As the pair started to make their way down the side of the warehouse, Slim stopped and put his arm across Skittles’ chest. The bikes and car had stopped, there was complete silence outside, and suddenly his heavy breathing felt like he was shouting their location. He leaned towards Skittles and whispered in his ear.
“They may have sonic sensors, we’ll wait here a moment. Better to be safe.”
After a few moments, Slim checked his wrist-comm. The upgrades Spark had made to it showed if there was any signal blockers in the area. He stopped listening after the first sentence of Spark’s boring monologue about how it worked, but knew it was something to do with zero-effect inference. Basically, if no signals at all were coming in, then all of them were being kept out. Which meant when it glowed red, they couldn’t call for help. It was green, so he decided to keep moving.
“I think we’re clear Skittles, let’s get down to the end and find out what these chicks are up to.”
“I don’t like this, I’ve got a bad feeling.”
“Quit being a pussy, you were the one who wanted this assignment. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to find out what we’re dealing with here.”
Chapter 5
“Did you hear that?”
“What, Trap, I didn’t hear anything.”
“I think someone is in the factory. We’re being spied on.”
Trap and Twist looked over to their contact. The woman looked harmless enough, but they knew that it was a front, Sin was now known as one of the most powerful non-Alpha’s in the city, and they were cautious about everything they did with her. If if less than half of the stories hitting the streets were true, Sin and her crew were people you wanted on your side.
Cindy looked toward the factory, then at the two women in front of her, “ladies, I hope you don’t have any party tricks for me. Tonight was supposed to be about building bonds, not starting wars.”
She looked between the two of them before Trap spoke, “Trust me Sin, the last thing the Vixen’s want is to cross you and your people. These are troubled times, and we already get in enough trouble.”
“Good, in that case can I suggest we finish our business and move on. Turf wars are not of any interest to me, nor are dead associates. Did you bring the encrypted files?”
Twist looked to Trap, who gave a subtle nod. The files were on a photon encrypted disc, that nobody outside of the military could get into. Unless, of course, there was a new technology that could crack any known classical encryption methods. As it turns out, the Biotronics Decoder handles that task with ease.
Cindy and Ping stumbled across the ability when they were attempting to modify the circuit design to generate XNA strands, due to their purity and regenerative ability. The team mentioned the possibility to Sophie, who naturally wanted them to turn over the device. But that wasn’t happening yet, there was still work to do and Government red-tape wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Here you go Sin. Look after it. Now, how long will it take to crack the files?”
“About a week, assuming we can calibrate the device efficiently.”
“Good. The crew are keen to keep things moving, we’re not about to let up the pressure, and our organization is growing.”
“It has been noticed.”
Cindy knew it would only take a few hours to decode the disc, but they needed the extra time to extract what they could from the targets once they were identified. By the time they had finished, the targets would provide little to no usefulness to the Vixens.
Blake was against the plan, as he always was when it involved Clans and Runners, but Cindy knew better. If they were going to get anywhere with breaking the corruption in the country, they were going to have to get dirty and mix with the underworld. She knew her way around, she lived there for years, but Blake had only ever seen it from the outside. From his black and white script sheets the Feds handed him. The trouble was, the real world is grey.
“Time to go Trap, the shadows are moving.” She nodded towards the rear corner of the building.
“Don’t worry girls, I’ve got a surprise for them. There are proximity sensors on my car, they’re going to get in a whole world of pain in a few seconds.”
Cindy’s voice was broken by a loud static crackle from behind the car. The three ran around the other side of the car to see two young men out cold on the gravel. Trap looked them up and down, filthy leather clothes, Orange pendants around their necks.
“Bloody Aleutian scum”, Twist scowled as she pulled off their pendants. “At least I get some trinkets”, she said while waving them in front of Cindy before pocketing them.
As the three left, Trap got on the comm to Jinx. She explained the events of the meeting, and that the deal had been confirmed. They were expecting the information back from Sin in a week, with the meeting place to be confirmed.
“She will be a valuable ally Trap, but we need to keep an eye on things. We don’t know her or her crew, only their reputation. They are dangerous.”
“She didn’t look too dangerous to me Jinx, other than her car-zapper thing that whacked the Aleutians.”
“Wait, what?” Jinx interjected.
“We thought someone was watching us, and it turns out there were two scum bags in the hood. I don’t know if they were able to hear us, but they were about to start something.”
