What I supposed must be a common room took up the back half of the ground floor. There were four Quinlans sitting in chairs all apparently sleeping. It would've been quite innocent, except one of the sleepers was slumped over in the most uncomfortable manner.
“I think they've been knocked out,” I said.
“The fog?”
“Yeah. I think there's a Scattering going on.”
“While I agree this is likely how they do a Scattering, but I think they're after us, Bob.”
“We have to get out of here.”
There was a back door in a small antechamber. I opened didn't peered both ways. Nothing. We exited carefully, closed the door and ran across the street and around the nearest corner, right into a group of mask-wearing Quinlans.
We barreled into the group before we could stop or change direction. After that it was just a matter of them getting their hands on us and holding on. I felt myself being pulled in several directions at once, and I realized I was going to have to really hurt people.
Then, several grips disappeared with cries of chagrin.
“Get going, Bob. I got this,” Hugh yelled as he wrapped his arms around several more of our attackers. I realize he was deliberately taking on the whole group. And it was working. I was down to two or three holds. A few twists, a gut punch, and I was free. I grabbed a loose gone and stuck in my mouth. It seemed like a waste of time, since I'd had to get rid of the last one, but maybe I can figure something out.
I dropped to all fours and sprinted down the nearest alley, determined to go right through anyone who got in my path.
“Remember the fail-safe, Hugh,” I said over the intercom.
“If it comes to that, Bob, but I may be able to talk my way out of this. Meanwhile, get Bender out of here.”
“Talk his way out?”
I remembered my time with Natasha and company. More likely, he’d end up wayyy too intimate with a sharp object. But I had to get to the station.
I had a funny feeling that going straight West was going to involve dodging more Quinlans and masks. I glanced up, got my bearings, and adjusted my course to head for the hills.
28. Claiming Victory
Bill
September 2334
Virt
I gave a blat with the air horn, and the mass of Bobs gradually quieted to a ragged rumble. There would be no total quiet though, if I was reading this crowd right.
“Okay. A couple of reps from Starfleet will be here.” I had to wait several mils for the insults and catcalls to die down. “And we're going to hear them out. … then we’ll ban-hammer them.”
Laughter greeted the last statement.
I sent a text and Lenny popped in, flanked by a couple of other Starfleet members. The uniforms look slightly different. I did a comparison with an earlier image and realized they’d toned down the TNG resemblance a bit. I wondered how much time and discussion had gone into that change. Now I got my silence. Not the respectful kind, but the kind where a crowd is sizing someone up.
Lenny and friends felt it as well - they moved a little closer together.
“Alright, Lenny. Let’s make this quick.”
Lenny nodded to me. “As a gesture of goodwill, we will release all remaining assets that are still under our control. We've accomplished what we set out to do.”
He was interrupted by laughter and jeers. Lenny took a moment to regroup, then continued.
“We’ll be setting up our own version of BobNet, our own backup site, and so on. I get that there's no repairing this, and honestly, I don't see us wanting to continue the association anyway. We’ll give you a star map of our territory. You stay on your side, we’ll stay on ours.”
I waited a few moments for the latest round of jeers and insults to subside, then I said, “You haven't, you know. Won, I mean. You did some damage, but it won't have the effect you were hoping for. What you did wasn't a strategy, it was just lighting things on fire to watch them burn.”
Lenny frowned. “We had an opportunity presented to us, and we had to make a choice. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than sitting around doing nothing except complaining at moots.”
Lenny looked directly into my eyes for a moment, and an unspoken message travel between us. There was more to this. It had to do with the private conversation we'd had, and he wasn't going to bring it up if I didn't.
After a brief moment of silence, Lenny waved a hand in dismissal.
“Anyway, it's done. No point in obsessing about it.”
And with that, he and his fellows vanished.
“That was kind of anti-climactic,” Garfield said, as the background chatter increased to a shouting level.
“Hm, yeah. Interesting.”
I frowned and turned away. This would take some more thought.
29. Dodging
Bob
September 2334
Garrick's Spine
I got almost an entire block before I picked up a new set of pursuers. Six masked Quinlans turned and started after me as I ran past them. I heard the puff sound of tranq guns being fired, but oddly didn't feel any impacts or hear the ping of flechettes bouncing off things - how bad was their shooting, anyway?
I turned an eyeball to look behind me, trying desperately not to fall flat on my face from the dual images coming in. I handed off the running activity to the internal AMI for a moment, and concentrated on the view to the rear.
It would appear that the Resistance was involved. Two of the six Quinlans behind me were down on the ground, having been shot, and the other four were shooting back at something out of sight. I guess this was good, to a certain extent, but
