by RJ Johnson
“How do I look?” Meade asked. Sarah studied him for a minute and brushed away the blood on his collar.
“Not bad,” Sarah said.
“I’m afraid of ya,” Emeline said. Meade rolled his eyes.
“There ain’t anything you’re afraid of Em.”
“I know, but I thought it might make you feel better before you walk into the lion’s den,” Emeline said cheerfully.
“We should get moving,” Kansas said hoisting his gauss rifle up on his back. “I’ll need every minute I can if I’m gonna get up in those rafters and get a good perch so I can spot this assassin of yours.”
Meade checked the time on his ArmBar, “Fight starts at 7:05 pm sharp. Kansas, we’ll send you a signal when Sarah disables the cameras to let you two in. Use the camo app for as long as you dare. Emmy, your part will be a bit tougher, so get Kansas to help you break into the media center before he sets up shop in the rafters.” Meade cinched his ArmBar back down on his wrist and checked the power settings. He’d have to keep a close eye on his power levels.
“One last thing,” Meade called out. Kansas and Emeline turned their heads to look back at Meade and Sarah, “Thank you. Really, I don’t know how this is all gonna shake out, but I just want you all to know I appreciate you hanging with me through all this.”
Kansas shrugged and nodded. Emeline stopped, turned and rushed back to grab Meade by the neck in a close hug.
“You don’t get to die tonight, you hear me?” she whispered in his ear. She drew back, and smoothed her curly brunette hair looking at him and clearing her throat, “You still got a tab to pay off.”
With that, she turned on her heel and moved towards the back of the arena with a bemused Kansas in tow. Sarah raised an eyebrow looking at Meade and offered the handcuffs, “Time to put on your bracelets.”
Meade grinned and held out his wrists, “You know, I hoped you putting handcuffs on me would happen around your bedroom, and not while putting me in jail.”
Sarah returned a wan smile to him as she adjusted the handcuffs around him, making sure they were secure enough to pass inspection by any Coalition agents who might question why she was bringing in a prisoner. “I think you and I have had enough fun for now don’t you think?”
Sarah finished inspecting the cuffs and began to flip through the camo app to find an appropriate disguise for her. Meade sidled up behind her stood there confused.
“I know I got a talent for pissing people off, but I can’t for the life of me understand why I’m getting the cold shoulder from you now.”
Sarah ignored him and he used his manacled hands to brushed her hair off her neck as he stood behind her.
“Look,” Meade continued, keeping his voice soft, “I know we sorta fell into bed together and I know you’re processing enough on your own with your father and all…”
She laughed, and shook her head, “You really think that’s what this is all about?”
Meade stepped back confused, and a little bit angry, “I don’t know what any of your attitude is about. I’m sorry I couldn’t save your father, but I don’t know why I deserve to be punished.”
Sarah sighed and her shoulders began shaking, Meade instantly felt like an asshole and stepped back up behind her to caress her back, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“Oh shut up you big clod,” Sarah said softly. She turned back to face Meade, her eyes shining brightly, “You and I were doomed from the start. You’re a runabout, and I’m a Coalition officer. How exactly did you see this thing going between us?”
“I wasn’t exactly thinking that it would end so quick,” Meade snapped back, “we’ve been friends for so long I don’t see why…”
“That’s your problem Meade,” Sarah said frustrated, “You don’t see. You never see what’s in front of you. Me, you and that night were a product of hormones and the danger we were in.”
“I like to think it was a lot more than that,” Meade replied hotly. “Besides, is this really the time to do this?”
“The reality of the world we live in isn’t going to allow us any other time to do this,” Sarah said gently. “I’m not trying to break your heart, but rather help you see that even if we manage to survive all this, I’ll still be a Coalition officer, and you’ll still be a Runabout. I’ll be lucky if the Coalition doesn’t transfer me to Titan after all this is said and done.
“Besides,” she added, “I’m not the type to tread on someone else’s territory.”
