Unlike the majority of the group, Akiza was both in and enjoying full-time employment. Which meant that she left Poppo Time every day for several hours while the rest of them lazed around with no real progress to show. Yusei was spending his time keeping appraised of the news reports regarding Abi and barely left from the computer station in the garage. Crow was using the extended downtime to enjoy the use of his own bed with the knowledge that nobody was going to rouse him from his rest with demands for team practice or interviews. Mysteriously, Jack had gone out without humble-bragging about his plans. Which left Musume with her new phone from a hidden sender. It was not going well.
She had been trying to force her way into the device for a while now without success. There were hidden folders, redacted file names and entire programs that refused to even boot. Whoever had sent her the phone seemed to be taunting her, locking up the screen with a dull copy of the Mark of the Crimson Dragon whenever she tried to access anything that might actually be of any use. Resorting to the brutal force of throwing it at the wall had resulted in a despairing look from Akiza and a demand from Yusei that Musume fix the resulting hole. Whatever materials the phone had been made from were far sturdier than the wall it had been lodged in.
Worse, she had put it down to make her third cup of coffee that morning only to turn around and see it smothered beneath the hindquarters of a fair-furred feline that stared back at her with disrespect reflecting in each iris. "Move it, furball." Human people would lean back and spread their arms. Hoshi just carefully folded her legs under her like a crab and sighed contentedly as she closed her eyes. "Okay then." Since literally the day that she had been born, life hadn't made things easy. Everything from her mother dying to screwing over history in an ill-conceived attempt to save her family from early death. A cat sitting on the most impossibly stubborn phone she had ever known was nothing. "Let me just," Half a second after she made the perfect plan, the sort of blistering insults which would have permanently shamed Akiza for being related to her pounded through the room. At least, as far as the ones that were spoken in a language they could recognise.
"What's wrong?!" Launching himself out of his room with enough speed to bounce off the wall, Crow's fatherly role dragged him from a lengthy morning nap to see what was happening to his daughter from another future. A large part of him had expected another relapse into the dilemma that had struck in France. Although she had torn her shirt when the wings had slipped beyond control during the moment of pain and outrage, that was not his most pressing concern.
"I've got a pounding headache, people keep screwing with my life and I will skin you like an orange unless you move your fat, fluffy behind off that phone." Not many people could include the word 'fluffy' in a threat but Musume was fairly sure that she conveyed the point properly because Hoshi leaned forward and hissed. Eyes glowing from within with an unholy light, Musume lessened the gap and growled right back. In an astounding display of animalistic bravery, the cat refused to back down.
"Okaaay." Pulling her away from the cat before more blood could be shed on either side, Crow was slightly alarmed at the shift in her behaviour lately. "You do know that's a cat, right? Not some demon spawn." One of the perks of having Crow mooch off free boarding by virtue of being his brother (Yusei was looking up at the floorboards above his head and wondering if the lack of screaming was good or bad at the same time that the pair were debating how to deal with his cat) was that it meant he didn't have to deal with the fallout Musume mooching off free boarding by virtue of being Akiza's daughter.
It didn't escape his notice that any number of problems could be solved if people would just stop mooching off family hospitality.
"Go on," Keeping her extra appendages inside was more of a struggle when people – or cats – were going out of their way to get in hers. "Try getting the phone back." Sucking on the back of her hand, she glared at the cat as it glared straight back.
"Aww, you're just a adorable liddle puddy-tat, aren't you?" Reaching out, he fluffed the top of the cats head affectionately. "How about you move just a little bit so that I can," Nobody alive could resist the Hogan charm. Just Martha, his brothers, Trudge, Mina, Sherry, the French people as a whole, approximately nine-eighths of women he hit on (there were a few return encounters on the Duelling circuits which skewed the statistics), his daughter from a different future (which he put down to an immunity grown from years of exposure) and – judging by the fresh lines on the back of his hand – cats. "Argh, mother" Catching the smug and savage look that Musume was sending his way, Crow forced his jaw shut before it could be finished. "Bad cat. Very bad cat."
