Mercenaries’ Tale – 3.04 Train Escape

Panting heavily, Blaise pulled herself to her feet and surveyed their surroundings.

“Everyone alright?” Gratin had taken to leaning against a wall and was breathing heavily, the mage merely nodding in response. Annie gave a thumbs up and a smile. Doug was using safety railing to climb back onto his feet, grunting as he went.

“Could be better, but I’m good,” he replied.

“Could use a hand here!” yelled Parkinson from his sniping spot, “they’re going for the planes! Probably calling for backup too!” he was worried, spying on the ones they were fleeing from via his scope. Tupper calmly strolled over towards his friend, removing his grenade launcher from his back – a smiley face painted onto the barrel – and began loading it.

“Don’t worry Parky, I got this!” he announced happily. Parkinson paled, went to argue, considered their options and then nodded, getting out of the way.

“Just don’t blow us up, ok?”

“No promises!” Tupper beamed, leaning out the window and firing at the first aircraft to get into range, cackling as he went. Doug and Blaise exchanged somewhat nervous glances, Gratin sensing their unease. The mage stepped away from the wall and stretched out his arms, limbering up.

“Are you sure you have enough energy for this?” Blaise questioned, watching him carefully.

“I will refrain from doing anything too taxing. I fear that if I do not attempt to defend us, then, well…” he let the sentence hang, Blaise getting the point. She sighed and nodded.

“Just be careful, ok?” Gratin smiled at her in response and took up position at the door, summoning a fireball and letting it loose on their pursuers. Tupper saw the ball arch into the sky and impact one of the pursuing craft, letting out a whoop in his excitement.

“Hell yeah magic man! Lets see who makes the better explosions!” he cried, laughing manically as he fired another grenade, hitting a plane directly in its engine, the resulting explosion sending the craft into a free-fall.

Blaise helped Doug to one of the plastic seats, Doug dropping into it heavily. She looked sick with guilt as she observed him.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my past. I didn’t want you to have to get tied up in all of that…” she began but trailed off as Doug rose a hand and shook it to stop her.

“You weren’t the only one keeping secrets. Although terrorism is a big charge. It might have been nice to at least know that Salmanic would be a little upset at the thought of you poking around their stuff,” he chuckled, making it clear he wasn’t angry with her.

“I know. But I left New Dawn years ago. Only a few weeks before we met in fact. You actually caught me on my first solo mission,”

“Heh, see I knew you were greener than me,”

“Not really, I think we’re actually equal in the amount of time we’ve been killing for a living,”

“Blaise, I was 20 when I went on my first mission. You’d have still been a school girl,”

“I was picked up by New Dawn when I was 13 and I was doing jobs for them by the time I was 15,” Blaise admitted. Doug did a double take, brow raised.

“15? Why the hell did they send a teenager out to do terrorist work?”

“Kids can sneak around a lot of places without attracting suspicion. Besides, an illegal terrorist movement isn’t easy to advertise for. They pick up new agents wherever they can. Sometimes that may mean finding a traumatised little girl in a gutter and attempting to re-educate her in the ways of subterfuge and murder,” she shrugged.

“That’s still messed up,” Doug told her. He paused for a moment as his train of thought switched tracks.

“So “Kate”, huh…?” he left the sentence hanging.

“That would be my real name, yes,” Blaise – or rather Kate – sighed. “My full name is Katherine O’Donnell but everyone always called me Kate though. Blaise never really existed. That was just a name I was using to lay low whilst I figured things out. I needed to know if I could be more than what they made me. It sounds rather like a crap joke now…” she trailed off. Doug examined her face and cracked a smile.

“Kate’s a good name. Suits you,” he beamed. Kate felt her cheeks burning as she smiled sheepishly back.

Doug moved to make himself more comfortable only to wince as a flash of pain ran up his injured side. He placed his hand against the most painful spot only to pause when he felt a wet patch. He inspected his hand to find it covered in blood.

“Shit, stitch got pulled,” he grunted. Kate immediately went to check the injury. Annie had overheard this little exchange and turned to Parkinson, waving him off from his attempts to see to her own injury.

“I ain’t going anywhere, sugah. You better lend a hand with Dougie’s troubles,” she said. He hesitated.

“Allan,” a stern edge entered her voice, Parkinson grunting and followed the order.

“Why him?” asked Doug, brow raised at Parkinson’s reluctance.

“Because he’s the one with the most medical training. Ah’m sure there’s irony there somewhere,” Annie explained, pausing to consider what she had just said, “or maybe just really bad planning. One or the other.” Parkinson knelt down and began his examination.

