Chapter 4

            Jason woke to the sounds of screams and someone sobbing loudly.  He opened one bleary eye and squinted at the source of the noise, the Vid.  On the screen, Halloween Jack was cutting a SLA Operative, a Slop, with the chainaxe that he always used and was screaming some inarticulate battle-cry.  Heaving himself into a more comfortable position, Jason coughed harshly and instantly regretted it.  His throat felt as though it as on fire and he desperately looked around for something to ease the pain.  Seeing a half full can of cola he grabbed it and drained it in one long gulp, dribbling a lot of it over his chin in the process.  Feeling slightly better he wiped the sticky, sugary liquid from his face and turned his attention back to the screen and the notorious serial killer who was displayed upon it.
           Halloween Jack was standing over the fallen Operative and he seemed to be watching the droplets of blood fall from the teeth of his chainaxe.  There was a hole in the left arm of his jacket and a blood stain was quickly spreading out from it, but the madman didn’t even seem to notice it.  With a deliberate slowness, the pumpkin head mask turned directly towards the camera and there was the faintest hint of light from the eyeholes.  It must have been the streetlights reflecting from his eyes but it looked as though they were burning with a fierce, inner light.
            The killer started walking towards the camera, letting his axe fall to the ground behind him as he did so.  His gloved hands stretched out and Jason had the horrible feeling that it was him that Halloween Jack was reaching for.  A horrendous scream came from the Vid and the image tumbled away as the camera was dropped to the wet, city street.  By some gruesome coincidence, the camera ended up pointing at the body of the Operative who the killer had sliced up with the axe.  Thick, dark blood was slowly running from the body and mixing with the water that ran through the gutters.  Already, flies were settling on the body and one crawled over the open eye of the victim.  The screams were cut off in a dying gurgle and the Vid changed to Carol Ross, a presenter for Third Eye News.
            “Once again,” she said, “Halloween Jack has struck.  This brings his total number of victims up to 14 for this month alone.  It seems that the serial killer strikes where and when he likes, heedless of the publicity that follows him around.  Does this man know no fear, does he not realise that the forces of SLA Industries are closing in on him even at this very moment?”
            “Sure they are,” muttered Jason.  “And the rain’s gonna stop tomorrow.”
            Ignorant of the interruption, Carol Ross continues, “We have had reports that The Preacher, the well known Brain Waster Contract Killer has stated that he will bring in Jack’s head by the end of the month.  Our on the street reporter can now bring you an interview with The Preacher,  John, over to you.”
            Jason turned away from the screen and went looking for a coffee to cure the pain in his throat and the aching in his head.  Like so many other citizens of Downtown, he thought of Halloween Jack as something like a minor god and was sure that no Slop would ever be able to bring him down.  At least once a week, some Operative would claim that they would be the one to bring in the body of Halloween Jack, but no-one had ever managed it yet and it didn’t look as though anyone had ever got close.
            Most of the Runners who had stayed in the Warehouse last night were still asleep but Jason made no special effort to be quiet for their sake.  He stumbled across to the area that had been turned into a make-shift kitchen and ladled a couple of spoons of coffee into an almost clean mug.  The water from the tap started running brown, as always, and Jason waited a few seconds for it to clear before putting the cup below the tap.  He lifted the mug once more, gave it a listless stir and shoved it into the microwave.
            For the few seconds that it took to heat, he started at the grey mug slowly turning inside the micro.  Jason always felt brain dead in the morning, but after a heavy night it was even worse and last night had been a very heavy night indeed.  He glanced at the watch on his wrist and saw that is was reading 11:42.
            “Oh, Christ,” he moaned.  “What the fuck am I doing up and about at this time in the morning?”
            The microwave gave a cheerful beep and Jason opened the door and grabbed the coffee, forgetting as usual that it was always hot when it came out.  He half placed, half dropped the mug and stuffed his burnt fingers into his mouth.  Coffee slopped out of the cup, pooling in the micro plate.
            “Great, just bloody great!  What a wonderful start to the day!”
            He took his hurting fingers out of his mouth and shook his hand before blowing on it.  Ignoring the mess in the micro, he took the chipped mug carefully by the handle and sat at a chair in front of a mostly empty table.  He lit up a cigarette and took a long drag while he waited for the coffee to cool to a drinkable state.