"What's going on?" Hearing Musume shouting stirred self-protective instincts to run in the other direction to avoid the fallout. Hearing his brother shouting brought out Yusei's instincts to protect his family and run towards the fallout. Seeing her master, Hoshi carefully stretched, slipped from the table and meandered over to curl around one leg with instincts that allowed her to evade any sort of repercussions.
"I'm going to eat her." Looking down at the mewling feline by his feet, Yusei tried to reconcile the depth of emotion with the target. Surely even Musume would struggle to hate an affectionate cat? Then he remembered how much she hated him for no reason that he knew of and heard what her next threat. "You're going to be lunch." A nice stir-fry would probably go well. Add a dribble of soy sauce to overcome the stringy taste. She could practically smell the sizzle already.
"What did she do?" Although the cat looked innocent, it was the same way his brothers tried to look innocent when they had just done something. Considering that she had once defecated in Jack's shoes, it was possible that she was actually in the wrong here. Not enough to be lunch but still in the wrong.
"She stole my phone." It sounded a bit juvenile when she actually said it aloud.
"She stole your phone?" Reaching down, he picked up the impossibly deadly feline which lacked either thumbs to pick up the phone or the jaw strength to hold it properly. "How did she do that?" Curled up in one arm, Hoshi started purring to gain his affection. "Hush." He knew enough about the situation not to be fooled so easily. No matter how much she tried to nuzzle at his jaw.
"She sat on it and wouldn't get up. And then she scratched my hand!" Holding up her own hand produced no evidence that Yusei could see. The cuts had healed over by the time his brother had arrived and vanished completely by the time he got there. "And she got Crow!" Holding up his bleeding appendage definitely garnered some pity. A grown man should know better than to disturb a hissing cat.
"You mean the phone that doesn't work? The one that Crow thought was a bomb?" The bruises on his back were definitely impressive but he regretted not landing on one side instead. Evaluating the situation, a calling as a hostage negotiator was definitely available if his callings to science and Duelling fell apart. "How about I fix the hole in the wall and you promise not to eat Hoshi?" With both parties at fault in this situation, he was willing to let bygones be bygones and keep his cat from being eaten by patching a wall.
"Only if she keeps out of my way." Glaring at the feline, she managed to dull the shine in her eyes. Then Hoshi yawned aggravatingly and her eyes flashed angrily.
"How about we go for a drive?" Seeing the slight step back that his brother took away from the obvious danger, Crow carefully nudged Musume in the direction of the stairs. Keeping Hoshi nuzzled against his chest to avoid any further issues, Yusei circled in the opposite direction as they descended out of sight.
"Here," In one hand was the phone Crow had rescued from the table while Hoshi was cosying up to Yusei. In the other was a spare leather jacket that he had bought to replace the one that she had lost in Paris. "Try to keep better track of it this time." Meaning the phone and whatever was stored inside. "Come on." A slim helmet had come with the Dilucesco. Just like the Duel Runner it was paired with, the style was streaked with gold and crimson. Tossing it through the air, Crow was already sliding on his own by the time she caught it. "Let's get some air." Which would have been a really cool phrase to depart on had there been enough room to easily pull out of the garage. Having five Duel Runners crammed into the space meant that they had barely enough room to inch out of the garage.
Right up until the events of the Pegasus Trinidad Tournament, Jack was the most famous Duellist of the day. People were aware that Yusei was still around but a lack of performances had lowered him in public standing. So when he had blasted back out of retirement, destroyed the entire competition at every level and gone on to win the King of Games title by default (there was a vast, growing movement to have him Duel either Jack or Leo to consolidate the victory (with a smaller movement to have him Duel both of them at the same time)) Jack had found himself reliving the same strange of invisibility that had struck him the last time that Yusei had surpassed him. Unlike last time, he had an understanding of what would happen. There was also – although the term could only loosely apply when Jack was involved – a plan.
