Viktor Lih

[Lih]

<big>Viktor Lih
</big>
Age: 26
Current residence: Moscow

Occupation: Viktor, or "Vitya" as is his love-name from his parents, is a regular cop, just your run-of-the-mill inspector from CCDPD. He spends his days at the station mostly intercepting transmissions via the micro-bead woven into his uniform, smoking cigarettes, and making that sweet CCD cash.

Vitya doesn't know it yet, but he's joining the domovoi off the books due to an incident in 2046 with monsters that got him noticed. See character history.

Psychological description:

Quiet, modest, restraint. Cool headed under pressure. Admires those who blazed with confidence, power and drive due to his own awkwardness around others. Enjoys a good smoke.

Proud of his work, his place in society; loyal to the CCD. He's interested in, but not quite believes in, strange creatures and loves to read stories.

Physical description:

Hair: white blonde all over, even his eyebrows and eyelashes are so pale they look barely there

Vitya's feline blue gaze is bright, striking even-- but his eyesight is poor in strong light. He often wears sunglasses inside to shield his eyes from the fluorescent lights, much to the consternation of his senior CCDPD officers.

Vitya is pale skinned, lithe and extraordinarily graceful thanks to his years of ballet training. If he didn't join the police force, he could have forged a career as a celebrated dancer.

His refined features are inherited from his Japanese immigrant father. His slenderness and height are from his mother, who worked as an in house fit model for a designer couture house.

Year 2018

Viktor “Vitya” Lih was born to a small, interracial family in the heart of a major port known to the outside world as Sevastopol. Interracial couplings were not uncommon in Lih’s hometown. Consider for a moment, the accessibility and location of the city’s harbors. Its robust economy boosted by foreign trade on the back of the CCD cash. It was a peaceful place, filled with warm summers. Tourists came and spent their credits, often at an unfavorable exchange for CCD credit, at their famed seaside resorts.

Vitya’s father was a trader on a Japanese oil boat who toured all over asia and europe until he settled down here with Vitya's mother, a Russian model turned dancer. It was a summer love which resolved into pregnancy and an unexpectedly happy marriage. They did not have a lot in common except their shared interest in studying archaic lore, texts and histories. When Vitya was young, both his parents would read him bedtime stories of folk legends and mythos from their respective countries.

He was a “half”, mixed genetically and perhaps it was due to this odd recessive gene somewhere Vitya was an albino, colorless except his blue bright eyes and red lips. It was partially due to his unusual looks he was bullied during school. The main reason he’d been bullied was because of his taking ballet at his mother’s insistence.

However, Vitya did not wish to become a dancer.

He moved to Moscow and tested for the CCDPD as soon as he reached the age requirement. It was the only way he knew how to live, to find her.

He remembered when his dream first occurred, then re-occurred from time to time of a Furia. Always the same dream.

Unlike his parents’ stories she was beautiful, not the ugly hag of retribution he'd heard about.

Surrounded by a golden light. It hurt his light-sensitive eyes.

The Furia wore a suit of intricately-worked armor so fine and form-fitting it was dazzling. Beneath the golden plate, she wore a tightly-wound body suit. Her head was covered by a white battle helm. Eyes an impossible green, so fierce and bright Vitya had to look away. She was terrible to look at, her body under its golden armor and clawed gloves incomprehensible to him.

She smiled, looking down at Vitya.

What a terrible smile to behold.

“Let us seek justice and clean this land."

“Yes,” was all he could say. Resentment and vengeance simmered inside him...

When he woke he realized he was weeping, but he didn’t care. Devotion to her kept him true to his sworn duty.

But one day Vitya hoped to find her. He kept looking for signs of her existence. She'd know him.


2046 current day

Vitya rested for five minutes in front of the station, and sat on his own in a doorway, hunched up, hands twitching, smoking a cigarette. There was a taste of bile in his mouth that would not go away, and his eyes kept watering. He was looking for signs of their existence. The monsters. For all the sickness and fear he felt, now more than ever he knew his dream --the only one that mattered-- was right. He just had to be brave enough to look.