“Shit, Kate, this is some of the worst stitching I’ve ever seen,” he muttered.

“Have you ever sat in on a New Dawn first aid seminar? They don’t teach you how to actually do a good job, just to do a rough patch-up so you can get everyone out without getting caught,” Kate complained.

“And if a patch job won’t do?” pressed Doug.

“We’re assigned cyanide pills,” Parkison replied, “means we can leave people behind and not worry about them spilling the beans about our organisation,”

“…I’m not sure I want to subscribe to the New Dawn medical plan, ta,”

“Well if you prefer to bleed out,” Parkinson removed his hands from Doug’s side.

“Actually, I have a better idea. Archie? Could you come over here a sec, mate?” Kate could see what Doug was about to suggest, her facial expression turning stern. She picked up her rifle and took up a position at the window so Gratin could see to Doug without leaving a blind spot in their defences. The mage knelt down next to Doug.

“You wish for me to aid you?” he stated calmly.

“Stitches aren’t going to do the trick, Grat; they’re just going to keep getting pulled. I’m going to need something a little more drastic. Think you can help a guy out?”

“This will hurt.”

“I know the drill,” Doug grinned and clutched the railing next to his seat with his human hand in order to brace himself. Parkinson backed off to give Gratin some room, clearly confused by what was happening.

“Do you mean to say that you knew healing magic the entire time?” asked the sniper.

“No, although this isn’t the first time I have needed to perform this particular procedure on Doug,” his hands began to glow.

“What procedure-?” Parkinson stopped mid sentence when he realised he could smell burning meat. Doug was sweating now, gritting his teeth hard in a grimace of pain.

“Stings a bit,” he informed the sniper who had grown several shades paler as he realised that Gratin was stopping the bleeding by cauterising the wound. Gratin’s jaw clenched in concentration as he focused on Doug’s injured side, using his mind to direct the heat to where it was required. Smoke began to waft up from Doug’s flesh and Parkinson could swear he could hear it sizzling.

“So how come you’re not a big fan of soldiers?” asked Doug, catching the sniper off guard. He peered at the merc quizzically, Doug beaming back in earnestness through gritted teeth and a sweat laden brow. He was clearly in a lot of pain, his fist shaking as it gripped the railing. His bionic hand was clamped onto the seat next to him, the plastic being horribly bent out of shape.

“A mage is performing surgery on you and you want to know about me?”

“Sure. Distracts – ergh- from the pain,” Parkinson couldn’t argue with that.

“Err, well my parents were the political sort. They liked going to all these rallies to protest just about anything from the governments plans to restrict free school meals to the extortionate price of healthcare. They used to drag me along to them,”

“Sounds like a – aargh – fun family day out,” Doug grunted.

“Hmm, something like that. When I was eight, they took me to a protest campaigning against the PSF’s involvement in some war on the other side of the galition. I was just a kid so I didn’t know the specifics, just that my parents wanted the PSF to only get involved in conflicts that effected Lusinia. They thought the military should be publicly owned rather than another money machine. They thought privatisation had turned the military into a bunch of bullies for hire,”

“I’ve heard the arguments. Don’t have much of an opinion myself, it was just a job to me,” was Doug’s input.

“Some of the soldiers on guard duty did have an opinion though. They thought we were trying to take away their jobs. So they waited for the flimsiest excuse they could and things quickly turned nasty. Made the news,”

“Aw shit, you were part of the Liaroon protest, weren’t you? I remember watching the footage with my mum. Nasty’s a bit of an understatement; it turned into a full blown riot!”

“Yeah, and I was in the middle of it. Ended up with a broken arm and a concussion,”

“No wonder you don’t like the PSF, mate. I’m sorry,”

“Don’t worry about it. You were just a kid yourself at the time; you weren’t involved,”

“So is that why you ended up with New Dawn?”

“Because of the riot? No. Let’s just say my parent’s political sensibilities were an inherited trait,”

“Ah, right,” Doug nodded. Suddenly the group made a lot more sense. Parkinson was there as a political activist, Annie joined as New Dawn had protected her when she needed it and so she was probably just returning the favour. Tupper didn’t really need an excuse. The only mystery remaining was Thad, the gentleman currently sitting in a chair opposite Harper, glaring at her whilst aiming her own gun at her. He looked as though he was just waiting for an excuse to lash out at her, a lake of pure rage bubbling under the surface.