Even an activity as innocuous as sitting on a bench had been impossible just a few months ago. He had currently been sprawled across a seat for the last twenty minutes without any incident. With his eyes closed and a hat pulled low over his face, he had even been able to take a short nap in preparation of what lay ahead. "Sorry, I'm late." Opening his eyes as his contact finally arrived, Jack straightened the casual blue jacket he was wearing as he rose to his feet. "I had to finish up an article before the deadline tonight. Have you been waiting long?" Hurrying as fast as her heels could bring her, Carly still had a pencil tucked behind one ear and the top two buttons of her yellow silk shirt in the wrong holes. Which didn't mean she had an excuse to avoid his restrained ire.
"A museum?" To Jack's understanding of the world, a museum was one step away from being a graveyard. At least it had been streamlined to only include the highlights of the best people but still a graveyard. "I had to get a bus for this?" Public transport was a sort of torture for Jack. He had no control over arrival, departure, route, if anyone else would be sharing the ride with him, chances of being recognised. It was difficult to hand over control but calling a taxi would have been a dead giveaway to his destination. Besides, everyone knew that Jack Atlas didn't get the bus.
"Trust me, you're going to want to see this." Dragging him in by the hand, she knew that he would have left it he hadn't intended to follow through on his promise. Since it was a public museum, she dropped a handful of spare coins and loose notes into a donation box near the entrance as she grabbed one of the colourful pamphlets on the way past. Up two sets of stairs, along a dizzying freestanding glass corridor and into a spacious annexe, they practically had the rooms to themselves in the middle of the working day. "Here we are."
"Where, exactly?" Noticeable waves of irritation were rolling off him by now. A museum was bad enough on a good day. Being dragged through one at speeds that made people look and take notice was not his idea of keeping a low profile.
That he had any idea of keeping a low profile was thanks in no small part to his therapy, brothers and attempts to visit Martha without being followed constantly being foiled until he learned better.
Stopping just before an archway, Carly was slightly out of breath in her attempt to make up for lost time. "They're doing a photography exhibition on modern Duelling." And since Yusei rarely set foot on the field, the photographs had focused on a more frequent flier. Several screaming pictures of Jack's face were looking down from various angles. "I thought it might be fun to have a look."
"Fun?" Looking through at the exhibit inside, his tone suggested that she had just declared herself the queen of the moon. "In a museum?" Museums were designed to look back at the past. Of course, looking back at his own past might just be enjoyable enough to waste an afternoon on. "Well, Leo managed to force me into a draw," Not-frowning in that way that he only showed around her, Jack's hands carefully buttoned her shirt in the right order as she squeaked slightly in embarrassment. "So I suppose that anything's possible. Shall we?" Holding out an arm like a gentleman, he waited impatiently until she took it.
"Did I said that I was sorry for being late?" She was blushing again and feeling just a bit dizzy. Not for the first time, she considered that maybe therapy would do her some good as well. The only problem with considering it was that her brain inevitably drew the link to Jack's therapy, to maybe them getting therapy together and then realising they were married in this scenario. Fortunately, Jack had recognised one of the large prints just inside the door and dragged Carly in alongside him.
"I remember this one." Leaning in, he studied the level of detail with interest. "The Brazilian Open, three years ago." Squinting slightly to avoid actually burying his face in the picture, he tried to make out the smallest detail. "Ha, I knew it!" Leaning back with the smug expression of pure correctness, he leaned in to whisper in Carly's ear. "I said that my mechanic was snacking between laps. No cameras in the bay so they got away with it."
"You also managed to win the entire competition in under forty moves." Records were made to be broken but any faster would be moving from the boundaries of skill and more into luck. Jack had managed to complete the entire tournament with an average of just three turns per Duel. "There was some concern when your fifth opponent chained two Discord's in a row but you got around that with Strong Wind Dragon." As usual, his overwhelming power attacks had crushed any hint of defence without mercy.
