War Dance

FOUR: XAYNE - 2

It was a trek across the Region to get to the rendezvous point thanks to the blockage on the roads. I decided it was easier to walk than get a kab, and racing a familiar kar several times on one street confirmed my suspicions.

I didn't like the pickup being in 26. Sure, it wasn't too far from Dirty Work, so it's close to home, don't have to go that far, all hail simplicity. On the other hand, something prickled me that it was too convenient, too close, and should the mysterious hooded enemies in black try searching for something shady like this, they wouldn't have to look far.

Avoiding Dirty Work was the answer, as much as there could be. Should stop anyone waiting around for someone to follow from picking up on my trail. Still, the feeling of eyes on me was strong. Every street I felt the cameras watching. Was there someone behind them that had hacked into the system, like the Kal-Rack systems, watching and following me, AI or sentient, or both, or neither? No way to know, but the hairs on the back of my neck tried to tell me something was off. Still, that's a natural fact of living life; everyone's always out to stomp you into the slush to pave their way.

Turns out my paranoia was good. Not far from the rendezvous point I spotted a flash from the corner of my vision. Could be anything, but better not chance it. I stopped just around a street corner underneath a blinding pharma holo for a place boarded up with graffiti on the door. Kept in the shadow of that doorway. When Rainbow passed by I stepped out behind her and grabbed her sleeve. She whirled and I ducked the blow. Her hand went inside her jacket instinctively, and I saw the butt of a gun glint in the holo light.

'Whoa!' I said, letting go of her. 'Cool it. It's me. From Dirty Work.'

Her hand kept going for the gun for a few nanoseconds as the recognition tracked its way across her brain. Then she stopped. 'Could you fucking not? Almost shot you.'

'I could,' I said, 'but as the apocalypse is coming, I decided to have fun.'

She shrugged me off her sleeve. 'The hell did you do that for?'

'Considering the circumstances, I decided to jump whoever was stalking me before they got a chance to jump me.'

'By grabbing their sleeve?'

'I like living dangerously. Simpler that way. All hail simplicity.'

'What gave me away?'

I raised my eyebrows underneath my own hair. She sighed and took a cap from her pocket, pulled it down tight across her eyes. 'Didn't think it would give me away that much. Wouldn't change it, but it's fucking annoying sometimes.'

'So you were stalking me.'

'Ensuring.'

'Ensuring what?'

'That you didn't have a shadow.'

'I did. A vibrantly-haired shadow, but a criminal shade nonetheless.'

This piece of witty humour was answered by a raised middle finger.

'Maybe later, Rainbow. If you're lucky.'

'You wish.' She smiled, however, and it wasn't a no.

For a brief moment, I relaxed. Not all the way, but slightly. It's amazing what a little bit of flirting will do to bring your nerves down a few notches.

Still, business needed to be conducted in an orderly fashion. 'So what now? Walk there awkwardly together? I assume you don't have what you're trading on you.'

She put a hand over my mouth and looked around her. The hair that dropped out past her cap whipped me in the face. Smelled good. Shouldn't have been that turned on, but I was. What can I say? She worked for me, occupation aside.

A moment later we moved back out of the graffitied door's shadow. She looked me over. 'OK, you're clean, as far as I can tell. We split here.' She stepped away from me. 'And don't tell anyone this happened.'

'Because it would be embarrassing, right?'

'It would.'

I nodded. 'Make sure you're not being followed.'

'Seriously, fuck you.'

'Seriously, maybe later.'

You gotta shoot your shots, right? And should everything go up in a ball of flames, when the actual shots your shooting are trying to keep your ass on the mortal coil, your innuendo shots will have limited staying power.

Rainbow flashed another smile. 'Maybe later.' Then she was off, finger pressed to the Halo-Chip next to her vision. Fading like a dream. Why do I always attract the psychopaths?

Ten minutes later I dropped into a café where Ashrore was waiting for me. The rendezvous was a ten-minute walk away in half an hour's time, so we had time to kill. Despite not wanting anything to eat or drink after having bought shit only a few hours ago, Ashrore insisted on buying me kofi. 'Thissss sssstuff issssn't that bad,' she said. She wasn't wrong. I made a note in my head to drop into this place more often if I lived.

'So this thing now,' I said. 'We go in, we trade, we walk out again. Right?'

'That'ssss the plan.' Ashrore patted a bag hung on the back of her chair. 'Sssshove it in here, walk away.'

'Of course. As always.'

'You OK, Xayne?'

I gave as good a smile as I could, knowing it wasn't worth the flesh it was written on.

I scanned the café. My nerves were tighter than components in a HyperGP kar, and I saw sinister presences everywhere. Every single person sat in that place was after me. The three girls giggling in the corner, the man in the suit checking his messages on his Core, the woman tucked away in the corner nursing a kofi for all she could manage. By the way she'd got her hands wrapped around a mug that wasn't steaming anymore, I reasoned the heating in her place had packed it and the building manager was too busy having an affair with an eighteen-year-old to get it fixed. Still, could be a disguise. Chop-shop job, maybe. It wasn't popular, and it was expensive, but you could do it. That old lady could be a twenty-five-year-old male martial-arts expert and we'd have no way of knowing.

'Hey.' Ashrore snapped me out of it. 'Cool it. We're good.'

Of course we were good. Ashrore thought it, Rainbow thought it, I thought it. It had to be.

Of course it did.

What an absolute load of crap.