-1-

Sara Grace lays in bed tapping her gun against her waist. The sun hadn’t even set in the sky , but she was ready to leave.

The rhythmic thwacking stirred Rayne Washington, who lay beside her. He reached his arm across her body and stilled her frantic hand. She turned and looked at him blankly before moving from the bed and pulling on her tangled underwear and  a pair of lycra black shorts.

He watched her silently, knowing this would be the last time she’d come to stay overnight in his bed.

What they had shared had always been strained. There had always been an undeniable attraction, but every rare encounter over the last seven years was filled with guilt over Rayne’s marriage. Just when he  had finally built  something solid with Sara—their very own heir—it was snatched away from him. He’d even considered marriage. But  now they could barely keep eye contact.

Topless, Sara sits at the vanity that had been built when Ivy shared this bedroom.  Gone was the soft down of red hair that she had grown over the last nine months. Grabbing Rayne’s razor, she neatens out the edges of her sharp buzz cut. Laying the razor down she cup her pale breasts,  running her finger over her nipples and applying pressure.

 “She’s right,” Sara admits.

 “You’ll have to be more specific,” Rayne says.

“Minnow,” she says. “It’s been too long. Our son is gone. We need to accept--”

“Don’t say that--”

“You know as well as I do how the Mjolljner  take pleasure in being cruel for cruel’s sake,” she says in a stony voice. “They probably just threw him out with the trash on the first night.”

“I don’t believe that--”

“Think about it Rayne. There’s been no ransom. No threats. No nothing. Even if he’s not dead, even if the Mjollner don’t have him…we’ll never find him,” she explains. “I just need a job Rayne. A long one. I need to start moving on. Dealing with this shit…it hurts too much.”

Getting out of bed Rayne steps into his walk-in closet and carefully pulls together a suit.

“You have a job,” Rayne tells her. “I want to keep Gray inside. We need to be more offensive with the Mjollner. Having an inside man is good.”

They go through the motions of the morning in silence and are  interrupted by the sound of a distress signal on Rayne’s Syndicate.

The signal comes through just as a loud commotion starts with guards in his foyer.

Sara picks her gun up from the vanity in defense as Rayne answers the call on his Syndicate.

“I think it’s your people downstairs,” he tells her holding up a hand. “…Minnow Dory says he has something from Alan.”

“Sara!,”  the combined voices of Ivy and Jean sound at the bedroom door followed by hasty knocks.

Lowering her gun Sara swings open the bedroom door. The narrow entryway is crowded with Ivy, Jean, Minnow and El.

“I intercepted a message from Alan,” Jean says handing her a Syndicate.

“So I heard. I don’t remember arranging a drop,” she responds.

“I think something big happened. He’s encrypted it so I can’t hear it”

Sara opens the door farther and they all spill inside. Ivy pauses momentarily looking around the room that had once been hers. She primly takes a seat at the vanity.

Picking up her tablet Sara puts the message through the decryption code before listening.

“Alan’s coming here,” she says. “He says he knows how to get our answers.”

***

-2-

The safe house living room is silent as the lights of a crimson Mjollner Mustang blinks across the windows. Jean Dory takes his knife and stands by the door watching the car carefully as Alan Gray exits.

“He’s alone. Looks clear,” Jean calls to the group behind him, opening the front door.

Sara, El and Minnow take a relaxed stance lowering their firearms out of sight. When Alan comes through the door Minnow untangles herself from the seat she’d found on El’s lap to put her arms around Alan and he instinctively wraps his arms over her. Taking her hand he observes her Shy Cartel ring.

“Looks like I missed a lot,” Alan comments.

She touches the blades that were forming an indent under the arms of his leather jacket.

“Apparently so did I ,” she smiles

“What the hell was that message about?,” Sara demands coming between them. “This better be good if you came all the way out here in that thing.”

She motions to the crimson Mjollner car.

Taking a seat Alan details the Rektor's Board meeting paying particular detail to the set up of the meeting.

“I didn’t realize The Santoro family where still active,” Ivy says when he mentions that Ilena had assumed they were underground.

“Wait, there are other cartels ?,” Minnow asks. 

“Just a handful,” Sara says tersely. “Most of them have been absorbed by the Shy Cartel, exterminated or are underground.”

