~

     “So do I go up or down?” Jasper tried to put forth all of the frustration he was feeling into the query. If he’d been jacked into a computer he knew he’d hear such a plea, but with Rika he just couldn’t tell. It was bad enough that her frustration couldn’t come across the line at all. He gritted his teeth at the monotone answer.
     “I do not know the way you should take Jasper.”
     “Arrrgh! Rika I swear if you’re just making me sit here…”
     “Jasper I am not making you sit. You should not even be there Jasper. The Federal blockade is thirteen feet eight inches directly ahead of your position. If a patrol comes they will cause you difficulty Jasper.”
     “Then give me a direction now!”
     “Jasper be reasonable with me. I do not know which way that Espy went once Espy lost her motorcycle Jasper. You could go both directions and find nothing Jasper I have an incoming call.”
     “Oh for the love of…” He sighed as the connection went even flatter than usual. Looking down the small access road at the strobing yellow lights across the top of the blockade just made him mad. He wanted to gun his way through the obstruction, wanted to roll into Espy’s last position like a conquering hero, despite knowing there would be little to find that the Fed’s wouldn’t have touched. They were calling her a Lir, and Jasper could bet they wouldn’t want anyone finding out otherwise.
     Would they find out otherwise? The thought made him need to find her all the faster. She had warned him that this would happen, and he had meant what he had said. “Heaven help the man that tries to harm you…”
     He knew the blockade was monitored, if not watched directly. Going through it would trap him in the cul-de-sac as surely as it had trapped Espy. That left him two choices. To the left, the ramp down; Rika thought the remains of her cycle would have fallen. And to the right, the ramp to the level above; the nav data told of another dead end. He wouldn’t drive much farther. Rika said Espy’s best chances would have been up there.
     The combat cycle purring silently called for him to do something. The memory of Espy called for him to make a choice. And still he hesitated, thinking. The gurgle of the flowing black water in the drainage channels on either side of the roadway was the only noise to disturb him. He wrapped his hands tightly around the control bar as he watched the rippling wastewater reflect the yellow lights. “Rika come on!”
     She answered! “Jasper you need to take the left path.”
     “Down?” And then despite the flatness of her vocal channel he sensed it. “You found her?”
     “I know where Espy is Jasper. You need to turn around Jasper.”  He was in gear and rolling down the ramp before she finished. It dropped him thirty feet through a tangle of piping and ductwork, the wastewater channel diving along beside. He spared the falling fluid a single glance, paying no attention to the sight of metal pieces floating in the fast moving water. The ramp leveled out into a road that twisted around pylons, loosely following the one above. And Jasper kept going, passing a wide platform where he could have easily turned around. The nav pad showed a final chamber, cul-de-sac turn dead-ending wider than the one above.
     “Jasper…” Rika’s query was clearly understood.
     “I’ve got to see it Rik. I’ve got to know.”  He shot across the last straightaway into the circular chamber. The smell of burnt fuel still permeated the air. The drainage channel dove under the drive platform, rushing into the center of the circle, filling a pool swirling about as it drained through a funnel below. And on the far side, half in, half out of the black water was the twisted remains of a motorcycle, blistered gold and white paint still visible.
     “Damn…” He drove the half curve and came up even with the wreck, suddenly glad that somebody had found her before he’d seen the cycle. “Rika, she’s okay isn’t she?”
     A moment of silence raised his fear. “Jasper Espy is with a doctor. I do not know more about Espy’s condition Jasper.”
     He winced, looking upward through the hole in the level above. The slightest bit of a yellow stripe caught his attention, and his eyes went wide as he remembered his last dream. “Well I’ll be damned…”
     “Jasper I have uploaded new directions into your navigation system. Jasper…”
     Rika’s chatter and the sound of whirling water were suddenly lost in the shriek of rending metal. The raconid looked back at the wreck uncomprehending as a piece of the ruined motorcycle lifted up to claw at the edge of the plascrete drive. Another piece lifted from the black water, military grade steel meshed with corpse pale flesh rising to climb the wreck. Red light eyes in a gunner’s face mask rose to meet his own, and Jasper gasped at the human parody rising to greet him, scatter shot rifle poised to shoot.
     “Holy Shit!” The rear wheel of the combat cycle screamed as Jasper threw the bike into gear, sliding across the plascrete before he wrenched the front across the exit. A single round exploded to his right, the concussive blast showering him with wet black droplets.
     Rika’s voice came to him as he raced back to the access road. “Jasper? What is going on Jasper?”
     He cut her short. “If you’re not on a secure channel get on one now. Call Janus and tell him we need that bolthole yesterday! And Rika, look up everything you can find about Burnouts and ‘The One’. I’m going to pick up Espy. See if Janus can send someone to help you pack!”
