Chapter 260 Resolution (1/2)
Chapter 260 Resolution
“How are you even alive!? This doesn’t make any sense!” Alan put a hand to his head, his face contorting as the whites around his steel grey eyes reddened and watered “Icare of the old man…”
“Calm down,” said Aldrich “Let’s take this slow What do you know about what happened to us?”
Aldrich gently put pressure down on Alan’s shoulder, getting him to sit down Alan slumped into his chair and took in a deep breath He closed his eyes, took a few seconds, and then, when he opened thele half for fast frorease and oil caked on the skin
“Sorry,” said Alan “Really, I’m sorry about that” He took the chunky bolter pistol on the table and stored it in a shelf “I don’t usually get like this…all in a wreck, all worked up for nothing”
“Not nothing Elaine meant a lot to you Just like she did to ,” said Aldrich He sat down as well, taking a creaky seat in front of Alan Because of how otten, he barely fit in the chair, but he ht She sent videos of you, you know, you and Adam Every week or so, just to let us know she’dwell,” said Alan “Froht she was happy She see her license AA technos get paid well – she was so excited to bring us back some money”
“Us – where are the rest of you?” Aldrich looked around, seeing nothing but the messy innards of the workshop where tools and half built ines and cybernetic metal shells lay scattered but not the two other apprentices under Randall that should have been here
“Oh, Sarah and Ao,” said Alan “When the old ot too hard for the in”
“But you stayed?”
“Yeah” Alan put his hands together, staring at them, at the cracks and old scars and calluses that stood as testament to all he had built and repaired “Randall tookbut a shi+tty little scrapper stealing things in free cities Would’ve probably gotten taken out to the back of so and shot if he hadn’t
I owe hi I know I couldn’t just leave him”
“Elaine did always say you were the best here,” said Aldrich “She said you had the skills to make it in a chop shop in a proper tiered city”
“She said that?” Alan’s face brightened up for a brief s I’enius
I can deal with most cybernetics, but a chop shop in a walled city? You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone that’ll take a dirty old nomad like e districts where hookers and junkies come to keel over and died? Because nobody, not even here in this shi+tty tier 3 city, wants to hire me”
Alan looked up at Aldrich “But youor two about that You, Elaine, and her other friend, Adam, all three of you were powerless, weren’t you?
Must have gone through a hell of a worse ti down at you like you’re just old trash waiting to be cycled out of the syste we had to learn how to deal with,” said Aldrich
“Yeah, I figure” Alan scratched his dirt stained grey hair “Anyway, Blackwater sent us a uys wandered too far froot eaten up by variants
No bodies, nothing left to send, nothing left to bury
Just a shi+tty little fifty thousand credit cos, but Blackwater said they had to lock that shi+t up too, that it was technically their property
fuck those slimy bastards”
“Do you want to hear what actually happened?” said Aldrich
“Sure as hell I do”
“It isn’t pleasant Are you sure?”
“Hit me I can take it”
“We were all killed in cold blood Blackwater covered up our deaths Why they confiscated our property, well, I’et to the bottom of that soon”
Alan stared at Aldrich onder Then how are you alive? And who are those two behind you?”
“The two behind et into it Just know they’re my allies,” said Aldrich “As for how I’et into
I’d prefer not getting into it at all
Just know I’ down Blackwater”
Alan spoke firmly “I can’t let you see the oldthat’ll convincepower”
“Thought you et suspicious” Aldrich reached into his cloak and took out a chip fro that into your body port”
“Let olden chip and held it up to one eye The pupil narrowed and whirred and clicked, revealing that it was in fact cybernetic “Nothing wrong with it Alright”
Alan put the chip into a rectangular opening in his wrist His eyes started to glow as he processed the contents of the chip His mouth opened in surprise “These…these…”
“Yeah,” said Aldrich sis from the shared server Aldrich and Elaine had There, they recorded ether Co their Fra milestones, and the like “That’s stuff from the server I shared with her You need proper bionatures to access it
A shapeshi+fter can forge fingerprints, but a e that”
Alan sat still in silence, taking in the recorded moments He smiled “Atleast…atleast she was happy Truly happy I always thought in those video chats with us, she was just faking it for our sakes”
“Keep the chip Both you and Randall It belongs to you two just as much as it did to me,” said Aldrich “Reach the end of the files there And be ready It isn’t pleasant”
“Alright” Alan concentrated for a few seconds, histhe tech His face showed surprise at first, then, after ainto a snarl as he put a fist to the worktable
Alan had found the last recording Elaine had taken The one she had threatened to release before they all died “Those bastards! That’s…that’s how they killed you all? Like that!? Just like that!?
Put down like dogs!?
I swear, when the oldto hunt them all down-,”
Aldrich shook his head “No need Every single person you saw and heard in that recording, everyone directly responsible for killing us – they’re all dead”
Randall blinked “What? How?”
Aldrich’s eyes flashed green, his gaze narrowing “I killed them all I hunted them down So you don’t have to”
Alan shrank back in his chair, fearful, knowing full well the glint in Aldrich’s eyes, one of pure deterle scrap of falsity