Marsh watched the little rat scurry away, past the alleyway and out of sight. It felt good to get the message out, therapeutic in a kind of way. It was time her enemies started to know that there was a new force in town.
Lynch watched the young man flee out of the alley. A smile of indifference was visible, but Lynch was thinking of other things.
"Depends. Someone might kill him from the information you ask him to give." Lynch said to Artemis. The sky was starting to darken from the approaching twilight. Is it already late? Damn, the two of them must have been busy for sure..
"Let's make sure that we have our weapons ready. I could go for a little dinner back at the flat, before we are going to attack the chop shop tonight." Lynch said calmly to Artemis, before he gave a remark.
"The cops will most likely write off what we did back at Ludwig Square. I'm not surprised by this, but... perhaps we can use the chop shop as our calling card?"
“Yeah I think you’re right,” she agreed, smiling behind the mask. “We didn’t sign our name at Ludwig square, there wasn’t enough time. Maybe we could at the chop shop; leave them a real message. I like your style.”
She really wanted to get to the next part of the easter egg hunt but still, they hadn’t eaten a thing and it was important to keep energy levels high.
Besides, skipping meals is bad practice.
“Alright then,” she agreed. “We have to recharge our batteries. We had it easy here but the next part might not be such a piece of cake. It’ll be good to have another plan as well.”
A while later, they were back in the apartment. It was one of the unhealthiest dinners in her life but still, an absolutely welcome change from Starkweather Facility.
Some spicy-chicken insta-noodles were prepared, there was an improvised kale salad (really, it was just the kale after a bit of washing), a few slices of pizza with water.
“We’ve got to make do for now,” Emily commented as they enjoyed the meal. “For the next part of the hunt, I’d like to try out some of my dresses. It could fit into the plan.”
It was important to switch outfits and looks for an outing on a fairly consistent basis. The enemy must never know what to expect.
Lynch had skillfully parked the car. Far enough not to be noticed, but still close enough for them to get an idea of what they were up against.
In front of the chop shop was a large neon sign "Route 66 Auto Repairs and Wreckers" with some old rusted metal cut-outs of cars. The building was composed of the main auto shop with two large warehouses, where the cars are chopped up. Mazus's office was on the upper floor of the building that was overlooking a car crusher in the middle of the scrapyard. In front of the chop shop, a familiar car pulled up in front of the place in an alley in front of it. Several guards with large pipes were at the front of the auto shop entrance and the fence that was blocking the entry to the scrapyard. Some guns can be seen in their belts in makeshift holsters.
They had all the guns in the car. Emily had a new look this time: a long-sleeved blue-green denim top unbuttoned to show some cleavage, a knee-length yellow dress patterned with flowers, some of her legs exposed ending in long brown boots.
"This is the place. What's your game plan? Both outside and inside should be swarming with guards." Lynch asked Artemis, expecting an ambush. Both of them had loaded up extra weapons in the trunk of the car when they got back to the flat, but they needed to still converse ammo. "We need to make sure my trailer isn't scrapped, too. That kid might have mentioned it to them and started keying it." Lynch also mentioned, getting his knife and a pistol that was scavenged for the attack onto the chop shop.
He’s right. By the looks of it this place will be heavily guarded.
“We should try to enter the place with stealth,” she said. “Take down the guards one at a time without sounding the alarm. I have an idea, I’ll start by distracting the guards at the front. Follow me from a distance, we can work together to quickly eliminate them. Then we can move in from there, see what they have on them that we can use.”
Emily was excited. In her mind, they were in a land of evil now, vastly outnumbered but the rightness of their cause will give them strength. It was going to be a true test of their ability to fight and adapt.
There were three guards at the front at the auto shop entrance near the entrance to the fence. One of them was smoking a joint, the other two had their eyes sharp and on the lookout. They held pipes loosely and had holstered pistols as well.
“Hey Bill, quit the smoking. Eyes’ supposed to be sharp. Boss said they might be coming.”
“Oh shut the fuck up Murph,” the youngster replied, throwing down the joint and stepping on it. “If some wackos show up I’ll clip em all by myself. This product SUCKS.”
“There’s someone!” the third guard said, suddenly pointing. They all turned.
A young brunette woman was strolling towards their direction, she was holding a map which she was reading as she walked. She had a strapped handbag slung across her body.
The guards’ eyes travelled across her body and they exchanged some greedy looks.
“She’ll hit a wall if she keeps going,” one of the guards whispered.
“She can hit into me HA!” the other one said.
She walked about one meter away when she suddenly looked up. “Oh… Hey I’m glad you’re here. I was wondering, is there… is there a gas station close to here?”
“There ain’t no gas station here baby,” one of the goons replied. The three of them began to stroll closer towards her. “What cha got in that handbag o yours?”
“What are you doing here anyways?” another guard asked.
She blinked, lowing the map. “Well it’s hmmmmm… truth be told, I’m not from here. I was trying to get to Trenton but then I got lost. My car broke down a mile from here. Do you guys have a phone I can borrow? … Oh wait is this a CAR REPAIR shop?!”
“Sort of,” one of the guards said, smirking.
“I call dibs on this one,” the other guard said.
“Nope, we should share.”
The three guards were looking forward to a good day it seemed. Mazus wanted a degree of professionalism in this operation but he didn’t necessarily need to know. There were many rooms inside the shop they could use for something like this, and it wasn’t the first time they had pulled something like this off.
“Share?” the brunette asked. “What… what do you mean by that?”
She mumbled something as she looked down on her map again. The three guards were now strolling towards her at a very quick pace.
Under the map, one of Emily’s hands slipped into her handbag where there was a large concealed knife...