“Wha-” Vitya muttered as he got up and crushed the stub underfoot. His unit’s dispatch officer ran up smartly.

“There’s been a disturbance called in at this abandoned nightclub. It’s on your beat, can you go there now?”

Vitya checked his charts. Soric Street was close to the tunnels.

“Clear. Heading for the nightclub on Soric Street, sir.”

The communications officer nodded, and walked back into the station as started speaking quickly into his earpiece as he adjusted the tuning dial. But by then, Vitya was already thumping away down the street toward the underground.

Quick, long strides took Vitya past the city center, through the warrens of its habitats, and into its periphery full of warehouses and seedy clubs. His job was to follow orders and make a good job of it, too. That was a cop’s job. In simple terms. In black and white. That was the duty. And Vitya was nothing if not a slave to duty.

In the dim light of the club, Vitya tripped and fell flat on his face. His pistol bounced away into the shadows. He cursed his stupid self and looked back at what he’d fallen over.

He froze.

He’d tripped over a woman. She was dead, exploded, ripped apart in the club around. Vitya slowly perceived the other bodies in the darkness. Two others, all dead. All women. Dressed as night butterflies, for hire.

“Oh sh-,” he mumbled and reached for his tech wallet. Then he froze again. Above the smell of soot and blood, he could suddenly detect a stink like rancid milk.

He glanced up and saw them slithering toward the bled-out bodies. Though two, they moved sinuously as one. Their eyes no longer human as they sank their human teeth into the female body farthest from him. Feeding on the meat, flesh. Warped.

For a moment, Vitya almost let his camo jacket drop so they could see him. He could kill them while hidden in the shadows. But he knew they would smell him before long. His fear, it was there to keep him on his toes, forcing his stomach to twist. He took a deep breath—the fear deep in his bowels, his gut, his throat.

He’d never believed Rougarou existed. Heard stories, bragging from the other men as they cleaned their kits, but never saw the cannibals for himself. The pair were smartly dressed, and looked like normal people of the functioning society, except the two men were feasting on the dead woman they killed, blood and guts smearing their suits. It was a genuinely terrifying display of speed, hunger and aggression.

Vitya reached for his fallen pistol, but it was too far away. Rolling, he wrenched out his back-up, a long-nose standard issue railgun.

He fired it...
Edited by Lih, Jul 27 2018, 10:32 PM.

[Jacinda]

Costa had been taking a smoke when the message came in from the dispatch officer. God damnit! he thought as he put out his cigarette. He'd just lit up. Things were damned expensive, too.

Lih was off, of course, heading down to the call. All duty, that one. Good cop, though maybe a bit stiff. He'd learn to relax.The guy knew better too. Never go without backup. Well, he was coming.

He started hoofing it down to the old club. Just as he got close, her heard a gun shot. All out sprint closed the distance. He drew his weapon, fingered off the safety, and carefully peeked his head around the corner.

Clear. He headed in, quiet like, making sure there were no surprises.

He turned a corner and stopped. Lih was there, gun drawn, trying to hold a bead on two men. They were spreading out to either side of him. Their faces were covered in blood, as were their clothes.

"Freeze!"
He said, pointing to one of the men. He radioed in. "Shots fired. Need backup."
He saw the bodies. They were dead. Well, at least one of them was. "We need a bus too."


The two men eyed him and Lih. In the dark he could see the yellow eyes. Even standing still, they seemed ready to explode. What the hell were they? One of them started to walk closer to him. It seemed to flow, movements graceful like a cat.

"I said freeze! You ok, Lih?"

[Lih]

Vitya Lih missed.

His beamed shot rang past its target and curved down the end wall of the room. He banged his shoulder into the coat rack behind him as he took a big step back into the entry corridor. Lih stared warily into the far end of the room.

It seemed the two cannibals were too focused on feeding to notice either silent snipe, or Lih.

"Damn," he said, under his breath; throat rough from the stomach acid.

