Book 2 - Chapter 33 - Cleaning up Loose ends. V2

I was really unhappy with the first version, so after taking a walk, and rethinking it, I rewrote the start. Dealing with Helen directly, and the two samurai that showed up. Kept some of the old draft, but it feels much better now. At least to me.

-----

By the time I’d arrived at the abandoned factory that Helen was using, the confrontation was already over. My bears had created an impromptu cordon around the building, and were in the midst of handing off the various Guiding Light members they’d captured to the bewildered police forces lined up outside. I could see the officers weren’t very impressed, or enthusiastic, to take all these people into custody. 

I wasn’t that surprised, I could count the number of times I’d actually seen them on the street on one hand. They’d only leave their fortified precincts when the gangs went overboard, creating absolute chaos in the street with a full blown sector wide gangwar, or someone forced them to. I guess I had, or at least knew, the people that had that pull now.

I landed my truck within the perimeter, to avoid dealing with the police and various onlookers, before making my way inside what remained of the building. The place was a wreck. Holes in the walls, and debris scattered around in, what I was pretty sure, was a fairly intact building until recently. I bypassed Alan, who was sitting in the foyer looking dejected, and went looking for the only person I managed to get a hold of that could help me. Fucking Mirage.

The smug prick was sitting in a side room along with a woman in a skintight, armored bodysuit, carrying an absolutely enormous rifle, and a very dishevelled Helen. The woman stood up and sauntered my way as soon as I entered the room. “You’re the famous Teddy I assume? I am Charlotte LeFluer, or as some call me, Stalking Shadow.” 

She didn’t offer her hand, so I just had to look up into, what I could only call, her resting bitch face. “Thanks for coming, I appreciate your help saving Alan.” 

Charlotte waved her hand dismissively. “I was already down here anyways, and Mirage said it was an emergency. I stuck around, to make sure the troublemaker here didn’t disappear, but now that you’re here I need to run topside. My business won’t run itself.” She didn’t even turn as she strutted out of the room, “I’ll talk to you later Benedict.” 

I waited until she’d completely left the room before turning back to mirage. “I never thought I’d see a female version of you. She’s got the same dismissive attitude and everything.”

“Charlotte’s my business partner, and an excellent scout and sniper. You’re just biased against corpos,” he shot back. 

“I won’t deny that,” I replied. “I do appreciate that you both took the time to come down here and help deal with this issue.”

“It’s a problem that affected the entire family, we had a responsibility to come down and help. Besides, now you owe me one,” Mirage said with a smirk. “You want to talk to this one before I take her topside?” he said, throwing a thumb at Helen. The woman looked miserable, and I could just make out the shape of semi visible bindings around her wrists.

“Do I want to? No, but I’m going too anyways,“ I said with a sigh. “Gimme five minutes.”

Mirage nodded, and headed to the far side of the room, keeping an eye on Helen the entire time. 

“Are you coming to gloat? Or maybe finish me off yourself?” Helen spat as I pulled a chair over to sit across from her.

“Nope, just coming to have one last conversation. I have no idea what the Family is going to do with you, and honestly… I don’t care, as long as I don’t have to end up fighting you over the undercity again.”

“To the victor goes the spoils, is that it?”

“I don’t know about victory, I didn’t really consider this a proper fight, I was just trying to protect people that couldn’t protect themselves,” I said, leaning back in my chair. Helen grunted, but didn’t reply, so I continued. “You know, I could kinda see your point of view, if you existed in a complete vacuum. What I don’t get, is why you kept pushing that same agenda despite having someone willing to step in, or why you didn’t try and contact the other samurai and get some help. You had other options.”

“It was the safest option,” Helen muttered.

“Maybe, but it certainly wasn’t the right option, not from my point of view.” I leaned forward again. “I’ll be honest, I don't get you. I’ll probably NEVER get you, but for some reason the protectors chose you as a samurai, so you must have some redeeming qualities. Hopefully the Family can find a way to bring them out of you.”

“You’re a complete ass, you know that?”

“I am aware. It’s part of my charm,” I said pushing my chair back. Helen glared at me, but with Mirage’s restraints there was little that she could do.

I moved back over to Mirage. “What are you going to do with her?” I asked in a hushed voice.

“Probably therapy, and exposure to the other samurai, see if we can get her to see things from a different point of view,” he replied, glancing my way. “You weren’t kidding about how fanatical she is.”

“Is that safe?” 

“She’s unlocked a lot of catalogs for control, but very little direct damage. We can easily deal with her tricks, she won’t be a threat.” 

“If you say so,” I replied. “Thanks for showing up when I needed you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You owe me a favor, and the family has issues we could use your help with. Drop by the headquarters later this week.”

I just stared at the man in disbelief. “Really? There’s no one else to handle it? I’m busy as shit right now.”

“And we helped you with the biggest problem,” he replied. “You don’t have to take it, but I’d appreciate it if you considered it.”

“Fuck, fine, whatever. Like you said, I owe you, the least I could do is hear you out.”

“Wonderful, see you later this week,” Mirage said with a smile. He stood up, and headed over to Helen. “Hey, it’s time to go. You’ve got some people to meet topside.”

Helen struggled a little, but Mirage just lifted her with his hardlight constructs, and walked her out of the room. I just shook my head as I watched them go.

Once they were gone I made my way back into the Foyer to get Alan. I saw Alan’s face light up, and he tried to scramble to his feet. I didn’t let him.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” I growled, as I smacked him on the back of the head. “Even if it was an emergency, running out of the shelter without telling anyone. How stupid can you get?”

“I didn’t think anyone would come looking for me, or care that I was out and about,” he replied, sinking down into the seat and covering his head.

“Yeah, well, you were wrong. You always complain about me doing stupid, irresponsible stuff, and then you pull this shit? I warned you!”

“I know! I just have a friend who’s struggling and…”

“I know about your fucking girlfriend you idiot! You could have told someone, my bears could have delivered food without any risk. Why didn’t you just ask for help?”

Alan lowered his head, and stared at his feet. “I just wanted to be helpful to someone,” he said after several seconds.

“You’re a fucking idiot,” I said, without missing a beat. 

I watched Alan flinch, and sat up straight. “Pardon?”

“Even if you wanted to help someone, you shouldn’t have kept it from everyone, or went off on your own. If you’d talked to Jane or I we probably could have helped you set something up, or at least come up with a better plan than sneaking out of the shelter.” I smacked him on the head again. “When we get home you better apologize to everyone, got it?”

He nodded slightly, and slunk back down into his chair. “We’ll talk about your girlfriend and her family later, maybe come up with a safer way to actually help them,” I said, as I yanked him to his feet. “Let’s go home.”

I turned, and started moving towards the door, when Alan grabbed my arm. “Hey Evelyn, thanks for coming to get me.” 

I didn’t actually expect him to apologize, so it caught me off guard. “No problem,” I replied. “Just get in the truck.”