CD & EA 1.32 - A Sudden Departure (Patreon)

Moving toward the climax of book 1. I feel like this story is doing well enough to keep working on it. Plans for book 2 are taking shape in my head! Hope you all are still enjoying it :)

-Plum

“We’ve got an hour to kill before we have to meet your friend,” Ghoul said after they’d filled each other in on their respective calls. “Wanna do anything?”

“Um, wanna show me if I’m learning to do throws properly?” Juliet asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Hah, hell yes! Let’s go over to the little picnic area—get some sun!” Ghoul had a way of crinkling her eyes when she was enthusiastic, and Juliet had the urge to reach out and poke at the little crease above the bridge of her nose. She contained herself.

“Cool!” she said instead, then added, “Let me change real quick.” She hurried back to her room and glanced around at the scattered, sparse selection of clothing. She didn’t have any exercise clothes and didn’t want to get grass stains on her gi, so she settled for a pair of stretchy black Tevlo pants that needed to be washed and a white undershirt. She left her boots and weapons with her vest on the bed and hopped down the steps of the trailer to where Ghoul stood, waiting, still wearing the same athletic shorts and t-shirt.

She must have seen something on Juliet’s face because she grinned and sniffed at her armpit, “Don’t worry, I put on deodorant.”

“That’s not what I was thinking!” Juliet laughed, “I’m used to being able to grab my opponent’s gi—I was trying to think how I’m going to hang onto you when I throw you.”

“Think you’re going to be able to throw me, huh?” Ghoul grinned and started walking, bare feet slapping on the cement. Juliet followed, and when her soles touched the sunny sidewalk, she yelped and hopped onto the little strip of grass that ran between the walkway and the narrow road. Ghoul laughed again and said, “Need to toughen up your feet, sweetcakes.”

“Sweetcakes? Oh God, please tell me that’s not going to be a regular nickname.” Ghoul just laughed and began to skip along the hot sidewalk toward the picnic area ahead, and Juliet followed along, happy to keep walking in the grass.

When they squared off, standing on the short, dry, partially yellow grass, Ghoul said, “Careful, 'cause this turf isn’t very springy. Gonna hurt to fall on it if you aren’t ready. Go ahead and practice your falls a couple of times like your sensei taught you.” Before Juliet could comply, Ghoul flopped backward, doing her own break-fall, and Juliet laughed as her friend thumped onto the hard turf and groaned, “Fuckin’ hell! They need to water this stuff more often!”

“I’m amazed there’s grass at all with the price of water these days,” Juliet said, flopping backward, being sure to keep her chin tucked and sending the force out through her extended arm. It was uncomfortable, especially as she felt her sore, bruised hip roll over a lumpy hunk of sod, but it wasn’t terrible. She hopped up and said, “Ready?”

“Sure, you go first,” Ghoul said, standing in front of her, squatting slightly. Juliet stepped toward her, as she would in the dojo, ready to throw, and fumbled with her thin t-shit. She looked at her other hand, puzzled, trying to figure out how to grab Ghoul’s naked arm. Ghoul grinned and resisted her a little, but when she saw Juliet had no clue how to proceed, she laughed and said, “Okay, let me help you. I guess you didn’t get a chance to do much grappling?”

“I’ve heard the term, and when Honey and I were doing groundwork, she mentioned it a few times.” Juliet could feel a slight tingle of nervous heat at the back of her neck, and she knew she’d be embarrassed if Ghoul didn’t have such a friendly look on her face.

“Hey, you smile all the time, but you only show your teeth when you’re trying to look crazy. Did you know that?” As the words left her mouth, the heat on her neck spread into her face, and she looked down. “God, how did my foot get in here?” she asked, miming trying to get something out of her mouth.

“You know why I smile with my lips,” Ghoul said, sighing. “I’m not a fan of these,” Ghoul said, baring her sharp, shiny teeth and chomping them, “but they do help with intimidation which is a big part of my job.”

“I know, I know. It’s like there are two people in here,” Juliet said, tapping her head. “The clever one that knows things and the idiot that comes out when I’m having fun. Sorry to mention it, all right?”

