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***
- So...
We packed up and saw Victor and Misty off before reconvening on the wooden jetty on folding chairs.
- ...What are we going to do?
- Decide...
Judy shrugged.
- ...and drastically.
- Are you sure?
We all looked questioningly at Smarty-Pants.
- Yes... I've given her enough chances to leave me alone. But she's not settling down, so....
Judy shrugged.
- ...we're gonna do something drastic.
- All right, then, Lucy, Kiwi, Parker gave me the location, so let's get on the city grid and check it out. We need to get a sense of what's going on. I'm sure there's gonna be some kind of ambush. So, um.
- Copy that.
Kiwi and Lucy went to the car, where they took their seats and plugged the cables into their neck jack and dived into the network. Thankfully we have a couple of lanes in town through which the girls can plug in and find out what's what.
- Panam, you and the girls will have to stay away from the rendezvous point.
- Okay...
Panam and Becca nodded their heads.
- Judy...
- I'll be in the boot. Pretend to be the girl in the blackout.
I nodded.
- Suit yourself...
- Also... I'm the one who has to zero in on her.
I had a lot more doubts about her decision this time, as did all the other girls still around us.
- Judy...
Apparently Becca decided to show her her doubts about her choice.
- What?
She looked at Becca with a frown.
- Would you rather it was me or David? We're not used to...
- No...
Judy gave a wave of a kind of purposefulness and fixation on the decision she'd already made.
- Okay...
I sighed.
- ...I'll back you up anyway, so if you can't finish this story, I'll finish it for you.
- Mm-hmm.
- All right, let's get to the car.
We gathered up the chairs and quickly stashed them in the house before walking to the car, where I took the knife off my belt and held it out to Judy.
- This is for you. A last chance weapon, so to speak.
She nodded and immediately got the gun from Becky.
- Take care of yourself, we won't be able to be around when you're 'handed over', so be careful and pay attention. David's got your back, but don't get shot at.
- All right.
We opened the boot and Judy climbed in and sat in it with her tongue out to the side.
- Judy...
Hand-face was the only reaction I, and the girls, could muster to such behaviour.
- Judy...
Panam looked at her friend with irritation.
- What's up? I'm joking a bit... naturally I'll be fine acting out, it's just that you're all too tense.
- Judy, we're tense because we're sending you on a combat mission and you've never been on one before.
- I've lived in Knight City a long time, so I've had to deal with gangsters myself, and I've been in the Helms, and they're a gang, no matter how hard they try to position themselves as protectors of girls....
- I realise that, and so does everyone else.
I raised my hand to stop Judy's outrage, which she was obviously going to continue to express.
- But let's be honest, there are two intelligent people on my team who could be involved in the hot phase of the operation. Me and Becca. I don't doubt your skills and your ability to stand up for yourselves, but if you have to take up arms, then I'm screwed.
- But that's not what this is about.
Judy wasn't gonna give up.
- You're wrong... I could have calculated Parker's behaviour, what can I say, I did, but I didn't do anything about it. I figured she'd give up sooner or later. And the fact that she's trying to trick me by supposedly kidnapping your grandmother...
I shook my head.
- ...that wasn't part of my calculations. And if it wasn't, then she might take the risk of actually kidnapping your grandmother, or taking someone else hostage... It's my fault for not calculating....
- David, you shouldn't say that... you didn't know her and I did. But even I didn't calculate, so it's not your fault.
I shrugged. Not that I felt directly guilty, still I didn't consider Parker a threat. That is, until she called and said she had Judy's grandmother....
After that news, I realised I'd underestimated her, and that girl could cause a lot of trouble.
- Still, I wouldn't want you to get her blood on your hands.
- I'll take my chances. But I'd still like to deal with her personally, since she did theoretically raise a hand against my grandmother.
- Okay.
I took a bag of wood chips out of the boot of the car and handed one to Judy.
- This one's empty, plug it in and pretend like you're out of it. I think you might learn something new before you act.
- You think she's gonna come pick me up?
- I think so... with her team and probably undercover, but she'll come on her own.
- Well... that's her style....
Judy nodded in agreement and plugged the splinter in, then sighed defiantly as she climbed into the boot and made herself comfortable. I even covered her with a small plaid and tucked a pillow I'd found in the house under her head.
- Are you comfortable?
- Yeah... but it's kind of...
- Well, I'm not gonna take my girlfriend like some junk that's not even fit to be dismantled. And if Parker has a problem with it, I'm just gonna tell her to fuck off.
- All right, let's get moving. I don't really feel like lying in the boot all day.
- All right, let's get the team liaising and get going...
I slammed the boot shut and there was a call from Judy and a couple of seconds later all the other girls joined the line.
