Kessler looked over the tools on the shelves skeptically, “Haven't you people ever heard of electricity?”
The mining office manager just glared at him, “Haven't you ever heard of resonance? Electrical mining equipment is no good here. Just like with the storm around the island, it interferes with the crystal deposits too. Even the phone network has to be grounded out and insulated.”
Jagra smirked, hefting a drill as long as he was tall, “Ah be easy on the crocodile, he knows as much about mining as I do flyin, it's his family pride that put him here.”
“Ah, another one of those types, eh?”
The aging dingo leaned back in his chair with a wide grin, “I'll give you three to one standing odds he's dead by the end of the month.”
Sapien and Akaila both rushed in, Sapien calling out, “Fifty eagles that he lives.”
Akaila ran to Kessler and Jagra, “We need to move, now!”
Jagra furled his brow, “The little brat fingered us to his boss to save his own hide, didn't he?”
“That's about the size of it.”
Kessler sighed and shook his head, grabbing a pickax and tossing a fistful of coins to the dingo, “You can head off, I'm staying.”
Jagra looked at him in confusion, “These are no regular hoods you're dealing with, they're organized criminals! They don't play around.”
Sapien and the manager glanced at each other, then back to the others,
“Is it too late to change my bet?”
“All sales final.”
“Sonofabitch.”
Kessler shouldered the pickax and responded, “I've been running from one thing or another all my damned life, and this is the last place on this planet left to run to. If they want to take me out, then so be it, I'll make them work for it.”
Sapien growled and pulled money from her bag, handing it over to the dingo, “If you make it five to one he's gone by the end of the week you might be able to squeeze more out of people.”
“I just might. And whoever said it's bad luck to bet against a fox?”
She went to the front door, gesturing for the others to follow, “If he's staying there's nothing to be done. I know a group of scientists who could give us shelter while we work on our next move.”
Jagra put the drill back on the shelf with a sigh, “I'll be coming back for you, don't go ta rustin before we get to rend the earth together.”
As they headed out, Sapien called to the manager, holding up a keychain, “Oh, Kyle, I'm borrowing your truck.”
He checked and found his keys missing from his pocket. He ran to chase her, but tripped on his own shoelaces. He stared at the perfect knot in disbelief, “How the fuck?”
Kessler smirked at him, “I guess maybe it is bad luck after all.”
Jagra and Sapien climbed into one of the mining company trucks, with Akaila getting in the back. They took off quickly, and were relieved to see nobody giving chase.
Akaila called over the wind, “You do know we just committed grand theft, right?”
Sapien glanced towards her, “Your nose is bleeding. And no we didn't. Kyle's a good friend of mine, I just like fucking with him because he's got this chip on his shoulder that dingoes are better than vulprens. He calls me a drunken Irish, I call him a redneck Aussie, then we each pull a prank on each other, it's become something of a game.”
Akaila wiped her muzzle, finding the blood, “That explains the headache. Speaking of Irish, Sapien is an odd name, isn't that Latin?”
Jagra commented back, “Aye, Latin for wisdom.”
“He's right. My parents noticed I was smarter than other kits my age, so when it came time for names, being catholic, they picked a Latin one, wisdom. I wanted Tanya, but nooo, no Russian names they said. The oil war's been over twenty three years, but dad still expects Russian troops to pop out of the bushes and start shooting at him again.”
Akaila slipped the mythril ingot she'd been carrying with her back into Sapien's bag, giving a sigh of relief as her headache began fading, “So these scientists we're going to, do they ever do work with psychers? I might want t-”
She was cut off mid sentence by a loud crash in the distance, followed by echoing alarms. They looked back to see a column of smoke rising from the mining camp. Sapien looked at it in the rear view mirror with a sigh, “Well there goes fifty bucks.”
Jagra came back in from leaning out the window, pushing his windblown beard back down, “We'll be next if we don't come up with a plan.”
“I've already got one. I wasn't going to say anything yet, but the scientists might be a little pissed when we get there.”
“And why would that be?”
“That ship was indeed a prototype. I lied on the insurance forms though. The most valuable part survived the wreck, my backpack, take a closer look at it.”
Jagra picked it up and studied it, looking over the clasps and hatches before finding a way to open it, “by the gods, you built this thing out of a brass book!”