Now Meade was really confused, what the hell was she talking about?
Emeline poked her head back into the alleyway and shot them a look, “What’s taking you so long? Come on, we got to go!”
Meade looked at Emeline and back at Sarah. She only smiled and hefted her gauss pistol back into its holster.
“You heard the lady,” Sarah said lightly, “time to go save the world.”
Sarah exited the alleyway and Meade followed behind her shaking his head. If he ever figured out women, he swore to himself he’d sell the secret and make his billions.
Chapter Twenty Nine
The Coalition security center at the Arena was in complete chaos. There were dozens of Coalition MPs all trying to deal with several hundred rowdy and drunken Moles, Runabouts and other various citizens all of whom were either in the process of trying to file reports about their property being damaged, or being arrested for doing said damage.
Sarah didn’t make it easy for Meade and his murderous looking avatar as she roughly shoved him through the crowd of people lined up at the booking sergeant’s desk. She rammed Meade up against the desk and barked at him, “Stay there and don’t you move ‘less you want my gauss pistol shoved up your ass again.”
Meade was taken aback at how she was speaking to him until he remembered what he looked like. He growled and shoved back against her, playing the part of a rampaging runabout.
“Hey!” she zapped him with the stun app on her ArmBar. Meade grunted in pain and went down to one knee. The taser was capable of doing a lot more damage than that, so he was thankful that she remembered to turn things down for their little show.
“Sergeant, I’m gonna need a priority transfer for this runabout I captured while waiting in line.”
The bored booking sergeant looked up at Sarah slowly, still chewing on his bagel. He swallowed and brushed the crumbs off the papers on his desk, “Do you have the BTM safety forms filled out in triplicate?”
Sarah groaned, “Don’t do this, don’t be that guy.”
“I dunno how they do things in your unit Lieutenant,” the sergeant’s tone had an edge to it, “but around here, we follow procedure and I can’t…”
Sarah huffed and yanked Meade back by his handcuffs, “Where’s a good place for me to settle in to deal with the paperwork?”
“What’s his offense and what level of custody does he qualify for?”
“That’s the thing,” Sarah said impatiently. “I scanned his image and his record came up as a level four wanted felon. Apparently NeckFat over here killed a few of his fellow moles out on a claim out past the dogtowns. He ran off before his trial and apparently was dumb enough to think no one would recognize his face at the fight tonight.”
“He doesn’t look so tough to me,” the sergeant said eyeing Meade’s disguise up and down.
Meade growled unconvincingly and was rewarded by another shock from Sarah’s taser.
The desk sergeant sighed and shook his head, “I don’t have anywhere to put him at the moment. Next transfer out to Coalition holding isn’t until after the fight’s over. We’re already on lockdown because the Ambassador is coming to the fight tonight.”
“Is there a place where I can securely store him?”
The sergeant looked around the busy room helplessly. Men and women in handcuffs, all in various states of inebriation surrounded them.
“You’ll have to wait until we have a free booking room,” the sergeant said, “I don’t have anywhere else to put you…”<
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Sarah sighed loudly and then leaned forward. Meade hadn’t noticed, but apparently she had taken the opportunity to unbutton the top two fastenings to her Coalition uniform. She was now exposing quite a bit of cleavage and the desk sergeant was not doing anything to avoid his gaze.
“I came to the fight tonight with a bunch of my very drunk and very attractive friends,” she said pouting, “I only grabbed this guy because this asshole thought it would be a good idea to grab my ass while we were in line. Plus, I had that whole duty thing rattling around in my head, so can’t you please help me out a little here? This is my Friday night and my time to cut loose,” she shot him a suggestive look, “I’m just saying, if you could do me a favor and your know, if there’s any way…?” she pointed towards the back where a door marked PRIVATE stood there among the chaos, “Can’t I duck in there and just run the paperwork real quick. I promise it won’t take me long.”
“Master Control’s off limits. Come on Lieutenant, you’ve got to know that.”
