Living in the Fray

Chapter Twelve

Krieger was getting a headache; almost to the point where it was putting her off her pint. She was sat bolt upright at the large table with four male Voxon, four intimidatingly gorgeous Voxon. That aside, Krieger was having a hard time trying to keep a straight face as these four had attempted to blend in by wearing some clothes that weren't the standard Voxon fashion and it was just making them way more obvious. They looked uncomfortable and out of place with their baseball caps worn correctly, hoodies underneath their standard issue Voxon suit jackets and holding their pint glasses as if they were as delicate as fine china tea cups. Krieger did notice that they were wearing Team Osiris badges pinned to their lapels.

'Captain Krieger I must say, it is an absolute honour to meet with you in your favourite public house!'

'It is an honour for all of us. You are our all-time favourite Chase hunter!'

Krieger sat and tried to take in the Voxon admiration she was receiving. She wasn't a fan of being praised like this but the Voxon; generally as a race of people were staggeringly polite and enthusiastic especially about other races and cultures that they found fascinating. They were absolutely elated over the fact that there were other lifeforms out in the universe that had a near identical DNA match to their own albeit humans weren't as physically or genetically perfect as they were. They were pretty naive though and it was that trait that bit them on the arse on occasion.

And being in the presence of perfection like this made any human feel inadequate; and somewhat dumb, as the Voxon were all smart as well. The Voxon who didn't fit this stereotypical type were the ones they classed as weird. The ones who could actually back-chat and show any other emotion other than delight and happiness all the time, were the ones you could actually have a conversation with and not feel like absolute shit doing so. Unfortunately for Krieger she was not sat with any of those types of Voxon. She felt like she was back in high school and was about to be told by her teachers at school, that she would amount to nothing and would spend the rest of her life working the tills at Tesco. The joke was on them; she became an officer in the military while the rest of her class mates were busy in dull jobs and making babies.

'Oh Captain we do hope you get the next kill, that means overall you would be the winner!'

'And it also means that you would be the top of the leader board with most Chase wins ever!'

Krieger smiled politely even though she really didn't share their enthusiasm; whilst simultaneously screaming at Ronson through her neuralink telling him to find a lead so she could legitimately leave. He didn't reply. She watched the four Voxon nurse their pints of beer. Beer wasn't a thing in their culture, in fact alcohol wasn't really a thing either but they loved partaking in human things. Voxon also had a tendency to give themselves "human names" especially if they were on a human planet or dealt with them frequently. Sat at the table were a Jeff, a Sven, a Calvin and a Trevor. A bizarre choice of names Krieger thought, none of which actually suited these guys but each to their own; she'd probably never see them again.

'You're right guys. Well I plan on winning this Chase and the sooner the better. I hope you put bets on me!'

The group nodded.

'Anyway I had better go, those Cons won't hunt themselves.'

Krieger stood from the table and poured her remaining half pint down her neck after making her excuse. The Voxon men watched in awe at this, their reason being that beer wasn't the best tasting thing to them but humans seemed to like it a lot. They drank enough of it at least. The group raised their glasses to their favourite hunter and tried to down them but failed miserably as the taste and fizz was just too much for them. They all spluttered and coughed slightly as the beer was just not going down smoothly at all. Krieger couldn't get out of Hideki's quick enough which never happened and she would have rather sat in there for a few pints and a chat with Hideki himself for a bit. No, the Voxon as nice and friendly and drenched in Soma as they were, were just making her feel tired and on edge. She had to get back to it anyway.

'HEY! Is anybody even listening to me?'

Zach was stood in the doorway to the Osiris rec room, flapping his arms about in an attempt to catch the attention of his crew mates who were busy chatting to each other about the Chase.

'HEY!' He yelled again. The twins just glared at him.

'Why you shouting dude?' Jess asked him with a look of scorn on her face.

'I have been in the office this morning.'

'And?' Faye asked him.

'I've been on a very important vidcall. VERY important.'

Some of the others started paying attention to Zach now as he folded his arms as to make it known that he was serious.

'Important how?' Tony quizzed him.

'I've been on the phone to the Galaxy Police for the past half hour I'll have you know. They want to hire us for a job.'

Everybody stopped talking and slowly turned their heads to face a grinning Zach; smirking away as if he knew something they didn't.

'What for?' Tony carried on questioning.

'I don't know.'

He didn't know. Everybody sighed and went back to watching TV leaving Zach looking rather sheepish. They'd find out what really was up when the Captain got back. Dejected, Zach just parked himself at the end of the settee and watched the Chase along with his crew mates. Of course the Galaxy Police didn't tell Krieger's glorified secretary the details, they wanted to speak to the Organ Grinder not the monkey. The truth is, Zach was on the vidcall for as long as he was; embroiled in a fruitless tirade in trying to chat up the rather lovely personal assistant to the Galaxy Police Commander by the name of Marcia. She wasn't biting.

'The Boss won't want to do anything till after the Trades, I hope you told them that.' Tony said to Zach.

'I did actually, do you think I wouldn't know to do that?'

Tony didn't reply, it was more of a statement than a question.

Zach eventually wandered off in the direction of his quarters leaving the others in the rec room; wondering why the hell he stayed around in this job for as long as he did. The reason was he got paid well and no bugger else would employ him.

'Well that can't be good if the Galaxy Police want to talk to the Boss.' Tony stated to the others.

'She's not been up to anything dodgy has she? Well, I mean more dodgy than usual.' Justin added.

'Not that I know of.'

'It's probably nothing then, they might want us for an sctual job do you think?'

'Maybe.'

Everybody went back to watching the TV. Their Captain was being followed by a drone, watching her buy yakitori from a street vendor. The footage cut out as a huge bright blaring graphic covered the whole screen.

'Breaking News everyone! Freddie Wilson has scored his first kill of the Chase!'

'Oh shit.' Tony heaved. 'Krieger and Frank are not gonna like that.'

The cameras cut to the scene of Freddie stood over the huge body of the OWLF member Jax, flat on his back with a huge bleeding hole right in the middle of his chest. The drone that was filming Freddie hovered upwards to take in a larger shot. It looked like Freddie had found Jax skulking around the back alleyways of a few takeaways near the outskirts of the town centre. It then cut to a shot of Frank launching a takeaway cup of coffee down the street he was on, screaming his head off. Beside it was footage of Krieger flipping a table over she was sat at when she was enjoying her yakitori with some ungodly noise coming out of her. There was one con left to find and he was the vilest one of the lot.