Locke woke up bleary eyed to the cable laden ceiling of Yama's lair with last night's cigarette in his hand and the smell of fried eggs in the air. He remembered Chelaise's face clear as daylight but the events after had hazed together in a mess of high emotions and racing instinct. He took off it and hunted under the sofa for the bottle of saké she kept, he brushed against the cork, snatched it up and downed a little of it. The bitter cheap liquid shocked his nerves to wakefulness. He found the source of the egg smell, an omelette with cheddar and pork mince.
Yama rattled away on her keyboard at the centre of the room. He had no idea when he went to sleep-
"You should go look at your pet 'Painter. I darkened her all up."
He took a bite, "Give me the news, and thanks." *bloody well cooked, fluffy texture.*
"Marthon's blocked off, civilian evac started three hours ago at eleven. Mercs are gathering up, your unit's gonna meet in an hour." she turned on the holo to the right which displayed the four Marthon blocks, fat buildings that housed flats for cheap living. Coffin rooms small enough for a bed with a tiny show you couldn't stand up in. The more fortunate managed decent living spaces with high maintenance costs, or no maintenance at all, and no pets. No cats especially with the paranoid landlord who'd rather live with rats. Never mind the fact he had his own feline confined to this penthouse.
"Which block?" he was halfway through the omelette.
"Block D-"
He stuck his fork in the omelette "If you make that joke I am going to slap you."
"Someone from the big tower in London's coming over to carry out some work sanctioned for Tokyo Airspace. Runan Turq requested it himself."
"Turq wants to use outsiders to handle business, from them Templaria people?" Locke shovelled the rest of the omelette.
"Net says he's a fanatic, but that's an open vault of assumptions. What I could dig up says she's a witch, no Reignpainters or lunatic warlords. It's a solid idea, if a witch has been sanctioned by a well established religion that's got a rep for happy head lopping they're likely to behave themselves." she spun in her chair, "The Rebirthers in Marthon have apparently jammed the place up and aggressively snowed drones out early on. Their power must be runnin' low by now unless they somehow figured out how to jackjockey a grid."
"Jackjockey?"
She shrugged, "Question is, with what money? Now I've got more posts here about drug dealers with weirdo tattoos."
"Drug dealers and Rebirthers?"
"Yeah. I know."
"Come back to me on that when we get solids on it." Locke said, "How'd you jobs for Celcius go?"
"I want you to try this out, see if it dodges the jammers." she tossed a phone at him.
He turned it on, "Number?"
"No, it's a virus bomb. Got someone who knows their shit on the job soon as they connect that to a network I get a boost to cook their ice and escalate, and pickaxe my way up." she returned to her keyboard.
He stuffed the phone in his pocket and yawned, "Shit."
"Take a day off after this, I'm sure there's more good news for you."
He looked at the door then scowled when her sarcasm hit, "I'm certain." he muttered.
"It's powered by Medean Dust, and no I don't want you to go find and bust the poor crazies that somehow made it, they need income to live where they do." she slurped her coffee through a metal straw.
"You didn't have to tell me that."
"So you could pull me up on it later when you get bored and want someone to arrest?"
He chuckled and stood up with the plate in hand, "Fair point. Thank you for breakfast, Yama."
"You owe me saké, boss man."
"Yeah, I do. But rum is better, starts the engines in your head." he opened the door and found Brillian who was about to knock. She nodded to him and muttered something akin to good evening.
"Hey, kid." he said absently.
Her hair was cast in pitch, shineless black, wrapped up in a low ponytail with messy bangs at the front. Yama had given her contacts that gave her eyes a dull blue and dotted a few freckles across her forehead. He bit back the curiosity at what she looked like under her gas mask.
He gave her a pat on the shoulder and walked to the kitchen, noted that Brillian had left some crime drama on the TV paused. Locke placed the plate down, rolled up his shirt sleeves and got to cleaning.
"You have a meeting soon," Brillian called from behind him, "You're going to be late."
