War Dance

TWO: XAYNE - 2

We sat in tense silence for what seemed like an age. The entire Halo empire could have risen to complete galactic domination, been done for tax fraud (finally), tried for several management changes to cling onto public trust, have every shareholder bow out, and come crashing down into financial ruin for long enough for archaeologists to be scavenging around the ruins and put their artefacts in museums, and we would have still been sat there. Every bone in my body wanted to reach over and punch our two visitors' lights out. A hatred of Red Rose was deeply instilled within me by now, a complete Pavlovian response. I can't help it if the people who have tried to send me off the mortal coil dozens of times aren't exempt from a black eye at the very least.

As it was, I managed to hold myself back for long enough to Ashrore to put a hand on my thigh in reassurance. I looked from her to the two visitors to the boss. Sighed. 'OK then,' I said. 'Let's hear it.'

One of them, a girl with a flourish of rainbow hair that reminded me of Chorus (had we been in that place at the same time on a previous turn of the suns, I wondered) spoke first. 'Firstly, the boss of the Red Rose Organisation understands that the idea of a peaceful meeting between us is, given our history, difficult to believe.'

I snorted. 'You can say that again.'

The boss shot me a dagger of a look that stuck between my ribs. I nodded and leaned back in my seat again. 'Sorry. I'll try to be civil.'

The girl continued. 'We come to you precisely because of the animosity between us. We're hoping we can use it to our advantage.'

'We? Sounds like you want an alliance,' I said.

The rainbow girl looked at her friend, a woman with more piercings in her ears than spare flesh, and shrugged. 'It's probably beyond our pay grade to say if that's explicitly the case, but we're probably allowed to say that that's not far off the mark.'

I should have been more invested, but part of my brain just had to jump in on the tangent and ask itself; they have pay grades? I'd never really thought of footmen for an underground criminal organisation getting paid and going home to the cat, but I guessed they must have done. Perhaps I misjudged them. Maybe, like me, they just do a job to earn a buck.

Then the parts of me that had been shot in the years previous shivered in some psychic connection, and the idea of letting them off the hook a little found itself in the firing line to be obliterated.
'You're being watched, then, I take it?' Ashrore asked.

'That's correct.'

'And I would assssume that they've got firepower enough to do ssssome sssserioussss damage.'

'More than serious,' said Piercings. 'And not just to us.'

'To us as well?' I asked.

'More.'

'More. Going to go any further with that? Get specific?'

The two girls looked at each other.

'Let me guess. Above your pay grade.'

They nodded.

'Does it happen to have anything to do with Ochre Vaults?'

By the way they suddenly froze, like a rat in the headlights of an oncoming kar hoping that if it doesn't move it won't be seen, I guessed I was fairly on the money.

'OK,' I said. 'So what exact form does this alliance take? Because most of us are pretty good at shooting you lot. I've probably taken pot shots at you two specifically at some point. But that's only adding a few extra hands to the firefight.'