The New Edit of The Making of Nibs

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Chapter 5

Moroth 17th Juwar
She opened her eyes and saw daylight coming through the gaps in the heavy curtains. She lifted her head and looked over at the clock on Sandra’s bedside table it displayed 08:00BN. She then looked around the room and thought, ‘Where am I? This isn’t home.’ She then looked at the person sleeping beside her, ‘Now I remember.’ She smiled as the events of the weekend flooded back to her. She then looked around the room taking each item, realised this was now home. She sat up looking down at the person sleeping beside her. The person she was looking at, to her anyway, was the most beautiful person she had ever seen and it was not in the looks department she saw beauty. Each time she looked at Sandra, she saw a beauty that was the whole person. She swung her legs out from under the covers, stood up wondering what she should do about covering her body, because she needed the toilet. She wandered over to the open wardrobe and looked through the various clothing items hung up. She found a black dressing gown which she slipped on and tied it at the waist. She walked to the closed bedroom door and opening it. She walked over the corridor to the bathroom opposite. As she exited Sandra’s room she noticed a light was on in the living room and quiet music was drifting through the house. She walked into the bathroom which was slightly further down the opposite wall. The room was two metres wide by three metres long with the shower/bath along one wall, a toilet opposite the door, and a sink on the opposite wall to the bath. The normal bathroom cabinet over the sink had a mirror on it. She sat on the toilet, rather than stood as she had done up to the weekend.
Upon finishing she stood up and took a hard look at her face in the mirror, looking for blemishes and things that were not feminine. She saw the normal thing of male facial hair, which she knew all male to female transgendered suffered from. Otherwise, the first thing she could see were her eyebrows not exactly very feminine looking. ‘That’s easy to correct with a pair or tweezers and a mirror or a friend.’ The only other male aspect, bar the usual problem of the item hanging between her legs, was the Adam’s apple. ‘That thing is going,’ She thought to herself in a matter of fact way.
When she had finished looking at herself in the mirror, she walked out turning towards the door to the living room, her improving sense of smell could smell the aroma of freshly made coffee. It was like a drug to her, that and Spiced Sweet Chai. She walked to the door into the living room and opened only to find Tina was sitting at the breakfast bar. She could see sat on the bar was a bowl and half way between the bowl and Tina’s mouth was a spoon. Along side the bowl was the free local broadsheet, which got delivered to you or you could get one from a local shop. On the opposite side of the cereal bowl was a ‘large’ cup of coffee.
Tina lifted her head and turned it as she heard the door open. As Nibs walked out she finished the mouth full of cereal saying, “Good morning Nibs, I hope you had a good sleep and I hope I didn’t wake you. I don’t seem to need much sleep so I’m normally first up.”
“No you didn’t wake me. I am an early riser, but I do normally need around seven to eight hours a night but I’m still buzzing from the weekend, and thank you, I did have a good sleep.”
“Now that’s good to hear.” She saw Tina smile after hearing her reply.
She wandered into the kitchen, she turned to Tina and asked, “Where’s the coffee?”
“In the percolator, there,” replied Tina and she pointed at the percolator which was located next to the sink.
She shock her head at the fact she completely missed it over the weekend. The jug was half-filled with black coffee.
“Cups are in the cupboard above the percolator.”
“Thank you Tina,” she replied and opened the door. She took a cup out and poured the hot steaming coffee into it. She scooped two spoonfuls of sugar into the mug and, after retrieving the mily from the fridge, poured a little into the coffee. She then moved to the breakfast bar and sat down opposite Tina.
“Can I ask you some questions Tina?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“How come you are who you are?”
“Cause it feels right to dress and be a woman, I’m still debating having the final operations. That’s a philosophical question that doesn’t carry just one answer Nibs.”
“I know, but I had to ask so I can try and sort out my own feelings now. May I ask who you were before you decided to become Tina?”

“Who was I...?” Tina replied. She sat back and thought about the question and then took a sip from her cup. “The person I was before I met Abs and Darla was a very weak-willed, and physically weak person, prone to bouts of depression, and in certain respects similar to Nick the target for all the high-school bullies. I existed, would be the best description of my life at that time. I had seen Abs or as I knew her Anna Detric a few times on the bus I took to and from school. Then one day, mid first term four years ago the only seat available on the way to school was one next to her, which I took. As the journey to the high school took 45 minutes, after 15 minutes Abs asked me if I was alright. I said I was and she quietly said “You’re a liar but I do understand why”. I replied to that statement, “OK, no I ain’t alright. I hate going to the high-school, as I am one of the main targets for the school bullies.” I remember the conversation me and Abs had that day as if it happened yesterday” -
“I know, both me and Darla see you and the problems you have every day. May I ask a personal question, John?”
“Yeah, ok.”
”Have you ever thought about not being a loner as that is the way you act when you are in school, and joining one of the many groups of young people?”
She then took a mouthful of cereal and when she had finished she continued. ”What, joining a gang?”
”Yeah, if that’s what you want to call it, Then yeah, ever thought about joining a gang?”
”No. No gang would ever let me near them.”
”That’s where you are wrong.”
”In what way am I wrong?”
”The gang I belong to, The Gangrel Street Gang, are always on the lookout for new possible members.”
“The Gangrel Street Gang, I’ve not heard of that gang before.” On later thinking about it I had, but they were mainly bits of stories I over heard in the canteen and around the school.
”That does not surprise me, you’ve heard of The Northern Aces, The Runners, Black Hill mob, yes?”
”Yeah.”
She then took a sip of coffee. Nibs followed suit and took a mouth full. After they both had returned the cups to the breakfast bar she went on. ”Right. The Gangrels are somewhat different in the fact we don’t openly advertise. We effectively select our members from those young people who are not affiliated with any other gang, and we seek those who are being disadvantaged by society. We are one of the few groups and organisations that are non-area specific. The other two are Central, which I know you know about, and Centra the main policing arm of Central,” which at that time was under investigation by Central for corruption.”
”Non-area specific?”
”Yeah. We don’t have a specific area of the city we as a gang call base bar command which is located in South Docks District. We all meet in small groups at members’ homes or public places. We also are the only gang to operate in small units, hiring ourselves out to other gangs, normally for a small fee plus expenses, which to be honest are normally just the cost of the ammo expenditure plus any other minor charges we incur when we are on operation.”
”So let me get this straight The Gangrels hire out to other gangs to do what?”
”To help said gangs out when they need it. The operations range from assisting in a relative formal open warfare battle between two or more gangs. Some of the other work we do may involve us defending a place from attack, or sometimes its helping in the training of new recruits or helping a new gang gain it’s feet.”
My next question was the one that started me down the path that has led me to where I am now, living with my life partner Abs and being sat here in the home base of the Bitch Vixens. ”Why are you telling me this?”
”Cause I think as does Darla, that you would be an asset to us. You know how to disappear in plain sight. We think that all people should be allowed the chance to get better, improve in all ways, plus the unit I and Darla belong to are currently looking for new members as we lost two, to medical retirement about six months ago.”
”Ok, sounds interesting.”
”Talk to Darla she is currently acting as our unit membership coordinator.”
”Who else are members?”
”You have seen Angel and Damieel around.”
”Yeah”
”And a few more from the local neighbourhoods.”
She sighed, took another sip of coffee, and continued, “As we were getting off the school bus Abs said to me “This afternoon, after school, ring home and tell your parents you are going to a friend’s house to start a school project or something. Then come to the nurse’s office and ask for Darla.”. I did and Darla and Abs took me back to Darla’s and with the Twins playing host, the three of us just spent the evening chatting.
“To be honest I had no idea that Darla was analysing my replies and responses. Darla then rang home and asked my mum if I could stay overnight as it was very late and as most of the buses had stopped running by that time. Mum said that I could, so Darla, Abs and I continued chatting until the early hours when I fell asleep. When I woke it was after the start time for school and Abs was sat across from me. Darla had told the school that I was ill and wouldn’t be in for a couple of days. Abs then took me on a shopping trip and told me what the previous night had been all about. Darla, is a trained youth counsellor and had spent the evening analysing the answers I was giving, she was also looking at how I acted, my posture and how I sat. She came to the conclusion that my mind was wrong for the body. Abs explained it to me that Darla thought I was very likely Trans, but she was unable to decide where on the scale I was.
“Abs took me shopping for a few pieces of woman’s clothes. When both Abs and I got back to Darla’s, Abs and the Twins helped me to change and did my makeup. When Darla got home from working at the school, she was amazed by the change in my personality. Rather than the submissive shy boy I had been, the person that sat in her living room was a girl who had confidence in herself. That evening Darla, Abs and me travelled to my home, where even mum said she immediately noticed the change in me and agreed to let me be the person I wanted to be rather than the person the world expected me to be by the physical body. I’ve not looked back since. Ever since that day, Abs and I have been inseparable. The only down side is that mum became very distant. I have no idea why, but it is the only thing that was bad. My brothers accepted me as did dad.”
”How old is Darla then?” asked Nibs.
”27, she is quite old for a being an active gang member but she loves the scene, the thrill of the chase, etc, etc.”
”The first night at home after I got to sleep, I dreamt that John was being picked on by the bullies only to have this young girl lay into them like a being possessed. After she had got rid of the bullies and helped John up, I saw it was the new improved me. At that point I woke up.”
“You don’t mind me asking these questions do you?”
“No, I don’t. I have very little to hide from people and I hide nothing from my friends, I now count you as one of those.”

*****

During the following half-hour the pair sat drinking coffee, chatting about being trans. Around 09:00BN Sandra and Abs appeared from the corridor.
“Good morning, hunny,” Nibs said when she saw Sandra, who was somewhat bleary-eyed, with Abs being in a similar state. “Coffee?” she asked both.
“Oh please, you’re an agall, Nibs.”
“Yeah, thanks Nibs,” answered Abs as the pair collapsed onto the two sofas.
She went about getting the pair a mug of coffee. After placing the cup down Sandra lent over and grabbed the remote to the projector and switched it on. Sandra scrolled through the channels until she found one of the more adult cartoon channels and started to watch the cartoon being broadcast. It was about a team of five kids who helped rescue animals from dangerous situations using abilities a friendly god gave them.
A short while after Sandra and Abs had appeared from their bedrooms, Paul strolled out very much awake. He looked at Sandra and Abs and commented on the way Sandra looked, “God, you look like shit, sis.”
“I feel like shit. Come on, I’m not like you. I hate the mornings,” responded Sandra and, as Paul walked out of the front door, she stuck her tongue out at his disappearing form.
Abs looked up after she had had a sip from her mug of coffee. “When do we plan on hitting school today?”
“Around mid-morning break, and due to the people who need thanking I think we’d better stay until school’s finished,” replied Tina after looking at Abs and Sandra.

*****

Paul walked back into the house after completing his morning walk and saw the four girls sat around the breakfast bar after they had just finished breakfast and a cup of coffee. The girls headed to their rooms to get ready for the day.
It was around 10:15BN when she along with the rest of the girls walked back into the living room. She was wearing one of Sandra’s tight black T-shirts which said across the front “FUCK ME” over a skull and crossbones. Under that was a fully-metal-boned corset that gave her a definite waist and hips. She was also wearing tight black jeans and her calf-high biker boots. The makeup Sandra, Abs and Tina had done for her and themselves was true Gothic Mistress, dark and sultry.
Out of the blue she said, “I have got to get some things from home. I also feel some responsibility to let my family know I am alright and not to worry about me.”
Just before departing for school the five friends smoked a Cambar patar, and when the patars were finished the group felt relaxed. They knew the Aces were going to be in for a very big shock.
Just before they walked out of the house she took out a Zibark Celtar Cross and chain that hung inside her wallet, and put it on.
As she did Sandra saw the cross around her neck and said, “That’s beautiful,”
“Thanks sweet, I was given it by a couple of friends from Jarrzar. I took it off a couple of weeks after leaving and promised myself that I would never wear it again until I found myself, and I think I have now found myself again.” She knew that her face was all happy smiles. “At some point I’ll tell you about some of the adventures I had in Jarrzar.”
She followed Tina, Abs and Paul out of the door, into another warm mid morning, and down the steps to the driveway. Paul walked to the garage doors and opened it, Tina, Abs and Sandra who had come down behind Nibs, after closing and locking the front door walked into the basement garage. The four walked to where their bikes were parked and knocked them off their stands wheeling them out on to the drive way, where the four propped the bikes on to the kick stands.
She checked her communications rig and pistol, she zipped her jacket up as the bike rides over the weekend she had felt a bit cold. She joined Sandra riding pillion. Tina switched the electrics of her 1100 Wizban Street Thunder and rammed kick start down. The engine sound that emanated from Tina’s bike was sweet. Both Paul and Abs climbed onto Mit-bu 1000RSxs. The pair rammed the kicked starts down.

Chapter 6 — Present Giving.

