Chapitre 7: Half of a plan

Alina ducked under the counter, and Ivo had no choice but to follow after her. Davi put his cigarette out on the counter and hopped over it.

The backroom behind the scuffed up metal door was cramped full with wonky shelves on all sides, holding anything from dusty spirit bottles of dubious precedence, cleaning supplies, and most worryingly -- a weapons cache.

"Isn't this a bar?" Ivo asked, pointing at the gigantic machine gun mounted on the wall behind one of the shelves.

Davi snorted loudly, shaking his head. "Listen to him. We can't keep him around."

"I just asked a question!"

He didn't understand this guy's problem, but it was getting old fast.

Before Ivo could do anything, Alina turned around and pinned him by the shoulders against a shelf, making the metal structure rattle. "You really have no memories?"

Her playful smile was gone, her cat-like eyes were narrowed in suspicion.

"No-- I, it's just like I said, I have no memories...everything else beyond, I guess, common knowledge is a blank."

Davi leaned against the shelf opposite, gaze trained on Ivo. "So you say."

Ivo glared at him over Alina's shoulder. "Listen, you're the ones who got me out of that box. I didn't call you there."

Alina glanced back at Davi. "He's right about that, you have to give it to him."

"And what about you two, why did you go there? Did someone send you?"

He remembered the frustrated back and forth between Davi and Alina when they found him. They had been sent there -- but not for Ivo.

"We were hired to retrieve a box, and given the exact location where we found you," Alina said, speaking over Davi's pointed glare.

"But you didn't expect to find me?"

"We don't move people," Davi said, his handsome features twisted in disgust. "Even if they're lux, we don't take jobs involving human trafficking."

"So you were lied to," Ivo said.

Was he in that box for easier transport? Was he a victim of some kind of human trafficking ring?

The possibilities were all equally terrible, and the fact that he had no memories only made him feel more terrified of the implications.

"It's also possible that the people who hired us didn't know what was in the box, either," Alina supplied. She let go of Ivo's shoulders and moved to stand next to Davi. "But we still don't know why YOU were in the box."

"It doesn't matter." Davi turned to face Alina, almost taking up all the air in the small room with his outsized anger. "His face is all over the news, we can't keep him around."

Alina rolled her eyes. "That will only be news until some other lux fuck gets offed."

Davi let out a hiss, bringing their faces into close proximity. "Those bloodsuckers only die when one of us kills them!"

"Why did you, by the way?" Ivo interrupted the two of them brazenly. "I saw the footage too. Both of you are unrecognisable, so why kill the guy in the lab and the woman in the condo?"

Alina and Davi pulled away from each other to look at Ivo.

"The optic implants and the tattoos only work with cameras," Davi said, still looking suspicious, as if not believing Ivo didn't really know. "If not, how would you see our faces? How would anyone? If we let them go they could identify us, that's why he went with the masks and shield-glasses in the elevator."

Alina nodded along. "If everyone saw a blur when they looked at us that would only end up drawing more attention, and defeating the whole point." She shrugged. "Also, lux are always acceptable collateral damage."

She pushed herself off the shelf and walked back towards Ivo. "Are you one of them?"

Ivo didn't understand what the 'lux' were exactly, or what Aline and Davi's line of work was, but he knew enough to know it wasn't a good idea to be on any side besides theirs.

"Would they put one of their own inside a box?" Ivo asked, voice thick.

Davi laughed, the sound dark and mirthless, ringing through Ivo's ears like warning bells. "Yeah, they would. That and much worse."

A loud bang on the door broke the growing tension in the cramped room like a burst soap bubble.

"Are you guys going to be there long? I need a bottle of Cachaça," Edu asked, exasperated.

Alina reached into the shelf behind her and took out a dusty bottle, and then slid off the hexagonal backpack off her shoulders "Here," she said, extending the bottle and the bag towards the door, making it slide open. "Food from the job, pass it along to the railway."

"There are jackets too, could make nice sleeping bags," Davi said with a shrug. "Get them from the bike."

Edu took the bottle from her with an annoyed sigh. "Right, why do I even fucking bother," he rolled his eyes and turned to leave. "Don't steal our guns," he said, the door already sliding shut behind his back.

"We have to make a decision, though," Alina said, arms crossed in front of her chest. "We can't keep him in here forever."

Davi was silent for a moment and then finally acquiesced with another of his grunts.

"We still have the masks, he can wear one out of here and back to the hideout, that should prevent facial recognition CCTV from identifying him." He gestured tiredly, done with the conversation. "We can ask Thiago what he thinks."

Alina sighed pleasantly. "Great, sounds like a plan."

Davi scoffed. "It's half of one at best."

---

They left 'O Bicho Come', and Ivo thought they'd be getting back on the bike, but Davi left it where it was and instead he and Alina crossed the street at a run, making Ivo curse and run after them, dodging an incoming car by the skin of his teeth.

Alina went on ahead, climbing the dirty stairs into a pedestrian overpass, littered with flyers, garbage, and the ash of old bonfires. The overpass led into the gaping maw of a tower block building. Stairs just like the ones they had climbed crawled back down into the busy streets, but Alina and Davi ignored them and walked right into the building.

They were in some kind of shopping mall, but which had long been deactivated. Only a few shops remained open, but the goods they were selling didn't match the storefront signs. A flip-flop shop called 'Baianas' was now clearly selling guns.

Alina cast a cursory glance into its bright interior. "Oooh, they're having a sale."

Davi kept walking ahead and overtook her. With only an annoyed glance back, he grumbled, "We have guns at home."

L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS
ThirtyTyrants

If they were driving Alina would be in the backseat screaming "Guns! Guns!" instead of "McDonald's!". Davi would be considering throwing the car into oncoming traffic and causing an accident on purpose. And Ivo would be tied up in the trunk.

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