            The roughness in his throat was easing off but the headache was increasing if anything.  This was one of the reasons that Jason avoided mornings, he always felt so bad first thing.  Given the choice, he would happily sleep all through the hours of daylight but for some reason, he had woken early today.  He sat at the table for about half an hour, smoking and drinking coffee and trying to forget that he was actually awake.  During that time, a few people started to stir in the Warehouse but they left Jason alone, knowing what a bad temper he had when he first got up.
            By the time he’d finished his coffee, there were half a dozen people going about their business and the noise level was steadily increasing.  Music mixed with the electronic chatter of video games and the general buzz of conversation was getting louder.  This was not helping Jason’s headache and his temper was getting steadily worse.
            “May I join you?”
            The question jolted Jason from a particularly pleasant daydream about himself and Mary-Anne and he turned quickly, ready to tell the person where to go.  The sharp retort died on his lips when he saw that it was Sheeala standing behind him.  He’d never really spoken to the Wraith but there was something about the way that she moved that impressed him.  Besides, he’d seen her fight and he didn’t want to make an enemy out of her.
            “Sure,” he replied.  “Pull up a seat.”
            The Wraith sat across the table from him, a glass of iced water in her hand.  The ice clinked against the side of the glass as she took a sip from the drink.  Sheeala carefully watched Jason as he examined his burned fingers and she wondered how she should start this conversation.
            “I heard about you helping Owen yesterday.  It was good, he needed a friend.  Not enough friendship here.”
            Her grasp of the Killan language wasn’t perfect and she tried to keep her sentences short so as not to embarrass herself with bad grammar.
            Sheeala had woken early that morning and had taken a lot of time to think about her situation.  She had to get out of the area before SLA caught up with her and she had to do it soon.  There must be people hunting her and they must be closing in on her, she’d been here for three months now and that was far too long.  She had decided that she had to get out in the next couple of days and she was going to need help to get where she needed to go.
            When she’d first arrived on Mort, Sheeala had heard or an organisation that worked against SLA Industries and did everything it could to bring down Slayer.  This organisation was called Dark Night and as Sheeala had learned more about the way things worked on Mort, she learned more about Dark Night.  The organisation had been a thorn in the side of SLA Industries for years and they were doing everything they possibly could to bring down the giant corporation that was SLA.  The Wraith Raider had never had much contact with Dark Night but she would have been blind not to have found out more about them.
            It seemed that Dark Night not only worked against SLA, they also helped out many other small, Soft Companies that worked against Mr Slayer.  During one of her BPNs, Sheeala had discovered a company that was based in Cannibal Sector Three, a company that would get you off planet, for a price.  Naturally, SLA Industries knew about this company, but it had not been worth the effort to close them down.  Mr Slayer knew where to find them if they stepped out of line and the resources that it would have taken to close them down were better employed elsewhere.  At least, that was the way it had been three months ago and Sheeala could only hope that nothing had changed.
            This morning, Sheeala had decided that this company would provide her with the way off planet that she needed so badly.  The company worked under the name of Mystery Tours but that was basically all Sheeala knew about them.  The Wraith didn’t know how to get in touch with them or how much it would cost for a one way ticket back to Polo.  There were many things that she needed to find out and the only way that she could learn more was with the help of someone who knew the ways of Downtown.  She realised that very few of the Cloud Runners knew much about life on the streets, most had distanced themselves from the ways of the Burrowers.  In fact, of all the Runners that Sheeala knew, only Jason spent any real time below the rooftops, and only Jason could possibly help her to find out anything about Mystery Tours.
            Sheeala had spent many hours considering how best to get Jason on side and she finally decided that it would be best to appeal to his vanity.  If she could make him think that he was the only one who could help her, he might do it simply for the standing it would give him, the face value.  Jason had a reputation for being a tough, hard man and if he helped her put one over on the great SLA Industries, it would boost his reputation no end.  Not everyone could boast that they had sneaked something out from under Slayer’s very nose.  That was the theory that Sheeala had come up with, but she didn’t know how to put it into practice.  Manipulating humans was something that she had never had much cause to do and she wasn’t quite sure how to go about it.
            “Owen needs friends just now.  He liked Mike.  He’s hurt inside and you help him by being friend,” she continued.
            “Hey, it weren’t no big deal,” Jason wasn’t used to compliments of this nature and he didn’t know how to deal with them.  “The kid’s an okay guy and I get on well enough with him.  He’s got a serious chip in his shoulder about his colour, but apart from that he’s decent enough company.”
