“Max, what are the odds of him actually holding up his end of the deal and not double crossing us?” I asked as I watched Rin and Ali walk down the terminal. They turned into a coffee shop a few doors down, and Rin led the way up to the counter before placing an order for an expensive espresso.


    “Considering the messages he’s sending, I think he plans to honor the deal. Our girl Ali really put the fear of an earless existence into him, and he seems to think this is his chance to break into clandestine work.” Max answered cheerily, to which Rin let out a long suffering sigh of relief.


    My camera views shuffled around a little, one of them keeping track of Greg as he finished his drink, berated his hired women, and tapped furiously at his mobile comm, while another panel displayed Rin and Ali walking over to stand next to a small standing table in the coffee shop.


    Rin closed his eyes and took a deep sniff of the tiny cup of espresso, and then took a sip before leveling his even stare on Ali. “That was reckless, you could have ruined everything. Was that a calculated call and you knew he would fold, or was that anger?”


    Ali took a drink from the ice water she had ordered and huffed in indignation. “Both. We couldn’t look weak. I’ve seen officers deal with contractors before, and it’s always with threats from a position of power. Fire and ice, carrot and stick. I couldn’t let him talk to me like that without a response, and Max said this is the only leader he can track down right now, I had to push it.”


    “Max and I will keep an eye on them, make sure they’re doing what they should be.” I added through the open channel. “Rin is right though, Ali. That was not your best moment. We could have found another contractor, right?”


    Max nodded in reply to my question, then zoomed in on their faces with the camera to show Ali wince at my words. “My apologies, sir, I stand by my decision though. No actual operative would tolerate comments like that, or fear being punished for a reaction like mine. Just because smashing his face into the table felt great, doesn''t mean it wasn''t the right move. You can dock my pay or demote me if you want, sir.”


    Her eyes flicked to the camera, and she grinned as she bookended her statement with sirs. “Was… was that a joke?” I asked, incredulous amusement pushing my concern out of the way for a moment.


    “Sir, no, sir.” She managed to keep mostly a straight face and took a sip of water, but gave herself away when the corners of her lips twitched up into a smile. The image flashed and copied itself into a still photograph, which moved off to the side next to the live image and began to populate with information. Max drew lines around each marker as he called them out.


    “Raised corners of the mouth, relaxed brow, slight crinkling around the eyes. She totally did make a joke!” I noticed right away that Max had retreated into the safety of private communication again, but he snapped out of it quickly and started laughing heartily into the group channel.


    “Aaaah-hahahaha! Good one, Ali!” He laughed some more, causing me to grimace and the amusement to drain from Ali’s face. An awkward silence clouded the air, and Max flashed worried eyes at me while we waited for… something. Rin shattered the quiet and uncomfortable moment after letting us stew for a few seconds, dragging us back on track.


    “In any case, he agreed, and Max can keep an eye on him. Right now, we need to decide which of us should go into the Link, and has anyone else thought of anything not already on the list that we should get? Upon further rumination, I realized we did not discuss acquiring more weaponry or ammunition, or seeds for crops that we will be able to grow in a northern climate.”


    I was grateful for the moment to die, but still frowned at his words. He was right. I’d already purchased and sent thousands of credits worth of supplies and gear to Rin’s bank space, but it sounded like we would have to spend even more. I should have expected it too, since when had I ever thought about everything I would need for a big project before getting into the middle of it? I was constantly shuffling tools in and out of my inventory at work, and on the rare occasion I had helped Rin build or tinker with something, we never got by with just one trip to buy or scavenge parts.


    “I sent the stuff to your bank already, Rin, so you’re going to have to be the one to go get it. You might need to pay for an increased inventory size to carry it all.” I answered.


    Rin sighed and downed his tiny cup of espresso like it was a shot. “Fine, let''s make another list…”


    Two hours later, I watched Rin nervously walk the gauntlet into the commercial side of the identically laid out Link ship. It was eerie to me, watching his scrawny form walk down the wide chain link corridor, looking especially small and frail from such a high and wide angle. Moving in and out of the ship was always my least favorite part of my day, but it had been more than a month since I had to make it on my own like that and I felt removed from the ordeal, like it was a terrible part of a past life that I had left behind for good.


