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- Lucy?
I was already sitting in the car, as was Becca and now I was looking questioningly at the white-haired rauner who was staring out the window thoughtfully.
- There are three bases... which one they're holding the target at I don't know.
Lucy sent us all the coordinates of the Stilettos' bases, and we plunged into studying everything we knew about them.
- I'd bet on the one to the north.
I cast a glance at Panam and then studied the data thoughtfully.
- Hmm... well. It really is easier to get cars that need repairs and other items there....
I nodded and looked at Becca and Lucy.
- Don't ask me... I can shoot, but picking a place where the target we need to rescue is more likely to be....
Becca shook her head.
- That's not for me.
- Well, I have my own thoughts, but I think like a ranger, but logistically... Panam's probably right.
- Then it's settled. We'll go with the northern hideout. Although we could also send the data to Dakota, see if she can give us a clue.
- Let's give it a shot.
Panam nodded to me and I immediately dialled Dakota.
- Go ahead, Tycho. You saved Iris and you're on your way to me?
- Not exactly. The Stiletto base you gave me the coordinates for, I cleaned it up. Cleaned it up just like you asked, with a lot of noise and pomp. Except Iris wasn't there.
- She wasn't?
- Yeah, we got the data on three more Stiletto sites. I thought I'd ask you, as the person in charge of the Badlands, where exactly do you think Iris should be? No, we'll zero in on all three points if we have to... but I'd still like to find the girl faster.
- I agree with you...I'll check it out....
The connection was paused and I leaned back in the front seat of the car with my eyes closed.
Dakota's back
in about ten minutes.
- Quiet, are you still on the line?
- Sure.
- All right, well, according to my information, she's most likely in the west camp. Of course the north is more logistically convenient, but there's a smaller contingent and therefore no one to hold the defences.
- All right, then we'll start with the west camp and hopefully Iris will be there.
- All right, out.
We're off the line, and I've been looking at the girls.
- Dakota thinks we should go to the west camp. There's a larger contingent and easier to defend. In her opinion, a valuable asset like Iris is best kept there.
- Well... we're solo, we're indentured labourers, the fixer said we should, we said we should....
Lucy commented on what I said about the data I got from Dakota.
- Panam, come on.
The mulatto nodded and the car moved off, and I plunged into studying the data on the western camp of the Stilettos. The camp, which was to be stormed first by me, and after me and Becca, who also sat quietly below the grass.
The journey to the west camp took about two hours. And I got out of the car and activated the sandi and realised they were waiting for us. They already knew that one of their camps had been destroyed and now the whole camp I was heading to was on its ear.
I took the first road and I have to admit that the Steelers are clearly more prepared than they were at the last base. So I got to a relatively safe hiding place and switched off my sandi so I could talk to the girls.
- Ladies, especially Bookwoman, the fighters here are clearly better trained.
- Hey! You promised you'd stay out of this!
- I'm not going to...
I shook my head.
- ...I'm just warning you not to use guns exclusively, and to leave some of the work to Snowflake. So that she can watch your back if our target is still here and I can't cover you.
- Okay.
I switched back on the Sandi and moved on through the camp. And this time Dakota was wrong again and the girl wasn't in the camp. But that didn't stop me from putting splinters in all the fighters, as well as in all the equipment that was in the camp. And after that, I froze again in a safe place, switching off the acceleration.
- Snowflake, you're up.
- Roger that, Tihonja.
The minutes of work of our raner...
- Ahem.
- Yes?
- And our target turns out to be here.
I frowned.
- I didn't see her.
- In the garage, where the van is, there's a hatch on the side, covered in earth. They put her down there.
- Is she alone in there?
- Yeah.
- All right, I'm gonna go get her out and secure her.
- Come on, we're waiting.
I switched on Sandi again and got to the garage pretty quickly where I quickly found the hatch Lucy had told me about. Activating the optics I almost swore. If I had done it right away, I would have known there was some sort of basement.
After making sure that the girl was alone and that there was no system to trigger the security system when she opened the hatch, I opened the hatch without any effort and closed it behind me.
Sandi was off...
Walking over to the girl I touched her neck and she immediately started twitching.
- Is she alive?
Hearing my voice she froze and focused her gaze on me. She nods jerkily and I pull out one of my throwing knives and start cutting the ropes she's bound with.
- I'm close to the target. Get to work.
- Mm-hmm.
- You okay?
I finally pull the gag consisting of a knot out of the girl's mouth.
- Dae...
She recognised me and that's good, it won't take long to explain. But still I didn't let her finish and put my hand over her mouth and shook my head.
- No names... I'm Tychonia now.
- But after all...
- Yes, it's not hard to find out who is Tychonya, you just need to buy information from a fixer....
