Rattle n' Cages

  “I'm gunna kill you!” Wizbang screams as he rattles the old tarnished chain link fence of the holding cell. Glitch is on the other side, pointing between his own eyes with a mocking grin on his face; Wizbangs face looks like someone threw a blueberry slurry at his eyes. Bucket just grins; shits being stirred and he's not even involved—or so he thinks.

  “I swear I'll put a bag ova yer heads if yah don't shut it! Bunch of Muppet's...” Mickey's used to a much quieter day in the holding cells, usually he just has to deal with the odd sailor or Specter that had too much to drink, waiting out the borderline alcohol poisoning. You can see the Harbour outside between the wooden plank walls, the sea water gently lapping below. The wooden plank floor has a small foot wide hole in it, the edges of which are stained with stale booze and urine.

  “Look Mickey, he's the only one yelling. Maybe with a bag over his head he might have had a chance with her. Clearly she has good taste in men, she did pick me after all.” Glitch says with a smug self-satisfied smile.

  “This is over a woman? You two beat the shit out of each other when we're out in the field needing assistance, under fire, all because of a woman?” He's not amused by this anymore. The two men look a little sheepish. “Well, who is it?”

  “Nadine.” They both say at the same time.

  “Well no shit...” Bucket says, shaking his head. He feels a dull ache in his forehead, he'll never hear the end of it from the Colonel once she hears. Maybe she won't find out. Ha, maybe...

  “Glitch, I need a scanning script for a bunch of video recordings. 7 cameras, over a week's time, I need to look for potential agents sneaking in off the submarines.” Bucket stands closer to the cell and speaks in a lower tone “And I need to see all footage of Leech for the same time period.”

  “That's a lot, is this some sort of punishment because I got with Nadine before you?” Glitch says with a cocky smile.

  “You were with her before I was in Bio-Purge?” The moment Bucket says the words he regrets it. All he had to do was keep his mouth shut, now he's publicly admitted to doing something that can get him kicked out of the service. All three men look at him with a surprised look.

  “Ha, really Bucket?” Mickey says with a big grin on his face. Mickey starts to speak again but Bucket cuts him off.

  “Anyways, Glitch, can you do it?”

  Glitch narrows his eyes and scowls at Bucket. Running his mouth made Glitch more hesitant to help, but fuck it, he's not going to let Glitch get away to lipping off to him. “Technically, I'm not supposed to be working in here.”

  “Look Glitch, it just happened, and it was before whatever you, or him for that matter had with her. Lives are at stake, will you do it?”

  Glitch lets out a defeated sigh, “Yeah, I guess. You and her aren't still...”

  “Nope.” Well not now, Bucket thinks. Besides, at the rate she's going he would just end up with a bad case of gutter rash.

  “Yeah, rumour is he has another thing on the go.” Wizbang chirps.

  “I saw the video from the control room Wizbang, never in my life have I seen anyone get his ass beat so bad.” Bucket fires back.

  “Oh pissoff!”

  Glitch laughs “Let me see the ghostshades.”

  Bucket reaches over the chain link and drops the ghostshades down. Glitch puts the ghostshades on and starts building his scripts.

  “Keep it under my login, I need to keep an eye on it.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Dammit, he should have kept his mouth shut. Now the rumour’s going to spread and everyone is going to look at what he's doing more closely for the next while. There are no secrets in this place—other than the ones he needs to get to the bottom of.

  But why kill Georgie? He needs to find the killers first. There were at least two of them, Smithy wouldn't say or didn't know who the one was. It just doesn't make sense that it was Laser and Leech. Could he be so blind as to see what's clearly in front of him?

  “Hey I didn't know you ran custom scripts Bucket.”

  “I don't really.”

  “Ha! Nice try, what do you have hidden here hmm? You remember Angel?”

  “Yeah.”

  “They had me scrub her ghostshades once. So she has this encrypted folder that had an original creation date of 2027, of course I have to break it down. I saw they were image files so I just had to have a peak. No idea where she gets this from, but you know how random images like that still pop up and float around. Man, they were freaks back then. You wouldn't believe the images there I saw with tenticl...” Glitch freezes, he starts to tremble and convulse, “H...h...help..” He whispers.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Micky! The door! He's having a seizure!” Mickey rushes over, hurriedly trying to unlock the pad lock, “Hurry!” The ancient key snaps in the lock. Bucket shoves Mickey back, draws his pistol and shoots the lock, smashing what remains of it off as they open the cell. Glitch is now on the floor convulsing, Bucket takes the ghostshades off. Glitch stops convulsing, laying on the flat of his back, his eyes wide open. He isn't moving.

  Bucket prepares to administer CPR when Glitch sits bolt upright and gasps. He starts breathing rapidly, but soon slows down to a normal rate as the medics rush in. They gently lift him on the air filled stretcher and continue to check his vitals. After a few minutes the Colonel enters the holding area, she glances at Bucket then looks to Glitch.

