The Killswitch - Prt 04

Carter's Hub

Pink Floyds

Day 12 - 2058L

Carter's Hub was about 2 hours north of the city proper and could only really be reached via a maglev that passed through it coming and going to the automated factories several hundred kilometers further north or via a floater.

You could try to make the trip via a armored ground car or hover but the trip would take 3 times as long and Outlanders had a tendency to ambush vehicles on the roadways now and again so it wasn't exactly the safest choice and if the locals didn't kill you travel outside of the protective walls of the city during the storm season was suicidal. In the end only really stupid or the really desperate dared the Martian landscape.

Edger might have been desperate but thankfully not desperately stupid. Thus they made the trip via a stolen Nova Cab floater they had borrowed.

--

They ditched the floater after they arrived in Carters Hub by simply parking it on the pad with the doors open. Not even 50 paces later and floater was already airborne again heading for parts stores unknown.

Carters Hub was like one of those places you saw in the historical vids from old earth in what was once known as the old west and as clean as they tried to keep it there always seemed to be piles of red sand everywhere. Still there were far worse places in the slums alone all that bad as far as settlements in the middle of nowhere went Carters Hub wasn't all that bad.

The pair made their way through the settlement until they arrived at a place called Pink Floyd's located just off the main strip. The sign above the doors declaring the name in bright neon pink on a black background. The lighting alternating between the word Pink and than Floyd for about three or four cycles before lighting up both at the same time before running the cycle anew.

Once through the double door's Mei wasn't quite sure what to make of the place really. While it had the look and feel of your typical theme bar the atmosphere of the place was more in line with something akin to your classic opium den. The music playing over the ancient speaker system only adding to that feeling as the notes were long and distorted sounds coupled with the singers voice that spoke the lyrics slowly in a relaxed tenor.

" I'm gonna check things upstairs. Keep an eye on things down here if you would." Edger said glancing her direction.

" Are you sure ..." Mei questioned.

Edger nodded. " The regulars here are a rather reserved bunch. If Harris and his jackboots had made an appearance. Most of these boys would have already disappeared."

" Fine... " Mei agreed grabbing his shoulder and tacking a bio-monitor patch on the back of his neck.

" Hey whats this for ..." Edger sounded in suprise reaching to pull it off and having his hand smacked away.

" lt's so I know if your dead or just jacking off... " She hissed sharply. " So leave it alone."

" What, dont you trust me ? " Edger gave her something akin to a hurt look.

" We've already had this conversation. " Mei frowned in annoyance shaking her head.

--

Half an hour later she found herself seated at the bar nursing a non-alcoholic beverage giving the evil eye to a bar room romeo as he was stumbled through his fifth attempt at a pick-up line.

Failure the expected result he retreated his table to plot his next offensive against that steely fortress that was her heart.

It was as the song had changed at some point and the voice of yet another ancient bard entered into a chorus about time flowing like a river...

Honestly she had to admit that the atmosphere of the bar was starting to grow on her. The music being key to this being for the most part mild and neither overly happy or abysmally sad.

The song before having going on about saying ' Goodbye to a yellow brick road... ' which in and of itself seemed a absurd concept but the feeling being expressed where very real expressing some sense of loss while not being entirely clear on what the loss had been.

Before that there had been a song about being 'Wrapped around your finger... ' A song seemingly about marriage but oddly not sung in a manner that suggested one was happy about it.

Sighing Mei turned her attention to other things... the package Boris had given her earlier sparking no small amount of interest forcing her to try and recall what it was she had requested in the first place. Nothing came to mind but the plain brown packaging with a hand written receipt that placed the value of the contents at 5,000 credits ... Not overly expensive but not really an amount she'd of just handed over on a whim 4 to 6 months ago.

A sound not unlike wind chimes announced the arrival of another customer drawing Mei's attention once more to the now as she stuffed the package into the pocket of her coat as her gaze found the entrance where 'he' walked in.

You'd have to have felt it yourself to know the feelings she felt when their eyes met. That fluttering whisper in the depths of what one might assume was the soul. That sense of familier recognition of a face she had never seen before.

and than ...

and than nothing...

There was some laughter and barbs of masculine humor shared between the companions that followed after that Angelic face and an all to familier nasal voice of the weasel himself.

" Harris !" The name escaped her lips in a roar as her Mod-5 came level the link setting the weapon to full-auto as she pulled the trigger.