by Nathan Pedde
“I’m sorry,” Des said.
“Tomorrow we’re going to study at my house,” Susan said, “Somewhere you can stay focused on the task at hand.”
“I like it here,” Des said.
“And I don’t care,” Susan said, “Tomorrow, same time, my house. Or your uncle will hear of this.”
Susan got up off out of the booth and stormed out of the Diner.
The construction workers, the mysterious man and the rest of the Diner looked over at Des and Susan.
The mysterious man eyed Des up carefully. His hand went to his ear. He got up and walked out of the Diner. He turned the same way Susan went.
“I’m blown,” Des said as he looked down at his work.
“I can see that,” Cryslis said, “Elsie, are you on him?”
“I am,” Elsie said over the net, “He’s following Susan.”
Des started to pack up his tablets. He placed a couple credits onto the table.
“Go home Des,” Cryslis said, “We’ll handle this from here.”
Des tapped his ear once and shut off the device. He didn’t want to hear from any of them again that night. This was another thing he had failed at.
***
Des exited the Diner to discover night had fallen in the station. Some yahoo in the station spindle had decided the station needed some watering, and a wash, so the sky had opened up, and rain poured down to the pavement.
He walked down the street through the rain with his head hunched over. Des walked to one of his nearby drop points and changed into his Ryder disguise. He had also changed his clothes, he hoped he wouldn’t be noticed by his target.
In the distance, up ahead was the mysterious man. Des had caught up to Elsie and the Mysterious Man. Des watched the Mysterious Man loose Elsie by cutting down an alley. Elsie looked around for the man and stamped her foot in frustration. The Mysterious Man made it look easy, who continued to follow Susan down the road.
Des knew Susan was headed to her house. She wasn't taking the most direct pathway, but the easiest. He knew she lived in a small apartment fifteen blocks from the Diner, in the same neighborhood as the Diner.
Up ahead, the Mysterious Man reached inside his coat and pulled out a large metallic tube-like object. It was a Pin Shooter. It was of a different style than the one he used, but the concept was the same.
Des pulled out his Pin Shooter. He had switched his pins from the ones which caused an electric shock to one that discharged a small liquid discharge, which made the target go unconscious. It would be easier to stop a target without the risk of killing them.
The Mysterious Man aimed his pin shooter at Susan. The man waited on his aim for a moment, waiting for the perfect shot. Des aimed the pin shooter at the Mysterious Man. He had one chance to get this right before the man took out Susan.
Des fired a pin as the shooter hummed and buzzed. He wasn’t sure where his pin landed. The Mysterious Man didn’t make any reaction to the shot.
Before Des could take another shot, the Mysterious Man swiveled towards Des and fired his off at Des. The man’s move was smooth and flawless with no time left to aim. The pin struck Des’s shoulder and spun him around.
An electric shock raced down his arm to cause his fingers to go numb. He let go of his pin shooter, which flew off into the alley. Des collapsed against a nearby wall in the alley and slid down to sit on the damp ground.
Water dribbled down his face and arms as was still being zapped by the electric shock, Des looked around the street. He saw Susan walk up a set of stairs to her apartment and disappear inside. However, he didn’t know where the Mysterious Man went to.
Des turned around as his eyes went in and out of focus. Then the Mysterious Man stood in front of him with a grin on his face. Des tried to focus on his facial features, he knew if he managed to get out of this somehow, he would need to remember it. But he couldn’t focus his eyes.
The Mysterious Man slammed a fist towards Des’s face. He attempted to dodge out of the way, but he was too slow. Des crumpled to the wet ground of the alleyway.
The impact of the blow caused his disguise to short out and disappear.
“Cryslis. Cryslis,” Des thought, then he realized he had turned it off.
“Listen, kid,” the Mysterious Man said, “Nothing’s going on as it seems. Things you think are real, aren’t. Trust no one.”
The Mysterious man walked away from the crumpled Des, but then stopped.
