The armored truck pulled out of the garage, the huge cat-girl mural made it easy to keep track of as it bullied its way into the slowly moving line of vehicles waiting to join the outbound traffic lane. I followed along from various camera angles, still watching nervously from the van a few miles away. The chatter from Rin and Ali had cut off to almost nothing, and the interior of the mercenaries’ truck didn’t have a camera that I could watch through. From the impression that I got from only being able to hear the audio and mumbled short conversations Greg was having through his radio, things were uncomfortable and tense in the cramped cab of the armored vehicle.


    The four armored mercs were riding on the outside of the truck. They stood on small shelves on the four corners specifically designed to carry an armored trooper, the armor''s magnets securing them behind a little half shield welded out of thick steel plates. They kept their heavy rifles trained on the ground and were joking around with each other, evidently feeling secure in their supposed private comm channel.


    Max created little grayed out speaker icons that hovered over each of the soldiers heads in my high angle camera view, the icon above the front port-side mercenary turned white as he spoke in a laughing tone. “Y’all hear what pudge was saying? Said these guys roughed up the captain pretty good, had him all in an uproar.”


    The front starboard side guy laughed, and the rear portside soldier checked his rifle''s chamber as he growled out a reply. “Pudge says a lotta shit, no way that pair of scrawny GPOSs could’a taken the captain.” I recognized the acronym he pronounced like ‘G-pose’, which was fairly common to hear even amongst my old co-workers at the quarry. It stood for ‘Government Pieces of… well, I’ll let you guess the rest. Something that I’d been called once or twice, and that I knew had caused Tevin to get into multiple bar fights.


    The one in front who had originally started the conversation answered. “No, no, I think he''s speaking fact this time. Didn’t you see that cut on his forehead? That wasn''t there when he left the rack, and I can tell he’s pissed even if he’s hiding it. I just don’t get why we’re working for ‘em anyway, and on an off night! I was in the middle of this swanky ass no-refunds dinner date with Britt when he called. I’ma be hearing about this for months.”


    The growly voiced guy replied again. “It’s his call, and he offered a fat bonus, didn''t he? Buy her some flowers and something shiny with the extra creds, she’ll get over it.”


    “Yeah, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone out on this fuckin’ run. News says the city is pretty hot tonight, but Greg says there''s only one stop and we’ll be back before the sun''s up. Easy money’s hard to walk away from.”


    “Don’t say that shit. There''s no such thing as easy money. You’ll jinx us.”


    “Sheesh, again with that superstitious garbage. You know that stuff’s like a gateway drug right? First you’re talking about jinxes and curses, tomorrow you''ll be scared of ladders and cats, then the next thing you know you’re waving signs, screaming chants, and throwing last night''s turd loaves at the poor bastards walking the gauntlet to get Linked up.”


    The second guy up front whose only contribution to the conversation had been the occasional laugh up until now added in. “Heh, the Links aren’t so bad. I had this thing growing on my foot, and when I did my payment day the last time it was completely gone afterwards.”


    The growly guy on the back of the vehicle replied. “Yeah, the Hub has a great red-light district too.”


    The rear starboard side man spoke for the first time, his voice calm and serious. “Cut the chatter. Op-sec is tight on this one, be ready to jump.”


    The other three must have respected the last man''s words because they all stopped talking, not even confirming or replying to his message. The other guy on the rear of the vehicle checked his rifle''s chamber again, and the truck finally pulled onto the winding overpass that would loop them around to an exit from the massive trade route highway and onto the old city streets.


    I watched as they started driving down the narrow older streets. All of the soldiers'' rifles swept up and out, equipped with bright spotlights that they painted across the buildings and occasional dumpsters or parked cars. This close to the interior of the city, they passed defence force patrols and security checkpoints, and the buildings were maintained and occupied. I was distracted momentarily by a side screen as the call girl from the stairwell was pushed into a holding cell.


    When I looked back, Max’s drone caught up to follow the mercenaries’ truck after they had traveled a few blocks away from the Hub. The horizontal table-like screen opened back up, below all of the other screens at a 90 degree angle, once more displaying a birds eye thermal view of the situation from a few hundred meters up. “This thing’s getting pretty low on battery, even if I had it parked on a roof while the kids ran errands.”


