Chapter 6-9 A Civil Conversation

Chapter 6-9 A Civil Conversation

"Thank you! Thanks for eating my daddy!"

-"Aedon" Chambers aged 10, cheering on the ghouls fleeing from his block during the Uprising

6-9

A Civil Conversation

Chambers sputtered. "Last time? Last time? The last time you--you--Oh, okay. Yeah. I guess you did let me have enough sleep. Thank you for your service, Captain Regular, ma'am. This is exactly why I looked out for ya on that cold and miserable night after the Crucible. Because I really wanted to get my limbs twisted to shit and brain damage so bad those flesh-loving Sang-fucks decided the best way to fix it was POURING FUCKING BUGS IN MY HEAD TO 'eat away the injuries.'"

The outburst toned the enforcer's face in a flush of red. His eyes, likewise, bulged with exaggerated incredulity. Yet, the flow of his thoughtstuff was far less charged than it seemed. Avo frowned at that. It appeared that Chambers was playing up his outrage to prod at an angle of sympathy. Foolish, but fascinating.

"An' look at you now," Draus continued, ignorant as to the true state of Chamber's mind. Not that she likely cared. "Did a fine job fixin' you up, didn't they?"

"I can still feel them just... chittering around inside my head," Chambers said. He shuddered.

Draus nodded in mock sympathy. "Well, you best get yourself together there, consang, because I assure you: that nightmare is over."

"Yeah. Thank Jaus."

"--But I can make it happen again if you don't stop wasting my time and start talking."The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

The enforcer sighed. "This... this how you talk to everyone? Fucking... pretend niceties followed by threats? Come now?" He turned to Avo as if imploring him for help. "I mean, come on. Why not offer me a deal? Something nice? A glass of fucking water even. Ain't no need for being this mean. You already got me all bound up in this fucked up meat cage. It feels like I'm in a tongue, by the way. Like... like a big one."

"Could just crack his wards," Avo said, addressing Draus. "Dive into his mind."

"Give it minute. You can do that once I'm good and done with the 'niceties' anyway."

Chambers shot a look of sadness at Avo. "Avo. Consang. You remember when you got the key to that old Galeslither so you wouldn't be bothered by any of the half-strands after you fucked up Rantula?"

And there it was again. Chambers was fishing for sympathy. From a ghoul. It was like the man didn't know what he was, or at least seemed to suffer a very warped idea of how a ghoul exactly functioned. "Remember you getting me into bad run. No preparation. Lied to me about details. Left me to die."

"Hey. That ain't my fault. How in all the fucks was ol' Chambers supposed to know those Scalper shits were going to be involved? Do I look like a data broker from the Deep Bazaar? No, consang. I'm like you: Just a squire tryin' make it in the biggest of the big that's New Vultun."

At this point, Draus cracked a disbelieving smile. "Ain't gonna lie, he's real precious in a rat-bastard kind of way."

Chambers grinned at her, his smile one of boyish glee manifesting at the lowest of compliments. "I always thought I had it in me to make it in the soaps." Beneath Draus and Avo's blank-faced stares, he sagged and sighed. "Alright. Remind me where we left off. I'd just start talkin' myself but... I'm afraid I might upset our dear Regular again and earn myself another session of bug surgery."

"Talk 'bout your boss," Draus said. "Jhred Greatling. Mirrorhead. Give us everything you know. Leave nothing out."

He let out a long and overwhelmed breath, bottom lip flipped over to accentuate the severity of the topic. "Suppose I better get to it, yeah?"

"Yeah, that sounds wise," Draus said.

"Will know if you're lying," Avo added. "Don't lie. Will make me sloppy when digging through your mind later. Bad for sanity."

Chambers frowned. "And back to the threats again--"

"Keep talkin'," Draus said, interrupting his diatribe.

"Alright, alright," Chambers said, rolling his flesh-encased shoulders as best he could. "So, couple years back... I'm gonna say two because I had a bad turbo habit at the time. I'm real bad." He laughed. "Me and my brother, Osjet, we would get like a dozen or so needles and flick 'em at each other's eyes."

A blink of motion flicked across the periphery of Avo's vision. A crack followed. Avo blinked. Chambers' blinked. A small red welt began to form across his cheek.

"You just slap him?" Avo asked Draus.

"He's worse than Kae. 'Cept he don't have any good excuses. Stick. To. The. Story. Mirrorhead. Not your brother. Not anything else. Mirrorhead."

"Tried?" Draus asked.

Chambers winced. "Well, when you offer someone else a twenty-eighty cut over businesses and territories and state that it's your best and only deal and that they would be hopelessly stupid not to accept it, the words sound a bit more insulting than diplomatic. You see, your new consang Chambers might-gotta a tongue sweeter than natural honey itself, but Mirrorhead--Jaus--now there's someone with the sophistry of a gh--"

Avo glared at him. "Finish sentence."

"--git. Ghoul doesn't really fit, because... I mean, let's be honest, ghouls are such deeply honest beings that really aren't afraid in letting you know how they feel and who they are. Meanwhile, Mirrorhead's like a wall. A... a pile of bricks. He's an insult to ghouls. Especially one as sharp and... and as clever as you, Avo, my good consang."

Avo continued glaring. "Still made me hurt people."

"Holy shit are you still stuck on that? Fuck me, I'm sorry. I didn't know a little mistake was going to lodge itself all the way up your ass and die there. Look. I'll make it up to you. Next time, I'll do my research."

"No next time," Avo snarled. "Never make that mistake again." He leaned in close to meet Chambers' eye-to-eye. "Soon. Will have special run for you. Special favor for me. That's how you make it up."

Chambers blinked. "Sure. Yeah. If you don't eat me, I'm game for anything." He laughed. "In a way, you did free me from Mirrorhead so... you know, I guess I can see that I... I owe you, actually."

The mental gymnastics of the enforcer was truly awe-inspiring.

"Anyway," Chamber said. "You got more questions? I can tell you all kinds of stuff about Conflux. Weak spots. Who hides all the good drugs. Who's in charge of doing the auxiliary Necro shit for Mirrorhead. What business looks like. When the next Crucible was supposed to be scheduled."

"How many of you are there?" Draus asked.

"Hm?"

"How many of you did Jhred hire?"

Chambers shrugged. "Probably a few thousand. Ten or so is my guess. I know we have other branches. He dives between places in the mirrors and all that. I think they're periphery places though. He's trying to cast a wide net and push in. He keeps up separated into silos. We're the Junction guys. The backbone, from what I can tell."

"But he has other places to go and rebuild?" Draus asked.

"Yeah," Chamber said. "If he really wanted to. Yeah. We were always more of a quantity over quality operation anyway."

"Can attest to that," Avo said. "Done with conversation? Can copy other details from memories directly. Implant him with phantasmic first. You talk to others."

Draus stared at Chambers for a beat. "You can keep his mind intact?

"Yes," Avo said. "Unless its structure is compromised."

At this statement, Chambers' eyes widened.

"Hey, hey, hey, listen," Chamber said, clearing his throat. "If you're gonna be doin' anything to my mind... I might wanna walk you through it."

"Not amateur Necro. Know what to do."

"I'm not talking about that," Chamber said. "I'm talking about certain... things I downloaded."

"Things."

"You know. Entertainment options. Vicitarities. Uh. Stress relieving materials."

Avo started at Draus. Draus shrugged. "Don't look at me none. I got no idea what he's talkin' about."

Chamber sighed. "You'll... you'll see when you go in. Just let me give you a heads-up. Some of my mind space might be... messy."

"How messy."

"Ah. I might have a virus or two messy."

Avo could handle a virus or two.