The sleek sedan purred through Grayhaven's late-morning traffic. In the back seat, Rainer sat swaddled in a stark white hospital gown, the thin fabric doing little against the car's AC. He looked profoundly out of place, like a psychiatric escapee on a joyride.
In the driver's seat, Gabriela—Gaby—guided the car with relaxed precision. Beside her, Rommel was a statue of brooding.
Rainer, never one for comfortable silence, leaned forward, his gown gaping awkwardly.
"So," he began, his eyes darting between them. "You two seem… familiar. Old friends? Training buddies? Don't tell me you're secretly siblings. The resemblance's uncanny, though."
Rommel's jaw tightened, "Not even close."
Gaby chuckled, glancing in the rearview mirror.
"He wishes, lol. I was just the local tour guide he got stuck with. Saved his bacon some time ago when he took a wrong turn into Los Cicatrices' territory looking for a decent pretzel. Had to talk his grumpy behind out of a back-alley dissection."
"You talked," Rommel grumbled, the memory clearly painful. "They were bored. I was ready."
"Ah! So that's the chemistry I was sensing!" Rainer declared, grinning. "A meet-cute over potential dismemberment. A classic love story."
"It was not a 'meet-cute'," Rommel ground out.
Rainer's grin turned sly as a wolf, leaning close.
"Can't full fool me, Rommel. I heard the affectionate way you mentioned her name back at the hospital when she left us." He laughed, glancing Gaby's way. "You don't even dare look at her 'cause you're afraid to catch feelings, aren't you?"
A faint flush crept up Rommel's neck, and Gaby's smile turned triumphant.
"He's sharper than he looks, Mr. Dullahan."
"He's a nuisance," Rommel corrected, turning back to the window, completely done with the conversation.
Satisfied with the minor chaos he'd sown, Rainer's expression turned serious. He held up the creased map.
"Alright, fun's over. This 'X', I need to get here." He pointed at the topographic lines. "Those are elevation marks. It's in the southern highlands—craggy, likely forested, and... Well. In the middle of nowhere."
Gaby's playful demeanor mellowed into a more professional tone as she took a quick glance.
"You're right. Those are rough, remote hills. Perfect for stashing something—or someone—you don't want found. If Festus's corporate friend 'Mr. H' paid him with these coordinates…"
"Then there's something there worth paying for," Rainer finished. "But if Mr. H is as connected as he seems, and Festus is dead…"
A cold logic whirled in his mind.
"He won't just write off the asset. The news of the dock explosion would have been his alarm bell. He'll have already sent his own people to secure whatever's hidden there before anyone else connects the dots."
"A race, then." Rommel stated, the words swirling in the quiet car.
"How long was I out?" Rainer asked.
"A week, and some days." Gabriela informed.
The number hit Rainer like a physical blow, and he slumped back into the seat, a faint groan escaping him at the realization.
Over a week. Not hours. Days of oblivion while the world moved, while plans were enacted, while enemies secured their prizes. And the fruits of his efforts rotted.
He stared blankly at the blur of the city outside his window, the adrenaline of awakening finally crashing into the hard wall of reality.
'I guess it's another loss then...'
"Ra—Rainer?" Gabriela tentatively called, her cheerful tone softening as she noticed the palpable drop in his mood through the rear-view mirror.
"If I've been out that long," Rainer said, his voice flat and stripped of its usual theatricality, "then it's not much of a race."
He let the statement hang, his gaze fixed on some distant point beyond the window.
"It's a salvage operation."
The weight of the phrase settled in the car, and Gabriela's eyes flicked from his reflection to Rommel, seeking… something.
A rebuttal, a plan, a spark of the usual grim confidence.
Rommel met her glance for a fraction of a second. Then, without a word, he turned his head back to the passenger window, his profile a stony mask.
His silence was its own kind of agreement—heavy, resigned, and brutally pragmatic.
···
The cityscape began to transform around them. The utilitarian buildings of the outer districts melted away, replaced by the gleaming glass and steel spines of skyscrapers. They entered the city's pulsing heart: the Central Interchange, a dizzying concrete labyrinth where the business, government, and financial districts bled into one another. Traffic congealed into a river of steel and glass.
"Oh no. We're running on fumes," Gaby sighed, tapping the fuel gauge hovering near 'E'.
She looked up at a majestic building ahead.
"Perfect timing. We'll stop at the Horizon Imperium up ahead. I need gas and Rainer need to look less like a hospital refugee."
She exited the flow of traffic, steering them toward the monolithic structure that dominated several city blocks.