His heart was beating fast like he was on a chemical rush. The fear was deep in him, lodged like a knife, nicking his ribs, his heart, his lungs, making them deflate so he couldn't draw a proper breath.

Lih lowered his weapon. And tried to lower his breathing rate along with it. His chest was tight.

He sucked air through his teeth and made his railgun safe, then locked it to the carry slot on his suit. The muzzle sensor of Lih's heavy weapon disengaged with the augmented target lens in his left eye. Good. He didn't need the distraction of pairing with the railgun.

The overheads of the club lights were motion sensitive to conserve power, but they didn't light up at all. Why weren't the sensors working? Lih wondered as he clinically appraised his situation. There was some light from the dirt crusted windows reinforced with mesh wire, which formed pale, luminous rectangles on the stained floor.

Stupid. The nerves were making him stupid. He tasted bile in his mouth and swallowed, hard. His railgun was too much gun to use for close interior work. It was tight. No wonder his sensor guided aim couldn't lock on its target properly.

A standard issue pistol --like the one he dropped -- was the preferred clearance weapon of choice. It was a matte black, lightweight, automatic handgun manufactured under CCD contract by defense R&amp;D. Easy to draw, to arm, and to hold in a one hand grip. His trusty personal weapon had rolled to one corner. Its muzzle was all black oil, a dull sheen in the dimness, taunting him.

He reached into his pocket and unpopped the weathercase of his digital wallet. Lih deftly checked its screen and made the correct selection.

Of course he would. That would be the smart thing to do. The approved thing. That would be CCDPD. Hopefully Costa would come soon.

"Backup needed," he sub-vocalized his details into the wallet which picked up his words via the motions of his throat cords. His lens flickered, faintly glowing eyes were trained upon the two shapes in the distance; his hands shaking despite himself.

He dove for his automatic pistol and quickly turned up the pistol gun toward the two men. His movements drew notice from the side wall sensors that flooded the room with fluorescent lighting. Lih's lens red-flagged the sudden movement from the yellow eyed cannibals in front of him, looking at him with interest, exposed in full unflattering light.

Out of the corner of his eyes, movement in the doorway but he didn't move his point of view. His lens already recognized his cover point as neutral. Ally or allies. His CCDPD backup got here quicker than expected.

Lih heard his partner -- recognized his strong voice--behind him telling them to freeze. He turned to face Costa and was about to shout out a warning.

"Yea... Costa! They ... they eat people!"

... when the cannibals made their move.

Vitya Lih
Officer of CCDPD

[Jacinda]

The bigger one ran at Costa. He felt the recoil as he emptied his clip into the thing- The fuck did Lih say? A cannibal?!?!? His heart was racing a million miles an hour. Time seemed to compress.

And he hit the thing. A bunch of times. But it was a tank. Even as red blossomed his chest, adding more crimson to what had already been on his clothes, his legs kept pumping. Costa dropped the empty clip, felt it slam back in and got off one more shot when the thing slammed into him.

He was on the ground, back of his head ringing, as the man-whatever was writhing, smearing blood all over him, teeth snapping, hands tearing.

Even with the body armor, it hurt. And if it succeeded in going for his eyes, his face or his ears, that was it.

Costa fought as hard as he could. It was just so strong!!!

[Lih]

Costa's shots didn't miss. He had hit one of the men, once, then again, point blank. Two thunderclap sounds. The shots made flashes so bright Lih's lens auto-tinted. Lih could smell the burnt metal where the rounds cut through.

Through the smoke, Lih saw the recoil punch his partner's wrist. He saw the man -and the wall opposite Costa -detonated. Blowback fumes stung his face and choked him.

He stood blinking for a second, handgun gripped and armed, ears ringing. One moment Lih and Costa stood there, framed in the harsh square of the overhead lights, and the next ...

Lih adjusted his lens to clear his anti glare vision and aimed his main weapon. The fear was looping inside him like a snake biting it's own tail. But, more than his fear - he hated the surprised look on Costa's face as the bigger armor plated man went down, was attacked, struck down with incredible speed by the person he'd successfully shot.