- Great... Now we're going to stop by the house....
- Why?
The other girls were also surprised.
- It's just that if I'm going to drive, I should get Panam her rifle so that she can cover us, and Becca will obviously not mind at least to watch what's going on through the crosshairs.
- Well...
The girls clearly agreed with what I said.
- By the way, Judy, there's something we forgot...
- Break the connection?
- Yes...
- Can we stay in it a little longer? I'm more comfortable with it.
- Of course we can, but how will it affect you if I have to use Sandy to the fullest?
- I don't know... but you can cut off the connection or muffle it... so I'm relying on you for that.
- Okay.
I nodded and finally started the car, then pressed the accelerator into first gear and we finally pulled off towards the Clan car park.
- Kiwi, Lucy?
- It's quiet, we've been going through the city's networks trying to find her, but it's harder than it looks. Even though we've worked out where she phoned you from, tracing her entire route, given that some of it was in places where there are no cameras...
- Judy, could your ex-wife have thought this through?
- Well, she's not stupid, so basically, yeah.
- You're not sure? She just sounds really insecure.
- She can be overconfident... You know this because you know how she made preparations to storm that hotel....
- Well, to be fair, it wasn't an assault, but, yes, you're right, Parker's training was abysmal. She relied too much on DeShawn and his team.
- Exactly.
The car drove smoothly down the motorway and then exited the motorway and ten minutes after that it was at the entrance to Camp Aldecaldo.
- Erm...
- Yeah, Judy, what's up?
- I was thinking, why am I travelling from the picnic site to the house in the boot?
- Because I climbed in it?
- But, I mean.
- You could have said no, but you just climbed in. So I thought I'd just seize the moment and pretend I'd kidnapped you from your father's house. You know, like in the not-so-distant past, some people had a tradition of kidnapping brides from their homes.
- Well.
Judy was very embarrassed by the comparison, but at the same time she was pleased that I had so calmly said that I recognised her as my bride. Panam and Becca quickly returned to the car, bringing me a belt with a scabbard for throwing knives, of course concealed, as well as a holster to fit under my jacket.
Unfortunately, wearing my suit was not an option now, it would be too suspicious, and it would be impossible to conceal its presence. So we'll have to make do with a minimal set of concealed carry. I fastened it all on myself and finally turned the car round and headed for the city.
But I didn't drive aimlessly around town, instead once I was on the edge of town I dropped a message to Parker.
'I've got Judy and she's unconscious. What's next?'
I immediately got a reply with a rendezvous point and time, which I shared with the girls and Panam immediately preceded to the best place to cover us with her rifle. The rifle has very good optics and Panam herself shoots more than decently.
Twenty minutes and I arrived at the point where I was to drop off the other girls.....
- Come on, work, I'll stay for another five or ten minutes and then I'll go to the rendezvous point.
- Mm-hmm...
The girls turned round and went to the point. To be more precise, they went to one of the Megabashes, where there were technical tunnels that we knew about because of our profession. Of course we didn't know about the tunnels of this particular Megabuilding, but we knew that they were there, and on the way to the building Kiwi and Lucy, as well as Judy herself, had already found the plans of the building, so they knew where they had to climb in order to take a favourable position.
- All right, beauties, from now on, all negotiations are again by call sign only.
- Eh.
- Come on Cherry, it's fun... at least it separates the times when we're just chatting and when we're at work....
- I get it... but Book Girl, aren't you sick of it? Everyone already knows our identities... who cares... and we're all on call signs.....
- I don't mind. I like my call sign.
- Of course you don't like your call sign, Mentor, but I don't mind mine either...
- Scribes, we don't have anyone who's against their call sign...
- Good girl?
I raised my voice as she said the last sentence and her emotions were in turmoil.
- Are you okay?
- Yeah... I'm a little worried...
- Don't worry.
I shrugged.
- ...everything will be fine.
- I believe you, Tihonja, but I'm still worried...
- And by the way, Smarty.
- Yes?
- We're setting radio silence for you. You're unconscious... so from now on you can only listen.
Judy's image nodded and then disappeared, but I knew she was still with us, she had just completely hidden her presence in this conversation.
- Um... Folks...
- Yeah, Cherry.
- I see the meet-and-greets.
- И?
- That's Mayne's group.
- Fuck.
Becca didn't hold back.
- Uh-huh... we're fucked, since while I don't like Pilar, I wouldn't want to kill him.
- And we wouldn't want Dorio or Mayne to zero in either....
- Let's see... hopefully we won't have to do that, at the very least Cherry will shoot off a couple of limbs and we'll give them first aid so they don't die....
- That's fine.
That was the general decision, after which I pressed the accelerator and the car started to move...