“They’re getting more aggressive Trap. We need to step up our operations and get these useless operators out of the way.”
“I understand Jinx, hopefully your new protégé will prove herself.”
“Of that I have no doubt. See you back at HQ.”
Chapter 6
The city was in troubled times, within troubled times. Clans had split into splinter factions, in part from the fallout of the Wing’ Tan collapse. The trouble with the splinter factions, was that their leaders were more often than not both reckless and misguided. Instead of maintaining the honoured Code of Ascension within the ranks, these groups were carrying out riskier rums to earn favour of Alphas. Combining that with the shrinking turf and waning population in the Old City, and a Military crack-down was becoming inevitable.
“This, sisters, is why we are going on full offensive, there is no way we want our city to be over-run by uniforms with guns. We need to take control of the streets.”
“Is that why we’ve made contact with Sin?” replied Carrey.
“Yes, it is a necessary move. We have come to believe Sin and her crew have technology that can sway this war. I understand the apprehension about dealing with outsiders, but trust me, if they are to be with or against us, we want them with us. For now, anyway.”
“So what is the plan Jinx? We just gonna take up arms and shoot them down?”
“Easy Nymph, you know that ain’t our style. We’re going to make surgical strikes, and play on their weakness. After all, most of them are men, so we have plenty of scope there.”
The group all laughed, some harder than others. When they settled down, Jinx showed how they would set traps on common Autohacker runs, sabotage safe points, and feed misinformation to the Alphas about their enemy’s activities. It was going to happen fast, they needed to gain the upper hand through a fast and decisive blow to the Hackers ranks.
“Once we have thinned the herd, maintaining a balance will be easy, and the focus from politicians should move back to the important issues like what type of champagne to order for their hookers.”
The group all nodded. The plan seemed well reasoned and the detail Jinx paid to her strategies was the reason the sisters gave her the nod for leader in the first place.
“So we’re not just going to take them all out?”
Jinx looked at Carrey for a moment. She could see the anxiety in her eyes, the uncertainty of her role in this plan.
“No hun, if we did that, there would be too much focus on the sisterhood. We want everyone on the street to know we are in control, but for the outsiders, they wi
ll still see a bunch of Autohacking crews doing what they have always done.”
“Oh, I see. Well, I’m not too familiar with sabotage and espionage yet, but I’m a fast learner.”
“I know you are hun, but you won’t be involved in sabotage, Gee-Lo and Train are the experts there.”
The two women tipped their imaginary hats, before making explosion gestures with their hands. Jinx rolled her eyes and took her attention back to Carrey.
“You are an exceptional woman, Carrey, and also unknown on the streets as far as I have seen. The role of espionage is where we need you. We need to find out everything we can about who is in control of the other crews, and their ties to the Alphas. You will need to work on both sides to get the whole picture.”
“So how do I do that, sleep with the enemy?”
“No!”, Jinx quickly interjected. “No Vixen will ever be asked to give up her body for the cause. The only thing we use our bodies for on the street, is fighting.”
There was a dulled silence in the room. After a few seconds, Jinx could see there was too much tension, and the crew needed something else to focus on.
“So, ladies, tonight we will do a canvas of the East side. We need some intel on what is being moved, and by who. This is recon only, we’re keeping a low profile for now. Within a month, we need to know exactly where the crews are, and what Alphas they are in favour of. Then, we will strike!”
There was a cheer in the room, the sisterhood had their goal set, now it was time for them to do what they were good at, manipulation and coercion. Of course if that failed, violence was always a good second choice. They all got up and headed for the warehouse to suit up. Jinx touched Carrey on the shoulder.
“Got a minute hun?”
“Sure.”
Jinx waited for everyone to leave the room, then closed the door. She went and sat back on the couch and offered Carrey a seat next to her.
“You need to trust yourself Carrey. You already have the skill and power to take control of your life, and of others, you just need faith. This role you now have in the sisterhood was my role until recently.”
“Why did you give it up?”
“Attrition. Our previous leader was killed a month ago. The police said it was a drug overdose, but we all know she was clean. It was a hit ordered by the Alphas. Zulu will is missed, but we all accept whatever fate falls on us, it is the way of the Vixens.”
“But not without retribution, I hope. I am assuming you know who ordered this?”
“Yes, but it’s not an easy target. In fact, it’s the hardest target we will ever have. But, together, we will have our vengeance, and with it there will be a revolution!”
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