No, that man wasn't human.

So who knows what kind of bodies, and limits these cannibals had?

"Costa? Costa!"

This shouldn't be possible... he wanted to believe that. But it would be best not to be careless.

Even Lih realized that.

He wanted to save Costa, to help his partner, but didn't have a clear shot without also potentially hitting Costa. The distance between Lih and Costa made only looking hard to bear. Lih wanted to save his partner, but even if he betted both their lives on this fight, he wasn't sure what he and Costa could do against this type of superhuman strength.

Though the situation had already developed so far, there were still things he didn't know. But, even so, he couldn't go back to the station now to confirm these things. In order to save his partner, he had to go do what he could.

It would make a hard to believe report...

From the angry gaze of the bloody man sweeping toward him, Lih could feel a fury that made his entire body go numb. He fixed the course of his hand pistol at the rapidly advancing man, after adjusting for the changes he noticed. Rat-tat-tat of his automatic hand pistol spat the rounds from its disposable magazine strip.

His steady shots pierced the man in an instance. Its spray of bullets described an arc into his core and blew him away.

But this didn't fend him off for long.

Something was going to happen that he had no choice but to face.

Vitya Lih
Officer of CCDPD

[Jacinda]

Costa desperately fended the man off as best he could. His heart pounded, panic gripping him. Shit shit shit shit!!!!! This was a wild animal in a frenzied attack, not a man, a dog, a lion, or a wolf, savaging at him. His hands gripped its wrists, doing everything they could to keep them away from his neck or eyes.

He was a large man, in his 30s and well built. And yet even as his muscles strained, it was only just barely successful, only a matter of time. The thing was inhumanly strong.

Even more pressing was its face. He swing his head back and forth, trying to avoid those yellowed teeth. Its forehead slammed into his mouth and Costa felt teeth break on the sickly skin, tongue rip on the exposed jagged edges. Salty iron filled his mouth. The pain was excruciating.

He spat at the creature, catching its eye. It struggled wildly, headbutting him again, this time the nose. His eyes watered as a new wave of agony swept over him.

Still he hung on, tried to knee the creature in the groin, in the thigh, tried to roll him over. Anything. Fuck fuck fuck!!!!

The things face reared back and Costa turned his head to avoid another direct hit, exposing the side of his neck and ear.

And that's when it latched on. He felt his ear tear away as the thing ripped into him, at his neck.

Desperately, he let go, tried to grab it by its neck, to push it way, freeing its hands.

[Lih]

The motion sensor lights were still on, but during the fight the metal shutters were broken and swinging limply about, making the light in the room come and go, as if clouds were racing by overhead. Patches of grey and white light shifted uneasily around one another across the shredded plasterwork, scabby walls and terrible, debris ruined floor. Halfway down the hallway near the exit, Lih stood alone, clearly upset, his partner’s yells behind him echoed uncomfortably in his mind.

Chilled by Costa’s scream, Lih tensed but kept his aim steady, sweeping. He’d seen something in the shadows. Something skittered through his periphery scope beside him. Sudden movement...

The cannibal Lih shot got up and started to shudder. Lih thought for a moment he had burst the man open behind his bloody mask, but then he realized the man was sniggering. A sneer.

Lih hesitated for a second. This man, this creature, had an air about him, a fire that seemed to blaze with unnatural power, something that said he was more than just dangerous. Dangerous was too small a word to contain him, as if he just now barely regained control over his rippled flesh and feral anger, something Lih didn’t want to see again. The man made direct and immediate eye contact without flinching. His eyes were open, slots of yelled irises and small, black pupils staring filmily out of the bloody face; his eyes were staring right at Lih. His staring eyes seemed to loom at Lih in the phosphor-white glow of the room. Lih could see—

Nothing. There was nothing to see!

Lih remembered his breathing and his visual checking.

He looked around as he withdrew, stepped back and panned his weapon around.

“What in the name of Light are you?” Lih spat out an oath.

