Lesson 2 A

18th of July 2006

The morning felt humid and misty. It almost seemed to look as if I had pissed in my pants while sleeping, but thing is, as soon as I was up on my feet, I saw the open entrance door. There was rain pouring lazily as if it were only forced to do so. What was even more disturbing yet, though, was the fact that the street only had one parked car; and that was ours. There were no other cars passing by, and neither was there a single pedestrian.

I closed the door while looking around me. Now I only needed to make Kristy clean this up; hopefully she was still here and had not deserted. I went up the stairs—slippery despite being unpolished—and knocked on her door.

“Yes?” She looked as if she’d not slept all night. Rather, she looked as if she did not need to sleep at all. Her hair was neatly tied in a ponytail, she was already wearing the usual jeans and pink t-shirt, and she—as usual—had the sharp and yet large hazel eyes staring into oblivion.

“No, nothing…”

“And what if I were asleep?” she snarled. “You’d just make me wake up for nothing, faggot!” She blinked and shoved the door closed.

I knocked again. “Well, actually there’s a little thing I have to ask of you.”

The door brusquely opened itself. “What is it?”

“Is it normal that a locked door has mysteriously opened in the rain and waken me up?”

“Hey, it’s not my problem that you always sleep in the living room,” she mumbled. She stepped away and told me to come in. “Besides, not our first time we have had theft, isn’t it? Probably Mike or—“ She cleared her throat. “No, actually, only Mike could’ve done that.” I knew she meant Sammy, but since he’s dead, she can’t blame him.

“Mike’s away too, you know.”

“Oh, right. That leaves only you and me,” she snapped. “Who can it be?” She spoke mockingly in a singsong tone. Honestly, Kristy could stop being a dolt for once and be serious; no, actually, forget that. Thinking makes her even worse.

“You know… Mike’s gonna’ be coming back home today. Mind accompanying me to the airport?”

“He’s a big boy, he can find his way.” Was it just I, or did I see her grin? “Anyway, what about the money? I don’t want to be living in an old broken apartment somewhere close to the Port with 17 other people.” She was referring to all 17 Clan members. Also, that old Port of Gateway was quite astonishing; it dated from back when Gateway was but a small port town free of criminals. The Port also seemed to put most buyers off, as its apartments were the cheapest and the oldest.

“Most importantly,” she continued, “is that unknown Clan.”

“How do you think we can get to them?”

“I have no idea…” She popped her fingers and yawned. “Have anything to eat? We might conduct some sort of search with Mike… besides, he comes back… now, no?” She had an alarm clock in her room. Yes, it did say that it was 10:00, the time when Mike’s airplane is landing. And yes, I did look surprised while she was rather calm but still the same way: unrefined but seeming as if she was constantly waiting for a response.

“Let’s go?” That question was a desperate attempt at escaping this bloody wet house. I had no idea how it had happened, but we were either robbed or the door had just simply opened by itself. Kristy nodded.

“Despite the fact that I said that I do not need to go fetch him at the airport,” Kristy started with her usual ‘business’ voice, “I believe it’d be better to research with him, as it will be faster. Besides, Mike has knowledge of every book there is…”

“Okay, let’s go!”


-~-
Later that evening


Did I tell you how I hate waiting? Now that we were waiting here in the middle of Gateway for Mike to arrive, on those uncomfortable benches they have. Kristy had just given me something to drink, but heck was she in a bad mood also.

“It’s humid in here too!” she snarled. “Now I hope Mike made enough money in Saikan to pay the bills… and the twenty-five thousand moolah.”

“Moolah?”

“Shut the hell up you city rat…” She sighed, and chugged that coke down in a matter of seconds. “Anyway, was it me that is mistaken or is Mike’s airplane late?”

”He has to go through inspection.”

“Inspection my ass! We all know everybody has a fricken’ hack on himself nowadays…” She picked up the coke that was supposed to be mine, but was obviously claimed as hers, and chugged that too. “Besides, they rarely catch something. It’s usually always illegal!”

“Can you buy me another coke, Miss I-Can-Chug-Two-Cokes? —“

Ignoring me, she jumped off her seat and yelled, “Oh, Mike’s here! Miiiiikeee!! Over here! Yo!” She waved her hands in the air like a retard. Heck, I could also see Mike, that scoundrel who enjoys wearing t-shirts about how good smoking is.

Now let me explain to you who Mike actually is.

American Male, age 16, brown hair, black eyes… smoker, nerd, member of the Falcons, idiot, Kristy’s main source of entertainment, skilled with hacking, laughs at flaming… all that jazz.

The problem was that Kristy lives off that guy. She doesn’t like him, heck no, but she somehow loves to hate him. In truth, he was like the clown of the Clan, and Kristy had simply recruited him because he was ‘funny’. Yet again, he showed some skill in hacking. That was all I needed to promote him to the Moderator rank that makes part of the Falcon’s “Elites.”


“Hey!” Mike arrived, sat down near us and chucked his luggage on Kristy’s purse that was set on the floor. “Hey Kristy, how’s it going girl? And could somebody get me a coke? I’m fucking thirsty.”

“Hey Mike,” said Kristy with fake enthusiasm.

“Hey.” I went to pick Kristy’s purse up and take some money from her wallet—I had no wallet myself at the moment—and left so I could buy Mike and myself a coke. I would’ve only bought one if it weren’t for Kristy’s addiction to caffeine…

“So how’s life?”

“Not cool, man. Not cool.”

Mike sat down and waited for his coke as if it were common to hear bad news from Kristy. “How so?”

“Sam’s dead, we got a house to clean up and… Blizzard’s got 25,000 on our heads.” She accompanied that with a cheerful smile. “Fun, no?”

“You gotta be kiddin’ me…”

“Apparently, that’s what I said.”


I came back and tossed a coke at Mike. “Well, and we also got the Confeds after us. Along with a Clan with no name… No joke.” I sat down at my initial place and watched Mike’s reaction.

He didn’t do anything.

“Okay!” Kristy’s sudden outburst made us both flinch. “Mike and I will search in the lab while you,” she pointed her slender white finger at me and gave me a look, “You will search outside.”

“And where’s that?”

“The 2 kilometer radius around the Clan house, duh? It has to be a neighboring Clan. I mean; who in their right mind would try to kill a Clan they can’t possibly have anything to do with?” She cleared her throat. “Oh, and Mike, what did you bring, what did you do?”

Mike stayed quiet for a while. “I went fishing in Saikan… I also brought some drugs and cigs.” Kristy coughed. “I know ya don’t like the idea if importing illegal drugs, but we also might sell ‘um and pay off our dept. You ain’t got much choice, anyway. Those bitches at Blizzard won’t even know how to come back at us!”

“Other than assassinate us.”

Kristy stopped her response and Mike shut up instantaneously. After all, even though they don’t seem to be the obedient types at first glance, they’re still obedient to their masters by some tie of respect.