Crystal Delivery (1)

A week had passed since the events in Termina. Public outrage was small, no one could complain. The armed forces of the Disquisitive party ruled with an iron fist. But as it turned out, this benefitted our gang greatly.

The members which we lost were quickly recouped. Most of the gang members and people in the slum were not there because they were lowly criminals, they were lowly criminals because they wanted freedom.

Joining our gang was instantly the best option to maintain a semblance of that freedom under the militaristic disquisitive party.

But all was not sunshine and rainbows either. With so many criminals joining out of convenience, the status of these members was almost honorary in nature. They had zero loyalty to speak of and their only ability was that to turn coat as was already demonstrated.

This in turn made Seamus and the others miss the now arrested or deceased members all the more. I for example deeply missed Jimmy. The week was a bore for me, and practicing knife fighting seemed like the best way to kill time.

That made me sad about his death. A part of me hoped that my impromptu diagnosis during that situation was wrong and Jimmy was instead rotting in a jail cell. But alas, that was likely wishful thinking.

This melancholy took a little getting over, but today was finally the day that the 10 crystals would be delivered per the agreement. All the close members couldn't help but put up their best brave front and look at the future ahead.

Kaiser's goal was still unknown. Perhaps it was an unimaginably lofty goal, perhaps we were all being played for fools. Regardless, this would be the first step towards finding out.

The man from last time was coming over and speak of the devil...

Knock knock

With Jimmy dead or in the slammer, I was placed as the new gatekeeper. I personally felt it was an odd choice, but meh, I took the job with stride all the same.

Usually one would ask for a password but that was pointless, I could see who was knocking. The benefit of having me at the door was that I could see in the dark. We just made a small hole in the door and I could just chill in the dark.

"Coming" I said before opening the door.

"Good day" The man from before replied.

"Hey, what's your name?" I said curious. If I didn't receive his name, thinking about him would be quite a hassle without a frame of reference. Not that anyone could read my thoughts, but it was nice all the same.

"Ha, the name is Farrell" He responded with an outstretched hand. I naturally shook it and also eyed the suitcase he had in his other hand.

"Nice" I said with a smile. The man, wait, Farrell, seemed amused.

He entered the building and I closed the door behind him, he brought no other soldiers with him. We walked up the cramped stair well until finally making it into the lounge.

There were various members waiting here patiently, but Farrell ignored all of them. He walked to the other end of the room where the stairs to the top floor were. I followed after him.

Once inside of Kaiser's office, there were 3 other people already waiting here patiently. They were Lytton, Malcolm, and Seamus.

Once again, however, they were all ignored by Farrell. He went over to Kaiser's desk and placed down the suitcase he had been carrying.

"All 10 of the crystals are there, if you want to cross sectors, just make sure to make your identity clear. There is an ID in the case as well" Farrell said quickly informing Kaiser about how to use the rewards we had gained.

He then turned to leave right back from where he came but…

"Are you leaving already?" Kaiser asked as he unlocked the suitcase. The radiance of green crystals was lit up the otherwise dark room.

"Not yet. I have a message, you should watch out" Farrell said pointing at me. I was taken aback.

"You are wanted" He added, making me confused. That was already common knowledge, no?

"No, I mean, you are now seriously wanted" Farrell said correcting my confusion. The wanted signs persisted and were I to be spotted I would be likely taken to the slammer, but there was no explicit need for me to be careful given my powers.

"But… why?" I asked, hoping to receive more information.

"Did you notice I came here alone?" Farrell asked. I responded with an attentive nod.

"The higher ups have increased your priority, there are now irradiates from the military after you." Farrell said, causing me some surprise.

"I- Irradiates?" I couldn't believe I was such a hot topic. But then again, I did just participate in a massive shoot out involving a government institution.

"Here is a business card, we can shelter you if worst comes to-" Before he could finish, Farrell was promptly interrupted.

"Hey hey hey! What do you think you are doing?!" Kaiser said, interrupting the man for the first time.

"You are part of the party that wants him, don't take him for a sucker. You got what you wanted, we got what we wanted. Let's part ways" Kaiser said while dusting his hands off.

"Hahaha, sure, let's do that. But you should at least keep this" Farrell burst into laughter and said still holding onto the business card.

I didn't decline his generosity and took the card. Even if I didn't end up using it to contact the weird organization Kaiser got involved with, I could still have it as a bargaining chip against Kaiser.

"Will you see yourself out?" Seamus asked. He had been holding in his dissatisfaction up to this point.

"Sure, I'll see myself out" Farrell said, entertained by the change of attitude of Kaiser and the constant opposition of Seamus.

Without any more back and forth, Farrell approached the office door and left quickly. He made sure to close the door quietly. That left the 5 of us alone in the dark of Kaiser's office.

"We should talk about distributing these now then" Kaiser said, evidently referring to distributing the crystals in the suitcase.

We all turned our attention to Kaiser and brushed off the edge from our encounter with Farrell.