“Forget it. Now, come here,” Ghoul said, motioning Juliet closer, and then she reached up and put a hand behind Juliet’s neck. She took her other hand, the mechanical one, and reached up, grabbing Juliet’s opposite arm by the triceps. “This is a basic grappling hold. I’ve got ahold of you, but I’m open for you to do the exact same thing to me. Go ahead.”

“Like this?” Juliet asked, reaching up with her hand to grab Ghoul’s neck and then snaking her other hand over Ghoul’s opposite elbow and grabbing her triceps.

“Yep! Now we’re locked in a grapple. When your opponent doesn’t have something handy to hold onto, you have to use their body. So, say we’re struggling with each other like this,” Ghoul said and started to tug and push against Juliet, pulling her arm or neck, then pushing, and soon Juliet started to reciprocate. After a while, Ghoul nodded and said, “Now you’ve got to make your move. Step into me and wrap my arm up in yours, that’s right, go over it, tuck it tight to your side. See how you’re pulling me off balance?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Juliet said, trying to follow Ghoul’s instructions.

“Now drive your leg between mine so your hip pops me more off balance. Take your other hand there, yeah, like that, shoot it under my other armpit and complete your throw.” Juliet did as Ghoul instructed, slow so the other woman could lead her, and then laughed as Ghoul flopped over her and down onto the grass.

“Okay, let’s try a little faster,” Ghoul said, grinning. “Let me straighten up and play the unassuming asshole that threatened you.” Ghoul hopped to her feet, stood before her, swaggering and thrusting her hips forward, and made a scowling face. “Hey, bitch!” she said in a deep, fake voice, “I’m gonna cut you up!” She waved her hand, pretending to hold a knife. When Juliet just laughed at her, she smiled and said, in her normal voice, “C’mon, go through with your throw—faster this time. I won’t resist you.” She grinned and added, “This time.”

“Is this the way you always throw someone without a gi or something you can’t grab onto?”

“No! God no! There are lots of different throws—the more you learn, and the more you practice, the more options will open for you in a fight.”

While they practiced, Ghoul was patient and listened well, showing Juliet what to do with slow, exact instructions and helping her almost intuitively when she felt Juliet start to get something wrong. Angel offered to step in and help her with the new throws several times, but Juliet didn’t want her to, not then. “Help me later,” she’d subvocalized, “We can practice during open-dojo or something, but I’m having fun with Ghoul right now.”

Juliet and Ghoul practiced like that, back and forth, for nearly an hour. They spent as much time laughing as they did throwing each other, and Juliet grew more and more confident that agreeing to help Ghoul had been the right move; she was fast becoming a good friend. Something about her just clicked—she was sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, but there was always a sparkle behind her eyes that let Juliet know she was just messing around.

After they’d cleaned up, the pair decided to wait for Honey to pick them up at an AutoDrug about a mile from their trailer park. As they were getting ready to leave, and Juliet pulled out her cable to plug into Ghoul’s data port, Angel spoke up with an idea, “Juliet, if Ghoul wears your new data deck and runs a cable to it, I can use it as a bridge for spoofing her ID. That way, her PAI won’t need to do any of the work, and Ghoul will only have to stay close enough for the deck’s local wireless receiver to pick up my signal.”

“Oh!” Juliet said, allowing her cable to retract. She removed her deck, lifting the lanyard over her head, and handed it to Ghoul. “Hold this,” she said and then went to the kitchen table where she’d left the box containing the deck’s accessories. She pulled out the three-foot data cable and brought it over, plugging it into Ghoul’s data port and handing the other end to her.

“What’s this?”

“I can manage your ID spoofing through the deck’s wireless connection. This way, we aren’t tethered to each other!”

“Oh, hell yes! Do you still have to be with me?”

“Yeah, sorry, the spoofing software is managed by my modded PAI. The deck can’t handle it on its own.”

“Right,” Ghoul nodded and pulled the lanyard over her head, threading the data cable down through her black ballistic vest’s collar.

“Angel,” Juliet subvocalized, “We have a lot of incriminating data on that deck. Is it wise to have its wireless ports open?”