For an hour, they slowly meandered across the floor in careful examination of pictures that had been captured in recent years. Jack was prominent but hardly the only member of his family present. Several pictures had captured images of Crow with his team taking part in multiple tournaments. A couple showed Yusei during his infrequent charity Duels or fulfilling an age-old obligation towards Kame Game. There were even a few of Leo that had been incorporated into a montage of lower ranking Duellists. Through it all, Jack managed not to blow his own trumpet when the frequently came across a picture where he was the star. Instead, he tried to see things from a much different point of view.
"This colour scheme really compliments the architecture." Two of the phrases he used in that sentence were only partially known to him as his brain mumbled Architecture = buildings, colour scheme = different colours (?). Which was more or less the extent of his understanding of the topics. He could appreciate both but the actual terminology was a pair of foreign languages. "Sepia filter?"
"Close. Yellow tone." Some photographers preferred to operate in a particular colour where they could. It often produced patterns that were otherwise unnoticeable, a different view on the subject and a lot of negative feedback. Moving onto the next piece of art forced him to really up his game.
"This one's not as good." Dredging up every single iota of his knowledge into the subject, Jack carefully tested the sentence out in his head. Since it made no real sense, he tried it out aloud. "Although the monochromatic view accentuates the monster designs, the lack of colour contrast blurs the distinction between areas." A decent artistic view from an art enthusiast, it was mostly down to luck that Jack managed to put the words in the right order.
"Good use of Dust Lord Ash Gash." Following his slow meander across the hallway to look at the next exhibit, she didn't even need to check the information to know what had happened. Being a full-time reporter hadn't stopped her from being a full-time Jack Atlas fanatic. "Nobody expected you to use it like that."
"What?" Swinging them around, he checked the photograph again. "No, Twin-Sword Marauder." Quantum physics buckled under the strain of his face trying to resort into a scowl as his mind forced it to remain in place. Scowling wasn't allowed on a date except under specific circumstances. "Russian Championship, four years ago. They don't like me for winning that one." Defeating the national champion in six moves still earned him free luggage examinations every time that he passed through the country. A lot of Russians had mixed feelings him. Well, they had had mixed feelings. Now that he was no longer World Champion, he was just the foreigner who had beaten their national icon.
"Huh. That's weird." Two-thirds of the picture was still the same but she could have sworn that the monster had completely changed in the time it took to get halfway to the next photograph. "Maybe I need a drink." Too late did she realise the grave error.
"There's a coffee shop two floors up." Neither science nor religion could explain his ability to locate the nearest caffeine source. Carly was sure that he hadn't read any of the signs around the building and she was holding their only map. How did he manage to do it?
"Let's finish looking at the rest of the exhibition first." Dragging him over to the next picture, she cast a look at the disturbing image they were leaving behind. She had avidly watched every single Duel that Jack had performed and knew his Deck intimately. It was impossible that she could have misidentified any of his monsters.
They might have a casual relationship which only extended as far as a couple of visits each year and Carly couldn't even fool herself into believing that it was monogamous but Jack was committed to it. He was actively making an effort to try and understand her world. A lot of men she knew in other relationships didn't even make that level of effort. Maybe it wouldn't last forever but she was happy for now.
After a playful race through the streets of New Domino, Crow had lead them to a small parking area near the mountain pass. It had good views of the city but was so overpriced that people rarely stopped there for long in case a warden came by to ask for tickets.
Leaning against the side of her Duel Runner, Musume ignored the view as she tried to figure out what her mystery benefactor could want. They had sent her a custom model that outstripped everything else she had ever seen – in her old past or new present – a phone with the sorts of tricks that she had only dreamed about (even with the majority of the functions locked out of her reach) and asked nothing in return. In her experience, everyone was always playing an angle. She just couldn't figure out what this one was.