“Camouflage so I could sneak it out if a competing company came after the ship. The entire hull was one big antenna, that book's been collecting survey data of the Bering storm on every trip I made. The ship was insured for three million Eagles in case I crashed.”
“So that purge system that dumped half the ship into the ocean?”
“We were dumping the sensor array. Honestly I could have cut the balloons and sailed us in that last couple knots, but I had orders to destroy all equipment and pull the data recorder if anything compromised the mission. I wrote the wreck up as a total loss on the insurance forms, though, so they don't know yet that I was able to save the data. That was partly to reduce the chance of a competing company trying to steal it from me while I'm moving it, and partly to squeeze some overhead out of the insurance claim. I'm hoping I'll be able to convince them to give me the value of the book out of the claim, which we can then use to pay off the syndicate, and hopefully get them off our backs.”
Akaila nodded in reassurance, “So you're going to ransom the black box to them? That's the closest thing to a solid plan I've heard so far, sounds good to me.”
Jagra was slightly less enthused, “Were my life not on the line, I wouldn't be willing to go along with you on such a criminal venture.”
“And if mine weren't, I wouldn't be willing to execute it. There's the facility up ahead.”
A complex of several buildings loomed up in front of them, most looked like prefabs that were hastily assembled into place, but a few half-built structures looked designed for a more long-term assignment. The most sizable and heavily built of them was a massive dome, appearing to be an observatory shroud, but it was hanging open and the device inside was no telescope; in fact it looked more like a high-energy sensor array, and it was pointed at the horizon, scanning left and right occasionally.
As they crested the last hill between them and the facility, several dots emerged from the buildings in the distance. As they got closer, it was revealed to be three people; two humans and one whitewolf. The whitewolf and one of the humans were wearing typical button-up shirts and jeans, but the other was wearing a lab coat and holding a pair of binoculars. After looking through them towards the incoming visitors, his expression furled and he said something to the other two, which made them both change in expression as well.
Sapien grabbed her bag as she exited the truck and was sure to hold it up in a visible place before making her way to them. Jagra followed closely behind, but Akaila was having trouble, one eye continually squinting and twitching, and completely unable to un-fold her right ear. She couldn't see or sense anything causing it, but her body was reacting as if she was looking straight at a bright light any time she tried to look towards the buildings in front of them.
One of the men took the bag from Sapien and quickly examined it, “What the hell? I just got off the phone with the insurance company, they said you reported a total loss.”
“The ship is a total loss. I managed to ditch the sensor array where nobody will ever find it, and the rest hit the beach hard enough there's nothing to salvage.”
“I meant that you reported the brass book as lost too.”
“Yeah, actually, there's a problem with that...”
one of the other two quickly grabbed it and began looking over it, “Dammit, what did you break?”
“Not that kind of problem, a--”
She stopped mid-sentence, noticing Akaila's difficulties, “...a syndicate kind of problem, Akaila, are you alright?”
She whimpered, nodding, “Yeah, there's just something hammering me right now, it's actually starting to hurt.”
“You think it might be the syndicate trying to track us?”
The man in the lab coat looked over to her, looking at her tiara, “Are you a psycher?”
“Yeah.”
“It's the scanner.” He gestured towards the massive device in the observatory dome, “It creates a lot of psionic interference while it's running, we should head inside.”
They all headed indoors, and as soon as the heavy metal door sealed behind them, she finally had a respite, and not just a normal one, the thousands of whispering voices she constantly heard suddenly fell silent. The only voices he could still hear belonged to those present, and were much quieter than normal.
He chuckled at the look of relief on her face, “First time standing in a shielded building?”
She blinked and looked at him before he continued, “This entire facility is shielded from interference and grounded out. Electrical, psionic, tectonic. You name it, there's a dampener in place that cancels it out.”
She looked directly at him, her voice suddenly steeled, “You can cancel out psyche fields? Is it something passive, like an alloy or composite, or do you have to create an active counter-field?”
He grinned wide, “Sapien, I should hire you to find more test subjects in the future.”
Sapien glanced at him, then at Akaila, “I don't know if that would be the right term for it, her motivation is a so-called 'cure' for her abilities.”
“Is that so?”
