As I arrive at Nathaniels he’s quite serious. I kiss him, saying “Hi Honey”, which I somehow started to call him recently. He kisses me back and all, but immediately adds he’s got news. They are pretty great news for him! He got into some really neat cutting-edge biotech training program. It’s even sponsored by one of the up and coming corporations in that field, NeoMed BioDynamics.
It is quite a big deal for his carrier, and it’s super interesting, but… it’s in London. He has to leave on Sunday. And he’ll be gone for at least two weeks. Longer if he makes it into the advanced training program, which I am sure he will.
Two weeks, maybe a month. That’s not too too long. I have just not shown up for similar amounts of time on a regular basis. So, why the fuck does it feel as if something was dying inside my chest?!
“I’m gonna miss you!”, is what comes out of my mouth. He squeezes my hand: “Try not to get hurt while I’m gone.” Right, I hadn’t thought about that yet… It also doesn’t feel relevant. Gosh, how did I let that happen?! I mean, he still doesn’t know who I am, really. What I do… Holy shit! And yet all I care about in this moment is to be close to him as long as I can. I even ask if I can call him while he is gone! “Yeah, of course. But, you know, time difference and stuff…” He’ll be 8 hours ahead of me. So when he gets home in the early evening, I would usually be asleep, if not on a job. “Well, I guess there are some good reasons to get up early.” - What the fuck is wrong with me!?
He smiles and hugs me: “Just take care of yourself.”
I spent the rest of the night with Nathaniel, but I had to leave early. For more sensible reasons…
Miri contacted me. She found us a contractor to help with the rats. If it’s the rats taking people. I am supposed to pick the guy up in front of the Whiskey at the Crossroads at 10am. Since I still do not have a car (also no drivers license, but that’s a different matter…), Hunt0rKill0r69 picks me up, the Steel Lynx already in the back of the van, and we get Romeo and Discord on our way to Tourist Ville.
The contractor turns out to be a middle aged looking Dwarf with some heavy gear. He’s not happy to see us. I don’t know what he expected, but we are clearly less than that.
Romeo catches him up on the rats, showing the video. Seems the guys expertise is blowing up shit. Not quite what I want him to do with the black-site! There could still be clues to what happened there, and even to what happened to Mom and Robert.
Discord starts illustrating the whole story of his adapt awakening, rebuilding Silencer, finding my book and other stuff to the Dwarf, just to be called a jerk for naming his weapon. Not the most pleasant company that I had of late. But then, he has a grenade launcher, which might come in handy. And it is very colorful! Seems that while naming your weapon is apparently the most immature move ever to the dude, painting it like a rainbow is absolutely fine. Whatever. I have more important things to give a shit about than a grumpy old Dwarf. As long as he doesn’t blow us up with his “tool” (What a grandpa word to use for a weapon!).
Then Cheeks calls. Another Ork has gone missing last night. Guy called Bob. Discord knows him too. We really have to do something about the issue right now. We can’t just hunt probably-innocent rats and wait until the gang leaders come up with a plan tomorrow.
Let’s talk to Petey again. Maybe the Whiskey we gave him helped clear out his neural pathways and he can make more sense today.
Knowing where he was yesterday and combining Discords and my knowledge of the Barrens with Romeos Weasel Insights? we can find Petey quickly today. He’s staggering ‘round between some gutted cars at the side of a road. As he sees us he briefly stops his march and recounts with a sad smile on his face: “Another one gone. Was alone. No longer alone. Gone.”
He clearly knows something!
Today we also manage to ask the right questions, and we find out, that an Ork, probably Bob, was taken last night east of here. Another Ork and a Human, both wearing visible armour and covered in colourful tattoos, snuck up on him, knocked him out, and dragged him further east, almost all the way to Glow City.
Another Ork. Definitely not Humanis!
Discord hands Petey his commlink and tells him to draw the tattoos the guys had. The dude is not exactly an artist, but I get the hint that the lines look somewhat asian. Maybe Yakuza? Or the Triads? Could also be Seoulpa, the Koreans.
Petey can point us to the exact place where Probably-Bob was taken. They had a car, so how Petey knows that they took him from there to the edge of Glow City is a mystery to me, but there’s no time to solve it. If we hurry, maybe we can get Discords buddy out alive.
The area that they took him from’s called the Drylands. Not that the installation system there was any worse than in the rest of the Barrens (with the exception of Tourist Ville of course), but what of the old water system is still in existence there, gets supplied from within Glow City. So you better stay dry, if you don’t want to grow a third arm or a talking tumour from the radiation in the water.
In the car on the way there I send Petey’s drawing to Miri, asking if she knows who’s tattoos these might be. She’s got no idea, but then again, Petey is not exactly an artist. Looking up from my com I catch the Dwarf Guy sizing me up. “You ever used that blade?”, he snarls at me.
“Yea, but I prefer the SMG.” Can’t hurt to let my temporary team mate know, how to expect me to fight.
“I see you don’t have any battle scars!”, he barks, as if it was a sign of weakness.
“Well, I know how to avoid them.”, I counter, not mentioning the ugly scar in my side from the first wound Nathaniel had to stitch up. “And I have a good medic.”, I add without thinking, because my stupid brain just won’t stop revolving around him.
“Yeah, Nathaniel”, Discord grins.
“He is very thorough!”, Romeo snickers. So I guess he’s caught on to it. Or one of the guys told him. I don’t mind. But I hate that I can feel my face redden again. At least the Dwarf leaves me alone now.