“Oh,” the Mysterious Man said, “Your girlfriend there is safe. That was bait to draw out my tails. I now know there is at least two of you. And congrats on managing to follow me. Not many can. This will be the second time I save your life, there will not be a third. If I see you again, I will not miss, and I will not be using such a weak weapon.”
The man walked down the street towards the apartment Susan had entered.
Des tried to sit up, but his head swam. He was forced to lay back down as even though the ground was wet, it was still comforting.
He watched the Mysterious Man push a couple buttons on the apartment buildings intercom. Everything went black as he lost consciousness.
Chapter 23
Des woke up with a start. He needed to stop the man from attacking Susan. He stopped himself after a quick moment. He was lying on a strange couch in a strange apartment.
“Oh good,” a Voice said from behind him, “You’re awake.”
He recognized the voice, but it took him a moment to connect it with a name and a face.
Des craned his neck to look behind him. Standing behind him was Susan. She had a less than pleased look on her face. She was still dressed in what she was wearing before, except her hair was let down to her shoulders.
“What happened?” Des said as nervousness came over him.
“Some guy pushed my intercom saying that some boy was lying in the gutter hurt,” Susan said, “Said some other youths had attacked him. Was hoping to find help. Lucky me…”
“Oh,” Des said, “I remember now.”
Des thought fast. He knew he had to save the situation, but he didn’t know how. He knew this made him look like he was involved in criminal activities.
“I followed you to apologize,” Des said, “and I saw this group of guys following you. I attacked them before they could mug you.”
“Right,” Susan said, “Why didn’t you catch up to me?”
“Cause you walk very fast,” Des said.
“What are you involved in?” Susan said.
“What do you mean?” Des replied.
“You’re acting very odd," Susan said, "First at the last missile attack. Now your grades have dropped. I don’t think you’re involved with criminals like your Uncle thinks, but I don’t know what.”
“Wait,” Des said, “Did you carry me in here?”
“No.” Susan said, “That man did.”
“Sweet Jupiter,” Des replied.
Des sprang off of the couch and grabbed at his jacket. His phone was still there. He checked to make sure his other possessions were as well.
His earpiece was missing.
Des pulled out his phone.
“How long was I out for?” Des asked.
“An hour or so,” Susan said, “Why?”
“I need to make a phone call,” Des said as he quickly selected Elsie from the contact list.
Elsie’s phone rang twice.
“Where in the name of Jupiter have you been?” Elsie said.
Des held the phone away from his ear and winced a bit from the high pitched voice.
“No time to explain. Dump the buds,” Des said.
“What?” Elsie said, “Why are you talking to me here and not the Net. This is unsecured.”
“So is the Net,” Des said, “I was jumped by the target, and he took my earbud.”
“What?” Elsie said.
“No time to explain, dump the buds, and meet up at location omega bravo,” Des said, “Contact the others.”
Des hung
up the phone.
“What’s going on?” Susan asked, “Buds? Target? What have you gotten into?”
Des turned to Susan.
“I can’t tell you much,” Des said, “If anything at all. But I’m not involved with criminals or anything illegal.”
“Then what are you involved with?”
“I can’t tell you,” Des said, “I’m not allowed.”
“So what do you want me to do?” Susan asked.
“I want you to trust me,” Des said, “Humor me if you will. And help tutor me without freaking out if I space out once in a while.”
Susan looked at Des. Her icy glare pierced into Des.
“Fine,” Susan said, “I will do it for now, however I expect a full explanation at some point.”
***
Des gathered his stuff together, and minutes later, he ran down the rainy street. Water flowed onto his face and his hair matter to his head. The yahoo in the station spindle was trying to flood the station as the rain poured down by the buckets.
He was sure he wasn’t being followed, but he was nervous nonetheless. Des knew he was being paranoid, but he still checked for tails every chance he got. Des didn’t see anything, but Des wasn’t sure about anything anymore.
