"I will walk to bowels of big mall and find them." I didn't even see the crazy Russian move. He was gone from his spot next to the fountain as if he had never been there.
"Where do you want me?" Jae and Caleb had stayed back at their house to continue digging through Hael's second computer, and I didn't really know who was in charge of this operation.
"Just hold tight for a few minutes. Pavel, you tell us when you have eyes on them," Emma said.
"I see them. Level B2. They are moving north. I follow," the Russian said.
"Sue Zay, incoming call from Xiu Mei," Hogan informed me.
"I'll take it, mute the other line so they can't hear me." Hogan glowed green, and I saw the face of my pretty Chinese friend.
"Where are you?" her hair was done in pigtails and she was sipping from a steaming mug.
"I'm at the great Mega Mall."
"Shopping without me?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Working for Jae."
"I thought you said you were going to take a few days off?" She set down her mug and put on a sour face.
"I did, and I did."
"You came to class Monday looking like a cat that just got run over and left out all night in the rain. It is Wednesday evening." I saw her check her watch, and I almost thought she would give me an hour count from when we last spoke.
"See? It has been a few days. Two and a half." I smirked at her.
"You still look exhausted, Beautiful." She shook her head.
"This isn't going to be a lot of work, and then I'll go home and sleep." I hoped the words would be true.
"Have you talked to Over Zipf yet?"
"Yeah, he called me yesterday. He has the video edited," I said.
"Is he going to turn it in to the cops?"
"Ugh, he wants to have dinner tomorrow night and talk about it."
"Ewww." Xiu Mei's face turned sour.
"Yeah. I owe him one though."
"Where are you going?"
"Same place that I had dinner with my mom. I'm making that fucker pay for it."
"Oh jeeze. He is going to want you to put out."
"Not going to happen. I made that clear." It was too bad about Over Zipf. He was a genius hacker, but he just came across as such a fucking douchebag. And his idea of working out was lifting a McTacoKingJr Jumbo Gulp Drink instead of the large size.
"Speaking of your mom, have you talked to her any more?"
"She's called me three times today. I feel like a fucking celebrity." I had guessed that Xiu Mei wanted to chat more about the job offer.
"What did she say?"
"I didn't listen. Asked Hogan to tell what she said and then delete the messages. Yesterday, she alternated between calling me an 'ungrateful daughter' and then crying while she offered me more money. Last message, she said that I needed to help her save my father's company."
"Damn, she offered you more money? How much more?"
"She is at two million a year now, plus five in stock options," I sighed.
"Fucking shit on a stick. Sue Zay, you need to take her offer." Xiu Mei's eyes grew wide. She almost looked as if she was pleading with me.
"I dunno. I feel as if I am helping here." I shrugged, but my friend could only see the visual on my eyes through my helmet camera.
"You are getting shot at, stabbed, almost run over, and you haven't slept in three days."
"I slept last night, and the night before!" I lied. Schoolwork had already kicked into high gear, and I'd stayed up really late both nights working on upcoming projects.
"This is dangerous, Sweetie. Please consider your mom's offer. Especially now that you told her no and she is upping the cash." My friend frowned.
"I'm still thinking about it. I still want to finish school, I will miss you three bitches, and I am the curious kitty cat with this stuff Jae is working on. Besides, fuck Mom. She shouldn't have brought my dad into the conversation."
"Ughhhh," Xiu Mei shook her head. "That was pretty low, even for her."
"Maybe she'll come back with five million a year?" I laughed. "Then I could just buy my degree."
"Speaking of school, did you spec out the chip design for Friday's class?" Xiu Mei changed the subject.
"Yeah. I squeaked an extra eight percent out of my earlier design by shrinking the die so the magnets would work better." We both shared a semiconductor class taught by a professor who was beyond anal with his attention to detail.
"Really? I'm stuck at the digital design. Can you send me your specs?"
"Of course. Hogan?" I was surprised that Xiu Mei was asking for help. She was normally the overachiever of the group. Hogan had a green outline around his image, and I saw the pretty girl press on her wrist to open the file.
