Neon District: Redux

Part Two Chapter Five: The Opening Move

       Sam stared at his pieces placed haphazardly on the chess board. Two pawns one move away from getting wiped out, a bishop tucked away in the back corner near an enemy knight; also a move away from being taken. And what was left was a rook where if he moved it his king would be taken.

       This game was already over.

       He wasn't only just contemplating his next move, but he couldn't shake off what happened at that meeting a few days ago. Manzo being the leader of the Syndicate, him being the reason for his mother's death, and partially Kindy's as well. Also, the fact that Yuka may still be on their side.

       But all of this just didn't seem right to him since Yuka was the one to join up with the enemy... unless that was her plan all along. He wanted to believe that Yuka and Manzo were on their side, but Manzo never said what he would do once he took down Mr. Propaganda or how he planned on doing so.

       He had heard that Manzo was running in the election, but even if he were to win Mr. Propaganda would still be roaming the streets freely and going to plan some counter attack or spew propaganda like he usually did when things didn't go his way. He wanted to believe everything Manzo was doing was for the greater good for the District and for the Syndicate, but the drunken, confused man he once knew appeared to just be an act. And the fact that Manzo had been keeping all these secrets from him just didn't sit right with Sam. He just hoped the other Syndicate members caught on to that.

       He hoped that Yuka caught on to that too.

       "Are you going to move or not? Not that it matters since you're screwed anyway," Abby said, snapping Sam's attention back to their game.

       "Sorry," he apologized before moving one of his pawns up one space. Naturally, Abby used one of her own pawns to capture that stray he left behind.

       The game continued on as Sam predicted: the game ending with him suffering an embarrassing defeat.

       A loud shuffle coming from the sewer and ladder entrances made them both turn around on their crates to investigate the noise. From both entrances, they could see a dozen people shuffling their way into the Shanties and begin to unpack their things as if they just ran away from home. In walked Cathra and Zoo, shoving their way through the hoard of people that just finished entering and met up with Sam and Abby.

       "Why did they come back?" Abby asked, a tad bit annoyed as she packed up her chessboard back into its cardboard box.

       "After the meeting with Manzo, I guess he spread some word about it and now those that left us have returned," Cathra explained, "some of them are new faces from his cult."

       "You're not seriously thinking of trusting Manzo, are you?" Sam piped up, "don't you realize he only just now told us the truth about everything?"

     She gave Sam the stink eye. "I have my suspicions, but at this point we are in no place to be declining any offers he makes. Whether we like it or not: he is our leader after all." 

       "He has the Watch on his side so- " Sam said, but got interrupted by Cathra.  

       "Mr. Propaganda has the Watch on his side and it is because of Manzo that we aren't in prison right now. Do you have any idea how many times that bastard waltzed in here just for the sake of it? How many times he didn't do squat about us? He is only using us to try and dig out where and who our leader is so that he could properly deal with us." 

       "Then how come Mr. Propaganda knows about you two's real names when Manzo should be the only one who knew? Someone must have tattled to Mr. Propaganda about it and I am sure as hell know that it wasn't Mr. Propaganda who did it," Sam snapped, standing up from his crate. "And why would Manzo come out of the shadows and tell us any of this when he could have possibly won the election and dealt with Mr. Propaganda all on his own without exposing anything or getting us involved? Why bother getting us involved in the first place? If he wins, he not only would have the Syndicate secretly in his hands. He would have control over the Watch and his cult, but also the whole freaking District."