Guns for Hire - Script Forty Six

Uzzitt Farm, Mariposa 7.16am 25/12/16

Hercaclio & Elodia's girls were banging on the bedroom door pleading with Alex to join them in opening the mountain of presents that T-Bird had stacked around the tree in the spacious living room of the main house. Fighting the bells some bastard was ringing in her head & with a mouth like a skunks bum hole she lay in the darkness silently pleading for the girls to go away or simply die, unable to stand it no longer she reached for the near empty bottle of Mr Daniel's finest, swilled her mouth out & crawled into her discarded jeans & top. As she opened the door Paloma & Leticia literally bore her to the ground in a fit of giggles before dragging her to the breakfast table where she faced a mountain of sincronizada, torta de tamal & gorditas de harina as well as a steaming pot of thick black coffee prepared by Elodia, gratefully she poured a coffee & slung it back but not before adding a decent slug of bourbon, across the table T-Bird grinned,

"Happy Christmas Alex"

Whilst the girls were occupied with opening presents Alex instructed T-Bird just exactly what he could with his Christmas spirit.

Sated with a couple of shots of Elodia's holiday Rompope Alex eventually joined the Ortega's, T-Bird & Vrasten around the tree whilst the girls distributed the presents & opened the tinsel wrapped presents that T-Bird had spent the previous afternoon in Mariposa buying, she was slightly taken aback when her parcels revealed an expensive looking set of Vanson red & black leathers, it even looked like they'd be a half decent fit, eventually caught up in the atmosphere Alex smiled as T-Bird showed delight as he opened his own, self bought, parcel of socks, t-shirts & shorts & Vrasten tired on his replacement retro black leather trench coat & gloves.

Uzzitt Farm, Mariposa 3.42pm 25/12/16

Mellowed by the not inconsiderate quantity of sour mash she supped Alex & Vrasten talked with their plans for the farm, making no mention of the behind the scenes reasons for forming the charity, & the "Wild Geese Sanctuary" & the role they'd like Hercaclio to play, at first he was somewhat apprehensive at the thought of managing the ranches paperwork however he was assured that this would all be dealt with by others & all he had to do was what he already did. Somewhat relieved at this revelation he seemed in agreement with his new employment but confessed there was one other issue with which he had a problem in that neither he nor his wife were actually US citizens, both had run the border several years back. Vrasten was pleasantly surprised when Alex offered to assist with sorting it out.

Uzzitt Farm, Mariposa 11.39am 03/01/17

Vrasten sat back from the table & glanced at his watch, shit, it's nearly noon & I'm still having breakfast, glancing first at his own expanded waistline & then around the table it was clear that he, T-Bird & Alex had added a few pounds under the relentless barrage of Elodia's home cooking,. Pushing himself away from the table he stepped out on to the verandah to stretch his legs & give Skinpin & Kissy a call to see how goes it with Mariusz, when he hung up the similarity of the situation between Mariusz's flash forward & what was actually going on in Moosejaw hit home.

Vrasten considered matters, after the events of May the previous year things had pretty much been if not forgotten at least put on the back burner regarding the world falling over & dreaming the future, maybe it wasn't a crock of shit after all.

Uzzitt Farm, Mariposa 3.51pm 04/02/17

Alex, T-Bird & Vrasten had spent a relatively comfortable month at the ranch, they'd managed to curtail the excesses of Elodia's endeavours to feed them to death & Hercaclio was proving a real asset in the day to day running of the ranch.

They had confirmation from Autumn Addison that she received witnessed affidavits from both Mariusz & Helen's legal representatives & after a brief return visit to the offices of mbd the paperwork was all completed & the ranch was formally signed over, the only downside was that this triggered the repayment of Frank's bank loan, it wasn't that they couldn't afford it but hell, who likes to give the bank money back.

With the ranch paperwork all in place the Eric Holder, good to his word, had earned his fee & the Wild Geese Sanctuary was now recognised by law & was a bona fida registered charity, shit they'd even received several thousand dollars worth of donations from the Mariposa community in respect of the memory of Frank Uzzitt.

To fill their time on the ranch they'd happily laboured for Hercaclio to get fences repaired, gates rehung gates etc & generally putting the ranch in good order, Hercaclio now had a couple of volunteers who seemed happy to give what hours they could helping look after the considerable number of equine inmates that were now housed on the ranch but even so he'd had to employ a couple of permanent handlers on a full time basis. During the month T-Bird had reacquainted himself with the phenomena of having a tender butt from to long in the saddle & Alex had reluctantly become a dab hand at keeping the books in order under the supervision of frequent visits of Mr Deutsch, accountant at heart.