“I know…” Sarah sighed and leaned forward enough so that the edge of her nipple was starting to slip up and over her bra. Meade leaned forward hoping to catch part of the show. “Look, if you let me use the master control room, I can dial into the secure line call in a favor over at central holding and get your transfers out. Ten minutes, tops.”
The sergeant sighed, and looked up from his view of Sarah’s breasts for a minute before nodding his assent. He reached under his desk and grabbed a FOB key and handed it to her. She squealed and leaned forward to give the deskbound sergeant a hug, “I promise, you’ll hear from me and my very grateful friends tonight.”
“Can I give you my IP…?” The desk sergeant called after them, but it was too late, the second the sergeant had handed her the FOB, Sarah was dragging Meade towards the rear of the security center.
She pushed the FOB against the flat panel next to the door and shoved Meade through it. She followed him inside and after checking behind her, closed the door, locking it behind her.
Sarah turned and flipped the lights on in the crowded room. Inside were rows and rows of racks setup with a terminal to one side. Meade held up his cuffed hands for Sarah.
“Mind letting me out of these?”
Sarah rolled her eyes and clicked a button on her ArmBar. The handcuffs released and Meade watched them fall from his wrists. He rubbed them and moved over to Sarah who was already sitting at the terminal in the room, typing quickly.
Meade opened up his ArmBar and disabled the camo app. He looked at his battery indicator – less than 75% remaining. The camo app really took a lot out of his charge. He’d have to keep that in mind and conserve while he could.
Sarah pointed at the screen in front of her, “There they are.”
Meade leaned over her shoulder and looked at the image on the display. There, he could see Kansas and Emeline sitting against the side of the Arena, keeping their heads low.
He pinged Emeline and Kansas who were waiting for their call. He saw Emeline nudge Kansas and open her ArmBar. Meade heard the noise of the crowd in the background of their call.
“Get ready,” Meade said over the comm, “Sarah’s about to let you all in.”
“See you on the other side,” Emeline said. Sarah punched in the instructions and unlocked the rear door that Emeline and Kansas were standing in front of. They slipped inside and avoided the security examining those trying to make it through the metal detectors.
Meade turned to Sarah, “Remember, you’ve got to get to the Ambassador’s ArmBar before the assassination. I’ll do what I can to delay it, but once that happens, there won’t be any way for us to get out. We’ll be trapped and you’ll lose your chance to get the evidence out to expose Cassandra.”
“How will you know when I’ve sent the data off to Emeline?” she asked.
“It’ll be easy to tell once the shit is hits the fan. I’ll do my part to keep the fight from happening, and Kansas and Emeline are gonna be out there looking for the assassin. If the rest of us fail, it’s all up to you.” Meade smiled and placed his hand on her shoulder gently, “Don’t worry, I’m betting by the time this all goes off, we’ll all be dead or in jail, so whatever you do, just do it with goal of stopping Corcoran.”
He moved to follow her and stopped suddenly.
“What is it?” she asked.
“That sergeant is gonna ask where I went when you leave,” Meade said typing quickly on his ArmBar. “We’re gonna need a patsy to fill in for the terrifying monster I was impersonating while we get away.”
“Stay here,” she ordered. Meade nodded as she slipped out the door. She returned shortly thereafter holding what looked like an extremely drunk Mole who wasn’t in a position to do much of anything.
“Send the avatar over to me,” Sarah ordered. Meade opened his ArmBar and flicked the Avatar he had used to gain access to the security center within the arena.
Sarah caught the highlighted avatar that floated over to her and she deposited it in her ArmBar. She typed quickly on her display and hacked into the drunken mole’s ArmBar. She positioned his arm to open it and allow her access.
“You’re quick with that,” Meade commented. She shot him a look, and continued to hack into the man’s ArmBar so that his holoprojector could put up the same face she had dragged into the security center and they could leave without being bothered.
She stopped what she was doing and looked up concerned.