  “Will he be OK?” She asks the medics.

  “He should be, it was a major cerebral circuit cross. The fail safe of the ghostshades failed and was most definitely not safe. Or it was disabled. Where did he get the ghostshades from?”

  They all turn to Bucket. He doesn't have time for this, he knows where this is going. The Colonels left eye twitches. “Sargent, I'll need you to relinquish your firearm. Mickey, detain Bucket until we sort this out.”

  “You don't seriously think I walked into our holding cells, with witnesses and tried to kill Glitch?”

  “Of course I don't, but we have to follow protocol.”

  “Is that so?” Bucket says.

  She narrows her eyes. “Give Mickey your firearm, Mickey, give me the cuffs.” He hands his pistol over to Mickey, “Hands.” She says. He holds his hands out and she slaps the cuffs on him, putting them on a little too tight.

  “We don't have a spare lock for the second cell.” Mickey says.

  “Just put him in here, he's not going to flee anyways.”

  The clock is ticking, it's been almost an hour sitting there waiting. What could be taking so long? Is she making him wait just to prove a point or is there an issue?

  “You know, I was with her as well.” Wizbang says suddenly, breaking the silence.

  “What?” Bucket was in his head, not really paying attention, Wizbang snapped him out of his head.

  “Nadine.”

  Bucket sighs, “That has nothing to do with nothing Wizbang.”

  “Yeah, I know. It's just... you're right. Nothing to with nothing. I just need to forget about it, if I can.” He says with a far away look. “Dammit, poor Helmet...”, Wizbang sniffles. Looking over at Wizbang he sees a broken, busted up man. But there is more, regret is written all over his face.

  “Yeah, Nadine is something special.” Bucket says, gently trying to lead Wizbang into talking about her.

  Wizbang looks straight ahead, “She said we should get married.”

  “But, how long have you known her?”

  “A week. But that's enough.”

  “Wizbang, pull it together. You slam a keyboard over Glitches head over a girl you've known a week? A week and you're thinking of marriage?” He can't deny Nadine does have a strong affect on men, he knows that first hand. Before her, he had never even been tempted to break the rules and risk his career in bio-purge.

  He starts to sob, Bucket shakes his head, he's seriously thinking of walking out of the unlocked cage and waiting outside. He's getting way to bent out of shape over Nadine. He looks over at him. No. It's more than Nadine.

  “Wizbang, what else is it?”

  “I... I don't know what to do Bucket. But I can't let anyone else get hurt.”

  “Wizbang...”

  “There is a Specter operating up top that is invisible in our systems and the Hype. They have been coming and going for a week.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “Because I ran the scripts to allow it... they weren't even my scripts...”

  “Which Specter?”

  “Leech. He's up there now, I was told to assist him if needed.”

  “Who told you this?”

  “S-Someone...”

  Bucket stands and marches out of the cell.

  “Where do you think you're going??”

  “I'm going to see the Colonel.” Bucket rushes out of the cell, Mickey follows him all the way to the Colonels office as they barge in. Tales, a couple of techs and an older tech are there. The older tech looks vaguely familiar.

  “Why are you here?” The Colonel demands with fire in her eyes.

  “Wizbang just told me Leech is operating up top, he has scripts to hide his presence. We need to bring him in.” He says.

  “Everyone, out.” The Colonel says, they all clear the room. “OK, what is this?”

  “Wizbang has apparently been running some sort of script he didn't write, at least part of it is to hide Leech in the system. This has to be related to my ghostshades trying to fry Glitches brain.”

  “The early results are indicating you were the target.”

  “OK, then why was I rotting in that cell?” He says, looking at her wide-eyed, holding up his hands.

  She narrows her eyes and sneers, “We were in the middle of discussing it, I don't need you telling me how to do my job.”

  He holds up his hand and nods, “So that is interesting though; Nadine is involved with this somehow, she was, intimate with both Glitch and Wizbang.”

  “And you.” She says in a curt tone.

  “Yes. She was talking about Wizbang and her getting married, so he says. We can sort that after. We need to bring in Leech.”

  “Agreed.”

  “I want to go up top low-key, no echo-suit.”

  “Tales is going with you. She has a lot of experience operating up top not in a suit.” Bucket rolls his eyes; it's always one extra thing. He's used to having more say in how he runs his team; ever since he got her codes it feels like the Colonels been looking over his shoulder more. He supposes it's understandable, he has to admit originally it was kind of scummy how he got her codes. But then again, maybe she's playing him now.

  “I want to go a lone.”

  “No. Tales is going with you.”

  He shrugs and holds out his wrists. She reaches out with the key to unlock the cuffs; her fingers brush against his wrists. She looks up into his eyes, shakes her head, looks down and unlocks his cuffs.