Slowly, tires crunched over bits of strewn rubble and stone, the TX6600 came to a lumbering stop, the idle echoing through a darkened alley then, silence, a door, boots to pavement, and the sudden flare of a lighter. Boots then do the crunching across the rubbled road and head for the main street. A thin trail of smoke was exhaled and followed along behind the one eyed man. The two sliding doors were reached, the cigarette pulled and snubbed; yet kept. Placing it behind his ear he slipped in the doors, the small hush of wind blowing away tiny bits of trapped sand. An indigo blue eye flitted about; the perusal was defensive, wary. A hand lifted, running through long banged, spiky topped hair. The other resting just on the lip of his opened long, black overcoat. Boots met the tiled floor in an open gait, heading to the door that leads to the cafeteria.She burst through the door shaking the rain off her the coat she had pulled up over her head. "Doesn't make a good shower." Kait threw the coat into a pile on the floor.
His stride carried him past the food counter and directly to the table. His usual spot, away from the crowd, under the flicking light, in the corner.
Kait scowled at the disappearing back of Cyclops. "What a gentleman, doesn't offer an umbrella or nothing." More grumbles escape pressed lips as she made her way towards the cafeteria.
A hand slipped inside his jacket, wrapping fingers around a bottle. Pulling it from his coat, he leaned back, slowly twisting at the cap.
She found a seat, an unoccupied one at the table Cyclops has claimed as his own.
The pilfered bottle of whiskey was tipped to lips and then set between his legs.
Without a word, how strange for this girl, she drops a bundle onto the table in front of him.
The eye roved over the dropped stuff, yet the head and body remained still.
An elbow was cocked on the table and her bony chin fell into the palm of her upraised hand and she waited.
There was a slight cough as he peruses the charges in the pile, his voice unusually smooth, yet still quiet. "Bout time."
"Oh and you are welcome too." Kait was in a wet and foul mood.
He pawed at his ruck that he had sling over his shoulder when he came in, now on the floor. Placing them in one at a time, checking the timer of each as he did so. "What'd it cost us?"
She didn't think she would actually get a 'Thank you' but hey, she was delusional some days. "A shower card and a some of the dried apple seeds I've been saving."
A nod was given, his breath blown upwards to tangle with his bangs. "Not bad." There was a beat of time between his words. "What else?" He knew there must have been some kind of promise made.
Not bad? She huffed, damn good if you ask her. "And that you don't kill him."
He reached for the bottle then, took a sip and he grunted. "As long as he stays outta my way."
Without turning her head she looked at him cockeyed. "That won't be difficult." She nodded towards the bottle. "What's that?"
"Oh?" A tilt of his head as he watched for her body language then he just shook his head in answer to her question.
Kait made a subject change. She was irritable, bad to stay on some subjects. "A well. That's what you are, but a dry one." She found the wall very amusing right now.
Lyghtess made her way into the cafeteria. Her shoulder hurt like blazes and, of course, the only hospital in the area would be out of Oexin.
Now Zac changed the subject on her. "Seen our fixit friend as of late?"
"I need another shower card." She looked at him. "Hmm, what? Putter-mutter, nope."
He fished in his jacket, pulling one that he had traded for. "Here." He tossed it like the winning card in a hand of poker.
She blinked, stunned, very stunned. He'd never been that generous before. "Wow."
His eye flitted up towards Lyghtess for a second, then back to Kait.
Kait grabbed it before the opportunity passed her by and tucks in her pocket. "Good-bye stinks."
Lyghtess finished the bowl up, then stood and dropped it in the trash. She poured a glass of water, her eyes casting over Zac. Her brow furrowed, then she went back to her table, holding her bad arm in her jacket.
He nodded in the general direction of Lyghtess but his voice softly addressed Kait. "She got a story?"
Kait looked up at Cyclops, looking him over, speaking to herself. "Wonder if he's only able to shave half his face." And then a bit louder, now speaking to him as she looked over her shoulder to the lady. "She probably does."
He kicked her from under the table and took another drink. "Find out for me when ya get a chance." She sneered but didn't whine about it, yet. "Since you ask so nicely." Rubbing her bruised shin.