     He did not look back as he slammed the combat bike into overdrive, but his mind was racing as he jacked himself in to the throbbing vehicle. His rear wheel slid side to side as he swerved around the pylons, his mind fighting the shift to the stream of numbers for trying to retain that horrible image.
     “What the hell was that thing,” he thought, passing into the machine speak. A glance at the navigation data was all he needed to know his travel path, and he was back out on the ramps to the Overborough. He couldn’t be panicking. But the thing he had seen matched nothing he could bring to mind. That it had been human at some point he had little doubt, but it was nothing human now.
     The bike’s comm. system registered a ping; someone was tracking his activity and though he was fairly certain of whom, an itch across his skin made him hit the data-scrambler circuit with a thought. The reaction was immediate. Rika’s monotone burst over his comm. link after an initial discharge of static.
     “Jasper I would like an answer from you please. You sound as though you have run into trouble Jasper.”
     Despite the tenuous connection to his real body he grinned. When had she worried about him so much? Firing his thoughts back through the bike felt good. Let her have a taste of what she put them through. “Rika are you running those search strings I asked you for?”
     There came a pause; he knew she was analyzing his new vocal pattern. A moment later he heard the click of a second connection occurring and Janus’ voice exploded across the aural channel.
     “What in the name of God are you doing blowing about the streets? You trying to get yourself caught before you get your girl back?”
     “Shrike. I need you to grab a transport van and move everything you can lay hands on from the apartment.”
     “And just why do you need that now soldier?”
     “Shrike I am not going to argue about this. What do you know about Federal battle suits?”
     He heard the pause at the end of the line. The blueskin finally answered, “Not a hell of a lot.”
     “And I don’t know a hell of a lot more Shrike. They give them to heavy strike teams for the most important of missions. But until now I’ve never heard of a suit that could not be taken off. Have you?” Janus didn’t answer; neither did the silent hacker. “Look you two, the Federals are obviously gunning for Espy, and you might not be visible Rika, but if the Feds aren’t looking for you I will be surprised. We are into deeper shit than we ever knew, and I want us out of that sector before the Feds come knocking on the door.”
     “Just because you saw something weird on the street does not mean we are in danger this moment Jasper.”
     Before she had finished he was responding, firing the thoughts down the data-line as fast as he took the cycle around corners. “Whatever the thing I saw was Rika you know the chances are best that it is tracking Espy.”
     “And this is why I told you to stay at the apartment Jasper.”
     “And you thought it best just to let Espy walk out from this doctor right into whatever is looking for Espy Rika?”
     Janus practically yelled into the comm. link. “Shut it you two! You’re tying up the lines an hour for a five-minute chat. Look, I don’t know what you saw Jasp but if you say it’s bad news then I agree they’re likely hunting Espy. Do yourselves a favor Jasp. Don’t take her home. Stay out on the street, watch in shifts and keep your comm. open. I’ll contact you through Rika when we’ve got you resettled.”
     “Shrike it is not necessary to move me.”
     Jasper answered for the blueskin. “Rika, you were the first one that wanted to move. This is it. Do not pass up the opportunity that might save all of our lives.”
     There came a crackle of static across the line; Rika had sighed deeply. “All right Jasper. I will begin powering down my systems. Jasper you know that Espy will want to see to her own packing.”
     “I’ll take care of Espy, Rika. You just be sure that all of your gear gets taken.” He disconnected from the comm. channel. I’ll take care of Espy. God how he wanted to; he checked the signal lines that told of traffic and who might be tailing his cycle. Nothing showed in the guidance chips and nothing showed to his practiced eye. But the memory of corpse pale flesh, puckered around matte black steel, the winking red laser sight eyes fixating upon him, made his skin crawl. He was certain he hadn’t seen the last of the thing… as certain that he had not just mistaken a battle suited soldier.

     The office of Adus Gray was four levels and a district away from the cul-de-sac where Espy had lost her motorcycle. Jasper pulled into the parking garage to find it all but abandoned. A couple of private cars occupied spaces belonging to the aged homes lining the parking structure. The complex had once been apartments for the affluent, but they had bought out neighbors and combined individual units until only a few sprawling homes were left.
     Gray’s building wasn’t advertised in any way. Nothing said ‘doctor’ let alone ‘hospital’. The outside of the location was so old and dilapidated that Jasper cringed at the thought of Espy seeking medical attention here. And how she had managed to get this far, if she was too hurt to call them…
     He found the intercom outside the locked front door better than he expected; the security was a few decades newer than the exterior façade. Stabbing at the buzzer a few times he stood there grumbling until a harried “What? What!” came over the speaker.
     “Uhm, I’m here to see Espy. I’m here to pick her up and take her home.”
     “Espy? Oh, yeah. Espy. Who are you?”
     “Jasper Ringtail. She’s my… uh, my security chief.”
