Amber was about to protest but just nodded instead. ‘Snip… snip… snip’ locks of her red hair began falling past her shoulders into her lap.
“Do you have to cut off so much?”
Ian stopped cutting and moved around and looked her in the eyes. “Only if you really want to get out. You said so yourself. The Black Cats were on to you. It was either get out now, or they were going to cut you out – literally.”
Amber nodded her understanding and Ian finished the task. In the place of a proud top knot pony tail was a flat top crew cut. Looking into the mirror that was bolted to the guestroom wall of the Bifrost she rubber the top of her head.
“This is going to take some getting used to,” she said as she turned to look back at Ian.
“There’s still one more thing. You’re going to have to ditch this,” he said as he lifted up a beautifully decorated sheathed sword.
“That was a gift from Jade!”
“And it would identify you immediately as the spy who once walked among them. You’d never be able to show your face around the Bifrost again.”
With sadness in her eyes Amber nodded once more.
-=-=-=O=-=-=-
“Where have you been?”
“It’s good to see you too boss.” Ian could see the irritation in Dyrke’s eyes and thought better of pushing his luck. “I would like to introduce you to ‘Panthera’.”
Dyrke’s face changed. “I thought you… would have been… um, that is…”
“Right, that is what makes a good spy, no? Anyway, I have already filed my report and have been instructed to not return to hive city. Apparently I am no longer considered an asset by ‘Internal Affairs’.”
“So you can not go back home?”
Amber shook her head.
Dyrke thought about this for a moment.
“We could use another hand around here, but your dossier does not show much experience. You think you could run with the ‘Steel Spiders’?”
Amber glanced between Dyrke and Ian. “That’s what I was kind of hoping for. I mean, to run around alone down here is not the brightest idea. I don’t know if the Cats will catch on or not though.”
“The ‘Cats’? The ‘Black Cats’?” Dyrke asked.
“Yes, is that a problem?”
“It might be.”
-=-=-=O=-=-=-
Ever since he had returned with Amber Ian had been kept very busy. For some reason he wanted to steer clear of her, like he didn’t want the others to know about the two of them. The others seemed to be intrigued with the fact that a woman was among their ranks and went out of their way to “make her feel comfortable”. Ian was surprised to find that he did not like that, so to keep himself distracted he went about his business.
All of his patients had been kicked out of his sickbay, but that didn’t keep him from having to cleaning up the mess left behind. Without knowing it Dyrke helped him out by taking him along to meet with the Guilders.
“Your shot is what brought him down Ian. It’s only fair that you get to come along and negotiate the deal,” Dyrke had told him.
When all was said and done the bounty was set at one hundred and sixty five credits. Now that was a nice little paycheck. So the pair headed home to collect up their prize.
“Ian, you have done pretty well since coming to the ‘Spiders’. You mind telling me why you would walk away from the comforts of Hive City?”
Ian looked at his boss and took some time to think over his answer. He knew that Dyrke had known about his little deal with the union security guard, but beyond that he was not so sure.
“Let’s just say I didn’t want to grow old staring at the same walls every day of my life,” Ian finally replied.
“Fair enough I suppose. What about ‘Pantera’?”
Ian’s head snapped to look at Dyrke.
“Come on Ian. I’m not blind, besides, Chigger has known me longer.”
Ian felt his cheeks get flushed. He was not sure what he was more embarrassed by. The fact Dyrke seemed to know so much about him, or that it felt like his own Father had walked in on him and his girlfriend. Which he and Amber were not… at least that is what he told himself.
“There’s nothing going on between Amb… I mean ‘Pantera’ and me.”
“Hmm… well, you…”
CRACK! The distant sound of a single rifle report interrupted Dyrke’s train of thought.
“Cr@$! Move it Ian!”
-=-=-=O=-=-=-
Renold came out of an old service access door to join Ian and Dyrke as they ran headlong down the old drainage pipe. The gun fire that originally drew their attention had dropped off and all was quiet ahead. As the three men erupted from the end of the tube with their weapons ready they were met with a hail of gunfire.
Dyrke and Renold dropped to the ground but Ian kept pressing forward. When he reached a pile of scattered steel drums and machine parts he stopped to see what was going on.
Dyrke was laying in the middle of the street with blood coming from a fresh wound to his left thigh and Renold was no where to be seen. A loud piercing whoop from above drew Ian’s attention upward.
Standing on top of the control tower stood the Ratskin Chief with fists raised in the air. As the savage looked down and made eye contact with Ian, another Ratskin behind him urged him to leave with him. Without another sound the two men turned and disappeared.
Looking around it became obvious that Ian was pretty much on his own. If the Chief was free that meant the guards were down. Dyrke was getting back on his feet but was slowed by his wounds. Renold was nowhere to be seen. With the Ratskins laying in wait on his left there was nothing else to do but to press forward using the overhead scaffolding and walkways to cover his advance. If they could not turn him in to the Guilders, Ian was not about to let him get away either.
The pile of debris was enormous. Although the slag and trash would slow him down he only needed to get into a good firing position on the other side. Once there he could take out the Chief with a long range Las shot from his rifle. As he cleared the top of the pile his rifle smashed against some of the overhanging spore fungus. The resulting cloud of spores caused his eyes to water and to sneeze several times, but all he had to do now was to slide down the other side.
Dropping into a small pit Ian had found his firing position. He could see the small band of Ratskin raiders beginning to descend the scaffolding not thirty meters from him. Pulling the lasgun up into his shoulder Ian leaned forward to get a good stable firing position. The images were crisp and clean in his scope. “Almost there…”, Ian said to himself.
Thwip, thwip Several slugs impacted in and around Ian causing him to flinch and duck down. Peeking over the crest of his impromptu foxhole Ian caught sight of two more Ratskins, both armed with autoguns, had an angle on his position. A glance back towards where the Chief was going to appear told him what he already knew. He did not have time for this.
Ian ducked back below the crest of his hole just as more incoming rounds impacted against the far side wall. With his back against the wall Ian closed his eyes and pictured the shot in his mind. As he rose to his feet Ian spun to his left, pulled the stock of his rifle into his shoulder, and immediately sighted in on where he remembered the first Ratskin sniper to be. Right where he expected!
Crack! Ian’s shot found its mark and knocked the savage from his perch, but he did not have time to watch him fall. Ian immediately shifted his body to his left in order to get an angle on the second Ratskin. This one was at ground level. Return fire from the second one sailed wide.
This time Ian took nothing to chance and flipped the selector lever to “burst”. There wasn’t enough time to aim carefully so he let fly a three round burst. Without knowing if his rounds found their target Ian immediately shifted his attention back to the Chief.
But it was too late. Ian could do nothing further but watch as the Ratskin Chief disappeared through wall on the far side of the dome.
“Damn!” Ian called out.
-=-=-=O=-=-=-
Ian had expected to find Amber and Rogers dead. After all they had been assigned to guard the Chief.
Amber had been knocked out with a club to her jaw. Other than a deep bruise she would be alright. Rogers was a little different. There was a deep gash along the side of his skull where a las round had creased it. The intense heat of the ionized atoms flying through the air seared the wound. The good news was there was no bleeding. The bad news was that the heat had also fused his eardrum. This was beyond Ian’s skill to fix so all he did was try and make the man more comfortable.
With a little effort Dyrke joined the rest of the Spiders on top of the platform.
“The Chief got away boss.” Ian said as was treating the wounded.
“It’s alright kid. You did the best you could.” Dyrke said as he looked down at his team’s medic. “But I think we need a little work on our sentry skills.”
No comments:
Post a Comment