As the four bikes drove at a leisurely pace through the streets, her eyes were constantly looking around looking at the various environments, and differences between South Central and Central Downtown. To her South Central looked and felt rundown, and forgotten. Central Downtown was bright and clean and the main centre of the capital. The roads were properly maintained compared to South Central. The shops were the biggest dichotomy she could see, 95% of all the shops in South Central had closed or had heavy security fitted to the windows and doors and were of the low end of the market scale. The shops on the main roads of Central, as it was more commonly known, were of the big department store chains and very defiantly catered for the middle and upper management classes, not the working or lower classes.
As they approached the school, they saw two of the school’s student monitors standing watching the main gate. These people attempted to make sure that the school rules were not broken, and only allowed valid people off the campus, they also tried to make sure that no troublemakers got in. The bikes turned right and passed an office block belonging to Night Security Consulting, a top end security consultancy. They provided specialist security advice, training and security personal for the mega rich and the corporations that could afford to pay the prices. As they approached the gate students, who owned vehicles, used to get onto the school grounds, Sandra indicated left and turned into the entrance way. Both Abs and Tina smiled as they turned left and passed the security camera, which was as per normal ‘Out of Order’.
She heard Abs’ voice over the communication. system, “Why does the school have a camera there, it spends more time out of order than it does working?”
“No idea,” replied Sandra and Paul.
She noticed the camera and looked at it. To her, the camera looked as if it had been put out of order by a professional in the Street Security Industry.
The school itself was made from five buildings, most had at least three floors and one had six. Just behind the main gates was a three-storey main building, made from a combination of breeze blocks fronted by bricks, steel and glass on the top floor. This building contained all the main offices, computer department and main hall. Off to the left, looking at the main building from the street, was a three-storey steel and glass building, containing the library, canteen and a few classrooms. Behind the library block, as it was known, was a large six storey building made mainly from bricks with an extension added to the right hand side made from breeze blocks, fronted by a metal fascia. Streaming from this building was a large group of students after just finishing some lesson or other. Spewing from the roof was steam and smoke from the underground boilers. Not only were the bulk of the teaching rooms in this block, but it also contained the TV studio that made the school semi-famous on the footbaal circuit, from here presenters of the live matches made the shows. To the left hand side, behind the main block was the sports block and covered swimming pool, both buildings were constructed from bricks. Around the top, some 7 metres up, were a line of windows that allowed the sun to stream into the sports hall and swimming pool. Beside the sports hall was the science block, again constructed from steel and glass. Coming out of this building were more students. Surrounding the school itself were large open areas of concrete, tarmac and grass. Along the back fences were a line of trees that in a few places clumped into small groves, which created small areas people could disappear into. Running the length of the North fence was CW4, suspended some 20 metres up on a flyover. Running down the east fence 40 metres up, where it crossed the CW4 was IC7, the main North-South InterCity route.
She watched the students mill around and saw stood around an expensive car, probably brought by some ‘daddy’, were a group of the footbaal’s teams Cheer Leader Squad. The driver and passenger’s windows were down and sitting inside were Simoine Potter and Amy Dunction. All of the girls were giggling and laughing at some unheard joke. She saw Tina swing the back of bike around which caused they group to stop laughing. She saw Tina wink at Sandra, and realised that she was about to have some fun. Tina then revved the engine so it red-lined, the rear wheel span and produced a massive cloud of smoke, rubber and tarmac. The waste gas the engine was producing combining with the stuff the back wheel was producing formed a large cloud which engulfed the girls and the car.
Tina turned her head and saw the girls getting covered in the dust and particles. All the girls started to cough as they breathed the noxious gases and particles. She then released the throttle, selected first and pulled off apologising to the girls in a fake sorry voice, “Oh, so sorry for that you lot.” She then followed the rest of the group towards the motorcycle park in Student Car-park B. As Tina and everyone pulled away, three of the older girls turned and shouted obscenities towards Tina and the group. Tina just laughed out loud and shouted back, “Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”
As Tina pulled away she looked back and saw the Simoine open the gull-wing door and climb out. She read the face and body language and was able to tell he was angry at what that Tina had done. Out of the passenger seat climbed Amy. From what she knew, from the school grape vine, Amy had had a run in with Abs, over some course work Abs had done and Amy copied. An investigation happened, and she knew what the outcome had been, as she had just arrived in the school, was that Abs had had to redo the work. Amy joined Simoine, as he marched towards the group.
Sandra sub-vocalised, “Simoine and Amy are heading this way.”
She turned her head to look in the direction the pair were coming from and sub-vocalised a reply, “He’s mine. Let’s see if he recognizes me now I’ve changed.”
”Yeah, lets,” replied Paul over the communication system as he and the others parked in the marked bays.
She pointed at an empty bay that was at the end of the four bays the group was about to use. Sandra turned and parked in the bay indicated so making sure she was closest to the direction Simoine was coming from.
She climbed off as Sandra switched off the engine, Sandra followed her in climbing off and brought the bike up onto the motor-bike’s main stand. She moved to the back of the bike and stood waiting for the rest of the guys to finish parking the bikes. She watched the group as they slid the magazines they all carried out of the various holders and slotted them into metal boxes welded to the frames. She was also keeping her hearing concentrating on the sound of Simoine’s steps on the tarmac.

“Hun, you want to pass me your ammunition magazines,” Sandra said.
Nibs dropped the magazines from the holder and passed them to her. Nibs then went to drop the magazine from the pistol, which she shook her head at and then she indicated Simoine was close.

As Simoine stormed passed her heading towards where Tina was finishing sorting out the magazines, Nibs stuck her leg out, caught and sent Simoine sprawling face first into the tarmac.
When Simoine’s face hit the tarmac, she moved so she was standing over his prone body and lightly kicked the groin to get his attention. By this point a small group of students had started to gather as Amy stared at the scene from just inside the cordon made by the students watching the scene. Paul and Sandra both watched the group gather making sure none of the students were members of the footbaal team and got brave. She stooped and grabbed Simoine’s left arm, which she twisted and applied a wrist lock, so as she shifted Simoine onto his back the wrist lock was causing pain. When the manoeuvre had been finished she was looking down into Simoine’s angry face, Tina and Abs also stood over him looking down.
As he looked up at them he shouted, “I’m going to kill you poof for that stunt, Central ain’t going to be able to stop the Aces wiping out the Bitch Vixens now.”
“Not before we’ve finished with you.” She smiled when Simoine looked at her.
“What the hell?” said Simoine in a, ‘Who the fuck are you voice’ and after a short pause to allow the voice to marry up to a face, “Do I know you?”
“Yes you do Simoine. I use to be called Nicholas Calton.” She bent down and removed the designer shades that were sticking out of the breast pocket of his expensive designer jacket. She looked at them flicking them open and placing them on the top of her head. “I think I’ll have those as payment for the emotional suffering you have put me through since I arrived here.” She used her left hand and grabbed the scruff of his shirt. She pulled at the shirt and lifted his head off the ground, the next sound was a loud slap as she brought her right hand across his face hard. The red welt that started to appear was satisfying, to all of the girls present, especially her, she said, “That was part payment for the physical abuse.”
“Let’s leave him lying on the ground to contemplate his bullying,” commanded Paul with authority.
“Yeah, you ain’t worth it,” she commented in a ‘if I every see you again you will regret it’ tone. As she stood up she placed her left boot beside Simoine’s waist, and swung her right boot very low to the ground and struck the groin and arse area hard. “Oh, I’m so sorry, did that hurt?” she said in a fake sorry voice mocking the very existence of Simoine. She quickly joined the rest of her friends as they pushed there way through the crowd, who had started to disperse, walking away from the prostrate Simoine in the direction of the science block.
Simoine’s face was agony as the pain from the injury hit him full force. He curled up into a ball clutching his groin, very close to sobbing with the pain. Amy glared at the group as they left the scene. A few more of the girls and blokes Simoine associated with pushed through the crowd as it dispersed. A couple of the guys went to him and helped him up. The rest glared at the group. Nibs removed the shades from the top of her head, placed them over her eyes and asked, “What do you think guys?” She then stopped, turned and peered over the top of her new designer shades right at a couple of Simoine friends the pair glared daggers at the five friends. The rest of the group as they were helping Simoine, stopped so they could also turn and glared back. One of the guys mouthed, ‘You’re dead.’
She just turned, laughed and said in a voice that carried, “Oh, I’m scared.”
“Don’t know,” replied Sandra as she looked in a ‘I’m not sure way at her face’.

*****

She along the her four friends walked towards the back of the Sports Hall around the Science Block, as a couple of known bullying hang outs of the Footbaal Team were present around the two doors into the building. She saw a couple of very githic looking girls stood leaning against the wall smoking what looked like Cambar Cigarettes. She had seen the pair around school and realized they were from the 4th year.
“Allow me to introduce Abbey and Clare both members of a sister unit, Dark Mists Combat Support Unit,” said Tina as they approached.
“Hi,” said the pair.
“We saw your dealing with Simoine just then, very nice,” said Abbey.
“Thank you, Nibola Calton at your service,” she said in as feminine a voice as possible so not to alarm the pair, then stared at Tina until she realized what she had done.
”It’s a pleasure to meet you Nibola,” replied Clare.
“Don’t worry about things like voice hun,” said Sandra when she realize what Nibs had done, “all members of the Gangrels are screened for problems like not accepting life as life; they accept all people as much as we do.”
She along with the rest of the group just laughed. “Oh and its Nibs not Nibola,” she said using her normal male voice when she had stopped laughing.
She crouched down and rested her back against the Sports Hall wall. As she looked around across the fields towards the CW. She thought to herself, ‘I wonder if mum and dad will accept me now or will I become like a lot of the people I know from the Trans chat rooms.’ She took out her PDU removing the stylus from it’s holder in the back. She tapped the power button which caused the system to boot to full mode from phone mode, which it was designed to stay in whilst it was not being used to surf the net or use the 10.8 MegaPixel NetCam.
Tina who was stood opposite her asked, “How long have you known how to fight. I saw Simoine’s head moving in sympathy as your hand came in?” in a tone that was genuinely interested in knowing.
“Every since I lived in Jarrzar, Sensei Hume opened a dojo dedicated to instructing students in the ways of what Hume called Martial Street Fighting, the honourable combat of street fighting was another name he used a few times. Basically it was street fighting pure and simple, but he taught that using the techniques in a proper street fight was always the last resort, and should never be used unless all other methods had been tried first. When I left Jarrzar Cubbadar from the city of Vickortia, Rudeash, he taught me the martial art of Mauya, then Uthura from Ne-U-Bar who taught me Lappellr.”
“And now us and Gangrel Street,” added Abs to the list, “and I agree that slap was evil.”
Sandra tapped her on the shoulder and offered her the Cambar cigarette when she looked at her. She took it, the lighter and stuck it between her lips. She placed the PDU on the ground and using her left hand she shielded the flame from the light breeze to relight the Cambar cigarette. She then passed the lighter back to Sandra and picked her PDU up from the ground. She opened the NetViewer and scrolled down the favourite list selecting the YoungTrans chat room.
Clare who was stood on the other side of her said, “I see you have Nibs hooked.”
”Of course,” replied Sandra to Clare’s statement.
As the net page loaded it also automatically logged her into the site and chat room. She then brought up the touch screen keyboard typing using the stylus to strike the keys. She looked down the list of people in and saw a couple of friends from Suraban. She had never had the courage to actually go out dressed, until now that is. ‘I think it’s time to visit some of my trans friends in Suraban.’ She typed, ‘Hi all’, pressing the enter button and following that, her normal greeting, ‘Just so my friends know, I’m now fulltime and have been since Frodar evening.’
She took a draw on the Cambar cigarette exhaling the smoke after slightly coughing. She then noticed Tina was looking at what she was doing.
“What you doing Nibs?” asked Tina moving so she could crouch beside her.
“Chatting in one of the Transgendered chatrooms I use.” On the screen appeared, ‘Sophie says:- Yeah Nicki. How come thought you were stuck because of parents not understanding???’ She typed the reply ‘Mum and dad don’t know about it, I’m no longer living at home. I’m living with friends from the High school’.
Tina looked at the screen and asked, “Who are these people?”
“Most are Trans or friends of who are under the age of about 20 to 22, most of them are closet because of family. These I know aren’t.” Nibs used the stylus to point to five of the names.
“I never knew these places existed, I wonder how many Trans Gangrels use these rooms?”
She took a third drag on the Cambar cigarette then offered it to Tina, who took it taking from her pouch her lighter so she could relight it. She then entered, ‘I’ll be online in the next few days and give my profile a radical revise. Bye all’, She then pressed the log out button which was followed by her pressing the power button. She watched the PDU close and revert to phone mode.
“That is a nice piece of technology Nibs, how powerful is it?” asked Tina as she slid the PDU back into the inside pocket of her jacket.
“This, it’s a C400 Personal Data Unit, I’ve added to it, the mobile phone, net access and 10.8 MegaPixel NetCam. She’s also got a 400gig memory stick and three expansion cards. I’ve made sure it has room for four more cards.”
“That is nice. It must have cost a bit?” asked Tina as the pair stood.
“At the last count I have spent about 3000decks on it, but I use it and my Digital player for note taking. I think the expense is worth it.”

