By the time I’d arrived at the abandoned factory that Helen was using, the frontation was already over. My bears had created a cordon around the building and were in the midst of handing off the various Guiding Light members they’d captured to the bewildered police forces lined up outside. I could see the officers weren’t very impressed, or enthusiastic, about taking all these people into custody.

  I wasn’t that surprised. I could t the number of times I’d actually seen them oreet on one hand. They’d only leave their fortified prects when the gangs went overboard, creating absolute chaos ireet with a full-blowor-wide gang war, or someone forced them to. I guess I had, or at least khe people that had, that pull now.

  I nded my truck within the perimeter, to avoid dealing with the polid various onlookers, before making my way inside what remained of the building. The pce was a wreck. Holes in the walls, and debris scattered around in, what I retty sure, was a fairly intact building until retly. I bypassed An, who was sitting in the foyer lookied, a looking for the only person I had mao get a hold of that could help me. Fug Mirage.

  The smug prick was sitting in a side room along with a woman in a skintight, armored bodysuit, carrying an absolutely enormous rifle, and a very dishevelled Helen. The woman stood up and sauntered my way as soon as I ehe room. “You’re the famous Teddy I assume? I am Charlotte LeFluer, or as some call me, Stalking Shadow.”

  She didn’t offer her hand, so I just had to look up into, what I could only call, her resting bitch face. “Thanks for ing, I appreciate your help saving An.”

  Charlotte waved her hand dismissively. “I was already down here anyways, and Mirage said it was an emergency. I stuck around to make sure the troublemaker here didn’t disappear, but now that you’re here I o run topside. My business won’t run itself.” She didn’t even turn as she strutted out of the room, “I’ll talk to you ter, Be.”

  I waited until she’d pletely left the room before turning bairage. “I hought I’d see a female version of you. She’s got the same dismissive attitude and everything.”

  “Charlotte’s my business partner and an excellent scout and sniper. You’re just biased against corporations,” he shot back.

  “I won’t deny that,” I replied. “I do appreciate that you both took the time to e down here and help deal with this issue, though.”

  “It’s a problem that affected the entire Family.We had a responsibility to e down and help. Besides, now you owe me one,” Mirage said with a smirk. “You want to talk to her before I take her topside?” he said, throwing a thumb at Helen. The woman looked miserable, and I could just make out the shape of semi-visible bindings around her wrists.

  “Do I want to? No, but I’m going to anyways,“ I said with a sigh. “Gimme five minutes.”

  Mirage nodded and headed to the far side of the room, keeping an eye on Heleire time.

  “Are you ing to gloat? Or maybe finish me off yourself?” Helen spat as I pulled a chair over to sit across from her.

  “Nope, just ing to have o versation. I have no idea what the Family is going to do with you, and holy… I don’t care, as long as I don’t have to end up fighting you over the uy again.”

  “To the victoes the spoils, is that it?”

  “I don’t know about victory, I didn’t really sider this a prht. I was just trying to protect people that couldn’t protect themselves,” I said, leaning ba my chair. Helen grunted but didn’t reply, so I tinued. “You know, I could kinda see your point of view, if you existed in a plete vacuum. What I don’t get is why you kept pushing that same agenda despite having someone willing to step in, or why you didn’t try and tact the other samurai a some help. You had other options.”

  “It was the safest option,” Helen muttered.

  “Maybe, but it certainly wasn’t the right option, not from my point of view.” I leaned fain. “I’ll be ho, I don't get you. I’ll probably never get you, but for some reason the protectors chose you as a samurai, so you must have some redeeming qualities. Hopefully the Family find a way t them out of you.”

  “You’re a plete ass, you know that?”

  “I am aware. It’s part of my charm,” I said pushing my chair back. Hele me, but with Mirage’s restraints, there was little that she could do.

  I moved back over te. “What are you going to do with her?” I asked in a hushed voice.

  “Probably therapy and exposure to the other samurai. Maybe try to get her to see things from a different point of view,” he replied, gng my way. “You weren’t kidding about how fanatical she is.”

  “Is that safe?”

  “She’s unlocked a lot of catalogs for trol, but very little direct damage. We easily deal with her tricks; she won’t be a threat.”

  “If you say so,” I replied. “Thanks for showing up when I needed you.”

  “Don’t tha. You owe me a favor, and the Family has issues we could use your help with. Drop by the headquarters ter this week.”

  I just stared at the man in disbelief. “Really? There’s no one else to ha? I’m busy as shit right now.”

  “And we helped you with the biggest problem,” he replied. “You don’t have to take it, but I’d appreciate it if you sidered it.”

  “Fuck, fine, whatever. Like you said, I owe you. The least I could do is hear you out.”

  “Wonderful. See you ter this week,” Mirage said with a smile. He stood up, and headed over to Helen. “Hey, it’s time to go. You’ve got some people to meet topside.”

  Helen struggled a little, but Mirage just lifted her with a hardlight struct, and walked her out of the room. I just shook my head as I watched them go.

  Ohey were gone, I made my way bato the foyer to get An. I saw An’s face light up, aried to scramble to his feet. I didn’t let him.

  “What the fuck were you thinking?” I growled as I smacked him on the back of the head. “Even if it was an emergency, running out of the shelter without telling anyone? How stupid you get?”

  “I didn’t think anyone would e looking for me or care that I was out and about,” he replied, sinking down into the seat and c his head.

  “Yeah, well, you were wrong. You always pin about me doing stupid, irresponsible stuff, and then you pull this shit? I warned you!”

  “I know! I just have a friend who’s struggling and…”

  “I know about your fug girlfriend, you idiot! You could have told someone, my bears could have delivered food without any risk. Why didn’t you just ask for help?”

  An lowered his head, and stared at his feet. “I just wao be helpful to someone,” he said after several seds.

  “Even if you wao help someone, you shouldn’t have kept it from everyone, one off on your own. If you’d talked to Jane or me we probably could have helped you set something up, or at least e up with a better pn than sneaking out of the shelter.” I smacked him on the head again. “Whe home, you better apologize to everyone, got it?”

  He nodded slightly and slunk back down into his chair. “We’ll talk about yirlfriend and her family ter, maybe e up with a safer way to actually help them,” I said, as I yanked him to his feet. “Let’s go home.”

  I turned and started moving towards the door, when An grabbed my arm. “Hey Evelyn, thanks for ing to get me.”

  I didn’t actually expect him to thank me, so it caught me off guard. “No problem,” I replied. After a moment of hesitation I threw my arms around him, and pulled him into a hug “Thanks for being safe.”

  We stayed that way for a couple seds, and when I pulled away An had a shocked look on his face. “If you tell Jane or the others about this I’ll deny it, got it?” I told him, with a mock scowl. He just nodded.

  “Good. I expect Jane will want to chew you out whe home, and the kids miss you, so there’s no point in deying. Get iruck.” He nodded again, this time with a slight grin on his face. The idiot grinned all the way bae.