Dirty Work: Volume 1

Siala: Part 1 - 6

'Done this before then?' I asked as one of the three kars began to accelerate. In the mirror I saw a man with grizzly facial hair and a beanie (seriously, who wears beanies now? They went out of fashion a good two hundred years ago), sitting in the passenger seat with an XF-38 Beta upright, loading up the cartridges. He looked like he meant business, and unfortunately, although I dealt in a lot of business that had to do with guns, this was not a meeting I wished to attend.

'Not in a long time,' Siala said, opening her window, 'thankfully.'

'Last kar pursuit was that incident in 24 about ten years ago,' said Rena, 'wasn't it?'

'Something around there,' Siala replied. 'We were chasing that time though. What is it they've got?'

'An XF-38 Beta,' I said, 'on the one coming around on my side.' I chuckled to myself. 'Only a 38. The boss has two Kakrs outside his office with 40s. If you're going to do a job, do it damn properly, please.'

Rena gave me one of her now-usual condescending looks. 'Says you with the Alpha.'

'Shush,' I complained. The three black thug-mobiles were beginning to box us in. 'Hold on tight.'

I decided to fuck the speed limits because, you know what, if there's a massive shootout on the 1-17 Highway isn't the main issue but the speed limit is, you've got an issue not just with the law but with your brain as well. I accelerated, but not with my foot completely to the floor. I put my hand to the Halo-Core and put in a contact to the boss. His head appeared a few seconds later.

'Boss,' I said, glancing down quickly. He should have been in his office at that time, the evening in full swing, probably later as we were two time zones behind him.

'Xayne,' he replied. 'I trust everything is going fine.'

'Well,' I said, not sure how to phrase the issue at hand, 'you may get a speeding ticket or two. I'm having to really shift it.'

The kar to the left of the vehicle came parallel with Siala. She took aim and fired, the recoil almost sending the gun flying out of her hand.

'Shit,' she said, 'I haven't used one of these in a while.'

The boss's head looked up to the right. 'Gocha. Get off the highway and hide out. Give me a buzz when you're low. Forget the kar, Siala's the important one.'

'Hey!' Rena cried, jumping off Siala's shoulder. 'What about me?'

I flung the wheel to the left and slammed into the kar. The two vehicles collided with a great crash of shrieking metal and groaning glass. I took a quick stock check. The kar behind was home to a similar situation of driver and shooter, and the one on my side of the kar was almost in firing position.

'Just drive and shoot your asses off,' the boss said, ending the conversation. His head disappeared.

'Fun,' I said. I gripped the steering wheel harder. This wasn't what I had in mind. Why did almost everything I did for the boss involve me getting shot at?

I was grateful I wasn't the one shooting, but at the same time I was scared out of my wits. Ahead of us was a kar actually going the correct speed, directly in my lane. With the kars either side of me I didn't have room to get past. I was going to plough straight into the back of them.

I slammed my fist onto the horn, sharp blasts ringing out. The driver saw me in his mirror; even from relatively far away I could tell he noticed me. He picked up the pace and ducked for a nearby junction. The black kars blocked me in, not giving me the luxury of a quick escape.

'What the hell are you doing?' I shouted, noticing Rena squirming her way behind the steering wheel and the glass that partitioned off the dials.

'This is the safest place, and the least likely to collapse,' she said, 'trust me, I've tried it.'

'I'm sure that's not even remotely true, but you're blocking my dials,' I complained. I was still accelerating, pressured by the kar directly behind me. A blast rocked the kar as the guy on my side shot straight at the window. The glass cracked but didn't shatter.

'Shit, what is that glass made of?' I said.

'It's reinforced,' Siala replied over the sound of the screaming engine, firing out again at the other kar on her side. They hadn't begun to shoot yet, but I could feel it coming. It was only a matter of time.

'Siala,' I shouted, putting down my window and ducking. She looked over and fired without even taking too much aim. The blast shot out of my window and hit the opposite gunman square in the forehead as he was preparing to fire again. The driver screamed and instantly turned to ram me.

'Leave me alone, dammit,' I complained to myself, and the other driver if he could hear, but mostly to myself.

Ahead of us I saw an extra lane coming up for a hard shoulder, ending just before a bridge over a section of the Celestrian Thames. I checked to see if I was still buckled up tight.

'I'm going to try something,' I said.

'How mental is it? Duck!'

We both ducked as a blast hit the inside of our windscreen. Rena screamed, and bits of the glass began to crack, growing out like the fingers of the grim reaper stretching ever closer towards me.

'Very,' I replied, checking my sanity and taking a deep breath. I gunned the engine. 'Hold on tight.'

I knew I couldn't out-drag them; the best I could do was get perhaps ¾ of a kar-length ahead of them. The extra lane came up on the left. I put my foot down.

The last great skyscrapers filtered out as the world began to slope down towards the river, which was not far ahead of us, snaking its way along its mechanised wanderings. Soon I got to the point where we were almost a kar-length ahead, and the other drivers had started to prevent the escape. As soon as the one on my left wasn't going backwards, I turned into him.

We came around his front end and I whacked on the handbrake. Magnets slammed on, whirring energy ports came to life underneath us, and then the kar smashed into our back end. We spun 360, then another half, ending up at a standstill facing the way we had been going, with a crumpled back end and behind the two kars. They had begun to decelerate, tail lights on, turning our way.

'Let's go back again, shall we?' I asked.

I turned the car to the other lane. I revved the engine and went towards the barrier at full pelt. The barrier between the two sets of traffic broke around the bonnet, and a section flew up into the windscreen, hitting the crack that the black kar guys had given it. The entire windscreen shattered into a billion, glittering, starry shards.

I ignored the sensation of the shards raking my flesh, trying to pierce my eyeballs. My skin was lacerated and blood was streaming out of the wounds as if I had been mauled by a hyuntiger, or gone a round of arm-wrestling with a Brykthylosian. I ignored the cut flesh. Instead I joined the traffic, the black kars a little ways behind me, yet to fully comprehend what was happening. I took the opportunity whilst I had it and floored the kar for all it was worth.