all the rights to cheat with anyone he wanted. But somehow he sensed that Amber did not sleep with Jeremy, and he didn't want her to know the truth just yet.

Mac punched the receive button, and was quickly disappointed to see the gremlin's face on the screen. "What are you doing, calling me at home?" he snapped, lowering his voice down so the girl in her bed couldn't hear him. "Don't you have a job to do?"

"The job's done," the Bertoli gremlin croaked through the speaker. "But you forgot to tell me that the wee hour was still occupied. Or are you playing a game with me? If you're screwing me up, Mac, I'll kill you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Mac hissed. "Nobody is there after sunset!"

"Are you saying you don't miss this?" the gremlin chuckled. Mac's HUD screen flickered, then an image of Amber popped up. She was tied to a chair, her mouth was gagged with a piece of cloth, and her eyes fluttered incoherently as a result of the drug. "She's an extra work, Mac. The price just doubles. I want the money in my bank account by noon tomorrow, or you'll never see her again."

Mac remembered he received an incomplete call from Amber, but he never cared what it was. He should have checked on her, but his mind screamed 'betrayal' long before he could think of Amber's safety. He took a deep breath, trying to find a way to get around the gremlin and free Amber, but he didn't know anything about the hitman. He was cornered, and it seemed that the only thing to do was to pay the ransom.

"I don't have that much money, bu my next big fight is next month. You'll get your money by then," Mac growled, covering his mike when he hissed, "you bloodsucking frakker."

"One month, Mac, not a day late," the gremlin's eye twinkled. "Until then, you just take a good night sleep, or pick up some random chick from Hangar66… like one in your bed."

Mac's mouth opened but the gremlin disconnected the link before Mac could say anything. Mac slammed his fist into the wall, letting go of his frustration. Taking care of Jeremy turned out to be a much expensive work than he had imagined, and now Amber fell into the gremlin's hand. With frustration he went back to bed. He still had 2 hours to have sex with the girl, and he needed it to get rid of his frustration.