Little Hunter

"Just keep going."

Sarah leaned closer to the monitor.

"I've been going for a damned hour," Rune replied. "How much longer are yo—"

"Last job, Tammi. Then you're free. Now do it right."

The girl groaned and continued on through the warehouse.

Rune turned and the camera turned with her. The warehouse was old and decrepit. Toward the front it was clearly still used. Containers going in and out all the time. The back was a dusty mess. Dozens of old containers stacked and lined up. The only way to search them was with a lift of some kind.

Or a girl who could lift herself about.

Rune went down the line, going from top to bottom. Looking at the labels on each container. Opening those Sarah told her too. Searching inside.

It was time consuming, especially with security doing walk around patrols that would see her. Stop and go. Very exhausting.

But one did what one had to do.

Or in Sarah's case blackmailed someone else into doing it.

No matter.

"Stupid waste of time," Rune grumbled as she went through another container. "There's no container from that long ago still around. Probably got sold at an auction or something."

No. Not this one.

This one they wanted buried. If anyone ever found the contents, then all hell would come down. The Protectorate didn't play games with wanton massacres, and they certainly weren't going to show Nazis any mercy.

They had no choice but to bury it, even before Weaver began her warpath. Not long after the Empire started crumbling at the edges under the weight of Weaver and Coil. They may well have forgotten all about the buried evidence, but it was still there.

They'd paid in full for decades.

Even if the company storing the container went bankrupt, the contents were likely still where they'd been left.

"Security is coming back around," Sarah warned. "Stay in that container until they pass."

Rune pulled the door shut quietly. A cleverly useful application of her power. She could lift the metal from its hinges just enough that the metal wouldn't grind, and she could close them quietly.

"Making me look all over the fucking place," Rune growled. "Container to container and they're all full of junk."

"It's a small price to pay for freedom," Sarah reminded. What a baby.

"Do you see the expiration date on this?" She lifted one of the boxes in the container and held the label toward the camera. "Even if we find what you want, it'll have gone bad ages ago!"

"Just keep looking." Whining infant.

Security passed and Rune moved on. On and on she looked. Container to container. One after the other. Bitch. Bitch. Bitch. Not that Bitch. Just general bitching.

No wonder the girl couldn't keep he nose clean. She couldn't do the most basic thing without becoming a frustrated little whiner.

"Stop." Sarah tilted her head atop her uneven shoulders. She smiled and pointed at the screen. "There. That one. Two doors ahead on your right."

Rune floated and turned. "Here?"

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

"The date on the seal there." Sarah took a closer look and was certain. "It was locked the same month and year as the last record I can find. Looks like no one's opened it since."

She had a good feeling.

A light flashed over the console display.

"I'm not opening whatever the fuck this shit is," Rune declared. "I'm not that fucking stupid."

Guess even Rune had her limits.

"For your own good," Sarah advised, "don't open it."

She turned the monitor off and spun her chair around. Just in time for the door to open, which was inadvertently very dramatic.

"Night. Fog."

"We're not waiting," Fog warned.

"You did nothing," Night added.

"Oh, but I did."

Tapping a few keys, Sarah prompted another display. She didn't catch Huntress killing Stalker. Too many bugs, but there'd been enough of a clearing to show her threatening Devon.

As much as Sarah didn't want to kill a fellow clone or see them die, she was hardly going to throw her own plans to the wind over Devon.

But, in this case she got what she wanted, and he survived. No one liked Shadow Stalker anyway.

"The whole PRT and the Protectorate will be very much solely focused on Huntress. That'll distract them pretty well, and they're going to watch Weaver very closely."

"And?" Fog asked.

"And a lot of what makes the Undersiders rule this city is heavily dependent on the cooperation Weaver provides them. With her benched and the Ambassadors hunting Bitch"—that was fortunate—"the Undersiders will have their own problems. Weaver may lose her position and the PRT and Protectorate will prioritize Huntess' little murder rampage over you."

