Neon District: Redux

Part 2 Chapter 5

       Sam stared at his pieces that were placed haphazardly on the chess board. Two pawns one move away from getting wiped out, a bishop tucked away in the back corner near an enemy knight; also a move away from being taken. And what was left was a rook where if he moved it his king would be taken.

This game is already over.

He wasn't only just contemplating his next move, but he couldn't shake off what happened at that meeting a few days ago. Manzo being the leader of the Syndicate, him being the reason for his mother's death and partially Kindy's as well. Also, the fact that Yuka still may be on their side.

But all of this just didn't seem right to him since Yuka was the one to join up with the enemy, unless that was her plan all along. He wants to believe that Yuka and Manzo are on their side, but Manzo never said what he would do once he took down Mr. Propaganda or how he plans on doing so.

He has heard that Manzo was running in the election, but even if he were to win Mr. Propaganda would still be roaming the streets and probably going to plan some counter attack or spew propaganda like he usually did when things didn't go his way.  

He wants to believe everything Manzo is doing is for the greater good for the District and for the Syndicate, but the drunken, confused man he once knew appeared to just be an act. And that fact that he has been keeping all these secrets from him just doesn't sit right with him. He just hopes the other Syndicate members caught on to that.

He hopes that Yuka caught on to that, too.

"Are you going to move or not? Not that it matters since you're screwed anyway." Abby said, snapping Sam's attention back to their game.

"Sorry." He said before moving one of his pawns up one space. Naturally, Abby used one of her own pawns to capture that stray pawn he left behind.

The game continued on and just as Sam predicted: the game ended with him suffering an embarrassing defeat.

A loud shuffle coming from the sewer and ladder entrances made them both turn around on their crates to investigate the noise. From both entrances they could see a dozen people shuffling their way into the Shanties and begin to unpack their things as if they just ran away from home for a bit. In walked Cathra and Zoo, shoving their way through the hoard of people that just entered and met up with Sam and Abby.

"Why are they all back?" Abby asked a tad bit annoyed as she packed up her chessboard back into its cardboard box.

"After that meeting with Manzo I guess he spread some sort of word about it and now those that left us have returned." Cathra explained, "some of them are new faces from his cult."

"You're not seriously thinking of trusting Manzo, are you?" Sam piped up, "don't you realize he only just now told us the truth about everything?"

"I have my suspicions, but at this point we are in no place to be declining any offers he makes. He is our leader after all whether we like it or not." She replied, almost giving Sam the stink eye.

"He has the Watch on his side so-" Sam said but got interrupted by Cathra.  

"Mr. Propaganda has the Watch on his side and it is because of him that we aren't in prison right now. Do you have any idea how many times that bastard waltzed on in here just for the sake of it and didn't do squat about us? He is only using us to try and dig out where and who our leader is so that he could properly deal with us." 

"Then how come Mr. Propaganda knows about you two's real names when Manzo should be the only one who knew? Someone must have told one another about it and I am sure as hell know that it wasn't Mr. Propaganda who did it." Sam snapped, standing up from his crate, "and why would Manzo come out of the shadows and tell us any of this when he could have possibly won the election and deal with Mr. Propaganda all on his own without exposing anything or getting us involved. Why bother getting us involved in the first place? If he wins he not only would have the Syndicate in his hands in secret, not only would he have control over the Watch and his cult, but also the whole freaking District."