Beacons in The Dark

Chapter 6 - Corroborate and Cleanup

Blue helped Nami into the kitchen, for the Lightman was injured in a few places as well.

While the assailants may not have been a match for his assistant, but the way Nami winced when he took a breath, at least one of them had an arm augmentor, usually used by boxers to lend themselves more punching power; it seemed like at least a rib or two may be cracked, and the hole in Blue's hand was seriously beginning to pain him.

They would mend quickly, the regular nabobot injections they received would cause bones to mend within days and the hole in Blue's hand was already beginning to knit, though it still oozed dark blood that soaked the right sleeve of his duster.

"They wanted the encryption to the databurst you sent me the other mini-cycle, the one about the strange energy." and Blue nodded at this as Nami rubbed his long mane of shock-white hair backwards into its normal place, his face slick with sweat, excitement, and blood.

Reaching into a silver cabinet mounted on the wall, Blue pulled out a smokey green bottle with a cork popped haphazardly into the neck. There was a dark brown liquid floating in there and Blue bit the cork savagely and spit it across the floor before taking a long pull of the stuff and refilling a flask that he removed  from a pocket in his pants.

Passing the bottle, Nami took a few swallows as well, holding his left arm over his chest, but he wsa sitting a bit straighter now than he was a few minutes ago. The bright white light of the clean room made them seem like creatures chiselled from stone, sitting silently and unmoving as thoughts whirled through their minds.

"Good stuff." Blue finally said, "Sealed in a cask and thrown into a bog for a century...so, any clues as to the men who attacked you? I met a pretty little proto-troll myself."

With a little laugh, Nami added, "I was getting to that before you went on your little alcoholic diatribe, Blue." Many within the guild called him Loremaster, but that was just a title and not a name...and titles often fit like crowns; uncomfortably.

This bit of violence had broken the tedium of long mini-cycles of sustained academic study and left him full of vibrant energy, full to the brim with curiosity.

"Moments after you bursted that you were under attack, the door was blown apart."

"Concerted attack, then..man, I just dont think was a Technomancer deal. I know they were pissed when I infiltrated one of their enclaves, but this kind of thing has an entirely different stink together."

Blue poured some of the reamining liquid over the wound on his hand, which now a shrinking red and bloody pit where it had been a full penetration just a little while ago, Nami saying in his methodical voice, "They were humans, one augmented with a few upgrades, the other a Natural, but he had a nasty pistol."

"Don't tell me, " Blue grinned, "Solid state laser?" and Nami nodded with a knowing smile.

"Me too. Okay, need to call a cleaning crew and make a report to the Guild about this, see if anything is coming down the pipe that we might be able to grab on to. We were probably under surveillance and they waited until we were seperated to try and neutralize us."

He moved towards his bedroom and slumped against the wall for a moment, sliding off his jacket and shirt, replacing the shirt with a gunmetal gray number, a prototype camo shirt. His old clothes  he threw in his mini incinerator and the quiet warm hum of the machine gave him a small sense of contentment.

"World's changing around me." He felt a sense of complete calm, though it seemed unseen winds were sweeping the future in dunes that he could not see past.

Shouting, he said "Call the cleanup crew, if you would!"