Lyghtess tapped her fingers on the tabletop. Feeling rather restless, she took out her laptop. She put it upon the table and began working out code to stave off the boredom and the pain. She set a pair of glasses with one cracked lens, on her nose. Typing out code, she was oblivious to the interaction between Zac and Kait. She didn't even realize she was mumbling to herself out loud. "Ahh, so you weren't treated either, huh?" She scribbled a few notes then peered at the screen, eyes narrowed. "Sinclairr?"
He twisted the cap back onto the bottle, slowly. His fingers wiped away some of the dust that caked its way onto the neck.
Kait glanced at the lady again. "Oh Cyclops, she's got one of those thingy's you after."
He nodded at Kait's comment. "That's why I want ya to fond out what ya can." He shook his head, muttering. "Shit for brains."
She turned on Cyclops. "One-eyed freak."
His hand snapped out amazingly fast, gripping at the thinness of her neck suddenly. He pulled her close, her left side going a bit numb. "Pardon?" His teeth gnashed to accentuate his question.
Kait eyes grew wide, both hand gripping his wrist, and coughing. "One-eye is neat?"
He let go, forcing a smirk to crack his stony visage. The blink would have been a wink if he had two eyes. "That's what I thought."
"For the love of, whatever you love!" It was getting entirely too hard to breathe. She brushed her hands over her neck when her released it. "Freak much?"
He shot her a dangerous eye. "Die much?"
"Not much, only once." Then the meaning of his words became clear in her brain and she shrank back away from him.
Lyghtess had continued with her conversation with the laptop, making notes and chuckling. Leaning back she tucked a cigarette into her mouth and patted pockets in search of her lighter. She was unaware of Zac's eyes on her.
His head tilted, reaching for his own lighter as if by instinct. He rose suddenly, Kait and her babbling forgotten as he made his way over to Lyghtess, keeping his hand inside his jacket.
She twisted a lock of white hair in her fingers, staring at the computer. Sensing someone approaching she punched a key, making the screen go black and glanced up. "Nice eye."
Zac saw the screen go black and continued his walk but he set the lighter on the table as he passed by on the way to the ambulance bay door.
She watched then picked up the lighter. Out came a screwdriver and took it apart. "Hmm, first series, ordinary Zip-O-matic. Now, when was the last time I saw one of these?" She smiled gleefully as she put it back together. Tucking her computer under her arm, she then light her smoke and walked towards the bays in search of the man who left the lighter.
Kait leaned back in her chair. "And here I am again, talking to myself again. I need to get a pet." She started having a nice conversation with herself. "How was your day? Do anything exciting?" Answering herself. "Well, I got those charges...for a scream. Did pretty good if I say so myself, which I do." On she continued, not giving a damn who was looking. "You did do pretty good. It's not everyday that that happens. You should give yourself a reward or something. But you know Cyclops, he's the one that needs to calm down. He's a bit uptight. What was that getting up and leaving thing? Does he think he is special or something?" She sighed and toyed with a piece of loose plastic on the chair. "Well, this is good." Suddenly she perked up. A wiggle of her brow and a glance down the way Cyclops went to see if the coast was clear and she grabbed his bag and pulled it to her. Diving in, she was going for the full ten points. She was going to find out what his secrets were. "Paper?" Her brows furrowed as she spread them out on the table. Her lips puckered as she got a good look at what was on them then her eyes grew wide. She glanced up, doing a long circle of the room and quickly stuffed the papers back into the bag. Her voice a soft whisper. 'Someone's been naughty." Grabbing a piece of jerky from his bag she then closed and with the toe of her foot, pushed it back in the place it was left. Jerky extended from her smirking face, she leaned back in her chair to wait.
Kait didn't have long to wait. Zac and Lyghtess sparred a bit orally but neither got what they wanted. Zac wondered just how annoyed Asche was going to be when she discovered that Lyghtess had rifled her ambulance in search of Oexin. She'd charged right by him, searching for the drug she wanted, not that she found it. He wasn't ready to make a deal with her yet, no matter how good she claimed to be with her laptop computer. He let her walk away, staying behind to finish his smoke. Soon the embers of the cigarette began to fade so it was flung, end over end to its death. Finding a resting place in the gray dust of rubble and sand. He pushed off the ambulance and made his way back into the hospital. Once back in the cafeteria he nodded to Kait. "Time to go."