            “I understand how he feels,” said Sheeala.  “It is hard to be the odd one out.  Can be difficult to fit in.  Difficult to make friends.”
            “Guess so,” Jason answered.  “If Owen wasn’t so down on himself he’d get on with people a hell of a lot easier though.  He thinks that everyone’s out to get him and it can be hellish difficult to be friendly with someone that paranoid.  Can’t see that you’ve got much of a problem making friends with people though, apart from Elaine that is.  Danny follows you around like he’s on the end of a string.”
            If Sheeala could have blushed she would have done.  “Danny is friend but Elaine should not worry.  Danny is just friend.  I like to have friends, everyone likes to have friends.”
            Sheeala decided that it was time to push things a bit, to see if Jason really was the sort of person she thought he was.
            “Danny is brave man,” she said.  “Brave and strong.  Not many people like that.”
            Jason gave Sheeala a hard look.  It was obvious that she was leading up to something but he didn’t know what and that worried him.  The Wraith had never shown any interest in him before and now she was virtually flirting with him.  What did she want?
            “Yeah,” he agreed.  “Danny does a good job keeping everyone together.  Everyone likes him.  Without him, the Runners would still be playing tag amongst the aerials.”
            Privately Jason thought that Danny was a big-mouthed waste of space.  He liked to play the big man but he always made sure it was other people who took all the risks, people like Jason.  The Runners were nothing more than a bunch of kids playing at being a gang.  With a bit of effort they could have made a real name for themselves, they could have been someone in the city but Danny was quite happy to keep things going on the way they were.  If Jason had had his way, the Cloud Runners would have tried for the big time.  They had the numbers to put the pressure on the businesses of the Warren and that was where the real money came from – protection rackets.
            “I hear that Danny has got a job on tonight,” said Jason.  “Something to do with the liquor stone on Ryder.  He ain’t said if he wants me to go along or not yet, but he usually likes me to be around.”
            ‘So I can take all the risks!’ he added silently to himself.
            Things were not going the way that Sheeala had hoped they would.  There were undercurrents in the conversation that she didn’t quite understand and she was beginning to think that she had made the wrong choice in Jason.  She desperately wanted to come out in the open and tell him that she needed his help but she didn’t know what his reaction would be.  From what he had said, Jason liked and respected Danny and Sheeala didn’t want Danny to find out about the problems she had.  If Jason told Danny about it, Sheeala knew that she would be forced to leave the Runners and she would be back at square one.  There had to be some way for her to find out if she could use Jason or not.
            “I do not know how things work in Downtown,” she admitted carefully.  “I do not know many people.  Danny does not know many people.”
            Things fell into place in Jason’s head as he suddenly realised what Sheeala wanted.  She must have a plan of her own for making some money and she wanted some help with it.  She needed someone with contacts and obviously Danny didn’t know the people that she wanted to get in touch with.  It all seemed so simple now that Jason thought he knew what was happening.  Now the only question was what he could get out of it.
            “It can take a while to figure out how things work down here in The Warren,” he admitted, “and it can be hard to get to know people.  Most folk like to keep themselves to themselves.  Still, I do know a few people, more than most I suppose.”
            Sheeala smiled to herself as she heard what she thought was Jason boasting.  She had caught him and all she had to do was reel him in.  All these humans were so predictable, they all had at least one weakness and all you had to do was find it.  Once you knew their weakness, you could make them do anything and Jason’s weak spot was his vanity.  It would be so easy for her to get him to act as a guide for her.
            The two Cloud Runners got down to some serious negotiations with neither of them understanding exactly what the other wanted. 

            From across the room Elaine watched the two people haggling and smiled grimly to herself, this was just the chance she’d been waiting for.  She watched while Jason and Sheeala leaned close together, talking fast and concentrating hard.  Neither of them had eyes for anyone but each other and they were paying no attention to what was happening around them.  Elaine had been watching for at least ten minutes before she realised that this could be her chance to get Danny away from the alley cat.  Giving the pair one last glare, Elaine left the Warehouse and set off for Danny’s flat at a run. 

