"So what the fuck was happening when I got into your AI? That second time?" Scorpius and I lean against his Hillux, sharing a cigarette, as the other's sit around the campfire.
They eat quietly which is uncharacteristic for a group of Lake Darling thugs, but the group is tensely divided. The weight of last night presses on everyone, like the elephant in the room that no one will shoot. I bet they have questions.
"Uh," I mutter, "Hito Tanaka and this crook soldier named Wilkes decided to conduct an interrogation."
Thai and Elias sit huddled around their bowls, but Sax sits slightly estranged from both sides of the group.
Back in the city, Saxon grew up between our circles, that is, between the low-level Ghouls like Trent and Blu, and then the guys who were getting moved into higher roles like Elias and Tokyo...
I liked him. Don't like that he got in the car without helping though... But part of me understands. He saw Reid like he was, and he thought he'd catch M.A.D, so he bolted like any Lake Darling gangster would've.
Scor flicks his ashes, zipping his jumper up to his chin as he talks around a mouthful of smoke, "You care if they find anything out?" He asks lowly, "You know they're gon' quiz us the second we sit down."
Trent's watches me from across the fire with an unsavoury glare, as though he expects me to feed him more lies. To reject what he did at the Compound and take for granted what he is.
"They're too scared to ask for a dart, let alone ask questions that might risk their chance of rolling with us." I take the cigarette from him, inhaling against the filter and closing my eyes.
Fuck I missed these little suckers.
Flames slowly consume the wood, casting embers into the night, and a billowing trail of smoke rises. It's poor practice to light a fire when you're trying to go unnoticed, but we needed one tonight.
Elias battles against a yawn, shaking his head with glassy eyes like it'll rouse him back.
We fall quiet for a bit, and my gaze wonders back to Trent as he eats.
Back in the city, I never understood why he put up with all of Mal's bullshit. Mal made him into this, hyena, who'd laugh on command and bite when ordered, who'd make a fool of himself or stoop beneath dignity.
Now, I know it was all contingent on the threat that Mal would stop loving him. That he'd stop their secret love affair and discard him, like a spent condom.
"If you keep 'em in the dark then get ready to watch your back around them two," He finally remarks, tossing the lighter in his hand as he sets his eyes on Trent and Blu.
I chew my lip. Trent said that Mal was the only person who'd ever loved him... Is that why he expects me to disregard his help and continue lying about why we're out? Because he expects me to assume the worst in him? In fact he probably longs for me to do it, because then he can maintain this growingly stringent hatred of me.
"You're right. But if we tell them we don't know who ANON is, then they're gon' think we're liars." I mutter, pulling once before I pass it back. My gaze falls on Trent one more time, asking myself if my next move is the right one. "You got any ideas who ANON is?" I raise my voice to a normal level, flashing Scorpius a slight grin as I look at the floor. Why don't we let them eavesdrop?
With a smirk, he wrinkles his nose, "As in, who set the Hit?" He plays along, watching as the other's fall dead quiet, each of their ears pricked.
"Yeah?" This is so dumb.
Scor revels in the theatrics of my plan, crossing his arms and flicking the ash, before he tosses the butt entirely. "Well. When ANON let us pick who was coming, I thought it might be your dad, but then he changed the quote without any warning and removed your friend's names from the hit. So, no ideas now."
I look at him keenly, momentarily forgetting the plan, "Yeah you never said how you got the names back in?"
"Rewrote the quote." He shrugs like it's simple.
"Huh?" I balk. How'd he manage that?
He squints at me like I'm missing the beat entirely, but then his brows shoot up, "Oh true, I forgot you weren't running with me when Sphynx back then. Few years back, CITE.K had a bug in its listing platform. So, we used to make a fake account, and take a job, but when the buyer would approve it we'd hack back into the quote and set the price we took as higher."
I bark a laugh, noticing when Thai stifles a smile around her food. They can definitely hear. "What so you'd take a job for 50k then clear seventy out of their account?"
Scor flashes me a devilish grin, "Cleared close to three hundred extra before the CITE.K Master figured it out. That's how we got the names back in, Sphynx being a nerdy fuck done figured how to get past the encryption and re-write the quote. That way ANON's inside guy, who turned out to be Barra, would think nothing changed."
"But wouldn't ANON jus' tell Barra?" I wrinkle my nose.
He shrugs, "Nah, he was using the same job brief as me. I just got into an army account and approved every dispatch that I wanted Barra to do."