"You know what really gets me?" Staring down at that symbol still stirred a lot of anger in her but the repetition – and having thrown it at the wall once already – had dulled that reaction to a dull flicker. "It's the old picture."
"What do you mean?" Wordlessly passing over the phone cut through a lot of tedious explanations. "You're right. It doesn't have Leo's bit." Squinting slightly in case he was being dumb, he couldn't identify any hint of the Heart symbol. "Whatever happened to it?" Since her brutal transformation in Paris, the only lines they had seen was on her hands and across her face. The individual Marks – or even their combined form – had simply vanished from sight.
"Crow?" She refused to believe that any route he could take in life would render him vastly different from the man that had raised her. At least some intelligence had to lurk behind that headband. "I'm not taking off my shirt again." The first time had been more than enough but she had to establish the truth in a hurry. There would not be a second if she could help it.
"Oh. So it's...?" Waving his hands vaguely over his own chest drew a filthy look. "Right." He was able to understand the lines a bit better now. The Head was tattooed across the right of her face, a Claw was layered over her hand and the Heart – judging by her threatening tone – was in a place that she wouldn't be showing him any time soon. Then an idea sprang into his mind. There were a couple of places that human physiology didn't mesh with the creatures inside her.
"Think it through." Knowing the way that his mind worked, she headed off the question that would put him at risk of patricide as he opened his mouth. "And don't say anything." Although they lacked a perfect facsimile, the remaining parts had found close enough approximations to get by. She would also not be showing their exact locations.
"Yeah, weird that it's the old picture." Handing the phone back, he pretended the last few minutes hadn't happened. "Maybe they just didn't get the memo." Leo had been a proper Signer for about five minutes. It was no wonder that he had been overlooked. "Could be that they just don't know about his Mark."
"Carly managed to get half the story with photos from the internet and a fat nerd." And that was before she had realised just how good she was at unravelling deception. The Carly currently on a date with Jack might have been able to get the whole scoop before the morning edition was printed. "You lot weren't exactly subtle. What did you say?" There had been a cough which sounded uncannily like 'wings' but that might have been the line that ran across her ear. Luck stepped in before she could find threaten him into revealing which it was.
A quiet buzz distracted her from revenge. It took a minute to realise that it was coming from her. Opening her hand, she looked down to find a single notification waiting on the unreflective screen.
"Who even has that number?" If it was safe to spread around, they would have just had a normal phone call instead of Akiza's number being constantly parroted back at them during the trial. "Well, go on." Shuffling slightly closer to overhear any conversation, he waited impatiently. "Answer it." Throwing him a chilly look as reminder that he was still in trouble, she thumbed the screen into life.
It was one of the few programs that she could access. An encrypted messaging program which wiped itself after every use. All the previous contacts had been redacted and she had decided against trying to fish for information. It was clear that they were too exposed already and she didn't want to let the smell of easy prey enter the waters. There was also the danger that she might make contact with someone that Para5yte had pissed off.
Guess who:) Although the names were blank, a few had icons attached. The one currently showing at the top of her screen looked like a fluffy gold cloud.
"What should I say?" She had never been that good at texting. Either people spoke to her in person or they wondered why fifty messages failed to be read. She was usually too busy to sit down and waste time on meaningless chatter.
"I don't know." Staring down at the screen, they collectively had little idea of what to do next. "They're using text speak. Trying writing 'sup' and adding a smiley face." Never in the redacted history of subterfuge had anyone recorded the use of saying 'smiley face' and it reflected in her face. "What? Do you have a better idea?" Unable to think of one, she followed his suggestion.
"Sup :)" Surveying their work for a moment, Musume sent the message with a tight knot of trepidation curling in her stomach. An honest Duel would have been easier to handle instead of trying to guess how to respond to a sudden voice on a phone that wasn't really hers.