*****

As lunchtime approached the group wandered the school grounds looking at the usual student hang-out areas for certain members of the Footbaal Team.
The bell to indicate the start of lunch rang and the group headed out of the same school gate they had used when they had arrived that morning. As they did, she looked at the camera, located on a three metre pole over the student vehicle access gate. She looked at the camera using her knowledge of various methods of disabling security cameras linked to a central CCTV control room. She was specifically looking for any tell tale signs of who disabled it, as it would likely indicate that Night Security Consulting was about to get hit again. She was surprised as this would be the fourth time they would have been hit in the last two months. From the way it had been disabled she knew it was done by a professional, rather than a student. “I’ll say this; whoever disabled the camera was a pro.”

”Hey, how can you tell?” Paul asked.
”I just can, Paul. You know my final year major was electronics.”
“Ok,” he responded.
He heard Nibs’ reply thinking, ‘What does Nibs mean it was done by a professional.’
The group turned down the street towards the main entrance, as he turned he had a close look at the camera and wondered what Nibs knew. ‘That answer doesn’t answer anything, it just opens more questions. Sandra said she thought you to be enigma when she did the background research.’

The lights controlling the junction which included the school entrance were red. The friends crossed on the diagonal. Nibs walked hand in hand with Sandra, she was not caring who saw them together. Tina and Abs who were just ahead were also holding hands as they led the group down the secondary road passed small shops that catered for the specialist collector markets. She glanced in to one of the shop windows only to see a rack covered in small postage stamps. The next shop down was an antiques shop and on display in the window was an old rocking chair made from Common Brattiss, a nice wood to work from what she understood of the material.
Paul was just in the lead and held the door open for the girls. Upon entering the group saw two teachers from the science department sat eating a meal, she knew why they were sat eating lunch. She quietly laughed at the vain attempt to control the consumption of alcohol by the student body. The girls headed for one of the tables located in the open window. Paul grabbed a fifth chair and sat between Sandra and Tina. Sandra after sitting grabbed the menu, making a play for keeping it to herself. She went to grab it and, like lightning, moved her other hand and lightly tickled Sandra in the waist area smiling all the time. Sandra passed the menu to her and she put it down on the table. She lightly kissed Sandra on the cheek and signalled for the waiter, who was serving a couple by the opposite wall near the centre of the seating area, to come over.
The café was bright, with light streaming in through the open front and the six spot lighting circles that hung from the ceiling. The main area was a good twenty metres long by 10 metres wide and had ten tables of various sizes and shapes, around each a number of chairs ranging from two to six. On the walls were hanging the normal mix of landscapes and other non-descript prints of famous pictures. Hanging over the table, near where the group was sat was a landscape of the Low Back Mountains covered in forest.
The waiter walked over, asking when he was close enough, “Are you ready to order?”
She replied, in a more feminine voice, after looking around the table seeing nods and smiles in reply, “Yes we are, can I have a large Spiced Chai latte please?”
”Certainly ma’am.”
Sandra requested, “Latte, please?”
”White coffee, thanks?” said Paul when the waiter had finished writing Paul’s order down.
Tina requested, “Two Earl Greys, black please.”
”Certainly.” After finishing, the waiter turned and disappeared towards the serving area.
As he departed she said, “Thanks.”
”Pretty voice,” commented Tina in response to her feminine voice.
”Thanks Tina.”
The following five minutes the five friends quietly chatted about who they hopped to see that afternoon. The waiter returned carrying a tray on which were the five cups. He placed each person’s drink in front of them and also placed down a small plate with the bill on.
She took from the inside pocket of her jacket her wallet. She then picked up the bill and read the total, opened her wallet and removed a ten-deck note and handed both the bill and money to the waiter, who left and headed for the till area.
Sandra tapped her on the arm and pointed at Tom who was walking past the open window, on the opposite side of the road, carrying a full rucksack.
Sandra called, “Tom.”
She saw Tom stop, and he looked around for the voice.

Tom smiled when he saw Sandra and her waving from the café on the opposite side of the road. He walked back the short distance to the pedestrian crossing near Suraban’s old centre of Government, where he waited for the lights to change. The lights turned to red on the road and green on the pedestrian crossing and he crossed the road. After he had walked to the café’s open windows he said, “Hi, guys. Thought you would still be recovering from the weekend.”
”Nuts man,” said Sandra. “We are all toughened party animals.” All the friends were smiling.

Nibs looked at everyone, “No one got any problems with Tom joining us?”
Both Tina and Abs said, “No.”
Then Sandra and Paul nodded their ‘no problem at all’ replies.
”Thanks guys,” replied Tom in a happy tone of voice. He came in, dropped his rucksack in the gap Sandra and Paul made, grabbed a chair from one of the nearby tables and said, “I’ll be back in a sec, I need the toilet.” He turned and disappeared into the café back area.
After a few minutes she saw Tom returning via the serving area, he looked up at the menu board above the counter, talking to one of the staff working behind the bar. After nodding a reply to something the staff member asked, he went digging into his pocket to take some money out. After receiving some change he returned to the table carrying his drink, just in front of the waiter carrying the receipt on a small plate.
After the waiter had left the receipt on the table, she picked it up along with her change and saw a business card hidden beneath the receipt. On the front was written ‘P.T.O.’. On the back was written — If you and your friends are looking for some professional work please ring or email me. The email address she recognized as being a GhostNet account. She then showed the business card to Sandra, just as Abs indicated to the group that she had spotted a group of cheerleader girls containing one of the targets. All wearing the latest expensive designer outfits, walking towards the café heading for the school.
“Here they come,” said Abs when she saw the group.

“At last,” Sandra responded somewhat happy, she stood up saying , “You three going to join the fun?”
“Yeah, why not?” the three girls chimed.
The four girls pushed the chairs back and stood up. They headed for the door so they could wait on the pavement outside. They stood on the south side of the café, making it look like they were waiting for a vehicle to arrive. They looked at the group sauntering up the road, one girl seemed to be the centre of attention. Nibs who was standing opposite her asked, “Is it the one in the centre?”
She smiled and nodded. The pair both lit the Cambar cigarettes they were carrying, she took a couple of drags from it, passing them to Tina and Abs, respectively, who did the same.

Sat inside the café, Tom asked Paul, “What’s going on?”
”Fun,” replied Paul, “Payback is a bitch.”

Just as the group of girls passed the four friends, Sandra and the others followed, a few feet behind, until they where along side the alleyway that ran down beside the Café. She forced her way through the girls who stopped as she grabbed Zoá«, who was at the centre of the group, slamming her up against the Café’s outside wall. Sandra inserted her forearm under Zoá«’s chin pinning her against the wall.
She paused while the Zoá«’s eyes focused and recognized who it pinning her to the wall, only talking when Zoá« face turned to one of shock, “Now what am I going to do to you now I’ve left school, and no long have to abide by the not physically hurting you rule,” after a short pause she continued, “I know what…” and like Nibs had done to Simoine earlier she slapped Zoá« across the face, hard. The slap that sounded was loud, easily registering in the rest of the group.
Whilst she was dealing with the Zoá«. Nibs, Tina and Abs had all moved to make sure none of Zoá« friends moved to try and stop her. She now understood that her friends were also well trained in and respected the Street Fighting scene.
She continued in the same tone, “Watch for me, Zoá«, at night. You will never know when and where I will crop up next and next time I won’t just slap you.” After she had finished talking she removed her forearm from under Zoá«’s chin and let her drop to the ground.

Nibs saw the welt that Sandra had caused, she also noticed that Zoá« was now looking very scared. Sandra and the rest of the friends moved away, back into the street so they could to return to their drinks and Cambar cigarettes in the café.

Inside Paul and Tom overheard what Sandra was saying as Sandra was making sure the group didn’t suddenly go deaf. Paul rolled up a Cambar cigarette and lit it. “What are your plans now that High school has finished?”
”College, then hopefully work,” Tom replied while listening to Sandra have her monologue with Zoá«. Paul was sat smiling and quietly chuckling as well.
After the four girls had returned to the table and sat down. He said, “Remind me never to get on the wrong side of you lot.”
”Ok Tom,” replied Sandra, and offered the Cambar cigarette Nibs had just passed to her, to Tom, who accepted it, took a draw on it and coughed a bit.
When everyone had finished their drinks the six friends headed back towards the school and to the main hangout of a specific group of the Footbaal Team, which was the main canteen.

*****

When the group walked into the canteen a quick look around the room told everyone that group they were looking for had not put in an appearance, yet.
The canteen was like any other canteen - large, open plan with light streaming from fluorescent tubes and windows around the bricked and white painted walls. About a quarter of the total wall was bricked floor to ceiling and it was here that the food was served from; opposite the food serving area was an open fire escape. In the open expanse was lot of tables with bench seats. In total Nibs estimated that the canteen was about half full. She did see a couple of the teachers sat near the door eating the meal of the day.
The group walked to the food run and all purchased light lunches. When they all had left the food run they headed for the seats they specifically wanted, the one’s the rest of the school was forbidden to use on pain of a severe beating, dished out by the members of the footbaal team. They walked passed Simon who was eating a sandwich and on the table beside the book he was reading was a black coffee. She liked Simon’s science lessons. She saw Simon nod a ‘hello guys’, which was returned to her surprise by Tina and Paul.
After five minutes six members of the Football Team’s Defensive team, and their girlfriends, entered the canteen from the direction of the library. As they passed one table where a couple of the smaller third years were sitting, one of the fourth year members of the group, threw a punch which got the third year rubbing his arm. She, watched the group from when they had entered, and thought, ‘Today I start to take back the school from the bullies.’ They walked to the food counter and pushed three of the second years out of the way as they were getting the meal of the day. One of the second years dropped his tray on which was his pudding of pie and custard, she saw the face of the boy was the bowl went. She also saw his face as the bowl hit upside down and kept most of the custard within the bowl. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Tom smile at the fortune that second year had just received. She knew why as well, as Nick had seen Tom taking a beating from McKrudder, Detric and Simoine once as exactly the same thing had happened, except it was a plate with gravy on that had gone and it had gone at a crooked angle. Tom had spent the next month off school recovering from the beating. She saw that some of the girls that had been with Zoá« earlier were hanging off their boyfriends arms.
Tina commented when she didn’t see Detric or Simoine with the group, “I hope Simoine and Zoá« are going to be ok.” The comment and tone of voice made everyone laugh. Which again broke another one of the unwritten rules of the canteen, ‘no laughing unless at one of the Footbaal Team’s jokes’.
When the bullies had departed the food run, she saw the two teachers by the door and Simon stand and very quickly depart, Simon via the open fire escape and the other two by the main door. The small group started to walk towards their area of tables. They stopped dead and stared when they saw her and the others sitting at their table. Sandra and her smiled when they heard two of the four fourth years chuckle to themselves. The pair knew exactly what was going to happen when the group were in an area clear of tables. McKrudder, also know in the school as the Hunk, face screwed up in a combination of anger and contempt for the friends.
As The Hunk angrily marched towards the friends she said, “Excuse me friends. We have an ape that needs to be put back in its cage.” She knew that even though the Hunk was 6’4, a quick targeted kick to the groin would bring almost anyone to their knees. She stood up and stepped into the walk way and took two steps towards the Hunk. Before he could even think about reacting to her initial attack which knocked the tray he was carrying all over his girlfriend. The girlfriend let go of McKrudder’s arm and stared down at her ruined designer outfit. She then executed a powerful snap kick attack targeted at The Hunk’s groin. To her satisfaction The Hunk’s face screwed up in agony as she landed the kick smack bang on target. The Hunk’s hands and arms went to protect the groin from any more kicks. She wasn’t planning on hitting him there again, sent her hands to his head, which she dragged down so it could met the upswing of her right knee.
With the force of the knee hitting and the release of the head a second before, The Hunk took off in a back arc and landed in the middle of his friends who were standing staring in utter shock as this girl had taken one of the larger members off his feet. As The Hunk landed he sent them sprawling into other tables and members of the student body who had stood to watch the unfolding fight.

Paul who was watching for any members of staff or the school monitors, could see the kitchen staff watching the scene. He smiled when even kitchen staff had walked out to watch. None of them had moved to get the monitors or security. The teachers who had been present had made themselves scarce. He realised that they all must have realised this morning after Simoine, the showdown between the Gangrels and The Aces which had been brewing for some time was about to explode.
He saw Nibs standing over the prone breathing body. Nibs then knelt down landing her right knee in the chest area. Nibs’ left leg was pinning The Hunk’s right arm to the floor.