"Whoa," she shook her head. "When I see stuff like this, I agree with your mom about your majors, you shouldn't be--"
"I gotta go, Sexy. Work calls! Talk later!" I heard Pavel speaking on the other line.
"Okay, love you!" she said, and then Hogan cut her visual.
"There are four others. One woman, three men. At a table in front of pet store," I caught Pavel saying.
"Send us some pictures," Emma said.
"Understood," the Russian said. In a few seconds, Hogan showed that I'd received four images from Pavel.
The first was a black and white striped kitten with green eyes. It hung on the side of a glass-looking container, and there were shreds of paper all over its short fur. The second was an orange kitten with really big paws. I saw the tail of the first kitten in the frame and guessed that they must have shared the same cage. Third was a fluffy white kitten. I couldn't tell if it was sad or surprised, but it looked at the camera with a wide-eyed expression.
Finally, the fourth picture showed the meeting at the table behind Pavel. The woman drew my eye since she was the only one sitting. She looked like a fucking supermodel. Long blonde hair, lean legs, and she wore a killer burgundy business suit. I wasn't much for wearing suits, but her outfit looked to be custom made. The picture reminded me of my mother, but this woman was twenty-five years younger and had much more sex appeal.
"The third is my favorite. He is a handsome lover boy," Pavel said. "Here is video. He loves the scratching behind the ears. See?"
My helmet display played the movie, and I saw the Russian's giant finger scratching the fluffy cat while it purred.
"Let's focus on the humans for a few minutes, Pavel." Emma laughed.
"I am making video with other side of phone camera. Kitties are perfect excuse to have device out." Pavel chuckled, and I heard him whisper something to the cat in Russian.
My video feed switched, and I saw the woman at the table behind Pavel. The man with the Giants baseball cap sat down at the table, but the woman's three guards and the man's two stood with their arms crossed. The angle of the camera Pavel held wasn't perfect, and it bounced as the giant man played with the kittens at the front of the pet store, but I could see our targets fine enough.
"Looks like they are going to exchange something," Emma commented, and I saw the man with the baseball cap reach into his pocket. The guards behind the supermodel tensed for a second, but then relaxed when he pulled out a data stick.
"Sue Zay, behind you." Hogan had cut off my outgoing audio, and I focused my eyes onto my rear display.
"Fucking Joseph Smith on Viagra." The top level of the parking garage was almost empty of cars, so it was easy to spot the two brown-uniformed motorcycle cops pull out onto the level from the ramp.
"Emma and Pavel, I've got Chippers coming up behind me. Should I get out of here?"
"Chippers?" Emma asked. I realized that the term 'Chippers' was one that only bosozoku's used for our arch enemies.
"California Highway Patrol motorcycle-riding asshats."
"Hmmm. Maybe they are just eating dinner? Don't they normally stick to freeways?"
"Yes, unless they hear the sound of a parking meter ding. Or the sizzle of a frying donut," I said through clenched teeth.
/> "But better safe than sorry. I think you should get out of there," Emma said.
"Agreed. The police cannot catch Girl With Motorcycle when she is riding big motorcycle," Pavel whispered. "Look at video. Woman has given Man With Baseball Cap yellow folder. Woman has data stick." I confirmed Pavel's words with my video view. Both the woman and the man stood up from the table.
"Should I follow man or woman?" the scary Russian cat lover asked.
"The envelope doesn't look like cash. I'm betting it has more instructions inside. What is your gut telling you?" Emma asked.
"I would prefer staying here to play with kittens, but woman has data stick," Pavel chuckled.
"Sue Zay, what do you think?" Emma asked me.
"Maybe we can get both the data and the folder?" I fired up Funakoshi, and his engine roared to life like a hungry lion. The Chippers were definitely heading across the top of the parking structure toward me, but they hadn't turned on their lights or sirens.
"How?"