Kait smirked, looking all too pleased with herself, even though she had no clue what it is that she was so smirky about. Just knowing that, well, Cyclops has been bad, was good enough.
He motioned to the ruck and nodded. "And grab that."
"Sure." She moved the piece of jerky to the other side of her mouth and grabbed the bag.
He stood, poised at the door, waiting on Kait, his fingers rubbing absently at his eye, his dead one.
"You know I was reading something today and came across something interesting." She made her way towards the door and Cyclops.
He rolled his eyes, thinking another one of her jabbery stories was coming. "Oh really?" He took up his pace to the doors, nodding to Lyghtess as she passed her.
Kait brushed by him, out the door, still talking. She was giddy. "Want to know what it was?"
He forced a rude smile. "Yeah."
"I came across this name, very interesting guy it seems. Raymond Sinclairr." She looked over her shoulder at him. "Very interesting don't you think."
Zac blinked and almost stopped, looking at Kait opened mouthed.
Lyghtess caught the name. "Sinclairr?" A pale brow rose.
His hand instinctively snapped out and cuffed Kait on the back of the head.
She almost did a dance of joy. Shock? Was that Shock on his face? Yes, it was. Her joy fell as his hand connected. "That hurt, you big oaf!
He did not turn to Lyghtess' question. He shook his head and grabbed Kait's arm. "You got some lessons to learn."
"Ouch, arm!" She tried to wiggle free. "About ducking, yeah, I've noticed."
Zac let go and headed to the door. He heard Lyghtess say something about Raymond being blind to the Flintock and stopped once more at the door, listening.
Kait railed at him. "Next time I won't tell you any stories." Not exactly a big threat to him and she knew it. "Or I'll just keep telling you ones about, well, stupid ones." She promised herself that next time she found any strange information found in Cyclops' back, to read it, not just skim it. Her gaze shifted to Lyghtess. "What else was he?"
"Its all in the system, at least the one I found. Interested now?" It was a silly question, Lyghtess knew she had the man's attention.
His fingers slipped inside his coat and he made his way back to Lyghtess.
She held her ground; glasses perched on her nose. "Now, do you want to see what I can do with this computer?"
He nodded once. "One question though."
"What?"
"How in the hell did you access that information? I had deleted it." He admitted openly.
Lyghtess smiled. "You deleted it from their computer. You did not delete it from my source interaction. I tapped into the main frame over the backlog and there it was, with a warning on it. I got past that." She gave a slight shrug. "Kids stuff."
Kait frowned looking from one to the other. "I thought we were leavi… Well." She grumbled and dropped down to the floor.
"Shit." He suddenly barked softly at himself.
"His name came up on my father's database, so I dug and I found out a lot."
Since she obviously had the time, Kait decided she was going to partake in a little light reading. Pulling the first sheet of the printout out she read, didn't skim, read. She puffed at the paper. "Blah, blah, get to the good stuff." She ends up skimming the first page and grabs the second. "Where is the good stuff?"
"Who's yer father?"
Lyghtess looked at Zac. "My great grandfather was Damien Elliot, does that ring a bell?"
Zac gave a one-eyed blink. "Seven?" His glance moved upwards.
She inclined her head. "So I'm told."
Zac backed off and relaxed. "Huh, I'll be damned."
"I'm not talking about this in here anymore. Step outside?"
Zac had a better idea, he offered her a ride and to his surprise she accepted. "Five minutes, out front." His one clear blue eye followed Lyghtess' as she walked back towards the cafeteria. He spun on his heel. "Kid? Let's go."
Kait looked up from her hovel on the floor. "Yo, I'm sitting here." She pulled her feet up out of the way of his stomping boots.
"Fine then, sleep in the streets tonight." He slipped back out the two sliding doors, his coat billowing in his haste.
Grabbing the bag she waved the papers in her hand at him. "Who's Raymond Sinclairr? Damn!" Kait scrambled to her feet, making haste out the door after him. "Am I talking out loud?"
The doors closed silently, and no answer was provided.