After he was satisfied no one was watching him, Des ducked into a small alleyway. Cables and pipes ran over the opening of the alley. The alleyway was dark and cast shadows into the corners and the crevasses of the alleyway.
Des followed for a couple of minutes until it came to an end. A single metal drain pipe ran down a corner of the alley. Des tapped a small series of taps on the small pipe.
A rope fell down from the roof and into the alley. Des pulled himself up the rope and onto the flat roof of the brick building.
Standing on top of the rope was Cooley.
“This has gotten all sorts of messed up,” Cooley said.
“Tell me about it,” Des said.
“Cryslis isn’t happy.”
“Who would be?”
Des followed Cooley across the rooftop and into a roof hatch.
The roof hatch led into a small room.
The room was in an abandoned apartment building deep in the Pink Sector. The room was simple with a couple boxes spread around the corners of it. A single light hung from the broken plaster of the ceiling.
Cryslis and Elsie sat on boxes on the opposite sides of the room.
“Sorry, it took me so long to get here,” Des said.
“What happened?” Cryslis snapped.
Des told her about how he went to talk to Susan to apologize to her, and then saw the Mysterious Man aiming a pin shooter at Susan. He defended her but got pummeled and knocked unconscious.
“Right,” Cryslis said, “Did you get hit by the pin?”
“On my arm,” Des said, “It hurt like hell.”
“Let's see,” Cryslis said.
Des lifted his right shirt arm to show the shoulder. A large bruise had spread across the shoulder. The booze was black and nasty looking.
“That looks bad,” Cryslis said, “It looks like an electrode-poison combo.”
“Poison?” Des said.
“Luckily, the pin didn’t penetrate your skin, or you’d be in worse shape. I don’t think it would have killed you, but you’d be hospitalized for a few weeks.”
“That must be why I passed out,” Des said.
“It is,” Cryslis said, “I’m still pissed at you, but you did the right thing by getting us to dump the earbuds.”
Des looked down at his feet, he knew he had been messing up lately.
“I’m not a good spy,” Des said, “You should put me on the back burner. Before I get myself and you three killed.”
Cooley walked up to Des and grabbed him by the shirt collar. With a quick snap, he slapped Des in the face.
“If you want to get beat up, don’t do it yourself,” Cooley said, “I’ll happily beat you to a pulp for you. But otherwise, you fill an important role in this that none of us can do?”
“And what’s that?” Des asked, his face stung from the slap.
“You’re our front man,” Cooley said, “You do all of the chasing, the fighting, the dangerous stuff. It allows us to do other things unseen. If we need someone to stand on a street corner exposed or to run headlong into the Undercroft without hesitation, it’s you. Now enough of the self-pity bacta. We have work to do.”
Cryslis and Elsie looked at Cooley with shock on his face. Cooley was usually calm, collected. Not bound to bursts of emotion. Not like the rest of them. Cooley was often the last one to do anything rash, like slap a team member across the face, but Cooley had.
Des was still unsure how to take the assault. His usual way would be to avoid confrontation and choose the most comfortable road out. But he knew it was too late for him to follow that route.
He couldn’t fight Cooley either. Anger and emotion would lead to more pain and laying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. Cooley was five years older than he was.
“How do we salvage this situation?” Des said.
“That’s a good question,” Cooley said, “I think it’s up to our fearless leader.” Cooley turned to Cryslis. “Fearless leader, what’s the plan?”
“New earbuds. New channel system. New authentication,” Cryslis said.
Cooley nodded and picked up a case from the corner.
“This is ‘B Set,’” Cooley said, “It uses a similar authentication setup as the ‘A Set,’ but it’s a little different. More expensive, mind you. The brass might get miffed if we lose this set.”
“Is it clean?” Cryslis asked.
“Yes, it is.”
“Good,” Cryslis said, “And how are we on the scanner?”
“Slow.”