"Maybe Pavel can grab the device from the woman before she gets in her pod, then I can pick him up and we can get to the man with the baseball cap." As soon as I spoke the idea aloud, I reasoned it was poor. The woman had four guards, and I doubted she would let Pavel just take the data stick without a fight. Then again, Pavel was capable enough to deal with three armed men. I'd let him decide how dumb the plan sounded.
"I like Girl With Motorcycle's idea. Will follow woman and take data stick from her."
"I'll look for the initial target to exit out the south side." Emma was piloting her drones from the back seat of a new pod that Jae had bought yesterday. She was parked on the other side of the mega mall. The mission really only needed the Russian and drone pilot, but Jae wanted me to be here in case Pavel needed to make a quick exit from the mall.
I kicked Funakoshi backwards away from the wall and then turned his front wheel left so that I could accelerate away. The Chippers were on my left side, and I cut a line across a few parking spaces so that I could head past them toward the only exit. They both turned their heads to watch me ride by, but I didn't turn my own helmet.
"Don't follow me, don't follow me, don't follow me," I chanted.
"It looks like they are following you," Hogan said.
"Fuck." Sure enough, the cops had turned their bikes together like synchronized swimmers.
"Pavel and Emma, they are turning around to follow me. Should I try to lose them?" I felt my stomach fill with butterflies and adrenaline flood my muscles.
"They are in the tunnel exiting east side of shopping center. I see no cameras. I will grab computer item from woman. Then Girl With Motorcycle can pick me up and we take folder from other guy."
"Don't get hurt," Emma said. "Sue Zay, lose the cops and try to pick up Pavel. You can maybe drop him off at the south exit so he can make a grab for the folder."
"Got it." The Chippers completed their turn, but still hadn't turned on their sirens. I figured they were going to do it any second, so I twisted Funakoshi's throttle to shoot down the ramp.
"Here we go." My stomach flopped when I heard their sirens start to wail. It was a Wednesday night and the parking structure wasn't that busy, so I quickly reached eighty miles per hour through the boxy turns.
Gunshots echoed through my helmet, and for a second I thought the Chippers were actually shooting at me. Then I heard Pavel's angry growl form a musical chord with Funakoshi's engine, and I realized that the Russian was making his move against the woman and her three bodyguards.
A scream came over my helmet, and I winced against the piercing noise. I was almost at the bottom floor of the parking structure, and the noise in my ear of Pavel's combat rang much louder than the distant sirens.
"I have device," Pavel said. "Mall is panicked. I will run across and meet you on north side."
"I just exited the structure on the east. I'm going to drive around!" Funakoshi hit the main lane that wrapped around the entire mega mall. A crowd of people fled the mall, but they hadn't made it to the road. I didn't see the woman in the burgundy suit, or her goons, so I figured they were probably chasing Pavel through the shopping center. I twisted my right grip more to shoot past the fleeing families and aimed northwards on the street. The crowd was sprinting behind me, and I saw the Chippers exit the parking structure after me and get caught behind the wall of people.
A pod drove down the road the opposite direction, and one was going too fucking slow in my lane. I cut through the space between them as they passed each other and felt the sides of their polished frames lightly brush across my elbows. Each car let out an auto-reply honk when I threaded between them, but I couldn't drive any slower. In a few minutes, the entire mall would either be evacuated or locked down because of the gunfire. I needed to get to Pavel as soon as possible and then drop him off at the south exit so he could try to nab the folder.
Pavel was waiting for me on the road by the north exit. I had guessed that the man would have been covered with blood, but he was surprisingly clean and wore a wide smile on his scarred face. I attempted to slow Funakoshi to a stop so that he could get behind me safely, but as soon as I engaged my brakes I felt the giant Russian sitting behind me. I almost jumped out of the saddle with surprise, but the man already had his massive arms around my waist.
"Hold the fuck on!" I yelled as I twisted the throttle. Dozens of people ran out of the mega mall's entrance, and I got away just in time.
