Dark Lanes

"Hey little man-"

Walking past Vi and her gang, I caught bits of their conversation. So Ekko was called little man by these guys, huh, weird name. Not that I cared much - having anything to do with Vander's kids was asking for trouble, and I had enough of that already.

"I should probably sell these as soon as I can," I muttered, my hand instinctively grazing the inside of my jacket where my items were held. The glass bottle clinked softly against the packets of tobacco, had to constantly remind myself they were there, after all I wasn't infallible, I could get pickpocketed just as easily as I pickpocketed the drunkards on main streets.

I looked down one of the quickest ways to the lower levels - a running sewer line filled to the brim with murky water. The surface rippled with an unnatural iridescence that spoke of dumped chem materials. The smell alone was enough to make my eyes water, but hey when in the Undercity.

"Welp, down we go," I said, holding my nose and throwing myself in. The current caught me immediately, pulling me faster and faster as I bumped between the sewer walls. The water burned where it touched my skin - definitely some nasty chemicals in there. I closed my eyes to keep the stuff out and-

BAM

"Ow, fuck me," I grumbled, scratching my head where it had hit the ground. Note to self: closing your eyes while riding sewage rapids? Not the best plan. I'd fallen out of the pipe and rolled onto a street, my clothes and hair covered in chunks of who-knows-what. The smell was going to stick around for days.

I opened my jacket to check my gear. The knife was still safely sheathed - last thing I needed was to get cut by my own blade while tumbling through the sewers. The bottle and tobacco seemed intact too, though the packets were a bit damp. Hopefully the buyer wouldn't mind.

"Let's see," I whispered to myself, scanning the area. I'd only used this particular sewer line a few times before, which explained my graceless landing. Pulling up my hoodie to hide my face, I started running, never stay in one place too long.

From my perch on the shop rooftops later, I finally spotted my destination - the dark lanes. First time going in without backup, but it should be fine. Probably. Maybe. I tried not to think too hard about all the stories I'd heard about what happened to solo operators down here.

Below me, a woman with bat-like features - one of the many chimeras that called the Undercity home - was walking a whump rat on a leash. The creature was easily as big as a dog, its hairless tail dragging along the ground.

"I wonder how many puffcamps they were able to bring back," I mused, watching the rat with the pattern on a mask on it's face sniff the air. "Maybe I should buy one - they say the meat's delicious." My stomach growled at the thought, reminding me it had been hours since I'd eaten.

"No, better not waste my money," I decided, jumping to another roof before dropping down into an alley. I pulled my hoodie closer, trying to make myself as inconspicuous as possible. In the dark lanes, standing out was as good as painting a target on your back.

I stuck to the crowds as much as possible, resisting the urge to practice my pickpocketing. Finally, I reached my destination: a small, rundown shop wedged between two larger buildings.

As soon as I stepped inside, I was greeted by the barrel of a gun pointed straight at my face. The purple-haired woman behind the counter held it steady, her expression unreadable.

I raised my hands immediately. "Here to sell."

"Show," she replied, gesturing slightly with the gun.

Moving slowly, I opened my jacket and retrieved the tobacco and aphrodisiac wine. "Babette's wine and tobacco."

"You got that huh?" Her expression softened slightly as she recognized me. "Then come give it here, Paul."

"Damn you knew it was me, I thought I hid y face pretty well with the hoodie."

"You have to be kidding right? I was staring directly at you, how would I not see your face."

"Touche."

"Now come over, you know protocol."

I approached carefully, arms still raised, and placed the items on the counter before backing away. The gun never wavered from my direction.

"Six gold."

I blinked in surprise. "You aren't gonna haggle?"

"Nah," she said, a rare smile crossing her face. "Already have a client lined up for the aphrodisiac. As for the tobacco..." She shrugged. "Don't know how you got it, but it's my favorite."

"Then sure, deal." Six gold was more than I'd expected - a really, really, good haul for a day's work.

She nodded, placing six gold coins on the counter before carefully storing the items in various drawers. The gun remained trained on me as she gestured for me to collect my payment.

I approached slowly, retrieving my wallet and storing the coins. The weight felt good - nothing was better than gold, either down here or anywhere else in the world for that matter.

"Pleasure doing business with you," I said as I backed away, keeping my eyes on the gun. Firearms were surprisingly rare down here - almost as rare as chemtech weapons. Not many engineers willing to work in the Undercity, and fewer still who could get their hands on the necessary materials.

I got out of the shop and looked at the pipeline that was welded into the wall, placing my hands on it and getting a good grip, I climbed back to the rooftops. As I was making my way back toward our hideout, voices from below caught my attention.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm telling you, this place is the place to be. The pay is amazing and we have to do basically nothing."

I crouched low on the roof, straining to hear more. The speakers were just visible in the alley below - two men, dressed in the mismatched clothes typical of Undercity residents.

"Still but Silco, I've never heard of him before."

Silco? That was a new name. I leaned closer, nearly losing my grip on the slippery rooftop.

"Yeah, you heard of the dude buying chem materials left and right? This is him."

Now that was interesting. Could this Silco be the one who tipped off our gang? But if he had enough manpower to be recruiting, why tell us about materials he already knew about? Something wasn't adding up.

"Time to go into action," I muttered, carefully positioning myself above the men. Lloyd's warning echoed in my head - never start fights. But Lloyd didn't know everything about me, did he?

I dropped silently into the alley behind them.

"What the fuck was that?"

"Is that a midget? Why did he jump from the roof?"

"Who cares, just get him!"

I focused on my vocal chords, the picture of a blue string forming in my mind. My voice, when it came out, barely sounded human anymore.

"Sleep."