"Did you lose the bug?" I ask, gazing at the embers rising from the flames when the crackle gets louder. Trent glares at me from behind the flames, like he's personally offended that Scorpius and I aren't really trying to keep our conversation secret.
"Yeah. But it's alright," he says, but it comes out more like 'is-saight'. He leans into me with a cheeky smile, "An', for changing the quote so close, I billed ANON extra. All the payment dropped today, and the buyer gave me a 20k tip for the trouble. 80k all up, baby."
"80k?" I hiss, "How'd you get Vanner to work again?" I could've sworn her army account was inactive.
"Oh, yeah, how freaky is this? ANON asked if you would know clearance to a soldier already... implying they knew you're viper. So, I gave him Menzies like normal, but soon as they switched the quote I sussed that they would've trip-wired Menzies. Put you through as Vanner." He shakes his head like I'm not prepared for what's coming, pausing to collect a new cigarette which he taps against the deck to ensure its tightly packed, "Someone had Vanner approved as a Second Lieutenant to give you autonomous clearance, which is how you got into Solitary without a Warrant Officer's clearance... but that's freaky levels of power, cause not even I can hack that. Like, approving six raises, an' fabricating documentary evidence of graduation from all the training a Lieutenancy role requires, alone, is godly. Let alone, patching over her history, an'," he whistles, like he can't even begin to explain, "Safe to say, we can let Vanner rest in fuckin' peace like, for real for real now," he says and I laugh at his, admittedly, dark joke. Private Vanner, dead at last, "they'll pluck you as soon as you log into her. But yeah. It can't have been ANON because they fucked with Menzies, so whoever fixed up Vanner, A, had to know you'd used that profile before, and B, must be army. No way it was an outside job."
A thought strikes me. Why didn't I see that before? Unable to let the other's hear, or see my revelation I take the lighter and turn around, bolstering my good arm against the ute as my mind races. Oh my god. "Barra said the phone had autonomous clearance and that Jewel had it bugged." I lower my voice for real, "Jewel is ANON."
"But you said Barra was Craig's man." Scor looks at me quickly.
"Hey guys, you want food?" Thaila turns to look at us, interrupting my reply.
Scor catches her attention fall to the deck in his hand, so he slots his cigarette between his teeth, "Yeah. Yous wan' a dart?" He collects the hiking pack at his feet before he nudges himself off the car, snagging my arm and trudging through the sand.
I follow, feeling Trent and Blu's glare on me. "I'll kiss you," Elias threatens around another giant yawn.
My head spins at the revelation. Barra was working for Jewel and my father. Does that confirm Jewel and Dad are in on something?
Barra said, "your daddy only ever worked for three people in his life."
I should know what that means. It irks me.
I place my hand on E's head when I arrive, kissing his cheek in greeting as I take a seat beside him. The warmth of the fire is a blessing.
Scor gestures for Elias to take one, to which he makes an excited noise which is overtaken by a yawn. I smile, passing him the lighter as I collect a bowl and serve myself some dinner from the stainless-steel pot on the fire.
"Oh baby, oh baby," E plugs the cigarette between his lips, rubbing his hands in anticipation whilst Thai watches, the tips of her wonky canine teeth poking out as she smiles.
He lights the dart, and with two pulls the ember glows bright but he keeps pulling, long and hard, tossing the lighter blindly at Saxon before he collapses into my lap, letting out a contented, smoke filled, sigh.
"You have got a kid," I tease, smiling down at him, to which Elias flashes me a cheeky grin, sucking a pull before he offers me some.
I take it from his tattooed fingers, laughing. His head weighs heavy on my leg, but his warmth is a comfort in the chilly night.
"How's your arm?" He asks, gesturing at the makeshift sling.
I bob my bottom lip, leaning over him and pushing his hair back, "How's your sunburn?" I bounce my eyebrows at his pink cheeks, and he snickers, gesturing me off as I pass the dart to Thai's waiting hand. Elias yawns again, so I shift, allowing him to rest more easily.
"Play with my hair." He mumbles, closing his eyes. Sometimes we would sit on the couch after his Nona made him dinner, and he would flop in her lap, and she'd spend the entire conversation playing with his sandy-brown hair. Binnie would always sit on me or beg to play games on my phone.
I smile slightly, my gaze falling on the stones around the fire. Now that Nonna is gone and Binnie's missing, the memory tastes painfully salty, like... like the kind of thing you never wan' forget, but also something you can't bear to remember.
