Living in the Fray

Chapter Fourteen

Krieger had started rummaging about across the abandoned factory in amongst the redundant machinery and random junk that had been dumped there. After a brief minute or two she eventually found a chair that seemed to be sturdy and dragged it over to the girl who was still stood, shaking and quivering.

'WHAT the fuck Krieger you could've shot me!'

'Frank shut the fuck up and give the girl your coat.'

'BUT YOU...'

'Shut, the fuck up Frank. And give the girl your fucking coat.'

Krieger was not up for having an argument which she made blatantly apparent in the tone of her voice. Frank huffed and shrugged off his leather bomber jacket which still had remnants of Clement stuck to it, then handed it to Krieger. She carefully held the coat out and gestured for the young woman to slide her arms in to it. The coat would cover her up at least considering Clement had torn her clothing off, baring her underwear. Krieger then dragged the chair she had found closer to the girl and gently guided her to sit down, giving her a quick check over to see if she had any injuries that were serious enough to require immediate attention. Thankfully the injuries she did have on her body were only large but deep grazes, some bruising that had started to form and several cuts that had already started to clot. The Chase clean up and recovery crew would be here within minutes to retrieve Clements body and bring both Frank and Krieger back to Chase HQ. What they were going to do with the girl was a completely different matter.

'Well done Cas.' Ronson had finally spoken up inside of Krieger's head.

'Cheers mate.' She replied to him, remembering she left her boots outside. She went to retrieve them and dropped them on the floor beside the chair where the girl was sat. Krieger still could feel lumps and shards of metal and glass in her feet; poking through her socks but it wasn't really bothering her. As soon as she stopped walking about and sat down for a bit, her nanomachines would eventually push the foreign bodies out from her flesh. If they were working properly that is, if not then she had to sit with her feet in a bucket of that disgusting medigel for an hour while the tissue on her feet repaired. And that was something Krieger didn't really want to do as it would seriously cut in to her celebratory partying time. But first she had something to sort out.

'What's your name sweetie?' Krieger asked the young woman who had now calmed down a bit.

'Tessa. It's Tessa.'

'Chris, do me a favour would you?' Krieger switched to neuralcomms.

'Sure thing babes, what you want?'

'Tell the Chase guys I want this girls medical needs taken care of and it's non-negotiable. If they want to have a fight with me over it I'm more than willing. Her name is Tessa and if they don't look after her I'm gonna blow up their fucking studio with them in it.'

'I'm with you on that one Cas.' Krieger heard the exasperation in Ronson's voice. They should've blown Clement's head off the instant he took a hostage but they didn't.'

'Hang on mate I'll see you shortly, the vans are here now.'

Krieger knelt down and laid a hand on Tessa's shoulder and spoke calmly to her.

'Tessa are you okay to walk? The transport's here to take us back to the Chase HQ I've requested they take care of you.'

The girl's face contorted and she burst in to tears as she lunged forward toward Krieger and threw her arms around her.

'Thank you!' The girl squealed through deep sobbing. 'I thought, I thought he was gonna kill me.' She continued to heave her words out. Krieger loosened herself from Tessa's grip and placed her hands on her shoulders.