Dirty Work: Volume 2

Story Two - The New Groove - 7

It was five minutes to midnight and I was limping through the rain. Every step sent a jolt of pain through my right leg, the screws and pins holding it together crunching against the ligaments as my foot hit the pavement. I could see the tips of the railings atop Crywater Bridge in the distance, underneath it hidden in the shadow. My jacket flapped in the wind that tried to rip me from my uncertain feet, the white of the hospital nightgown soaked through and threatening to freeze my calves. I had no weapons with me, the Halo-Core bleeping frantically as Markro and Ashrore and even the boss tried to contact me but I kept it hidden away in my pocket. I had minutes to go.

I practically stumbled down the steps to the water's edge, uncertain in each step I took. My footing almost failed me halfway down, and were it not through a lucky combination of a railing and good old-fashioned instincts, refined over the past half year or so, then I would have most likely ended up on the ground with my skull in several pieces. I gritted my teeth against the biting cold. I had to keep moving.

The waters churned with filth beside me, gurgling happily, tauntingly so, as I staggered on towards the bridge. I quickened my pace, ignoring the pain in my leg and the stitch beginning to dig into my side. I was maybe a minute away now, checking my Halo-Core for the time. I would make it. I was going to be there when I was told to. 23:59 ticked over.

'Don't fuck me over,' I hissed to the night behind my teeth. I gave a quick glance to the streets above me, the passing of a Magna-Train high above me reinforcing what I already knew and felt. I was alone in this one, completely and utterly on my own.

A solitary figure in the gloom of the bridge was lit momentarily as a stray headlight wandered down to us. Her hair caught the light, eyes piercing and alert. As I stumbled into speaking distance, I recognised her.

'You,' I panted, gripping my side.

'Me,' she said simply.

I held up my hand for a second as I caught my breath, giving me a moment to process who it was that stood before me. I couldn't believe that it was she that had sent me the message, but then who was it? And why was she here waiting for me? So many questions started running through my head that I was in need of a stadium and track set up just to keep them from crashing into each other and cluttering the place up.

'How's the interest in art going?' the girl from the art gallery asked me.

I grimaced. 'It's not the thing that's particularly on my mind right now, if I'm honest.' I took a step closer to her and she brought out a 50 Alpha with a ruby embedded in the grip, pointed it at my heart.

'Don't,' she warned, eyes narrowing and shadow wrapping around her face like a thief's mask.

'Leave me alone,' I complained, 'I'm just trying to get out of the rain. I'm unarmed; search me. Go on. You've threatened to kill my colleagues and gotten a sick and injured man to steal away from his hospital in the dead of night and you're waving a gun at me? Come off it.'

'I'm aware of the state of your health, Xayne,' she said, taking a step back from me, gun still levelled at my chest. 'And believe me, I had no intention of killing your friends.'

'So why go through all this?'

'Because otherwise you wouldn't have come.'

'Just visit me in my hospital bed, for crying out loud,' I said, exasperated. 'How hard is that to do?'

She regarded me carefully. The kars went by overhead, the clamour of the city at night rang out but I could hear nothing except my breathing and the beating of my heart. I kept my eyes trained on hers but in my peripheral vision at all times was her finger, set on the trigger, ready to take me to kingdom come in a second.