Those conversations went for hours and sometimes, I'd be in a rush to get to bed so I was at least half awake the next day... why couldn't I just enjoy my time with them? Elias's life has been a sad one, but he's the only person who's ever shown me what family really means.
"We have questions." Blu interrupts, and my glare lands on her awfully quick...
Having finished sharing the cigarettes around, Scorpius plonks his ass next to me and sand skids into the fire from the impact. He flashes me a look like he's also unimpressed, but the answer is up to me, so I fix my glare on Blu's scrawny, soot covered face.
"Bet you do." I mutter.
Everyone falls silent, the sound of utensils hitting steel bowls colouring the night. The fire crackles, consuming one of the logs that Trent cut.
Scorpius ignores the tension, serving himself a bowl before he adjusts his pack so he can lie back into it. He pulls his phone out and starts scrolling through whatever job platform he's interested in tonight.
Guess it's up to me.
I lift my gaze from the crackling fire to Trent, and his glare finds mine, though he appears unsure why I'd make the point to address him specifically. "What you wan' know?" I ask around a mouthful.
He frowns, pulling a nasty face like he's offended that I'd single him out, but then Sax clears his throat, and Trent purses his lips. "You got the lighter?" He asks Sax rudely, irritated, before he looks to me. "Alright, we get someone paid 80k to get you out. But how come him was your guy?" He points to Scor with a look.
I arch a brow, unable to answer. "As in..." I scratch my cheek, "As in why'd he help? Cause we're friends."
Trent shakes his head, "No, no. As in how'd he get involved?"
Scorpius answers for me, although he doesn't stop scrolling, "Uh, cause it's my job. I'm a hitman. I pull jobs, you know, like heists and hits, few kill orders if I'm really in a squeeze for good money."
Their attention sharpens, and I cringe. He was going so well, did he have to end on the, 'I kill for money,' card? "Through this underground website called CITE.K." I add, "Which is where ANON put the ad, for Scor's hitman account to see."
"Which is Scorpion." Thai clarifies, "An' you're Viper?"
I nod slightly, looking down to avoid their attention. I don' like explaining how I came into the... industry, we operate in.
"I know Lake Darling is a REDZONE, so of course we're a bit worse off, but how come everything at Barden was high tech?" Saxon asks.
That's the million-dollar question. "Because we're cheap labour. And Newcastle like's getting everything for cheap." I take a mouthful of food, looking to the fire again.
"But how come we didn't know? We had phones." Blu's tone irritates me, so I raise my glare slightly.
"There's this thing called an Actual Private Network." I mutter, disregarding her snivelling little voice and casting my attention back at the fire. My statement earns confusion, except from Scor who simply zooms in on something and squints at it, fascinated, "It's this thing the Service Providers in Newcastle use to keep Lake Darling from accessing their network of Media." I say, pausing to chew another mouthful before I return to playing with E's hair, although I notice with potent envy that he's fallen asleep in my lap.
Silence pervades for a tense moment, inflamed by our collective exhaustion.
"Why'd they torture Myers?" Trent ordains to lift his hard glare at me. My stomach twists, and I place my bowl down.
"Don' know," I mutter.
They turn to Thai next.
"No one knows why Akimitsu kicked him out of the Yakuza, so... It'll be connected to that." She utters.
"What you mean no one knows?" Blu snaps. She's taken a particular disliking to Thai.
"Akimitsu's circle hid the facts like their life depended on it." She mutters. The comment sparks an onslaught of questions, but I'm so fed up and exhausted that I just stare at the fire until I zone out.
Elias was so emotionally spent that it's no surprises he went from resting his eyes to lights-out. His cheeky features are remarkably innocent when he sleeps, exactly like Binnie. I wan' sleep, I need it, but I'm too wired.
"But how do we get back to Lake Darling?" Blu asks.
"How long will it take?" Sax echoes.
I grit my jaw, resisting the part of this conversation that I'd been avoiding. "We're not going back."
"What the fuck you mean we're not goin'?" Trent arcs up, his tone inflammatory and abrasive. Elias flinches awake, and I raise my eyebrows at Blackler in warning.
Silence expands. Blu's indignant outrage starts as a curl of her lip and a nasty expression, like I'm insane, but I ignore the whole ordeal with a scoff, focusing on E.
I push his hair back and he glances up at me, rubbing his eyes.
He's unawares to the brewing argument, "Why's your damn leg so bony?" He grumbles, his red, sun-burnt cheeks glowing in the firelight.