Then he let out an exclamation of horror, and recoiled. Near at hand, Costa had crumpled in the blood stained dust around him, his scalp a bloody flap as if savaged with a razor, only the big thing attacking Costa had closed his jaws around the meat of his ear and worried like a scavenger loose in the enveloping pool of blood. The poor bastard. He was striking in a CCDPD-recruiting-poster kind of way: angular chin, high cheekbones and eyes that radiated trust and courage. Lih wondered if Costa could ever smile that easy, disarming smile which had won Lih over.

That was when the enemy close to him had left the prone Costa’s body. Both men ran at him. Sly and well-coordinated, the two monsters slipped into the shadows and ruined rubble of the tiled floor. Lih watched them for a moment, admiring the cannibals’ discipline and use of what cover there was. They moved silently around the flank and pounce on Lih, the shooter who covered the doorway.

Lih watched and waited. He waited until the bulky, broad man with receding hair and a black goatee on his boxer’s jaw had drawn in close and entered a very reliable range. Then he shot him through the left eye. The eye of a beast, torn open and oozing, as Lih’s shot bored deep, penetrated to the brain, and set it toppling backward to its death. Lih let him fall.

He waited for the enemy to stir, but there was no movement. His round had hit the man square in the eye, the face with such force that it cannoned his body back into Costa. Their heads stuck hard with a crack, and they both stayed down.

A second late, dazed and unable to move from shock, Lih saw the other, short man -- he had a thin face and even thinner mouth --coming to a halt at hearing the shot, and, now forewarned, snuck around to get the drop on the lone cop.

The man kicked Lih’s legs out from under him, and the slender officer fell with a loud curse, his hand pistol flew off with the effort. He struck at Lih, who felt sharp knuckles batter at his ribcage. He rolled the way Costa had taught him when they practiced hand-to-hand in training. He broke free and planted his fist in the other man’s face. The cannibal lurched backwards, blood and mucus spraying from his broken nose. The man sputtered and pulled out a long, narrow blade.

“The fuck-?” Lih sprang up as the man with the sword came at him. The agile cop dipped to one side, caught the man’s wrist, and broke it. Taking hold of the long blade, he slid it across the man’s throat in a single, unsentimental sweep. Arterial blood squirted out and covered him in massive quantities.

He dropped the twitching corpse and slammed the sword down between the shoulder of the gasping man. Impaled on his weapon, the man fell on his face.

Gods above! Lih had killed the monsters. This thought alone contented him. He felt as if he had passed some advanced test. Not only had he tasted battle and killed them both, but he had slain the most dreaded of enemies.

Then Lih remembered, and pushed his way through the huddle of fallen enemy and civilian bodies, ignoring the slick, hot pain in his left leg; the damp warmth around the side of his fatigue breeches and the side of his body.

Costa lay on the tiles, bleeding out from a ghastly wound on his face. Lih knelt in the blood pooling around the enemy that he’d killed, and cradled the injured cop’s head, checking Costa’s vitals with his lens scan.

He was still alive.

Lih had dropped to his knees beside his partner, loosening the armor plates around his throat, his chest, and binding the bloody wounds. He worked fast, with a military man’s practiced skill, struggling to stop the man’s life from leaking away. He threw aside three or four field dressing packs as they became saturated with blood. The sodden bundles of medical packing splatted into the pond of blood on the floor and pattered fat drops up the wall.

Costa made a gurgling noise. Blood bubbled around his drawn lips.

His hands red and wet, Lih looked up at Costa and shook his head.

“Be calm, my friend,” he replied with a sad smile, "We need to move.”

Very slowly, he let the man’s head rest back onto the tiled floor.

Lih looked up at the ceiling, and ran his gaze calmly along the walls.

There! He found a hiding place for them.

Lih reached up and pulled the latch wide, uncoupled the bar, inserted it into the inner socket, and heaved on it again. The hatch seals released. The stink was incredible. But it was safe here in case there were more outside. He imagined others, scrawny shadows in the night, drawn in by the whine of their CCD auto-pistols, smelling the fresh blood and bodies, like vermin scavengers. He shook his head in disbelief and turned away; he set off to investigate.

