"Will you shut up about it already!"

 

Beez looked around with a forkful of eggs stuck inches from his mouth.  He hadn't said a word.  "What?"

 

"It's not even really a hallucinogen.”  She started swinging her fork around for emphasis.   He'd never been so scared of a utensil.  “It's just a little something that tells your brain to ignore some of what you see and hear, and to rely on your subconscious to… I dunno, fill in the gaps!  You get to live a fantasy, and then you take a little nap!  Who doesn't love naps?!"

 

"I... I love naps...?"

 

"Goddamn right you do."

 

"...so my mom?  And Eliza?"  

 

"Yup.  Oh my god, the Eliza one was hilarious!  You stood there in the doorway with your hands cupped in front of your face like you were peeking through a hole!  Ha!!!"  Beez didn’t find it nearly as funny as she did.  "I hope I never lose that mental mage."

 

"Image."

 

Her laughter slowly ground to a halt.  "...what did I tell you about correcting me?"

 

"Nothing!  You just glared at me!"

 

Really, when he thought about it, the glaring was scary enough.  He ducked his head and cleaned his plate.

 

"Don't sweat it,” she said a moment later.  “I rarely shoot people I like."  That was probably not as comforting as she’d intended it to be, but the boy thought that was as touchy feely as she got.

 

"So," he said, swallowing the last of it.  "Is Viktor the only one we overlap on?"

 

"Yeah.  Near as I can tell, he brought a swarm of regular Long Chemicals security to your parents apartment."

 

"Shooting a family up top is a palms up operation, but a group of protesters in The Bottom is a black ops job?"

 

"I don’t know what half of that meant, but I think the answer is yes.  Why are they after you anyway?  That's been bugging me."

 

Beez frowned and took a few deep breaths while Roxie picked at the last of her eggs with her fingers.  "Some of the kids at school were talking about my dad and calling him a monster.  My dad’s a good man."  He hadn't realized he'd made a fist until Roxie put her hand over it and held it down.  "Was.  But they said anyone who worked for Long Chemicals was dirty.  My friends... they’re all hackers, so they told me a few ways to get inside the company network, and then I could see for myself.  But I screwed up.  I tried to copy some of the stuff I found and I took too long.  I... I thought the police should know."

 

"Trust me.  The blues know.  What did you find?"

 

"Vids of human testing.  Something called Project Snapdragon.  It was horrible.  The people, they were..."  Her hand tightened on his fist.  "I don’t even really know what I was seeing.  I made some copies, and then I thought I got out clean.  I wanted to tell my dad, but I was scared."

 

"Scared that he'd turn you in for hacking?"

 

"No.”  Beez was silent for a while.  “Scared he already knew."

 

"You know, judging by the way they killed him like your mom and brother, I think it's probably safe to say he wasn’t in on it."

 

Again.  Almost comforting...

 

"I tried looking for those files again yesterday, but it said they'd been removed from their network and permanently archived at some place called The Cold Box."

 

Roxie shrugged and shook her head.  "Not yesterday.  A week ago.  It only feels like yesterday”  She chewed on the last of her food and stared.  “Cold Box doesn’t mean anything to me.  But if you'd like, I can try to put out some feelers with my friends?"  

 

Beez nodded and hung his head.

 

"Beez, I need you to really listen to me right now, ok?"  Her voice was shaking, and her eye twitched as he looked up.  "You.  Did not.  Get.  Your parents.  Killed."  Twitch.  Twitch.  The boy stared, partly in horror and partly in awe, as Roxie's whole face pinched in pain.  "Jeebus Christ!  This is why I usually put this kinda thinking off until laterrrrr!!!"  She grunted as she pounded her fist on the table with shocking ferocity.  "I need you to hit me!!"  Beez slapped her as quickly as he could.  "C'mon, you piece of shit!  I need something else to focus on!"  He grabbed the fork and stabbed it down into the back of her hand.  