I smile, ignoring the crackling tension as I adjust slightly so his temple rests on the thicker portion of my thighs, "Better?" I quip, but his eyes flicker shut and he answers me with a yawn.
"Are you fuckin' kidding? Lake Darling is home. I have family there."
Elias's attempt to return to slumber fails, because he bops his head up like a damn mere cat, looking around and scrunching his face up.
"We're not going." I shrug, trying not to laugh at E's mannerisms.
"Are you fuckin' laughing?" Trent snaps, and Elias sits up, glowering at the blonde-haired ganger we've known since we were kids.
Tension prickles in the air.
"Vi for real, what is there if we're not going back?" Saxon's tone is barely civil.
I ignore Saxon and tug at my sling, trying to alleviate some of my discomfort. The pressure point is making my damn arm go numb.
It may seem arrogant to ignore them so adamantly, but my action is more an attempt to display my reluctance to escalate this. "Yes I'm fuckin' laughing. Because you're cracked if you think I'm gon' show up in the one place the army is waiting for us to be."
Thai, who'd otherwise been silent, intervenes, "So what else?" She leads, silently helping me cast their minds toward Holders-Bay.
I shove the sling off altogether, grimacing slightly when blood gushes through the tender flesh, causing an ache like all hell that shoots so far down my arm that my fingers throb. Here come the lies, "Scor and I have an in to a gang in Holder's Bay," or we did, "and we can get you guys in too," we hope. I look to the other half of our group, "but if yous agree to join us then I'm gon' need a guarantee that Blacker ain't gon' shank me in my sleep." Pop. A log succumbs to the flame, "or put one of you cunts up to it." Trent's features flicker with the erratic light, the shadow's dancing across his deep-set eyes.
Hostility dances in the air. My gun burns on my thigh, however, what follows is his silence.
I take advantage of it, not wanting to face my other option, "I killed Mal, because he tried to räpe me. I do not regret it, but I am sorry that I took him from you. If you can't put it aside, then you are welcome to take your chances out there." I mutter, and he opens his mouth, half-way lunging forward but then Scorpius raises his hand to the machete wedged in the sand, letting his palm rest atop the handle.
Trent's aggression fixates on him.
"Viper told me that before them soldiers tackled you in the hall, Hito Tanaka was inches from putting a knife in your skull. That right?" Scorpius doesn't raise his eyes from his phone, but from my view I can see his thumb hesitate over the screen, "So call this revenge shit what you want, but regardless of what you think should or shouldn't happen," He sniffs, "Who should or shouldn't have died... you would've. Right?"
Trent fails to answer, his eyebrows shooting together like it hadn't occurred to him to care.
Scorpius continues, "Figures me that's no matter how fucked up she is, she only got away with it because she had the right people around her... And Viper and I are offering you the chance to make those sorts of connections."
His nose wrinkles like he's been slapped, trying to gain an angle. But Scorpius's mood flips and he places his phone aside, weighing his grip on the machete, easing it out of the sand. His glare crackles with an almost stifling lash of hostility. Irrationality; prone to a jarring switch of mood; violence seeking.
Mania.
Trent straightens up, but he refuses to admit defeat based on fear, "Oh so that's my choice. Forgive her or die?" He spits.
Fed up, I draw my gun from my thigh belt, and they each stiffen, Blu scrambling back slightly. "Put that away cunt." She snaps.
I weigh the weapon in my hand, "You tell me, Blackler," I rest my arm on my knee, taking aim at Trent's head as he glowers at me. "Is that your choice?" The fire crackles, licking at the edges of my vision as I close an eye to place him perfectly in my aim.
Trent don' seem daunted, but I saw him shoot. He knows my safety is on. "Oh, you gon' pop me?" He taunts, so I grit through the pain of lifting my bad arm and draw the safety off.
Just like that the air crystalizes.
Locked, loaded, and hot. His nerve splits and his glare grows sharp, panicked. Thai fails to raise food to her mouth.
My heart races. My finger hesitates.
Click.
He skids back, shocked, his heart seizing in his chest. Blu and Saxon lurch forward.
"Jesus fucking christ Warrendale!" He shouts.
One side of my smile lifts as I hook my finger and spin the gun so my palm is splayed in surrender. His lungs heave for one moment.
"Hard to shoot you with no ammo. Blackler." I grin, although it turns into a yawn.
Scorpius stifles a snicker and Saxon snorts out of his nose, shaking his head like he's so dismayed that it's comical, "Did you jus' fuckin' yawn?"
...
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