Alex had even had a good response from Sirius Shipping when she'd called them to advise the name of the charity whom she would like them to make the agreed donation of $925K to, they'd taken the details & promised, providing their legal team were happy, to put matters in hand to transfer the charitable payment to the sanctuary.

Wild Geese Sanctuary, Uzzitt Farm, Mariposa 8.27pm 04/02/17

Relaxing & watching the girls play T-Bird the news CNN news summary of events in "America Today" giving a running commentary on what delights they were missing to Alex & Vrasten.

He related the storey of a murder of some divorcee called Elliott Jesus Bessler in Willmington, New Jersey, a board member of the National Institute of Health, earlier that day that'd been shot at point blank range whilst out buying shoes for one of his grand children at the local shopping mall. Whilst drive by shootings & such like were pretty common T-Bird went on to say that following the murder a anonymous statement had been issued to CNN as well as local news channels claiming the murder had been;

"A justifiable execution in the service of God almighty and that Elliott J Bessler was a servant of Lucifer"

The statement went on to say;

"We must be on constant vigil for Lucifer who lurks in darkness like a voracious jackal; he hides himself in worldly reason and logic, giving unsound rationale to sinful acts"

"Fuck me guys" added T-Bird, "as if the world's not got enough fruitcakes"

Both Vrasten & Alex had been trying to ignore T-Bird's wittering however something about it rang a bell with Alex, casting her mind back she recalled a similar report just after the New Year dawned, intrigued Vrasten ran a search on the farms upgraded IT & quickly picked up the report Alex had referred to,

"Looks like a similar MO" suggested Vrasten, "Some PBS reporter was drilled on the fourth of January whilst getting into her car outside of the PBS offices in Columbus, same anonymous bollocks, same sentiment."

With a bit more digging Vrasten added that the first victim, Alyssa K Fandrick was a vocal supporter of the work of the Bioethics Advisory Commission & a pro-abortion supporter, it also seemed that Bessler was involved in somatic cell transfer or more simply put cloning.

Immediately Vrasten & Alex looked at one another & thought about Helen's sibling H12's recent appearance in New Zealand.

Whilst the CNN news report hadn't referred back to the murder of Bessler in January Vrasten assumed it wouldn't take to much effort for somebody to realise that the words of the statement relating to Fandrick's murder were one & the same. Alex, nerves jingling, asked Vrasten for one of the half dozen disposable pre-paid phones he habitually carried. She put a call into the Forlorn Hope & finally got through to Marianne, John Freeman's wife, at the Hope requesting that if anybody tried to contact them at the bar to give them this number.

Wild Geese Sanctuary, Uzzitt Farm, Mariposa 2.27pm 17/02/17

With Helen on his mind Vrasten had kept up contact with Helen & Skinpin just in case things escalated however all seemed pretty quiet, like most news the murders were big today, forgotten tomorrow but, well, it wouldn't do any harm to keep an eye on the news would it thought Vrasten.

Whilst Vrasten ran yet another search of the ether Alex let out a quiet whoop of delight,

"Vrasten, we're in the money, again, just had an email of the dude at Sirius, he's confirmed that the donation has all gone through, $925K direct transfer to the WGS account at the Mariposa County bank, I figure after Frank's mortgage is paid off plus running costs & donations that have trickled in there's around $743,000 sat in the bank."

Not long after T-Bird arrived back at the ranch having made the last run to Night City to collect their remaining kit from Vrasten's apartment, Vrasten had decided to keep up the rent on the flat & leave the pimp mobile in it's garage just in case they needed somewhere to lay low whilst in the city, after all $1500 wasn't to bad for a secure bolt hole.

Wild Geese Sanctuary, Uzzitt Farm, Mariposa 9.11pm 04/03/17

All day Alex, Vrasten & T-Bird had kept an eye on the various news channels, by 9.30pm it looked like nothing was happening, then T-Bird picked up the tail end of a report as he channel hopped. Winding back the live replay there was a token report concerning the apparent random murder of a Stamford University Professor, Nevaeh Merrick, age 43, married with three children, whilst attending a conference at Salt Lake City. The report didn't repeat the statement but did make reference to bizarre claims made by persons unknown that she had been executed on religious grounds.

