(OOC: I posted a character sheet for Storch in the
Master List. He’s going to be my other character, a secondary recurring villain.)
On the other side of town, a grizzled bat flew through the darkness with one eye open. Well...one eye open most of the time. To be honest, it was so dark at this point that he was navigating mostly via muscle memory than by tracking any of the fleeting lit windows or neon signs down below.
A buzz in his pocket roused him from his semi-conscious flight. Murmuring wearily, he fished his smartphone out of his pocket just long enough to activate text-to-speech, hitting a thermal so he could compensate for the loss in height from temporarily occupying a wing. “Phone, read the message.”
It cheerfully chirped the name of the sender: his ex-wife. “
DID YOU DO YOUR WHATEVER?”
“Tell her yes,” Storch wheezed. He always lost his breath by the middle of this particular flight; he couldn’t stop in bars or hostels immediately after a hit, nor could he trust public transportation to deliver him to the outskirts of the city. Combined, that led to a long and thoroughly unpleasant journey into the mountains.
The phone buzzed from a new message. “
WERE YOU PAID?”
“Yes…” Storch gritted his teeth as a flush of cold air chilled him to the bone. His body didn’t hold up like it used to.
“
HOW MUCH?”
He did some mental math. 40,000 credits for the banker, and 10,000 for his lawyer… “Tell her: '30 thousand credits. How much do you need?'”
“
I’D LIKE ALL OF IT, IF POSSIBLE. JOEY’S GOT A COUGH, AND SKYLER REALLY WANTS TO GO TO SPACE CAMP. PLUS MY FOOD STAMPS WERE DENIED.”
Storch sighed. He’d already warned her that would happen if she didn’t get a job. “Space camp, huh?... Tell her I’ll send 40k.”
She didn’t reply again. Storch gratefully saw his cabin up ahead and landed none-too-gently on his second-floor balcony. Limping gingerly through the only entrance that wasn’t booby-trapped, Storch quickly grabbed a matchbox from the kitchen and lit the living room fireplace before collapsing with a weak shudder into an armchair. It would take hours for the flames to warm the room, but just being sheltered from the chill mountain air was enough for now.
He almost fell asleep right then and there, but his combat harness was cutting into his joints. Wincing gruffly, he forced himself to stand and remove his flight uniform despite the draft. Goosebumps quickly covered his skin, his thin greying fur doing little these days to insulate him. He cast a disgruntled look at his feeble hearth; it was supposedly a mechanical fireplace and he’d love to see instant full-power flames like in the commercials, yet he could never get the darn thing to work. “Well, a cold night never killed me before…” he grunted to his sniper rifle, laying it on the drawing table. Tomorrow they’d go hunting for small wildlife to eat, but for tonight he only wanted to sleep.
He was halfway to the bedroom when his phone buzzed repeatedly. His brow furrowed; only his most trusted, highest-paying clients got three buzzes. Sighing and rubbing his eyes, he checked the text.
He recognized the contractors; he’d worked for them in the past. He also recognized the targets; a handsome ferret and heavily-scarred vixen he’d seen on the television a lot. And finally he recognized just how many zeroes were in the bounty. “Jesus almighty…” he breathed, double-checking the details. “
With exclusivity?” His hands shook as he almost dropped the phone. “What in the hell did these two do?”
He glanced at the inky blackness outside his windows and sighed. Looks like he would be going hunting tomorrow...but not for food.
-------------------------------------
Emilena took a deep breath.
Maybe he'll have changed his phone number...he likely switched providers after Lanthae was destroyed. She couldn't decide if she hoped he'd answer or not. She'd changed so much since they last spoke; there may be nothing left of the upstart junior officer he'd always known. Would he be proud of what she'd become? Would he have seen her face splayed across the worldwide news?
She took a deep breath and dialed the numbers. The call went through...though she could only wonder if it was connecting to her intended recipient. "Rucker? If it's you...this is former Officer Echo."