The Hunk blinked as he tried to focus through the pain of the initial kick. Nibs waited for him to see who was pinning him to the floor. Her face was one that showed utter contempt for his existence. “Oops. Did you spill your food? Do you want me to run and buy you some more?” She paused.
The agonized squeak that came from his mouth said made her smile. “I’ll kill you, you poof.”
“Oh I’m so scared. Welcome to your nightmare.” At this point she lifted her steel toe-capped boot so as she brought it down it impacted his manhood. His face was one of pure agony and he started screaming like a girl.

Sandra who had turned on the end was watching the scene as The Hunk’s friends got themselves straight. One of the group had been lucky and had remained standing looked at the friends as he moved to give The Hunk the necessary assistance he needed in dealing with the person pinning him down. She looked with a face that said at him ‘You help him, I help Nibs’ at the same time she started to get up. The person stopped short as he had been on the receiving end of a beating dished out by her brother a couple of years ago and he had been present when Paul had mashed the fourth year earlier in the year, Sandra had him restrained with an arm lock.

Nibs stood up and after looking at the group, who were just staring at what this female had just done to one of the toughest members of the footbaal team, with a face which said ‘who’s next’. She retook her seat so she could continue to eat lunch.
“You know something Nibs, I’m surprised we haven’t seen the Principal or her assistants,” said Paul after she had sat down.
The friends watched a couple of members of the footbaal team help The Hunk to stand and walk to an empty table near the windows that overlooked the large field behind the school.
“I saw the teachers made themselves very scarce,” said Tina.
“I think most people have realised that the Gangrels and The Aces are about to explode into open warfare,” said Sandra.
“Bring it on,” she said. “Make my life a living hell will you. Welcome to the hell that will be your life for the short term future.” All of the guys looked at her and saw that she meant it.
After finishing lunch the six stood and headed out of the canteen via the fire escape.
Tom asked “I need to drop off these books to the library, where you lot heading towards?”
”Don’t know, some place secluded and quiet so we can wait for the end of school and finish giving people their presents,” replied Paul. “More than likely to the north east corner under the city way.”
”Ok, I’ll wander and find you,” responded Tom.
”Look into the trees and bushes not at them,” said Sandra as Tom turned and left them.
As Tom was walking away the five friends headed for the north east corner via the most direct route, which took them across the footbaal pitches and around the stadium. They soon reached the secluded corner where the trees had clumped a bit more and created a small grove. The ground cover also was slightly longer grass and low woodland plants these and the trees stretched along the rest of the fence line. Through the gaps in the trees and shrubs, she could see a twenty metre wide strip of wasteland before a fence line that indicated the borders of another Corporate owned housing estate. Even though the IC and CW were pretty close the noise level was a lot lower than she had expected.
Paul led the group to the start of the path that led into the small grove. He walked around the strallam (Stral-lam) bush, closely followed by Nibs and then Sandra, Tina and Abs brought up the rear.
“Hi, Simon,” said Paul and sat himself down on an old log.
She saw Simon sat leaning against an Ashforrk tree. Hanging from his mouth was a 15cm stemmed patar. From his mouth came a puff of bluish smoke from the material in the patar’s bowl.
The grove was made from three Ashforrk Trees, two strallam bushes and a couple of Tracarm Burch trees. Around the edge was a couple of logs and half a pallet.
“Oh. Hi all. Yeah join me if you want guys...”
She saw Simon look at her and his face screwed up as if trying to work something out. She moved towards a second ashforrk tree and sat down on the roots. She was soon joined by Sandra who sat beside her. Abs and Tina moved to the another log.
“Who’s the new one with you?”
“Oh meet Nibola Calton — or as she prefers to be known — Nibs,” replied Paul.
“Welcome Nibs,” said Simon. “Which member of the Gorillas had your attention. I left when I saw them and you lot sitting where you were. I also noticed Danni and James also left rather fast.”
“Gary McKrudder, alias, The Hunk,” she responded.
“After your dealing with Simoine, I took it upon myself to warn the rest of the staff that if we saw you lot and any member of the footbaal team in the same area, they were to disappear. I also had a chat with the monitors and told them that if they heard of any incidents they were to take their time getting to the site. Things must happen in their own way, and you wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of their fists and feet, they are all experts in street fighting.”
“That would explain the lack of Mrs MacFields or any of her assistants,” said Sandra as took out her tin and cigarette making equipment.
“I saw the aftermath of your dealing with Simoine, and I know I heard Simoine cry ‘the Bitch Vixens are going to get slaughtered’ or something similar. Nice one on the McKrudder front. I knew he had it coming, I just didn’t know when and from whom. Oh, his parents are going to be on the warpath after they hear about the incident. What did you do?”
“Crushed his groin and flattened his nose into his face.” She joined everyone else in rolling a Camber cigarette.
“Ouch, arrrrrrhhhhhhh,” responded Simon, his face was similar to the face Gary had, with out the screaming. “That’s a good point, you’re new ain’t you?” he asked looking at her.
“No I ain’t,” she replied, “I used to go by the name Nicholas.”
“No, no way...” Simon’s face was one of shock. “Nicholas Calton?”
“Yeah, that was me,” she said, with a broad grin. “Seeing as I have now officially finished my exams I don’t need to be here, but the rules state that I am still a student until Ebinar so I thought I’d clean house before I say fuck off to the schooling system.”
“How many have read you Nick?” asked Simon.
She glared at him.
“Sorry... Nibs,” Simon corrected himself.
“Better... no one yet, but I’m another Gith or Gangrel to most people and both societies do seem to be slightly strange.”
A short time later Tom called, “You in there guys?”
When they had heard Tom’s voice Paul stood up and walked out of the small clearing.
Paul and Tom, after a couple of seconds appeared and Tom was carrying a far lighter-looking rucksack.
“Oh. Hi Simon,” said Tom when he came into view.
“Afternoon Tom didn’t realize you knew this group,” said Simon indicating Paul and group.
“Yeah for a few months now,” responded Tom.

*****

The friends sat there for the rest of lunch and the afternoon smoking and chatting. Tom had to go after a couple of hours due to work calling him in to cover a shift and Simon had a class to teach in the last period.
As the end of school approached the friends headed for the student car park and their bikes. They made quite a lot of noise as they left the school for the last time. They turned right and headed down the main road. A little way down the road they turned into an alleyway between a corner shop and an apartment block. The alleyway lead to the back of the shops and some garages. The group parked up in the entrance so they could look for the rest of the people who needed ‘thanking’.
As the last of the students were leaving the friends had spotted no-one.
She said, “They’ve chicken out and left by the other entrance and gone the long way home.”
“Yeah it looks that way or they are still in school,” responded Tina.
The group then climbed on to their bikes and started the engines.
As she was climbing behind Sandra she said, “Hey guys can we stop past mine. I need to get a few things?”
“Hey, no problem,” answered Paul as he was at the head of the four bikes he indicated left and pulled out onto the main road heading away from the school.

*****

Chapter 7

As the group turned left onto the road where she use to live she sub-vocalised, “Everyone, seventh house on the left.”
All four bikes indicated left and pulled up the driveway slowing to a stop just beside the path leading to the few steps up to the front door.
When she had climbed off she said, “Come on everyone. No one is home and I don’t give a shit who sees. I still officially live here and you are my friends.”
“Ok,” responded everyone and followed her up the path and the two stairs to the front door.
She opened the front door she stepped inside and allowed the rest of the friends in. “Make yourselves at home everyone,” she said after closing the front door. “Can someone stick the kettle on and make some drinks? I wouldn’t worry about my parents coming home anytime soon.”
As the group walked in they saw to the left of the front door was the living room, which had a couple of nice looking sofas, an gas effect fire in the fire place and a large Flat screen tele above the it. Towards the back of the house which the living room stretched the length of was a small office with a computer, printer and work space. To the right was a large dining room with a square table in the middle, surround it was four chairs. On the wall facing the front of the house was a door that led to the kitchen, also along that wall was a long book case filled with old fashioned paper books. The library continued up the wall which made the side of the stairs to the first floor, this one was filled with digital novels and more paper books. The stairs up to the first floor had a solid lower section but the first floor landing had a banister and columns making sure no one fell over the edge.
“Ok,” said Tina and Abs, “where’s the kitchen?”
“Through there,” she said and pointed at the door off the large dining room.
“Anything I can do?” asked Sandra.
“Yes hun, there is,” she replied as she headed for the stairs to the first floor.
Paul turned left and went to sit down in the living room. The upstairs had four doors leading off the landing which was a circle with the stairs being the middle. On the walls which were creamy off white were pictures of her mum and dad and Nick having fun.
She led Sandra up the stairs. She turned right at the top of the stairs, right again, opened a door and walked into her bedroom, which, as normal, was a mess, clothes piled in one corner, books, notes and other items in a second. The room was five metres square with windows along both outside walls. Along one wall was a large wardrobe, from the top of which she grabbed two large rucksacks and threw them onto the bed. She took two smaller rucksacks, which were hanging from hooks on the side.
As Sandra walked up the stairs and round the landing she looked at the pictures and asked, “Are these of you and your mum and dad?”
As she walked across her room towards the desk on which were her laptop computer and other office peripherals she turned her head and looked at where Sandra was looking, “Yes, that one is my favourite,” and she pointed to the one hung beside her room’s door. The picture was of Nick and two Jarrzarian’s at a religious site someplace beautiful.
Sandra, stood beside the door way and looked at the picture. “Who are the other two?” asked Sandra as she stepped into the doorway, “and what do you want me to do?”
“Jum-Fu and Wong-Ma. Two of my closest friends, do you remember when Paul asked where would I want to live?” she asked, “Could you goto the under-bed storage area and get the clothes you find there and fill one of the large rucksacks and then empty the cupboard there into the other one,” she said and pointed to the cupboard hanging on the wall.
As Sandra stooped she slid the door to the storage area open she replied, “Yes I do, why?”
“Meet the reasons for me saying Theaban in Jarrzar. That picture was taken by Jum’s mum when we were visiting a Tabbar Shrine. It was there me and them performed a Blood Family Ceremony. I forgot the underlying principles when I left Jarrzar, and that is friends however far they are from you will always be there for you,” she replied as she clearing her pens and pencils from the various pots into one of the small rucksacks. She reached up to the top shelf above her desk and took down a stack of business cards which were stuck to on a spike, she placed it on the desk and reached up again and took down the top of the spike. She then took out a stack of note books from the shelving units and these were placed beside the business cards. She placed the spike into the rucksack and that was closely followed by the stack of note books. She then opened the top draw of her desk and took out a long zipped wallet, in which was a fibre optic camera and an endoscope controllable extender. The next few wallets out of the drawers all had her precision toolkits in. These were used in her job as an Independent Security consultant. From the second draw down she took a twenty centimetre long by ten centimetre wide by fifteen centimetre deep black box with a large coil of thin cables protruding from one end. She smiled as she remembered the fun she has had with that little box of tricks. The next item she took out was a small LCD screen and the control box for the endoscope. From the very back of the draw she took the two chargers which were plugged into a four socket extension block. She turned to Sandra and said, “Could you unplug the charger from the socket behind the bedside cabinet, and throw me the entire unit?”
She watched Sandra move and smiled at one of the closest friends she had excluding Jum and Wong, as she unplugged the adaptor. Sandra threw the adaptor then the charger plate to her which she caught, reconnected the wire to the plate and then placed it in the same side pocket as the pens and pencils. She then moved around the chair and opened the second draw on the opposite side of the desk where she took out two hard cases one got slipped down the back of the current rucksack. The second was slid into the other side pocket, a third hard box went into the front pocket.
At this the rucksack was pretty much full and she pulled the draw string and then closed the top and clipped it down. She laid the rucksack down flat on the desk. She then opened the second rucksack and placed it on the ground. She knelt down and opened the bottom draw of the left hand side. From the bottom drawer she took her most prized possession, a Delt XA2000 Tablet Computer with full-speed wireless networking and an ultra-high-resolution touch screen. She placed the tablet into its protective bag which was underneath it. The bag with the Tablet in was slid into the open rucksack. She then stood and disconnected the Laptop from the hard-line network and unplugged the power pack from the six plug extension block located on the back of the desk. She slipped both the power pack and NetCams into the side pocket, these items were joined by a wireless trackball mouse. She then bent down and took a second protective bag and slipped the laptop into that and this package was then slipped into the rucksack in front of the tablet. She pulled ten books from the bottom shelf forward and out of the shelving unit, these were placed on the desk, she then took two DDD cases which were hidden behind the books out and these ended up in the rucksack in front of the laptop.
“This is still half empty, anything else,” said Sandra said as she finished digging the clothes out from under the bed and cupboard.
“Yes, the bedside table,” she said as he moved, carrying the first rucksack, to the wardrobe, and opened it. She bent down and dragged the base unit which was hidden inside out. She grabbed the top handle belonging to a removable drive day and pulled it forward and out from the base unit, she did the same to the one beneath the first. She placed the two drives on the ground. She then went to the rucksack opening the top going into the main pocket of the rucksack where she took out one of the small zipped wallets. She opened it and removed a cross-head screwdriver. She then switched the base unit off. After the computer had powered down she disconnected all the cables from the back and then removed the whole base unit so she could unscrew the back and remove the cover. When the cover was off she unscrewed the removable hard drive bays and took then out.
“Drinks!” was called up the stairs by Abs.
“Thanks, be down in a minute,” she called back and went back to re-placing the cover on the base unit.
“Finished,” said Sandra standing up from beside the bed.
“Thanks hun, I should be done in a couple of minutes, I need these two drives as they contain my life’s projects and all my personal data. Can you take those two rucksacks downstairs for me?” She pointed to the two large rucksacks. “Not these two,” she said, pointing to the two small bags.
“Ok,” replied Sandra as she heaved one of the two large rucksacks onto her back and grabbed the other one only to put it back down.
She finished replacing the cover and slid the base unit back into its home in the wardrobe. She picked up the completed bays and stuffed them into the top of the rucksack holding the tablet and laptop. She grabbed her second wallet from under the pillow where she hid it, and stuffed it into the inside pocket of the leather jacket she was wearing. She also grabbed her favourite fleece and night combat jacket from the hooks beside the door and stuffed them into a plastic bag.
As she left her bedroom she grabbed the long bag that sat beside the door, her weapons of choice when it came to the armed close fighting, her short staves. The pair had been given to her by Jum and Wong when she had left Jarrzar. She carried them and the bags out and left them on the landing. She went into her parents’ bedroom and to her mum’s bedside table, where she opened the drawer, and removed a large wad of deck notes. This too ended up in the inside pocket. When she exited the room she saw Sandra carrying the second rucksack down the stairs. She headed for the bathroom and took her razor and shaving gel from the cupboard. She opened the airing cupboard and took down one of the numerous small bath bags into which went the razor and gel along with her toothbrush and a couple of face clothes. She took from her towel holder her face towel. She then turned and took both her freshly aired bath towels from the airing cupboard, she also took her green towelling robe and closed the airing cupboard door. She walked out grabbing the two small rucksacks and other bags. She followed Sandra down the stairs and placed all the bags beside the front door. She then turned right and joined her new friends having her last drink of coffee at her old home.
Just as she was leaving, she picked up the notebook which was left by the phone and wrote a note to her mum and dad -
I am OK mum and dad, but I need to find where I am supposed to be and the person I am supposed to be.
Don’t worry, I have found some new friends, and the stories you hear from school about the incidents are true, it was me and my new friends cleaning house. By the time you read this I will have cleaned out my bank account. Don’t bother to look for me — you won’t find me — when I am ready I will find you.
I’ve also nicked all the money in the house. Total about 1700dks. I pledge as your offspring that I will repay you the whole sum as soon as I am able to.
Nick/Nibs