    At least the crowd''s vibe was different for Rin’s walk, instead of the normal screaming and angry protesters, the crowd was pressed in too tightly against the fences to show much agitation at the steady trickle of people crossing from station to Link. Rin still acted as if he were walking towards a horrible death. His gaze remained fixed on his feet, his hood up, and his hands stuffed into his hoodie’s pocket as he slowly stepped down the fenced in aisle and made his way to the booth.


    We had arranged to have the stuff shipped from the Impex directly to a loading bay that we coordinated with Greg. Max was able to force messages through to him, and he readily ate up the implication that we had control over the comm network like a proper shadowy governmental agency. I let him handle messaging with the gang leader, while Ali and I continued to brainstorm any additional supplies we might need.


    Rin had to drop out of the group chat when he Linked up, I guess that trick only worked with myself, but Max was able to send him text messages and the credits through the Link in the van. Once he was safely in a booth and off on his shopping adventure, the conversation between Ali and myself died out. She was waiting for Rin in the lobby, sitting near some of the other groups of travellers to blend in while remaining at a respectful distance. I remained in the van, my mind churning over everything that had gone wrong and would probably continue to go wrong.


    Mostly, I worried about the mercenaries turning on my friends and being forced to fight again. My body was still recovering, stiff, partially numb, and covered in thick scabs as Max worked to stitch everything back together. I was less worried about myself though, and far more concerned with the danger that my squishy and unarmored friends would face during their escape from the city. Ali brushed off my concerns and informed me that the proper term was ‘exfiltration’, clearly content to be taking the risk on herself while I was safe in the van.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Thankfully, Rin did not take long to walk to the bank, buy the assortment of items from our new list, send them all through the Impex, then return back to our side of reality. Before the hour was over, he had crossed the gauntlet again and returned to the Travellers station to meet up with Ali.


    They had to walk to the far side of the massive building to the bank of connected garages that lined the two of the outside edges of the massive transportation interchange and mixer. With the non-stop flow of trucks, trains, and travellers, there was accompanying infrastructure, like hundreds of rentable rooms of varying sizes and prices on the third floor, vehicle hangers and landing pads on the roof or ground floors, or banks of lockers and pay-by-the-minute public bathrooms dotted around the bustling commercial hub.


    Rin had paid, with my credits - of course - for the supplies to be boxed up in shipping crates and locked down before he had sent them across the station to ‘Garage - 1H’, where Greg had told us to meet him and his crew.


    With only a few minutes to spare, Ali pounded the heel of her fist against a steel security door until an armed and armored person yanked it open. I had the advantage of having a view of both sides of the door, and had been watching the gang load up an armored vehicle similar to the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs for short, that the Shepherds used back in Nubrag. This model was older, and had quite a few extra welded on panels, old battle scars, and the most ridiculous coat of paint I had ever seen.


    “Uhh, we do have a bit of a situation, but I think y''all are going to get out of there before things heat up too much.” Max blurted out as our team approached the garage, hopping between camera angles every few seconds. “Security and maintenance just managed to override the locks keeping that girl in the stairwell. She is… not cooperating though.” A smaller screen popped up to the side, showing the girl as she was dragged kicking and screaming out of the stairwell by two unflinching armored soldiers while a man with a clipboard followed behind.


    I watched the woman being dragged off for a moment, then decided he was probably right about it not being an issue. Leaving the window following her through the station open to the side, I turned back to watch my friends meet the mercs and notice the painting on the side of the truck.


    Most of the vehicle was a dark slightly greenish gray, except for a mirrored mural on either side that was currently in the process of being touched up over a fresh new weld. I was having trouble not breaking out into laughter as I anticipated my friends’ reaction to what the smallest paint-splattered mercenary had nearly finished airbrushing on the side of the thirty foot long armored truck. I didn’t know who would have the better reaction, Rin or Ali, but was almost positive that one of them would take notice and react somehow.


    Normally I would expect Rin to be able to play it cool through pretty much anything, but it had been a hard day for my normally shut-in friend. Ali, on the other hand, could surprise me, like with how she handled Greg in the first place. If she was channeling her inner government agent, she probably wouldn’t even notice the twenty foot long, white haired anime cat-girl sprawled in a pose like she had just fallen out of a beaten up folding chair and landed clumsily on her face. The character''s limbs were in a poorly ragdolled tangle with the chair, and everything was painted in painstaking detail down one side of the armored truck.


    The thing was, I recognized the character from Rin’s computer back in the original apartment. I’d only seen his desktop wallpaper a few times, because he normally had the screen filled with scrolling information. Yet despite his best efforts, I had caught a couple of glimpses of this exact character in a similar pose on his background when he had minimized his work programs to show me something before. I’d seen him hastily close her vid-streams a couple of times too, but I never commented.