The Horizon Imperium wasn't just a gas station; it was a vertical city of consumption. Parts of its base housed rows of fuel pumps under a sweeping carbon-fiber canopy.
Above that, twenty floors of mall, restaurants, luxury gyms, spas, and holographic advertisements shimmered in the sun.
Truly, a temple to convenience and capitalism.
Gaby slid the car up to a pump.
"Fuel, food, fashion. All here. Try not to get lost, or start a fire. I'll refuel and wait."
Rainer and Rommel disembarked—one in a flapping gown and bare feet in stolen hospital slippers, the other in a severe, but dapper suit.
Naturally, the duo drew stares as they walked toward the gleaming, glass mega-entrance.
"Clothes first," Rommel muttered, as if commanding a tactical operation. "Then caloric intake. Five minutes per task."
"Yes, mother," Rainer chirped, his eyes wide at the sensory overload of the atrium.
···
Back at the car, Gaby leaned against the hood, the fuel pump humming. She watched the two incongruous figures vanish into the bright, crowded mouth of the mall, shaking her head with a faint smile.
Just then, her secure, encrypted phone vibrated in her pocket. Not a text, but a call.
The name "ICE INQUISITOR" bobbed gently on the screen.
Her smile vanished.
She straightened, adopting a posture of attentive neutrality, and stepped slightly away from the car for privacy before swiping to answer.
"Ma'am Messmer?"
"Recite the password." The voice on the other end was soft, but carried the weight of a steel cable.
Gabriela playfully rolled her eyes, though her tone was perfectly respectful.
«She who blinks misses the truth. He who whispers lies was never to be trusted. Our path is to be ever vigilant, ever wise, ever true... This is the way.»
«This is the way.» The voice echoed the ritual's close.
"What's the situation at the hospital? Have you met with Dullahan?"
Gabriela glanced through the mall's vast, glass entrance, where she could swear she saw the fleeting, glimpse of Rainer and Rommel bickering over a clothing rack.
"Oh, yeah. I've met with him. Also, Mr. Infamous—this Rainer guy that's got your attention has awoken."
A moment of weighted silence. Then a muted. "What has he said?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment. "...Nothing much—about you. If that's what you meant."
"That's not—"
"Ah. Pardon me then," Gabriela smiled, a flicker of warmth at the rare, almost imperceptible edge of fluster in her boss's tone.
"He's only been hyper-fixated on the map. The one in the envelope you had me give Mr. Dullahan. He wants me to take him to the marked location on it. Somewhere south, in the wilderness."
Another pause, this one filled with the rapid processing of new data.
"...I see. The map he somehow got from Festus. A location to some form of payment..."
There were suddenly sounds of keyboard typing across the line. Then—
"Gabriela, listen closely." Aegates's voice sharpened. "I am tasking you with a preliminary recon. Get them there, assess the site, but do not engage unless absolutely necessary. I am forwarding you a secure data packet from an orbital surveillance... Satellite passes over the southern highlands show anomalous thermal signatures and vehicle movement near likely coordinates—as of four hours ago. The activity appears organized."
Immediately, Gaby's playful demeanor evaporated, and her blood ran cold. Rainer's instinct had been dead right. Mr. H's people weren't waiting; they were already securing the asset.
"I would say its too late to claim anything," Aegates stated, the words a numbing reality. "But you may depart, still. Observe and report. Do not let the reward be claimed if you can safely prevent it. And Gabriela?"
"Ma'am?"
"Beware of Rainer. According to Dullahan's reports, his methods are destabilizing. Ensure you do not fall prey to the casualty of his whims. Stay safe, okay? Do not follow him into whatever hellhole he decides to enter. By the end, if he still lives, take him to Capo Slick. He requested a meeting the moment Rainer awoke. Understood?"
"All clear!" Gabriela saluted, the gesture instinctive even though she was unseen.
"Good. I'll be back soon. Messmer out."
The line went dead with a soft click.
Gabriela lowered the phone, the brief warmth of the personal warning for her safety swallowed by the rising urgency of the chilling operation ahead.
She looked at the bustling mall entrance, where her two unpredictable charges had disappeared. The comfort of the Imperium, the mundane act of refueling—it all felt suddenly like a fragile illusion.
However, Gabriela remained unfazed. Her line of work dictated that she kept her cool no matter the pressure.
Soon, she finished fueling, the pump clicking off. Another car had already pulled up behind hers, waiting.
The race was indeed on.
And they were behind.