There was a pause before a fresh message scrolled across the screen in colder tones than before. Tell me who uR. U wont like if I hv to find out MY way. Musume hurried out a reply as she tried not to let the deception slip.
"Wht U mean?" It was another risky move that failed to pay off as three little dots bounced menacingly to indicate impending doom.
The owner of this phone doesn't use shorthand. Or emoticons. Every guess Musume had taken recently was turning sour. She had assumed that Parasyte used shorthand because this person was using it. Give me a name or I'll tear your world apart. Whoever was on the other end of the message chain was either bluffing or skipping straight to the serious threats. Since lying wasn't getting her anywhere, Musume opted for the less reliable option of telling the truth.
"Musume." There was a much longer pause this time. Watching those dots jump again almost stopped Crow's heart under the strain.
Para5yte said you might be in touch. Where are they? Letting out a combined sigh of relief – mixed with a touch of confusion that they were once again being helped by someone they didn't know – the pair continued to apply as little information as possible while staying within the boundaries of the truth.
"Not sure. They sent the phone and that's it." Another little bleep from the phone as the cursor flashed.
Well, Para5yte told me you could use their credit. Like that meant something.
"Ask them what they mean." Hovering at one shoulder, Crow was voicing her thoughts as they went through Musume's head. Something she did not appreciate.
"What credit? Who are you?" It is difficult to truly express laughter through text but the mystery sender tried anyway.
Phahahaha. That's so easy I'll not even charge you. Name's Arg0nought. Insulting and helpful. A bad combination to be around Musume. Best info-broker money can buy. You need any sort of information and I'll sell it to you. Finding stuff costs extra. Meaning that they could get second-hand info easily enough. And Musume knew exactly what to ask for first.
"Can you tell me what you've been telling Para5yte?" If she had been tapped into the credit of the former owner of her phone, maybe she was also allowed access to any information that they had. It would certainly give a good understanding of the sort of mind that they were dealing with.
They said to tell you that everything's on the phone. Probably behind that mocking insignia that kept them from accessing parts of the storage. 'Show it proof.' That's a direct quote. Para5yte's a bit weird sometimes.
"Yeah, no kidding." She didn't send that one. Their mystery helper had performed a few fairly strange antics since making themselves known. And those were just the ones that they knew about. "What does 'show it proof' mean? Can you not make that noise?" Crow had let loose a small squeal at the question. "Ever again."
"Hang on." Sliding across to his own Duel Runner, he fetched his Deck from where it sat before leaning back beside her. "Where is it, where is it..." Shuffling through the thin layer of cards, he plucked out the only one that was unique to his Deck. "Here." Tucking away the rest, he held out the Black-Winged Dragon. "It wants proof, right? Well, the best proof that it's with us is our dragons. Take a picture of it." Looking down at the card then up at the man who had raised her, she tried not to let the surprise show on her face. Maybe the cruellest part of his life was the term 'in his own way'. As in, 'Yusei may be smart but so is Crow, in his own way' or 'Jack is talent but Crow is as well, in his own way'. He tended to get sidelined a lot by circumstance of being their brother.
"Good plan." Laying the card flat on his Duel Runner, she pulled up one of the locked files again. "How did you know this would work?" Hovering the phone over his card, she tried for a smile.
"Well, you could fake everything else." Due to being public figures, his brothers endured no end of copyright infringement. Crow made sure to include at least one item based upon either of his brother's image that would never gain them any profit every birthday. "This is the best way of proving who we are." It was a lucky hunch. Slowly glowing brighter than the rest of the symbol, the Tail Mark was illuminated on the screen. "Do you think that it's a lucky guess or does Parasyte know which ones we used to have?" The more that they uncovered about their ephemeral ally, the more questions they had.
"I don't know." While her family were prepared to wait and ask more questions, Musume was the sort of lady that wanted them over with right away. "Hang on." Holding the literal answer to all their problems in her hands, she had a stroke of simple brilliance that illuminated a clear path to answers. "Why don't we just ask who Parasyte is?"