    I was happy enough ignoring the awkward moments and didn’t want to risk embarrassing an overreaction out of him at the time. Yet now that he was about to be faced with… this, through no fault of my own, I was struggling to hold back my long delayed mirth. Rin wasn''t the only one who had had a hard day, and hardship always seemed to lower my standard of amusement.


    “You’re early.” Greg called out as he crossed the garage to meet my friends as they came into the room. “We’re almost ready to go, and your crap is already loaded up.” He thumped his fist against the frame of the lowered ramp at the back of the truck, and pointed at the three large crates that took up most of the space inside of the transport.


    Rin’s cold eyes scanned over the scene, and Max zoomed in on his face as he started to giggle uncontrollably. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about Rin’s little secret? I could have been having fun with this for weeks! I’m kicking myself for never checking his browser history now, his old machine is a smoldering hunk of melted plastic. Oh! Maybe I can scrape it off the net!”


    I ignored Max’s rambling and all of the new windows he started opening to the side, too caught up with the situation. Watching as Rin’s sweep finally arrived at the huge image painted on the truck, Max snapped a screen grab and blew up the still image even further as the slightest touch of a blush crept up his neck and over his cheeks. Despite everything, his only oher reaction was a slight widening of his eyes and dilation of his pupils. Our stone faced shut-in managed to keep his expression still and impassive, turning away from the truck before answering.


    “We… knew you would be ready when we arrived. You have five minutes to finalize whatever preparations you need to make.” averting his eyes from the truck, he instead busied himself with looking over the rest of the mercenaries.


    There were six other soldiers, four of which were already wearing older beat up power armor models. One of the two unarmored mercs was a pinch faced blonde woman who wore a plate carrier with a small submachine strapped across it, while the last was the scrawny and masked painter who stood and pulled respirator off as he finished the final touches on the mural.


    “Is this your whole crew?” Rin continued, his eyes flashing back to the painting for a moment before he turned entirely away and focused on Greg.


    Ali glanced at the blush growing on his cheeks out of the corner of her eye, but kept up her own scowl as Greg answered. “It is tonight, you said we’re only going to the edge of the city, and the rest of my guys are busy. This was supposed to be an off night, so what you see is what you get.” He snorted, then cleared his throat and gave Rin a questioning look as he noticed the slight redness on his neck and cheeks. “No need to get all pissed off again, Mr. and Mrs. Serious. This’ll be enough to get us there.”


    The paint splattered man tossed his airbrush down onto a workbench, and then walked up beside Greg and slapped the taller man''s shoulder. He looked quite a bit younger than Greg, possibly even younger than us. If I had to guess, I’d place him in his younger 20’s. Despite his frail malnourished physique, he had this chubby cheeked youth to him as his frizzy and poofy and rounded hairstyle bobbed from side to side with his every move.


    “My masterpiece once again graces the go-box. Try not to scrape her up again this time, boss.” He casually walked away and back to his work bench, taking apart his airbrush and cleaning it as he whistled some tune I didn’t quite recognize.


    Greg waved him off and shook his head, giving an almost embarrassed grin before turning back to Rin and Ali. “Don’t mind him, it’s kind of a good luck charm. Any gang that sees this knows to stay the fuck out of our way. I’m sure you guys have your own little traditions.”


    Rin’s blush continued to grow up his neck and darken his face, and I saw his eyes flick up and look directly into the camera as I stifled a giggle. Ali’s eyes followed a split second later as she heard me, and then she turned and gave Rin a hard look. Despite the scrutiny and rapidly reddening cheeks, he managed to maintain his straight face and answer the mercenary captain. “Very well. Your quirks and traditions do not concern us, just hurry up.”


    Rin’s eyes narrowed and he glared first back at Ali, and then at the camera while Greg let out a blast of fake laughter, and nearly caused me to break out into a fit of my own genuine guffaws as Rin dared me to say anything with his eyes. It shouldn’t be so funny, I knew it was stupid of me to be laughing, but seeing Rin looking so close to flustered was a rarity I was not going to take for granted.


    Luckily, Greg took Rin’s embarrassment and discomfort for anger and annoyance. Turning away from my friends and addressing his troops, he started shouting orders. “Hah! You heard the man, it’s time to load up. Let’s get paid!”