As soon as Gratin finished his treatment Doug thanked him, performed a few little stretches to make sure he wasn’t going to damage himself further by being too active, then approached the Gentleman.

“I can take over here, you go be with your fiancé mate,” Doug instructed. Thad glanced at Doug, shot Harper one last glare and then wordlessly left to see to Annie, deciding she was ultimately more worthy of his time. Before he had a chance to pass the soldier, Doug grabbed his arm hard.

“We’ll have to have a little chat about what happened out there with your buddies,” Doug stated as a matter of fact. He wasn’t even looking at Thad, focusing his gaze on the opposite wall instead. Thad shrugged out of the grip.

“I am sure we will…” he muttered, marching off.

Doug sat down, produced a cigarette from his jacket and lit up. Harper watched him suspiciously, Doug taking a deep drag as he surveyed her. He didn’t make any attempt to brandish a weapon as a way to convince her to be a good girl and behave but he didn’t need to. Harper was well aware that she couldn’t take him in a straight fight. All it would take would be for him to grab her with his bionic arm and the fight would be over. They both knew it so Doug wasn’t even trying to act like a proper jailer. He relaxed back into his seat as if this was a regular commute for him rather than the mad dash for freedom that it was supposed to be. If he looked out of the window just to the left of his head then he would have been able to see jets of flame shooting past as Gratin fired spell after spell at the pursuing aircraft, and yet Doug seemed oblivious to the danger they were in.

“…You know you really had me going for a while there. I vouched for you and everything. Bit embarrassing really,” The mercenary eventually japed. Harper was unsympathetic.

“My heart bleeds for you losing face against these criminals,” she sarcastically told him.

“We’re all criminals here, Harp. You heard them read out my rap sheet back at the meet,” he calmly pointed out, “’Sides, least they’re not a bunch of traitors.”

“You’re such a hypocrite McCracken. I’ve seen your full profile. I know what you got up to in the PSF and it was no different than what I do for Salmanic,” Harper jeered at him, “heck, if it wasn’t for the fact that you’re wearing your head up your ass then we coulda been friends. We’re kindred spirits, Doug, that’s why I wanted to save you from this shit.” Doug leisurely blew out a smoke ring as he considered her apparent goal.

“I don’t need saving, ta.” this caused Harper to shake her head at him.

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that,” she rolled her eyes.

“I know my mates and I trust their judgment. If Blaise trusts these New Dawners then so do I. Hell, she’s obviously a better judge of character than I am: she was right about you after all!” he said this with a grin. Harper glared daggers at him, her patience wearing thin.

“I know a lot more about these people than you do, Doug. That includes your girlfriend. I’ve seen their dossiers! The full versions!”

“Don’t care,” was Doug’s reply, his shoulders bobbing up and down in a lazy shrug. His attitude grated on Harper’s nerves, Harper squirming in her seat to better face him.

“You’re just going to blindly follow them? I can vouch for you! I can offer you protection from Salmanic! All you need to do is turn them in and you’re off the hook! They’re fanatics and criminals! You’re a war hero for Faust’s sake!”

“I’m not gonna hurt Blaise like that,” Doug calmly stated, letting the war hero comment slide. He could understand why she’d apply that label to him – he’d done a lot for the war effort in his PSF days after all – but being called a hero never sat well with him. As far as he was concerned, he’d just been doing his job back then. There was nothing heroic about it…

“Blaise isn’t even her real name! Listen to me! She was being taught by fanatics to kill from the moment she hit puberty! They took a broken child and gave her a rifle and told her that taking down Salmanic was the only way to fix everything wrong in her life. She should be in a psychiatric ward for being brainwashed by a damn terrorist group! They believe in the cause so much it’s practically a damn cult! She is seriously messed up!” argued Harper.

“Funny, a lotta people say the same thing about me. Maybe not the brainwashing bit but they definitely say I need help!” he laughed. Harper stared pleadingly at him, trying desperately to make him see sense.

“But you don’t. Not like her anyway. These people will do anything to achieve their goals: they don’t care who they hurt, whether it’s a few dozen civilians or even the charismatic mercenary they obviously have a crush on. You’re just another body to them, Doug. Someone to soak up bullets on their behalf,” She pressed. Doug glanced towards his friend. It had been an eventful evening where he’d learned a lot about his partner in crime. He felt like he was only just beginning to scratch the surface of her past. He wasn’t even sure if he should still be referring to her as “Blaise” or if Kate was more appropriate now. Despite that though, he felt that she was being truly honest with him for the first time since they had met. She had little reason to lie to him any more about her past; he’d already gleamed her biggest secrets.

