Bring The Heat

66. Bring the Heat - Heart and Mind (CB ARC 15)

Consciousness was smacked into Wren by a fat wet droplet landing on her temple. As her vision faded back in, she assessed her surroundings.

She was lying on her side in an alleyway in a city somewhere. It was night, and raining; pink neon lights from the street projected shimmering reflections onto the wet concrete she laid on.

Wren stood up, concerned and confused. Where the hell was she? Last she could remember, she had been attacked by that old guy in the jumpsuit...

Stepping out onto the busy street, Wren noticed something a little more worrying. There were a lot of people passing by, but they were all faceless - their faces were blurry, like she was seeing them in her peripherals.

It was creepy, but this wasn't her first time waking up in some city she didn't recognize. She walked up to one of the citizens, a man in a suit and fedora with a briefcase.

"Hey, where am I right now?" she inquired. The man just stared at her for a second. It felt like he was confused at her question, but Wren wasn't able to tell for sure, and that made her uncomfortable.

"It doesn't really matter," the man responded, "just find out what the next job is."

He turned and walked off, but Wren jogged back up to him.

"Well, how do I figure that out?"

"I dunno. Go find DV, she'll know."

"Is... is 'DV' one of these people?"

The man laughed.

"No. But if she was, I wouldn't spot her! We'd be able to feel her though. You know what I mean - feels like the air gets staler, kind of thing that makes plants die... feel that, she's nearby. Look, I gotta go - I have a hit. Good luck."

As he said that, the man pulled out a piece of paper. On it was writing, seemingly describing a target, but the picture area was blank.

"There's nobody on that paper." Wren stated, even more confused. The man just nodded and sighed.

"Probably best that way. None of it's ever personal, just gotta kill... somebody. Whoever, right? But hey, I really do have to go. I hope you figure this out."

Wren let the man walk away, and started to head down the street in the opposite direction. She seemed to wander the streets for hours, but the constant night made it seem like no time was passing at all.

As she headed past a run-down building, Wren felt the feeling the man had described - the lifeless, dead air. Looking over at the building, she spotted a shadowy woman talking to a group of people... they were the ones that had broken into the compound! With that group were two others Wren didn't recognize, presumably the ones that were watching the perimeter. But what were they doing here...?

Wren also quickly noticed that the old fast guy wasn't with them, though. She waited nearby to watch, but the 5 breachers quickly seemed to vanish into thin air. The shadowy woman, presumably 'DV', began speaking, and though Wren couldn't see her face, she knew that the woman was now talking to her.

"Wren. Long time no see. I had hoped you'd be dead right now, but I'm not surprised. Vertigo really is useless."

Wren couldn't help but feel an unexplainable sensation of dread and... anger, being face to face with DV.

"You look lost." the woman continued, "If you want a way out of here, go find him. It's his mind, right? He'll be in the range. That way."

She raised a finger and pointed in the general direction of the heart of the city, but Wren's eyes never left the woman. There was something so sinister about the way Wren felt in her presence, like being around someone who you knew had done terrible things.