            On a rooftop half a dozen blocks from the Warehouse, Whisper sat shivering in the rain.  He was looking down the telescopic sights of his FEN 30-30 rifle at the building that his squad were going to raid this evening.  The rest of his team would be warm and dry in bed just now, but Whisper had drawn the short straw and he was the one that had to keep an eye on the place.
            “It’s always freakin’ me that gets the freakin’ shitty jobs” he cursed under his breath.  “Never any o’ the freakin’ Ebons that have to stand in the freakin’ rain and freeze their nuts off.  Oh no, they always leave that to poor old Whisper.  Why should they care?  I’m only a freakin’ human ain’t I?  We’re only the freakin’ dominant race on this planet!  Bloody high and mighty Ebons think they own the bloody place!”
            The monotone drone continued on in this vein for many minutes but there was no-one on the roof to hear what Whisper was saying.  He was a short man with bad teeth and pale skin.  His greasy black hair hung over his eyes and his breath stank of garlic and tobacco.  The rest of his squad gave Whisper the dirty jobs because they would rather that he wasn’t in the same room as them.  They had tried to get him to improve his personal hygiene many times but he wouldn’t take the hint and stubbornly refused to wash more often than he could absolutely get away with.  Despite all of these personal disadvantages, Whisper was one of the best snipers on Mort and his squad were glad to have him on board.
            The Ebons in the squad had managed to track Sheeala down to this warehouse in The Warren and it was up to Whisper to make sure that they knew if she left the building.  He wasn’t to kill her, but to let them know so that they could follow her.  Whisper didn’t know why they just didn’t go in with guns blazing and waste the Wraith but Mantra had said to wait and watch and Mantra was the one with the high SCL rating.  If Mantra said that they had to wait until this evening, they would wait until this evening.  No-one bothered to tell Whisper that this was because the squad couldn’t get enough Shiver back-up until then.  He didn’t need to know, he simply had to do his job and that job was watching the Warehouse.
            The door to the Warehouse swung open and a pretty young girl rushed out and down the walkway that led away from the building.  Whisper followed her in the sights for a few minutes, admiring her long legs and small breasts, before he returned his attention to the Warehouse.  He had been upon this roof for two hours already and it would be another three before he was relieved.
            “Become an Operative, they said,” he complained to himself.  “It’s a life of fun and excitement they freakin’ said.  No-one said nothin’ about sitting on a bloody roof in the pouring rain for hours on end just to watch a freakin’ Downtown street gang.  There’s got to be a better way of making a living than this.  I should’ve been a button puncher like my mum wanted me to be. At least that would be in the dry and  wouldn’t get freakin’ psychos trying to kill me every other day.”
            He pulled his coat collar righter around his neck and tried to find a more comfortable position.  It was going to be a long three hours. 

            In her apartment, Hazel looked up from the Vid slug of the ancient black and white movie she was watching and glanced at her watch.  12:35.  She considered getting in touch with Calumn but quickly rejected the idea.  Jason wouldn’t be at the arcade yet and there was no point in wasting more time in Downtown than she had to.  The movie would finish in just over an hour and she would give the Frother a call then, that would give him plenty of time to get over his first hit of the morning fix and he should be in a reasonable temper by then.
            She turned her attention back to the movie and watched as a white hated cowboy shot Indian after Indian while dodging arrows.  All around him his comrades were going down with feathered shafts sticking from them but the here didn’t have to worry about things like this.  He knew that he had to drive the evil Indians off so he could save the woman he loves from a fate worse than death.
            “It must have been so simple then,” muttered Hazel.  “It was easy to know who were the good guys and who were the nasty ones.  The Indians were wicked, dangerous savages and the cowboys defended the honest, hard working settlers who came across the plains.  Kill the bad Indians and save the day, nice and straight forward.”
            She sighed and shook her head.  “If only everything was as easy as that now.  It’s getting harder and harder to tell the warders from the loonies.”
            Leaning forward, she put her chin into her hands and settled down to lose herself in a long ago time.  A time of good versus evil and black hats versus white hats.  No one would have been able to convince Hazel of this, but she was a dreamer, an idealist.  She longed for a simple way of life even though she knew she would never have it.  On the screen, the cowboy lifted the wounded girl in his arms and gently kissed her.  She was hurt but everyone knew that’s he would survive, that the cowboy had once again saved the day.  In the Vid slugs, the good guys always won.
