Stray Cat Strut Chapter Thirty-Nine - Shots, Spots, Stretchers

Chapter Thirty-Nine - Shots, Spots, Stretchers

"I'm not paid enough for this."

Jacob "Redundant" Smith, Private PMC Contractor, 2057

***

The ambulances arrived soon enough and parked themselves along one side of the road. It looked pretty organised, with the vans spinning around right away so that they were back-first to the rcs and PMCs that needed them.

Paradics jumped out, followed by hovering drones that carried caras for legal docuntation, so remote controlled guns, and a small toolkit with dical supplies and whatever equipnt the paradics needed.

The vans were the bigger sort, with bunked gurneys so that each one could carry half a dozen patients at the sa ti.

I imagined that they'd all be filled up soon enough.

The rcs had stood down already, but now so of them were tossing guns and gear away as the dics arrived and started unfolding their gurneys to load up the worst and richest of the injured first.

I nodded along, happy to see that things were operating smoothly. It ant that I could refocus on Rac and her friends. "So," I said.

Rac and her little gang of weirdos were still focused on . Especially Coco. I'd thought she was pretty cool before, but now I wasn't so sure. The woman definitely had that fan-girl vibe going on, and while that was fine, it was less fine when it was pointed my way. Rac, at least, looked better. Colour was returning to her cheeks and her eyes were sharp. It didn't look like she was going to pass out anymore.

"Uh, I guess we should see about those prosthetics?" I said. "Oh, and you can et Gomorrah. You rember her, right Rac?"

"Yeah," Rac said. "She's moving in under you."

I nodded slowly, then decided to clarify the statent for the audience. "Yeah, she's taking over so of the floors in the building under my, uh, house."

It looked like Coco was vibrating a little as she turned towards Rac. "You know where she lives?" she asked.

Rac looked suprely uncomfortable, but also reluctant to answer. "I, uh, live with Lucy. That's Ca-- Stray Cat's wife."

"Girlfriend," I pointed out. "For now."

"You proposed?" Rac asked.

"Really, Cat?" Gomorrah asked as she ca up behind .

"What? No. I an. I will. Eventually. I guess. If Lucy wants."

Gomorrah gave a very unimpressed look, which was impressive considering the full-face mask that was permanently stuck in disappointed glare. She did sigh after a mont. "Actually, that makes perfect sense. She would be the one to act on it."

"What's that an?" I asked.

"Nevermind," Gomorrah said. "I'm keeping my stones uncast here."

"Changing the topic for a mont. How did you learn where the prosthetics were? Or did you just keep up with the others swarming the place?"

Garter spoke up at last. "We were here first," he said. "Jerusalem was the one to track things down. It took tracking the goods moving around the city, then backtracking to local private military companies."

"Why PMCs?" I asked.

"Because the trail was really well covered. It was professional work, and we know what mid-level rcenaries can do. This was better. So that left either full-on corpo black-ops, or well-paid PMCs. Or, I guess samurai, but the gig's client was a samurai, so that wouldn't make sense."

"I'm following you so far," I said.

"So, yeah, Jerusalem and I got a short-list of active PMCs in the region, then we worked our way back from there. Checked on the dia feeds of so mbers. Mostly tedious shit, but we got a few suspicious hits after a few hours which led us to this place." He gestured across the street to the warehouse the PMCs had been guarding. "After that, it was checking the caras until we saw so suspicious vans pull in and unload the goods."

I turned and stared at the warehouse across the street. The front of it was... kinda fucked, really. The amount of gunfire being let loose around here had done a number on the thin concrete walls, leaving it chipped and cracked all over. "So, they brought my shit here, huh?"

"Yeah," Garter said. "I, uh, don't imagine this ans we're the ones to fulfil the contr--" he cut off with a cough, and when I glanced back Rac was rubbing her elbow and Garter his lower ribs.

"We'll see about that," I said noncommittally. It was one thing to pay up, it was another to pay up after I had to fly over and wreck shit with my ch. Plus now I was down a bunch of ammo and up a few scratches.

Sothing didn't add up, though.

"Hey, Gom," I said.

"Yes?" Gomorrah asked.

"Okay, so these punks stole so of the prosthetics I was basically giving away. They passed themselves off as another gang to muddy things, then handed them off to soone else, who traded them to soone else, and at so point the things ended up here."

"I'm following you so far," Gomorrah said.

"Right, so there's a level of... uh, I guess organisation there, right?"

"Yes."

"But like..." I gestured to the road-turned-battlefield. "This is a bit much. Those are cha. Those are APCs with fuck-you guns on them. Those PMCs are all wearing good-looking gear. They're probably not working for cheap."

"Ah, I see," Gomorrah said. "How much were the prosthetics worth?"

I let out a breath. "I don't know. Couple hundred points if you were to buy them outright." I pretended not to hear Garter choking behind . "But like, Rac printed them for at ho. They're basically free. Right?" I asked Rac.

"I had to gather scrap for the printer," Rac muttered.

I grinned and ruffled her hair for a split second before she ducked away. "Right. Sorry. So not free. They mostly cost a few Rac-hours of work each. Which is not an impossible amount."

"Rac, you work for a Samurai?" Coco hissed.

"I get free rent," Rac muttered back.

I went on pretending that I couldn't hear them. It was too much fun, embarrassing Rac, though I didn't want to push it too far. Fun was fun, but I didn't want to actually piss her off. Even if her pouting was cute.

"So, these fucks spent... what, a few million credits on defence to steal shit that was not worth a tenth of that? It doesn't add up."

"We haven't looked into the warehouse yet," Gomorrah said. She hefted her fla thrower. "Do you think they're hiding more?"

"I'm worried about it, yeah," I said. "Rac!"

Rac jumped. "Yeah?"

"You and your buddies okay to play baby-sitters for a bit? We're gonna line up the PMCs that aren't bleeding out and have them stay in one place."

"Uh, okay. But if it's just us, they might not listen."

"You'll have the ch," I said.

"Can I ride it?" Rac asked.

I laughed. "No."

Rac pouted so more. Really, if she knew the face she made when she was disappointed, I was pretty sure she'd never express herself ever again. I was determined not to let her find out from , though. She'd probably grow out of it soon enough.

"Right, let's see what the PMCs have to say, then... well, I'm breaking in there whether they want to or not."

"That seems reasonable to ," Gomorrah said. "Atyacus is pulling up so concerning results. The credit-trail is extrely suspect."

Yeah, that only made sense. I sauntered over to the PMCs who didn't seem all that happy to see and Gomorrah walking over. They also didn't seem ready to try anything.

Honestly, if they did, I might have been in a bit of trouble. I was only bulletproof at the mont. If enough of them piled on quick enough I'd have to buy a grenade or two then set them off while closer than I'd like.

Gomorrah, on the other hand, could probably fuck them all up, no problem. She was still wearing nun-stuff, but her head was clearly helted and her boots looked like they were made of the kind of steel used on tanks. The rest of her was hidden, but there was a lot of... thickness there that suggested she was well covered.

Also, big fuck-off fla thrower. Those were really handy in negotiations, because not only could she kill you, but it would hurt the entire ti, and there wouldn't be anything left to bury.

"Hello, boys and girls," I said. "I have a lot of questions, and I think I deserve so answers."

It didn't take long to reorganise the PMCs. The lightly injured were set aside, the officers and ranked mbers were brought to one spot, and the rest got to sit pretty under the watchful eyes of Rac, her friends, and my very large warch which frequently went invisible and reappeared elsewhere.

I think that last bit was just Myalis fucking with them, but I wasn't going to stop her.

***