Dirty Work: Volume 1

A Leader Of Men - 2

On my way out the next morning I grabbed my 58 Alpha and made sure there were two extra canisters in an inside pocket of my coat. I didn't know what the boss wanted me for, but I knew that being prepared was definitely a good idea. Added to the fact I had had minimal sleep, any shooting was bound to involve bad aim, so the more blasts the merrier. I grabbed an incredibly large coffee on the way to the club. It tasted foul, as one can expect, and I downed it all before it was properly cool to save myself the torture of having to taste it too much. The cup ended in an overflowing rubbish bin and caught the first few drops of rain.

By the time I came within the sign of Dirty Work my hair was dripping in front of my eyes. I jogged the last stretch and ducked in the back, to be immediately thrust a towel by Hidra who was there for the first performance of the night, always starting early on Tuesdays.

'Dry off and get to the boss,' she said, make-up only partially applied and her eyes red.

'What's happening?' I asked, to which she simply shook her head.

'Just go in and see him. Warning though, he's not in the greatest mood ever.'

Because I needed a reason to be terrified before going in to see the boss. Great. Thanks Hidra.

'Should I be wearing some kind of protective padding?'

'Physically, maybe. Emotionally and mentally, even more so.'

I handed the towel back to her, my hair frizzed and spikes everywhere. I hate it when my hair is frizzled. It's not the shortest, I'll admit, so it's my own fault, but that's irrelevant. I'm allowed to complain, and even if I'm not, these are my memoirs goddamn it and I'll complain all I want.

Hidra smiled and stuck her tongue out as playfully as possible. I tapped one of its forks and she slapped me before turning away in a mock huff.

I turned and headed to the boss' office. The two Kakrs weren't outside, which was the first thing that tipped me off to something being seriously wrong. Those guys were always there, and in fact I don't think I'd ever seen them not standing there, the boss' two stone statues to his palace entrance.

I warily waved my hand over the Halo-Core in the wall.

'Who is it?' the voice said from within.

'It's me, sir. Xayne.'

I had no reply for a few moments, and inside I heard shuffling, like furniture being shifted around. A moment later a Kakr opened the door.

'Identification?' he asked.

I frowned at him. 'You know it's me. Nobody could fake hair looking this bad after being caught in a shower.'

The Kakr glowered at me for a few seconds before raising his eyebrows and shrugging in the universal-sign of 'touché' and stepping aside.

I walked in and instantly registered the drawn blinds. The boss stood by the window, fingers prising apart the blinds and looking outside, as if expecting an attack at any moment. Gangster films couldn't portray the paranoid mob-boss any better than Grasslea appeared at that moment. The other Kakr stood beside him, weapon drawn and trained on me.

As the door was shut behind me, I found myself puzzled to an extremity I don't think I'd ever had before, even more than that incident just over a year before with someone blowing up the C.A.T main building in Region 4. The boss was obviously worried, but nobody else seemed to be. Hidra was playful, and Markro definitely hadn't sounded urgent when I had spoken to him the night before. And yet here was the boss, taking glances out of shut blinds like a child hiding from the bogeyman, with his guards inside as opposed to the usual station of outside the room, where they would be able to repel attacks coming and give the boss the chance of escape. Nothing seemed to be coherent in Dirty Work's manner, as if someone had re-written all the rules since I had left the night before.

'Xayne,' the boss said without looking over at me. I stood still, hands by my side in faithful obedience.

'Yes, sir,' I replied.

The boss took a final glance out of the window, his eyes scanning right and then left and then right again, before he moved away and wandered over to his desk again.

'I had a feeling I would need you last night,' he began, 'but it was confirmed about ten minutes ago.' He slumped down in his chair as if his legs had suddenly failed him, as if someone had switched them off and they could no longer hold his weight. He reached into his desk and pulled out a Halo-Core. He tapped it a few times and a 2D image emerged from the screen.

It was a photo of a girl bound and gagged, her skin ragged and ripped, fresh blood flowing from her forehead. She was tied to a chair in what looked to be an old and disused warehouse of some kind. At the bottom of the picture was a single word, 'PROOF', followed by an image of a red rose.

'They're back,' I said. The boss nodded solemnly.

'They are. And I think you'll recognise the girl.'

I looked closer, knowing the face and trying to recall where I had seen it before. I strained, mental fingers flipping through the file cabinet and trying to find the matching memory. I suddenly realised that it was Flore, the girl that had saved me from my first run-in with the Red Rose gang.

'They sent me a message yesterday, not long after you left,' the boss said, 'saying in no uncertain terms that they wanted the box in the vault. Obviously I didn't reply quickly enough.'

The boss waved away the picture and put the Halo-Core away.

'I don't appreciate someone going after something of mine, and I really don't like it when they go after someone who helps us out. I consider it extremely rude and uncalled for.'

'I think anyone would, sir,' I replied. He nodded, walking over to the blinds and checking outside once again.

'I'm bringing Markro onboard for this. You two have got a very simple task. Get her back.'

'Shoot our way in to a gang's headquarters, grab Flore, and get out of there alive?' I asked.

'That's the one. Oh, and make sure they shoot first. Now we both know who we're dealing with, whoever fires first declares the war. And I have no doubt that war is coming, in one way or the other.'

I stood in silence, contemplating the matter. I had done rescue missions in my time, but this was a different scale now. This was all-or-nothing. I would be marked by the underworld for this if I didn't die in the process. I felt a knot in my stomach tighten.

'Very well, sir,' I said to the boss. 'It shall be done.'

The boss nodded and I turned to leave.

'Oh, and Xayne,' he called.

I turned back to look at him. 'Yes, sir?'

'If any of you die, as always, I don't know you. And if you don't die, prepare for Dirty Work to have a massive target over its head.'

I smiled as confident a fake smile as I could before leaving the office.