Kate felt his eyes on her and turned to glance at him, a brow raised. Doug smiled warmly back at her as he addressed Harper.

“You don’t know Blaise at all. We’re not just partners; we’re friends and we’ll go down fightin’ to protect one another,” Harper shook her head in disbelief over what she was hearing.

“You’re wrong, Doug.”

“No, I’m not,” the smile stayed fixed in place, Doug radiating confidence. It truly worried Harper. She tried one final appeal.

“…You’re making a huge mistake. You side with her and you’re a dead man.”

“I’ll take my chances,” he replied, taking another drag from his cigarette. His nonchalance only served to piss her off, Harper finally running out of arguments.

“You’re an idiot. You know what, you deserve each other. You can go be psychopaths together in hell,” she seethed, resentment oozing from every syllable. Doug couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Yeah, and I’ll probably see you there, luv.”

Gratin had returned to his post at the window after finishing seeing to Doug, relieving Kate. She surveyed the train, trying to take stock of the situation. Parkinson was seeing to Annie, attempting to remove the bullet lodged in her shoulder and stitch her back up, Annie grimacing from the pain and holding Thad’s hand tightly as the sniper did his work. Tupper was continuing to cackle his head off as he opened fire on their pursuers. There was only one aircraft left now but the pilot was tenacious, the craft preforming an assortment of aerial manoeuvrers to dodge any fireballs or grenades fired at it whilst attempting to stay out of range of the brunt of the attacks. For the most part the mage and the mad bomber were laying down suppressive fire to discourage the pilot from getting close enough to attempt to disable the train’s engine, a tactic that was proving effective for the time being. Kate was still worried as to how long it would remain that way for though; Gratin’s breathing was beginning to sound laboured due to the amount of energy he was rather literally burning off and Tupper’s bandolier was beginning to look considerably emptier. Her companions were more preoccupied with other matters for the moment, however.

“So why grab the Scouse?” Parkinson asked aloud as he put the finishing touches on Annie’s stitches. They looked far neater than the ones Blaise had sown into Doug not too long ago, Kate reasonably impressed. The thought did occur that half of Parkinson’s squad consisted of people that preferred close combat techniques and another quarter was liable to blow themselves up so having a half decent medic on the team was probably in high demand, even if that medic was the one member of the group that was the least likely to be anywhere near any of the others if a medical emergency was suddenly called for.

“To be honest, Al,” Thad began with a sheepish chuckle, “I was hoping a hostage would be useful. Then I remembered that Salmanic’s probably not the sort to give two shits about some security guard turned mercenary, are they?”

“I dunno Sugah, she might be good for something. She probably knows these parts pretty well if she works out here, right?” said Annie as she focused on her fiancé, “maybe she’ll be able to give us a little bit of info on… wherever it is we’re going? Just where in the heck are we running to anyway?” the two men glanced at each other, each one’s face being completely blank as they realised they didn’t have a clue as to where this train went. Annie then shifted her gaze to Kate who could only feebly shrug in answer.

“I was starting to wonder that myself to be honest…” she admitted. Annie frowned, considered their options and then turned in her seat towards those at the back of the train.

“Oi, Harp?! Where does this fancy dan train go anyway?!” the southern belle yelled, catching Harper off guard.

“What? Fuck off, I ain’t telling you squat!” Harper showed the back of her middle finger to Annie for emphasis

“Don’t make me come back there and ask you again you little-”

“Just try it, I’ll clip your other wing! I ain’t afraid of you!”

“A dead bee can still sting, sugah and ah can still kick your ass six ways to Sunday!”

“Oh yeah, prove it!” Annie attempted to jump to her feet but was held back by Thad. Doug, however, did get to his feet and loomed over Harper with a brow raised, the Scouse having second thoughts about making trouble as she eyed the bionic limb attached to her guard.

“I suggest you don’t start making trouble for yourself, Harp. We’re being nice to you right now but it doesn’t have to stay that way. ‘Sides, I doubt your bosses are gonna be to thrilled about how you got yourself kidnapped. Playing nice with us might just be your best chance at survival right now…” He let the sentence hang, making a point to rub his metallic knuckles as a way to emphasise his point.

“Salmanic are the good guys, McCracken whereas you’re the asshat running around with terrorists and murderers,” she pointed out in an aggravated tone but there was doubt in her eyes. She’d heard the rumours about what happened to people who displeased Silverton Salmanic and right now she was a liability rather than an asset. She was more likely to be put down by the security teams in an attempt to put an end to this fiasco than be rescued by them.