Lih went in first. It was black as pitch. With Costa behind him on a temporary sling across his back, Lih slowly picked his way inside, carrying Costa into the cellar-hatch, imagining small horrors before his night vision flickered on. No fireman carry for Costa-- not with his dwindling strength and current state of exhaustion. The first time he’d had to fight for his life like so...

He sat down beside Costa and leaned back against back of the cellar.

Sitting there, in the tight dark walled space, covered in blood and smelling of raw sewage, he felt a strong, unbidden sense of the divine, stronger than he’d ever known in worship, or daily blessing, or even during sermons. For a moment or two in that desolate place, Lih had an oddly intense feeling that She was watching over him. Perhaps it was fate, thought Lih.

The link pipped. They could hear a thin, crackled voice in their jeweled earpieces. “-okay? I repeat, section five, signal back. Costa? Lih? Signal—“

… the channel went dead. But the locator on Lih’s wallet sent out a strong beam, a tracker linked to the station.

“That was Mike,” said Lih. “Shit, that was Mikhail.”

He sent over, “Mike? It’s Lih. Are the medics with you still?”

There was a long pause, then, the link came back to life, stronger signal this time “Yes.”

“Fuck’s sake, Mike. Send a cab… it’s Costa… but watch how you go,” he advised, in a clipped accent “we’ve smoked two aggressors here but there are corpses and could attract more."


Edited by Lih, Yesterday, 4:23 PM.

[Jacinda]

Costa's face throbbed, a pulsing fired searing him, making it difficult to focus. The thing had left him and Costa struggled to get up, to help Lih. He'd tried to roll over and push up and the pain in his left arm nearly made him pass out. Broken. Had to be. Damn! He tried to go the other way, heard more fire, and then something fell on him, the back of its head smacking him in the nose- which, of course, had already been ruined earlier. So there was that burst of agony to add to the list. And his head smacking the concrete so hard he saw stars.

All in all, a fucked up day.

And then there was Lih, pushing the thing off him, helping him up, He leaned on his partner, his head swimming.

*

They couldn’t stay put, not there. Even if it hadn’t been for the menace that slowly advanced toward them, the thing that bit Costa had left him sick and shaking, and eager to get out.

In the dark, he heard a faint noise, a discernible click, then thick, nauseating sounds outside. 

He froze as he looked at the hatch door, gun raised, praying there weren’t more of the assailants, or worse. In the half light, Lih’s night-mode lens could see Costa’s own lips were pinched and white, fighting back a cry of his own. 

There was a very human cry of pain from beyond their hiding place.

Realizing what was happening, Costa clamped his hand over Lih’s mouth. Blood pattered onto the tiled floor. 

After a moment, Lih felt Costa take his hand away. There was no more sign of whoever made the noises. 

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” he gasped.

“It’s fine,” Costa whispered.

“Your wounds…” 

“It’s fine,” Costa repeated. His face had to hurt. The cannibal had bitten a large chunk out of his ear, and cheek. Now he smelled of blood, Lih stank of the sweat the tension had engulfed them in...

Lih put his hand up to the micro-bead jeweled plug in his ear. 

He listened for a moment, then rose to his feet. “Something’s awry with our backups ..."

*

Costa, leaning on his partner, heard the fear in his voice. He steadied himself. He couldn't expect Lih to carry his lazy ass the whole way. This was quite literally a shit hole and Costa had no desire to die here. Lih had done a good enough job that he wasn't gonna bleed out right at this moment. He tried to go into his pocket and his busted arm protested. "Help me get my stim," he whispered. He needed the hit bad. The crash would hurt like a mother fucker when it came. But that's what they were for. Strength. Clarity. Pain relief.

The small tab dissolved on his tongue and he felt the agony lessen. It wasn't gonna go away completely, but it was enough. He could focus a bit more and felt his limbs tingling with chemical induced power. He wasn't running any marathons, but he could stand on his own, now.