 

            A loud hammering invaded Danny’s dreams, shattering the remnants of whatever fantasy he had been lost in.  It took him a few moments to realise that there was someone knocking on the door and that the sound wasn’t coming from the inside of his throbbing head.  When he left the Warehouse last night, he had taken an almost full bottle of vodka with him and he could vaguely remember finishing it at some point not all that long ago.
            “Okay, okay,” he shouted then instantly regretted making that much noise.  “I’m coming!”
            Pushing the sweat stained duvet from the bed, he got to his feet and stumbled across the bare floorboards to the door of his flat.  Danny was just wearing a pair of boxer shorts that had probably been white once and a plain, black t-shirt.  The air in the room was stale and fetid but he didn’t notice these minor things, all Danny could think about was the pain in his head and stomach and who could possibly have the nerve to wake him up.
            Purely as a matter of habit, he picked up the metal crowbar that lay on the table by the door, before looking through the small spy-hole.  The fish-eye lens distorted the view and added to Danny’s confusion but he could just make out a familiar figure standing in the hallway.  At any other time he would have been glad to see Elaine but all he wanted to do now was go back to bed and curl up and die.
            “Elaine, what the hell do you want?” he called through the still locked door.
            “Let me in and I’ll tell you,” replied Elaine as she looked over her shoulder.  This was a bad neighbourhood and she didn’t want to have to stand around in the corridor for longer than she absolutely had to.  Being a Cloud Runner might carry a lot of weight in this area, but there were still plenty of psychos who didn’t care who they cut up.
            “C’mon Danny, open the door.  Please.  I need to talk to you.”
            More to stop the noise than for any other reason, Danny started to open the bolts and chains that secured the door.  It was quite a complex process and it took almost 15 seconds before he could swing the door open.  When the door did finally open, Danny could see Elaine standing in front of him, still panting slightly from her run across the rooftops.  He felt a faint stirring of desire for her but it was quickly drowned in the wave of nausea that flood over him as the relatively fresh air hit him.
            As Danny was rushing to the bathroom, Elaine stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, making sure that she secured all the bolts and chains again.  She doubted that anyone would be stupid enough to try to break into the room of the headman of the Cloud Runners, but it was just common sense not to take any risks.  She could hear a wrenching, coughing sound coming from the direction that Danny had run in and she hoped that he had managed to make it to the bathroom in time.
            Looking around the room, Elaine was struck, as always, by the contrasts in it.  Bare walls and floors surrounded expensive Vid and music systems.  Cushions on the floor took the place of seats and a modern game system took pride of place in the room.  A huge, rickety bed took up much of what was left of the space in the room and two doors led out from this area, one to a bathroom and the other to a small kitchen.  Danny’s apartment was damp, cold and filthy but it was well stocked with music and video slugs and there was always alcohol hidden away somewhere.  Not for the first time, Elaine wondered about Danny’s sense of priorities.
            The more she thought about Danny, the more confused she became.  He was 25, clever and streetwise yet he lived in a slum and never had more than two bits to rub together.  He seemed to be content to wander through life with no direction and no worries as long as he could get out of his head every night.  Elaine was never sure if Danny was happy with his lifestyle or not because he would never talk to her about it and the more she pressured him, the more secretive he became.
            Sitting on the edge of the bed, Elaine waited impatiently for Danny to get over his ‘illness’ and come back into the room.  She knew that there was no point in trying to talk to him before he managed to clear his head but she needed him to get back to the Warehouse quickly.  It was important that he caught Jason and Sheeala together himself because she was sure that Danny would never just take her word for it.  After what seemed like an age to Elaine, she heard the toilet flushing and Danny wandered back into the room, pale-faced and sweating slightly.
            “Don’t suppose you could make me a coffee while I get dressed, could you?” he asked in a subdued voice.
            “Sure.”  Elaine smiled as she went through to the kitchen.  Danny could be just like a big kid sometimes and Elaine could never resist him when he looked vulnerable.
            The kitchen was in it’s usual filthy state.  Half empty mugs lay scatted across the table, bowls with the remains of long forgotten meals caked onto them were stacked up by the sink and dozens of pizza boxes littered the floor.  Keeping a careful lookout for rats, Elaine grabbed a couple of mugs and took them over to the sink.  She let the tap run for a few seconds in the vain hope that the water would heat up and then did her best to rinse the mugs in the freezing water.  It took her a few minutes to prepare the coffee but she thought it was time well spent.  Hopefully, a strong, black coffee would help Danny wake up and put his head back in order.