She looks to Ivy for confirmation and she nods.

“The Santoros originally controlled the  Eastern State, but were run out after the Serial Wars.” Ivy explains. “They still do some smuggling business over there, but they’ve always been harmless in the LOLA Sprawl. I didn’t realize they had  hits out on the Mjollner synthsizers…We can use that. My enemies enemy is my friend, right ?”

“You’re still in contact with Niccolo ?,” Sara asks.

“Enough,” Ivy says.

“The history lesson is great and all,” Minnow says. “But how does any of this get Rias back ?”

“I was getting there,” Alan says. “The Rektor literally knows everything going on in the Mjollner organization. I have a feeling she knows who took Rias and if we can just get her alone and defenseless, we can get answers.”

“Easier said than done, brother,” Jean says. “You’ve seen her face, that is something, but she is too well protected,”

“Except at the Board meetings,” he counters. “The Board meetings are when she is the most vulnerable.”

“How so ?,” Sara asks skeptically.

Alan projects a blank canvas on the wall and relays the set up of the meeting again.

“The Rektor’s board meetings are  literally  board meetings,” he smiles.

Using the digital ink he draws three black circles on the left of the screen and put initials in them.

“Gideon Bishop, Ilena Night sit on her left with a bodyguard.”

 He draws three more circles on the right.

“ His brother Robert Bishop and her sister Eva Night sit on her right with a bodyguard.

He  draws a horizontal line in front of the circles indicating where the Street Samurai sit.

“The Rektor is the queen, front and center. And on both sides she has a knight and a bishop. The bodyguards are the rooks and the row of street samurai--,”

“Are the pawns,” Ivy finishes with pinched eyebrows. “It’s a chess board ?"

“Optics,” Alan says quietly.

“It can’t be that easy,” Jean scoffs. “Why would she make it that easy ?,”

“Because she can.” Rayne answers from where he’d been silently observing. “Especially when no one can take out her pawns. You’d have to get all her street samurai to turn on her to stand a chance,”

“I know,” Alan said. “But for the right price I think I can get Belle. to turn on her. She’s not loyal and  maybe she can convince a few others. The street samurai go where the money is.”

“The Santoro Family  think  a Mjollner street samurai took out their Cavaclcotti Riders, not a Shy Cartel spy.” Ivy adds. “They’ll want revenge. Maybe we can finesse a deal and they can help take out some of the street samurai for us.”

She gives a passing glance to Rayne for approval and he nods.

“The Bishops and the Knights will take a bullet for the Rektor. We need to get them out of the way too,” Alan adds.

“Once the street samurai are down  Jean and I can take care of them,” Minnow says confidently. “Then  Sara can have at the Rektor.”

“It’s crude  but we can work out the finer points. When is the next Board meeting ?,” Rayne asks.

“Next week,” Alan responds. “I’ll start talking to Belle about collaborating--”

“And I’ll speak with The Santoro family about providing back up,” Ivy says.

The room turns to Sara for some kind of approval or relief.

“I don’t know--,” Sara says. “ It’s… messy.”

“Sara--” Alan starts

“We have to try,” Rayne cuts in. “I’m going to let this happen whether or not you approve--,”

“I think It’s too soon--,” she rebuttles

“It’s been long enough,” Rayne barks. “We may not find him, but she’ll give us answers. And as long as no one kills The Rektor or her family we can avoid an all out war.”

“I’ll be found out soon,” Alan tells Sara. “I can’t keep this up. We have to do this now.”

She doesn’t respond. She only crosses her arms over her stomach and  looks past Alan at the crude rendering of The Rektor’s Board.

 

 

***

-3-

Ivy Washington leads the way as her classic  black  pumps stomp purposefully through the cramped cobbled alleys of the lower Sprawl. Shops and restaurants stand one on top of the other and are lit with glowing holographics enticing pedestrians inside.

Ivy enters the Old Country Wine Bar and takes a seat at the  expansive glass bar. Sara sits at the seat beside her and for a moment, when they turn to each other, it feels like old times. When they’d sit at the bar for hours trading stories.

“You should bring Luce in for this job,” Ivy says. “Kid is brutal.”