He rubbed his chin, “You know, we've been needing the help of a good telekineticist around here, you ever tried your hand at it?”
Akaila shrugged, “I guess I could try it. I've always done everything I could to lessen things, it's maddening hearing whispers and sensing people's intents all the time, like a TV you can't turn off that keeps changing the channel all the time.”
He grinned and nodded along, still holding his chin, “It's an alloy.”
“Hmm?”
“We came up with an alloy that doesn't insulate psionic energy, it absorbs it, kinda like solar panels on sunlight, and it likewise makes electricity as a byproduct. Our last psycher quit unexpectedly, now, I'm not promising anything, since the alloy's expensive as all hell to make, but if you're willing to replace him, I can put a crowbar into the wallets of the bosses to try to get you a helmet made from it. It's not a cure, so to spe-”
“I'll take it.”
“That was fast.”
“Actually it just got boring waiting for you to finish saying what you already thought.”
“Oh we're gonna get along just great.”
“Yeah, and as cute as it is, please stop spamming me with images of rabbits.”
“Sorry, it's a bit of a reflex.”
Sapien smirked, “Just be glad it's not porn.”
“Oh I get plenty of that from you. Your mind is one of the most perverted I've ever seen, it's a miracle you haven't flirted with Jagra yet.”
She blushed brightly, glancing at Jagra and hastily replying, “heh, yeah, funny, but I don't think anyone would uhm...believe that.”
The man in the lab coat nearly fell over laughing, “All of the busted.”
The wolven man had been tinkering with the backpack during the entire conversation and finally looked up to enter the conversation, “The recorder is fully intact and functional, aside from some of Sapien's trinkets in here. Now would you mind explaining what you meant earlier when you mentioned a 'syndicate problem?”
A voice came from the front door, “She meant she owes us quite the sizable amount of money.”
They all looked to see a drakkani standing in the doorway, taking off a fedora to reveal a very ornate headband, woven directly into his horns. Instantly, Akaila's nosebleed came back, along with her headache. Her mind raced, and some images in her memory flickered, like TV static, before adding him to the background, including when they were at the skydock and Tristan was whisked away.
She spoke telepathically, too shocked to use actual words, “That's the psycher that slipped away with Tristan, he's been blocking our perceptions and stalking us this whole time.”
He nodded appreciatively, “It's a testament to my abilities, and yours too I should say. Usually when I cloak up, nearby psychs get splitting migranes and their defenses flare up, but you, you're barely even hurting from it.”
Jagra pulled a dagger from his belt, pointing it at the half-dragon, “Get to the point already, if you're here to kill us, quit wasting time on words.”
He walked around them, seating himself at a table and pulling a flask from a pouch on his hip, taking a sip from it, “You can relax, Akaila's right, I've been shadowing you, and from that I now know the full story and just how full of shit Tristan was when he tried to say this was all due to an angry captain's wrath. It's worth noting he directly asked I kill Sapien before giving her a chance to speak. Quite the vindictive prick, no?”
Sapien lowered Jagra's hand, “Then you also know the plan I have to compensate the syndicate for their loss.”
He nodded to her, “And that's the exact reason why your truck didn't crash into a ditch on the way here.”
The man in the lab coat coughed indignantly, and spoke with a heavy sarcasm, “Hello, how are you? Oh me? I'm fine, the name's Michael, by the way, and may I say it's quite delightful that you not only knocked before entering, but announced your name at the door too, so respectful and dignified of you!”
He just grinned back at him before taking another sip of alcohol, “Human wit never fails to entertain. Helma. Helma Edor. My orders are to balance the books, there's no prices on anyone's heads specifically, so you can tell your intern it's safe to put the gun away.”
He craned his neck, looking around a corner behind him and grinning wider, “Hi there.”
A vulpren walked into the room, holding a combat shotgun at his hip, keeping it aimed at the assassin, “I'll be the judge of that, and don't try any of that will pusher mind trick shit, or I'll specifically aim for your genitals.”
He laughed, putting the flask away and standing up, “Sapien, I'm sure you can handle explaining the situation to them, I merely revealed myself to make your case more convincing. The shipment was valued at two hundred and fifty thousand Eagles, but moreover it was meant for building a sizable amplifier to give us full telepathic coverage over the island and ensure a continued foothold. You can compensate us financially, or you can find an alternative means to give the same results such a machine would have allowed, I'll leave it up to you. We'll contact you again in twenty four hours to hear your decision.”