    Max didn’t bother to speak to me privately, knowing that even if Rin and Ali could hear us. They were unlikely to reply while they rode in the middle section of the truck with good old Greg the gang leader.


    As I wished they had a camera I could watch the situation through, Max popped up another of his 3D rendered versions and gave me the mental impression of a shrug. The three of them rode in a separate cabin from the driver. Rin was staring at Greg while they rode in silence, while Ali looked out a window and kept reaching up as if to grab a rifle on her chest that wasn''t there. Greg alternated between looking back at Rin, out the window, and typing messages into his expensive looking mobile comm that he kept in a safety case on a self-winding string clipped to his advanced plate carrier.


    “Who’s he talking to, the driver, someone back at the station?” I asked, mostly to Max.


    For whatever reason, Max chose to reply to me privately this time. “A couple of people, including me! This guy’s pretty cool actually. I’m messaging him both as Ali''s support team, and I answered a recruitment ad using chin-strap the ganger’s identity that he posted on this sketchy forum website. We’re planning something special for everyone! The lead car should be there soon actually, so you should get ready to help set things up.”


    “The lead what?!” I asked, and Ali’s chat icon flared with the sound of teeth clacking and grinding together. Even if she could only hear my half of the conversation, my tone carried the jist of my reaction clearly enough for her to realize something had gone wrong.


    “The rest of his crew went out to clear the way and set up a surprise party for us and the four armored guys! They’re almost here already, I invited chin-strap and his crew too, just for kicks. I wanna see these guys in action, ya know?”This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    “Oh my fucking… What the actual fuck, Max?” I blurted out, fumbling through the cluttered mass of windows until I found the high level satellite map and dragged it back down to the horizontal desktop plane of my new admittedly pretty cool virtual remote op’s setup. “Where are they now? Are they coming here-here, like to the van - here?”


    “Yeah! I wanted to have one last throwdown before we bail outta this joint. It’s supposed to be a surprise for Rin and Ali and the four guys they have on the truck though, so shhhh.” Max’s stupid crosswalk sign stickman looking emoji face flashed a big toothy grin.


    I turned and looked at him as he sat cross-legged on Tevin’s chestplate. “You’re an idiot, Max. Advanced Core-tech AI my ass, you seriously believe that? What did they even say? How in the hell is a second truck that they’re hiding from us not important enough to tell me!?”


    I pointed an accusatory finger at him. “We have to warn our actual friends, and move the van before they get here, so don’t pull any bullshit like muting me or whatever–.” I cut myself off mid sentence, realizing that calling him a dumbass would only work him up.


    “Whatever… thing you’re planning next.” I turned back to the map and checked the area around the van on the map, looking to see if he had the second group of mercs marked, and made sure my little group channel voice icon was live as I warned Rin and Ali. “We have a problem, guys. Max didn’t tell us they’re planning a surprise party at the dropoff.”


    I saw movement on the 3D rendered model of the interior of the armored truck and looked over. Rin had pulled out the tablet he had liberated from Katie and begun to tap on the screen.


    Max live commentated on the situation. “He opened up a note app, maybe he had an idea for another list. Oh, wait, I think he’s trying to talk to us… hey! That is so not fair! Uah!” He scoffed. “That is just not true, Greg has offered a sincere apology for his comments and wants to thank us for the business! See?”


    A new window appeared, and everything else minimized as Max pointed to a section of chat log. Instead of names marking who sent which message, each one was prefaced with a little icon. Our resident idiot AI’s messages were marked with his own grinning emoji face, while Greg’s were marked with a cartoony caricature version of his own bald head giving a cheesy wink and smile.


    Max: That’s awesome, you’ll have to tell me some more of your stories when everyone arrives. I’ve always thought the mercenary lifestyle was cool, but hearing what it’s actually like from a real life pro is great. I’m glad there''s no hard feelings.


    Greg: No problem, you''ve been great and I’ve got plenty of stories. We should talk job offers though, if you want to jump ship after this. We appreciate the help with setting up this little payback party. Your ground team is a real pair of assholes, so I can’t blame ya for wanting to help out.  I’m sorry you had to deal with these guys for so long.


