Dirty Work: Volume 2

Story One - Cravings - 6

'What's happening down in shoot-em-up-ville?' Markro said as he approached us. We were stood by the entrance to the alleyway, the girl tucked into the shadows behind me. Markro looked to have bulked out a little since I had last seen him, as I had done, but to a much greater extent. He looked like a man preparing for war, which is perhaps what he was doing.

I turned my eye to his waist as usual, trying to detect the bulge of a gun underneath the long swish of his coat. 'You armed?'

Markro tossed me one of his sly grins. 'Someone calls up out of the blue and I assume there's going to be shooting involved. That's just how I roll.'

I slapped him on the shoulder; it was good to be next to him again. He was still superior to me, but I felt like I deserved to be next to the guy. As the replacement for Serbgae, a man I never had the opportunity to meet, it had taken me a while to gain the chops I felt I had needed in order to be a good companion when the days grew dark and the times got hard. At that moment, after weeks apart, the connection passed between us of mutual respect and admiration. On my part, whenever respect towards me came from the number one hand for Dirty Work, it was always an honour.

'You're just a violent soul, aren't you?'

'Well of course. Who wouldn't be?' he asked.

I motioned to the girl behind me. 'This one, thankfully, isn't. Although it might have been completely different had I not been in the right place at the right time.'

Markro looked the girl over, who was still slammed up against the side of the building like she was strapped to it. I noticed her feet twitch in preparation of escaping down the alleyway should flight be necessary.

'Don't run,' I said to her. 'This is the guy that's going to get you and your friends out of trouble.'

She stood there for a moment, every sinew of her body tense and ready to leap out of the way. I could see her still shaking from adrenaline, every bone in her body telling her to run, regroup, and go after her target again when the time was right.

Markro put a stop to that, however. He flicked his hair to the side and put on that charming, devil-may-care smile of his and got down on one knee like an old-fashioned prince courting a princess. He took one of her hands and kissed her slender, trembling fingers. 'Markro, at your service.'

The blush that spread across her face was all that needed to be seen to know that Markro had done exactly what needed to be done. That girl was absolutely smitten in seconds.

'Salis,' she said quietly, as if trying to coax her voice box into remembering how to function properly. It sounded like wind coming through a rusty drainpipe, but it was audible and comprehensible enough for her purposes.

'A beautiful name for a beautiful young lady,' Markro said, still on his knee. 'You know, I don't believe I've ever laid eyes on someone with quite the beauty of yourself.'

I saw in her eyes a mix of adoration and confusion. Fifteen minutes beforehand she was preparing to shoot someone in a crowded downtown club, and now she was falling head over heels for a silver-tongued rogue in a dark alleyway. I didn't blame her. But that's how the world works, I guess. In a strange collection of events that surely don't make sense and yet somehow propel one forward through life with a rocket tied to your back.

'Thank you,' she squeaked, a smile appearing slowly on her face.

'Now,' Markro said standing up once more. 'Let's find out what the matter is right away, shall we? And then we can put this all to rest and go for drinks and have a good time and forget this ever happened.'

The smile faded from Salis' lips and the darkness fell over her face once again. I saw her shudder with revulsion, not wanting to tell what she had to tell. I feared she would completely clam up and not say a single thing to us further, because my interrogation technique hadn't been the greatest and had been more of a series of accusations with responses, rather than a confession.

'They'll...' she began, 'they said they'd put a... a gun to her h, head and...'

Markro moved in swiftly to stop the girl breaking down completely. He put his arms around her and held her close to his chest, and Salis put her head into his shoulder and cried, shuddering with every sob.

'It's ok,' he cooed, as if a mother to a baby, 'we'll make sure everything ends up ok. I promise.' He looked over at me. 'You know who's involved?'

'Her and a few friends, all female. As for who they were after, or who told them to do it...' I shrugged my shoulders, 'you're in the loop as much as me.'

He nodded, turning his attention back to the sobbing young woman in his arms. He slowly pulled her up to look him in the eyes. 'I want to help you, Salis, as much as I can. I need names though. Can you give me any?'

She sniffed, wiping a tear away from her right eye. At first I thought she wouldn't say anything, but then she spluttered a name out.

'Carea Euphero.'

I saw something then that I had never seen in my entire life. I watched Markro turn into a statue. I saw every bone in his body grow cold and his blood chill to ice. I watched the blood drain away from his face and the smile drop from his lips.

'Xayne,' he muttered, his eyes blurring into a mixture of fear and rage.

'What is it?' I asked, taking a step closer. 'Who is she?'

He didn't respond immediately, turning his attention back to Salis. 'Was Carea who you were supposed to, take care of? Or was she who sent you?'

Salis stepped away from him, stronger now and able to stand firmly on the ground. 'She, she sent us to shoot him. A man called Ro Ville. I don't know him, or what was between either of them, but...'

'We need to go,' Markro interrupted. 'Turn off your Halo-Core, and let nobody reach you in any way. We need to go see the boss.'

Salis, sensing the fear of the man who had so quickly and confidently taken control of the situation, dug out her Halo-Core and turned it off instantly.

'What's going on, Markro?' I asked. I felt like I had missed something incredibly big and obvious. 'Who's this Euphero girl?'

He looked me in the eyes and I saw a hatred there I had never seen before, not even when we got to the ruins of Dirty Work and saw the devastation that Vayn Baron had left in his quest to recover that package now locked away in Ochre Vaults. 'Xayne,' he said softly, 'Carea Euphero was the one that betrayed us when I met you. She was the one that got Serbgae killed.'