     The speaker stayed quiet for a bit too long; Jasper knew he had sounded suspicious but wasn’t about to quit. He was just about to punch the buzzer again when the door lock chattered. The voice on the other end of the speaker said, “Yeah, come on in. I’ll take you to her.”
     He walked through the door and turned sharply when it locked itself. The foyer was small and plain paneled, and a narrow hall led back to several open doors. He didn’t see how downed patients came in; there was no window or counter for admissions, and nothing in which to sit and wait. Itching to move, Jasper called out. From somewhere down the hall, he thought he heard an answer.
     Past one door, then two; both rooms seemed empty but better suited to health care. At least he saw beds and carts that had purpose. But there were no patients within them, and certainly no doctor waiting there. He found the third room brightly lit, white hot flares in the ceiling chasing away every hint of shadow. Inside there was a curtain cutting the room in two and he could see the shape of someone lain upon a table. With a sudden sick feeling bordering on panic, Jasper thought of Espy and moved inside, parting the curtain with a shaking hand.
     Here even brighter lights had him blinking away tears, but it wasn’t the heavy antiseptic smell that made him gag. The body on the table was raw and bloody, hooked to a multitude of machines that kept the creature on this side of living, even though it seemed to have been skinned alive. There were other devices waiting to do their work, and the waiting thing was cut, skinned and scalded. By the snarling face under the air mask, it was in terrible pain, but it wasn’t Espy, and Jasper pulled back from the curtain with stunned relief. The feeling changed into alarm as a hand lay heavily on his shoulder, and he whirled to a stop face to face with a young human man.
     “What do you think you’re doing in here?” The doctor was very plain in appearance, with brown hair and eyes, frame covered in a purple splotched used to be white lab coat. Those eyes were hard; sliding across Jasper to make sure he’d gone no farther. The raconid figured the doctor would have slapped him, if he’d not been carrying the bundle of filament wires…
     “Wire?”
     The doctor pointed back out into the hall. “Get out of here!”
     “Yes sir.” Head ducked and tail tucked, Jasper obeyed with alacrity, all but jumping across the room to hit the hall. There came mumbles and a curse before the open door was slammed shut. The raconid simply stood there, wide eyed and mouth agape.
     “He was pretty terrible, wasn’t he?”
     Jasper spun on his heels at the chirp. “Espy!” He turned so fast he nearly ran into her; had her in his arms before he could even look her over. “Espy!” He called her name again and held her tight enough she squeaked. She felt different, somehow stiffer in both reaction and flesh. He pulled back and looked into her eyes. Immediately lost in their depth, he was glad that had not changed. Holding her at arm’s length, he asked her this time, softly. “Espy?”
     She laughed at him, the pleasant trill a cool drink on a hot day. “It’s me,” she said, and he had no doubt despite the new stiffness.
     “What happened? What did you do?”
     The spark in her eyes dimmed and she pulled free, turning a circle so that he could see. The dark green of her chest and belly was now blue, the rest of her skin darker, as though she had somehow tanned. She cocked her head and blinked. “You don’t like it?”
     He stepped back into her, ran a hand down the length of her arm. The light rippled smoothness of her scales was gone; so was the shimmer of her warmth. “It’s different … what did you do?”
     Her gaze dipped; her tail fell. “It’s body armor. Synth-skin. It isn’t bullet proof but I’ll be harder to cut … harder to hurt. I’m less likely to break bones this way …”
     He touched the side of her face and found something of the heat he remembered there. “You got hurt? At the access shaft?”
     The reunion was interrupted by the return of the doctor. Jasper hadn’t heard the door open at all, but the man was there watching them both intently. “Hurt at the shaft? Man she plowed completely through it. I spent over an hour picking pieces of the ladder out of her. The two of you ought to be more careful.”
     Espy ran a hand down the small of Jasper’s back and distracted him completely. But all of her attention was on the human. “How is he Adus?”
     “He looks alright to me. Oh, you mean him.” A jerk of the head indicated the operation in the room behind. “Well, he’s one stim away from shock, and so hopped up on anger that I’ve put him under twice already. He won’t stay down.”
     “What happened to him?”
     Adus Gray shrugged. “He won’t say. For all I know he was locked overnight in a deep-freeze. A lot of trauma, battery, frostbite … he won’t stop shaking. I’d be done by now if I didn’t have to have him tied down.”
     Jasper found his curiosity piqued. “What is he?”
     Adus answered, “Lupis fox. Crawled out of that mess in Overden. Probably the only one that could say what happened, but like I said, he isn’t talking.”
     The raconid turned to Espy, eyes narrowing. “What kind of Lir could do that? What sort would?”
     She turned to him in kind. “What? What are you talking about?”
