“Help! Help!” Tempest called. “Uncle Quasar! Dad’s hurt! These guys came. Taurins. They were looking for you and Dad told them to fuck themselves, and?—”
“There you are, you little bitch” came the voice just off the screen. Tempest turned and shrieked, and then the screen went fuzzy.
“Tempest! Tempest!” Quasar called.
The massive head of a Taurin suddenly appeared on the screen. The large creature grinned. “Hey, friend,” the Taurin said. “Look, I’m sorry to do this. I really am. But here’s the thing. I took a contract with your client’s wife, and that’s all there is to it. I hear you’re a stand-up guy, so I’ll give you a choice. You come to me, and your brother and this sweet little piece of Nullian ass don’t need to get?—”
Blam!
The Taurin’s head exploded. He slumped over, dead. Another Taurin rushed onto the screen, and he, too, exploded.
“Holy tiddy nipples!” Quasar exclaimed. “Tempest!”
“Uncle Quasar,” Tempest said, her crying face appearing back on the screen. She had the blaster he’d given her in her hand. The very illegal blaster. Already, law enforcement sniffers were pasting little exclamation marks over the gun. He quickly clickedThis is an attorney call.
Funny how they didn’t tag the dude’s head fucking exploding, but the moment a tax-regulated item appeared...
“Is that all of them?” he asked.
“I . . . I think so.”
He took a hit from his vape. “Okay. This is what you’re going to do. Go check on your dad. I’m going to send someone to your house. You’re going to go with her. I have a thing in a minute, but I will be right behind her.”
You have a new incoming call. You have been summoned.
Fuck, fuck. He only had a minute before Carl was assigned to someone else, and he couldn’t let that happen. He clickedAccept.
“I think he’s okay,” Tempest said, crying, as she started to run to the next room. “I hear him screaming. He sounds more mad than hurt.” Relief flooded Quasar. His brother was an idiot, but he was his idiot.
Quasar looked over his shoulder. “Kiki! I need you!” He swiped twice in her direction. The first swipe sent a single credit to her account. A retainer. The second brought her into the call.
“What’s up?” Kiki asked. Even though she was literally sitting a few meters away, her face was big on his interface. She was chewing on an Earth cherry. Those things were now just as popular as the koala bears.
“I just hired you. I need your help.”
“Like, legal help?” Her eyes went big at the sight of Tempest, and she instantly turned dead serious. Kiki put a finger gun to her head. “Or, like, help?”
I took a contract with your client’s wife.
Princess Chandra. Donut’s lawyer. The Naga bitch had disappeared the moment Donut had put the “hit” on her, but she was still out there, still tossing filings out into the void left and right. Quasar was scheduled to argue against her in a hearing ina few days regarding the legality of the marriage certificate. He was going to lose, but the filing had put a pause button on a lot of her other actions.
She had sent people after his family. His family.
He’d spent how many years working his ass off, clawing his way out of the slums, only to move from one mudhole to the next? He’d been so careful, so careful, to play by the rules. People were always just waiting for him to fuck up and get dragged back into the muck just so they could say, See? We should never have let his kind mix with our kind.
And now that he was finally one step up, he had to deal with this shit? This snake princess was playing a very dangerous game. She was going to go after his family? This bitch who thought she’d had it rough? She didn’t know who she was messing with.
“Both,” he said to Kiki. “Fucking both.”
[ 88 ]
Welcome,Crawler. Welcome to the eleventh floor.
Time to Level Collapse: 3 hours, 15 minutes.
Views, Followers, Favorites: Do you really care about this anymore? It’s everybody. Literally everybody.
Leaderboard Rank: Per this season’s rule set, the leaderboard is suspended once less than 30 crawlers remain on the battlefield. It hurts the feelings of those not on the list.