69 drives us through the Drylands, using a search parameter suggested by our new aid. Dwarf Guy gives off ex-military vibes big time. No wonder he’s so belligerent. But this game pays off quickly, and we catch a glimpse of two guys dragging an unconscious Ork boy around a corner. Discord get’s out of the car in a haste, running down the alley at which’s end the group disappeared. Romeo and I let Hunt0rKill0r drive us to the next alley, where we get out to block off their way. The Dwarf guy stays in the car. Makes sense, he was promised payment for hunting down rats, not kidnappers, and he doesn’t seem the humanitarian type.
As we cut the corner, Discord is just bashing the second guys head in with Silencer. The first guy is already on the ground, next to his victim. He might actually still be alive, so we tie him up. The boy is unconscious. We ask Dwarf Guy if he’s got some skills in first aid. He says yes, and mumbling something about not being a complete asshole makes his way over to us to help the kid.
The boy seems to have been knocked out with a gentle non-lethal toxin, and he wakes up as the Dwarf holds some other chemical under his nose. “Woa, can I have some of that?”, Romeo chimes in, sinking even lower in the contractors estimation.
While the Ork boy is getting his senses together, we search his hijackers. Both guys look asian and are completely covered in super-cliche asian tattoos with dragons and shit. They did not carry much. A knife each (pretty crappy ones), an Uzi, a Remington Roomsweeper, two cheap-ass commlinks, and some Cram that quickly disappears into Romeos pockets. Discord and I also hand the coms to Romeo for hacking, and then talk to the boy.
He does not really know what happened to him. He was just on the way to meet a friend, and suddenly everything turned dark. If we bring him back home, and he knows again where he is, he can show us where he went to before lights-out. Discord recognises the street name the boy gives us. It’s west from where we are.
From the kidnappers commlinks Romeo gets some location data. He gives us a place east of here, bordering on Glow City, where both guys seem to have spent a lot of their time.
First we need to take the boy home, then we will have a look at this place.
As we bring the kid, the guns, and the surviving, yet still knocked-out kidnapper back to our van, Discord makes some remarks on how I have folded and tied up that Orks legs. Well, so what if have not exactly learned these knots from tying up prisoners. They still work!
After dropping the kid off, and a brief look at the place of his abduction (nothing much there), we all get into the van again. The Dwarf, who did not move his ass out of the car this time, remarks that he’s tired of baby sitting. He knows a guy who will know what’s going on here, and since we clearly have no clue what we are getting ourselves into, he’s gonna call him for us.
He keeps the call on his earpiece and talks for a few minutes. Then he lets us know, that recently there is an overflow of Ork organs on the Black Market. Coincidence? Maybe not.
For Black Market stuff and Organ Legging, Romeo also has a connection to call. He finds out, that Tamanous are the big guys in organ smuggle. They get supplied by some gangs, like the 162s and The Disassemblers (I mean, what else can you do with this name?!).
And then there is also the Komun'go Ring. So, Seoulpa after all. I’m sure that they are our guys, given the tattoos and shit.
The place that Romeo got from the coms turns out to be a warehouse-like building between two streets and an ally. We drive by, send out the FlySpy and just catch two guys carrying Bob out of one oversized door (maybe a garage?), and in through another. That’s it, we have to get in. Just some quick phone calls that might safe our asses. Discord briefs Cheeks and asks for back-up. Romeo does the same with the Crimson Crush, and asks to also get the word out to Skraacha. I call Miri and make sure she’s going to pay the Dwarf Guy, even though the Ork hunting rats have turned out to be Meta Human. She will. So the Dwarf hopefully won’t watch us get our asses kicked by the Koreans without lifting a finger to help us.
We quickly come up with some kind of plan: Romeo is going to knock at the door where they carried out Bob and try to talk their ears off, while the rest of us make an entrance through the large door on the other side of the building. Hunt0rKill0r69 is going to be Romeos back-up in the form of the SteelLynx, and simultaneously our vanguard steering the FlySpy, all while physically staying put in the car. He has already notified us, that the door we want to get in through, has two people standing and smoking in front of it. So we have to sneak up, and take them out quietly.
I have a sound suppressor on my HK Urban Combat, so I will take the first shot.
For now things go as planned. I lead, followed by Discord and the Dwarf, sneaking along the wall of the neighbouring building. The smokers don’t notice us.
I get into position, take aim, breath in, out, shoot. A perfect shot. The six bullets from my long burst create a neat line up the first guys body, all the way to the top of his head. I follow up with a short burst, not as instantly deadly, but still quite good, hitting the second guy in the chest, and giving Discord the opportunity to take him out with a single hit. I am way prouder of my work than I should be, given that I just took part in ending two lives. But I am in the zone now. Survival mode. It is me or them.
The Dwarf turns out to be useful again, opening the locked door with some thermite tool.
A corridor. Empty. The FlySpy shows a camera behind the corner. Romeo takes a break from fruitlessly knocking at his door to spoof it. We walk on. There’s a door on either side of us. From one we hear a humming sound. Electronics? Cooling? Maybe a cold-room. A place to store organs?
From the other door we hear laughter. The Dwarf wants to booby-trap it with some explosives. A brief discussion arises, because I don’t want to get blown up by him. Then Discord goes: ”Fuck, can’t you hear that, I think they are sawing him up!” He moves up quickly to a door about 3 meters ahead, tries to open it. Locked. He shoots the lock open with his shotgun. So much for stealth.
Discord storms into the room, as Dwarf Guy and I get into position giving him back cover, the Dwarf facing the cold-room and the door of laughter, me the big double door at the end of the corridor.
For a moment I just want to get out of here, go home, be with… No time for this! Focus! Get ready to kill or be killed.
SMG up on my cheek I aim at the door. I watch. Listen. Electronic buzzing. And suddenly a deep angry growl… Holy shit, what kind of monster did they sew together?