| From: | Jaimie Nicholson chicken@********.net.nz |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Think I'm gonna die today |
| Date: | Tue, 25 Apr 2000 08:54:06 +1200 |
>>>>>[Looks like I owe you fifty nuyen.
+++++Transfer credit 50 nuyen
+++++Begin footage
The drone is hanging above the street about five metres up, camera
pointed at right angles to the flow of traffic. The building in front of
it is a fairly ordinary looking office block with the Hammersmith
insignia displayed prominently. People pass in ones or twos, moving
quickly in the gathering darkness, eager to be home before the urban
predators come out to hunt. Two people stand in front of the building, a
slim elven woman and a moderately overweight human male. Flashing icons
indicate that a shotgun microphone has been activated, pointing at the
two of them.
"Long’s been cleared," the elf tells the human, "Looks like we’re all
screwed."
"I don’t see how _you’re_ screwed," the overweight man replies.
"The info you got me is now worthless – they will have altered
everything they can, and they’ll claim it’s all a frame. All because you
couldn’t hide your damn tracks."
"Frag you, slitch!" the man shouts, drawing some attention from two
passing suits, but when he glares at them, they look away.
"All of this could have been avoided," the elf tells him, "All you had
to do was tell me to go to hell when I first showed up. You could have
convinced your wife I was lying. But you didn’t. Then you could have
confessed when we planned to frame Long. But you didn’t. And if you’d
done it right in the first place, I’d be rich, and off your back. But
you didn’t. You see where I’m leading with this?"
"No, where?"
"You’ve messed up at every step," she answers, staring him in the face,
"and now you’re going down for it."
Below his sight line, her fingers are twitching, and beginning to glow.
"I don’t know what the charge will be," she continues, "But what does it
matter? Hammersmith will find something, and you’ll do some hard time,
pour encourager les autres. There’s only one way to avoid it."
The human nods, his face slackening, and the woman looks around at the
other occupants of the sidewalk. Then the air between the man and her
blurs briefly, and when it clears, he’s holding an SMG.
"You know what you have to do," she says.
He nods again, and turns to the Hammersmith building, working the slide
on the SMG. The few pedestrians who spot the weapon go for cover, some
yelling warnings. The elven woman screams, then joins the crowd, taking
cover behind a parked car with a suit and a young boy. The overweight
man ignores them all, entering the Hammersmith building. Once he’s in,
the elven woman runs across the road and out of the drone’s field of
vision.
Inside the Hammersmith building, the gunfire starts.
+++++End footage
I guess that’s it.]<<<<<
-- Faerie <14:26:18/04-24-61>