    Max: They’re just like that, hopefully this little party will show them you guys mean business. Did the scrawny one leer at your mural? There''s something wrong with that guy, I swear.


    Greg: They’ll both get what’s coming to them. I’ll make sure they learn their lesson, and then we can talk about the future. I really wanna get you on our team, we need to broaden our capabilities and someone with your skills would be perfect. Your resume is impressive, I almost didn''t believe it when you sent it over but everything checks out.


    “Are you serious?” I swatted my hand up the backside of Max’s holographic head, and to my surprise, I felt a connection that caused his head to rock forward. He gave me a startled look, we both stared at each other for a second, and then he slapped me across the cheek in retaliation.


    “Ach, stop it.” I opened my hands and held them up to block a second slap. “But putting me being able to smack you aside for a moment, you seriously think that those messages support your argument?”


    “Yeah! See how nice he''s being? And those two really do need to learn a lesson about respecting me, and everything I’ve read says that positive reinforcement is the best way to go, right? So I figure a nice surprise party is exactly what they need. Then we can kick around some gangers together and have a fun time, it’ll be great!”


    I slapped myself in the face with both palms and growled in frustration into my hands. “I can’t… I just… no. There’s no way you are this dumb. That’s the thinnest euphemism for an ambush I can f’n imagine, and you fall for it?”


    Max retreated back to private messaging again. “What do you mean? They’re getting paid, and they’re mercenaries. They have to follow their contract, they’re not gonna ambush us. Hah.”


    “Just because they signed some deal does not mean they have to follow it, Max. Especially if they think they’re working with a disgruntled handler to burn a troublesome ground team!”


    “But… they confirmed the contract for safe transportation.” Max said in a surprisingly small tone as he realized I was fully committed to thinking his line of reasoning was absolute bullshit.


    I facepalmed even harder than the last time, and spoke with closed eyes through gritted teeth as I restrained my anger. It was easy to forget that my AI companion was basically a child, and right now was not the time to provoke a tantrum with harsh words. I needed to keep in mind that despite having a physical presence within me, he was mostly a product of a virtual game world, bound by hard unbreakable rules and opaque systems. “Max, sometimes people lie, and sometimes they hide their true meaning. You can’t take everything at face value.”


    “Well that''s a bunch of malarkey. These guys rely on their contracts, why would they break one?”


    I turned back to look at Ali and Rin in the 3D model of the truck while I spoke, only the gentle swaying and bumping that made it through the heavy suspension of the truck interrupted the still tension in the small cab. All three of them were motionless, and Greg appeared to be sweating as he subconsciously recognized the subtle shift in my friends’ mannerisms as they listened to my argument with Max.


    I took a moment, watching them as I tried to come up with a way out of this that wouldn’t end in another big fight. “Because we humiliated the leader, and he thinks you''re going to help him hide everything. They’re going to try to kill them, Max, and probably me too unless they think I’m you. How the hell are we going to get them out of this? I’m too beat up for another fight, I feel like I’d tear twenty scabs open if I so much as sneezed.”


    “No way, I’m still not buying it. These guys are cool. I tell you what, if you think you''re so clever and confident that there is really some plot to try to kill us, how about you put your money where your mouth is and we make things interesting?” He puffed up his normally twiggy chest and pointed at me, pausing for a moment as he came up with a wager. “I’ll bet you… a ‘shut up, we’re doing it my way’ pass, that they’re good people.”


    I blinked in response, taken aback by his naive insistence but… that was a hell of a prize. The ambush was inevitable at this point, but maybe this way I could flip it around to teach Max a lesson and get something useful out of it after all.


    “Pshh, how about we make it 10 passes? I’m surprised with you, haven’t you, like, looked up the stats for how often mercenaries break contracts or something like that?” I responded. “And I’ll only take that bet if we plan a contingency like they are going to attack.” I turned around and tossed a random piece of junk from the floorboards at Raschel to wake her. “Hey! Raschel, wake up. I need you to move the van.”


    “Bah, fine. You’re gonna regret it when they crack open the beers and everyone''s having fun beating up on some local criminal scum, though.” He stuck his nose straight up into the air, and I swear he grew three or four inches taller just so he could look down on me from a little higher. “I’ll mark them out on your map for you so you can get to your unnecessary planning.”