Doug was smiling confidently at her as the two tried to out stare each other, Doug not needing telepathy to see what was going on inside her head. It didn’t come as much of a surprise when Harper made a scoffing noise and returned to staring out the window in a bid to avoid his gaze.

“Dunno why you’re even askin’ me, s’not like I know what direction we’re even travelling in,” she muttered. The New Dawners were hardly impressed, Annie groaning and rolling her eyes. Parkinson fished a compass and a map out of his fishing vest, handing the map to Thad as he studied the compass.

“We’re heading North West,” stated Parkinson as Thad unfolded the map of the desert he and his compatriots had been using to keep track of all the Dark Worlder attacks.

“Hmm, I think we were over here,” he pointed to the valley they had just left on the map, “so if we’re going North West then that means we’re heading towards the centre of the desert where all the monorail tracks converge by the looks of it,” Kate leaned over to get a better look at the map, noticing an odd detail.

“There’s nothing drawn there accept for the monorail tracks. No buildings or anything like the Monitor Stations…”

“Weird. I wonder why they all converge on that specific spot. What’s out there?” Thad wondered aloud. Doug was still watching Harper like a hawk, the Scouse’s composure tensing up considerably as she listened in on the conversation. She was attempting to hide it but she was clearly panicking inside. Doug decided to press the issue, leaning down so that his hands were holding onto the armrests either side of Harper, his face lowered to be inches away from hers.

“You already know the answer to that, don’t you pet?” he calmly stated as he breathed smoke over her. She was unnerved, considering what would happen if she kneed him in the balls and made a break for the back of the train. The answer was clearly that O’Donnell would shoot her in the back before she reached the fire door at the end of the carriage. Frustrated, she grunted and stared down at her lap.

“The Power Plant. Follow the tracks to the centre of the network and you’ll find The Power Plant,” she muttered. Doug grinned.

“Now was that so hard? Damn sight easier than messing us around, I’d wager,” he straightened up and backed up a pace to give her room. Harper glared up at him.

“Life’ll get a damn sight harder for you if you actually go there! Most of Salmanic’s security is based there! You’ll have to go through a small army to get out!”

“Bet that’ll also be where Salmanic dock their aircraft and any other vehicles they use to navigate the desert, right?” Doug reasoned. It was a logical conclusion as every other Salmanic building they’d been to so far had landing pads but no hanger bays or other such sites to store aircraft for any meaningful amount of time. The fleet had to be fuelled and maintained somewhere.

Harper paled a little when she realised The Power Plant might be a legitimate chance of escaping for these people. She quickly grasped onto the first idea that could persuade them to avoid The Power Plant at all costs.

“You’d still have to fight through security to get to the hangers! And you’d have to know how to pilot a craft as well!” this only caused Doug to laugh.

“Ex-PSF, remember? I’ve got a bloody pilot’s licence! Heck, I can taxi us out into space if I wanted to! Ain’t exactly hard!”

“So what, your plan is to fight your way through Salmanic’s top security team and fly outta here?” she asked incredulously, “you’re going there by monorail! It’s a set route! They’ll be expecting you, dumbass!”

“You let us worry about that, luv,” he winked at her. Harper slunk back into her seat, head in her hands.

“We’re gonna die. They are going to gun you down and I’ll be caught in the cross fire…” she began muttering to herself. Doug wasn’t paying attention to her. He was more concerned by the sounds of gunfire peppering the roof of the carriage, Tupper swearing loudly and the carriage rocking.

“Thad? We gotta big problem!” The scarred man announced. The Gentleman climbed to his feet and joined Tupper at his window, Kate joining Gratin at his. Doug also approached a window, trying to work out what the fuss was about.

Their pursuers had been joined by their friends, a further 3 aircraft now trailing behind them, these ones equipped with machine guns. Gratin attempted to summon a spirit shield over the roof of their escape vehicle as one of the craft made another attack run, bullets raining down like hailstones. The strain of it brought Gratin to his knees, a trickle of blood running out from under his mask as he forced more power into their defences.

“Gratin!” Kate cried in alarm, attempting to catch the mage as he fell.

“I am sorry Mistress but you were right. I am beginning to run low on energy reserves…” he told her as he wiped the crimson liquid away.

“Rest up, we’ll think of something,” she instructed him before looking in Doug’s direction for help.

“Can’t we outrun them? How fast is this thing going?” he suggested. It didn’t feel like they were going particularly fast and the aircraft were easily keeping pace with them. Thad hurried to the front of the carriage to find out, pouring over the console found there to work out what to do.

