The Dark Edge Chronicles - Hardwire

Clean up and Consolidation

Mordecai nodded before he looked over at Lash and his tense Qos Viran team.

"Looks like we'll have things sorted out here in a few minutes, Lash," he said just loud enough for the big vampire to hear. And the man in black watched as the broad shouldered Qos Viran commander visibly relaxed when he heard that, slipping his Shiva back into its holster.

"I'd suggest you complete your team's disembarkment and move into the city before local law enforcement gets here. I sense that they are already almost here!"

"Good idea." Lash nodded as he glanced over his shoulder at his team. They too were visibly relaxing as the tension they had felt building in the air rapidly dissipated. "You heard the man, Tahsis. Get our people out of here and back to the safe house, full stealth mode. I'll meet you there after I discuss matters with Mordecai."

"Done, commander," Tahsis acknowledged with a nod before leading the Qos Viran quickly past their big commander and the rest of the way down the corridor to where the baggage was being unloaded in the claim area.

That left a bemused Dee and a stunned Duffy standing there, alone where they had stopped just behind the vampires to watch the battle between Katengaur and her allies, and Mordecai.

"I have the feeling that we have a part to play in all of this," Dee noted softly as she felt Mordecai's attention shift onto her and her bedraggled partner.

"And I wouldn't disabuse you of that feeling," Mordecai confirmed with a slight smile touching his lips. "We'll need the two of you when the CPD arrives to see what the hell is going on at the airport."

Duffy seemed to shake himself as Dee nodded her understanding, his rheumy eyes swinging up to take in the man in black, now looking just as he did when he first stepped off the plane at the arrival gate.

"You're not going to bugger off this time?"  he asked softly, a frown making its way onto his face. "But I thought you'd want to preserve the Shield and all that!"

"That I do, my friend." Mordecai's smile widened slightly. "But I also want to preserve my identity as Constable Kelly. There are still some things that would be better realized by working with that persona as we prepare for the conference in a couple of months."

Then the man in black's eyes were narrowing as something occurred to him.

"Something's going on in that head of yours, isn't it, Duffy?" he asked softly as he observed the strange expression that persisted on the old ex-Brit's face.

An expression that was immediately added to by a flush that worked its way down from Duffy's hairline.

"Uh, why do you say that, old bean?" Duffy rasped, pasting a quick smile on his face. A smile that just as quickly faded as he swallowed hard, a nervous expression finding its way onto his face.

"That expression on your face," Mordecai replied, turning his head slightly as he watched the human grow increasingly agitated. "Almost as if you were lost in some sort of trance." He leaned forward a hair to look deep into Duffy's face. "Did you just see something that has stirred things in your mind?"

"See something?" Duffy repeated, blinking rapidly as if fighting against something inside his head. "Whatever do you mean ... mean by that?"

It wasn't hard to see that something was going on inside the old detective's mind. Dee glanced over at Mordecai as Lash joined them, the big vampire frowning as he too examined Duffy with a narrow, searching gaze.

But if the man in black wanted to pursue it, he wasn't about to let any of them know about it. Nodding as if contemplating what Duffy had said, he gave the ex-Brit one more look over with his intense blue eyes before he turned to Jeriko. The blonde Swedish hardwire was striding towards the tight knot of four people after checking the condition of the two unconscious hardwires Mordecai had left in his dust.