She left the note on the coffee table, picked up the rucksack which contained her laptop and Tablet computer. She then closed the door on her old life forever, she took her house keys off her key-ring and posted them through the letterbox. She turned and joined her new friends who were standing in the driveway waiting for her to join them. When she had climbed on behind Sandra she looked back at the house, sad that she had been forced to run-away, but she was also happy she was in control of her actions and she knew what she would be doing. For some unknown reason she knew this was the life she was suppose to lead. Abs, Tina and Paul each carrying one of Nibs’ rucksacks. Her bathroom equipment and plastic bag were in the box on Paul’s bike.
By 05:00AN that day she had transferred 3000dks she had her main bank account into her Street Ghost account and ordered a Street Ghost Debit Card. She smiled when she remembered Uthura telling her, ‘the Street Ghost Bank is officially called the 10th Bank of Echo Tech City. All Full Street Ghosts when they are sponsored get an account opened and the account number is your password to the system. The bank has regular customers, but the entire upper management are retired Street Ghosts.’ Outside the seventh Surra National Bank, she checked her Street Ghost Account, and saw it had 14,000 decks ready available funds. ‘I need to email Damien and tell him that I’m now a full ghost.’
At about 06:00AN, Sandra and her drove slowly past her old home and saw mum sitting in the chair crying, a City Security car was parked behind the car mum used to get to work. Dad had his arm wrapped around her and sat on the other sofa was a Security officer and walking into the room she saw a second. She felt a tear welled up in her eye which she had to wipe away.
“How long before you plan to see them?” came over the communication system from Sandra.
“No idea. How long is a piece of string? When I am ready to.”
The two said nothing until they got back to Home Base.
“Shopping tomorrow.” She had a happy smile on her face.
“Yeah, shopping and you become a true Gangrel.”

*****

The pair walked through the front door after parking Sandra’s bike in the under-house garage. She saw Paul lounging in one of the armchairs in front of the fireplace. Tina and Abs were sat at the breakfast bar, drinking a hot drink and quietly chatting and laughing together. Sat on the comfy sofas around the coffee table was Darla with her back to the front door. Sat on the floor in front of her were the twins, Angel and Damieel. Sat on one of the other sofas was someone she had seen hanging out with the Footbaal team. She had no idea who he was, as she never took any notice of who was in the team. The only members she knew the names of were the main bullies.
Sandra turned towards her so she could take her jacket, and saw her face and the look of ‘what the hell is he doing here?’
“Oh shit, we forgot to tell you Nibs. Allow me to introduce Gary Sutherland, the only member of the Vixens not to be at the party over the weekend,” Sandra responded to her angry face.
“As I think it would be bad protocol to give him what for, I’ll leave it,” she whispered angrily in Sandra’s ear.

Paul looked up and around to see Nibs slamming the front door hard, with Nibs on the outside. “Gary?” he asked Sandra looking quizzical.
Sandra replied with a nodded yes. “Right.”
”I’ll explain the politics. I’ll leave you to talk to Gary.”
”Ok.”
At this point he noticed Gary had looked up from reading the Surra National Times. He guessed Gary was wondering why his name had been said and no one had said hi or anything else.
”Gary,” he said, “You remember Sandra asked about Nick joining the Vixens?”
“Yeah,” replied Gary.
“Nick said yes, except it’s Nibola Calton, not Nick we gained as a member.”
“Oh! I poked my head around the canteen door and saw you lot sat where The Gorillas normally sat, I also saw The Hunk go sprawling after the new female with you had landed the knee.”
“Yes her.”

*****

Outside, Nibs sat on the top step and started to roll a fresh Cambar cigarette.
Sandra walked out behind her, closed the front door and sat beside her. “Sorry hun we should have told you about Gary this morning but it did slip my mind.”
“Well at least he never hurt me either physically or emotionally. He just stood there and allowed it to happen. Which is just as bad,” she said putting the Cambar cigarette into her mouth and flicked her lighter to light the tip. She then took a deep draw through the Cambar cigarette.
“True and he never would have done anything to hurt you,” replied Sandra. “As a Gangrel he respects all life except those we are paid to hurt or those who want to hurt us or our friends.”
There was a pause.
“I guess you have no idea concerning gang politics and the regulations we as Gang members live under at the school and in general society?” continued Sandra.
“No I don’t. They never really bothered me until now.”
“Let me explain how the youth culture works at the school and throughout Suraban. The Footbaal Team or as they are known on the streets ‘The Aces’, run the student side of the school, they vet all the hall monitors, and such. As a side-line some of the members bully those who are weaker or those who stand out as different. They also hate the Gangrels ‘cause they get their butts handed to them regularly when Gangrel units are hired to help other gangs kick their arses in battle, something to do with them being arrogant. Simon and a couple more teachers belong to an organisation called Central which makes sure the various gangs, which the school has seven at the last count, don’t declare open war when on school grounds.”
She looked questionably as Sandra.
“Yes, Simon, we had a smoke with, he’s the main contact Central has in the school. From what we as Gangrels know it’s an organisation set up by the city government about 15 years ago to oversee the affairs of the youths and young adults until about the age of 24. As Suraban has always had a high percentage of Street Gangs a lot of the work is at making sure they don’t break the laws of Suraban and Surra. As both the Gangrels and the Aces are members we follow Central’s rules concerning firearms and things like that. Frodar evening’s fun with the Vents, all the bullets we were carrying.”
“Were blanks,” she responded, “I noticed that when you passed me the 77.”
“Yeah,” said Sandra, “A school rule enforced by Central is that the various Gangs are forbidden to help a member of the student body who is not a listed member of the same gang.”
“I see now, with that rule what you did was the most you could do.”
“Yes,” said Sandra. “You probably already guessed that the pistols we all carry are armed with live rounds.”
“I actually hadn’t noticed to be honest.”
“That is a blatant breaking of the rules that all weapons unless you are heading to a War Zone or to a free fire zone or an area designated as a live fire area, must be loaded with blanks.”
“Why break that rule?” she asked questionly.
“A few years ago Central ran a group called Centra. Basically Centra was Central’s policing arm. Except Centra got accused of corruption, Central investigated and dissolved the force. Queen Sarah, our leader, now, back then she had just been transferred from the Bitch Vixens to one of the Command Units, had been negotiating privately with the leadership of Central that should Centra be dissolved the Gangrels become the policing force. Central signed the contract instructing The Gangrels be Central’s policing force two months after the disbandment of Centra. Within the contract are instructions concerning certain rules, like the carrying of live rounds in our weapons and the positioning of hides on the bikes or other vehicles were lost in the neither worlds.”
She then offered the Cambar cigarette to Sandra, who took it and removed her lighter from her pouch so she could relight it.
After taking a draw Sandra continued, “Central like the Street Ghost world respects the Gangrels Street Gang for the simple reason, we understand the responsibility of carrying weapons and live ammo. All members are also trained in how to handle firearms ranging from pistols to heavy machine guns responsibly.” She looked at Sandra with a face saying how come. “I should say all Gangrels spend thirteen weekends at command up in South Docks District learning how to be a Gangrel, but with people like yourself , it’s pointless you know how to handle a weapon and how to defend yourself. A big part of it is learning how to be safe with firearms and also marksmanship. I can triple tap a human sized target, with my Tard Kinetic 44 Heavy Automatic, and stop him dead at 150metres.”
“You’ll stop most people dead with one bullet fired from that cannon,” she responded wearing a smile. “I think I see now, but that still don’t explain Gary inside.”
“Gary, a full member of the Gangrels with one and a half years front line combat experience with the South Blue Ridge Maulers and six months with us the Bitch Vixens, has a good set of legs and is an excellent Tight Receiver and had been playing for two years previous to the Aces arriving. When the footbaal team arrived after the summer holidays a couple of years ago, everyone on the old team was put on notice that you either join or we put you in hospital. Gary was going to quit, he played because he enjoyed playing, but under the new regime he found it very difficult to continue. He was specifically asked by the coach to stay on the team. With the hatred the Aces have for us Gary keeps his Gangrel membership a secret.”
“Now I understand,” she said.

*****

“I must say she has some nice moves. I hear she broke his nose with the knee.” Gary said.

When Nibs and Sandra had finished taking outside, Sandra opened the door and walked in slightly ahead of her. When the door had opened the silence that fell over the room was palpable.
Darla turned to look at the pair saying, “Hi Nibs, good day I hear?”
As she walked in she saw that Darla was holding two long leashes which were attached to the collars Angel and Damieel wore.
She handed her jacket to Sandra who took them and the shoulder holsters to their room.
Gary said, she realised he was trying to break the silence that had descended, “I must say, nice knee young…” Gary paused for a noticeable second, “lady” continued Gary.
“Why thank you Gary,” she replied.

“Some introductions are in order I think.” Paul said realizing that Nibs had been told who Gary was, wasn’t going to say anything and other than him telling Gary who Nibs was and had been was also not willing to be the first to break the silence. “Nibola Calton also known as Nibs, this is Gary Sutherland, Gary Nibs,” Paul then paused for a bit and continued, “yeah, that’s a good point, where were you on Frodar night?”
“I was stuck at a footbaal event and spent the entire weekend celebrating the league win. I have to play a maximum of three more games before I can be free of that fucking bunch of twats,” answered Gary.