“It’s stuck at 35 miles per hour!” he yelled back as soon as he found the speedometer.

“What do you mean stuck?”

“That it won’t go faster?” Thad tried cranking up the speed, an error message appearing on the console as a result, “it’s not letting me go any faster!”

“Ain’t this thing a maglev? Thought those things were supposed to be fast!” Doug was sure this was a magnetic levitation train as it had the same sleek design as the maglev monorail that wrapped around the City of Light.

“Dunno what to tell you, pal! The speedometer says this baby can hit 330mph but if I try to push it above 35, the console freaks out!” the Gentleman paused as Harper began to laugh, both men turning their attention onto her.

“You really thought you’d get away? All the trains have limiters built in to stop them from going too fast and derailing! You’re not going to outrun anyone in this thing!” she informed them, laughing all the while, “you might as well give up now! Those planes aren’t gonna let you get to the Power Plant!”

Doug considered her words, grunted, turned on his heel and marched towards the front of the train where he crawled underneath the console and opened it up, muttering all the while. Harper’s laughter subsided.

“What the hell is he doing?” she asked, a question nobody could answer as they were all watching Doug’s knees, the merc obscured by the console. The train was rocked by more gunfire, the carriage rocking violently as a few bullets made it through the roof, Kate taking cover behind a seat as a bullet impacted where she had been previously kneeling. The train shuddered once more and Tupper let out a surprised “whoah” as the carriage lurched forward, leaving the aircraft in its wake as its speed shot up. A moment later and a mechanical part was thrown out from under the console, the piece hitting the floor and bouncing towards Harper’s feet, the Scouse alarmed as Doug pulled himself out from under the console.

“Is that-?” she nervously began only for Doug to cut her off.

“The Limiter? Yep,” he turned to Thad, who was practically glued to the console, “think you can keep a good speed up without us derailing?”

“I’m certainly gonna try, pal!”

“Great! I’m gonna go sit down, give a yell if there’s any more trouble,” and with that, Doug returned to his seat in front of Harper, the Scouse feeling the need to put on a seat belt now a bunch of clearly crazy people were in charge of their vehicle’s speed.

It didn’t take long for a mass of concrete buildings to appear on the horizon. A tower block covered in satellites was surrounded by silos and a warehouse complex, a train yard situated at the front of the slabs of concrete that made up the buildings of the Power Plant. There were barely any windows, the only ones visible being for the uppermost floors of the tower block. It looked less like a traditional power plant and more like a fortress. As Doug and Kate peered out of the windows towards it, they could swear they could see some anti-aircraft gun in-placements on top of the various towering silos.

“We might have to rethink flying out of here…” Kate muttered to her partner, who was already scanning the lower levels for ideas. She had joined him on his bench not long after the limiter had been removed much to Harper’s displeasure.

“There,” he pointed to the far side of the building, “does that look like a road to you?” Kate followed his gaze to where a series of street lights reasonably spaced out stretched out into the distance. As she surveyed it, she could just about make out what looked like a dune buggy driving along the road, towards The Power Plant.

“Looks like it. Might be the best shot we have of getting out of here,” she agreed. They turned their attention onto the Scouse who was sat miserably behind them.

“You gonna tell us what we can expect in there?” Doug asked. Harper shrugged.

“You’re never gonna make it to the parking bays; they’re on the other side of the complex,” she said in response, feigning disinterest.

“Yeah? What’s in the complex? What’s the actual power room or whatever like?” Doug further pressed.

“No idea, most of the important stuff is underground. Never been down there,”

“Then what’s the point in keeping you around then?” asked Kate, drawing a pistol and examining the clip. Harper took a moment to observe what the red head was doing before glancing away.

“I live here for a start. The upper floors are barracks. I know my way around above ground.”

“You’re not from the City of Light then?” Doug queried, surprised.

“Me and my colleagues were flown out there to observe you mercs and to throw off any suspicion. I’m actually supposed to be guarding this place, not giving tours!”

“Funny how life works out but we appreciate your efforts all the same,” Doug sarcastically remarked, earning an eye roll from Harper.

Post by Sam | September 3, 2022 at 12:01 am | The Mercenaries' Tale | No comment

Tags: Allan Parkinson, Annie Stone, Blaise, Doug McCracken, Gratin, Jessie Harper, Kate O'Donnell, monorail, New Dawn, Power Plant, Salmanic Incorporated, Thad the Gentleman, the Mercs, Tupper, vehicles and transport

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