Dog with a Bone

  Wizbang smashes his keyboard over Glitches head, keys explode like the candy out of a pinata. Glitch turns around, looks up at Wizbang and snatches a mug from his desk and smashes Wizbang in the face with it. Bucket snorts.

  “It's not funny, Sargent.” The Colonel says, giving him a stern look. The stern look does not have the effect on Bucket that the Colonel was hoping for—or maybe it does.

  “Oh, of course it's not funny.” Bucket says, his facial expression betraying his words.

  “And here we thought they were having a slapsies fight.” Rider says. Bucket lets out a chuckle. The Colonel sighs.

  Huddled around the video terminal they see Glitch tackle Wizbang and he then proceeds to punch him in the face until the MP's show. Bucket's filled with a sense of pride seeing his guy give it back to Wizbang. Bucket needs to remember to respect Glitches right cross.

  He usually avoids the Net-Stitches and Techs, but Glitch has his respect. Glitch would have been a good Field Specter but he took a shotgun slug to his left foot breaking up a fight on the mainland at a dive bar. A couple of soldiers were beating some cocky kid so bad they almost killed him. He would have died too, if Glitch didn't step in. His foot was never the same after the rebuild.

  “So they gave no indication as to what the fight was all about?” The Colonel asks.

  “None what-so-ever. They were having a bit of a territorial pissing match when the teams joined up, but nothing out of the ordinary. Glitch usually lets that crap slide, he's cool as a cucumber.” Bucket says.

  “Rider?” The Colonel asks.

  “Wizbang has been a parboiled idiot lately. I want to put in a formal complaint; his negligence led to us losing Helmet, in my opinion. I don't want him to have any influence on my squad.”

  “Well it's not every day a Net-Stitch hits another over the head with a keyboard. The audio was out in the control room, I don't like the coincidence. Bucket, on your next trip out I want Wizbang to be your Net-Stitch.”

  “With all due respect he should be pulled from the field.”

  “With all due respect it's not a request; it's an order. You're one of our best, I need another opinion on how Wizbang is doing. And I trust you to know when it's appropriate and not appropriate to break rules and regulations.” She says with a slight smile. “Dismissed.”

  The two soldiers head out.

  “If you're one of her best, does that mean I'm the best?” Rider says.

  “No, it means you're a jackass. Thanks for your broken Net-Stitch.” Bucket grumbles.

  Rider scoffs, “Well, no one should have to run with him. I'll tell you what, how about we grab a drink, first rounds on me?”

  “That doesn't make up for having to run with your boy, but it's a good start.”

  The two men walk to the Rusted Node tavern and grab a booth. It's a quiet day in the tavern, the synth techno beat turned down low, the clouds of indigo haze only as thick as a tea kettle's steam. Smithy looks over at Bucket, he starts to speak, but Bucket cuts him off.

  “Yeah, yeah, no fighting. Pitcher Smithy.”

  He's pouring out a pitcher while yelling out to Bucket, “Well yous can't blame me. Yous need to not be so violent in town.” Smithy walks over with the pitcher of Chrome Circuit IPA and a couple of pint glasses. “I have something for yous, it's about Georgie.”

  “Is it worthwhile or bullshit?”

  “Well, it'll cost you $20 to find out.”

  “Sure. Rider, give the man $20.”

  “Wait, I said I was buying the first round. I can overlook that you took that as a whole pitcher, but now you want me to give Smithy $20?”

  “Look, it's important. You know there's bull shit going down around here, I'm investigating. And besides; a pitcher is only $2.50 more than two pints, a pitcher is about 6 pints.”

  “So I'm buying the first three rounds now...” Rider rolls his eyes and hands Smithy $20.

  “And $7.50 for the ale.” Rider shakes his head and counts out precisely $7.50 and slides it over to Smithy. “No tip? Not cool, not cool...”

  “Can you get to the point Smithy?” Bucket says.

  “Cool your heels, you didn't even pay me, I should only tell Rider. I'm getting to it.”

  “At the rate you're getting to it the pitcher of beer will have evaporated.”

  “Well you don't have to get cranky, yous not gunna hit me are you?”

  “Holy hell, at this point I'M thinking of hitting you.” Rider says.

  “I don't have to tolerate that in my own establishment.” He turns and walks back to the bar. Bucket follows him. Smithy is being edgy today, he's never edgy.

  “It's important Smithy, lives are at stake. Spill it.” Bucket says.

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  Smithy slaps the $20 on the bar and slides it towards Bucket, “I changed my mind. Greed got the better of me, I shouldn't have mentioned it.”

  “Smithy, I've never even heard of you handing back money. Here's another $20, let's discuss it in your office.” Smithy is spooked, big time. For him to be spooked this has to be big.

  They head back to his office. There is an ancient wooden desk, a retrofitted bankers light on the desk and an antique chrome woman silhouette stretched out laying flat on his desk. Smithy closes the door behind them, they have a seat.

  “You can't tell no one. In fact I don't want to tell yous.” Smithy stands.

  “Smithy, have a seat.” Smithy sits back down, his hand twitching. “Look, I can't say much but there is a lot going on around here. I'm trying to sort things.”

  “Yeah, well, the people involved, yous know dem. Shit, what if yous involved and gunna kill me?”

  “I'm not involved in anything dirty, and I'm probably not going to kill you.”