Shots and screams were heard outside, and Iris shuddered slightly as she took a sitting position. She looked at the hatch through which I had come down with some fear.
- Don't worry, I'm here to make sure nothing happens to you.
- I'm... okay.
- Snowflake?
- As long as Bookgirl's doing well, I've got her covered by shutting down the Stilettos that are either holed up in too secure of cover or trying to get in behind her.
- Good...
Despite the chatter I continued to watch the hatch with my optics and when the figure of a Stiletto appeared above the hatch, and I was sure it wasn't Becca as she would have warned me of such a thing, I prepared my throwing knife.
The throw...
I made it as soon as the hatch was ajar and the knife went straight for Stiletto's throat. The body froze for a couple of seconds and then, grabbing his throat, fell down and the hatch slammed shut behind him. I didn't stand still and appeared next to the enemy and made a killing blow with the energy blade of the tonfa just piercing the heart and a couple of other important organs.
I didn't touch the brain on purpose, so that Lucy would have a chance to go through the chrome memory that was installed in the brain.
- Is this because of me?
I glanced at the girl and nodded.
- Yes...
- But...
- Iris, a fixer is necessary for a solo, no matter what kind of work he does.
- I don't need one, they just make money and don't do shit!
- At the very least, they filter orders into interesting and uninteresting, and dangerous and safe. Which, judging by the situation I found you in, you don't know how to do.
- I made a mistake once, so what?
The noise of gunfire was getting louder, and Lucy had brought me the data from the cameras so I could track Becca, so I wouldn't worry too much about her hearing gunshots.
- You've made more than one mistake... and the biggest mistake was working for the Steelers.
- What's the big deal?!
I sighed as I watched Lucy disable the vision of several Stilettos who were trying to play sniper. At the same time, Becca, having apparently received their location data, moved away so that she could soon be in a better position to take a couple of accurate shots.
- What do you know about the Stilettos?
- They're nomads...
Iris shrugged.
- Yeah...
I shook my head and looked at the girl judgementally.
- What?! It's true!
- It's true... But not all of it.
- What do you mean?
- Literally. The Stilets are not just nomads, they are clans of nomads. And often unrelated to each other and have other designations, such as Hands, Moles, Cubes, I can list ten more clans, which if they have a self-name are Stilets.
- What is that supposed to mean?
- It means that Stilettos are more than just a name. The Stilets are both nomads who were expelled from their clans for committing crimes, and nomadic clans formed from such splinter clans.
- And why were they banished?
- Iris, you're such a little girl... you've worked with Aldecaldo for so long and you didn't even think to learn the differences?
I shook my head.
- I've been a bit preoccupied...
- Mm-hmm...
I nodded.
- There aren't a lot of laws in the clan, the basic live and let live. There is also an understanding that everyone in the clan is one family, and a couple of other rules-laws that define the clan and relationships within the clan. And let's say Aldecaldo has a few laws that if you try to break them, you're banished.
- Attempted?
- Yes...
I nodded a couple of times to give my words weight.
- ...such as attempted rape. If the attempt is thwarted, the one who attempted to rape another or another would face banishment.
- And what happens if the rape succeeds?
- Death...
I shrugged, as if to say there was nothing wrong with that. In fact, I really didn't think it was a big deal. Especially now in this world and time there are optics that can record and as a rule, when a victim is raped, the recording is switched on by the victim himself, removing the main evidence. And already having such evidence a full investigation is carried out, as there are still known cases when such recordings were made during role-playing games....
- Isn't that a bit much?
- No...
I shook my head.
- ...A clan is a family. If you can rape your sister/brother/mum/father, or any relative for that matter, then you're an underachiever and you're lucky if you get stopped. However, there's also murder, which is the same situation as rape.....
I sighed, noting that Becca had almost cleared the Stilettos' camp. I could hear less and less gunfire outside, and the cameras were showing me that there were almost no survivors. And not just the cameras, but the chips that showed the Stiletto's status and location. So I knew we'd be in a cellar of sorts for another five minutes until Becca cleared the camp.
- There is one exception to the above.
- Yeah?
- Yeah... even for attempted murder or rape of a child, with proven guilt, a reasonable person would just be killed.
- Ahem....
- Uh-huh... and these are the sane ones who have either been stopped from such crimes, or they have committed them and escaped and are members of the Stilettos. And that's who you decided to work with.
- Well, I didn't know.
- And ignorance doesn't absolve you of responsibility.
I took a good look at Iris.
- What am I supposed to do?
- Well, for starters, I'd at least try working with a fixer. Trust me, Dakota, though I don't work with her, is a reliable enough fixer not prone to screwing up her solos.
- Fuck...okay...I'll give it a try...but no promises!