Nibs just burst out laughing when she realized Gary either was playing dum or he had no idea who she had been. “I think a slightly better introduction is in order,” she said. “Before I came to the party on Frodar I was known as Nicholas Calton, the guy, you and those twats use to bully at school.”
“Fecking hell!” Gary exclaimed. “You have got to be kidding.”
“No we ain’t, Gary,” interjected Sandra as she walked back into the living room.
She guessed playing along as when she looked at her she winked, “this is the same person.”
“Feck, I still don’t believe it.” With this he stood and walked past the cross sofa. When he was in front of her he went down on bended knee, “I apologise to you Nick for the hell that I may have put you through.” Gary stood sticking his hand out and before Nibs could say anything, “and welcome Nibola Calton,” he moved and whispered in her ear, “I hope I can call you Nibs.” As he moved back he went back to his normal voice, “to your new life as a Gangrel.”
She stood there in complete shock, “I was going to tell you off for calling me Nick, but then I realized what you were doing, certainly, everyone else knows me as Nibs.”
Abs got up and headed for where the coffee percolator was stood, empty. She then heard the water running as she headed for the pile of bean bags and cushions. Sandra followed her and sat in the one of the two arm chairs, closest to where she was sitting.
“Thank you, Nibs,” replied Gary as he sat back down looking relieved.
“When I saw you I weren’t sure who you were, but seeing as you were with Paul and Sandra, and had taken ‘The Hunk’ himself down, I made myself scarce.”
“I only wanted ‘The Hunk’ and Detrick, Simoine was an added bonus.”
As she sat down she took her PDU from her pouch and looked at the charge meter, which was reading almost empty. She got back up and walked to the bedroom where she removed the charger block from the rucksack and clipped the PDU into it. She then returned to the living room, only to see Sandra had nicked where she had been, leaving the arm chair free. She plugged the charger into the four plug wall socket that was beside the fireplace and placed the charger and PDU with the rest of the mobiles on the mantel piece.
She sat in the arm chair smiling at Sandra who was smiling back. Sandra moved so to sit beside her left leg, resting her head on her left thigh. Abs brought over a tray on which was a hot drink for everyone.
The conversation went from subject to subject until Gary said, “My weekend wasn’t all that bad, I did make contact with a Street Dealer at Samueal’s celebration on Savraday, and from that meeting, he contacted me yesterday and has offered us some Street Ghost work even though we are only associates.”
“Oh, who’s employing?” she asked
“Who the target?” asked Paul.
Everyone’s head turned to look at Gary.
“The Street Dealer wants some computer files from an low security office block in Eban Hill district. He said it was paying 10,000 each member plus up to 10,000 deck expenses account,” replied Gary
“Who’s the target?” asked Darla.
“The law firm of Juliet and Daughters.”
“Interesting,” she said as she took out her tin and loaded her patar. She then took the lighter which was tied to the arm and lit the flame and took a draw from the patar.
“What is Hun?” asked Sandra and turned her head to look at her face.
“I’m wondering what the law firm is working on to warrant a Street Ghost team going in,” she said. “Gary do you know who is employing?” She then took a second draw from the patar. She then offered the pipe to Sandra, who showed the Cambar cigarette she had. She then took the last draw from the pipe and then reached over and emptied it in the ash tray.
“The Street Dealer said Ittsu Tech is the employer. I think he has more information when we accept,” replied Gary.
“Mm,” she said, “What is Ittsu doing that warrants a law firm having information they want.”
“True,” said Tina.
Sandra reached up and grabbed her collar and dragged her head down to where her head was, “It’s getting late, and I’m tired hun. It’s been a long few days,” whispered Sandra into her ear over a stifled yawn.
“Yeah me too.” She also covered a yawn. They got up both saying, “Night everyone,” as they moved towards the bedrooms.
“When you next down this way Gary?” she asked
“Not tomorrow, on Ulleam, I’ve got deliveries tomorrow and I think dad wants me to run some errands on Ulleam morning,” replied Gary as he stood and joined Darla and the Twins in getting their jackets from the hooks in the bedroom corridor.
“Oh yeah Darla. I’m having a girls shopping trip, you’re invited.”
“Ok, ring me in the morning when you have decided where you are going, and we three,” as Darla indicated Angel, Damieel and herself, “Shall join the fun. And I bet it is going to be fun.”

*****

As Sandra and her left the living room she said, “I would have thought Darla would have left the twins at home tomorrow if they have been bad.”
“Nah, Darla will punish them tonight and that will be the last of it.”
“Ok.” She followed Sandra to her room.
Sandra closed the door of her bedroom to the outside world. She then grabbed her around the neck and kissed her passionately on the lips. She returned the invitation and the two of them spun around until they both fell over the bed and landed with her on the bottom and Sandra on top. Sandra pinned both of her arms to the bed and sat on her stomach. She then dragged them together above her head. She was playfully fighting her trying to get her hands free.

Even though Nibs was only play fighting Sandra could feel Nibs’ strength. Her muscles were tight and well toned. She removed one hand when the other hand had hold of both of Nibs’ wrists. She reached over and opened a drawer in her bedside cabinet, removing a couple of hand cuffs and cuffed both of Nibs’ hands to the end of the bed all the time smiling evilly.
The rest of the night was full of interesting fun.

Chapter 8

Torbar 18th Juwar
Sandra heard a noise from the area around her wardrobe, slowly opened her eyes to look a pair of dark blue cords. “Uhhmmmm, Paul!” her tone was, ‘what do you want in there’.
“Sorry sis, I need to find the Jhann box.”
“It’s in your bedside cupboard.”
“Oh yeah, I remember now, sorry.” Paul ran out of the bedroom.
She looked at the disappearing form as a pillow was launched at his back, with some power behind it.
“What the heck!” exclaimed Paul as Nibs’ head appeared from under the covers.
“Sorry Paul. I have no idea where I got that strength from, it just happened,” responded Nibs in apologetic tones.
“Not to worry,” replied Paul and Paul’s head appeared around the door frame, “it was only a pillow.”
“Do you mind,” she said suddenly, “the Gangrels may have a uni sex policy that covers all genders and perceived, but Nibs has lead a sheltered life, now get and let us up or the next thing flying will be my fist, and you’re yet to beat me bro.”
“I know. I’m gone.” Paul then reached in and pulled the door shut

Nibs blinked a couple of times and then rubbed the sleep clear from her eyes.
Sandra said when she had sat up on her elbows, “3 inches left and you would have hit his back.”
“That’s not bad for eyes closed and only hearing Paul’s voice and footsteps.”
“That isn’t.”
She looked at the clock, it read 10.30BN. “What’s the Jhann Box?”
“It’s the Vixens alter box,” replied Sandra.
“Alter box?”
“Yeah both Paul and Tina follow the Path of Paygan.”
”Now I understand. Do you follow it too, hun?”
Sandra replied as she took the Cambar cigarette from the bedside table on her side as well as the lighter, “Not as closely as Paul or Tina, but I do take part in the ceremonies and rites. How about you sweet?”
“I don’t follow a specific mythos or path as such, I mix and match bits from a lot of the traditional mythos, especially ones native to Jarrzar and that area.”
She sat up properly, took the half-smoked Cambar cigarette from her side’s bedside table ashtray, lit it, and took a draw from it.
“Garribon mu tunni Sandra san,” she said out of the blue.
“What did you just say, hun?” asked Sandra after taking a draw and expelling the smoke.
”I love you, Sandra in Street Jarrzarian,” she replied. “I’m fluent in all Jarrzarian from the High stuff you would speak to people from above your station, to Street which is what 80% of Jarrzar speaks.”
“Bloody hell, you are a person of many talents, Nibola,” responded Sandra as she swung her legs out and stood up. Sandra removed her blue bath robe from the corner of the bed and slipped it on.
“You going to get up, I’m planning on making you a little more feminine today, like plucking your eyebrows and generally getting rid of your unwanted hair.” Sandra headed out of the bedroom and across the corridor to the bathroom.
She could hear the running of water.
“Ok hun.” She swung her legs out, grabbed her green bath robe from the corner of the bed and slipped it on. She followed Sandra across the passageway to the bathroom, when upon entering she closed the door and sat on the side of the bath.
Sandra turned around and saw her sitting on the edge of the bath. Sandra turned back and took out from the cupboard a pair of tweezers, then she turned to face her and said, ”Look up at me and close your eyes hun.”
She closed her eyes and looked up at Sandra while she started to remove the unwanted hair from her eyebrows.
After a short period of sharp spikes of pain, from Sandra pulling and shaping the brows, she stopped and said, “Open your eyes and look.”
She opened her eyes and saw a mirror in front of her face showing the new shape and style of her eyebrows. She smiled as her eyes actually looked feminine rather than the mess they had been.
Sandra stooped, checked the temperature of the water with her hand turning the cold tap off. Sandra turned back to the cupboard and took from the top of the cupboard above the sink an incense stick, which she lit and placed in a holder on the toilet cistern. Sandra checked the water again and turned the hot tap off, untied the belt which held her bathrobe closed, it slipped to the ground and she climbed into the bath. “You getting in here?”
“Yeah.” She untied her bathrobe and it joined Sandra’s on the floor. She climbed in and sat between Sandra’s legs. The bath was surprising bigger than it looked stood looking down at it. Both of them had their legs outstretched. Sandra wrapped her arms around her waist and nibbled her ear. She smiled and reached behind her and sent her hand down.
After twenty minutes sitting in the bath enjoying each other’s company, Sandra and her heard a bike engine start then after it revved high they heard a loud clunk and the engine died.
“Oh crap, that don’t sound good” said Sandra. “I wonder whose bike that was?”
“Bloody thing.” They heard through the open bathroom window.
Both of them said “Abs,” in answer to Sandra’s question.

*****

After about an hour of relaxing in a lovely hot bath Sandra got out, took a couple of towels from the airing cupboard and wrapped one around her upper body. She left the second one on the closed toilet. After Sandra had got out, she had moved back so she was leaning against the slopped end of the bath. She was still smiling, it not having changed since Sandra had finished her eyebrows. Sandra opened the cupboard door, removing her shaving stuff and said when she was again facing her, “Would you lift your left leg and put it on the edge of the bath please.”
”Ok.” She did as she had been told to. Sandra then spent the next half hour shaving her legs, arms and her private areas. When Sandra had stood up after finishing the area around her groin, she got out, patted herself down and put her bathrobe on. She headed into the bedroom, and collected her wash-kit from the top of the dresser. She returned to the bath room, and saw Sandra, just topping hairs as they appeared. She ran a washing bowl full of water and shaved her face very close.
It was about 13.00BN when the pair walked into the living room dressed and ready for shopping, only to have the front door slam open, and an annoyed Abs storm in from the driveway. The living room itself was in a state which Paul was sorting out slowly.
“What happened here?” asked Sandra.
“Paul,” replied Tina who was sat at the breakfast bar.
“Arh.”
She walked into the kitchen area. “Coffee, love?”
“No thanks. I’ll do us both a chai,” replied Sandra as she followed her into the area and shooed her out.
“Oh, thanks.” She was wearing a shocked expression on her face. She then headed for the mantle piece and took her PDU off charge, powering it up.
Abs was stood over the sink washing her hands. “Looks like I’m not going shopping today!”
“Oh why not?” she asked as she looked up from sitting on the sofa. She tapped the NetViewer and after it had loaded and displayed her designed BlackNet home page, where she looked at her BlackNet inbox which was the top item on the page under the titles.
“My bike’s timing chain came loose and has gotten lodged in the cam casing.”
“Was that the clunk we heard earlier?” asked Sandra whilst waiting for the milk to heat up on the cooker.
“Yes it was,” replied Abs very angrily.
“Hun,” replied Tina. “You’re riding pillion with me. We can get your bike fixed later or tomorrow.”
She looked up saying after seeing a couple of new messages, but they weren’t from either Jum or Wong. “I’ll give you a hand with it. I’m pretty good with electronic and mechanical things, especially security systems.” She had a smile on her face as she opened the top one and clicked the link that sent her to YoungTrans site. She opened the site’s own inbox and opened the unread message, it read — ‘Hi, I just heard about your excellent news, I hope to see you on the scene soon. Mike.’
Both Tina and Abs looked at Nibs and said simultaneously, “What?”
“Yeah, I break into a people’s houses and then upgrade the security system. I was planning on either going into the freelance business testing security systems or joining one of the big security companies when I finished college.” She then tapped her PDU’s stylus on the button which would take her to the various forum boards after she had made a note to reply to Mike’s email.
“Hell yeah,” exclaimed Abs. “We’ve found her. The one person we needed in the team.”

After a few seconds Paul remembered what Nibs had said yesterday at school. “That’s how you were able to recognize a professional job on the camera.”
”Yeah,” said Nibs and nodded. “You do know that to be taken seriously in the Street Ghost world you need to hold full Street Ghost licences.”