The ear the thing had ripped away had contained his jewel so he wasn't plugged into dispatch. "What's going on?"

[[with lih]]

[Lih]

Lih looked as if he was about to say something then just shook his head.

He didn’t like to say it. But they couldn’t stay here. The snake in his belly was back. If they stayed put, the monsters would find them. They need to link up with the called-in help and get clear. It was a good decision. One he was proud of.

But Lih, like many others, discovered that rational decisions were far more easily made than carried out.

So the cop did what he had not done since joining the CCDPD.

He reached up to the jewel, found the tiny disengaging pin, and pried it to the side, then down. His micro-bead went dead— Lih had removed his implant. With one smooth motion, Lih plugged his inactive jewel into Costa’s working ear and switched the interface back on.

“ran into two women near you … out of range. We just can’t pick them up, not even Doc Sonia. Something’s wrong. Can you hurry to the last location we made contact and check on your backups?"

The doctor was technically a non-combatant, but Doc Sonia had guts and she was fit and it was essential they had a medic with them. Lih knew they’d have to look for her, for Costa’s sake, then he’d have to keep a special eye out for her safety, even though she had undergone intensive field training as part as the CCDPD’s unit.

Costa had reached a similar conclusion as Lih.

“I’ll walk you.”

Lih got up, holstered his weapon, and hoisted Costa to his feet, unceremoniously. He got an arm looped under Costa’s armpit. He tried not to hurt his partner too much with their sudden movements.

Costa was pretty messed up even after taking the stim pill. Lih wasn’t sure how much help Costa could be in a fight, even if Costa’s head no longer swam from the agony. After the grievous injuries he’d taken, Costa was no longer darkly handsome— in that straight-backed, broad, powerful way — but he now looked murderous.

Now that Lih had his partner propped up against him, Costa drew a chunky weapon which was locked to his backplate.

“I could take that,” Lih offered.

“Get stuffed.”

“You’ll still have the pistol.”

They shuffled to the hatch door slowly like two men in a three-legged race. Lih cracked the door, looked out into the hall, then led the way, shouldering Costa along. He had his auto-pistol sweeping.

He led them to the front exit, out into a dingy alley that led back along a series of abandoned clubs and drinking establishments. Filthy water gurgled down the central gutter.

Lih put away his pistol and checked his updated map. He pointed to a pinned area further down and was about to whisper to Costa, when a side door toward their destination opened and a woman peeked her head out and smiled.

He looked to Costa for guidance whether Lih should walk them down toward the woman.

[Jacinda]

Costa was surprised at Lih's action. Still, he was grateful. He was getting intel now. He was a good kid. Always tryin. Poor bastard prolly thot this was all his fault too. Always trying to do more. Costa had to get out of this for his wife and kids. But for the kid too. Guilt from thinkin he'd gotten his partner killed would paralyze him forever.

He shoved forward. Well ok. He shifted leaning on Lih. Stim or no, he'd taken it hard. Lost a lot of blood. Still, he moved on.

Soon they were outside. He was watching for backup. The doc. Anyone.

And then he saw her. "Stop." He wispered to Lih. Girl was a wreck. He tried not to see she was only a few years older than his daughter. Was getting tougher, tho, as Sabrina grew up. The burden of knowledge and all that shit.

She saw them and ran back the direction she musta come. An old club. He used the jewel comm to indicate where they were goin. Carefully he stood on his own, ignoring Lih's concern. "I got this kid. You just have my back." 

Weapon in hand, he headed down the direction she went. The stim did its job. He felt good. Body wasnt as responsive, but it was enough. A look at Lih, then in one direction, kid the other. Clear. He paused, listening.

Then he indicated where to go. Down a hall, likely to the back room of a manager. They passed restrooms on the way and had to clear them too. Finally, in front of the door, he looked at Lih. "Ready?"

Door flung open, weapons raised, he froze.

The girl and another were there, hair all wild, bodies dirty and faces filled with fear. And at least two children, maybe 2 years old.

"Fuck" was all Costa could say.