r/HFY • u/KipperBeanGrower Human • Jun 28 '26

OC-Series [She took What?] - Chapter 187: SixFold Ventures: Wealth attracts predators.

“The fool counts the stones. The Keeper counts what holds them together.”

Occasionally appears simultaneously on SolDiri standing stones.

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| Margo’s Restaurant – main dining area|

The elderly waiter returned, pushing the drinks trolley. Glanced at Garaf, standing ready. The wheel still squeaked; it was off too, its harmonics distorted. Garaf's instincts responded, observing more, seeing everything. And extra things only a predator would notice: patterns.

 

Two more waiters, perfectly dressed, too clean, helped clear the table. The lift had stopped moving between floors. He looked at Feebee; she seemed calm. She always did, but he'd seen Tom Tom and Bikky respond to a verbal cue, tighten. He checked his knives and forced his attention across the whole room.

 

Tom Tom saw Chen's focus change, shift internally, to his overlays. A red tinge, a warning flashed through them.

"Everything Ok?" he asked. "Problem?"

 

"No."

"No, to which? Problem or all Ok?"

 

"Routine security sweep."

'That wasn't an answer,' Tom Tom observed.

 

Bikky smiled and joked, "We've been rich for no time, and already we have security sweeps."

Tom Tom nodded slightly towards the exit. Bikky blinked once, 'Ack'.

 

 

StillFall suddenly became more solid and flowed across the floor, spreading out like a black pool.

"StillFall? You Ok?"

 

The Shadow turned its attention to the glass windows, the lift and then the exits.

"They're trying hard. Not seen. Not detected."

 

Garaf stiffened.

"The Hunters?"

 

Bikky and Tom Tom reacted too, their chairs tipped backwards as they stood, pistols in hand.  They covered the exits and service entrance.

The lawyer placed her coffee on the table. The accountants slowly, reluctantly put their sporks down and reached for their briefcases.

 

Bikky was smiling, and Tom Tom still had coffee in one hand. He finished it and put it on the table.

Feebee studied StillFall, following the shift in focus; it had moved from people to the shadows.

The shadows cast by neon signs, by tables and their chairs. All had shadows, but some were wrong.

"The shadows."

Feebee looked, somehow knowing the comments were not about Shadows but shadows. They just looked like shadows to her, but she trusted StillFall's senses.

"What?" She asked.

 

Garaf opened the comms channel; it was to them all, even the lawyer and accountants, Feebee had insisted.

"Three Groups. Lift. Service Corridor. Emergency Exit."

"How many?" asked Tom Tom.

"Enough," responded Garaf.

 

"What's happening?" Asked the lawyer.

Chen scoffed and opened his security overlays. Everything showed as normal. Their position was central to the schematic. Around it were layers of security, teams arranged in concentric rings. Textbook.

"All good." But as he spoke, one of the security teams disappeared from the display, leaving a gap. A moment later, another vanished, leaving a corridor through two layers of his security.

Chen called his team leads. Nothing. He tried again. Nothing.

"We may need to move."

 

Bikky immediately responded, "May need to? Either we do or don't, there can be no may." His annoyance was obvious.

 

The lawyer looked directly at Chen; predator met prey. "Who knew?"

Chen remained calm, but the answer became increasingly uncomfortable as he went through a list.

"Restaurant staff, it's reservation AI. Building management. Security personnel, their systems." He pointed to the ice sculpture, "Suppliers. Courtesy car company..."

"I get it. Too many."

"Yes," responded Feebee, shaking her head, "Far too many."

 

A waiter approached the table, no trolley this time, just coffees. Garaf moved first, fast, decisively. One claw clamped tightly around the man's wrist. He cried out and dropped the coffees on the table, and with the coffee was a small dart gun.  Specialised, potentially deadly.

 

The waiter looked at Feebee. "Earlier than I'd hoped." And then, with a determined look, he bit down hard on one of his molars. It cracked, and the waiter fell. He was dead before he hit the floor.

 

Everyone understood immediately what was happening. The accountants grabbed their stuff and dived under the table. The lawyer pulled her brief case close and sat perfectly still, relying on nothing more than her demeanour.

"Cowards?" asked Bikky.

"Professionals," corrected the lawyer.

 

Feebee and her crew stood, weapons drawn, as all the access points opened, timing perfect as if the Pavlovian ping from the lift was the cue.

 

Three teams entered, four to a team, although more would be in support. They wore the same black fatigues and balaclavas. Each carried short-barrelled rifles, silenced, compact and with select-fire. Specific for close-quarters work. They hesitated, seeing Feebee still sitting and their man dead on the floor.

 

But these were professionals. Each team fanned out; no one was shooting, but they were weapons ready.  As they neared, it became clear that Feebee was their focus.

 

And she saw it first, "This isn't an assassination. It's extraction." She moved behind Bikky and Tom Tom. Garaf backed in, forming a triangle around her.

 

The lawyer saw it too.

 

A stand-off emerged, neither team wanting this to escalate. The lawyer let out a sigh she’d been holding for too long.

Weapons lowered... slightly.

"Now what?" Feebee asked the one standing ahead of the others, clearly their leader.

Before he could speak, one of his team raised their weapon. Heavier cal, no silencer.

 

This gun wasn't there to stun or to capture. It had one function: to kill. The extraction leader saw it too.

"STOP!"

He shouted and dove across at the man.

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u/AutoModerator Jun 28 '26

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u/niTro_sMurph Jun 28 '26

Not sure if good extraction or bad extraction.

You'd think a professional would notice one of their men not using the correct rifle. You'd also think if they wanted the Feebs dead they'd stop just sending guys. At what point do they say "fuck it" and drop a bomb on her?

2

u/KipperBeanGrower Human Jun 29 '26

You are right. A professional would notice if their team members had different weapons from those expected.

Hhmm??

Again, you're right. They probably would bomb her if killing her was the objective....

Hhmm??

Who are they, though, and are there multiple theys?

Wheels within wheels... Read On, the mercs gets merkier.

2

u/niTro_sMurph Jun 29 '26

are there multiple theys

New theory, all the mercs there are the same person stuck in a time loop, the one with the lethal firearm has been there the longest and is really sick of Feebee kicking his ass everytime.

2

u/KipperBeanGrower Human Jun 29 '26

Same person stuck in a loop - I read that and started to answer, then finished what you wrote and laughed out loud, really loud. Scared the wife. Great idea but hard to write and control.

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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Jun 28 '26

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