            While all this was going on in the kitchen, Danny was searching for some halfway clean clothes.  He stripped off his t-shirt and boxer shorts and looked through the piles of clothes that lay scattered about the floor, trying to find anything that was even reasonably clean.  Finally he decided on a pair of blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a pair of shorts that he thought were clean, although it could be difficult to be sure.  After he got mostly dressed, he pulled on his sneakers and ran a hand through is tangled mop of hair.
            Staring into a grimy mirror, Danny rubbed a hand over his three day growth of beard and considered shaving but abandoned the idea when he saw how much his hands were shaking.  His head was still aching violently but the sickness in his stomach had subsided by the time that Elaine came back with the coffee.  She handed him the mug and then sat back on the bed, waiting for the obligatory question.
            “Okay Elaine,” Danny supplied.  “So why are you here?”
            “It’s about Sheeala,” Elaine started but she was interrupted before she could continue.
            “How many times do I have to tell you that there is nothing going on between me and her?” Danny demanded.  “Damn it Elaine, she’s a fucking Wraith for fuck’s sake.  Sure, I like her but it’s you that I love.  You know that!”
            He got to his feet and started pacing about the room, wondering why Elaine had decided to give him grief this early in the day.  She normally waited until the evening before she started on about the Wraith Raider
            “It’s nothing like that,” said Elaine.  “I just thought that you should know that I saw her and Jason talking about something this morning.”
            “Yeah?  So what?” Danny asked.  “They can talk all they want, there ain’t no law against that.  Elaine, what is your problem?  You wake me up to tell me that Sheeala’s talking to Jason, are you crazy or what?  Sheeala was talking to Jason, big fucking deal!”
            Elaine was worried by Danny’s outburst, she knew he could get very violent when he was upset and she had been on the receiving end of his temper before now.  She moved back on the bed slightly in an almost subconscious attempt to get away from him.
            “It’s just that I heard them talking about you,” she stammered.  “They were saying how much you didn’t know and laughing.  I wouldn’t have disturbed you but I thought that Jason might be planning something, you know that he’s not happy with the way you’ve been running things and I was worried that he and Sheeala might be up to something.  I was worried about you, Danny.”
            Danny stopped his pacing, turned to face Elaine and grabbed her roughly by the shoulders.  He was looking for some sign that’s he was lying but saw only fear in her eyes.
            “Tell me exactly what you heard, exactly.”
            “It wasn’t much,” Elaine said quickly.  “They were sitting in the kitchen and Sheeala came up to Jason and they started talking.  Jason was saying that he knew a lot of people and they were talking about the job that you were planning at the liquor store tonight.  They were talking about Mike as well, I think that they blamed you for him not making it through his test.  I’m sorry Danny, I didn’t hear anything more.  I thought that I should come and tell you about it.”
            Tears were streaming down Elaine’s face, making her make-up run and turning her eyes red and puffy.  Danny was still holding her by the shoulders but he was staring over her head, hardly even aware that she was there, not moving and not saying anything.
            “Bastards!” he burst out.  “Fucking bastards!”
            He span away from Elaine and started pacing up and down the room again, kicking out at piles of laundry and cursing all the time.  Elaine had never seen him this angry before and she was worried that he would turn on her.  He stopped in front of the window and jerked the curtains open, tearing one of them from its rail in the process.  This enraged him even more and he flung the curtain across the room, scattering music slugs from the table where it landed.  He leaned against the window frame, his hands clenching and unclenching spasmodically.
            Still cursing, he slammed his fist into the wall by the window.  Again and again he pounded the brickwork, not stopping even when blood started to flow from his torn knuckles.  The hot blood was splattering against the wall, leaving a visible mark of the violence of his temper and Danny only stopped when he saw the mess.  Turning from the window, he gazed blankly at his hand and the blood running from it.
            Elaine sat on the edge of the bed, too scared to move or speak, terrified that Danny would take out his temper on her.  She desperately wanted to go to him, to comfort him, but she didn’t know how he would react.  Danny looked up from his hand and turned his attention to Elaine.
            “There’s a box of painkillers in the bathroom,” he said in a very calm, quiet voice.  “Could you get them for me?”
            As Elaine hurried to get the tablets, she allowed herself a small smile.  Maybe things would work out after all. 

