A Werewolf In Under-Town

Slink's mind was in three parts. One was riding alongside Curly as the snake wound its way across the early morning sidewalk. Thankfully, the pavement was free of commuters rushing to work. The Currency Exchange was located in a fairly nondescript neighborhood. One that didn't get much through traffic. Curly had a simple time slithering into position and keeping an eye on things.

Another part of his mind was with Larry high above them on a nearby building. The snake had managed to wriggle himself up a wall and onto a roof. His stubby little emerald nose was pointed high in the air and Slink was watching for drones. Normal traffic being what it was, though, it was hard to spot the small buggers. Hover cars were entering the Skylanes above and rushing off toward Austin. But Larry seemed up to the task. The Snake informed Slink that the propulsion used by the drones vibrated the air noticeably.

Lastly, Slink was trying to stay present in his actual body as Lackeys buzzed around him like bees. They rushed everywhere, working away on their computers as Petra watched over them. Occasionally, one hacker would call out a tricky bit of security and the room would go tense. Then Jane would do something and the problem would go away. Already his team had circumvented a lot of the Exchange's security. However,

"This is taking too long," Skanda moaned.

Slink rolled his eyes at the nervous looking alien at the window. "It's been fifteen minutes. Calm down, Demetrius. The teams are working well and the soon they'll be through all the encryption. After that, it's just a matter of funneling the credits into some dummy accounts."

"It's not quite that easy, boss." Said a sweaty-looking man working at his terminal.

Slink raised an eyebrow, wondering what he had missed. But the Lackey seemed to catch on to who he was speaking too.

"I mean, it's all rather technical and boring. We're bypassing loads of smaller defenses set on our path. Jane's still doing the heavy lifting, but the rest of us aren't slacking either."

"Didn't mean to imply that you were."

"You didn't… I mean… I just wanted..."

"David, shut up and get back to work." Petra said tiredly.

David nodded quickly and turned back to his keyboard in a hurry. Slink snorted, but nodded gratefully at Petra. It was weird to have a bunch of employees that almost seemed to fear him. Slink was, physically, still the same skinny kid he had always been. Just now, he ran a criminal empire. Which came with a great deal of respect. Sure, it was mostly from NPCs, but the feeling was still kind of nice. Although, he'd appreciate it more if the Lackeys would at least look him in the eye occasionally.

"Another firewall." A tech shouted over the din of keyboards.

"Dousing." Jane's voice said from inside her pod.

The speakers on the outside of Jane's pod were quite impressive. It was almost like the girl was standing right next to all of them. Slink grinned at the young girl in her glass case. She was working out splendidly and she seemed to take to her new role with gusto. She had slipped through the Exchanges defenses like a skilled spy. What he wouldn't give to see what she was dealing with in there. Jane had explained it to him, but it was all highly nebulous. It all had to do with perceptions and metaphysical concepts. Most of which he didn't want to dig into.

Suffice it to say, the girl was a goddess in her domain now. The only thing that would stop them was another Supe with the girl's abilities. That, or something going wrong in the Exchange itself. Slink was in the process of crossing his fingers so that wouldn't happen when the sounds of typing grew louder.

"Whoa! Their system just went into an elevated state!"

"Did we do that?!"

"Calm down and check your paths! Make sure we haven't been blown! Jane!" Petra ordered.

"It wasn't me." Jane said, sounding scared. "The system just went into a readiness stage. But I don't think it was us."

"Is someone else trying this!? Really?!" Slink practically screamed in exasperation.

"Boss, I don't think it was because of someone trying to break into the Exchange." Skanda said, pointing a finger down at the building.

Slink hurried over and looked out the large window. The Currency Exchange was nestled just across from them in a silver-steel building. It rose into the air five stories and had a flat roof Slink and his party could just look down on. Unfortunately, on top of that roof was a helipad. One that was now occupied by a sleek black helicopter. Two rows of armored men were standing at parade rest just off the helipad. They appeared to be waiting for someone to disembark off the helicopter.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

A sharp pinch behind his eyes made Slink blink before his vision seemed to zoom across the street toward the building. Something about the armor the guards were wearing prickled something in Slink's memory. But it wasn't coming to him.