“I have taken precautions,” Angel said, and Juliet could swear she heard a hint of haughtiness in her tone. “I’ve encrypted all of the data you took from the Vykertech device on the last dreamer job, and I’ve installed rather advanced ICE that’ll keep unwanted connections from coming through. Even if a netjacker were to breach it with a sophisticated attack, my ICE would alert me, and I can shut it down.”

Juliet grunted in response to Angel’s explanation and opened the trailer door. She stepped onto the little cement pad that served as their “patio” and held the door for Ghoul, who was tucking her deck down the front of her vest. Ghoul had her semi-automatic rifle and her battery-powered bolt-thrower slung over her shoulder, and when she stepped down next to Juliet, she held out the bolt-thrower.

“What?” Juliet asked.

“C’mon, we don’t want to fight those Hell’s Ambassadors assholes, so a little show of firepower might do us some good. You know how to use it already, anyway.”

“Fine,” Juliet said, taking the heavy weapon and slinging it over her shoulder. Angel immediately updated her UI with the gun’s battery charge and ammo count. “Why’s it called a bolt-thrower, anyway?”

“Cause it has bullets that look like bolts. Eh, not really, I mean, there aren’t any threads on them, but they’re just two-inch hunks of metal, no casings, no gunpowder. They’re launched through the barrel with those magnetic rails.”

“Yeah, I get how it works, but the shotgun I used with similar tech was called an electro-shotgun.” Juliet let the door slam shut and pushed her thumb to the old biometric lock pad. “Hey, I just noticed the door didn’t squeak. You oiled it?”

“Sure, what else am I going to do around here while you’re off rescuing maidens in parking garages?” Ghoul laughed and gave Juliet’s shoulder a nudge. “Anyway, some people call these things electro-rifles, magnet guns, or rail guns. I don’t think ‘bolt-thrower’ is the official lingo.” Ghoul shrugged and started walking, and Juliet kept pace.

“Makes sense,” she said, then frowned and added, “but I didn’t buy a gun cleaning kit yet!”

“I used cooking oil. Not like we’re using it for cooking . . .”

“Well, do you know any good recipes? When I lived in Tucson, I bought most of my meals from the arcology vending machines!”

“Ha! No, I can’t cook for shit,” Ghoul laughed and waved to the security guard as they headed out of the park. Juliet smiled at the admission and hustled to keep pace with Ghoul’s surprisingly quick stride. Her legs had to be four inches longer than the smaller woman’s, but she sure stepped quickly.

Ghoul claimed to have bought protein squares from every major corpo vending machine in Tucson and insisted Helios had the best ones in their arcology. Juliet almost choked at the absurdity, but they bantered about the best flavors anyway. Before long, they were standing outside the AutoDrug, leaning against the red bricks in the shade of an ancient, half-dead peach tree.

“What kinda ride does Honey have?”

“No idea! We rode in another guy's old jeep when I went on that job with her. It burned cooking oil or something like that!”

“Bio-diesel,” Angel corrected, but Juliet ignored her.

“No shit? No batts or anything?”

“Yeah,” Juliet nodded. “You should have smelled it. Shit, you should have heard it!”

“Oh, I saw plenty of noisy, smelly rigs during the war.” Ghoul absently kicked a rock into the parking lot, watching it skip over the pitted pavement. Heat waves rippled out over the blacktop of the road, and Juliet, her mind starting to zone out, began to count the cars as they drove by. She’d gotten to seventeen when one of them turned into the lot, and Angel announced that Honey was within near-net range.

“That’s her,” Juliet said, walking out from under the tree toward the knobby-tired, off-road-looking hatchback. It was brown with silvered windows on the sides and a tint on the windshield that was probably illegal to drive around town—not that corpo-sec usually bothered with trying to police such things.

A wide streak of orange paint ran down the sides, and the hydrogen cell exhaust pipes at the rear pointed straight up on the passenger side. Juliet could see the air intake sticking up by the hood, and she knew the buggy had been rigged for serious off-roading.

The car stopped in the parking space right in front of them, and Honey burst out of the driver’s door, waving and grinning. She wore a bandanna around her puffy brown hair, tight, ripped jeans, and a leather vest. Juliet smiled when she took in the outfit; Honey had stitched gray, plasteel armored plates on her jean’s thighs and along the front of her vest. “Sweet armor!” she said, laughing and walking up to bump fists with her friend. “This is Ghoul,” she said, gesturing.