  “Probably?”

  “Smithy, why would I want to kill you?”

  “But you are involved with the Colonel.”

  “We are NOT discussing that and it has nothing to do with nothing. Get to it Smithy.”

  “Ok, ok. Word is one of the sailors saw a Specter talking with Georgie out back before he did a header off the dock. The sailor said he'd swear his life on Georgie being stone-cold sober. Georgie suddenly favours his arm, then moves out into the doorway going back inside, there is a sort of shimmer behind him.”

  “Cloaking tech?”

  “Seems so.”

  “Who's the sailor?”

  “A sailor.”

  “Come on Smithy, who?”

  “Uhuh, no way. Besides, it don't matter.”

  “Who was the Specter?”

  “Now you're really trying to get me killed.”

  “I'm not trying to get you killed. Look, you remember Wolf? This is worse than that.” Everyone remembers Wolf. Bucket was a green Specter, before he joined Nightfall, when the Wolf incident happened. Wolf was a Specter that fell into working for the Net Lords. Rumours were all over; from he fell in love with a Net Lord to they offered him a place as a Net Lord. He gave them intel that led to them sending automated AI explosive drones down the transport tunnels. One of the drones made it to the Cavern entrance before exploding. It caused a lot of friction between the Specters and everyone else in the Cavern until the Colonel ordered Wolf's execution on the docks in front of everyone.

  It's odd thinking back the Colonel barely noticed him back then. Of course, this was around the time when Oscar was born. And, well, she would have been with the father—at least once. Bucket was also 17.

  “I need to check something real quick Smithy.” Bucket pulls out his ghostshades and pulls up some of the saved video. Looking closer at the footage he sees Georgie staggering. He pauses it; one frame when he's at the edge of the dock. His feet are lifted up about a foot as he topples over the edge. Looking at another angle he sees a crimp in his baggy pants near the bottom by his boots. They made sure he was going to land head first.

  But who was the cloaked person? Nightfall doesn't have access to advanced cloaking tech like this—that he knows of.

  “Yeah, you were right to be nervous Smithy. This is big. Do not tell anyone else. If anyone else starts sniffing around about this let me know. I'll do what I can to look out for you. I need to look into this, watch your back.”

  “Always.”

  Bucket enters the Colonels office, she stands and sits leaning on the edge of her desk, crosses her arms and starts rhythmically drumming her fingers on her right arm.

  “Business or pleasure?” she asks.

  He strolls over to her, almost standing on her toes. ”Business. I need to know where Laser is.”

  “Go ahead and use my codes to check the system. I haven't seen Laser since you came back after the cutwire job."

  “I need to borrow Glitch to run a face rec script. I need to scan who came off the boats over the last two weeks and scan where Laser has been. It's not enough to look at the manifest; they were likely agents sneaking in and I don’t have time to look through all that footage manually.”

  “He's in holding for another day.”

  “I’ll take a pair of ghostshades to him. He's good and I trust him.”

  “Have a seat.”

  “I'm kind of on the hunt, I need to keep moving with this.”

  “What are you hunting?”

  “Bad men.”

  “Oh, bad men. Well, that's a shame...”

  “I did say I was here on business. This is important Jodi.”

  They study each others eyes, it’s not the cold stare she had before. Her eyes harden and her left eye twitches. “Your Nightfall team is dirty, and I paired Shadow with you because I trust her.”

  Tapping a couple of Red Labels out of his pack he offers her one, then offers a light before lighting up himself. They each take a long drag, looking into each other's eyes, observing how the other reacts.

  “Leech too?”

  “All things lead to yes, but it's not confirmed.''

  “Do you not trust me?” Her left eye twitches again.

  She reaches out with her slender fingers and unruffles the left point of his collar, gently pressing it flat like one would stroke a cat's back. “I do now. I didn't after you took my codes but I see what you've been doing and it's the opposite of being Underwood's lapdog. Now Underwood, he's one dirty S.O.B. What if I were to tell you the world is much bigger than you have been led to imagine? The reality outside the kingdom is far different then the masses are led to believe.”

  “Would it make a difference in who killed Georgie?”

  “You're like a dog with a bone when you have something on your mind, aren't you?”

  “Well, you know I'm with Nightfall, therefore you know that I know the world is a bigger place then we're led to believe, that the Royals and Net Lords likely have some bullshit going on that we all have to suffer through. I also know you're in the thick of it and not sure if I trust you.”

  “Ah, so you're not worried about just the bad men. Logically, you shouldn't trust me.”

  “I took your codes, you shouldn't trust me.”

  “I knew you did.”

  “You knew after a week, the day you were all pissy after I talked to Nadine is when you figured it out. At first I thought you were mad at me about talking to her, but it wasn't that, was it?”

  She narrows her eyes. “Dismissed.”

  He leans in closer and whispers in her ear. “You don't like being outsmarted, do you?”

  “You're being annoying.” She shoves him but he doesn't budge.

  “You need to decide what damn mood you want to be in and stick to it.” He says, taking a step back. They lock eyes, he's never known anyone as infuriating as her, but at the same time he's drawn to her.

  “Either lock the door or leave.”

  “I need to see Glitch.”

  Bucket leaves the room and closes the door. As he's walking away he hears the door open and slam shut.

  He smiles.