"Does anyone think that armor looks familiar?" Slink asked the room, making his squad of hackers glance up.

But a sharp growl from Petra and the techs were back to typing. She gave Slink a reproachful look before she sauntered to the window. Petra squinted out the window beside Slink before she huffed and shrugged.

"It looks familiar, but that's not saying much."

"It's a cleaned-up version of the armor the UGB wear." Skanda said, rubbing his temples with his thumb and forefinger. "Clearly, whoever they are, they provide support for the UGB."

"Or the UGB scavenge their gear from these guys."

Petra, Slink, and Skanda shared looks before another hacker shouted out.

"Boss, it's a high stakes holder coming to meet with his broker. I've got a memo about the visit from someone's garbage file. The building management aren't happy about the last minute visit, but they are accommodating."

Slink chewed his lip for a few hot seconds before he nodded to himself. Pulling away from the window, he addressed his team.

"Okay, this changes nothing. We were tiptoeing before, now we get down and crawl. I don't want any screw-ups. We bide our time and wait out the visit. Once the elevated state of their systems decreases. I want you to hit them as quickly and as precisely as you can. Everyone go to stand by. No further incursions into their systems. But if you see something interesting with the access you have, then feel free."

Petra groaned as the tapping of keys picked up again. "Don't give them free rein to do what they want. This lot is bound to try to dig up the internet traffic of all the brokers in that place."

Slink shrugged. "So long as they are careful…"

Petra marched back toward the row of terminals and hackers muttering to herself. She immediately started asking for detailed reports from each hacker. Probably trying to curtail them from digging through digital garbage. Slink didn't care, information was power and who knew, maybe they'd find some juicy tidbit in the meantime.

A buzz at Slink's ear made him tap his ear communicator. "Go."

"It's Gossamer, boss. We got a team of supposed civilians hanging around."

Slink checked in with Curly and Larry and found the group of civilians walking stiff-legged down the street. Hugging the curb, Curly followed along with the group as they passed Slink's building. They were a group of five humanoids. Two Humans and three aliens. But the odd thing about them was that none of them were speaking. In fact, they weren't even looking at each other. They were just wandering down the street, taking in the sights.

Curly scented the air and sent back a deluge of information. All five of them smelled like gunpowder and ozone. A few even had a touch of metal and magic to their scents. Slink groaned and had Curly stay with the group. If they were lucky, they fake civvies would just walk on by their building and not do anything. Of course, Slink's luck wasn't that good.

"I've got a bunch of heat signatures on the first floor of that building back there," said one of the humans among the fake civvies.

"Maintain radio silence while we go check it out. It could just be a few squatters. If we don't come back or you hear shit go down, call it in."

Slink blew out a breath and tapped his ear comm again. "You're right. They are police or something. One is staying back to radio in if shit goes down while four are coming to inspect our building."

"I can take the straggler, but the green-bloods are going to have to deal with the four."

"I'll be down to help in a moment. We'll ambush them and then you sneak up from behind. We can't let them report back."

"What about when they don't report in at all?"

"Our other option is to let them investigate this building. Is that what you want?"

"No, boss. I'll handle the straggler."

"Good."

Slink tapped his comm off and looked around the room. Skanda was biting his long black nails as Petra was superstitiously watching Slink. He breathed in a calming breath and automatically checked his weapons. Within him, Moe woke up, pushing his way toward Slink's arms. He held back the gigantic snake before it tried to exit his body. He didn't need a room full of his minions seeing that.

His armor was secure, and his pistol was ready. So Slink turned to the door leading to the stairs. As he moved, he called out to his assistants.

"You two follow my orders and keep this lot on track. I'll be back in a jiffy."

"That confidant, are you?" Petra smirked.

Slink coughed. "Of course. I may not be as physically tough as the others, but I can handle myself. Remember your old boss?"

Petra's eyes widened as she recalled their first meeting. She smirked and gave him a nod before turning back to her workers. Slink gave Skanda a jaunty salute before starting to jog down the stairs. He needed to get to the first floor in time to set up an ambush. He and the Lackeys needed to be fast. Otherwise, this entire operation was going to go up in smoke.