“Yes,” replied Sandra from the kitchen. “As Gangrels when we turn 18 all we have to do is ask and one of the adult members to sponsors us.”
“All of the Vixens know how to handle themselves in a fight, both with and without firearms. We are professional, well trained and well armed. The HK 77 you had on Frodar is one of our standard firearms for most of our combat work.” Abs continued, “We also use M22 Assault Carbines.”
“Our Associate Street Ghost listing says we are an all-girl team,” said Paul smiling as the news.
“An all-girl team?”
“Yeah, the team used to include just me, but six months ago Gary joined us as a member, we are honorary girls. We both have to wear battle makeup and try to look as fem as possible. It’s kind of fun as we scare most of the local gangs when we are out in full Goth battle dress,” said Paul.
“I bet you do,” she responded. “Two big hulking girls, how come Gary only joined six months ago?” she requested whilst looking down the main topics displayed. Nibs selected one called Corporate No-Nos.
“Ask Gary that, Nibs, he loves telling people who ask.”
“Ok as long as your there too hun.” Scanned through the list of various No-Nos
“Ok”, replied Sandra. As Sandra started she looked up and saw her walking towards the sofas carrying two cups both had steam rising from them. “Seven months ago, the Black Snake gang from North Hills were challenged to a War Zone by the Red Wing gang from Western Beeches. The Black Snakes contacted us, the Bitch Vixens and two other Gangrel units to support their leader's plan of attack. Red Wing got wind of the contact, somehow, but had no idea which Gangrel units had been employed. The plan called for the Vixens to launch an assault on the centre zone with Gary’s and Tybias Mitten’s units to our left and right respectively. The overall plan was to have the Vixens and the other units’ assault first with the support of the Black Snakes.”
She walked to the sofa and sat in what had become her usual seat the corner one nearest the wall and door to the bed room corridor. She looked through the long list of No-Nos and at the end hadn’t found anything on the situation between Ittsu and the law firm. ‘I wonder why not.’ She tapped the post button and scribbed a message to the board asking is anyone had any information on what Ittsu was up to at the moment. The message also asked for information on the Law Firm and the general security setup at the company’s offices.
“One problem was that the Red Wings tried to second-guess the plan and placed the bulk of their forces facing Gary’s unit. Tybias blasted through the defences in record time. We were taking some fire from the left and could see that Gary’s unit faced a lot of the defences. We asked Tybias’ unit to turn left and mop up our assault zone which was falling apart, whilst we moved in support of Gary’s unit, which we did, in the end the combined assault of the Vixens coming in on the flank. The fire base Gary's unit and the supporting Black Snakes had set up proved to be too much for the Red Wings, who retreated. At the time the leader of the Red Wings had thought he had lost the battle badly.”
Paul continued after lighting a blunt, “I think Darla contacted him a little while later and let him know he had bloodied the Black Snakes and almost destroyed to the last man a high ranked B+ Assault Unit. We are talking Gary's unit was almost an A-rated Gangrel unit. From what Darla said his reaction to this news was more shock and surprise than anything else. She also added that he shouldn’t be too disappointed as not many gangs can say they survived a major assault by three Gangrel units working in conjunction with support forces. To finish how Gary joined the Vixens - only four members of his unit survived, and they had a twelve man unit to start with. One member died before Darla could get to him to stabilize his wounds, the other two got patched up but they left active service and have not yet returned.”
She then opened her BlackNet email and selected compose message and sent one to Damien saying that she was about to enter the Biz with a new team from the high school she went to.
”In the scheme of Street Gang politics and money, hiring two A-rated Gangrel units and a high B+-rated one was a coup for the Black Snakes. Major cudos with the local Gangs,” added Abs.
”A-rated?” she asked.
”Yeah, Gangrel units are rated according to their professionalism, training and basic equipment. The Vixens are one of the top A-rated units. Gary’s was and Tybias’ units is also rated quite highly and have a good reputation on the streets,” answered Paul.
“My next question may sound stupid, but where do the gangs buy weapons and equipment from?”
“Most gangs have been in existence for quite a while, and a lot of it is done through fences or the Black or Grey markets, but some gangs go to Battle Zone Supplies in the North of the city, which is a major arms supplier to the gangs and Ghost communities,” replied Sandra.
“I know about Battle Zone Supplies.” She then asked, “What about money?”
“How do gangs operate, black market, ransoms, and other semi-legal money-making schemes,” replied Tina, “most try and hide there illegal activities from Central and their investigators which if the rumours I’ve heard are true then it should become a came of cat and moulzua, where Central and the Gangrels are the cats and the Gangs are the Moulzuai.”
“Plus the Gangrels think some gangs are also sponsored by the corps,” said Abs, “and Gary thinks the Aces are one of those.”
“I think some gang members supply their own weapons directly from the corporate military supply centres,” said Paul, “Some of the weapons we’ve seen have been too modern to be supplied by the other methods.”
After spending twenty minutes chatting and laughing at some of the battles that the Bitch Vixens had had, and some of the places she had ‘upgraded’.
Sandra and her stood up and headed for the bedroom to finish getting ready. Thirty minutes later the pair walked back into the living room, both looking drop dead gorgeous Giths. Each was wearing the opposite, where she wore black, Sandra wore deep purple, and where Sandra had black she had deep purple. The makeup was one of sultry drop dead gorgeous Gith
“We ready then?” asked Sandra.
“Yeah we are,” both Abs and Tina said as they headed for their room.
“Where are you three talking me then?”
“The Harliquanis Shopping Mall in South Peninsula District, the best mall to go to for Githic clothing outlets and the surrounding back streets house the best other specialist outlets in the alternative lifestyles. The only problem is that it also has several famous CHM (Corporate Housing Members) outlets heavily used by the CHM posse, which generally make for some interesting times. That’s a good point how much money have you got to play with?” Sandra asked.
“Cash, seventeen hundred, Bank, fourteen thousand.” She smiled a little as she remembered research work and the other lessons and things she had learnt from Cameron’s Raiders.
“Fourteen thousand!” exclaimed Paul and he just stared at her, “How come?”
“Seven thousand for some research work I’ve done for people. Four thousand from the security upgrades, and three thousand for my allowance.”
“Ok, that’s damn good pay for research work,” said Paul.
“The research work included finding information about high security installations and similar.”
“Ok,” said Paul.
“Anyone rung Darla yet?” asked Sandra.
“Not yet.” replied Tina as she walked back in wearing her leather jacket. She grabbed her mobile from the mantle piece, she quick-dialled Darla and told her where they were going.
As the four girls walked out of the house and down the stairs to where the bikes were kept. Abs’ in pieces to one side of the driveway. Sandra and Tina walked into the garage and wheeled their bikes out into the fresh air.
“Nibs you can drive,” said Sandra to her.
“I’m not legal to drive.”
“Like we give a shit,” responded Tina as she stood the bike on its kick stand, “The Bitch Vixens all ride so you might as well get used to it and get some practice at it.” Tina slid her gloves over her hands.
Sandra smiled at her and handed her a pair of biker gloves. She put them on and flexed her fingers and walked towards Sandra’s bike which like Tina’s was on its kick stand.
“Ok, at some point I’m going to need a bike I guess,” she said
“Yeah, I guess so,” responded Sandra, sounding a bit disappointed, which she picked up on and gave her a quick kiss on her check.
Paul stood on the veranda and said, “See you guys later.” He turned and walked back into the house and closed the door.
She lifted her left leg over the seat taking the motorbike off its kick stand, this being her second time of riding, she balanced the weight between her legs. The first time she had driven it, she was on a party high, fuelled by the Cambar and the entry into the true unknown world. Using her right boot she flicked out the kick start. She then stood on it and pushed hard against the resistance in the starter motor. The engine caught. As the engine fired into life she twisted the throttle which fed more fuel into the air stream, revved the engine to make sure it had started. When the bike engine had settled into a purr Sandra handed her the communication system. Which she placed the ear piece in her ear and wrapped the microphone band around her neck, making sure it was resting against her voice box. “Testing, one, two, three.” came over the earpiece.
“Everyone hear that?” asked Sandra.
“Yeah,” came the response from the three girls.
Tina straddled her bike then like her, slammed the kick start down and started her bike. Abs climbed behind Tina. Sandra joined her on her bike. The two bikes’ engines revved in unison, and both drivers selected first gear, released the clutch and pulled up the driveway away from the under-house garage, the engine sounds echoing off the wooden clad walls of the house and surrounding houses. They turned left into the minor street that ran in front of Paul’s and Sandra’s house. This being the second time in daylight and not on a party fuel high. She looked up and down the street, quite a few houses up and down the street looked as if they were derelict. She could see that people still lived in them from the washing lines or cars, bikes and kids’ toys that sat in front gardens. Home Base and the one opposite were the only ones that still had all the windows and were painted. Most of the houses had at least one window broken, or most of the front windows boarded up, after being broken by vandals or local street gangs.
Sandra’s voice came over the communication system. “Most of the houses on both sides are used by drug users as squats or ultra-low income families,” Sandra said to her as she looked around at the run-down state of the neighbourhood.
“Corporate politics and profit margins must be maintained, I guess,” she responded her face being one of ‘what have they done to deserve this type of life’.
“What’s even worse is most of the families used to work for the corporations before job cutbacks, or they got too old to be economical to retrain in the new ways of doing business,” said Tina in response to her statement.
“The more I see of this side of city life, the more I hate the corporations and the more I want to get even somehow.”
“Snap,” said Sandra.
Sat outside the house on the right hand side behind the houses on the main road were three gents, all looking high on something. The front door slammed open and out staggered a female, looking as if she was on the upside of a high, as she slumped down on the steps that led to the house, happy and contented.
“What gets dealt in there?” she asked.
“No idea,” answered Abs.
As the bikes slowed and indicated left at the junction to head for the start of IC7, the four girls saw a three-trailer road train driving towards then coming from the direction of IC7. The truck driver pulled the horn and stuck his fist out of the window in salute when he saw the girls and the bikes. Tina, closely followed by her, pressed the buttons that sounded the bike horns, returning the salute until the tractor had passed them. After the last trailer passed, Tina was the first to accelerate to cross the road, she followed and accelerated down the main road.

*****

As she followed Tina down the road, her eyes were glancing around taking things in, her improve vision seeing the little things that made the neighbourhood tick. As they passed one corner she saw one Ajzarian gent subutelly handing a package to a female from Deebina. She also noticed the state of the houses, apartments and tenantment blocks. She knew a lot of the problems were down to the corporations control of the world government and the various country governments. She saw that both sides of the street were lined with run-down apartment complexes, small disused stores, and derelict town houses. Most were either burnt out or had the ground and first floors windows broken and or they had been completely removed. Only a few small convenience stores were still open and even these had some form of screening for the windows. A couple of low-C-ranked Mini malls also ran the normal 26hr service. She saw that stood close to the door in one was a security person, probably employed and trained by the corporation owning the store. The street life was one of survival more than anything, and trash recycling of the corporate enclaves that dotted the area.
The two motor-bikes travelled down the main road towards the start of IC7, they drove past two of the best known sites in South Central; South Central Free Fire, an area where the local and corporate security forces don’t go unless they have massive backup. The other was Diaballibo Tech Corporate Enclave. The entire enclave was surrounded by a ten-foot high wall topped with cartal razor wire and covered 691,412square metres. As she looked around she noticed the camera on the top of the wall, near the corner of the wall, tracked them as they approached and as the passed it kept them in sight. About 100 yards from the corner was a fully-manned security checkpoint she glanced at the checkpoint and saw two security personal stood on the borders and they were again watching the bikes. As they approached, at probably around 75metres away, she was able to determine what assault rifles they were carrying, D-300s with smart scopes attached to the carrying handle. This fact immediately rang alarm bells in her head. As the bikes passed, she glanced at the gap in the wall and saw a sand bag gun emplacement and a security armoured vehicle.
“Touchy,” she stated over the communication system.
“Yeah slightly. Did you see the camera, it tracked us,” stated Sandra in response.
“Did you see the firepower the guards were carrying?” responded Abs, “Full assault rifles with what looked like smart scopes.”
“I did, I also looked in to the compound, they also had what looked like a full gun emplacement and a security armoured vehicle, with I think a 30mm cannon. That’s some serious firepower,” she replied. The alarm bells stopped, as what she had read a couple of weeks earlier on the BlackNet Forums concerning a massive raid on a Tech enclave clicked. The assault rifles, the gun emplacement and security vehicle meant it’s either happened and they are making sure no one comes to finish the job or they have gotten wind of it and are making sure that when it does happen they are stopped dead. “Someone is planning a hit or one has just happened,” she said.
“You watchaing the road, hun,” said Sandra to her after tapping her on the shoulder.
She shook her head, clearing the thought processes, and went back to concentrating on the thing at hand, driving the bike. “Sorry, miles away.”
“I guessed.”