Wild Geese Sanctuary, Uzzitt Farm, Mariposa 9.14am 05/03/17

As Alex, T-Bird & Hercaclio discussed a request from a local school to come see the horses Vrasten's phone rang, recognising the number he answered the phone to Uriel, activating the mastoid comm's he broadcast the conversation to both Alex & T-Bird, a couple of minutes later he hung up & asked Hercaclio to give them a few moments alone,

"Looks like something's on fire" suggested Vrasten, "coincidence ?"

"Gotta' be related to the sin slayer" muttered T-Bird

"Thought maybe we were done with all that shit" responded Alex

MilKor/NCPD Admin Complex, Night City 1.37pm 06/03/17

Slewing of the interstate Alex followed Vrasten's directions to the rear parking lot of the MilKor NCPD administration offices, with their identities verified & temporary passes issued they were directed through the security barrier to the visitor lot where under the watchful eyes of number of heavily armoured MilKor goons. With the RV locked down they followed the illuminated signage towards the admin unit rear entrance, Vrasten, scowling, muttering about the last time he'd been here, bad times, allowing Alex to take the lead through security controlled doorway, above the door the arch bore the words;

"legem statuet qui peccatum exequitur"

As Alex stepped across the threshold lights up both sides of the door as well as a warning alarm blazed out, immediately the two goons to either side of the door went from pleasantly smiling to snarling adversary, both leveled tasers at Alex suggesting she should face the wall & spread em' quick time, sensibly Alex, all smiles & cleavage, complied.

A third officer appeared & expertly frisked Alex using a hand held body scanner, disregarding the various body enhancements the officer asked Alex to open her purse, obligingly Alex unzipped & allowed the officer to remove Armalite 44, happy she was now unarmed but warning her about not extending the wolvers in her right hand she was allowed to enter the building but not before she'd chastised her would be employer for not telling her the rules.

Stupidly Vrasten decided that he wouldn't declare the snub pistol inside his abdomen sub-dermal pocket, needless to say the outcome was the same.

T-Bird, before walking through the door, gingerly opened his jacket to reveal the underarm holster, proffering the gun in his fingertips.

The officer in charge shook his head & provided all three with receipts for their weapons to allow them to be recovered on the way out.

Level 3, Room 317, MilKor/NCPD Admin Complex, Night City 2.01pm 06/03/17

Having been politely directed to the offices of MilKor's PR department Uriel warmly shook their hands before introducing them to the suit already waiting,

"Gents, Alex, this is Raymone Griffen, Raymone is here as it would appear we have a mutual interest in recent activities"

Ushering the three into a secure meeting room Uriel poured coffee's before continuing, over the next ten minutes or so Uriel skirted around the subject before finally asking if they were aware of the recent very public supposed executions, the last being the previous evening, when all three confirmed they had seen the reports Uriel went on to explain that the third victim was known to MilKor & had at various times undertaken a consultancy role, he added that the second victim was similarly associated with Griffen's employer, Biotechnica, Uriel added that as far he was aware the first victim, Alyssa Fandrick, had no connection to either party, nodding Griffin agreed.

As Uriel briefed them on the situation it became clear that whilst there was a police investigation there was apparently very little to go off, apart from the three victims all having a professional interest in cell transferal there did not appear to be any other tie as could be said for many other others who similarly were involved in the debate on cloning, they were all academics but were, & here Uriel glanced at the file in front of him, soft targets.

Griffen, who seemed slightly uncomfortable talking to Alex, T-Bird & Vrasten added,

"Simply put I understand you can make investigations where others may fear to tread & down route that are not necessarily accessible to this country's law agencies, we are unsure who is doing this, where they are or in all honesty why they are taking such action however we like them to stop"

"That's all very nice Uriel" replied Alex, "but . . . . . "

Uriel nodded,

"We are prepared to pay the sum of $250K for the provision of information that will directly lead to the capture of whoever is doing this, & I emphasise capture, not execution, no later than, well, as you can imagine, the third of April. If you actually bring the guilty party to justice by this time there will be an additional payment of $150K, but again I emphasise alive, judicial process must be seen to be carried out"

"If we can't find them" asked Alex

"Expenses will be covered & a payment to cover your time of $25K will be payable to you"

The conversation continued for a few minutes longer & concluded with Uriel promising to forward what scant details had been collated by the various forces involved, he also added, almost as an afterthought, that the three victims were of African-American extraction.