     “Lir Espy. Enforcer Command says they’ve caught Lir involved in the Overden attack. I saw some of the footage. What kind of weapon could cause cold damage, and freeze a man to the bone?”
     Caught by the silver-eyed stare and the silent doctor, Espy paused. Finally she shrugged. “I don’t know Jasper. I can’t think of anything like that. Plasma burns … the kind of equipment you would need … not even a Lir could carry that sort of thing through those warrens.”
     “Is it possible the Feds have captured Lir?”
     “I … I don’t know …”
     “Absolutely not.”  They turned to the doctor. He sounded sure of himself. “They left on the Greatships. Everyone knows that, even if they won’t admit it. Hasn’t been a Lir left on this rock since the Feds snookered the last of them to the colony. Whatever did for Overden, you can lay money down it was a government test. They’re always developing new weapons you know.”
     This time he was watching her; the look on Espy’s face confirmed every suspicion that had crept into his heart. But a more immediate concern came to the fore. “Weapons! Dr. Gray, we’ve got to scram. How good is your security?”
     Gray drew back with a brow raised. “Why?”
     “Because I ran into something nasty on the way here and I’m pretty sure it’s looking for Espy.”
     “What?” The question came from two voices. The doctor got angry again. “You ran into trouble and you led it to my front door? Of all the dammed foolish …”
     “Adus! It wouldn’t delay the inevitable. If someone’s looking for me it’s only a matter of time.”
     “But … but I just got established here! What am I going to do?”
     Jasper dryly quipped, “Watch who you let through your front door.”
     Before the doc could go spastic again, Espy took him by the arm. “Adus, let’s transfer that cred. You should call in your favors.”
     “I can’t! I’ve got to get my patient up and running. He’s sinking a fortune into my accounts and I can’t lose that. I’ve got your number Espy. Take this miscreant and get out of here!” With that the doctor turned and nearly ran back into the operating room. The anguished moan that accompanied Gray’s passage through the door made all of Jasper’s fur stand on end. Espy looked at him after a wince of her own and smiled.
     “You came quite a ways to get me. And here I thought I’d have to get a cab.”
     It appeared to calm him down on one level, but she could tell from his stance how nervous he actually was. “Not on my watch sister! Come on!” He grabbed her hand and set off down the hall pulling hard. Still sore from her ordeal, she gave a trill and resisted, trying to let go as he forged ahead.
     “Jasper! …”
     “Espy! We have to go. Now.”
     She blinked and stepped a little faster. “You’re serious. What happened Jasper? Who’s out there? Did you run into the Feds?”
     He saw anger smoldering in her eyes and wasn’t sure what direction it was going. Pausing at the locked exit, he turned to look in her eyes directly. “Espy, you were on camera at Undermarket. It was on the newsfeeds but a lot has happened in two days. O’Sama … the shop … you know he was killed?”
     Her jaw flexed, setting hard and she blinked once, the wetness shimmering in the room’s weak light enough to tell him. “You were there when they did it.”
     “And I swear to God they’ll pay. Is that who you ran into Jasper? Take me to the bastard and I’ll …”
     “No!” She drew in a breath to argue. “No Espy! The thing I found isn’t any Enforcer. Maybe it was once, but not anymore. Renslip told me … yes I saw him, and he told me about burnouts. They aren’t a myth Espy. I saw one where your cycle fell. It took a shot at me, and I don’t know if it could track me or not, but I’ll bet everything I own that it was hunting you.”
     “A burnout? But that means …”
     “It means the Federals really are looking to off you. Why else would something like that be this far up?”
     “No! It means Adus really could be in danger!” She hit the lock bar on the exit door and ran outside, but after only a few steps she slowed to a trot, clutching her sides. “I … I shouldn’t just leave without making sure it would follow me …”
     He stepped beside her and touched her questioningly. “You’re not all right are you?”
     “No. I just had a dermal reconstruction done! Of course I’m not all right …” He was frowning as he ran his hand over her shoulder, and it made her frown as well. “You don’t like it.” She sighed.
     “I don’t understand why you needed to do it. It makes you feel colder. And I liked the green …”
     She was looking down. “I … I could have it taken off.”
     “You’d do that?”
     “For you. Yes.”
     “But … wouldn’t that hurt?”
     “Very much. It hurt like hell to have it put on. But if you don’t like it I’ll …”
     “No.” She looked up quickly and he smiled at the glitter in her eyes. “You got a mod because you felt you needed it. And I’m afraid you’ll have a lot more fights ahead. I’ll miss that warm skin but I’ll get over that.”
     She laughed, capturing his hand in hers and putting it to the side of her face. “I’m still warm silly. You just have to try and turn up the heat once in a while.”
     He laughed with her softly, feeling the flush of warmth through the scales on her cheek. Pulling her close to his side he steered her toward his waiting bike.
     “God I missed you Espy. Let’s not do this again.”