FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This was a waste of time. This was going to be all for nothing. They were going to do the job, and if they didn't actually get caught. They'd return to that Samalian and she wouldn't even have the information Alex wanted. His desperation was so clear he was asking to be taken advantage of.

Jacoby consulted the map on his datapad, looked around to orient himself. He'd left the orderly part of the city and was in a section that was a bunch of low buildings pressed together randomly. The pad was barely useful.

He didn't like the corporations any more than anyone else, but at least they knew how to layout a city so you could get where you wanted to go. He took the alley he thought was the right one.

He'd tried arguing against the job again, but Alex was stubborn. He'd even pointed out that Tech wouldn't be of any help in his state. By then the Samalian had already broken two datapads trying to take over running the job. The two of them had screamed at each other. And Jacoby thought it might even come to blows, but Tech had thrown the datapad against a wall and vanished in the other room.

Alex had agreed. He wouldn't be any help on the technical side, but he was still capable of killing, which would be needed if any of the guards noticed them. Jacoby had suggested they leave him here, to which Alex had laughed.

Alex had contacted someone, then sent Jacoby on this errand to pick up what they'd need. Before leaving, while Alex was deep in coercion he'd stop by the room Tristan had taken refuge in. His plan had been to let him know that no matter what Alex said, if he wanted to leave, Jacoby would be happy to fly them back home, but the Samalian had been sitting on the bed, knees pulled to himself, arms around them and rocking.

As he looked Tristan had stopped crying and started saying things in his native language. What had made it creepy was that it sounded like he was having a conversation with someone, well a quiet argument, his ears were laid back and while low, his voice was harsh. So he'd left.

The alleys went in all directions. And either the positioning on this datapad was off, but the map wasn't up to date, because it told him to go forward into the wall before him. He cursed. How was he supposed to get whatever Alex wanted if he couldn't reach the location?

He wished he could ask his followers, but they kept their distances. He'd acquired them as soon as he'd entered this area. All of them Samalians. They'd probably intended on attacking him, robbing him or just hurting him, but he'd made a show of unclipping his Natari Pistol out from his back, where no one would notice it, and repositioning it at his hip, where it was nice and visible. They'd increase the distance then.

They were the only ones he saw. He caught glimpses of others out of doorways, or windows, but they vanished the instant they noticed him. They didn't like humans. Were afraid of them. Right now that worked to his advantage, but he did wonder what they had to deal with from the corporations to be this afraid.

He walked past the place he was looking for, only registering the details Alex had told him to look for subconsciously. The diamond shape crack in the stone that had been patched with Perma-crete. The black door with the arrow scratched in the bottom left corner, and the graffiti of something Jacoby couldn't name.

He turned and found himself confronting his followers. Eight of them. Their numbers had gone down, so.... He glances behind him and saw movements. It was too much of a coincidence for them to have picked this spot to set the ambush. They'd probably taken advantage of him standing still to surround him.

He sighed. "I'm not looking for trouble."

Their response was something like the park the priestess had let out, and then muttering in the local language. None of it sounded friendly, and it wasn't just that it was composed in large part of growls and snarls, that seemed to be a large part of what their language was based around, but the way they looked at him. He'd looked at a roast that way a while back, when he'd spent the day helping Martinez in her field and forgot to eat lunch.

He pulled back the jacket to give himself better access to his Natari and to remind them he was armed. His count of them had been at least double what those saw now. Him against sixteen weren't great odds, but they weren't fighters. Just youths, disenchanted with what was happening to their city and looking for an opportunity to let their anger loose. The moment he started shooting at them, they'd scatter.

Two of them stepped forward, claws out and fangs exposed.

The door behind the group slammed against the wall, making them all jump and Jacoby draw his gun. The Samalian in the doorway who was putting his foot back down was on par with Tech for size, his fur was almost all white, with some pale blond and small black spots here and there.

He snapped a few words in Samalian. And the youths replied in a tone Jacoby could identify as disrespectful even if he didn't understand the words. The large Samalian took one step past the doorway and the youths vanished. Even the ones behind Jacoby were gone.

"Are you Jof?" Jacoby asked. He wasn't even going to bother trying to say the full name.

The Samalian looked him over, didn't look impressed and turned back inside. Jacoby got the sense he was old. It wasn't the white in the fur, that could be his coloring, nor that he walked slowly. It had been the eyes. The brown had been faded and they'd looked beaten, like he'd given up on something that had been important to him at one point.

He hadn't confirmed if he was who Jacoby was looking for, but that was the building, so he followed the Samalian. The room was large, with plush chairs around a pit in the center with a low fire. The pit looked to have been added. At the back was a long counter. It could have been a bar, if there had been bottles on the back wall, or....

Jacoby studied the wall. He could see places where it was discolored. Where brackets and shelves had been. This had been a shop, at some point. Maybe it still was, considering what he was here to get.

"I'm Jacoby," he said. "I'm here to get Crimson's order."

The Samalian looked at him as if he hadn't noticed him before. It wasn't he'd forgotten, he hadn't wanted to see him enter. The pain in his eyes was clearer now that he wasn't angry, or acting angry.

He barked a few words, one of which Jacoby recognized. 'Crimson.'

A younger Samalian came from the door behind the counter. He or she had sandy fur with darker brown swirls through it. They exchanged words, none of which Jacoby understood, but there was resignation in the older Samalian's tone and an undercurrent of anger. The younger one was all excitement.

"Name?" he, or she, asked.

"Jacoby. I'm here to pick up Crimson's order."

"Crimson." The Samalian nodded and went through the door, raising his, or her voice to be understood, but it wasn't for Jacoby. The older Samalian gave one bark answers to what had to have been questions.

The young Samalian returned with two large packs. They rattled on what sounded like a list. He caught 'Picelik,' which was a brand of explosive, and Dober, an accelerant. When they finished they looked at him expectantly.

"Great," Jacoby grumbled to himself. "Of course I have no idea if you asked me to pay with that list."

"Crimson already paid," the Samalian in the chair said.

Jacoby turned. "You speak--"

"Get out." The words had no emotions behind them, just pain. He said something in Samalian and the younger one replied, throwing his hands in the air in a gesture Jacoby knew far too well. Someone was exasperated with his old man.

He grabbed the packs and headed for the door.

"Crimson is making a mistake," the Samalian said, without looking at Jacoby. "This will not help."

"Yeah, I know." He paused by the door. "I don't think he cares."

"He's human." Was the only reply the Samalian gave.

Jacoby left, wondering if Alex was even that anymore.