With that he gave a wink and Akaila yelped loudly. The instant the attentions of the people in the room were pulled towards her, he was gone. The intern fired a shot where he'd been standing and hit the wall behind, then he aimed at the front door and fired, the buckshot ricocheting off the door and thankfully not hitting anyone.
Michael jumped towards him and pulled the shotgun out of his hands, “Goddammit, Tulpa! I ought to bitchslap the fur right off that crooked face of yours!”
He whimpered, pulling away, ears back, “I panicked.”
There was a muffled laugh from the exterior door right before it closed and Akaila gave a sigh of relief, “He's gone.”
Jagra raised an eyebrow, “Can you be sure of that?”
“I started tracking him as soon as he exposed himself, he's outside now, I lost him when the door closed.”
The wolf sighed, carrying the backpack to a rack of gear and attaching some cables to it, then spoke over his shoulder, “I'm gonna go out on a limb here and stitch the story together from what I've heard. This Tristan guy is a syndicate lackey, and when the ship went down, it took some expensive syndicate gear with it to the bottom that he was carrying, and in order to not have her fur used as a carpet in some mob boss's sitting room, Sapien arranged some insurance fraud with the data recorder, and was hoping that we'd play along to keep our best field researcher from becoming a throw rug.”
“That's about the size of it, yeah.”
Jagra commented in as well, “And her head's not the only one on the line, mine and the wolf's are too. There was a dragon with us, but they got to him before that assassin heard our side of the story.”
Michael groaned, taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose, “Marcus, what do you think?”
The wolf scoffed, “Me? I think it's a clusterfuck. However we don't have any choices at this point except continuing with the fraud.”
“And why's that?”
Marcus turned around, leaning against the equipment rack, a sadistic grin on his muzzle, “Because, we're all witnesses now, and I know you're too much of a pussy to fight back against syndicate gunmen, and too much of a prude to share any research data with them either.”
“Anybody but you, I'd have fired you on the spot for that language.”
“All the more reason to get my fill. On the insurance forms, it's just listed as a data recorder, right?”
“Of course, it would defeat the purpose of the backpack camouflage to list details.”
“Then we'll justify the successful data recovery as an emergency transmission. That huge spike we got on our long-range scanners earlier happened just before the ship went down, we could write that up as a beacon firing an encrypted signal to us, and other monitoring stations on the island would confirm our story. The only angle that doesn't cover is Sapien suddenly losing her backpack after arriving, an observant investigator would notice such a decorative and expensive looking backpack going missing. Since we don't need it anymore, I say we retire the recorder and let her keep it to maintain the cover story. Corporate would see this as the same unavoidable loss as the insurance company does, and our budget would be adjusted to buy a new one, unless there's an angle I'm missing here.”
“Yeah, witnesses, Tulpa's only been here what, a week? I don't trust him not to talk if we tried such a plan.”
Tulpa growled, bearing his teeth slightly, “You could at least pretend like you care if I'm in the room, and besides, there's another vulpren's life on the line here, if I talked, they'd try to kill me before I could testify in court, then I'd be a head on a mantel right above that throw rug.”
Sapien shrugged, “Tulpa's right, we're all implicated in this, but we should make sure it doesn't go beyond this room. Anybody else we tell about this situation is potentially in just as much danger as we are if it falls apart.”
Michael groaned, his own human imitation of a growl, “Fine. I don't like a single bit of it, but...you did get it here in one piece, despite unforseen complications...so I guess...you...”
Marcus rolled his eyes, “Good god, man, just spit it out already!”
Michael glared at him for a second before looking back at Sapien, “You did good, you completed your assignment with satisfactory performance, but if you want hazard pay out of this, you can take a flying leap.”
She grinned, responding coyly with her head and one ear to the side, “But I already took a flying leap today.”
“Then take another!”
Michael stormed out of the room with Tulpa and the third man following, and Jagra scoffed, “I hope not everyone hereabouts is as soft-spined as that runt, or trigger happy as his assistant. If they are, I think I'd be safer back at the mine with Kessler.”
