TBoB - Book 3 - Chapter 31 - Negotiations

Gonna admit, this one might need another pass. I like the ideas, but I may need to go over the dialog again.

The others stared at me like I was insane, but I didn’t care, the fact the corps wanted me to help them was fucking funny.

“I’m being serious you know,” Hel snarled. “After the Helmar revelations both sides want to arrange a ceasefire, and they’re looking for an impartial third party to oversee the talks.”

“I know,” I replied, finally coming down from my giggle fit, “that’s what’s so funny! Do they honestly think I’ll be impartial after all the shit they put everyone through the last few weeks? Fuck em, they can figure it out on their own.”

Sharron sighed, and shook her head. A motion I could actually see her making in her new suit. “Come on Evelyn, at least consider it,” she said.

“I have! I consider the request insaneI” I replied seriously. “I’ve done almost everything possible to try and avoid getting involved in their little war, why the fuck should I volunteer now? Besides, I kind of have other things to do right now, there being a fucking incursion and all.”

“The meeting can wait until after the incursion, there’s no rush,” Hel explained. “Plus, you still wouldn’t be involved in the conflict at all, that’s kind of the point of an impartial third party.”

Throughout this entire discussion Hoppy’s eyes darted back and forth between Hel and I, a smile slowly growing on her face. She was enjoying this. Guess that made one of us.

I narrowed my eyes. “You can tell the corps to find someone else to do their dirty work, I have work to do,” I said as I popped back to my feet. “Come on Hoppy, time to go.”

As the Kodiak’s engines roared to life again, preparing to carry us back to my team, Hel yelled. “How much?”

I turned back towards her, puzzled. “How much what?” 

“How much will it cost to get you to mediate? Five thousand points? Ten?” Hel asked.

“You’re really willing to give me ten thousand points to sit in a room, and make sure those assholes don’t kill each other? Why?” I said curiously, mentally killing the engine again.

“Because I’m just as tired of this fucking pissing match as you are. This isn’t even my city, I’m just here to keep things together until Calgary stabilizes again,” she reminded me. “Ten thousand points is a fair amount, but I’ll make more than that in this incursion. The sooner this shit is settled, the sooner I can go home.” 

I stared at her for a minute, considering the offer. “Seventeen thousand,” I countered. Hel opened her mouth to say something, but I cut her off, “from Mirage.”

Sharron sighed again, “Evelyn…”

“Don’t Evelyn me!” I snapped. “Mirage, and his little corpo obsessed posse, are the reason Hel had to come here and sort out the situation with the local branch of Family. It’s not her fault things have spiraled out of control.”

“It’s not Mirage’s either,” Sharron reminded me. “He just has vested interests in the outcome.”

“Which means he has an incentive to cooperate,” I added quickly.

“I really don’t like the idea of you blackmailing another samurai,” Hel said, as she raised her hand to her face and rubbed her eyes, “but considering the situation, I’ll ask. If he rejects your request, will you please think about mediating?”

“I think it’s a terrible idea, and everyone including me will regret it, but fine. I’ll consider it,” I replied. As the Kodiak’s engines roared to life again, I waved to my friends, and Helen. “We’ll talk later, once things are more under control,” I promised.

“Later, stay safe!” Sharron yelled back as the vehicle pulled away. 

Once we were safely in the air again, and on our way back to my squad, Hoppy turned towards me. “You’re really not going to meditate? I thought you just wanted to get everything back to normal.”

“I do,” I replied as I sat down next to the hatch, “but the absolute last thing I want to do is get involved with the corps. Look at all the backstabbing, and shady shit they’ve been up to since this conflict started. I half expect this request to be someone’s half-assed idea to try and pull me into the conflict.”

Hoppy frowned. “I doubt they’d go that far,” she muttered. “Are you really thinking about taking points in exchange for mediating?”

“From Hel, fuck no,” I replied. “I knew she was tired of dealing with the local issues, but I didn’t think she was that desperate to get everything sorted out, it caught me off guard.” While I was talking I put my rifle down and hooked the strap over the hatch to make sure it didn’t go anywhere. “I’ll admit, it made me reevaluate my position. I still think the corps are massive shitstains that don’t deserve my help, but this conflict affects a lot more than just them. The sooner it ends, the better.” I paused and smiled mischievously in Hoppy’s direction. “Now, if Mirage decided to take me up on my offer, and pay for another Marsupial… I’m not going to refuse.”

Hoppy snorted. “I’ve never seen anyone go at it like you two, why do you hate each other so much?”

“Difference of opinions? Different morals? Different upbringing? Who knows? The man just irritates me. Ever since the first time I met him, the man got under my skin,” I reported. “I don’t think we’ll ever see eye to eye, which is fine. We probably won’t try to kill each other either.”

“Which is for the best. If you two went at it, I’m sure you’d do way more damage to the city than those armies out there could,” Hoppy replied with a small laugh.

I nodded. The Kodiak was descending now, heading directly towards where Bandit and the others were. There were antithesis in the street, there were just significantly less than I expected. If the lure was on the entire area should have been crawling with them. 

When the Kodiak made its final approach, I leapt from the larger vehicle and landed heavily on the roof of the Grizzly. Bandit turned and looked at me in surprise. “Oi, Boss, you know you could have just waited another thirty seconds or so, right?”

I ignored his question and countered with one of my own. “You’re heading towards the largest collection of antithesis in the area, right?” I asked as I strode by him and yanked open the nearby hatch.

“You know it!” he said cheerfully.

I stuck my torso through the hatch, hanging there for a moment while I inspected the device inside. “The lure appears to be functioning,” I announced, before hauling myself back out of the hatch. “So where the fuck are the antithesis? We should be up to our eyeballs in fucking aliens right now.”

The little fox shrugged. “Donno what to tell you,” he said. “We’re heading towards the largest concentration I can find, but it’s a lot smaller than the previous ones.”

“Nyx, did someone clear out this area already?” I asked as I turned towards Deadbeat. 

The sickly green bear shuttered for a second , then shook his head. “Not that I know of.”

“Right… gimme a second,” I said casually, before stepping to the side of the Grizzly and screaming, “FUCK,” at the top of my lungs.

“What? What happened?” Hoppy asked as she came sprinting over from the Kodiak. 

“I think we lost the antithesis,” I told her. “They should still be all over this area, but in the ten minutes since we left they all seem to have all but disappeared.”

“Maybe we just managed to clear them out?” Hoppy said hopefully. “We did a ton of damage on the way to that intact pod.”

“It’s possible,” I admitted, “but with the numbers we were seeing earlier there should still be a ton of loose antithesis in the area. The lure attracts them up to five hundred meters away… so where are they?”

“Don’t ask questions like that,” Hoppy said quietly. “It’s never a good sign.”

“What? You think I’m tempting fate? That’s a bunch of superstitious…” my augs lit up with alerts. Antithesis were aggressively pressing against my defensive lines. The bears were holding, for now. 

“What happened?” Hoppy asked when I zoned back in.

I looked up at the much taller girl and put on a small smile. “I’ll stop tempting fate now,” I told her.