The mall footprint was in the shape of a rectangle, with the longest sides running north and south. I was hoping I could pass the exit on the east side without getting lost in the crowd, but as soon as I rounded the north east corner of the road I saw that the fleeing people had clogged up both lanes. They were filtering into the parking lot, but the masses seemed confused about where they should go now that they left the building. I'm sure most of them would have gotten into their pods, but the terror of hearing gunshots in the mall, along with their disorientation on exiting the building where they didn't park, had dulled the lemmings' senses.
I leaned a hard left and dove through the open space of the parking area. There were cars dotted sporadically around the lot, but I managed to avoid them. The people were more of a problem, and I had to use my horn half a dozen times to get fuckers to jump out of the way so I could ride.
The blockage cost us half a minute, but then I arrived at the south exit and had to stop Funakoshi. There were just too many people in the way to drive around. I scanned the crowd and saw the guy with the red cap walking at the southernmost point of the panicked group. There were still two guards with him, but I didn't notice the folder.
"You see him?" I said to Pavel while I pointed.
"Yes. I get off here." He sprung from the back of Funakoshi like an acrobat. "Can you drive to south road exit? I will meet you there."
"Yeah." I checked my rear display and didn't see the motorcycle cops. I had probably lost them in the confusion at the east entrance. I did hear far-off sirens though, and I didn't need Hogan to tell me that the San Jose Police would be here in a few minutes.
"I've got eyes on the target and both of you," Emma said.
"Do you see the pair of highway patrol fuzzy nuts?"
"Actually I do. They are heading south on the mega mall road. They are moving through the crowd at the west entrance. I don't think they will see you if you exit to the main street now."
"Figures, shooting at a mall and the fuckers are more interested in catching me." I aimed Funakoshi's front tire to my right, away from the crowd, and pulled into the open parking lot. In a few minutes, people would be summoning their pods, or trying to leave in them. The police would also try to get into the parking lot and attempt to keep everyone from leaving until they found the shooter.
It was going to be one fucked-up spaghetti bowl of chaos.
"I'm at the south parking exit. Found a big oak tree to sit behind," I told my team once I got out of the parking lot. Funakoshi was parked on the sidewalk about six hundred yards aw
ay from the nearest car in the lot. I couldn't quite see Pavel in the mess of the distant crowd, but I imagined he'd be able to pick me out if he ran in this direction.
"I am nearing target," Pavel's voice came to my ears, and it was filled with the panicked cries of the crowd that surrounded him. I reached under my glove on my left hand and adjusted the magnification of my helmet to better see the fleeing masses. I noticed the giant Russian's head at the closest chunk of people, and then I spied the guy with the cap and his two goons walk from the masses and make their way to the car Emma had tagged.
"Engaging," the Russian said. Pavel stepped a few feet behind the three men and glanced over his shoulder to check the crowd while he paced them. The goons turned and walked backwards, but it seemed like they must have thought Pavel was just trying to escape the crowd as they were. In fact, the crowd took a cue from the four men, and they all suddenly scattered as if they possessed one lemming-hive brain.
The three men approached the dark silver pod that Emma had tagged on my display, but, before they could reach the doors, the big Russian Polar Bear was on them. He grabbed one of the guards by the scruff of the neck and slammed his face into the hood of the car. The goon's head bounced off like it was one of those red inflatable dodgeballs. As that goon was falling to the ground, Pavel spun and poked the other guard in the neck with his fingers. The goon's arms went to this neck, and then Pavel smashed the guy's face in with his right elbow. Then the big blonde man wrapped his giant fingers around the cap-wearing terrorist fuck and pulled the shocked man into the back seat of the silver pod.
"Hello, little man," Pavel said to him, and I could hear it across my phone line.
"Accccchhhhhh!" the man gasped.
"You have yellow folder in jacket pocket. I will take." I heard rustling, and the man tried to choke out a word.
"Would you tell me who you are working for if I let go of throat? Hmmm?" Pavel's voice sounded surprisingly sweet, as if he was trying to coax one of his cats to use the litter box.
"Acckkk! Fuucckkkk yooooouuuu."
"Perhaps I should ask again; nicer this time, yes?" The man made a guttural sound, and I almost didn't want to see what Pavel was doing to him in the back seat of the pod.
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