"Shit. With who?"
Lily Rise, TPSB hill, Concrete Paradise, one of the lowest crime rates in all Ludari due to the reputation of the former Rozsea axes. Now the Rozsea axes were disbanded and their best of the best reformed into The Shao, led by Niji. The AV passed by the skyrisers, luxury apartments and corporate buildings where office workers had their livings taken care of while they churned up payments. Machine learning keyjockeys worked round the clock hours in spacious apartments at tooth shattering competition to stay in their spots or climb up. The moment a tech giant decides you're not worth paying, you're gone the yesteryear. He turned the AV to the TPSB building, the large tower spread out over four blocks, the TPSB logo holo'd on the front with weapons decorated around dictated more of an oppressive bureau rather than a peacekeeper force. The thoughts of systemic change from within stirred at the back of his mind again. He shoved them down, he'd deal with that when he got promoted. He landed in his spot on the landing pad park to find Uldarin stood outside, fat face with the satisfied smile of a bastard.
"Sancerulean is Sanceru-late for once." Uldarin said behind a vanilla tobacco flavoured vape, "Want one? these are fresh off the Gibbs' line."
"Real smokes or no smokes, Ulda."
The blonde chub-chub turned around, "Dubchek's back, got all the anoms in check now."
He barely heard Brillian's footsteps on the ground behind him, he double checked her shadow. It was still opaque. Locke scrutinised her for a moment, she looked calm. No fight in those eyes, "Do you think Dubchek could give her a few lessons?"
"Probably." Uldarin said, "Mountaineer man knows he needs to be replaced soon."
"Soon?" Locke arched an eyebrow, "Accelerated?"
Ulda nodded, "He's going mad. He said he saw Darklis in Vajbast last night."
Locke looked back at Brillian, "You know who he is?"
She gave a stout nod, "I'm ready."
"You ain't." Uldarin said, "She's too young."
"I was her age." Dubchek's footsteps were inaudible and for some reason Locke's eyes wanted to slide away from looking at the black man. Shadows around his sunken eyes that ate all the light that tried to brighten them. "Inheritance." he whispered. "Smell."
"You smell like a new born baby and dead flowers." Brillian shivered.
"Good." Dubchek said and stepped closer.
Brillian took a step forward. Locke placed a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged him off, "I'm fine." she whispered.
Niji loudly clapped his hands, "Meeting's called off for later, we need you two at Marthon. The situation's escalated. Your AVs will autopilot back to your homes, we're putting you in a TA-military vehicle. Rush. Now."
The Light Armoured Air Vehicle came to a whiplash stop after what felt like fifteen minutes on the high speed authorised TA airway above the TPSB airway.
Dubchek muttered something in Russian as he stepped off of the vehicle into the bright night. Locke noticed the Gibmen smog was on the descend low again and clipped on his mask. Dubchek stood outside, took in the scenery, he had no mask and started to breath through his mouth when he noticed Locke's incredulous stare.
"Strongest Reignpainter in the TPSB." Uldarin, "A fuckin' dyin' lunatic, I need me a new one." he said.
"I preferred working with Jade." Dubchek said, Mountaineer accent leaking through, "Jade Irons." he smirked.
"Fuck off, Dub, you got a bitch to teach."
Brillian walked by Uldarin with cold indifference, he wondered if Uldarin could feel that strange sun Locke could sense from her again.
"Well trained." Uldarin said.
"Nah." he said, "She's just being nice."
Ulda scoffed, "Go yap to her Dubchek."
Uldarin and Locke took the lead in heading over to the TPSB tents, Locke looked behind him to see the blockade noose cast by the TPSB. Armed drones hovered in circles, VTOLs and floaters loomed over the area above skyscraper level.
"Who are we after?" Locke wanted a cigarette.
"Rebirthers doing a summon of daemons." Ulda pointed at the roof, "Only reason we ain't blown it up yet is 'cause of TA's contracts with Marland Payne Construction."