Ghoul had hung back by the AutoDrug’s wall, and she waved, though not enthusiastically. “Hey,” she said and walked around the car, reaching to shake Honey’s hand, her pale skin contrasting starkly with Honey’s.

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Honey said. “We should get going, though—Hot Mustard’s already waiting.”

“Cool car,” Juliet said, pulling open the rear door, but Ghoul stepped around her and slipped into the seat.

“You ride up front, Jules.”

“Oh, right,” she said, turning to walk around the front of the car. She’d been trying to be nice but figured it made sense Ghoul didn’t want to have to carry on a conversation with Honey; she was Juliet’s friend, after all.

She opened the door and sat down, but just as she closed the door and Honey got into the car, Ghoul opened her door again and stepped out. She held up a hand toward the car, indicating that she needed them to wait for her, as she walked toward the busy street, clearly speaking to someone through her AUI.

“Something going on with her?” Honey asked as they watched her walking around near the noisy street. She kept pacing and gesticulating with her hands, and Juliet could see she was upset. She was very tempted to turn up the gain on her new audio implants but knew that if Ghoul wanted her listening, she wouldn’t have gotten out of the car.

“No . . .” Juliet said, neck craned so she could watch Ghoul. “At least not that I know of. She was cool as a cucumber while we were waiting for you.”

“Maybe it’s an ex or something,” Honey said. “She looks pissed off. Let me start the car; it’s getting steamy in here.” She pushed a red button on the dash, and Juliet took in all the toggle switches and buttons, and it began to dawn on her that Honey’s car had been modded a hell of a lot from its factory origins. The hydrogen cell whirred to life, and cold air started to blast out of the vents, and Ghoul continued to pace near the sidewalk.

“Should I do something?” Juliet asked.

“I don’t know. How close are you guys?”

“Pretty close, but only recently . . .” Just then, Ghoul slumped down onto a cement curb and held her close-cropped, blonde head in her hands, shoulders shaking. “Shit! Hold on, Honey; let me talk to her.”

“Right. I’ll message Hot Mustard.”

Juliet bounded out of the car and jogged over the blacktop to where Ghoul sat. As she came near, she said, “Ghoul, what’s going on?” She squatted down and rested a hand on Ghoul’s shoulder, and the woman dropped her hands, looking up through teary eyes. She stared at her for a long minute, then took a deep, shaky breath. She reached back to her data port, pulled the cable out, and started lifting the lanyard over her head.

“I gotta go. I’m fucking sorry. Thank you so much for all your help, but I just gotta go.” She started wrapping the data cable around the deck and lanyard, shoving it toward Juliet as she stood up.

“Ghoul, you’re going to get pinged here!” Juliet tried to push the deck back toward her, but her friend grimaced and shoved it harder. She capitulated, taking the deck as Ghoul spoke.

“Doesn’t fucking matter. I’m done. Sorry I almost got you mixed up in this shit. You’re a real friend, Jules.”

“What does that mean? You’re done? Let me help! What’s going on?”

“Sorry,” Ghoul said, squeezing her eyes closed and scrubbing at them with the back of her knuckles. She turned and walked a few steps from Juliet, then leaned over, her hands on her knees. She took several deep breaths as Juliet walked toward her, gently resting her hand on her back between the shoulder blades.

“Tell me!” she said, briskly rubbing while Ghoul worked on regulating her breathing. Ghoul stood up, put her hands on her hips, and looked at the sky, clearly still trying to get her emotions under control. Finally, she looked at Juliet and smiled.

“I’m glad we met, Juliet. Tell your friends I’m sorry about this—I don’t normally bail on a job. I hope I can call you someday and explain everything, but do me a favor and keep your head down for a while. Stay safe—keep the bolt-thrower, Jules; it’s a clean gun.” With that, she hopped over the curb, walked toward the street, and slid into the back of an Easycab that pulled up.

“What the fuck, Ghoul?” Juliet hollered after her, but Ghoul shut the door, and the cab sped away.