            A couple of hours later, Danny had showered, shaved and bandaged his torn hand.  He reckoned that there were at least two broken knuckles in the hand but he didn’t have the time to worry about minor incidentals like that.  He had to get things organised for tonight, had to make sure that the people who were going to the liquor store job would be completely loyal to him and didn’t owe Jason any favours.
            Danny had calmed down a lot since Elaine had broken the news to him, but he was still furious.  He just couldn’t believe that either Jason or Sheeala would go against him and the fact that they were working together made it even worse.  For a while he had doubted what Elaine had told him but he quickly realised that she didn’t have the brains to make up a story like this.  Besides, he had never really liked Jason, the guy was always just that bit too sarcastic and smug.  As if he knew something that no-one else did and it struck him as being very amusing.
            Turning over in bed, he put an arm round Elaine and pulled her close to him.  She moaned quietly in her sleep but didn’t wake.  Danny pushed a loose strand of hair away from her face and looked down at the girl who was sleeping peacefully in his arms.  Elaine could be a very special girl, if she would just grow up a bit.  She still thought that the world revolved around her and that everything would always work out okay in the end.  At first this naivety had attracted Danny but now it just irritated him.  He couldn’t understand how someone who had grown up in The Warren could think that way and he wished that Elaine was a bit more of a realist.
            Sliding out of the bed, Danny moved lightly to make sure that he didn’t wake her, although he knew that there was very little chance of that.  When Elaine slept, she slept hard.  He pulled his clothes on for the second time that day and wandered into the kitchen, looking for a cold beer.  Picking a bottle up from the refrigerator, he twisted the cap off and walked back into the main room.
            Danny knew what he had to do about Jason and Sheeala, it was pretty obvious.  He had to kill them.  Easier said than done though, either one of them could beat him in a fair fight and he couldn’t simply walk up to them and shoot them.  The rest of the Runners would never stand for an act like that.  Sure, he was leader of the gang, but even he had to go by the rules and one of the rules was that you had to look out for your brother.  Every Cloud Runner would stand up for every other Runner against an outsider but it wasn’t so clear-cut when it was internal trouble.
            Most minor disputes were settled in either a race across the roof-tops or in a fight.  The fights only lasted until one surrendered or simply couldn’t get up again and they were a good way of settling differences.  Once the fight or race was over, the loser had to go along with what the winner wanted or they would be thrown out of the gang and banned from travelling on the rooftops.  If an outcast was seen on the roofs, they were fair game and were hunted down by the Runners.  People would do anything to make sure they weren’t removed from the gang.
            If Danny simply confronted the two traitors with what he knew, they would just deny everything and challenge him and Danny knew that he would lose the challenge.  He would have to handle things very carefully or he would lose his position as head of the Runners at the very least.  If things went badly, he could even find himself thrown out of the gang and an outcast.  No, he would have to be clever about this one, he would have to get rid of Jason and the Wraith without them finding out that he knew about them, but how?
            The answer had to lie with the robbery that was planned for tonight.  It would be a simple thing to guarantee that the Shivers would be waiting for them, but how could he make sure that it was only Jason and Sheeala that were caught?  Okay, he could send them in first to make sure that everything was clear, but the Shivers would have the place well staked out and it would be very difficult for Danny and the rest of the gang to get away.  No, it was simply too big a chance to take.
            What other ways were there?  Trap them inside the building and set the alarm off?  No, too easy for them to get away.  Arrange for them to have an accident when they were running away from the store?  No, too difficult to set up, it was impossible to guess where they would run to.  Send them off to watch for anyone coming along?  Possibly, it would be easy enough to arrange for them to get mugged or jumped by another gang while they were acting as lookouts.
            He slumped down onto one of the cushions that lay on the floor and took a long drink from the bottle.  Stretching out, he put the bottle down and folded his hands behind his head.  Looking up at the ceiling he stared at the cracked plaster and damp patches that were so familiar to him.  From somewhere in the block there came the sounds of a crying child and the dull beat of muffled music.  Living in The Warren there was always some background noise but Danny had long ago learned to tune it out.  If he hadn’t, he would have been driven insane, the human mind can only take so much noise before it switches itself off.
