Dirty Work: Volume 1

Siala: Part 1 - 3

I have never been in many kars, though I can drive, and so I'm probably not in the best position to give a critique of the RoyalLock that I was driving down through the Regions towards the port in 6, but it was gorgeous. The seats were slim enough to be sexy but still plush and warm enough to fall back into. It hummed along, surfing an inch or so off the ground and seeming to never move a fraction higher or lower. I could see the glow from its underbelly as I drove along the highways, the black tiles becoming faintly bluer as the nose of the beast drove onwards. Around me, the kars moved and shifted for position, like a crowd trying to get into the best position for the guys at the front to give away the free goodies to them, but I wasn't rushed in the slightest. It was the calmest I'd felt in a good long while. The radio was on, the heating just right. If I hadn't known better I would have said the kar was made specifically for me.

As the boss had said, Region 15's traffic was hell at around nine in the morning. I had left in plenty of time, even more so than the boss had recommended, but even so I was still crawling along at a ridiculously slow rate, so slow that I was sure that the tips of my fingernails would be able to pick up the boss' friend before I did.

Siala was her name, a woman from Androssios IV. She seldom travelled to Celestria, which seeing as though the people of Androssios IV were the original inspiration for humanity's depiction of The Devil and subsequently Hell, I could perfectly understand. Christianity may not be one of the larger religions in The Empire nowadays, but certain remnants from its influence remain.

The boss had told me that Siala had once been saved by Serbgae, Markro's old friend and the one that had been killed in the adventure of the false letter that had brought me into the Dirty Work fold, and she was coming to repay her compliments in person. He had sent me through a picture of her, but seeing as though she was from Androssios IV, I didn't see much reason for it; she would be fairly obvious and easy to spot.

'She's also got a pet Harpi,' the boss had informed me via Halo-Core that morning, 'by the name of Rena. Very distant relative of a Harpi that was once good friends with the former princess of the planet, so if she considers herself to be above you, pay no attention to her.' He had paused, before adding, 'her talons are sharp though. So perhaps best not to piss her off.'

I'd never met a Harpi, the foot-tall, winged girls of Androssios IV, but I could imagine those talons raking into my skin. I didn't want to, but I could.

I sat in the slow-moving traffic on the 1-17 highway bored, going through the information in my mind. I had made an effort to wear a nice, clean shirt that day, and looked at myself in the mirror. Was I trying to spruce myself up to impress an off-worlder? I don't know. It's not that I was looking to go flirting with anyone, though Androssians as a rule are apparently always good lovers. Perhaps I was just subconsciously trying to make myself appear more than someone that worked illegally for a guy that ran a strip club. Hell, anything would be a start.

'And that was Waves in the air by Rasta Ha,' the radio informed me. 'And coming up, it's the news at nine.'

'Thanks,' I told the radio out of boredom. The world outside hadn't moved much in a good half an hour. How were all these people not at work yet? Come on, I thought to myself, shift it. Some of us have a long way to go.

'Our top story this morning is the remarkable theft of a 500 year old royal sapphire from inside a locked safe on Outpost 26. Reporters at the scene say that visitors last night were admiring the jewel inside its safe through the reinforced glass windows when all of a sudden the lights went out and, upon their turning back on, found that the royal heirloom was gone. Police have arrested a man on the scene and are appealing to witnesses for any further information as to the possible whereabouts of the gem.

'In other news there's been an explosion at a shopping centre in the OpenSky Zone of Region 27 where three people have been killed. Police are not ready to report that it was an organised terrorist attack, though it is rumoured that the underground movement Baron have been named as possible suspects.

'Elsewhere it's been reported that the HyperGP racer, Noras Seer has been named driver of...'

I switched the radio off. It was beginning to bore me. Although I was getting into the HyperGP, I wasn't that interested. And besides, the traffic was beginning to clear.

The buildings began to move more quickly around me as I put my foot on the throttle a little more. I felt the kar purr in response. Overhead a police flyer swept below, searchlight going. Its siren wailed before dopplering out of earshot as it tucked right into the more urban areas of the Zone.

Its all go today, I thought to myself. It's either complete boredom or something exciting. Can't we have something in-between, reasonably interesting but of no great consequence to anyone and we can all get on with eating and sleeping and finding someone to shack up with and driving really nice kars and expanding the empire and whatnot?

Eventually the traffic thinned and I made progress towards Region 6, looking forward to the virtually empty straights of Regions 9 and 10 where I could put the foot down and relax, cruising and calm.

*

I parked up an hour ahead of my appointed time and decided to go find some cheap burger place for a bite to eat. I hadn't had anything to munch on since leaving over 10 hours before hand, and although the fuel station had a few nibbles, I wanted something big that I could really sink my teeth into.

On the back of the port's main street I found a little place that was nearly empty. I wandered in, greeted by the smell of grease and fat. Perfect.

'I'll have a Vernim Wildebeest burger with a Fizz-E, please,' I said. The man behind the counter, a young Merkiosen acknowledged me with a barbershop quintet of 'certainly' from his five scaly mouths, and called the order to the back. I paid and sat down on the cheap plastic chairs to wait.

Outside on a wall nearby was a great bulletin screen with headlines constantly flashing from one side to the other. The usual gossip of who was sleeping with who, where The Empire were thinking of negotiating with next, along with a joke about how you could tell if a Brykthylosian was sleeping with your wife. The news boards of Celestria are incredibly random and blunt, perhaps one of the oddly endearing parts of the city that one just never gets bored of.

As I was sat there, a piece of tickertape information caught my eye. It was about the remarkable theft of the sapphire that had happened the day before on Outpost 26. The officials had apparently released the man that they had taken into custody on grounds of lack of evidence, and had now turned their attention to the possibility of it being the work of a young lady who was wearing a jacket with a flower on it.

Instantly I thought of the Red Rose organisation, and of Vayn Baron's escapology trick he had pulled not long ago. It was, of course, not absolutely certain that it was the same organisation that had tried to steal the jewel, for there was no mention of what colour the flower was, or even what type it was, but something inside me tugged. My intuition was beginning to tap on the inside of my skull and tell me 'umm, Xayne, you know that there's something to this, don't you?'

'Sir,' the man at the counter said. 'Your food.'

I got the food and went outside to wander around the street a bit to stretch my legs. I ate the burger and drank the Fizz-E which was overpriced compared to Region 26 but, of course, one could never be picky. I thought about Vayn Baron, his eyes that I had never seen past his shades, his small stature with the glossy sheen to his bald head. I knew he was out there somewhere, planning his next move, and it was possible he already had.

I finished the burger and went back to the kar to wait for Siala.