 

"Ohhhhhh... ohhh, that'll do!  Ha HA!"  She winced as she pulled out the fork and kneaded the back of her wounded hand with her thumb.  "Ooooooooh that's so much better."  Her almost-smile wavered as she flexed her fingers.

 

Beez was shocked to feel actual comfort this time.  The fact that she had risked that kind of pain to tap into a little empathy and sympathy-

 

"Did it have to be my gun hand?!"

 

"They're both gun hands," he cried.  

 

"Exactly!"

 

"So do you have a plan for what to do with these guys?"  He thought that might help get her brain moving along.  

 

"I have half a plan.  It's the important half, so it'll work, but I'm not happy with it."

 

"Can I help figure out the rest?" 

 

"What did I tell you about thinking?"

 

"Don't?"

 

"Exactly.  Don't worry, you'll have some work to do.  You get to be a part of it... ohhh that's better…  A fork?  Really?"

 

"I improvised!"

 

"And this is why you don’t think."

 

"When are we going to do… er… go forward with... your plan?"

 

"I can’t wait any longer.  Waiting until you woke up was hard enough.  If I have to wait another 72 hours knowing it could be over before then, I'll really lose it."

 

"Oh, so like now?"

 

"Yeah.  Now."

 

***

 

Beez collapsed in the street this time, a full 5 blocks past where Mr. Bubbles had stopped chasing them last time.  "This is already the worst plan ever," he cried.  

 

"Get a move on, you big baby.  I've got 55 hours to make this happen."

 

"Yeah, yeah. <pant>  You go on ahead."  He looked like a turtle as he rolled back and forth, trying to get onto his side.  "I'll catch up <pant> in a little bit!"

 

"I'm not carrying you this time."

 

"Is it <pant> ok if I <pant> just die <pant> right here?"

 

Roxie grabbed one of his flailing arms and lifted him back onto his feet. "You're actually getting better at that."  

 

"<pant> Really?""

 

"Yeah, I didn’t see you cry or anything!  Pretty sure your pants are dry too"

 

"You're <pant> an asshole."

 

***

 

"This is the worst plan ever,"  Beez muttered.  Here he was again, crouched behind the same overturned bench, staring at the brightest building around.  

 

"C’mon!   We made it in and out clean last time.  They'll never expect us to hit them again so soon!"

 

"Clean?!"

 

"Yeah!  Relatively..."

 

"I got shot in the stomach!"

 

"And I didn't hear you complaining when you were trying to shove that fine specimen of dick through the back of my skull earlier!"  Beez had a reply.  He was sure of it.  His mouth had opened, and he'd taken a deep breath so he could talk with it, and his index finger was pointed with furious intent... but nothing came out.  "That's what I thought.  This time, we do things my way.  Lets go!"  She jumped up over the bench and started running.  Beez was still trying to find a thought.  Eventually he found the fear of being left behind and ran.  

 

They were still a half mile from the building when a siren ripped through the silence and the flood lights turned on them.  Roxie shot two of the lights in full stride and kept plowing forward.

 

"Stop!  Please!  Dear god!" A voice boomed over the external PA.  Roxie dove behind a car.  Beez skidded across the road to stop next to her.  "Please!  We're sending someone out!"

 

"Why did you stop?"  Beez wasn’t sure why he was whispering.  No one was anywhere near them.

 

Roxie sniffed the air and twisted her lips.  "Somethings wrong.  They should have been shooting back."

 

"Well why aren't they?"

 

"Don't know.  I have a nose for traps, and this ain't one..."

 

"We're gonna go with your nose on this?"  Both of them peered up through the broken windows of their cover to see a fat little man hurrying towards them.  

 

"I'm unarmed," he cried.  "I'm unarmed!!"

 

"That's close enough!"  He was still a good 20 feet away.   Roxie had her guns out, but she had them pointed up.  "What’s this all about?  I was about to scratch an itch!"

