in the ANSWER: action!
It’s
just like old times in my new suit “Carla“. Chaos all around me.
Space yapping his maximum alert. Drinks have been spilled. Shots
being fired. Hostages taken.
“Paul
you have to do something!” She looked gorgeous in the firelight.
The bits of insulation fiber that hung in her hair give her a wistful
quality. “They are arresting bystanders!” We could plainly see
them moving people toward a pair of business suit wearing pamphlet
wielding missionary types. Safest for the hostages is to convincingly
convert, could come away with some furniture.
“The
situation is under control Amanda.” The control of chaos and
arbitrary fate.
With
the pedestrians safely removed to be brainwashed Jenkins begins a
suppressive fire into the dust cloud that was once the entrance-way
connecting Tubular to Ring Three Promenade Crater View.
“You
should surrender to them. It’s you they want Dvorak!” Moody’s
bulk blocked a wide potential field of fire near us. I didn’t want
him to bolt until we could get him between me and the Utah National
Guard. He led them here with his making the dinner reservations in my
name for this meeting/ambush. No budget for me results in no pay for
him, so the buffet gets put on my tab. He can’t get another job out
of the Great Eight so blames me for his low income. A senior clerk
always has two senior researchers to tend, and Moody’s second
researcher is the long lost missing unheard from presumed dead Johnny
Bongard. No contact for years means a lowest low budget for even a
senior senior clerk. I might not have a budget from the bureau but I
do have super wealthy pants. Suit has offered him back pay and a
hefty raise with a signing bonus to continue to clerk till Demarist
reports. Keep your enemies close is what always happens to me. We
tempted him up to the moon with cash and prostitutes and he led the
Mormon army straight to us. I have to remind myself that I still need
him. He might have betrayed me but I still need him.
“OK
Reggie you go out there and tell them that I want to surrender.” I
looked hard into his beady eyes to catch the spreading glee cross his
face.
“Paul
No! They’ll take you to Idaho and I can’t defend you there. They
don’t recognize France Law in the Boise!” She clung to me.
“Thank
God Paul.” Moody tries to warm up to me. I squirm away his attempt
to comfort me with a meaty hand on my shoulder. If he gets a hold of
me he might not let go and try to haul me to them. “I’ll handle
everything. Negotiate for your life.” He seemed to snicker. I know
mentally he counts his reward bounty money, money that must have been
bid up even higher then my suit offered, in order to buy him so
reliably, as he turns his subtly armored barn sized shuttle suit
towards the combat zone. This should buy us some time. If they kill
him not much time. They won’t kill him though, because that would
hurt their reputation in the traitorous intelligence marketplace. I’m
sure he’d provided them enough of a gushing testimonial of my evil
anti-military industrialishness to justify their ultimate
extravagance. Religions are notoriously stingy with their mercenary
funds. Fanatics work for free. Traitorous clerks must be bribed.
Space
Marine Gunnery Sergeant Major Jenkins is giving me a tilted head
quizzical look that has me looking down at a quiet Space that is
staring up at me with a similar tilted head questioning gaze. “Lets
Get Out Of Here!” I shout as I rise to clamber in the Moody
distracted lull to the crumpled wall behind us. Thankful of low-g, I
go over it like a rat without waiting for Space or them, to slide
down the debris of someones stylish furnishings into a partially
destroyed tube flat situated between Tubular and Conical with
connections to Ring Two Esplanade. Space is first to follow, Amanda
struggles over the ruble to tear her scanty shuttle suit to even more
abbreviation of a modest lawyers garment. Jenkins does his best to
keep her clothed for combat using both hands by ripping the useless
lami systems away right down to her power thong and belt. With her
shapely perky dancers breasts this reveals the large Arma-Utile
hardened particle launcher she has strapped to her left thigh. “Oh
I forgot I had that!” She says as she chambers a warhead and checks
the sights display. Now she's a fully weaponized lawyer. We move out
into the corridor tube of Conical Two Ring.
We
hear a rising angry shouting as the decomp door closes. I think I
heard: “Moody you lying bastard!” I could have said that. I might
have said that. “Moody you lying bastard!” That time I did say
it!
“I
knew you wouldn’t give up Paul.” Suit whispers in my ear. The
brave man surrenders; the true coward runs away long before gunpoint
surrender is the only option left. I must attempt to tune down suits
Carla parameters. I think my pants might be in love with me.
Jenkins
locks the door with a blast to its system lami that turns the heads
of nearby pedestrians. The attack of the Mormons has been too sudden
for the residents of Conical Two to have become refugees. The fine
line between innocent Lunarian and fleeing civilian is the door we
just exited. He calls for backup to his ship. Certainly we are now on
Police vid monitors. Several cop carts weave their way towards us
from the distance.
“Where
do we go?”
“I
need a drink!” A nice launch tanker of Marstini.
“Lets
see if Armando’s is open.”