Dubchek and Brillian stared at each other as they walked in silence. Locke wondered how that form of communication worked for them but decided some secrets were better off secret. Reignpainters didn't talk about how it worked, and some said they couldn't.
They reached the tent, guards gave them the nod. Inside were a squad of people in uniforms he didn't recognise which meant someone big had come down. To the right he spotted something odd and noticed a Tengu Squad member on his way over, he took his helmet off nonchalantly. Kyoya Ichizo, vanguard of the heavenly dog pack under TA's chain. Today promised a nice pay out, a very bloody nice one.
"Good evening, fellas." said the infamous voice among criminals from behind.
"Mister Shamsaka." Locke said, "You brought in here?"
"To clean up after the shitty detectives."
Uldarin gave him a sidelong look, "Come on now, I think they're doin' a fine job-"
"That's a lie if I've ever 'eard one. This was obviously a Rebirther activity, they lost track of the witch and now the bitch slipped outta the city and we've got to waste resources scouting towns. Get in, I'll brief you all shortly." he held the tent curtain open.
They walked in with Reignpainters in tow, found themselves a set of seats in the middle. At the front sat another scrambled division of The Shao, they looked elite and well prepped with Toshin, Nobu and Satous. Behind him were ordinary detectives armed up, and a few regular cops dotted around who were hungry for some action. No swat team today, which meant they were deployed en masse elsewhere. Locke noticed the tent flick open again and Kyoya Ichizo stepped in, skulked into the corner and watched everyone with arrogance between his folded arms and superiority in his eye.
Shamsaka abruptly entered after the Tengu Ninja, his tell-tale tablet under his arm, notes speculation and the essential proven evidence at the top. The mixed worldly man wore more annoyance than when he spoke to Ulda-dickhead. Meant two things, complications with the raid or another kid was found confirmed dead by Rebirther sacrifice under his watch. He cleared his throat to bring everyone to attention, more out of habit, whenever that old detective walked in a strop everyone sharpened up.
"The run begins an hour and fifteen minutes from now. We're hitting block D up and bringing them down. Rebirthers have made it their HQ and we've detected strong anomalous activity inside. Block F, and C are packed full of mixtures of sacrifices, idiots and symps."
A woman handed him a mug of coffee, he took a sip, "Hostages inside, they could've flipped. We've got a member of Temp from London here to cleanse the Rebirther cancers that've been growing in the city, this is the first initial cleansing of many. We've got Dubchek and Brillian assigned to Uldarin and Locke. Only two Reignpainters because this is the best we can manage with Jade and Olar tied up at the moment. Ruruen will be operating under my direction solo and has already infiltrated the building. We're looking at potential Hauntbreach."
"What are these retards doin' servin' haunts anyway, brez?" one of the detectives asked.
Shamsaka scowled and clapped his hands. "Focus up, we've got extras up for grabs, Gala, Nobu, Foley and Ashavon. Grab weapons of your choice, they're at half price."
Kyoya lightly swat Locke on the shoulder and crooked a pinky for him to follow.
"Brillian." he stood up, "Back in a bit, Ulda."
Dubchek grabbed her arm, "She doesn't need protection, she is strong."
"I'll meet you there." she said gently.
Locke followed Kyoya out of the tent to the armoured one the Tengu sat in, lights were low and the sound of weapons being cleaned filled the air. The Tengu paid him no mind, each with the markings of seasoned killers and assassins.
"We must talk." Kyoya rasped, "Your pet Reignpainter."
"Not for sale."
"*We* had her assigned to you." another voice he knew said.
"Today a day for meeting old friends, Beni?"
"Just Ishida now." his Japanese accent was more pronounced, "I vouch for Kyoya and everyone here. They fought with the Laeches next to us and the Shikari."
Locke nodded, "Who do I gotta meet?"
"Soon, we'll set it up organically, you will meet with Jin." a woman's voice said, "Now go, act like you've just been scolded."