TBoB - Book 3 - Chapter 32 - Concessions

Here's one for the ongoing arc. As promised.

Once the lures were up and running again, clearing the rest of the Incursion was surprisingly simple. We pulled as many antithesis out of the surrounding buildings, exterminated the lot of them, then tightened the perimeter. 

Since we now had a couple PMCs on standby, I had them do the post Lure checks, while my bears slowly contracted the perimeter. Things would have gone a lot faster if we had more troops, but we made due with what we had. In the end it took three full days to clear the area, and both Bandit and Spooky spent another week leading fox squads through the area to double check for stragglers before I was convinced we were completely clear. 

Within minutes of me calling it there were people at my door.

“What are you laughing about?” Jane grumbled, as I pressed my face into the couch to stifle my giggles.

“Bob makes the best door bear ever,” I replied when I finally managed to bring myself under control again. Jane raised an eyebrow, but didn’t ask, so I elaborated on my own. “There’s a mob growing outside, trying to get in and talk to me. One guy even flashed some sort of credentials. I asked Bob if he could verify the creds, and instead of doing that he promptly ate them.”

Jane gave me a disappointed look. “If you’re watching all this happen anyways why don’t you just let them in and find out what they want?”

“I’m not really supervising, the new implant in my head just makes it so I absorb information the bears send to me almost passively. No effort required! Besides, I KNOW what they want. They want me to mediate a ceasefire, but I don’t wanna!” I explained falling back onto my couch.

“Why? This war isn’t helping anyone, and just an hour ago you were complaining how your bears had to do almost all the work because the PMCs were busy fighting each other,” Jane reminded me. “If you just helped them sort things out you wouldn’t HAVE that issue.”

“Because I can’t imagine anything more boring than sitting in a stuffy room, listening to a bunch of suits argue about some inane details. I bet I wouldn’t even last an hour before I ordered Bob to solve the problem by any means necessary,” I told her.

“Yeah, sitting around listening to someone complain to you about their issues, sounds like torture,” Jane replied sarcastically. I understood what she was getting at, but chose to ignore it.

“Half the people out there have probably never even considered setting foot in the undercity before today,” I told Jane. “They’ll probably lose their nerve and go running back to whomever sent them here before too long.”

“Well, you better make sure nothing happens to them while they’re down here,” Jane declared, as she grabbed her tablet and moved towards the garage. “The absolutely last thing we need is a bunch of investigators, or worse yet, news agencies, bothering the kids and trying to find how some high profile CEO managed to get stabbed in an undercity alley.”

I simply raised a single hand and waved at her over the back of the couch. “I have both Bears and Rabbits watching them, and their vehicles. As much as I’d like to see them flail around after their shiny new vehicles were ripped down to the frame, that would make it harder for them to leave,” I grumbled.

As I lay on my couch I quickly swapped back to Bob’s point of view. I had no idea what had happened to get to this point, but he seemed to be currently scratching his back with someone’s cane. “Someone must have really pissed him off to get him to do that,” I muttered. I could see someone standing infront of him apparently aghast at the treatment. I just laughed. “Best door bear ever.”

—--

I must have fallen asleep because I was awoken about half an hour later by someone knocking. Not on the door, which was practically soundproof, but through my augs.

“Nyx, tell whomever it is to fuck off,” I muttered as I turned over.

“I would, but the one calling is Mirage, and he says it’s important,” Nyx reported through the default bear I’d left in the shelter to act as a Nyx to speech translator.

“Fine…” I yawned. “I’ll do it.”

I took a moment to stretch before I opened the connection. [Fuck off!]

[Teddy, I see your manners haven’t improved since we last talked,] came Mirages annoyed voice echoed through the call.

[Nope, not at all. What do you want Mirage?] I asked tiredly.

[I heard you made a request to Hel. I need to give you seventeen thousand points in order for you to host the peace talks,] Mirage said.

[And I figured you’d just tell me to go fuck myself. I don’t want to do it, and you probably don’t want me to do it, so how about we skip all the regular song and dance and end the call here. I was napping,] I told him.

[I’ll do it,] Mirages said quietly.

My eyes flew open, and I sat up. [Pardon?]

[I said I’ll do it. This war is bad for everyone involved and no matter how much I hate your crude methods, I can’t help but admit you’re both an impartial third party, and one of the only people capable of keeping the peace talks safe. I have to admit, even I felt shivers when you ordered your Bear to take a superheavy shot to the face]

[He did that on his own actually,] I remarked calmly. [Are you serious about this?]

[Extremely. Seventeen thousand is certainly a large amount, but considering how much I made during the incursion, and what exactly is at stake here, it’s worth the cost,] Mirage explained.

[Alright…] I hesitantly agreed. [The next time we meet up I have Nyx share my catalogs with you, and instruct your AI on what to purchase.]

[Fine, that’ll probably be during the first day of the peace talks,] Mirage told me. [It’s been prepared for days, but I managed to convince some of the more eager members of the board from bothering you until the incursion was clear.]

[So that’s why I had a veritable circus at my front door earlier?] I asked.

[They are eager to get this over with,] Mirage admitted.

[Tell them to bring security next time, because I’m not going to dedicate the bears to protect them or their property.] I paused. [Better yet, tell them to never bother me again, unless they want Bob to chew on something a lot more important.]

[I have no idea what that means, but I’ll pass it along,] Mirage replied, obviously just trying to pacify me.

I sighed. [So where, and when is this fucking peace talk? And don’t you fucking dare say here, because if you do I’ll send my bears out to end the fucking conflict tomorrow.] I paused for a second, before realizing my threat probably wasn’t specific enough, [By slowly scrapping every tank and gun on both sides, then dragging them back her to be recycled. Not the passive way.]

[Charming,] Mirage drolled, obviously not impressed at all. [Both sides have agreed to meet in the Stampede grounds in two days. The Family will patrol the outer perimeter, while you and your bears will be responsible for the conference itself.]

I blinked. [What the fuck are the Stampede grounds?]

Mirage sighed. [It was one of the city’s biggest attractions, before the incursions started. Every year people would come from around the world to watch the rodeo. After the incursions hit, and the mega cities were constructed, the city couldn’t spare the space so they created a new convention center, and a small park in the area. It’s more traditionally referred to as the Stampede memorial grounds.]

[I only understood about half of what you said,] I admitted. [But as long as Nyx can direct me to the right place, I don’t see any problems with that.]

[Wonderful. I’ll see you the day after tomorrow at ten am,] Mirage said. [We’ll make the exchange before the noon meeting.]

[Whatever, fine. I’ll see you later,] I agreed before cutting the line.

As I lay there on my couch, going over the discussion in my head, I had a realization. “Fuck” I muttered, “That fucker finally managed to got me involved.”