Leaving Griffen in the meeting room Uriel walked them down to desk again promising to have the file at the Forlorn Hope by noon the following day.

Back in the RV, confiscated weapons collected, Alex grinned at Vrasten & T-Bird,

"So, is it just me do we all think we should go find Idwal Knox ?"

Forlorn Hope, Night City 5.49pm 06/03/17

It was still pretty early in the day for there to be many people about in the Hope, Freeman himself was overseeing the the restocking of the bar as well as interviewing a couple of new girls looking for bar work, on the small stage local groovers Cactus Cadilac's were running through the nights set.

Catching John Freeman's eye Alex made small talk before getting onto the subject of Idwal Knox.

Seeing the look on Freeman's face Alex assured him they just needed a few answers.

"Idwal Knox, strange dude, not particularly a regular hereabouts, think he's maybe disappointed a few people in the past, guess last time I saw his face was a couple of weeks back, there's few other bars maybe worth a once over, you know the ones: Fat Sam's, The Rust Pit, er, The Ice House & maybe The Joshua Tree."

Fat Sam's, Night City 7.23pm 06/03/17

Having left the bulky RV outside the Hope they'd commandeered one of RedCab's TAC's for the evening, guaranteed to get you home in one piece, armoured like a tank, unfortunately they couldn't guarantee that when you got where you were going it'd be open, sitting back they directed the driver to pay a visit to The Ice House.

The Ice House, Night City 8.09pm 06/03/17

To be frank the reception at the Ice House was, well, frosty, all three got the impression that maybe Idwal was a more frequent visitor than they were letting on.

Fat Sam's , Night City 9.13pm 06/03/17

Before trying The Rust Pit, they rode the RedCab back to Fat Sam's, on a few loose words in The Ice House & a hunch, the bar was open & getting busier by the minute, whilst Alex ordered up a beer & Vrasten went walkabout T-Bird made friends with one of the door men, from initial comments it sounded like Knox was a regular, if not most nights at least a couple of times a week.

Fat Sam's , Night City 10.22pm 06/03/17

For the sixth or seventh time Vrasten went through the pretense of going to the can as from the table they'd taken it was impossible to see the whole bar area, he could just about make out where Alex was entertaining the troops on the dance floor, he couldn't see T-Bird but from the snatches of conversation he could here on the comm's he figured he was still talking to the door cooler, just as he was about to reclaim his seat he picked up a glance from one of the bartenders that struck a chord, as he watched a guy turned from talking to the tap jockey & headed for the exit, it was Knox.

Immediately Vrasten tapped the comm's unit & alerted Alex & T-Bird that Idwal was heading for the right hand exit, in all the noise T-Bird miss heard & went for the central door however Alex was on the ball & slid of the dance floor making it out of the exit before Idwal, stepping to one side she waited for him to emerge.

Moving quickly Knox pushed through the group coming in off the street & turned right, Alex tucked in to the left of the doorway dropped in behind him, Vrasten escaped the bar through the west exit & fell in behind T-Bird who'd left from the central main entrance, in front they watched as Idwal half turned, caught site of Alex made off across the street, fortunately Alex, spidey sense tingling, had anticipated his run & had him by the neck before he made halfway across,

"ER, Alex, so how you keepin', you think maybe we can talk about whatever it is you wanna' talk about ?"

O'Farrell's, Night City 10.24pm 06/03/17

Sat at a street table outside O'Farrell's Bar Alex was joined by Vrasten, T-Bird sat separately & ordered a beer,

"Look" said Knox, "You told me to go mind my own fucking business, you told me you weren't interested in the hit no matter the price, fine, no problem"

"Situation changed I'm afraid Idwal" said Alex, "talk please, tell us all about the hit"

As Idwal continued to talk bullshit Vrasten leant forward eyes locked with Idwal's, talking slowly he made it very clear to Idwal just how important it was that Idwal told them what they needed to know, eventually Idwal told them what he knew, it wasn't much but it was a start.

"OK, I get yer point" grunted Idwal, "the hit was taken, I don't know by who cos' it didn't go through me OK, I got overlooked, I can tell you who you need to talk to yeah, you just didn't here it from me OK. Wessell de Groot, hangs out at King Lam's"

Leaning forward Vrasten slid a role of dollar bills across the table,

"See Idwal, no harm done, everybodys happy, lets make sure we all stay that way"

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