            Danny had often thought about moving to a new place, a better place.  He could get the money easily enough and there were always apartments to rent for those that could afford them.  But The Warren was where he belonged, this was where he had grown up and he knew every metre of every walkway in the whole damn sector.  In The Warren, he could walk through the streets and hold his head up high, secure in the knowledge that people knew him and respected him.  He was the head of the Cloud Runners, an important person, a powerful person.  If he moved away from here he would have to start afresh and it had taken him a long time to climb to the top of this particular heap.  He wasn’t sure that he wanted to start the climb again, he wasn’t sure if he could make the climb again.  No, it was better to be the prince of a shit-heap than a nobody in a palace.
            He turned his thoughts back to the problem of Jason and Sheeala.  He had always known that Jason would be trouble but he had expected better from the Wraith Raider.  He had taken her in when she needed somewhere to go, he had brought her into the gang and taught her how to live on the rooftops.  He had given her a place to live and friends to be with and this was how she repaid him.  Danny was not a forgiving person and he wasn’t going to let this insult pass him by.  Those two would regret the day they thought they could get the better of Danny Patrick.
            So, he knew that he was going to get the pair of them to act as lookouts while the robbery was taking place, but how could he make sure that they were caught, who could he get to take them out?  A rival gang would be out of the question!  It would set a dangerous precedent to let any Cloud Runner be removed by another gang.  Danny would be forced to start a war in revenge and that was the last thing that he wanted, he was not going to let other people get hurt because of two worthless scumbags.
            It would be too tricky to call in the Shivers or the Monarchs, there was too much risk of the rest of the gang getting caught.  So who was left?  Operative’s no chance!  For a start, Danny didn’t know where to get hold of any and he didn’t want any Slops taking an interest in the Cloud Runners.  No, the answer had to be Props.
            “Yes!” he half shouted.  “Props!  Of course, why didn’t I think of it sooner?”
            A sleepy groan came from Elaine and Danny turned around to look at her, hoping that she hadn’t woken up.  She moaned again and turned over in her sleep, pulling the duvet around her but not waking up.  Danny heaved a sigh of relief and went back to his planning.
            All he had to do now was find a couple of Props who could do the job.  He had plenty of cash for the job so that wasn’t a problem but he did need to find the Props in a hurry.  He looked down at his watch and saw that it was reading 16:06, only seven hours before he was meant to do the job at the liquor store.  He had to move quickly, so where could he find the Props that he needed?
            The “Depth Charge” was the subway where most of the Props hung out, but that was at the other side of Mort and Danny needed the Props in a hurry.  It would take too long to get across town, hire a couple of Props and get back to the Warren.  He had to get down to the Warehouse and start sorting things out for the job tonight as well, it would look suspicious if he was late.  So, where else was there?  Danny struggled to think of where he could possibly find a couple of half-decent Props at such short notice.
            “The Rat-Trap,” he muttered quietly.  “That’s where I’ve seen Props hanging out before.”
            The Rat-Trap was a dingy bar that was located between The Warren and Hilton High, the neighbouring sector.  It was a real dive of a place and Danny had only been there once but he did remember seeing Angel Face and The Wolfman there.  They were a couple of Props who had a decent reputation and were said to be not too expensive, exactly what Danny needed.
            The big problem was that the Rat-Trap was in a sort of no-man’s land between The Warren and Hilton High.  The Cloud Runners were a Warren gang and were not liked by the street punks of Hilton.  If Danny went to the bar on his own and was recognised he could be in serious trouble, but there was no-one he could trust to take with him.  He had to take the chance!  It was pretty unlikely that he would run into any of the Hilton Nutty-Boys, the main gang from that sector, and even if he did he could easily lose them on the rooftops.
            Danny had made up his mind that he was going to check out the Rat-Trap so he didn’t waste any time.  He checked his wallet, just to make sure that he had the money he’d need, and picked up his jacket.
            “Oh, that would be a real smart move,” he said to himself as he put the jacket back down.  “Go into Hilton turf with your colours all over your back!  You got a death-wish boy?”
            He grabbed a plain black, leather jacket from the closet and kissed Elaine before giving her a shake to wake her up.
            “I’ve got to go out and do some business, baby.  Back in a couple of hours.”
            Before she could question him, Danny was out of the door and Elaine was left looking around the empty room.  She thought about getting up but what was the point, she’s only have to wait for Danny to come back.  Shrugging her shoulders, she pulled the duvet up around her ears and soon fell asleep again.

On to Chapter 5

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