“What is it?” Meade asked.
“We can’t just frame this guy for whatever offenses I told the sergeant you committed back there,” she said. “It’s not exactly – “
“It shouldn’t matter,” Meade said, “we just need him to be our patsy for a few minutes. That camo app really takes the juice out of a charge, so he should revert back to his normal face giving us enough time to get away.”
Sarah chewed her lip and continued to put the final touches on the passed out fight fan, nodding in satisfaction when she finished. Meade approached from behind and looked approvingly at the now terrifying Mole that resembled the murdering Runabout Sarah brought in with her.
“Looks good,” Meade said approving, “Now for my new face.”
He adjusted the settings on his ArmBar and was rewarded with a new face that projected itself onto his body.
“How do I look?” Meade asked.
“Like you’re ready to save the world,” Sarah said. Meade grinned, took out his pistol and checked the magazine. He started to move towards the door when Sarah suddenly stopped him. She drew him in and kissed his deeply. Meade was confused, after their earlier conversation, he was under the impression that she wasn’t interested in making this a thing, but, here they were, kissing like their lives depended on it.
She withdrew slowly, and bowed her head under Meade’s nose. He could smell her strawberry blonde hair and he smiled as he inhaled the scent.
“That was the last one of those,” she whispered and moved quickly to the door. She turned, waiting for Meade, “Don’t forget your camo.”
Chapter Thirty
Once they left the security center and gained access to the inside of the arena, Meade and Sarah split up.
“Remember,” Meade reminded her, “the sooner you get the infodump off Corcoran’s ArmBar, the sooner we stop this whole thing.”
“Nothing like having the weight of the world on your shoulders,” Sarah quipped.
“Keeps ya motivated or so I hear,” Meade added. He opened his commlink to Emeline, “Emmy, how we looking?”
Emeline appeared on his display in front of an impressive media board. Hundreds of dials and screens were in front of her as she scanned through everything.
“I’m in and the room is clear. Apparently this room is just the main intake for all their feeds. The actual broadcast center is located on the upper levels where they control everything. I’ve still got access to everything I need to broadcast the infodump once Sarah passes it along to me.”
“Goo
d,” Meade said nodding, “Kansas, what’s your status?”
Kansas appeared on a split screen next to Emeline’s image on his ArmBar display, “I’m up in the rafters, in the highest ground I can find.” Kansas aimed his camera towards the arena floor, “From here, I’ve got a bird’s eye view of pretty much the whole arena, and a clear line of sight to the Ambassador’s box.”
“Keep your eyes open, I may not be able to stop the fight before the assassination attempt,” Meade warned. “Emmy, keep your comm channel open with Kansas and let him know if Chau’s team moves.”
“Roger that,” Emeline said through his display.
“I’ll let you know if I spot anything hinky,” Kansas promised. And his viewscreen winked out.
Meade turned to Sarah, "Up to us now.”
Sarah nodded, “Luck to ya Meade.”
She checked her gauss pistol one more time and moved quickly towards the crowd, melting into the mass of humanity who were gathered around the octagonal ring watching one of the undercards fight.
Meade ignored the aerobatic maneuvers of the fighters in the ring and moved towards the back of the arena heading for the locker rooms that he knew so well from his time in the fight leagues.
The man standing guard next to the locker rooms watched Meade approach. He held up his hands to stop Meade from entering. Meade smiled broadly and held his hand out as if he was about to shake the MPs’ hand as a bolt of electricity leapt out from his ArmBar completely paralyzing the guard in place.
“Sorry about that,” Meade muttered to the frozen guard. He moved past him and into the locker room.
The hallway leading down to the locker rooms was completely empty, but that didn’t stop Meade from constantly checking behind his back to see if anyone was following him. Even if they were, they wouldn’t know it was him thanks to Kansas’s camo application. He checked the charge left on his ArmBar and grimaced. Sixty percent remaining and the main card hadn’t even started yet.