*****

The bikes travelled on past low-income apartment blocks, low-priced hotels, and other amenities that made a city run and just keep its head above bankruptcy. Arriving at the start of IC7 the two bikes headed around the roundabout coming off on the exit that was the start of IC7. The IC7 was the main north road leading to the city of Sheatrate the capital of Sheedan, some 2700 kilometres away. She saw Tina as she indicated to come off she opened the accelerator and the bike accelerated out of the corner onto the middle lane. She followed suit feeling the arms that Sandra had wrapped around her waist slightly tighten and as she came out of the corner she too opened the throttle and accelerated. She also joined, after exiting the roundabout, the middle lane and as the speedometer passed 60mph, she pressed the button that engaged the cornering auto-gyro. When she felt the effects of the auto-gyro she pulled the clutch and put the bike into sixth and opened the throttle, she soon joined Tina in the outside land and accelerated, they both were travelling at close to 200kph and flew pass cars, trucks. Other bikers came onto the IC7 and most if they could reach the speed the pair were doing were driving with the four girls.
After travelling 20 kilometres they approached the bridge that connected the South Docks with Western Docks Districts, when they saw a sign that said the ‘Bridge Closed - major incident’, and diversion signs that lead them up river to the next bridge, which was a main road, not an IC. As the bikes slowed to come off the IC she indicated to turn right and follow the diversion sign. Sandra said over the comm. system, “Turn left here Nibs, use the disused tunnels, its quicker and easier.”
“What, the sub-rail tunnel that was closed forty years ago due to water seepage?”
“Yeah, and the story about water seepage is bollocks, no water has ever seeped into the tunnel system. From what the Gangrels and other people in the know, it was costing too much to maintain the tunnels to the level of safety the World Government wanted. So to save money they closed them, the mole people now use the entire network of tunnels, the old subsurface areas, sewers and old tunnels to live in.”
She changed the indicator and followed Tina as she turned left and headed up the main road towards the coast and East Stevran District, as the bikes had slowed and pulled off the five other bikers headed right and followed the diversion signs. The two bikes travelled down the main road until Tina indicated right and joined a secondary road that ran through a light industry industrial park. After a couple of miles the road exited the light industrial park and drove through an area of wasteland. She looked around and saw the tell-tale signs of battles between various forces. The wasteland area was covered in burnt out wrecks, bullet ridden vehicles and motor-bikes. They soon approached the fencing that marked the land area belonging old Storm and flood drains of the River Stevran. The storm and flood drains were now disused as the river was managed upstream on the edge of the Low Back Foothills. She was again glancing around as the other side of the road were the backs of low income apartments and squats, mixed in with small light industrial units, some were open and other looked closed but they had lights on inside. The other side of the fence she saw piles of human-dumped rubbish and the odd 25-gallon drum, most had labels that had faded or had been removed deliberately.
As the fence continued the girls came upon an unlocked gate, being held slightly opened, by piles of pallets and a couple of sealed drums. The entrance was not wide enough to allow bikes to drive through at speed, and so both bikes slowed, negotiated the opening and continued for a short way at the same height as the road way. They then came upon a down-ramp, that would lead them down to the bottom of the Storm Drain.
“Only half a mile more to go until the entrance to the tunnels,” said Sandra.
After half a mile both bikes slowed to about 10 miles per hour and entered the tunnels through another gate, this one was hanging off its hinges. Tina, who was in the lead, turned her twin headlights on to high-beam. Almost immediately the light highlighted a dog that looked at the approaching bikes and ran into a small side tunnel. After a couple of miles of a downhill slope, the tunnel opened into a large tunnel, which was well lit from overhead halogen lamps. The tracks that ran up the middle had been removed, probably by the mole people so they could be used as building or tunnel construction supports. After about half a mile the bikes entered into an area where on each side of the tunnel were raised platforms, which looked very much like the subway station they had learnt about in history. On the platforms were various sizes of area divided up by material, plasterboard, wood or other thin large boards. Playing in the middle where the tracks would have ran were twenty odd children aged between three and about thirteen. Sat on the platform edges, with their legs hanging down, were a few older children. Most had some form of firearm, and if not they definitely had a close-combat weapon lying in their laps or close by. She saw in some of the homes, for want of a better word, people cooking on electric stoves, computers with what looked like net access, and out of one home came some music that she loved to listen to.
“The rejects from society?” she asked just as they exited the station.
“Yeah the Mole People,” replied Tina. “The rejects and oppressed, in some cases. From what I learnt in history, the sub-way tunnels run throughout Suraban, and the Mole People have entrances and exits everywhere. I think my father said that at some points it carried between two and three million people a day.”
“Gangrel base central is located in similar tunnels under Western Beeches. Some people speculate that the tunnels and the entire place is far older than the Subway.”
“How come they live down here?” she asked over the communication system.
“Most moved down here when the corps forcibly evicted them from their homes, when the corporate land grab happened. And they have never left the tunnels; most know them like the backs of their hands and can get to most places in the city without being seen by us the surface people, as they call us.”
“Good bunch of people to know then,” she responded.
“Yeah, if and when you make friends,” said Abs. “It’s very hard to make friends down here. They see nearly all of the surface people as corporate wage slaves and hate us accordingly and the ones they don’t they still keep at arm’s length.”
“Arh,” she said in response. “How do they survive though, I saw computers, TVs and lights?”
“That stuff is easy to get, patch the main trunking lines and bingo, power and cable Tele/Net access. It is rumoured that a couple of the bigger corps provide food shipments for the people, it’s not confirmed or denied,” said Sandra.
She knew which corporations would do that, the ones linked to Echo Tech Inc. they had the reputation that they cared for the people who worked for them, and the earlier conversations with Sandra and Timaus, to her meant that it had to be Echo Tech Inc. She also remembered what Mingu had said when Nick was ten, ‘that all the AAA corporations have dirty hands except ATEC and Echo Technology Incorporated whose’ hands were dirty through cleaning up the other corporations’ messes.’ Since that time she had done a lot research into the big fifteen MegaCorporations and found that the reputation Echo Tech Inc and companies had was true. Echo Tech Inc, all the companies under it and ATEC and its family of companies operated as non-profit companies, all their profits got fed into various Trust Funds and it was via them that the companies helped the downtrodden and those not employed by them.
After travelling, quite slowly, for about three quarters of a mile Sandra said, “Be warned hun, be ready to follow Tina if she accelerates. We are very close to an area of the tunnels that few people go though voluntarily. The inhabitants are a lot more ready and willing to kill you for looking at them in the wrong way, also listen for mine or Abs shout to move. Let me fight back, you concentrate on driving.”
“Ok,” she responded as she brought her concentration to max and started to filter noises and sights.
“If it does come down to having to accelerate, hold on to the seat strap. If I hadn’t known security systems so well I would very likely be a professional cycle scrambler, when I was living in Ne-U-Bar I spent the summer with a couple of friends, playing cycle scrambling in some overgrown woods.”

“Ok.” Sandra was secretly smiling to herself in thanks that Nibs could handle a bike, even if it was a push bike, and this wasn’t her first time of being in a situation that may warrant some dangerous driving.
Abs’ voice came over the comm. system, “Get ready.”

“Ok,” Nibs replied.
As the girls drove along the tunnel they approached a section of tunnel that had openings in the wall which led to rough hewn chambers. The walls of the chambers were bare rock, some had lights, others not. Her improved senses kicked in, and as she followed Tina down the middle of the tunnel, she could see Abs had her pistol in her hands, and she sensed Sandra also had her pistol out and cocked. Abs head along with Tina’s constantly moving looking into alcoves and darkened areas. She was also looking; her improved vision penetrating some of the darker alcoves and areas, in these she saw teenagers and young adults not moving but the looked like most of them were carrying some form of close combat weapon or fire-arm. In the back of one alcove she saw three people cross an entrance to a tunnel that ran behind the alcove, in military style, they all carried their weapons in patrol position.
After 150-odd metres, they exited the area and were once again back in more normal-looking tunnels lined with concrete. After travelling about a mile, the girls came upon another station-style place much larger than the one south of the river. From the layout and direction of the tunnels that exited the station, it looked like it had been a major junction. Other than that it was very similar to the one south of the river in that it had lots of people, homes, and children living there.
“Not far now,” said Sandra in her ear.
“Thanks hun.”
After a short distance Tina turned right and accelerated up a tunnel similar to the one they had used to enter the tunnels, south of the river. It was dug out of rock and shored up by the train track and timber shoring. At the top, Tina asked over the communication system, “Which way?”
“Right,” said Sandra in reply to Tina’s question.
“Right it is,” replied Tina
She saw the slow-moving traffic heading for IC7, and followed Tina in turning right. Both bikes turned and headed down the main road that ran beside old heavy industrial sites, and the old Stevran harbour. After travelling about mile and a half, the pair passed a sign indicating they were entering ‘West Docks District - the third largest shipping terminal in the world.’ It was estimated that the five big shipping companies alone handled upwards of 600 million containers each per quarter through the terminal. A smaller separate sign beneath the large main sign said ‘careful heavy containers moving’. The main road the girls were travelling on had fencing on both sides, and at regular intervals were closed gates. Sensors located on tall poles controlled the opening and closing of the gates. Both bikes slowed as a terminal tractor towing a container crossed the road ahead of them, heading into one of the long term storage compounds. On the side of the container was a logo for Military Production Industries. As it passed through the gate, the one opposite opened and when the tractor had crossed the road and was entering the long term storage compound the gate on the far side was closing. She saw it also had a danger - explosives sticker on the rear door and the door catch was secured by a Security Binding Tape. A twenty meter tall mobile gantry crane dropped the hoist securing cradle onto the top of the container.
After about ten minutes the girls turned the bikes north onto a main road that would take them to IC3 and onwards towards the Harliquanis mall. Through out the ride she had been, in addition to seeing the dirt-siders world, looking at how companies and corporations did things. This was the first time other than the foot research she had done for Damien she had been able to actually able to see the world outside what the corporations wanted you to see.
She noticed that a fence ran off the fence on both sides of the road and looked like it divided the docks into two distinct areas. She saw up ahead was a flashing sign indicating diversion in operation. Just ahead of the sign was a gated fence and the main road continuing beyond the closed gates, past two office blocks owned by Xorone Ltd. The skyscrapers were two 60-storey plus affairs built from concrete, metal and glass. Displayed on the right building was Xorone Ltd.’s logo.
As she followed Tina around the diversion, she thought to herself, ‘I need to do some serious research work into the corporations that have their Headquarters and major centres in the city.'
Upon rejoining the main road, the girls turned north and continued driving, moving from West Docks into the District she loved and hated in equal measure, the Foreign Quarter or North Reaches District. She loved the district because she could go and be within the various languages she knew and also pick up the starts of new ones. The hate she felt was against the governments of the controlling countries and their pandering to the various MegaCorporations. She knew at the next election she was going to go and vote but put a cross across the ballot, and void it. She understood that the world needed to change the whole electoral system from system that allowed the Corporations to give the votes to what ever party or person they controlled or knew wouldn’t hurt them. To the system she thought was used in Echo County and one person one vote this would give the people the chance to actually control who was elected and governed.
After travelling through North Reaches District they turned right and headed for IC3.

*****

As the girls approached the on-ramp of IC3, they had to slow, as another hold-up was affecting the on ramp for the IC. As she negotiated the slow moving vehicles, she heard Sandra ring Darla. As the bike was moving relatively slowly, she heard Sandra tell Darla about the hold up and the ETA of them at the mall entrance. After spending forty minutes in the go-slow they passed the hold-up, a five-trailer road train had jack-knifed and was blocking both sides of the IC. IC troopers, local police and rescue were in attendance slowly clearing the backlog of traffic. When the girls had cleared the traffic jam, Sandra rang Darla for a second time and gave an update to their ETA at the Mall.
IC3 had been constructed to include walls that blocked most of the view cars and motor-bikes could see. In places the IC sped along the ground but more often it was ten plus metres up supported on concrete pillars. The bike sped pasted many Corporate enclaves, many of them housing multiple smaller corporations in relative peace. Two of the largest enclaves were 100% owned and managed by Zul, a subsidiary of ATEC Inc; and KRX, a subsidiary of C.Industries. As the IC was on the ground as it passed through the two Enclaves, both sites had exits and entries to the IC on their land, from what she could see all four exits from the IC had security checkpoints. Looking over the walls she could see that most of the area near the IC looked nice, ten storey apartment blocks that looked clean and well maintained on most were wind turbines and also most apartments had hanging plants coming from the roof tops. It gave the buildings a natural look rather than hard and angular that was what people expected from that type of building. The IC rose on another flyover as it exited the KRX enclave, as the bikes climbed you could see the area effected by the corporation extended beyond the border fence.
As the girls neared the end of IC3 they both got into the correct lane for the end of IC off ramps that would take them onto the main road that ran to the shopping district. After about ten minutes of driving they neared the shopping district. As they drove down main shopping street, her eyes were flicking left to right looking at this and that, the massive department stores, the boutiques, and all the people that thronged the street and surrounds most of hours of the day.
As Tina, who was slightly ahead, approached the Harliquanis Shopping Mall, she indicated right and took the filter lane. She slowed as the lights changed and another set went green. After waiting about a couple of minutes as the lights completed the cycle. When the filter lane light changed to green the two bikes accelerated and turned right onto the main road that led around the eastern and northern sides of the Shopping Mall. At the first car-park entrance.
She followed Tina when she indicated left. The bikes crossed the road into the entranceway, slowly negotiating the bike entrance, which allowed motor-bikes and other two-wheeled vehicles free access to the car parks. She followed Tina as she drove through the car-park to the second floor and parked in the bike bay next to the one Tina selected. After she had parked and locked the bike up, she passed her four pistol magazines to Sandra who placed them along with hers into the metal box located just under the fuel tank.
When the magazines where away in the hides Sandra stood and said, “Nice ride thanks, you’re pretty good at handling the bike.”

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