"That doesn't get Aster out," Night said. She turned to her husband. "Kill her an—"

"Not just yet." Sarah tapped a monitor. "Right now, she cares more about finding me than stopping you, so you've got as much cover as you'll get. The PRT will decide to move Aster soon and when they do, our little saboteur will ensure her restraints fail. That'll give you your opening."

Fog's brow rose. "Saboteur?"

"A good thinker never reveals her secrets."

"She's lying," Night accused.

"Decide that after you've made your move to free poor little Aster."

Devon would come through on that front, at least. Iron Rain's powers only worked if she was touching the ground. The PRT would use tinker-tech to suspend her, and Kid Win was the only one they had who could do that.

Of course, now that PRT probably had ample reason to suspect Devon had turned traitor. They might inspect Iron Rain's restraints to make sure and they might notice an issue.

But that really wasn't Sarah's problem.

She had what she wanted and had found something far more effective in ruining Lisa's life.

Sarah just had to buy a little more time. Then Night and Fog wouldn't matter much.

The pair watched her for a time. They watched each other too.

And without warning, Fog pulled out a gun and fired.

Sarah winced and lurched forward as the bullet slammed in her gut. Pain lanced through her and the sensation of blood spilled out on her lap.

"Done?" Night asked.

"Yes," Fog replied. "We're done."

He fired again and Sarah managed to keep herself upright.

"Then we're done," Night agreed.

She turned and left, and Fog fired a third shot before following her.

Sarah strained to breathe. The very thought of breathing hurt.

Gagging, and raising her strong arm, Sarah reached under her shirt and pulled at the solid kevlar pouch she'd put over her chest. About the only thing as predictable as violent sociopaths eventually trying to kill you. Everyone stupidly assumed anyone who was shot and bleeding was a goner. A good pouch of blood to sell the image didn't hurt.

Still hurt like fucking hell.

Really hurt like hell.

A lot.

Sarah coughed and hunched forward, wincing at the feeling that something was wrong. Internal bleeding maybe, or a broken bone. Something bad. She'd get it looked at but a bullet to the stomach was better than a bullet in the stomach.

Still hurt.

Pain.

Sarah waited a moment and tried to look the part just in case they came back.

They didn't.

Heaving a sigh, she spun back around and reactivated the monitor connected to Rune.

"Hey!" Rune called. "Are you fucking there?"

"Sorry," Sarah answered hoarsely. "I had to take another call."

"The fuck is this shit?!"

Sarah figured she'd open it. Mission accomplished. "What is what shit? Let me see."

Rune turned back toward the container. A cool mist billowed out. Dim lights ran the length of the corners where the walls met the floor and ceiling. The cooling units were near the front. Dusty and worn, but still working. Someone paid good money for top-of-the-line of the line from ten years ago. Even the lining inside the container had some kind of shielding on it. Sort of radiation coating.

Sarah grinned and leaned closer as Run entered cautiously.

Most of the container was equipment. Coolers. Defrosters. Radiators. Whatever-ors. Sarah didn't really know. And she didn't really care.

There was one thing she wanted, and she saw it at the far end.

Right where she knew it would be.

Rune stopped, clearly unwilling to go any closer. "The fucking hell, is that?"

Three glass tubes were struck in a row near the far end of the container. They bubbled as some machine cycled fluids through the containers. The interiors were a mess. Thin sheets of dead flesh peeled off the corpses. Three of them, one in each tube. Spider-looking things with eight legs, tails, and flaps of some kind. Their underbellies—and Sarah couldn't think of a less crass way to describe it—looked like vaginas.

Ugly looking things, but three of the reported remains Qualicare had been handed from wherever their parent company found them. Sarah had tried to puzzle that out, but it was buried even deeper than the container itself. Probably shuffled in some European office space somewhere, meant to be forgotten like the contents.

"They look dead," Rune said.

"Yes. But…"

Further back, fixed in a larger tank, was a fleshy egg. Big and bulbous. Rather ugly.

With a heart monitor attached. Something improvised, Sarah guessed but the readings. It didn't really look like a heartbeat.

But it was something.

"Exactly what I'm looking for," Sarah told her. "Good job."