 

"Yes, well, hrm," the man said, pausing to wipe the raindrops of sweat off his brow.  "You see, it's like this..."  He fidgeted and tried to smile.  

 

"Get on with it!"  Beez was just as shocked as Roxie was that he’d chipped in at all.

 

"Right.  Ok.  Well, we know who you are.  Sort of!!!" He raised his arms in defense.  "I mean, we don't know who you are, but we know you were here before.  We think you used our line to hack into Long Chemicals."

 

"Tell us something we don't know!"

 

"Well, we're prepared to, erm, let you in to do it again if that's what you're here for..."  

 

Roxie stared in horror at Beez, who was looking fairly incredulous himself.  Then she got up and strode around the car.

 

"Roxie!  Get back here!  It might be a trap!"

 

"What do you mean, you'll let us in?!"

 

"Ma'am!"  The fat little man glared fearfully at her pistols.  "We at the EZ Credit Banking Corporation have decided that the c-c-cost of trying to keep you out by force is untenable.  Just to replace the manpower alone will be a s-s-staggering amount.  We're prepared to allow you access to our data line.. unmolested."

 

"How would that work?"  Again, Beez had no idea why he was talking.  Roxie glared at him for speaking out of turn, but the glare had been there to begin with so it wasn’t out of her way.

 

"I would escort you to and from the room.  If anything were to go wrong, I would surely be the first one dead!"

 

"You're goddamn right about that," she said menacingly.

 

The fat little man gave a rapid-fire nervous laugh, and paused to wipe the sweat again.  "And we wouldn't want that, right?"  

 

Roxie didn’t answer.  She just glared.

 

 "Wait a minute.  Long Chemicals might find out where the access originated from.  Why would you trade violence from us for trouble with them?"

 

"Three reasons," he said.  "One, we fear her more than them.  Two, we have no love for Long Chemicals.  Many of us know the truth of things here in The Bottom, where the EZ Credit Banking Corporation does 80% of its business.  Three, we are prepared to forge the necessary documents and footage to show that you attacked us again, thereby acquitting us in their eyes of compliance, so the risk of retaliation is minimal."

 

"Did you understand that last part," Roxie asked, as she looked over at the boy.  

 

"Yeah."

 

"Is it a good reason?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"Damnit."

 

"Wha-what?"  The fat little man cowered. 

 

"I was really looking forward to this..."

 

***

 

"I was gonna get to shoot yooou, and you.  Oh, you I think I would have shot in the foot just to distract you so I could get closer and really fuck you up."  The guards bristled as Roxie, Beez, and the fat little man walked through the halls.  The bullet holes from the last visit had mostly been patched over, but there was still a lot of collateral damage visible.  Blood stains, broken windows.  Etc.  "Ugh!  This is the worst plan ever!"

 

"She's not going to back out on our deal, is she?"

 

"You know," the boy said, "I'd love to be able to promise you that.  I really, really would."  

 

"-and then BOOM!  Your head was going to EXPLODE!"

 

She didn’t break the agreement, although she mercilessly goaded the guards who escorted them.  It took Beez several hours to craft the coded messages necessary.  The files he'd gotten were very specific about the method, and he hadn’t had much time to prepare.  

 

***

 

"Well, this is as far as I follow,"  the fat little man said.  "Of course you know, we will have to do our due diligence and chase you in an hour or two."  

 

Roxie nodded expectantly.  "And of course, I'll kill them if they find us."

 

"Yes!  Well!"  The fat little man had long ago stopped trying to wipe off the sweat.  Everything he had on him was drenched.  "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that, sh-sh-shall we?"  He extended his hand, which Roxie promptly grabbed and shot through the palm.  The fat little man screamed and danced around.  

 

"You know, to make it look convincing," she said to Beez as they turned to walk away.  "The key to lying is to start with a kernel of truth!"  The fat little man howled and ran, but no one else behind them moved an inch.

 

"I'm... so glad I'm on your side."

 

"Thanks!”  Roxie beamed.