“Kid is a kid,” Sara responds dryly. “He’s safe at school where he needs to be.”

Two glasses of white wine are placed in front of the women before they even order. Ivy sips from hers immediately and watches as Sara examine her glass.

“Oh, shit!,” Ivy says. “I forgot you’re--,”

“No, it's okay. I’m not making milk anymore,” Sara says and downs half of the dry wine.

The glasses are nearly empty when an imposingly large and handsome gray haired man comes from the back of the bar to greet them with open arms.

“Ms. Donnelly,” the man says kissing her palm. “What do I owe this pleasure ?”

“I see there is still a gap in your selection, Nico,” Ivy responds nodding toward an empty shelf on the floor to ceiling wine display.

Ivy sets her designer leather satchel on the bar and unzips it to reveal two bottles of New Rose Hotel Noir. The older man peers into the bag, picks up a bottle of wine and cuts his eyes to Ivy.

“What do I owe this gift ?,” Nico asks.

“This is Sara Grace,” Ivy explains turning to Sara. “She’s my best friend and a Shy Cartel hacker and assassin--”

The older man stiffens at her words.

 “We heard through the grapevine that you lost three of the Cavalcotti Riders…The Shy Cartel would like to offer you some revenge.”

Nico raises an eyebrow.

“How did you know about that--”

“I’m very good at what I do, Niccolo Santoro,” Sara tells him. “I know you’re the Santoro family patriarch, I know you’ve been losing your families’ dwindling wealth at the casinos and your chrome dealers to the draft—"

“Enough,” Nico says. “Is this what the Shy Cartel does now ? Spy on others--”

 “Of course not. We just have a common goal. We don’t care why you tried to kill that Synthesizer,” Ivy tells him. “But we do need some back up on a job.”

“The Shy Cartel is twice as large as the Santoro  Family,” Nico says. “Why do you need us ?”

“It’s a very discreet mission,” Ivy explains. “We’re going to kidnap the Rektor”

 “How can I trust Rayne Washington ?,” Nico demands. “How can you, Ivy ?  After what the Shy did to the Donnelly clan ? If I send the Cavalcotti to  help you you could hang them out to dry.”

“This is personal,” Sara tells him. “We’re not trying to fuck you over.”

“The Mjollner have been stealing our prospects for years. We’ve only got control of one province in the Outer Sprawl.” Nico explains refilling their wine. “The Rektor has been poisoning our drug supply and killing my people. My line is almost done--.”

“So take this opportunity,” Ivy says quietly. “They’re developing a new drug—M44. We can get it for you.”

“No,” Nico says. “No, I want more. I want the Rektor’s head. After you get what you need from them I want their head--”

Ivy smiles at this.

“No,” Sara says sternly. “Absolutely not. We can't kill a leader. We’re not starting some war ”

“I only have seven Cavalcotti left.” Nico tells her. “They’re the only enforcers of our provinces and I’m not sacrificing them to those monsters unless I know the Rektor will pay with their life.”

“I understand,” Ivy says and gives Sara a long look. “….And I think we can arrange what you are asking. In fact, Sara being Rayne’s most skilled assassin will personally make sure that happens.”

Before Sara can protest Ivy pinches her thigh.

They review the details of the attack with Nico around three glasses of wine. The two redheads walk out of the bar hours later arm in arm.

 “Why the fuck did you promise Nico we’d kill the Rektor ?,” Sara asks once they are outside. “I already don’t like this plan and I refuse to kill that bitch. It’s too much too soon. If we start killing cartel leaders it could start an all out war--”

“I know, Sara. Believe me, I know. You won’t actually kill her,” Ivy says. “We’ll work it out later. I just needed to agree get  Nico on board.

They leave the Lower Sprawl and weave through the crowds to the elevated train station that will take them to Mojave.

“Your still a little mafia princess,” Sara teases Ivy as they choose a seat in an empty train car. Ivy’s heels now clutched in her hands.

“I’ve been strapped down too long,” Ivy sighs. “I’m not Rayne’s wife anymore, I’m not beholden to the Shy Cartel. I want to spread my wings. Be the diplomat I was trained to be.”

“You know you’ll always be beholden to him,” Sara says sinking into the seat next to her. “We all will be.”