"What makes you think that they know?" Despite recognising the simple ingenuity of her plan, Crow held a few doubts. If Parasyte had kept them at a distance under the sort of situations that they had already helped with, they were unlikely to have trusted their identity to yet another stranger.
"Ah!" Holding up a triumphant finger, Musume had anticipated the question. "We can just have Argonought find out for us." And using the vast credit pool that Para5yte had already built up themselves. It was so ironic that it was almost poetic. "Can I ask you about someone?" Mumbling the question aloud, she was testing the waters to see if they could focus on one person before narrowing down the search.
Is it related to Yliaster? Because that stuff costs extra. Musume's breath caught in her throat. Reading the screen beside her, Crow was torn between his need to point out being right and his uncertainty over yet another new player in the sprawling web that was his life. It was like the creepy criminal version of 'friend of a friend'.
"How do you know that name?" It didn't matter that the phone was apparently tougher than a wall. She could simply fly it out to the ocean and drop it to the seabed. Yliaster wouldn't be able to track them from there.
Para5yte put me onto their tracks but I've been digging stuff up all over. Last chatter I heard was about something going down in Paris a couple of weeks ago. So they knew about Musume's unpleasant experience, if not in detail. Para5yte always gives me info to build her credit. They paid for top-shelf stuff and I tried to deliver. It was not an unheard-of tactic but there was a unique opportunity for additional danger. Para5yte knew about the Signers.
"What sort of information did they give you?" More people knowing about Yliaster wasn't the problem. It might actually help if they were more heavily scrutinised. If word got out about a loosely affiliated group of supernatural Duellists, there was no telling what sorts of crazy could come crawling out of the woodwork. People already wanted hero-worshipped Jack and were trying to actually worship Yusei for his hand in raising Abi.
;) In all of symbology, little is more ironic than the wink-smiley. It meant the person sending it was smiling at something that would not make the other person smile. Para5yte had an inside line on a lot of things. Gave me tips that paid off handsomely. There was another little jump of the ellipsis as another sentence bounced around the world in a way that nobody could trace. Gotta run for now but call me if you need anything.
"Wait!" But Arg0nought had already signed off.
"Shit." Beside him, Musume echoed the sentiment in an unfamiliar tongue. "What is going on these days?" Peeling his headband from a stressed perch, he rubbed his head until the pounding slowed down slightly. "Someone else knowing about Yliaster was weird enough but now they're handing out the information like drinks at a party."
"How trustworthy are info-brokers?" While he was worried about the fallout of more people knowing about Yliaster and getting hurt, she was more concerned about her family being exposed.
"Depends on the price." One of the 'a guy I know' people who had lived in the Satellite had given Crow any number of tips on avoiding Sector Security over the years. Half the time, he had turned right around and sold the information to Sector Security for a price. Which in turn lead to being able to tell Crow about an impending raid on his latest hideaway. Even though the information sold for peanuts, he made a small fortune out of the gambit of playing both sides. "If Argonought is expensive, they're safe." More money brought more security.
"They'd better be really expensive." Musume wasn't the sort of person who believed in things she couldn't see. Cynicism lurked even deeper in her soul than the spirits that were tattooed across her skin. Para5yte – who they had never met – had shared the secret of Yliaster with another third-party – who they also hadn't met – and knew enough about the Signers to mock them with their own insignia to lock the phone. "Come on." Sliding the phone into a pocket, she pressed her fist into Crow's shoulder. Actually punching him might accidentally break him in half. "One down, five to go."
"Or four." Sliding onto his own Runner, Crow smiled out beneath the gap in his helmet. "You're going to explain to Leo if he's not been included."
Apologies for the delay. My real-life balance is still adjusting and it's taking longer than I would like to get to work on chapters. Good thing that those reviews don't take more than a few minutes.