12. Who?

The officer extended his hand holding the heavy pistol and pointed it directly at Azumi's forehead. The other started drooling as the aug made connection to wherever he was calling. Retractile considered for less than a second before he shot the drooler with his stun gun dropping him immediately. The gun wielder looked at his buddy as he collapsed to the ground and then back across the sights to Azumi. He started to curl his finger to fire the gun when he suddenly opened his eyes wide in fear and looked down at his leg where William had reached over with his jaw and bit him in the Achilles tendon. With a wrenching motion of his head he tore through the tendon with the officer screaming in pain. He tried to point the gun at William while he fell and would have succeeded if Azumi hadn't kicked his wrist with her right foot making him drop the gun. The guard collapsed and William squirmed over to bite him further, grabbed a mouthful of belly flesh and tore a chunk out. The guard roared with pain and tried to punch William hard in the face to get him away. Retractile shot him with the stunner and he started convulsing while William slowly squirmed up to his neck and bit hard into his throat, chewing like a grinder through the windpipe and cartilage until he could get to the artery and tear it wide open. The blood splashed out in large pulsing streams bathing William and calming him. Azumi looked down at him and met his eyes that were pools of flaming madness in a sea of blood-spattered filth. He smiled a toothy smile displaying the bloody gristle between his teeth.


"Janice..."


"Strange friends you have there Az. Why'd he call you Janice?"


Azumi turned to Retractile and squinted for a second.


"Don't know baby. And I have never seen him before so I am just as surprised as you."


Retractile was used to people keeping secrets and using alternate names like sharingan, look...no hands, MysticRogue and even Retractile's own nickname. Most of the times people used the alternate names for a reason and it was considered extremely bad form to blow someone's cover and share the real name. He had not tagged Azumi as a Janice however and she usually kept better company than this particular sorry piece of filth on the floor.


"Wanna keep him? Cause then we gotta go soon. I am not sure that I stopped the guard from auging, which means the cavalry is on its way. And the way that your friend here acted kinda ensures that they come not only armed but pissed off as well."


"Listen, I don't know who he is right? And I don't know this Janice."


She looked quickly down to Retractile's chest before looking up again, defiance clear in her voice.


"But the pigs are after him and that is enough for me to take him home and find out why."


Retractile decided to play along. It was pretty clear to him that she was lying but she probably had a good reason for it. He shrugged and grabbed the net with one hand and hefted the bulk over his shoulder before turning to Azumi who was quickly running through the pockets of the policemen pocketing id cards and access keys.


"Lead the way. And be quick about it too, he stinks."


###


Cat had slept in a real bed, in a real room and had taken a real bath for the first time in what felt like forever. Her nightmare, she only dreamt the same one over and over, had even allowed her one night's rest without manifesting itself. Silia had set her up with everything and even had an assignment for he this morning. An escort to Odia together with other pilots from KAOS. She grabbed her helmet and slowly spun around checking that she hadn't forgotten anything. Satisfied, she went outside and turned towards the drop-chutes for the 3rd floor and the briefing rooms of KAOS. Just in front of the chutes was the reception for this level's hotel where a pretty loud argument was taking place. Cat recognised the voice and smiled in anticipation.


"How the hell do you expect me to pay for that? It was broken before we even entered the room. And the nozzles on the shower were mostly defect before as well."


"Sir I must inform you that you signed for a room on perfect working conditions when you received the pass-code. Also, you signed that you were liable for any and all damages to any of the room's installations. Whether or not there were defects in the room prior to your accepting is not interesting as you chose not to bring this to our attention within the agreed upon time. Thus you owe the full 143,754 standard UIT credits or the equivalent in Serco KC's which at the current exchange on this station comes to 77,823 KC's."


"I never signed anything you stupid robot. Why don't you get that into your dumb silicone brain before I smash it?"


"Sir, note that destruction of this robot will merely be added to your bill as were the damages to my predecessor. We have your digital signature in the form of one brainpal acknowledgement Sir."


Cat saw the reception bot that was lying to one side with a massive fist sized indentation in the central sensor part and grinned. Somehow the robot had managed to piss Riddik seriously off and had been forced to take the consequences.


"What up Rid?"


"Riddik turned and some of the anger faded away.


"Hey Cat. This machine wants me to pay a ton of money just because I broke a thing or two."


Cat tried to keep a straight face but failed. The grin forced its way upon her face with all the inevitability of a Teradon moving through a cardbox wall.


"Good time with the missus?"


The anger in Riddik's face disappeared completely and was replaced by a slight sheepish looking grin that broadened slowly.


"Yeah, it had been a while."


Cat accessed her KAOS file and instructed the file bot to transfer the money that was asked for to the hotel's account. It was the very least she could do to after he had saved her life twice. The bot gathered the papers on the table.


"Thank you sir. Feel free to book a room with Aeolus Hotel Services another time. Have a pleasant day."


The bot disappeared into the armoured compartment leaving Riddik somewhat puzzled. He turned to Cat again and frowned.


"Did you pay that?"


Cat smiled and shrugged.


"The least I could do. Listen, I have time for a cup of koffee if you care for some company?"


"Cat, I can't accept taking money from you. It would be.... wrong."


"Why? Cause I'm a girl? Listen, just let it slide and let’s go get some koffee."


Riddik slowly nodded and turned towards the chute.


"And maybe you can tell me how the two of you thrashed the hotel room for that amount of credits."


Riddik grinned widely.


"That would take more than a cup of koffee, but I can start, yeah?"


###


Hortan walked up to Naoko with some trepidation at what he was about to do. As usual she was busy working on the twin computer screen, focused to the point of singularity while at the same time acknowledging that he was waiting without giving him the slightest attention. Hortan waited until she had finished a furious attack upon her keyboard and looked up. He gulped some air at the undivided attention she brought to bear upon him, the effect being like a rabbit caught in headlights.


"Yes pilot Hortan?"


He knew what he needed to say, he knew how he wanted to say it and he had even rehearsed it before he entered the office where Surbius, the Dark Lord of Forms, Filer of TGFT, resided like an ancient black dragon on top of his filing cabinets. What he seemed to forget every time was that Naoko guarded the office in a way more efficient than Cerberus guarded the gates of Hades in ancient Greece.


"Mmwah Recruit, Burn.n.n.n to Sur-sur-sur..bius. Apply!"


Naoko smiled that particular loop-sided smile she reserved for when things became absurd. Like they had a tendency to become when Hortan was involved. Particularly around either herself or her sister Miharu. She stopped his ramblings with a single hand signal.


"Let me get this straight. You want to apply to burn a recruit to Surbius?"


Hortan looked down, counted to ten and then up again. He failed at once and looked down once more. Without looking at Naoko he managed to stammer forth his request as he had rehearsed it.


"I have a recruit that is burning to apply to the guild. Can you give the application to Surbius?"


He looked up again and handed the paper across to the by now broadly smiling Naoko who accepted with a small nod.


"Not a problem pilot. I'll make sure that Surbius gets it right away. Anything more pilot?"


Hortan shook his head and managed to look up again.


"Alright then. You can leave now."


She smiled as he left while managing to bump into the chair in front of him, push the door that had a very clear and large PULL sign and hit his shoulder on the frame as he exited. She loved teasing Hortan. He was such a bundle of nervous polite shyness that just about anything she did made him blush or worse. If it wasn't for his unlimited kindness he would have been intolerable, now he was just Hortan. She opened the application and read it through for errors, corrected the few that were and sent it through to Surbius. At least she could help Hortan without him knowing.