Cryslis turned to Elsie, “Go with Cooley to check it out. Come up with a plan to see if we can’t get some results.”
Elsie nodded.
“What’s my job?” Des said.
“Take the night off,” Cryslis said, “Get caught up on your homework and studying.”
“Okay,” Des said.
“Also, I need a plan from you to neutralize Susan as a threat,” Cryslis said, “She suspects you too much and is a threat to this operation. And bringing her in isn’t an option.”
Des nodded. A grave look was plastered on his face.
“Neutralize?” Des said, “That sounds permanent.”
“What choice do we have?” Cryslis said, “She knows too much. A simple slip-up and your cover with Sheemo or worse could be blown. That’s why we have our holo-disguises.”
“My cover with the Mysterious Man is already blown,” Des said, “I was wearing my disguise, and when he hit me, it turned off. He knows who I am.”
“It’s a separate issue,” Cryslis said, “We need to make sure Susan doesn’t do anything rash to you.”
“I don’t want to hurt Susan,” Des said.
“I’m with Des on this one,” Elsie said, “I don’t want to see Susan get hurt.”
“Then how do we make sure Susan keeps our secrets?” Cryslis said.
Neither Des or Cryslis said anything. They looked at each other with worry all over their faces.
“I could plant something incriminating on her and get her arrested,” Cooley said.
“That’s on the permanent side,” Des said, “It’ll ruin her life.”
“How about some type of drug?” Elsie said. “
“I know of a drug that can cause short-term memory loss,” Cooley said, “It’s hard to get and very illegal to have, but it may work.”
“Can it remove specific events or like the whole time frame?” Des asked.
“I’m sure it’s the whole time frame, but I can look into it to get the specifics,” Cooley said, then turned to Cryslis, “With your permission, of course.”
“That sounds like the best idea we have at the moment,” Cryslis said, “If there is nothing else, let's disperse and get to work.”
Chapter 24
<
br /> An hour later, Des walked into his uncle’s townhouse. He took off his dripping wet jacket and shoes and walked into the kitchen. Des was slightly shocked to see Sheemo sitting at the kitchen table.
“You’re home?” Des said.
“Yes… Why wouldn’t I be?” Sheemo replied.
“Cause you’re never home. It seems like I haven’t seen you in weeks,” Des said.
“I’m home to eat something, then I need to go back to a project I’m working on,” Sheemo said.
Des nodded as he walked towards the fridge.
“What happened to your face?”
“I made Susan angry at me, so I went over to her house to apologize, and I saw a bunch of thugs going to mug her, so I stepped in to stop them. Got punched in the face as a result,” Des said.
Des sat at the table, the fridge forgotten.
“That’s not like you?” Sheemo said, “You tend to shy away from conflict.”
“Sometimes it’s time to put your big-boy-pants-on and face the problems head-on instead of ignoring it-”
“Like your grades at school?”
“Yeh…” Des said, “I’m working on that. I have a couple of big tests and midterms coming up, so I’m hoping to push my grade back the other way.”
“That’s good. And about the military academy-”
“I know. It’s for the best,” Des said, “I’m trying to get in.”
“Really? I thought you were dead set against it?” Sheemo said.
“I am. I don’t like it at all,” Des said, “But it’s the better choice in the matter.”
“Better to become an officer, than be conscripted as a marine,” Sheemo said.
“That’s uncles point,” Des said, “If I can excel, I can choose where I want to serve. Keep out of the Marines.”
Sheemo’s phone flashed, and Sheemo picked it up.
“What’s that?” Des said, “Text message from a girl?”
“No. News article,” Sheemo said.
“Oh, news.”
“Looks like there was a major battle,” Sheemo said.
“That’s not good,” Des replied.
“Not all bad,” Sheemo said, “According to this article, we took heavy losses, but the Earth Sphere Republic suffered a major defeat. They pulled out of the Trojan's and seventy percent of their ships at the battle were destroyed or lost.”
